Gary Player – Truly an International Ambassador of Golf!

A true gentleman of golf, Gary Player was in Kuala Lumpur recently to attend the Asia Pacific Golf Summit. He is one of golf most recognizable name and is also known as the Black Knight, Mr. Fitness, the International Ambassador of Golf and The World’s Most Traveled Athlete™.

The Asia Pacific Golf Summit was recently held at the Putrajaya International Convention Center in Malaysia from the 26th to 28th of October 2009. The Summit had brought in many prominent and famous personalities in the golf and golf related industries. Among them was Gary Player, one of the most famous international golfing personality, whom during his peak professional golf career had won a record 24 PGA Tour’s win and 9 Major Championships. At 73 years old, he still cuts a dashing figure and good looks with a forceful presence. During his short stopover in Kuala Lumpur recently, he had managed to impress many fans and golf aficionados with his quick wit and passionate plea for healthy lifestyle, healthy food and constant maintenance of fitness level. No wonder he is such a fit man at the age of 73!

Excerpt from World Golf Hall of Fame:

Gary Player was born Nov. 1, 1935, in Johannesburg, South Africa, the third of three children to Harry and Muriel Player. His father was a captain in a gold mine who spent most of his working life 12,000 feet underground. His mother was a well-educated woman who died of cancer when Gary was eight. Player wrote that her loss “has been a means for me, as it were, to settle some unfathomable debt.”

He chose to try to pay it back as a golfer, although he didn’t take up the game until he was 14. He turned professional in 1953 at age 18 and quickly won several times in Africa, Europe and Australia. In 1957, he came to America, and upon seeing how far the game’s best professionals hit the ball, intensified his exercise regimen, weakened his hooker’s grip and set about learning how to carry the ball farther. The next year he won the Kentucky Derby Open and was heartened by a second-place finish at the U.S. Open, where his idol, Ben Hogan, locked him with a stare and said, “Son, you are going to be a great player.”

YAWA-Kiehl’s Biodiversity Eco-Camp

Group photo of all the young participants, organizer and celebrities that made the recently concluded YAWA-Kiehl's Biodiversity Eco Camp a success.

14th Nov 2009. The day started with a long bus ride from Kiehl’s office to Gunung Nuang camping ground. As we were approaching our destination, the weather turned south and started to rain. I began to worry that the day’s planned outdoor activities with the young participants would have to be postponed or worst, canceled. When we reached the main entrance of Gunung Nuang Forest Reserve, the rain was still relentless, not too heavy but just enough to irritate you, kind of like mosquitoes hovering around you for blood. Than it dawned upon me…… if we don’t take care of our mother earth, the environmental pollution, the deforestation, the diminishing ozone layer, global warming and the man-made pollutants would eventually caused major climate change that may alter our lives forever.

Natural disaster that were caused by our own ignorance should be avoided at all cost. Therefore the humble rain that brought so much misery and some fun for the young participants of YAWA’s Biodiversity Eco Camp had set the stage for the events that were to follow for the rest of the day.

Malaysia International Fashion Week 2009

Ai Tominaga, the New York-based Japanese supermodel made an appearance at Malaysia International Fashion Week yesterday. She is shown here modeling a dress from IKA.

Malaysia International Fashion week kicks off in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur yesterday, with Japanese supermodel, Ai Tominaga making a special catwalk appearance for quite a number of local and regional brands. Besides her and our very own home grown models, there are also another 10 top Chinese models, specially flown from Beijing, China. It’s a feast for the eyes as these models brought along with them years of experience on the runways and the fame and glamor attributed with models in general. I am sure this will spur our local models and wannabe models to strive for the stars and make their dreams come true, be it here or in New York.

Malaysia International Fashion Weeks has been a yearly event for designers, buyers and fashion business for the past 7 years. It is the place to be if you are in fashion related business in Malaysia. For more information please go to their website: M-IFA.com.

Canon 1D Mark IV HD-DSLR – The pretender or the real McCoy?

Canon 1D Mark IV (Photo from dpreview.com)

Competition in the pro-segment of the digital camera market is heating up fast. Just when we were amazed by Nikon’s announcement of the support for ISO sensitivity of up to 102,800 on the 14th of Oct, we were surprised yet again by another fierce competitor whom not only matched Nikon’s announcement blow-by-blow but has elevated the playing field to another ridiculous level that seemed unattainable just a few years ago. With this new announcement, Canon has within 2 ‘long’ years of their disastrous debut of the Canon 1D Mark III, re-positioned themselves back on the right path to success. Failure is not an option this time around, I hope!

Nikon Show at Mid Valley Megamall

The drool factor for the latest Nikon D3s coupled with the new AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II far outweighs the beautiful model who is holding the potent combination.

Nikon Malaysia is currently promoting the Nikon Show at Mid Valley Megamall as the Nikon’s highlight event of the year. There will be many activities and also a photo contest for all photography enthusiasts. There’s even free photography talks by a few professional photographers but for me, the best reason to drop by Nikon booth is the chance to view or maybe touch and feel the beautiful Nikon D3s. The D3 has proven to be the most awesome digital camera to hit the market for professional sports and news photographers and has taken a big chunk of market share back from Canon 1 series camera. You just need to look at major sports event like the Beijing Olympics and football matches. Previously you could only see Canon trademark white L lenses along the sidelines but in recent years you could see a mix of black and white lenses. This is a major coup for Nikon and for Canon to catch up, they really need to come up with some really earth-shattering technologies that might give Nikon a run for their money.

As a Canon 1D Mark III user, I can vouch that the latest Nikon D3s is really tempting me to beg, borrow or steal just to get my hand on one of this baby. The newly redesigned image sensor of the new Nikon D3s will take the concept of “low light photography” to a completely new level and maybe Nikon might even create a new niche in photography which is close to “No Light Photography”. I can just imagine using the latest Nikon D3s with the new AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens. With the D3s capability of an ISO value of up to 102,400 and the ‘VR II’ lens claimed benefit of 4 additional stops, anything is possible.