Panoramic View Of Taman Pekaka, Taman Lip Sin And Bukit Jambul

Panoramic view of Taman Pekaka, Taman Lip Sin and Bukit Jambul
Panoramic view of Taman Pekaka, Taman Lip Sin and Bukit Jambul.
Click on image to enlarge.

The image in the previous entry did not do justice to what I could actually see from the bedroom window in my apartment in Penang. The view from the 20th floor is practically unobstructed to Teluk Kumbar and all the way to the Straits of Melaka in the horizon. On clear days, I could see the tail of aircrafts on the runway at the Penang International Airport.

There are a lot of memories locked in that 850 square feet of space 30 meters up in the air. Mum spent the last four years of her life there, and I another two years after she passed away. Since 2006, after I moved down to Kuala Lumpur, I have been in two minds whether to keep the apartment or put it up for sale. I will definitely miss the breathtaking view should I decide to sell it off.

The Destination Matters

The destination matters more than the journey. That is the truth. A 200 km drive on the expressway with only the view of oil palms, rubber trees and secondary forests is not exactly one that can keep bored minds awake. The excitement of driving long distances has worn off. Only what awaits at the other end beckons – family and food.

Sunset over the E1 North South Expressway
Sunset over the E1 North South Expressway.

To keep ourselves occupied and awake on those long journeys, we have a stash of our favourite CDs stored in a shoebox. It is ironic that we listen to most of them while driving and very seldom at home. I should really convert them into MP3s to save space and also reduce the need to change CDs so often.

Night shot of the E1 North South Expressway
Night shot of the E1 North South Expressway.

The camera comes in handy when we get bored listening to the music. But how do you take nice sharp photographs through tinted windscreen with the car bumping up and down at 100 km/h? The failing light of dusk makes it even more challenging but I like the drama such shots evoke, especially the chains of headlights from cars in the opposite direction. Those were the times when I found joy in the journey.

Best Way To Store Digital Photographs

Wing of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737
One of the surviving digital photographs taken with the Nikon Coolpix 3100.

My first digital camera was the Nikon Coolpix 3100. I must have taken some 8,000 shots with this tiny camera until I upgraded to the Canon Powershot A610 some time in end-2005. Most of the images taken with the Coolpix 3100 were kept in the hard drive of my desktop computer in Penang. Unfortunately, the drive failed when I wanted to back up the images to CD-R. All I have left are the images stored in Wuan’s computer the times I visited her here in Kuala Lumpur before I moved down.

Theoretically, digital images last forever. However, their longevity are dependent on the media that they are stored in. Most of my hard drives last an average of three years. CD-Rs last a little longer if they are properly stored. I tend to leave them lying around unprotected. They usually accumulate dust and scratches over the years. I lost some images that way too. Those lost images leave a gaping hole in the chronicles of my photography journey. I am determined not to lose any from now on.

I have learnt my lessons. Between Wuan and I, we have 40,000 digital photographs. For us, backing up images has become a continuous process now. The images from the cameras are downloaded to my 160GB external drive or Wuan’s 40GB external drive. From there, the images are then transferred to DVDs. They are stored in two separate copies and those copies stored in different locations. That is what we are doing for our existing digital photographs. I am also looking at a 1TB external drive for primary back up as the current 160GB external drive is fast filling up. At the same time, I am looking around for better quality DVDs for this purpose too. Please do share with me how you store your digital photographs.