Dhong Zhi or Winter Solstice (22nd December 2010) marks the arrival of winter in the Chinese calendar. Although it is an ancient tradition whereby farmers celebrate their  harvest, the annual festival is still observed by Chinese folks settled all over the far-flung diaspora. In Malaysia, the Chinese community eat colourful glutinous rice balls known as Tang Yuan (or soup ball).

Tang Yuan

I discovered the simmering part was a bit tricky to photograph. The water turned a bit cloudy and the lens was steaming up fast. It created a nice diffused effect, though. Since it is a dark ‘winter’ day today, I was unable to get bright enough natural window light. A side-way flash was used instead. Exposure info: ISO 100, 1/60 sec, f8

Curious Set-up

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 camera with DMW-LA6 lens firing the soft-boxed Olympus FL-50 flash via TTL cable. My cat, of course, has to investigate the set-up.