Snaps: Pudu Market with Olympus EM-1


After about two months of taking a break from street photography, I’m finally back to it this weekend. I didn’t realise how much I missed these shutter therapy sessions, until I was back at it earlier today. It was an even sweeter reunion for me because I was shooting with an Olympus EM-1 this time around. Reason being, was that I wanted to try out how it would feel like shooting with a view finder because my current camera the Olympus EPL5 doesn’t have one.


And now, I just realised what I have been missing out all this while. I always thought shooting through the view finder was an awkward thing to do. I felt so as I started using it earlier of the day. But as I kept shooting, I found it to be easier for me to control the necessary settings and then shooting the picture I had in mind.


It was gorgeous, the whole experience of shooting with the Olympus EM-1 felt just like falling in love; “slowly, and then all at once." If my friends were reading this, they would probably laugh knowing that I have been successfully ‘poisoned’. (Poison as in like influenced).     

                                 
But then it has only been like 1 year, 3 months, 13 days since I got my EPL5, I am thinking that it won’t be the best choice to get another new camera now. The priority is probably to brush up on my technical skills and to learn how to use each of my lens, rather than have them kept aside.


So, do I or do I not get the Olympus EM-1? It is extremely tempting to get it now, and it really doesn’t help that Jackie decided to exchange his camera, an Olympus EM-1 with me for the week. So he has my EPL5 and I have his camera now. Maybe by the end of this week, I would have decided to just get the EM-1. Okay, I think I shall stop rambling about the camera now.


Back to the street shoot in Pudu, it was actually rather packed in the market (possibly due to the preparations for the upcoming Raya holidays) which made it rather difficult for us to shoot. I had initially wanted to use the 75mm lens, but it would be a really tight space. So, instead I used 45mm lens which is my default street photography lens.




Of all my favourite places to shoot at, the Pudu market would always my best pick because the folks there are really friendly and engaging. More often than not, you’ll find them smiling and ever ready to strike a pose for you. Like the two fine man above, who was laughing as I took my camera out to take their portraits. And this is why, I love shooting on the streets.

Too bad though that for the shoot this time around, I made a mistake of not checking my settings right before we begin the shoot. I ended up shooting only in JPEG, so the pictures above have minimal edits since I don’t have the RAW images.


It think it must have been the pretty tasty and cheap dim sum we had for breakfast which threw my balance off. The dim sum breakfast for four persons was only about RM48, which was pretty cheap considering we has quite of number of food. I might consider returning there to do a proper review, possibly the next time when I’m down in Pudu.

So, that’s all from me now. I would be updating more frequently, starting with a couple of long overdue food review posts and hopefully more on my personal projects that I am working on! I’ll end this post with a *noob* selfie I took of myself with the rest of the awesome photographers! Almost all of us here are Olympus users, except for Jason (guy in Jurassic Park shirt)!


Till next time,
xoxo

Out & About: Astro-On-The-Go for Students!

A couple of days earlier, I posted about the Astro On The Go road shows in various campuses around Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya. After a rather hectic days of attending classes (7 hours long each day!) and I was looking forward to getting a break from classes! As it turns out I managed to attend the last road show in Sunway University.

Remember I mentioned how I always missed out on road shows in my campus? Well, it was lucky thing I managed to catch the last of the Astro On The Go road shows. By the time I arrived, which was about 10 minutes after they started, I already see a crowd over the computers and there was a queue to sign up as well.

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If you didn’t know, signing up for Astro On The Go is absolutely free of charge! After signing up for the account, you can then watch the movies and drama available. Yeap, even with your free account! I’ll elaborate more on the how to sign up for the account and what you can do with your Astro On The Go account below! So read on to find out more. :)

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After signing up for a free account, you will get a free goodie bag with an exclusive Astro cap or an Astro notebook and a World Cup chart (with the schedule of the matches too. Talk about convenience!). And to mention, a dip in the lucky draw box which was filled with balls! Before you start thinking, “oh, balls? :p” , it was actually little plastic ball with stickers on it. If you picked a ball with a Astro On The Go sticker, it means you have just won 1 month of free subscription for AOTG!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA| Inside the goodie bag! |

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA| A peek into the lucky draw box! |

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Besides that, there was a chance to win an official merchandise of the World Cup by simply juggling a football a couple times, using the foot only. At first, the cute emcee asked the guys to give it a try and then, he decided it was more fun to ask the girls to try it. For the girls you just need to juggle three times and guess what Alice, one of the bloggers there gave it a try and managed to!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA| The cheeky emcee with Alice |

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA| And she wins! |

The best part of was that Alice mentioned that she has never played football before, so she must have had hidden skills to be able to juggle the ball three times. I did give it a try but the ball always ended up knocking against my knee. Urgh, #fail. Haha! Anyway, it was fun being able to attend the road show and learning more about Astro On The Go which I will elaborate and explain to you! Before that, here’s a picture of the bloggers I met at the road show. :)

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If you missed out on the road shows, fret not because you can still sign up for a free account online and I’m going to share with you here what it is actually. :) So, what it basically is (I’m sure everyone knows what Astro is!) that you can stream Astro channels and watch any other movies/shows (even football matches!) via your devices. That includes your mobile phones, tablets and laptops even! This means that you no longer need a TV just to watch Astro!

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Before I continue on, let me share with you a story that my mother loves sharing of me; it’s the one about my younger self and the TV. Back in the younger days, I loved watching television, so much so that I would watch it almost every hour of the day. This includes cartoons (Dragon Ball, ftw), Filipino dramas, Bollywood movies and especially those telenovelas from Spain (anyone remembers Rosalinda or Yo Soy Betty La Fea?).

As my mom loves to share, she would retell the stories of how addicted I was to the TV that regardless of what was showing, I would sit down and have my eyes literally glued to the TV. I still it’s hilarious to think I used to be like that, because really now, I hardly ever watch the TV. It is not because I don’t like watching it, but rather I don’t have the time anymore.

But with Astro On The Go, I can now catch up on all my favourite TV shows through my phone and even my laptop. You don’t need to be an Astro customer to be able to access the content, all you need is an Astro ID which you can sign up through here https://onthego.astro.com.my. The picture below shows you how to sign up for an account via android devices. It’s super easy! You can download the app from Google Play or the App Store!

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Once you have successfully registered and logged in, you can then choose to subscribe to get more channels and content (like movies and shows) on your AOTG app. Currently, there are three package for the channels available on AOTG. If you see below, it’s only RM30 per month, which means you technically pay only RM1 for these unlimited shows on the channels.

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But if you prefer to watch shows just from a particular channel only, like say AstroAEC, then you can just opt to pay for that channel only. For the pay-per-channel, the price per channel ranges from RM5 to RM15 per channel per month. Still rather cheap I would say, and I get to choose what I want to watch. Of course, it’ll be more value for money to get those packages one. By the way, these are for non-Astro subscribers.

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Now, if you already have Astro or is an existing Astro customer you must be thinking, “do I have to pay extra?”  Well, not if you are a Super Pack, Multiroom, Sports Pack and Value Pack customers of Astro. In fact, you’ll have premium access to AOTG for free and immediately upon signing up & logging in, you’ll get access to the channels, shows and movies. (The access will differs according to which package you’re currently subscribed to on your TV)

If you’re other customers of Astro (not in the above), then you can access free contents on the AOTG portal or you can subscribe to any of the selected  shows/movies/channels that you wish to. Again, since this is Astro On The Go, it means that you can catch your shows at anytime and anywhere!

And now, if you are interested to try Astro On The Go, but is not an Astro subscriber but yet you want to have a taste of how it works..you can actually do so! Because there is a basic access which is available for free to everyone; the Astro Awani channel, a couple of Astro ARENA content, first episodes of popular shows & drama series, movies and some selected LIVE sports. Here are some of the movies and shows that is available for free!

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I am still thoroughly amazed that I can watch these shows and movies straight from phone which is such a convenience because now I have something to do rather than just stoning, or browsing my social media while killing time. I have been using it for about a week plus and I found it super convenient!

I have been watching them when I’m stuck in the jam, when I’m not driving of course! And when I’m in campus, in between classes and during break times. Then, there was a day when Emily, my friend went camera shopping with best friend, Alex and I was feeling bored. So I ended up watching a couple of shows while tagging along with them from one shop to another.

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So, really what are you waiting for! Hurry on to the Astro On The Go at https://onthego.astro.com.my and sign up now! :)

PS – Guess what it’s the World Cup fever now so if you want to watch it from the comfort of pretty much anywhere and from your devices, Astro On The Go is offering special deals on that too! Check them out here; http://my.astroonthego.com/en/promotions/worldcup.

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