Snaps: Embracing colours.

As I am typing this, I still can’t decide on a suitable title for this post. It was shot around Petaling Street and the neighbouring streets, but about half of the pictures this time are taken in Sri Mahamariamman Temple. As I have other pictures as well, I could not just title this post as just the temple name. I have only started shooting on the streets recently, but I realised that my pictures would so often be in black and white, or almost muted colours. You can check out my other Street Photography pictures.

This time around I have decided to go for colours; brilliant, vibrant colours. It feels awesome to think that when I was shooting, I never had any particular theme in mind. But as I was post-processing the pictures, somehow I opted for colourful edits instead. :) I hope you’ll enjoy the set as much I do.

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Photowalk: Jalan Masjid India, Hari Raya Haji

You know it’s going to be a good day when the first thing you see is a rainbow and a gorgeous sunrise skies. And the moment I saw that, my first reaction was to grab my camera to try to get a better shot of the rainbow (because it was earlier sandwiched between the houses and condo). So, I chased the rainbow in my flip flops with my camera around my neck. By the time I reached the park, the sun was up and the rainbow gone. I would have been upset, but the rainbow was too beautiful and it would be etched in my head anyway. Here’s a quick picture of the sunrise anyway.

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P H O T O W A L K

|Jalan Masjid India|

| Meet my friends! Can you guess who is who? |

I was up early because I was joining a few of my friends for a photo walk on the streets. If you know me, you probably know that I don’t head out much to the streets and that I’m so much more of an indoor type of photographer, except for the macro shoots I go. Otherwise, I mostly shoot still life, nails, self-portraits and also food. Shooting on the streets and the streets itself have never been something I liked, because I just don’t go what to look out for and what to shoot basically. In my lifetime so far, I have only shot the streets twice, the first time using the Canon S90 and after that, I borrowed Alex’s Panasonic GX1. You can read about the my first photowalk here (Pudu area) and the second one here (Petaling Street area). I just realised that it’s been approximately 7 months since I last shot on the street. It’s good to see if I have improved over the months.

It was a short shoot, for just a couple of hours (2 hours plus minus) to cover the Jalan Masjid India area and we finished off with lunch at Yut Kee Restaurant, a place is famed for its Hainanese pork chops. I was shooting with my Olympus EPL5 along with a couple of different Olympus Micro Four Thirds lenses. Since we were all using the Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera system, we were able to share and switch lenses for whichever picture we needed another lens for. This was definitely one of the advantage which got me into the MFT system in the first case.

| The Man at the “Kaki Lima” (Five-Foot Way) |

R.AGE Photo Walk 2013, Petaling Street

I’ve never been a fan of photowalk for a few reasons; I tried it once and I didn’t quite like the idea of walking on the streets to shoot and get pictures. That didn’t seem to appeal or even work for me. The first time I went for a photowalk was one organized by The Star R.AGE as well, way back in August 2011. I did a short blog post on it and posted the pictures from that walk as well. (Click here to read it.)

I remember vividly, how I felt about walking the streets (it was at Pudu area then) and just shooting. For that walk, I was using my trusty Canon S90, whilst everyone else was armoured with their DSLRs. I have never felt so out of place and inadequate then. It’s easy to get intimidated and feel inferior. Sure, others gave encouraging words like, “It’s not the camera, it’s the photographer. It’s how he/she frames/compose/capture the picture.” I’m not saying that concept isn’t wrong, in fact I believe in that idea. 

But really, at the end of the day, having a better camera with a good lens makes all the difference. Which is why for this walk, I asked A if I could borrow his GX1. He passed me the kit lens, along with the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens. (I don’t usually go technical, because I know nuts about these lens, but I thought it’s about time I familiarise myself with them.)

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This time the walk was in Petaling Street, and there was three photographers leading/guiding us for the walk. They are Jason Lioh, Robin Wong and Luke Chua. (Jason wrote featured a story on Luke before, you can read that here.)

Clockwise; Jason Lioh , Luke Chua and Robin Wong

I won’t ramble on, so I'll just post the pictures from my walk.

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For the rest of the pictures that I have edited, please visit my flickr. I have actually edited a couple more than what I posted here, so you can check it out on flickr. If you have any comments on the pictures, I would really appreciate it. :) As it turns out, my second photowalk isn’t as awful as my first, although I still wasn’t used to the whole idea of heading to street and just shooting, initially. Took me some time to warm up, and familiarise myself with the whole idea.

I would definitely be up for a next photowalk, although I hope by then I would have my own micro four thirds, to play with because after shooting with the GX1 and the awesome 45mm, I am so smitten and in love with the lens and the micro four thirds camera. I’ve already been planning to get the EPL-5, and there really isn’t any reason not to get the camera now. Except I’m still holding back. :/ I don’t know, but I just feel like it isn’t the right time. Plus, apparently they are rumours saying that EP-5 may be coming out so I should wait? GAH. I wish I knew.

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PS – My photo was published in the R.AGE section of last Friday’s The Star newspaper. :D Can you spot me in the picture, at the bottom right?

If you can’t. I’m the one carrying a hot pink bag. Haha.

This is actually what I wore to the walk. Hot pink ftw. ;) Pic credit to Jason Lioh.

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Hope you enjoyed reading this post, and till next time! xx

Rant: Hopelessness.

Picture was taken during the late afternoon during one of my favourite walks to the park. See other pictures here.

The morning after. One thing I loathe about going to sleep, was waking up the next morning. Especially on days where my classes begin at 8am, I’m sure this resonates with my classmates and really, about thousands other students. To make matters worse, you’ve got an exam the next day. So, really what is the point of waking up? And today, I woke up feeling hopeless. It wasn’t just a feeling that would fade away. In fact, it pretty much stayed on and lingered till I finished my exam. Hell, it doubled tripled during my exam, so much that I have felt the urge to just walk out of the hall, leaving my paper incomplete. I stayed on, but that didn’t make much difference. All it did was help me feel less guilty, seeing that I ‘utilised’ the allocated time to complete the paper, right? So, yes. Sighs. I don’t want to go bed and wake up feeling hopeless.

@thestar_rage’s - Photowalk in Pudu

Photowalking is the act of walking with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things that the photographer may find interesting.

  Started the day with an unassumingly delicious Hakka noodles. Why do I say so? Look at how plain the noodles are. It sure didn’t taste like plain noodles, in fact it’s really good.

One of the buildings around Pudu with unique windows. Moody picture, you think so?

It’s a boring shot. I think I need more practice. :)

 I think this shot was taken while we’re passing by a printing shop. Love the colours.

Meet the inspiring photographer who was my group’s guide. (I like this shot.)

  This was her idea to take a series of picture of us. We had to look up, down, left, right, smile and camwhore.

  I don’t know what this is. Haha, but the fruit smells.

Mom says this guy is staring straight at me and is scary looking. :O

Out of nowhere, pops a window! Hahaa.

   My favourite shot! An accidental one, I would say. Initially I just wanted to take the fire hydrant, but the bus passed by and I thought why not take a picture of the hydrant, bus and all things yellow?