Ramadhan Walk

Haris Abdul Rahman June 7, 2018

Since I was off for the first day of Ramadhan, I decided to take a ride into time en route to pick Anita up from Gombak. It allowed me to stop at the bank to settle some bills and took my camera with me.

That famous monorel bridge at NU Sentral

I just got myself a new lens and was eager to give that a go. Ramadhan and the hot sunshine did not stop me.

One of the many arches around Central Market

Walking around Medan Pasar and Central Market at that hour was not really my idea of a photowalk, but there were quite a few subjects to aim at.

The new setup I tried - the Leica CL with Summicron-TL 23 - was a dream to use, especially as I usually use a manual setup. Focussing on this combo was fast and usually accurate despite the lens wide open. Contrast may not be as great as the Summilux-M 35 which I normally use, but the convenience of autofocus made up for it. Time to get more mileage on the lens and get use to the renderings ...

New Year Lunch

Haris Abdul Rahman January 1, 2017

The New Year started with a great win for United last night. Although it was only Middlesborough, the manner in which we came from behind to clinch the match in the final 5 minutes was reminiscent of the Ferguson era. And it was fitting as the great Sir was in the stands celebrating his 75th birthday.

The ward round came next after which I drove straight into town to sort my monthly credit card payment. I was surprised to see the new addition to Pavilion had already been opened. Now, you could walk straight from the new extension called "Connection" via an underground tunnel to Fahrenheit across the road. Great plan. If only another extension could be made straight to the new MRT line. That would really take the cake!

It was calm and quiet in there despite people walking about around us

On my way back to my car, I stopped for lunch at one of the Arab cafe there, watching people passing by in the great weather. Not a bad spot. Before I leave, I took the chance to explore the new extension, which I would blog about soon. Suffice to say, I did more exploration than I planned. Since I had already booked a trip for the haircut with the boys later, I couldn't hang around for too long.

I was lucky that I came to Pavilion early as the carpark was really packed at the time I was leaving with a long queue forming outside. I guessed everybody was up for some shopping ....

The photos were taken using my Huawei P9

Masjid India

Haris Abdul Rahman November 16, 2016

After we said our goodbyes with the bigger group, I broke off around Masjid India on my way to the LRT near Masjid Jamek. Some of my photographer friends decided to have dim sum lunch at a nearby restaurant but since I had to return back to the hospital, I had to give it a miss.

Very colourful place but very warm at the same time since the sun was already high up. The fact that the place didn't have much win blowing also didn't help.

There were shops there mainly selling snacks, clothes and bootleg items. In fact, Masjid India was famous for that.

Don't think the tigers were that popular now ....

In the end, there weren't much to see as I was rushing. Took the LRT and that was the end of my photowalk for the day.

It's not easy getting fresh fish in town today. You could get some from the supermarkets but I doubt if they are less than a a couple of days old.

The Wet Market

Haris Abdul Rahman November 6, 2016

After we were done with the fruit market, we head over to the wet part. Also recently renovated, it was nearly arranged and for a wet market it was certainly very clean. None of those nasty smells we were used to with the old Chow Kit.

Capturing the cameraman. Or camerawoman.

For a Saturday morning, I was surprised that the place was not as crowded. The vendors were too busy with their work that they hardly noticed me.

We spent around 20 minutes there and compared to the fruit market this place was more stuffy. Maybe it was the low ceiling and lack of air flow.

By the time we were, I was glad to get some fresh air...

The Fruit Market

Haris Abdul Rahman November 5, 2016

The first port of call would be the fruit market. It was newly renovated and the whole place appeared new compared to the last time we came to visit.

According to the vendors, the new market had only been opened last July. They were nearly arranged in rows and very spacious. One thing that was very obvious was how clean the place was.

Fruits from Thailand. Guaranteed to be sweet.

I must confess that it had been a while since I had seen such fresh produce

Don't ask me why, but I thought that there were too many bananas around

The vendors were friendly and were smiling away. Some asked about what we were up to and we told them that it was a yearly thing that the get together for this sort of a hunt. Some of them were reluctant to have their photos taken, and we completely understood.

The poor guy was talking to himself all morning ....

Of course we didn't take pictures at the area which did some copied products. There were also a thriving business of gold-plating jewelleries around the place.

The fruits there were nice and fresh, much better compared to the local supermarkets. No durians though. Those were sold outside the market..

I could name a few of those items .... but don't ask me what they were ....

The lights in there was fantastic. The new building allowed for natural lights to enter from high above, all at an angle giving nice, soft light. It was still early afternoon and it didn't feel warm. A perfect place to do photography. Shame that I didn't have a telephoto lens with me at the time.

The Route

Haris Abdul Rahman November 3, 2016

The route this time around was straight forward although the catch was the point and the end were different. They were about a couple of kilometers apart.

We met at Shazz Restaurant, a Mamak outlet behind the old Batu Road. The scheduled meet up was 8.30 for breakfast before setting off at 9. Luckily I made it just in time.

After the briefing and if course the group photo, we went through Chow Kit market. We first entered the dry part which was recently opened after renovation. Excellent lights in there and that formed the bulk of the walk.

We then exited the market via the older wet part where things could get messy. We then walked towards Safuan Plaza on the other end, before joining Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman proper towards Maju Junction, passing by a few restaurants.

My group stopped for some food at Capital Café, opposite Sogo before turning left towards the end point at Semua House. Again some of us had biryani but I gave that a miss after having a drink at the last stop.

After lunch, I walked through Masjid India to take the LRT at the Masjid Jamek stop to get to my car parked at Nu Sentral.

Meeting the Gang

Haris Abdul Rahman November 3, 2016

Group photowalks usually served a couple of purposes. The first was very obvious. To relief the craving most keen photographers had, to shoot. Certain quarters of town were also rather unsafe to be ventured alone. A small group would be better and what was better was if some members of the groups were familiar with the surroundings. We could then concentrate on what to shoot and felt safe in a group.

Making sure that the shot was in the bag

Murali and Adi discussing where to head to next ....

The second was to meet up with all friends. And the recent Scott Kelby photowalk certainly offered that as some of the group members only met each other once a year. And when we meet, we eat. More on that later ....

The combination of the two was the reason why every year I made plans - including cancelling clinics - to join up.

This year, the event happened last weekend. About 50 photographers turned up in our group - there was another group meeting at the other side of town. We met at Chow Kit, and we plotted a route from there, through he famous market to end at Masjid India.

Ever conscious of the environment ..... since he got the bike a month prior

Being a post-call day, I did not plan to be adventurous. I started my rounds early, parked my car at Nu Sentral and took the Monorel to join up with the group in Chow Kit at a mamak shop for breakfast.

A group photo and briefing ensued before the main group left for the market. I stayed back with a couple of friends to have some food before walking into the market.

A New Tune

Haris Abdul Rahman November 2, 2016

I had been contemplating going up onto medium format for quite some time. There were plenty of contenders, and the couple main ones at the moment were the Pentax 645Z and the Hasselblad X1D. They were not cheap certainly. But the one I was anticipating would be the Fuji GFX 50S. All 3 uses almost similar sensors, about 1.7 times bigger than my current full-frame gears.

The famous Tokyo Street inside Pavilion KL

But they were going to be big and heavy. And I mainly like street work. And I have fast glasses to cover 28, 35, 50 and 85mm, not to mention standard and wide-angle zooms.

In the last few months, I had been mainly doing wide-angle walks. I decided to use a 85mm 1.4 rig yesterday. The overcast weather made the decision easy. And I was able to snap both indoors and evening outdoors without much hassle.

Always under construction. When will it ever be completed?

After looking at the results, it made me think about whether it would be worth the effort, cost and hassle of upgrading and abandoning the system I built over the years to accommodate this new endeavour. Bearing in mind, I was not planning of getting any monetary return from all this.

So, as it stood at the moment I might venture into medium format in the future. The question was not if, but onto which system. Apart from the Hasselblad, I don’t think the other medium format setup had the upper hand to my current kit. When I do go medium format, I would expect the results to blow me away, similar to when I was first able to use a Leica properly and appreciate what a sharp lens really meant.

I remember the advise from one of my mentor, that when you go into the field I am in - a Haemato-Oncologist, you would need an escape. For me it had always been photography since my student years. Guess, I would need to up my game now ….