GFX Blue Hour

Reading the forums, plenty of people were lamenting the fact that medium format photography exaggerates the flaws in your photography technique.  Plenty suggesting that street photography was a no no! But I went the other way. Since acquiring the GFX 50R, 90% of my shooting had been handheld in the streets.

There were a couple of occasions where the tripod was used - the shoot at KLCC and Masjid Jamek to be exact. But the great majority of the time, I treated the beast just like my other setup, just point and click. 

Of course on occasions the snaps may be soft with movement artefacts from unsteady hands. But in the middle of the day, things were pretty straightforward. As long as I can get shutter speeds fast than 1/125 sec, I am pretty happy with what I had most of the time.

So, I took the GFX on a couple of occasions during blue hour and by taking things slowly, I managed to get decent shots. The relatively small size of the camera helped a lot I was sure. So was bumping up the ISO, accepting some degree of graining and noise. 

The main challenge I have at the moment was sorting out my technique when taking photos indoors. I don’t really fancy using a strobe system - never been good at that. Forums pointed out how good the GFX system were at still life and portrait of course, but doing those tend to take a lot of setup and effort. 

I am going to stick to what I normally do, and slowly expand first into low-light tripod-based photography, snapping landmarks around KL. So, plenty of things to explore in the coming months ...

Super-Vario-Elmar

I had always been fond of wide-angle photography. It gave a different perspective and captures the essence of what was going on surrounding you better than just a standard lens. That also explained my preference to 35 mm to 50 mm as my standard prime lens.

I had a few selections of other lens for my Sony - the Batis 18mm f2.8 -, Fuji - the 10-22mm - and the GoPro.

The famous crossing opposite Pavilion

Fancy a ride?

The contrast

A couple of months ago, I acquired this wide-angle zoom for my CL - the Leica Super-Vario-Elmar-TL. The range was 11 mm to 23 mm on the crop factor sensor, delivering the equivalence of 16 to 35 mm on full frame. Not exactly the fastest lens with aperture ranging from f3.5 to f4.5. But you were supposed to use this lens at f8 anyway. So that would do.

How good is this lens? It was amazing! I reckon that it had easily out-resolutioned the CL sensor at f8. At wide open, it gave this lovely distortion which screamed wide-angle. At to that the secret sauce which only Leica could deliver in terms of colour rendition. And you have a winner.

The top floor of Pavilion

Loving Lot 10

The KLCC Fountain

By Masjid Jamek

It was not the most compact of lenses but attached the CL, it gave a nice balance. Leica managed to cut the weight down by not having any image stabilisation on the lens. Autofocus was snappy and accurate. The zoom ring was typical Leica with enough give.

Unfortunately I felt that the construction should be better. This lens was made in Japan rather than Germany. The hood which came with the lens also felt cheap and plasticky. The focusing manually was also done by wire rather than mechanical. I therefore use this lens on autofocus most of the time.

Bangunan Sultan ABdul Samad

The River of Life

The Bukit Bintang intersection

I can't fault the results however. And certainly with the amount of money I invested in this lens, it certainly brought back in the value.

The iPhone X Camera

I take my phone everywhere and being an avid photographer, the most accessible phone I had most often were my mobile phone. Over the years I had been carrying many phones and the decision on which phone I chose to buy had how good the camera was being one of the top point of consideration.

The original iPhone did not have a good camera. Back then, the best camera phone I had used was the Nokia N73. Despite only having a 3.2MP camera, the Zeiss optics it carried made for some really great photographs. That sort of crystallised on me the idea that a camera phone may be enough for everyday snapping.

Then came the iPhone 4. For the iOS platform, it showed that Apple was taking photography seriously. A few Android phones then entered the picture with the HTC One being one of my early favourites. In early 2015, I discovered the Nokia 930. It had on it the best camera I had ever seen. And till this day, I could argue that it was still a capable shooter despite being almost 4 years old.

Now, my second phone was the Huawei P10 Plus. With its Leica optics, the photos especially the monochrome were just amazing. I still took it around during weekends as I shot around town. But now, I have a new contender for the best camera phone. The iPhone X.

Right off the bat, there was something natural about the photos. There were some element of over processing from the camera but they weren't as obvious as the Samsung. The photos did not over saturated and at low ISO, they appeared realistic. The focusing was
snappy and there were plenty of third-party apps for post-production of our snaps.

Last weekend, I took the phone out for a spin around Bukit Bintang to capture the Xmas decorations. I was practically blown away. The photos were much better than I expected. Coupled with its capability to capture 4K videos at 60fps, the camera feature is a winner.

In terms of monochrome snaps, it still lacked behind the Huawei. But for sheer overall joy, Apple clearly had the right formula here. Just for the camera alone, it was definitely an upgrade from my iPhone 7 Plus, although I do understand that the iPhone 8 use the same camera module as the X although with a narrower telephoto second sensor.

I'm definitely looking forward to more snaps from the phone...

First MRT Ride

It had to start somewhere.

Even though half of the MRT line connecting Kajang and Sungai Buloh had been opened for the last 6 months, this was the first time I tried the ride. After parking my car at NU Sentral, I walked along KL Sentral towards the connecting station at Muzium Negara. A nice walk - across at least 6 escalators which were moving faster that I used to.

This way ...

Then up the escalator 

Walk straight on towards the entrance to Le Meridien and Hilton

And further on ....

After about 10 minutes, I reached the station proper, tapped my Touch & Go card, down another escalator to the platform. Very frequent train - every 8 minutes on that Saturday afternoon - which each train stretching along the whole station. It must have been 8 coaches per train at least which definitely made the journey both pleasant and efficient.

The coaches were also more spacious that the notoriously cramped Monorel - which not only had less frequent services, only served a couple of coaches per trip. It was night and day.

Everything was well posted

And then we go deep underground

And we go deeper ....

Finally we reached the terminal. And time to get the tickets ...

On the whole, I was very pleasantly surprised. It was more in keeping with KL heading towards a World Class city. The shame was the project was delayed a few times. Such public transport should have been in place 10, if not 15 years back. The fear moving forward would be the investments put in for maintenance. Generally speaking, we are good at building but slow to act and service what is crumbling ...

Now we are at the platform ...

To the left, or to the right?

Make sure you catch the right ride ...

Finally reaching Bukit Bintang. Another escalator up ...

Definitely worth a try and I personally would be using it more as the trip from NU Sentral to Bukit Bintang was nothing but pleasant. Best to take advantage of the 50% discounts before Merdeka.

The Third Floor Cafe

Big books. And good coffee. On a Sunday afternoon. Sounds like a perfect way to end the week.

That was what I had earlier today when I ventured to Isetan at Lot 10 as I got a spare couple of hours. The initial plan was to see a 3D printing demonstration but I realised that the timing was not right. I had to be back home before the program started. So, the hour sipping coffee and browsing books at the third floor at the Isetan store sounded fine to me.

Just in case you were so enamoured and wanted to go to Japan straight away, there was also a travel agent on the same floor

It was rather difficult to term the place. Was it a cafe with books, or a cafe at a bookstore. Seemed like most people were doing a bit of both. The coffee was OK, not the best in town, but the books there were something else especially when you venture towards the travel books section. Great material, in heavy minded volumes. The books on urban landscapes and street photography definitely tickled my fancy as lately I found those to be the kind of photography I like - or more like the only photography my schedule allowed me to do plenty of.

I decided against buying the books as I had to trek back to another store where I parked my car and I had a couple of stops in between. Maybe I would come back to buy some books. It would complement the volume I had in my living room nicely.

The cafe counter

Typical Japanese. Everything were laid over neatly ...

Apart from the cafe and books, the third floor were also dedicated to workshops for origami as well as all things Japanese. Take that day for instance, there was a Japanese artist who came to do a demo on 3D glass printing. There were more activities laid out for the rest of the year - which you had to enrol and pay for of course. I might just bring Idlan there one of these days if the event was right ... he loved origami.

Lot 10 hosted - and still hosts - the first Isetan Store in Malaysia. There were a few others now but the one in Lot 10 had been renovated into what was termed a “Japanese Concept Store”. It had ample space with plenty of room to browse around. There were no items cluttering the walkways and it did not have the typical “pushy” salesperson common in KL. You can just walk around without being bothered. Definitely a place worth visiting ....

It Has Been a While

It had been a while since I had the chance to have a nice walk in town, just with my camera. Ramadhan, then Raya made for busy weekends. Last Sunday morning, I had a couple of free hours and I did just that.

I kinda got a good feel taking wide-angle street photos lately. I had the choice of either the Alpha 7 with the Batis or as I did this time around, the X-Pro2 with the 10-24 mm wide angle zoom. I got off the rounds early, got to the bank and sorted out my credit card payments plus a quick stop at Low Yat checking out the new gadgets.

What did I check out this time? The new 10.5 inch iPad Pro. Definitely nippy but my old iPad was still working fine.

I spent some time around Pavilion looking for a new pair of shoes, but nothing caught my fancy. Going out this early on a Sunday meant that there were hardly any traffic to content with. Everything was smooth and I get to see and do what I planned smoothly. I was back at the apartment well before lunchtime ...

Labour Day

After staying low for almost a month, I decided to take my camera out and have a quick meal outside. It was a public holiday and after my ward round I decided to venture out.

Jo Malone is in the house

The always changing facade

The bubble merchant 

I fancied some Arab food. Some kebab. But unfortunately the place were not run by anyone from the Middle East anymore. In fact not a single one of the staff there were Arab. All of them were Bangladeshi. But I assumed that being a Labour Day, the usual workers got their day off!

Watch on by ...

And then came the rain ...

Waiting it out

Any how, the meal was a disaster. Some slices of kebab meat in a pitta bread rolled with some potato fries in them! This lot was really creative!

Looking out from the inside ...

The monochrome feature from the P10 can do wonderous things ...

Leaving the shop unimpressed, I walked around Bukit Bintang quietly, and soon after to started to rain .... Enough for the short outing! Time to get some shelters ...

New Year Lunch

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!

Getting my order ready

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