Usually, the Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival (KLPF) was held near my place, at Mid Valley. It was the first time it moved and with the new place, I was sure the whole festival felt different. On personal note, obviously I preferred the old venue. A bit busier, and getting a parking spot could be tricky, but at least access was pretty OK. This venue - StarXpo - was located on the 15th floor and it has the worse lift service in town, even worse than SJMC on a Saturday morning!
More about that later.
The event was held over three days, and I went on a Saturday late morning, the second day right after I was done with my post-take round. Hence, I was a bit groggy when I got there, and parked on the 11th floor, I ended up using the stairs to reach the venue after tired of waiting.
The hall was massive - a grand setting with another couple of floors of balcony. The main hall was occupied by vendors seeking all things photography as well as tourism bureau and travel company who offered trip services for photography outings. Compared to the last few years, there were definitely a decline both in terms of quantity and quality of the vendors on display. But the same can’t be said about the exhibitions. There were plenty of great photos on display and the talks were engaging.
Had a chance to listen to one of the talks
Some had projection issues during their presentation
They were not blessed with that many vendors this time around
Even the local tourism board was on the act
I managed to sit in on a couple of talks, but unfortunately the third one was in Mandarin - the one I was looking forward too since it was about Mongolia. For proper food you would have to take the lifts to the lower floor - which was a drag. Toilet facilities were aplenty. The exhibit which caught my eyes was a series about Bangladeshi workers working in Malaysia. Fascinating to learn that they actually had a decent life back hope but with no prospect of extra income. Hence they travelled here and to the Middle East.
The only vendor I found worth visiting was the DJI. They showcased the OSMO Mobile, which I found interesting and cheaper than I thought. Oppo, the mobile phone vendor also had a good presence, showing their phones and also having exhibits on photos taken using their products. The main brands - Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fuji - did not have much presence as only their third-party vendors were there. Olympus surprisingly did not even turn up!
View of the skyline from the 15th floor
The food were not exactly the attraction
A panoramic sweep from one of the balcony
The organiser would have to start to up their game to attract more vendors for next year’s chapter, otherwise the whole festival would start to lose its gloss. Maybe they should start thinking about going back to the old venue ….
All the photos on this entry were taken using my iPhone 7 Plus