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 ...

Goodbye Ampang Park

It looks like the time was almost up. The tenants and shop owners of Ampang Park had exhausted all legal challenge to stop the closure of the first and oldest shopping mall in KL. They were all given their final notices and had been making plans to move their businesses elsewhere.

Even the famed "Cozy Corner" was moving after Raya.

I was there with Anita looking for clothes for Raya. The selection were as good as ever and she got what she wanted. The irony was we took the LRT from KLCC to get there and the future plans for the lot was to built a new MRT station.

I was sure there were enough reasons to demolish such an icon and hopefully in the future, this plot of land would be put in good use ... But for now, thanks for the memories ...

KL in Mono

Capturing photos in monochrome allowed one to concentrate on the contrast of the captures, leaving away the worry of colour balance and distraction. Some may say that it was an easy way out. It was if you got an eye for the shots. I have used many mono conversion applications in the past - with Silver Efex Pro from Nik springing to mind.

In the era of smartphones, the Leica-tuned P10 was a winner. I had been using the mono effect almost consistently - since the phone had a separate 20 MP mono sensor built in. The results, with some minimum tweaking had always brought a smile to my face.

Last month, I decided to go around time only carrying the phone. I was snapping away and just using apps on the phone to edit after. I would then upload straight only my flickr feed. It was a revelation. That inspired me to open a new instagram account ....

Sunny Walk

My favourite kind of Sunday would be when I was not on call, it rained early in the morning, and then the cloud cleared up by midmorning, in time for me to finish my rounds. From then on, it would be sunny all day, capped off with gorgeous sunset and serene blue hour!

Congregating

Where to park?

The archway

Masih ada "Ruang"?

They were few and far in between but I had such a Sunday recently. So, I decided to bring my gear out and just walk around town.

Sundays in the centre of town nowadays felt like you were being transported to another realm. The area around Central Market were filled with foreigners enjoying their day off work and truth be told. It could be off-putting and intimidating. This was especially so when they appeared in such large group. You often fear for your safety and walking alone, I do not fell safe carrying my expensive cameras anymore.

Across to Central Market

Golden reflection

Under the shade

Inner city life

But my Ricoh GR was no slouch and I was able to snap around without much notice. It would have been nice if I could have hooked up with a few mates ....

Masjid India

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.

The Balloon Man

A fruitful visit

That looked tempting

On reflection

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.

That apam balik was the bomb!

Fancy some kidney beans?

Staggering choice of food

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

Early lunch

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

Otak-otak. Fishy .....

Heading back home after the walk

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.

Semua House

I was sure that I have written about this place before. It used to be the heartbeat of Masjid India and Jalan Bunus in the 80s. This, plus the Campbell Complex not far behind were the place to be, before walking further down towards Pertama Complex. Those were the time before SOGO and Maju Junction been built.

There were also only the locals and Indian Moslems running the business there. Nowadays, Semua House and the surrounding area were filled up by Indonesian, and I was sure that before long, maybe the Bangladeshis and Nepalis. They far outnumbered the locals nowadays. The business might be owned by the locals, but certainly the sales staff weren't from around here.

The entrance  

Not many novelty shops left

While quite a number of the upper floor shops were left vacant

Nothing much going on at the main lobby either  

The main tenants there seemed to be specialty shops for Malay wedding. Plenty of tepak sirih, stuff for the pelamin as well as wardrobes were on the second floor. Other than that, there were nothing special. Plenty of shop lots were closed for rent, and there were not much activities going on in the inside. There were more things happening in the surrounding area.

I reckoned the business had been siphoned away to the nearby bigger malls - SOGO and Jakel Mall included. I think the days of Semua House were numbered.

Malaysian Festivities

​One of the advantage of living in Malaysia is the mix of culture on offer. And each of the culture have their own traditional celebrations, and the shopping centers and malls wee decorated accordingly. Every time there was Christmas, Chinese New Year and Hari Raya, I would definitely go out with my camera exploring the malls, taking photographs. 

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A bit of greenery here and there​

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​At 10 pm, the road around Bukit Bintang was still a pain to navigate

This season was no exception. While Anita does her shopping, I would be snapping away. I visited The Curve, KLCC, Great Eastern Mall and Bangsar Shopping Center thus far, and there were a few more I wanted to explore in the coming few days.