Batu Pahat Shooting Spree

To all my Muslim readers, I wish you all Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri !!

May you all have the awesomest and happiest celebration with family and friends.

I have been wanting to take some time away from the busy city Kuala Lumpur, and just hide away in a place where modernization has not fully crippled every single way of life. Therefore, I decided to make a short day trip full of shutter action, just to clear my mind off some clutters. In the first light of the dawn for first day of Hari Raya, I traveled down south to Batu Pahat, Johor together with friend Frederick. We met up with the famous Uncle James, who is a senior in photography with vast experience to share and great stories to tell. It was one full day of shutter therapy and I have enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Batu Pahat has a lot to offer in terms of photography opportunities. The folks down there are really friendly, and they still live their lives free of high hills, huge cars and shopping mall cultures.

In all honesty, I would prefer shooting a portrait of an old man with a facial expression beaming with pride and sincere joy gained over years of life experiences, rather than a dolled up model with plastic looking face polished by an inch thick make up, dressed scantily and posing suggestively. I understand the urge of many new-comers to photography who define "shooting" by anything to do with "models" and "hot chicks". In my opinion, capturing true beauty is a lot harder than just skin deep appearance. In smaller towns like Batu Pahat, you will find many beautiful people with truest smiles, not worrying about how their hair fall into place, or if their lipstick color does not match their shoes. They smile, because they have something to share. It is up to the photographer to capture that.

All images were taken with Olympus DSLR E-5 and 11-22mm F2.8-3.5 or 50mm F2 Macro.

Left Behind.

11-22mm, Pinhole Art Filter applied.

A happy family.

11-22mm

Fox behind bars

50mm macro

A happy family man.

50mm macro

Wings to fly.

11-22mm

Where the Pilot sits.

11-22mm

How to fly a plane?

Grainy Film Art Filter applied.

14-54mm mk2

Uncle James, a great photographer and mentor.

11-22mm

The pilot, the inventor, the engineer. The man who flew all over the world. The man who inspired me to fly.

11-22mm

How to make a plane fly.

11-22mm

I was traveling light, hence I armed myself with Olympus DSLR E-5, shooting primarily with 11-22mm F2.8-3.5 and 50mm F2 macro. This was one situation where the wide angle lens is really useful and important, to capture and fit in as much surrounding as possible into one single frame. The 11-22mm worked like a charm, and the field of view it provided was just right, not being overly wide with annoying perspective distortions creeping in, but still wide enough to fit what needed to be fit. I used the 50mm F2 to capture mainly close up portrait shots. Occasionally, I would borrow the 40-150mm F3.5-4.5 tele-lens from Frederick, my shooting companion of the day, to reach further distance subjects.

This was not my first visit to Batu Pahat. We visited places where we have not covered during our first visit (click here). We started of by visiting a home of an Indian friend of Uncle James, where we found a yard full of used and abandoned cars. We found a fox there, and this was my first encounter with a life fox. After taking photographs of the down to earth family, we moved on to visit yet another friend of Uncle James, who is a pilot, engineer and inventor. He can modify and create his own aircraft, which was quite amazing, and he basically knew everything about a flying plan inside out. We had a chance to get upclose and personal with a few of his Micro-Light aircrafts, and I even took a seat inside one.

Shall I pick up flying as a hobby in the future? Id say why not, right?

Serenity of life by the waters

11-22mm

A man and his boat.

40-150mm mk1

To catch the fish

11-22mm

The gathering of sea creatures.

11-22mm

The fisherman

50mm macro

Boats

11-22mm

On the road with no wheels

11-22mm

Another fisherman

50mm macro

Carts and trolleys

11-22mm

Money to burn

11-22mm

The alter and hanging incense coils

11-22mm

The photographer friend, Frederick.

In the afternoon, we visited the fishing village. The life there was so calm and peaceful. The houses were made of wood, standing on stilts elevating the platform off the water level. The boats were parked just outside the house, and you can find all sorts of seafood being sun-dried everywhere. Quite an interesting community. We were free to roam around from house to house, because there was no fence or gate. All doors were open, and the local folks were so friendly they allowed us to take photographs of the many things that fishermen would have lying around all over the place. They also were not shy to have their photographs taken by us.

After shooting the fishing village we went to one of the 400 temples in Batu Pahat. We were expecting to shooting sunset, but the weather was cruel and did not permit us to do so. It was pouring and the sky was not looking pretty at all. We skipped sunset plan and just shot around the temples instead.

Uncle James was very kind to spend his time bringing us around Batu Pahat, and we were moving from place to place consecutively for the whole day. Thank you so much Uncle James !! Hopefully in our next visit, we would be able to shoot those breathtaking sunset shots overlooking the ocean.

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Shooting with Long Lens

I believe it is very important to experiment and explore different techniques and refresh our viewpoints on photography perspectives from time to time, to further spur the growth of the photography in us. It is unwise to stay stagnant and be complacent with one set of rules and stick to limited knowledge in defining what good photography is. The journey has no end, and there is so much more to explore if the photographer has the heart and passion to do so. Similarly this applies to street photography. There are so many ways to go about shooting on the street, and there really is no right and wrong. Everyone sees things differently, everyone has their own unique artistic vision. Developing the artistic sense comes hand in hand with using a varying set of tools and methods to translate the vision into photographs. 

All images in this entry were taken with Olympus DSLR E-5 and Zuiko Digital 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 lens

Breakfast of the Champions

Found this shirtless dude sitting at the Taxi Stand. Perhaps it was too hot, that he had to take his shirt off and cool down with a cold can of Tigers. For some reasons it was overbearingly hot this morning. 

Umbrella

What works for me in this photograph was the colourful and beautiful flowery pattern on the umbrella, against plain white dress on the lady. I attacked her at a vulnerable time, she was crossing the road, hence she was looking out for any approaching vehicles. Not the best approach for street, but I like the natural undisturbed feel to this image. 

Harsh Malaysian Sun

The girl was wiping sweat off with the white towel, and I waited until she turned her head around to have the eye contact. 

Chillax at the Balcony

This would probably not quality as street photography, because it was a residential zone, shooting in peoples home. I was expecting the guy to have some rejection, but to my amazement, he smiled instead !! So I shot a few more frames. I think it is crucial to keep a positive outlook, and be optimistic. 

Bite It Off

One of the few things I do very, very often: HEADSHOT !! I try not to overdo it these days. 

White Dots

I know many people have been complaining on my street photographs containing subject content which appear very depressing or miseable: such as homeless people, beggars, or people with broken legs. Ok, ok, here are some happier, and surely more pleasing looking subjects, which can be easily spotted at KL downtown area, such as the Pavilion. 

Buff Tattoo

Gotta love the tattoos on this dudes arms. 

Purple

Apparently there was some event going on just outside Lot 10 shopping mall, to commemorate the International AIDS Memorial Day. Free condoms were given away. You can see the girl at the bottom left corner going that, the condoms come in purple packages. 

White

There was some property event going on outside Pavilion, this lady was stationed outside to hand out brochures. 

Workers and Beggar

McDonalds workers taking a break, while the beggar was just a meter away. 

For a long duration of time, my staple lenses I have been using when I am on the streets were the 11-22mm F2.8-3.5 and 50mm F2 macro. Those two lenses provided me with almost everything I needed: great wide angle coverage, fast aperture, capability to create good bokeh, sharp, and even medium tele-photo range. The lenses worked very well for my shooting style, which I am slowly, but surely shaping into something I adhere to on every street shooting session. Nonetheless, there are times I would do something unusual, such as today, when I went to the streets with a long lens instead: the 50-200mm F2.8-3.5. Traditionally it is not advisable (you can easily read up everywhere on street photography guides) to use long lens on the street. There are many good reasons supporting why wide angle and normal prime lenses are favorable and worked better for most street shooting, but hey, what is the fun of just following rules all the time? I do not deny the truth in the guidelines written by the experienced and seasoned photographers, and they are valid. On top of that, I also strongly believe that it is important on our own part to do our own experimentation, our own trial and error, and determine what works best for our own shooting preferences. We define our own photography, and our own identity as photographers. 

I have shot with long lens before on the streets, but very rarely these days. I started off with long lens, mainly because I was too afraid to go near my subjects, and was not ready to face the possibility of rejection. As I advanced further I realized people on the streets are really approachable and friendly, hence I used wider lenses, to incorporate more surrounding subjects and backgrounds to support the main subject content in my street photographs. However, I cannot help but have a soft spot for long lenses. There is just something about using a long zoom that gives you that excitement, as if you were sneaking around, stealing some shots from far away. Perhaps, there are more advantages to just the excitement alone. Long lenses have many benefits to photography in general. 1) you get very good bokeh, the longer you zoom, the more bokeh you get 2) the compression effect on the background, meaning you see less background, easier to isolate the main subject and minimizing distractions 3) allowing hard to reach subjects, eg across the road 4) training the eyes to spot subjects from far away. I would not say that a tele-lens is highly recommended to be used on the streets, but if you have not used a tele lens, why not give it a try? At the end of the day, it all comes down to what kind of shots you are looking for, you have to acknowledge the fact that there are some shots that only a long lens can accomplish. 

Left: Scott Chung (http://scottchung.blogspot.com)

Top Right: Kelvin Ng (http://kbphotographyblo.com)

Bottom Right: Luke Ding (http://pointofluke.blogspot.com)

Some friends I was shooting with this morning. Do check out Scotts beautiful street series which he took in London streets during his work/travel there this year, as well as Lukes wonderful rainy day shots. Show some love for street photography guys !!

I do admit that the bulk and weight of the lele-lens were not something I looked forward to. Walking with something compact and light would have been much more comfortable.

This morning me and a bunch of crazy photo-buddies went along Bukit Bintang area and had our shutter therapy there. The sun was unusually harsher, and it was rather uncomfortable walking around, hence the session was cut short. Nevertheless, I did come home with some shots that I actually liked.

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Night Shooting with a Visitor from Brisbane Australia

About a week ago, a stranger added me on Facebook and asked me for the recommended place to develop film and digital scans in KL. Since I have almost zero knowledge on film photography, I asked around some of my friends (amazingly many of them) who do shoot film, and I gave the preferred shop for film development to him. On late last Saturday, he messaged me again through Facebook, saying that he went to Chow Kit earlier on the day, and he has sent his film for development. I was shocked when I found out he was at Chow Kit, because on that very same Saturday morning I was also shooting there with my friends !!

Shaun (now no longer a stranger) from Brisbane, Australia is a very dedicated Olympus shooter, he has been shooting with Olympus, starting from the OM4-Ti days, and when Olympus went digital, he has had almost tried and owned all the incarnations of 4/3 system DSLR bodies, going all the way back to the first generation E-300. It was indeed very refreshing to see another person so crazy into Olympus stuff. He also had recently acquired the OMD, which unfortunately had to be sent away to Olympus Service Center for servicing (something is wrong with the sensor, producing only horizontal lines), but the good news was, Olympus Malaysia was very kind to offer him help, though the OMD was purchased in Australia. Another great fact that I found out about Shaun was that his favourite gear setup was the Olympus DSLR E-5 and the beautiful Zuiko Digital 50mm F2 macro, which happens to be my staple weapon of choice these days on the streets. He strongly commented that he has spent about ONE full year shooting with just the E-5 and the 50mm, and he had produced many amazing photographs with the setup during his travel, as well as his underwater adventures. 

Please check out Shauns beautiful blog here: http://www.footlessfish.com

Knowing that Shaun loves street shooting and he is an Olympus fan much like myself, we met up at Pavilion last night, together with some of my usual shooting friends, Luke and Kelvin, and of course, we had a brief shutter therapy session at Bukit Bintang streets. 

All images were taken with Olympus DSLR E-5 and Zuiko Digital 50mm Macro F2

Meet Shaun (blog here)

Shauns sexy OM4-Tii

Bak Kwa, sinfully delicious, some of the food samples at Jalan Alor. 

Hiding behind a fresh pile of Bak Kwa

Beauty and Cigarettes. 

Corn steaming

Lost in the city

Bikers on a break

The land where my blood was spilled

For the love of satay

Orange hair

Orange hair 2

Ice Cream

Live Demonstration

Kid Conversation

Durian, coconut and a nap

Lonesome dinner

Chestnut vendor

Coffee 

Shaun, Luke and Kelvin. 

Shaun molesting Lukes Nikon

I also found out that Shaun has been to Malaysia very often during his work trips, and he has spent a great deal exploring the local places and food. That saved me a lot of trouble introducing him around, and we went right on to shooting. He carried around with his two camera bodies, the PEN E-PL2 and the film OM4-Ti (since his OMD was in service center). It was my first time seeing an Olympus OM4-Ti, and my goodness, it looked so much like the OMD E-M5, which based its design largely on the OM4-Ti. 

Shaun shall be away but he will return again next week, and I look forward to bringing him into some of my usual street hunting grounds. Thanks Shaun for being there with us, and we shall attack the streets again soon. 

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