KL Street Photographers: First Gathering 2013

KL Street Photographers which make up of various genre of photographers who come together and have passion to capture in the street either in characters, action, daily life, joy and sadness or just buildings and motor vehicles.

Their reaction and reflects are lightning fast as of the gunfighters of the old wild west. Their precision and timing are as the archers of Robin Hood's days. And yet their minds are faster than the best computer ever build in composing and framing their subject matters. Their eyes are always alert as the bird of prey. Their survival instinct are as sharp as the fighter in the ring. The best of all, they shoot with a smiling faces and friendly gestures. Some may despise them but some gave them thumb up. They are real passionate people who really fall in love in their photography passion.

Last Saturday, September 14th will be remembered by them as special as on that day they have their First Gathering at Coliseum Cafe & Hotel, Jalan TAR, Kuala Lumpur.

All images taken with Olympus OMD-EM5 & lens  12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 and Nikon D7000 & lens 50mm f/1.8G

Robin Wong with Rees

Robin Wong with Luke Ding, Nick Wade and Kelvin Ng

 

Luke Ding: Let's move inside

Luke Ding is the man of the moment cum Organiser for this event

 Entering the Coliseum Cafe

Interior of Coliseum Cafe & Hotel

Nick Yoon shares his awesome works in a form of photobook.

Nick Wade has a tough choice: E-M1 and E-M5

Nick with OMD-E-M1 + 45mm f/1.8

The Camera Man: Dom

All eyes on the two OMDs: E-M1 & E-M5

Nick with Dominic's tools

ChokPing gets a feel of OMD-E-M1

Mun Keat on e-communication

Best of Friend: Yeow & Scott

Luke Ding: Bill, please.

Photographer in Action

Robin Wong leaves the cafe

Time to leave

Thank you all for the special occasion. Thank you, Luke Ding for inviting me to be part of the group.
Thank you, Robin Wong for the walk.

Should my itchy fingers offended you, dear friend, forgive me. I just could not sit still when my camera is in my hands. Beside I just love event shooting.
Hope to see you all again in the future.

Safouene joined our Street Walk

This is our Shutter Therapy Session #4. Normally Ivan and I roamed the street of Kuala Lumpur but this time, an internship candidate from France named Safouene Kallel joined our team. Actually I met Safouene in the KL Streetphotographers' group on Facebook. I am glad that he want to join us as most of the time I have been roaming the street of Kuala Lumpur alone (before Ivan joined me) looking for interesting and worth capturing images. Sound crazy but for me that's PASSION.

As usual we will cover Petaling Street, Jalan Masjid India, Jalan Tun Abdul Rahman, Jalan Chow Kit and Dataran Merdeka.

How long that walk will take?
Normally we start at around 9.45AM to 3.00PM which include rest when we feel tired or too hot.

I choose Saturday because my wife can go to work while I can do my street photography. Later I can have shower at the Church around 4.10PM and attend evening mass at 6.00PM. That's is my whole plan for the day.

All images taken with Olympus OMD-EM5 and kit lens 12-50mm

Safouene waiting for me at the Pasar Seni LRT Station

As Safouene has arrived, lets start the journey...

Nikon walks with Olympus - OMD-EM5

In my previous post Nikon walks with Olympus - D7000, all images were taken with Nikon D7000 and its 50mm f/1.8G lens. We continue the journey with the images taken with Olympus OMD-EM5 and its weather sealed kit lens 12-50mm f/3.5-5.6 which also has macro capability.

Based on experience during my previous shutter therapy session, I set my OMD-EM5 as follows:

Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority (previous outing Aperture Priority), Mettering Mode: Matrix, Shutter Speed: 1/200, White Balance: Auto, ISO: Auto, AF-Continuous and let the camera do the rest.

Some Street Photography sifu advise for shutter speed at 1/500 but I think with this lens 1/200 is good enough for me.

Why Shutter Priority(SP) and not Aperture Priority(AP)? Previous outing show that when AP was used, shutter speed can go down below my hand-shake threshold in some area of the street which resulted in a blurr image.

 

Question: Is this shutter speed at 1/200s good enough?

Let's walk with me and see..

Nikon walks with Olympus - D7000

In my previous Shutter Therapy session #2 with a partner Ivan Tan, I forced myseld to use Olympus OMD-EM5 as my only tools for the session.
Now on my Shutter Therapy Session #3 with a partner, I am more comfortable with both system hence I gave Nikon and Olympus to walk together again on the street.
In the first part of the journey, I will post images taken with Nikon D7000 with lens AF-S 50mm f/1.8G.

Nikon gives me the intimacy and full contact with the subject matter. It also gives me the sense of being there with subject matter and connected to their soul. I love this tools (D7000+50mm) as I really immerse myself in the life of the people in the street.

Lets walk and experience of what I meant.

Shutter Therapy with OMD-EM5

My First Shutter Therapy Session in the street of Kuala Lumpur with OMD-EM5 was not working very well as I am also bringing along my Nikon D7000 with lens  AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G.

I hate to say this but I am lacked of discipline as halfway through the session, I switched back to Nikon D7000 of which I am more familiar.

But this time around, I forced myself to use Olympus OMD-EM5 as I leave my Nikon D7000 at home. I have no choice but using Olympus OMD-EM5.

My partner during the Shutter Therapy Session is a talented fellow street shooter Ivan Tan.

All images taken with Olympus OMD-EM5 and kit lens.

Masjid Jamek

It's a beautiful day with bright sun and beautiful clouds to start with.

Dinner at YAMA & J Japanese Restaurant-Jaya One

In the morning, I was informed by my wife that we are going for dinner at a newly opened Japanese Restaurant at Jaya One. I wonder which one...

It's Yama & J Japanese Restaurant which located at Lot M-6-1, Palm Square, 72A Jaya One, Jalan 13/6 Petaling Jaya.

Images taken with Nikon D7000 with lens 50mm f/1.8G and OMD-EM5 with kit lens.



The Entrance

The race was my test

The race was my test!!!  I passed the test with flying colors.
You may wonder what type of test I am talking about.

All images taken with Olympus OMD-ME5 and kit lens 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3.



The Run

In May 1999, I broke my achilles tendon and I stop running my yearly PJ Half Marathon. A few years, I did joined the Malay Mail Walk to test my healing tendon without any training. My tendon healed beside I have a Helper. I thanked Him for walking with me.

Surabaya: Jalan Ampel

We continued our journey to our next stop which was Jalan Ampel, the historical earliest Arab Muslim settlement in Surabaya. According to our tour guide, Ms Kimi the dwellers of these street are still practicing their old trades as can be seen in the streets of Jalan Ampel.

All images taken with Nikon D7000 with lens Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G and Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC.

Mr Chew is roaring to go and capture some good images

 

Surabaya: House of Sampoerna

As we drive on, our tour guide informed us that our first stop for the day will be House of Sampoerna which is now a muzium and used to be a cigarette factory belong to the family of Putera Sampoerna. We were told that we will see the human robot where they can rolled and packed seven pack of cigarette per minute. We were very excited but unluckily we were not allowed to captured their images. For this experience, you have to see them yourself. They are really like robot, efficient and yet effective. They are REAL fast with their fingers and hands.

All images taken with Nikon D7000 and lens Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G and tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC.

Surabaya: The Arrival

Greeting friends,
I would like to share with you our 4 days 3 nights trip to Surabaya recently and it was on April 20th to April 23rd to be exact. Though it was tiring but enjoyable and fulfulling for us the first timers to Surabaya beside we have a very talented, energetic and resourceful tour guide whom we known as Ms Kimi. The Ridy Indonesia Tours which we engaged for the trip is also very good in their logistic management, meal time and their selection of the tour guide is very commendable.

All images taken with Nikon D7000 and lens Nikon 50mm f/1.8G and Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC.



At KLIA LCCT before departure

SIC2013 Form 5: Confirmation

On Saturday. April 27th a group of 114 Form 5 student had gone through the Sacrament of Confirmation at St Ignatius Church(SIC), Kelana Jaya with was celebrated by the Kuala Lumpur Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam and assisted by SIC Parish Priest Father Lucas Ng.

Four photographers were alloacated for the event namely Ken Cham, Daniel Khong, Aaron and I. Daniel Khong and Aaron incharge of taking photos of those with the Archbishop and I am alone with Father Lucas Ng. While Ken Cham as our chief and Web-Editor keep an eye on us from some where.

Advantage of being alone is no double flash and you are in control of your shots. Disadvantage is you may missed the shot due to wrong camera setting or batery power run out. But I still like being alone and I treasure everyone of my shot. Most of the time I capture more than one shot at one scene and select the good one. I shoot in RAW format as a security of my image.

All images taken with Nikon D7000 and lens Tamron 17-500mm f/2.8 VC.

(Note: All of the photos had been uploaded to my John Ragai Flickr in ORIGINAL form so that ALL the confirmed can download their photos in their own time. )

Group Portrait with the Archbishop and the Parish Priest

Sacrament of Confirmation started with prayer by the Archbishop

Spiritual Retreat Schedule at Maranatha Retreat House

Dear Friends,

Maranatha Retreat House will be organising the following retreat for the rest of the year 2013.

This image was taken using Olympus UTough 8010 during my first Spiritual Retreat  at Maranatha Retreat House back in year 2010. During those days, my photography knowledge was zero and my friends used to say, "my photos suck! and they can take better one." Now my photos are still not to 'my standard of good photos' but I will shoot thousands more to get my vision materialize on the photos I have taken and touch the viewer attention as I want it to be.

First Shutter Therapy with a Flickr's friend

I always wonder how is it to do shutter therapy as Robin Wong called this exercise with a partner as I always walked the street to shoot as a Lone Ranger and I shoot at will. Actually I am very excited to walk the street and shoot with others as sometime I can lost in my own world when the camera is in my hand. I can be very focus and passionate in what I am doing until I lost the sense of the real world even the pain that I endured. That's the magic of camera which can transform me into someone else completely.

All images taken with Nikon D7000 with lens AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G
All images captured in RAW format and convert to JPEG format using in-camera preset setting.

Last Saturday, I walked the street with my talented Flickr's friend by the name of Foxsama aka Ivan Tan.  Actually we never meet before and I do not know how he looks like. In this suspense time, I started my shooting alone.
 

Street Transporter

(I captured this image using a direct attack method where I run from the other side of the road. Then squat in front of his on-coming route, compose, frame and shoot. Give a thumb up and walk away. Later I was informed by Ivan that he is a bit nasty some time.)

Hopefully I will capture him on my camera in the process.

Back to the Street

It's been awhile I have been missing from my normal street shooting but I did shoot at the morning wet market near my office.

Whenever I am going down to Kuala Lumpur for my shutter therapy as Robin Wong called this exercise of taking photos of characters in the street, I will always go to see my friend Hurdy and this this time he is around after a long absent.

All images taken with Nikon D7000 and lens AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G



Portrait of a friend.

 Type of portrait: Personal portrait.

 My route will be as normal namely Petaling Street, Pudu Bus Station, Leboh Ampang and Jalan Masjid India.
 

Early Walk

If you are passionate of what you are doing either photography or working to earn a living, you can always find a way to make it a reality. In my case is photography and I can shoot anywhere and any time as I carry my camera long all the time. The choice is yours.
Since I have limited weekend to do my shutter therapy as Robin Wong called it, now I tend to enjoy my early morning walk either at Section 17 Sentosa's Wet Market or at Jalan Universiti's Thursday Morning Market. Before the morning walk, normally we will be having our breakfast at the nearby coffee shop.
Section 17 Sentosa's wet market open everyday which mean I can shoot every morning. Wow! Why I never see this opportunity before.

Here are some of my shots at Section 17 Sentosa, Petaling Jaya.

All images taken with Nikon D7000 and lens AF-S 50mm f/1.8G

This is one of my best photograph which I captured at Section 17 Sentosa and appeared in Flickr's Explore which got 4K plus viewers in 24 hours time.

Accident at NKVE near Subang Exit

This morning at around 6.45AM on our way to the office, we were caught in a heavy traffic jammed at NKVE.

Far ahead as we approach Subang Exit, we saw the blue light blinking which indicated a car broke down or an accident occurred.


Plus worker reports the situation to the HQ.

A Man with a shoe

What would you think when you see a man with a shoe in his hand and a camera hanging around his neck? Is he ok?

I think that the questions of pass-by in Damansara uptown today when they saw a man with a shoe in his hand going to a bank. I am also feel weird carrying a my 'Camel' shoe around after I got it repaired.

I have to think fast as we have to go to two more bank namely AmBank and Hongkong Bank. I have to change the pass-by perception on me.

And this is my choice which change the pass-by perception to "Oh, he is a photographer!"

All images taken with Nikon D7000 and lens AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G.

Waiting outside the Bank

Chinese New Year 2013-Friend Gathering

As our usual annual Chinese New Year Gathering, yesterday we were having Chinese New Year 2013's friends gathering at a Restaurant in Sungei Way.

These are the unedited but resize images taken with Nikon D7000, lens Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC and Nikon Speedlight 910.

Camera setting: Manual exposure, f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO400 and some photos with -0.3EV, WB=Auto
Flash: TTL-FP, Bounce to ceiling, 0.0EV

Why unedited photos?
Unedited photos shows how sensitive you are with the environment based on your knowledge of the camera function and photography. Furthermore it save time.

Yusheng is a must for every Chinese New Year gathering Meal.
Loh Sang...

Dalat as I see it

Dalat is one of the town that we passed as we drive home from Sibu which is also my hometown. Dalat is the town that most of the villages used to visit when they need any food supplies or medical treatment.

Armed with my buddy Nikon D7000 matched with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC, I roamed the street and along it's beautiful Oya River.

This Dalat as I see it either during the day or night.

Let's start with something close to the Melanau as I am a Melanau by race.
The symbol of Dalat is Jerunei or Kelidieng as it is called in Melanau language. This symbol also shows that Dalat is a Melanau town where Melanaus are the majority beside Iban and the Chinese.

 It's raining when I captured this images and I hope my camera can cope with a bit of water drops. Yet I am hoping to get something weather sealed camera like Olympus OMD-EM5 one day.

Priestly Ordination at St John Cathedral

I am privilege to attend a Priestly Ordination at St John Cathedral, Bukit Nenas in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, January 24th, 2013. 

The theme for the Priestly Ordination was “All things to all men. 1 Cor 9:22”.

The four Deacons that were ordained on that special occasion were Deacon Augustine Lee, Deacon Gregory Chan, Deacon Chin Sin Wee and Deacon Peter Anthoney.