ROBIN WONG

I found this amazing place near the hotel that I was staying at, LonLon Local Diner, or sometimes it is called The Local Canteen depending on where you found it on the web. They serve fusion Thai and Western food, but many of their menu items are based on Thai cuisines. I went in wanting to have some typical Thai dishes, namely Tom Yum soup, fried rice and grilled pork, then maybe a Mango Sticky Rice for dessert. That place did not disappoint, they had everything I have hoped for and more, and boy oh boy, the food was amazing! Though on the spicier and definitely pricier side of things, the food was so worth it. 

The Monochrome Profile was introduced in Olympus PEN-F, and subsequently made available in the E-P7 and OM System OM-3 cameras. It allows control over various color filters options that can dramatically improve black and white images. This exact same Monochrome Profile can be applied to almost any Olympus and OM System cameras (has to be newer than the PEN-F) by shooting in RAW and applying the Monochrome Profile using OM System Workspace software. If you have not tried this, do give it a go, it is not only so powerful, but fun to play with too! I made a video to demonstrate how this works (click here), and also did some POV shooting, of course, this time all in black and white!

Recently I have been shooting more and more with the Olympus E-620, which I bought just to relive the nostalgia of my early day photography adventures with my first DSLR Olympus E-520. The handling the camera, the turn of the dials, the button presses, the click of the shutter button, the sound of the mirror-slapping and shutter clacking, all brought back sweet memories of me fumbling around my way learning the basics of photography so many years ago. Yet the Olympus E-620 is still a capable shooting machine, while being outdate now in terms of tech and imaging capabilities, it still can deliver great results. There is just something satisfying looking through an optical viewfinder (though I would rather have the safety and assurance of electronic viewfinder for serious work these days), and loud shutter sounds reaffirming that the shots have been taken. These portraits were taken on the same day as the previous blog entry, all on Olympus 50mm F2 Macro lens. These older cameras and lenses sure have some charm to them!

I was truly fortunate to have Jojo as my friend and guide in Bangkok, Thailand. Not only he brought me around the streets of Bangkok and showed me his favourite street hunting grounds, he also brought me to some of the best locations for food! Oh how we feasted. In the few days I had in Bangkok I must have gained so much weight, but all was good. I live to eat, food is one way to enjoy life, I don't care if you disagree with me. Glorious food is meant to be consumed and enjoyed! Bangkok indeed is food paradise, every corner you turn to, there is some amazing street food! 

I recently brought the old Olympus E-620 out to do some portraits shooting. Many of you who have followed me from the beginning would know that I started exploring photography more seriously with my first DSLR, the Olympus E-520. Obviously the E-520 has died many years ago after enduring my abuse, well, that only shows I really did use the camera extensively. A few years ago I found the E-620 and I just could not resist the low price in the used marketplace, so I bought it just to relive the nostalgia of my early days of photography journey. The E-620 is still going strong, I paired it with the Olympus 50mm F2 Macro and shot some portraits of my beautiful friend Ivani (IG @ivani_leang). I also made a video to talk about why I prefer to shoot with an older camera like the dinosaur DSLR Olympus E-620 over any modern smartphones, you can check out the video here (click). 

I recently travelled to Bangkok, Thailand for a short holiday. It was a much needed break after the Kuala Lumpur Photography Workshop which I conducted with Peter Forsgard and Matti Sulanto about 2-3 weeks ago. I only have 3 things in mind for this trip to Bangkok - rest, a bit of street shooting and EAT. Yes, food was at the top of my priority. I went with my travel partner, Spencer and we attacked whatever food that came across our paths. We started with something easy and nearby our hotel, BIB which stood for Break in Bangkok, a Thai Contemporary Cafe restaurant. The food there is a fusion of traditional Thai dishes mixed with modern, western influences, and the food there was so good, we had to return for more! 

I always say that you don't have to break the bank to enjoy photography, and that applies to insect macro photography too. Assuming you already have a basic setup, even an entry level camera with a kit lens, any brand will do, you just need to spend an additional USD100 to start enjoying macro shooting. The trick is to get extension tubes and a cheap flash. The extension tubes allows any lens, even the kit lens to go extremely close to the subject creating massive magnification, almost macro like. The flash helps light the subject, there are many cheap, powerful flash available now, though for cheaper options you may need to control the power manually, which honestly is not a bad thing - you get to pick up a new skill along the way. If you don't want to spend more for a dedicated ready made flash diffuser, go make yourself one, there are many DIY options available, a simple Google search will give you some ideas and directions. I made my first DIY diffuser long time ago from a shoebox! Stop making excuses, and start shooting! I made a video to talk about this topic here (click).