ROBIN WONG

I find it amusing that people think those photo touts (as I have mentioned in my previous blog entry) are anything new. They have been around for so long, and the authorities have been battling them, you can easily find news coverage on this topic by Googling "photo touts Malaysia", you can find hundreds of matches dating years back. It is just strange that suddenly this made headlines in news portals outside of Malaysia, suddenly claiming that these are "street photographers" that the government has deemed illegal and tried to crack down in recent times. No, these photo touts are nasty, they deserved the harshest punishment possible and I am glad the authorities are stepping up their enforcement. However, myself and many street photographers out there, we still love to do what we do, and this news causing so much confusion had nothing to do with street photography!

In recent news, it is reported that the authorities are clamping down hard on street photographers in Malaysia. At a glance, it seems like street photography is now banned in the country. However, that is not true, what the news reports were referring to were not street photographers, but photo touts. It is quite sad to watch how poor journalism and classic misreporting has caused so much confusion and misinformed the public about what street photographers actually do. No, it is still perfectly legal and safe to practice street photography in Malaysia. I have also made a video to talk about this topic, you can see it here (click). 

When Peter Forsgard asked me where would be a good spot to both film a video together and do some street photography, I immediately suggested Masjid Jamek area (downtown Kuala Lumpur). In early mornings, there are quiet spots along the back streets so we can film our conversation without worrying about excessive background city noise. Also, the whole area is very vibrant, people there are friendly, just the right place to do some shutter therapy. Peter interviewed me about shutter therapy while filming me in action, doing my thing on the street. You can watch behind the scenes video of me in action on Peter's YouTube video here (click). I am sharing the images I have captured that day here, all shot on Olympus OM-D E-M5 and M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8 lens. 

Since I have recently acquired the old Olympus 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 lens at a bargain, I have been itching to test the optical performance of the lens. I did some tennis shooting previously, but that was not the right place to test the lens image output. To push the lens to the limits, I brought it to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park and did some close up portraits of the birds there. I think the birds have missed me, so a visit was necessary. The lens performed admirably, resolving plenty of fine details, excellent contrast and the sharpness was already so good even shooting at wide open. For a fraction of the cost of what the new OM System 50-200mm PRO is asking for, there really is nothing much to complain about the old Olympus 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 lens. It may not outperform the new lens in any way (lacking image stabilization built in, internal zoom or constant aperture, for example) but it sure can deliver beautiful results! I did a POV video shooting at the KL Bird Park, you can find the video here (click). 

Peter Forsgard was here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Kuala Lumpur Photography Workshop that I did together with him and Matti, so I thought it would be really great to do some street photography together. This time, instead of me interviewing Peter like what I did in my last blog article, I was actually being interviewed instead by Peter. The topic was about Shutter Therapy - how I came up with the phrase and what it meant for me. I guess by now, if you have been following this blog for some time, you would know what shutter therapy is, and I foresee myself doing it for a long period of time! It was really fun hanging out with Peter, he even said that Kuala Lumpur has become his top favorite city for street photography! I hope he comes back to KL soon, and do check out the video that Peter did, about me and Shutter Therapy, and he also shot plenty of footage capturing me shooting in action behind the scenes! Check out Peter's video here (click). All images in this blog are screenshots from Peter's video, used with permission. 

I managed to catch Peter Forsgard while he was here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and did a video interview with him about his recently published street photography book titled "From Snapshots to Stories". We had a coffee sit down session in a local cafe, and the interview went on for about an hour. Peter shared about the inspiration behind the making of the book, the writing process and who the book was written for. He also shared some interesting challenges he faced while publishing the book. The book consists of a wide array of street photography topics - various shooting techniques, documentary vs artistic approaches, the thought process behind images, diving deeper into understanding the key visual elements of photography, ethics of street shooting and many more!  I have personally read the book, and I can highly recommend it to anyone seeking to improve their street photography game. Watch the video interview here (click). You can buy Peter's book here and here. 

Olympus OM-D E-M5 was released in the year 2012 and I think it was one of the most historically significant cameras for Olympus in the modern day digital era. Not only it revolutionized mirrorless cameras, the E-M5 Original has a magical charm that is difficult to replicate in other cameras. Even after all this time, using the E-M5 for my shutter therapy session recently in Kuala Lumpur, it is still such a wonderful camera to shoot with - it has decent image output, fast AF, good handling and ergonomics, 5-Axis Image Stabilization and all that made into a small, compact form body that looks super stylish. I hope OM Digital Solutions can recapture this charm in their next releases. I also made a POV video for my street shooting session, you can view it here (click).