ROBIN WONG

I have not owned a red camera before. When I saw this red Olympus PEN E-PL6 on sale in the used marketplace at such a low price, I just could not resist. After all, red is an important color for the Chinese New Year celebration, it symbolizes great fortune and vitality. Therefore, I got the red Olympus E-PL6 just for this occasion, and I was really excited using it for some street photography. Of course I have gone out shooting with the E-PL6, I paired my favorite Olympus 25mm F1.8 lens on it and got some cool shots. Initially I wanted to do bright colors only, since it is Chinese New Year, but there are only so many colored subjects I can find so it was a mixture of reds and other more ordinary street subjects that I normally shoot. Red camera for more prosperity! Huat ah! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Chinese New Year and Gong XI Fa Cai to those who celebrate! Chinese New Year is perhaps the largest festival celebration for the Chinese community, and it is a massive thing here in Malaysia too. To usher in the Year of the Horse, I am rocking a red Cheongsam and a red camera too! You don't see me wear red any ordinary day, as a photographer I prefer darker or more neutral toned clothing, but red is an important color for Chinese New Year. Red symbolizes vitality and prosperity, so wearing red and using any red items during the festival celebration will bring greater fortune! Oh yes, that little red camera is the Olympus PEN E-PL6, I have done some shutter therapy with the camera too. More about that in the next post. 

This is a continuation from the previous blog entry, I am dumping more images from the same series here in this post. I have come to love shooting theatre or stage photography. This was a mini concert, with singers and dancers on stage, accompanied by 6-piece band, the magic happened when all the chaotic mess came together to form such a wonderful sound and visual for the audience to immerse in. It was no easy feat shooting this event - everything was constantly moving, and I had no idea what was doing to happen where and when, if I was standing at the wrong spot, I would miss something that was happening away from me, and I cannot possibly cover everything. So, I did my best, and boy oh boy it was such a magical show to shoot! 

When I was tasked to shoot the dress rehearsal of Yesterday Once More: Boggie Nights for Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center (KLPAC), I thought it would be a great opportunity to revisit an old friend - the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Original. After all, the camera has been my workhorse for so many years before I upgraded to my current E-M1 Mark II, and if E-M1 original can deliver great results all those years ago, it can still perform really well today. I was not wrong, and the show was super amazing! Shout out to my friend Bihzhu who was one of the headliners of the show. I also made a video to talk about why the E-M1 is still so awesome today (click here), and if you can't shoot good images with your old or current gear, maybe it is not time yet for you to upgrade! 

The last time I shot Thaipusam was just before the Covid-19 pandemic, it was in early 2019, I was with my friend Amir, and it was quite a fun session. I guess the reason I have not been back to shoot another one was due to the fact that we were actively avoiding crowded spaces even after the pandemic. But hey it has been so long now, I guess it should be as safe as it can be, so I decided to make a return to Batu Caves, the epicenter of Thaipusam celebration here in Malaysia. For those of you who are unaware, Thaipusam is a massive Hindu celebration of the victory of their God Murugan over the demon Surapadman, and as I have said massive, it was really massive. It drew more than 2 million people to Batu Caves for the duration of the festival, and I went with just my Olympus 12-50mm kit lens mounted on the camera that was launched together with it, the Olympus E-M5 original. Admittedly I was not as ambitious as before, trying to capture the dramatic and winning shots. This time around, I wanted to just immerse myself and observe more than anything, and of course, capture some quieter, intimate moments. In the midst of the mess, chaos and deafening drum beats and speakers blasts, you can still find some peaceful moments, if you look hard enough. I made POV video here, if you are interested (click). 

Many people have commented in my Panasonic GM1 videos suggesting me to take a look at Panasonic GF series as a feasible alternative to Panasonic GM1. Considering it is almost impossible to find a used unit of GM1/GM5 in the market, even if you can the price would be ridiculously over bloated, it isn't worth getting one. The rational is simple, Panasonic GF7 (or GF8/9/10) is so small and light, about the same size as the compact form factor of GM1, and it basically houses the same internals as well, having same image sensor, processor and features. You get the same image output and overall camera performance for both GF7 and GM1. However, is it really that simple? Does the GF7 has the GM1 magic that made everyone fall in love with it instantly? I discuss this and more in my latest video here (click). I am sharing my latest images shot with the GF7 and Olympus 25mm F1.8 lens here. 

I joined last year's Scott Kelby International Photowalk here in Kuala Lumpur, led by my friend Raja Indra Putra and I brought along only one camera that got a lot of attention - the Rolleiflex inspired mini TLR design Chuzhao. It is a cheap, plastic, toy camera that I bought for about USD25 and for such a low-price tag, I thought the camera was super cute and fun to shoot with. Some famous YouTubers have labelled this Chuzhao as a scam (or scamera, as in scam camera), but I think there were some mismatched expectations. You surely don't expect a USD25 toy camera to outperform your USD2000 smartphone camera, do you? Even if you compare with any compact point and shoot cameras from yesteryears, I doubt you can find anything selling at merely $25, a decent one will cost $100 upward! I think if you treat it as it is, a toy camera, and stop measurebating, the Chuzhao can be quite a pleasure to work with. I shared my thoughts on my latest video here (click).