ROBIN WONG

I know I know, I said my previous Japan trip blog entry would be the last one for 2013, but during my trip home to Kuching, I stumbled upon Calvin Kho's Project Burger, and I just have to blog about this! I have known Calvin (the founder of Project Burger) for many years now, and we do have a lot of common friends. He came from Graphics Design background, having explored to education, being a school teacher for several years.

Side Note: This blog has surpassed 7 Million page views! I have just returned from my Japan short visit (for business trip actually), which I managed to squeeze out one and a half day for personal walkabout and shutter therapy. Yeap, you heard that right, I was doing Shutter Therapy on the streets of Japan, a perfect conclusion for my 2013. In case you do not know, this was also my first ever visit to the land of rising sun. 

Side Note: I will be travelling to Japan for work, and will be gone for about a week. I am not sure what kind of Internet connection I will be having there, hence if I have been more silent than usual, do not panic, it simply means I will be terribly busy with work, or have no access to Internet (or more piratical reason, too busy out there shooting, if I do find some time). Well, this will be my

A heavy breakfast to start a weekend full of adventures. Olympus OM-D E-M5 and M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8 lens. Shot at F8

A prominent Malaysian wedding photographer, Johan Sopiee organized a photowalk at KLCC area earlier this evening, and I was privileged to join the gang for a short shooting session. There was a heavy downpour in late afternoon and the sky did threaten to rain, but that did not stop many of us to turn up and have our shutter clicking happen. The gang met up at Dome, KLCC, had drinks and proceeded to shooting around the KLCC area. I did

In the midst of crazy busy week that has been, I managed to squeezed some time out to attend a charity event yesterday, which was the Twestival KL 2013. It was basically a Twitter's Festival, some sort of a gathering of local tweeters in support for charity purposes. Plenty of fund raising activities were happening, including item auctions and merchandise sales with all profits going to Persatuan Kanak-Kanak Istimewa Hulu Langat. You must be wondering what the heck was I

I am often asked "what do you always look for when you shoot on the street, and what should we watch out for?". Honestly, there is no straight and easy answer to that. My consistent answer has always been go and shoot what caught your attention, what spoke to you, and what attracted you. If you found something interesting enough to grab your attention, then that should be an interesting subject to photograph.  The mistake that most people do when

Olympus Malaysia had a walkabout session at Pudu, Kuala Lumpur this morning, and guess what, I was the one leading the session!  The purpose of this Walkabout was to encourage our Olympus OM-D, PEN and E-System (Four Thirds DSLR) users to go out and shoot more with Olympus gear. After all, the purpose of having a camera is to shoot photographs and we do want our users to use our cameras and lenses more. At the same time, it was

I actually intended to do a full blog review on that amazing Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 Pro lens. I got out shooting most of the weekend, but at the same time I also had visitors from Germany who travelled to Kuala Lumpur to spend a day trip here, and I was more than happy to show them around my usual street hunting grounds. Well, I was not really a good multi-tasker anyway, and I really enjoyed myself with Robin and

Hello beautiful people! There will be a street shooting session this Sunday (1 December 2013) at Pudu (my favourite steet hunting ground) and I will be leading the walkabout. If you are in Kuala Lumpur and you are free, why not join us and have fun shooting and sharing knowledge and experience on using Olympus gear. Do register (PM to Olympus Malaysia FB Page) and this event is only for Olympus users. I sure hope to see some of you

A wedding assignment earlier this year in Perth, Australia. Great friends Charmaine and Christopher got married, and I was privileged to shoot their wedding. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to, and I have them both to thank for.  Can't wait to return to Perth again for another wedding assignment next year! Original images were in 4:3 aspect ratio, I recropped the images just for the fun of it, into a cinematic 16:9 ratio. I

Kindly support the Prints For Philippines project, a unique collaboration of photographers selling highly collectable photographic prints to raise funds for the DEC Philippines Typhoon Appeal - 100% of sales go directly to the Disasters Emergency Committee. I feel very privileged to have blog audience reaching far outside of Malaysia, and whenever I have foreign visitors dropping by Kuala Lumpur and requested to meet up, I get extra excited. This is especially true when I get to connect with photographers from different

Kindly support the Prints For Philippines project, a unique collaboration of photographers selling highly collectable photographic prints to raise funds for the DEC Philippines Typhoon Appeal - 100% of sales go directly to the Disasters Emergency Committee. When people think about me, or see me in person, they often associate me with a few things, notable one being a camera reviewer. Eric Kim, during his short visit to Malaysia did ask me before if my blog is gear review oriented,

We take a short break from usual street shooting, for the Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show 2013 which was happening at PWTC. Some change is good, and a little difference can make things more interesting, right? So there I was, just clicking away merrily. 

Over the past weekend, Olympus Malaysia has made an appearance in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Kuching, Sarawak, bringing over our hero Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the accompanying micro 4/3 lenses. During the brief user events in both places, I have met many wonderful people, and I am truly thankful to have so many people coming up to me and saying hi, and telling me that they come to my blog here often. I just want to say that without you

I have taken six flights over the past weekend, and boy, was it exhausting! On Friday I had a whole day business trip to Singapore, which was a day visit only. The following Saturday, I took the early flight to Kota Kinabalu (KK), Sabah, which was the northern territory of Borneo island. We had the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Touch and Try session at KK on Saturday, and the following morning, Sunday, we brought the Touch and Try session to my

There are so many articles published online as well as in photography magazines and books on tips and tricks to quickly improve photography. There are many variety of techniques or special methods to help the photographer to get better shots, or achieve photographs nearer to the perceived standard of "perfection". Many would pay thousands and thousands of dollars to attend workshops or photography training by the photography gurus. Some go extra lengths to achieve that status and to be claimed

Happy Deepavali to all of my readers who celebrate the Festival of Light! Last year, in conjunction with the Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm F1.8 lens review, I went to Shree Lakshmi Narayan Mandir Temple at Jalan Ipoh for the Deepavali Eve, where the Hindu devotees would light up the whole temple with candles and oil lamps. I did have difficulties shooting that event, mainly with restrictions of the single focal length which happened to be my least favourite focal length to

One of the biggest mistakes that I see in many of my photographer friends, is being content with their photography level, and starting to brag about their own photographs and showing off how good they have become, claiming how much they have come and how far better they are than other photographers (their friends). Perhaps they do not speak that directly, but acknowledging that you are better than others and letting the "ego" take the better of you will not

You know, I very seldom thought of how I looked like when I was shooting, and certainly when I have been shooting with many people who tagged along with me on the streets lately, more and more photos were taken of me while I was shooting away, and when those photos came back.... I almost always went "whaaaaaattt....... no waaayy I looked like that!!!". Honestly, I never knew how I blended with the street while I was shooting, that was

If you have not noticed yet, DPReview.com has released their complete review for the Olympus OM-D E-M1, and awarded GOLD with 84% high rating (not something very common for Olympus products). DPReview has also stated in their conclusion page that in comparison to Nikon D7100 and Canon 70D, both being E-M1's direct competitors, there really is no noticeable difference when it comes to side by side image quality comparison and this can be negligible. The only significant difference against E-M1

I am so glad to finally find some time for proper shutter therapy, and together with Shaun visiting from Australia, we attacked Chow Kit, my favourite hunting ground. I have not been to Chow Kit since... I don't even remember when. Must have been more than half a year since I last went there. Chow Kit, as it has always been, remains my number one place to go to for more serious street photography outings. I always come home with

Shaun Nykvist is back in KL again, and I met him up earlier this evening for a very short shutter therapy session and dinner. It was great catching up with Shaun, and joining us was Nick Wade, another usual street shooter around KL area. It was a rainy evening, but that did not stop us from walking about and catching some shots.  I brought along the Olympus OM-D E-M1 hence Shaun was able to have his hands on the E-M1 together

I think Kirk Tuck will be laughing at me and say "I told you so, since two years ago" if he ever finds out about this post. Kirk has been a very strong supporter of Electronic Viewfinders (EVF) and he has written lengthily for many times, the benefits EVF brings for practical photography.  On last Saturday night, I was on the way out to purchase a lens filter for my now still naked lens, but on my way to my

Olympus OM-D E-M5 and M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8.

Sony once again, has turned the whole photography world upside down with their latest announcement of Full Frame camera in surprisingly small and compact NEX sized body, namely the Sony A7 and Sony A7R. I have had a chance to have a brief hands-on session with pre-production models of both the Sony A7 and A7R, thanks to Sony Malaysia allowing exclusive preview to their loyal Sony supporters earlier this afternoon, immediately after the photo sharing session by Dr Chen who

I have been shooting with a lot of people and rarely have I come across a group with all Olympus users, until very recently, in my previous shutter therapy session last Tuesday, and also this very morning. Basically I pulled together a group of people who have requested to shoot with me on my street hunting session, a few whom I have met during the KLPF 2013 last weekend. As usual I would keep the group small so it is

After the street outing yesterday with a bunch of Olympus Micro 4/3 shooters, we sat down at Yut Kee, a Hainanese restaurant that has been operating since 1920's. We planned on shooting some photographs of the food there, which I did, but none of my food shots turned out alright. Since the place was so crowded we had to share our table with 2 other patrons, which was something very common in this restaurant (we had to wait 20 minutes

Woke up to a beautiful morning, a public holiday in Malaysia, and that means catching up on my much needed, and very deprived shutter therapy sessions. Joining me this morning was a group of Olympus Micro Four Thirds shooters, and it has actually been quite a while since I joined an Olympus only group for any shoot. Of course, this was also officially the first session I have done a shutter therapy (for non-review purpose) with my newly acquired Olympus

I posted a while ago on my Facebook Page (yes I do have a FB Page, if you have not "liked" it, please do do) that I have bought some new gear (camera, lens and bag). Many have responded with rather interesting guesses, such as Fuji! Goodness, never have I in my blog stated my intention or interest in any Fuji cameras. And you should all know by now how loyal I am to Olympus, now that I am fully