A Day Out at Sekinchan

When the week was long and it weighed you down, and the weekend came, the only thought that came to mind was run away as far as we could from the city. My friends and I did just that over the past weekend and we decided to do a day trip to Sekinchan (about 2 hours drive away from Kuala Lumpur). It was not exactly a spontaneous plan either, originally this outing was intended to be a model portrait shooting, but somehow plans got shifted last minute and we decided to just head out and have some fun, being silly exposing ourselves under the blistering Malaysian sun, stuffed ourselves silly with cheap and good seafood and just randomly clicked the shutter away, Somehow it was not really a photography trip, and I did not want to focus on shooting so much, but I did come home with a few shots that I was rather happy with. 

I brought along a Silver Olympus OM-D E-M1, and M,Zuiko lenses 45mm F1.8, 25mm F1.8 and the kit lens M.Zuiko 12-50mm F3.5-6.3. I also brought along the E-PL5, as a second body, with the fisheye bodycap lens attached to it at most times. 

This was easily my favourite photo of the day. We actually drove past this scene and I requested the gang to turn back so I can capture this. I know there really is nothing that spectacular about this shot, but everything seemed just rightly in place. There were the strong major colors, bright yellow and red against bold green and soft blue background, there was a reflection by the water and the nunbers on the container added some interest to the overall rather simple and straight forward photograph. The lighting for this scene was just nice and I could not have asked for better. Nothing fancy, but it caught my attention!

Sometimes, photography is about luck. When we arrived at this temple there was a lion dance practise session, and I did not really know the routine of the lion dance. I decided not to shoot the lion dance in the first place, because I could not find any suitable background as it was taking place inside the temple. So I walked out and shot a wide angle shot of the temple, not expecting anything more than a usual temple wide angle shot. Then, as I had the camera settings ready and the camera low on the ground, the lion dance troop came walking out of the temple, toward my direction, passing by the front of my lens! I would not have predicted this, but as I mentioned, luck, being at the right time and the right place. 

I was not happy with any of my paddy field shots. Sekinchan is known for their paddy field and I failed to capture just that. I did shoot many frames but they all looked mundane and too ordinary. Hence I decided not to show them, and just this, a shot taken from high ground. Being out there in the paddy field did have some soothing and calming effect on the soul. I felt quite refreshed and relaxed, even just standing there looking into the endless paddy plantation. 

A simple, close up shot. 

I was hoping a dragonfly or something would just pop into the frame. And I gave up waiting because the sun was getting cruel on us. 

Dusting the crops. 

I rarely took photographs of dogs. However, this one dog stared at me for a long while so in return to decided to frame him. Of course the day would not be complete without some black and white photographs. 

There is a fishing village nearby Sekinchan which we walked around and explored after lunch. 

It was low tide so there was not much activities going on (boats can't go out or come in due to low water level). 

Chilling on boat

You find hammocks everywhere. 

Jackie's spanking new White Olympus PEN E-PL7 with 9mm F8 fisheye bodycap lens. we were setting it up for selfie of course. 

The selfie we took from the previous setup of Jackie's E-PL7. Photo credit: Jackie Loi

Bloggers/Photographers present in this group:

Jackie Loi, Carmen Hong, Tian Chad

MORE Selfies. MORE. Well, the sun was so bright we could not open our eyes. Literally. 

Our AWESOME Seafood Dinner. When it comes to food, trust Jason Lioh. 

And, the gear of the day. Spot the difference!

Note: This image was taken with Oneplus One. 

Interesting note: My favourite photos from this trip (first two landscape photographs) were taken with the mere, humble kit lens, M,.Zuiko 12-50mm F3.5-6.3, which has always been looked down and neglected by many Micro Four Thirds users. I still think it is a wonderful lens and it can produce beautiful photographs. 

It was a super exhausting trip, but a super fun one too. I enjoyed myself thoroughly spending time with friends. Special thanks to Jackie for being the driver of the day, which was no easy feat! If you are visiting Malaysia and you have plenty of time, do consider Sekinchan in one of your stops. Quite an interesting place I must say and the people there are super friendly.