ROBIN WONG

MY STREET SHOOTING WORKFLOW 

Haze is back with a vengeance. It cleared off after a series of heavy rain last week, but my oh my, when it came back, the haze was twice as bad as it was before, or worse. Outdoor activities are ill-advised, which meant cutting down on my street shooting. I managed to have a super short session last Sunday, a quick walk at Chow Kit just before lunch. Thank goodness I am not doing any important review blog entries at the moment, the smokey blurry city skyline is not exactly the best test subjects for any cameras or lenses. That mystical de-haze filter on Lightroom? No, that won't help either. 

I shall just post up the few photographs I managed to shoot and, add some thought process and ideas behind them in the description that follows. 

For many kind souls who came and support us at Olympus in Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival (KLPF) 2015, you have my deepest gratitude. Thank you for dropping by and say hi, giving words of encouragement, I needed them to push through a gruesome 3 full day event, and seeing so many Olympus shooters coming together in one place was quite incredible! Canon and Nikon decided not to join the photography festival (which shows how much they support or care about the whole photography community here locally in Malaysia, versus their own sales and branding). Olympus, together with Fujifilm and Sony ruled KLPF this year: and you know what, MIRRORLESS is indeed the future now. 

Since I was practically stuck at KLPF for the entire weekend, I had zero shutter therapy. Thankfully, yesterday was a public holiday in Malaysia (Awal Muharram) and I snatched this much needed opportunity shooting on the streets. Originally I intended to spend the whole day shooting with the Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F4-5.6 R lens, and do a mini-review, as requested frequently by many readers here. Having too many things in my mind and the ever stacking workload as a consequence of being away from the office for too many days (leading up to KLPF, and the aftermath), I mistakenly forgot to bring home the 40-150mm R lens. I shall have to revisit this objective, perhaps in the weekend, and I sincerely hope the rain keeps pouring to clear the hazy weather. 

I joined a huge group of friends and photography-enthusiast to attack Pudu yesterday. It was great to just now talk about cameras (I spent almost all my waking hours talking about gear in KLPF) and just shoot and shoot and shoot. I armed myself with the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II and my favourite M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8 lens. 

If you are in Kuala Lumpur this weekend you may want to make some time for the most happening and largest photography event in Malaysia, the KLPF 2015 (Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival). Olympus is coming in huge this year and we have amazing setup, lined up with tonnes of activities for visitors! I will be stationed at Olympus, KLPF full time on both Saturday and Sunday!

Note: Fellow photographer/blogger Ahmad Firdaus Yosman did an honest and interesting review of his experience with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, coming from a DSLR user. He has got some awesome photos taken with the E-M5 Mark II too, so please give his blog a visit here (click)!

This blog space of mine will experience a little bit of slowing down for the next one to two weeks, mainly due to two reasons: first being the horrible haze enveloping the entire nation at unhealthy air pollution index levels, hence outdoor activities are to be reduced and second, which is the more exciting reason, I will be busy preparing for the coming Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival which will be happening this weekend (9-11 October 2015 at Mid Valley Megamall, KL). Olympus will be at KLPF and I will be stationed there at all times, so if you drop by do come to Olympus area and say hi!

While the nation was under thick, health degrading haze conditions, I managed to sneak in a short shutter therapy session, going out in a huge photowalk last Saturday, joining the Scott Kelby WorldWide Photowalk 2015. I met some awesome people and we attacked Petaling Street. I was probably using the smallest camera amongst all photographers, the Panasonic Lumix GM1 and Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8 lens. How I love using this combination!