ROBIN WONG

As the year 2016 is coming to an end, it is time for me to look back the entire year worth of photographs I have taken. Here are a few facts: the year 2016 is the year I have taken the least number of photographs in comparison to each year I have started photography in a more serious-hobbyist level since 2008. This was largely due to my work with Olympus which required me to work on weekends (consumer workshops, walkabout events,

How has the holiday season been for everyone? I had a quiet Christmas, which followed by my Birthday. Yes I was born on a Boxing Day. I did some light street shooting around town, spend almost entire Christmas and Boxing Day reading a book, the "Doctor Sleep" from Stephen King which was a direct sequel to "The Shining" and had some small gathering with friends. I could not have asked for a better way to spend the holidays. A bit of

If any of you remembered the post I did not too long ago about the three cameras that I was lusting for (read here if you have not done so), in the list there was a Panasonic Lumix LX100. The idea of owning a compact camera with a Micro Four Thirds sized image sensor and bright zoom lens was quite an attractive one, held back only by the hefty price tag, which I could not justify spending on. Honestly, I would

I finally made it home recently with only one purpose in mind, to shoot on the streets of the beautiful city I have called home, Kuching which is situated in the Borneo Island. I have spent three days (technically only two and a half days) shooting around the city area that I grew up in and I was fortunate to be able to bring home an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II with me for my shutter therapy sessions. The weather was

This blog site has slowed down significantly lately. Two reasons, a huge amount of time and effort were spent on shooting and reviewing the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II with follow up on answering questions in comments and emails, and Olympus Malaysia has been on high gear in rolling out consumer touch and try events all over Malaysia, non-stop in subsequent weekends since the launch of the camera. All my weekends have been occupied by travel, events and meetings that

IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. I am an Olympus Malaysia employee. 2. This is a user experience based review, based on my personal opinion which can be subjective. 3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3 4. General camera settings, Noise Filter = OFF, Contrast/Saturation/sharpness = 0, White Balance = Auto (with an option maintain warm color = OFF), Gradation = Normal 5. Minimal post-processing applied to the images, with slight brightness/contrast balance

IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. I am an Olympus Malaysia employee. 2. This is a user experience based review, based on my personal opinion which can be subjective. 3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3 4. General camera settings, Noise Filter = OFF, Contrast/Saturation/sharpness = 0, White Balance = Auto (with an option maintain warm color = OFF), Gradation = Normal 5. Minimal post-processing applied to the images, with slight brightness/contrast balance

Olympus Malaysia has been incredibly busy lately with consumer activities, following up all the new product announcements at Photokina in September. Therefore almost all the weekends I have had were occupied with Touch & Try events, photography workshops or photowalks around KL, Penang and Johor. However, as busy as I have been I tried my best to squeeze a bit of time for personal shutter therapy session. I figured I have not done any insect macro shooting, so I thought why

As I shoot on the street often, almost on every weekend doing my weekly shutter therapy sessions (whenever we do not have an Olympus event), I have collected a large amount of random images. I generally would walk around with no particular end-goal or objective in mind (unless I was reviewing cameras and lenses of course, that is a different story) and end up with a series of disconnected, disorganized and chaotic frame of work. In the midst of all the

Let's do something different for this blog, instead of just reviewing cameras and lenses, for the first time ever, I am writing about a bag! Not just any bag, but the newly launched Ming Thein X Frankie Falcon Ultimate Photographer's Daybag! Ming Thein, a fellow friend and incredible photographer/blogger was super generous to loan me a pre-production unit of his personally designed camera bag which was done in collaboration with a renowned bag manufacturer, Frankie Falcon. When he showed me the

Last Saturday, I participated in probably one of the largest photowalks ever organized in Kuala Lumpur, the annual Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk 2016. The photowalk was coordinated and led by a dear photographer friend, Raja Indra Putra, with locations covering Chow Kit, my favourite street hunting ground, all the way to Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman and Jalan Masjid India. There were 50 participants that registered and I made it to the last number 50 registrant! Of course, the actual turn up

Important Notes: 1. I am an Olympus Malaysia employee. 2. This is a user experience based review, based on my personal opinion which can be subjective. 3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3. 4. General camera settings, Noise Filter = OFF, Contrast/Saturation/sharpness = 0, White Balance = Auto (with an option maintain warm color = OFF), Gradation = Normal 5. Minimal post-processing applied to the images, with slight brightness/contrast balance

Important Notes: 1. I am an Olympus Malaysia employee.  2. This is a user experience based review, based on my personal opinion which can be subjective. 3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3.  4. General camera settings, Noise Filter = OFF, Contrast/Saturation/sharpness = 0, White Balance = Auto (with an option maintain warm color = OFF), Gradation = Normal 5. Minimal post-processing applied to the images, with slight brightness/contrast balance

Last one week has been a crazy working week for me, with back to back business meetings, training sessions and I just wished the weekend had come sooner. I had only one goal in mind, to walk on the streets and just have my shutter therapy, ending the session with nice, expensive cup of coffee. I did just that, and boy was I refreshed! I brought along the Olympus PEN E-P5 and 17mm F2.8 pancake lens, and just shot anything that

The past two weeks have been crazy for me, travelling to different cities for work. That means, I had very little time to shoot for myself. Nonetheless, I did bring along a camera with me, and stole whatever small opportunities I could find to fire the shutter button away. This compilation of photographs is not done in a cohesive manner, and created out of total randomness. I think I should do more selfie so more people will be able to recognise

This blog entry is a continuation from my Huawei P9 review series. If you have not read my previous posts, please go to the following links: 1) Huawei P9 Review and 2) Long Exposure Shooting with Huawei P9.  In this paricular blog review, I shall explore only one specific feature of Huawei P9, the Monochrome mode. Why black and white, you ask? For photography-enthusiasts, especially street photographers like myself, at some point of our journey in photography we will stumble upon,

This is a continuation from the Huawei P9 camera review I posted here a few days ago. Kindly do read that original full review for photography if you have not, as I have covered all the important highlights and my opinion on the P9. This particular blog entry serves as an extension to the original review, with one particular capability put to test: long exposure shooting. ABOUT LONG EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY  Long exposure photography to me is extremely enjoyable, it requires opening

Update (24/8/2016): Huawei P9 Review extension for Long Exposure photography is published!  Surprise! I have a review write-up and this time it is not a camera or lens, it is actually a smartphone, the Huawei P9. I acknowledge that Huawei P9 has been in the market for months now, and there have been dozens (perhaps even hundreds!) of reviews being posted online everywhere. Not only the usual gadget review sites, this time I also notice a handful of photography specific site

Last weekend, I was back in my beautiful hometown, Kuching, Sarawak (which is in Borneo Island), and we did an extensive consumer event, stretching the entire Saturday afternoon at Great Wall Camera, Kuching. Firstly, I did an hour long photo-sharing, showcasing a compilation of my most recent street photographs, dispensing tips and tricks on how I obtained my shots, and my ideas and thought process behind each shot. Secondly, we had a touch and try session with the latest Olympus products,

I think it is too easy to create ordinary looking images, an image that can be easily replicated and shot by any other photographers. Every photographer has his or her own preferences in shooting techniques and also unique vision, which contribute to individual shooting style. While it is getting more difficult to find original photographs these days (we all try to surpass certain standards being set before us by another photographer, but along the way we are actually copying the photographer's

So I stumbled upon this open fashion show at Nu Sentral (a shopping next to KL Sentral) and I thought why not stay for a bit and take some shots? As I was shooting the fashion show (which turned out to be quite a good one) I started to remember how it was like 8 years ago, in 2008 when I first picked up my entry level Olympus DSLR and was enthusiastically searching for and shooting free fashion shows in malls

A dear friend Carmen was participating in the Celebs and Blogger's Bazaar, sort of a like a fashion flea market for lifestyle and fashion bloggers. I was no where in the neighbourhood and decided to stop by just to say hi. Carmen was looking stunningly beautiful with her bright, Burgundy Red hair colour in contrast with the black and white dress she was wearing! A spontaneous quick portrait session ensued, and we decided to scout around the location for a nice,

Shaun from Brisbane, Australia is visiting again and we had a quick photowalk yesterday. We went to Chow Kit, hoping to catch a glimpse of the old market building before it was being torn down. Fortunately the building was still standing, but now almost fully evacuated. It will be within days the demolition work begins. We had a slow, relaxing walk and we shot anything that got our attention. I armed myself with my Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II and my

At the time I fell in love with street photography (or more appropriately put, photography on the street, just so that I do not insult the "traditionalists"), I discovered this hidden holy grail of street hunting ground in KL, Chow Kit. I fell in love with the place instantly, and every single trip I made to Chow Kit has been fruitful, and I always came home with the SD card filled with photographs, many have become keepers from this wonderful location.

I have written lengthily before about my shooting techniques when it comes to Insect Macro Photography, if you want to find out more about the equipment I use and how I get my shots, kindly read my post here (click).  In this post however, I will not discuss about how to shoot, but rather why I find that Olympus Micro Four Thirds system is highly recommended for newcomers to photography who want to explore the world of insect macro. Being the mirrorless

I think it is crucial for a photographer not to just stay stagnant with one particular shooting style and not experiment with different approaches or techniques in photography. I have seen a handful of narrow minded photographers who think they are so sure of what they are doing and just fully concentrate on their own specific methodology. I do not think there is a single best solution when it comes to art, and we do have to constantly update ourselves, daring

To all my muslim friends and blog-readers, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! Maaf Zahir Batin. Have a joyous, blessed and happy times with your family and friends, and may your stomach be filled with plenty of Raya goodies and amazing celebration foods! Stay safe everyone! While I was digging through the hidden sections in the office I found more and more interesting items, some old lenses, and one stood out in particular: the Zuiko Digital 14-35mm F2 which was a Super High

I have not been to Pudu for quite a while now, since most of my friends prefer to shoot around Petaling Street area in Kuala Lumpur. Last weekend, I decided to go for a short solo adventure on the streets, a personal shutter therapy session, and I thought why not revisit a place which I used to shoot a lot at not too long ago. Pudu is a busy, busy wet market, full of life and people and activities. People

When it comes to an environmentally challenging situation, such as shooting inside a charcoal factory where dust is a big problem, I would not hesitate to pick up the ever reliable Olympus OM-D E-M1. I armed myself with all the necessary lenses for this particular shoot: M.Zuiko 7-14mm F2.8 PRO, 25mm F1.8 and 45mm F1.8. This marked my second visit to the charcoal factory, the first one being about three years ago with a group of Sony shooters (it was

Before jumping into photographs of my usual, weekly, now getting more and more predictable shutter therapy sessions, I shall divert your attention to Rizki Skema Maulana, an awesome, young and talented photographer who has just self-published a mini magazine, .IMG. The .IMG project is a collective of photographs from a group of KL street photographers, many of whom I have shot alongside with frequently for the past few years!  You may have seen many of these familiar faces on my

Last weekend, I was working in Malacca, probably the oldest and most the historical city in Malaysia. I was giving talk on stage at Mahkota Parade Shopping Mall on both Saturday and Sunday evenings, and on Sunday morning there was an official photography outing organized by Olympus Malaysia, which was headed by me. I knew very well that I would not have much time to shoot on my own if I were to be there bringing a group of photography

I am human, just like everyone else. I may stay strictly loyal to Olympus and probably not sway too easily, but I am also susceptible to gear acquisition syndrome (GAS) that all photography hobbyists suffer from. There were moments when I do wonder how my photography workflow and shooting experience will differ if I were to use a different camera. The fact that there are so many exciting cameras out there makes things even more difficult! On one hand, I

The reason for the less frequent updates on this blog for the past 2 weeks? I have been away for work, outstation in Johor Bahru, for business meetings as well as supporting an Olympus event there. We just had an Indoor Portrait Shooting session, organized by a local Olympus fan group, Pantheon of Olympus (check out their FB page!) and headed by a fellow Olympus photographer, Sapphire Ker.  It is no secret that I am not that good at shooting

The weekend was a rather busy one, with a whole Saturday spent on moving office (yes Olympus Malaysia has shifted our office out from Mon't Kiara to Ascent in Kelana Jaya), and today (Sunday)  we just had a morning Olympus Photowalk which was led by me, at KL Bird Park. Therefore, I had most of my time sucked out and left me with very little opportunity for shutter therapy. I decided to just take it slow with whatever free time

From my previous blog entry you would know that I spent almost the whole Saturday shooting my friend's wedding. The day after, I told myself if I managed to wake up early and did not feel too exhausted I would pick up the camera and hit the streets in Malacca. I did wake up rather early and felt quite energetic despite the wedding shoot a day before, so I went to Jonker Walk and had a slow, relaxing walk and

Frederick is one of my closest friends in life, whom I have known since my college days in Kuching. He got married to the beautiful Renee Lim last weekend, and I was there throughout the ceremony and reception all the way. It was a blessing to be a part of the celebration and I wish Fred & Renee nothing but pure happiness, abundance of love & joy and a life-long prosperity and good health for their journey as a married

Last weekend has been quite an adventurous one for me, as I was conducting a basic street photography workshop in the beautiful, historical city of Malacca. The event was organized and hosted by Craftify Studio, headed by incredible photographer friends CJ Fen and Kenn Wai, both well established wedding photographers in Malacca. I was invited to speak about street photography and conducted a short photowalk for the participants. The Craftify studio was quite a comfortable, homely environment, and I gave