BIHZHU Launches JIWA PERKASA

My friend Bihzhu has just launched a new song recently, "Jiwa Perkasa" and I was engaged as the offical photographer for the event. I am very proud to be involved in this project because I was there at the very beginning while the song was being recorded in studio! I was also there to witness the music video in production, so in a way, I was very involved in the making of Jiwa Perkasa almost every step along the way. I am super thankful and happy to be included and I thank Bihzhu for giving me this awesome opportunity. An important part of making impactful images is knowing what you are shooting well enough, and I cannot ask for more in this regard. I am sharing fresh images taken from the event coverage of  the launch. 

You can watch Bihzhu's latest video JIWA PERKASA here (click) 
If you are a Malaysian, do support our amazing local artist, follow Bihzhu on IG, FB and Spotify

Exploring Chiang Mai Old Town With Olympus XZ-1

I found a cheap used Olympus XZ-1 in great condition so I bought it and I used the XZ-1 as my travel camera on my recent work trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand. I did not have much time to myself for this trip as most of my time were spent shooting for a job, but I did find an empty morning slot and I decided to roam the streets with no plan, with just one compact camera, the XZ-1 and had some shutter therapy. Boy oh boy it was so, so fun to shoot at Chiang Mai, this was my first time there (I have visited Bangkok before, not Chiang Mai) and I must plan a trip here again soon just purely for my own photography. I have made a video to talk about my experience shooting with the XZ-1 here (click). 

More Fun Shooting With Olympus 17mm F2.8 Pancake

Matti Sulanto was visiting Kuala Lumpur, so we met up with the gang and did some shutter therapy at Kampung Baru during the weekend. It was so good to see Matti after so many years, we did have a lot to catch up on, since we are both YouTube Content Creators discussing photography topics. For that walk, I brought along the Olympus PEN E-P1 and 17mm F2.8 Pancake, and had plenty of fun shooting around the village in the city. Light was bad, since it was cloudy, but I was not complaining because it has been raining on a daily basis for more than a week, interrupting a lot of my plans which required me to shoot outdoors. I did a POV video of course, you can check it out here (click). 

I am sharing fresh photographs taken with the Olympus 17mm F2.8 pancake lens, which is so flawed, but fun to use regardless!

Plastic Fantastic Canon 50mm F1.8 II Shooting Casual Portraits

About a month plus ago my friend Kieron, the Leica Ambassador (IG @kieronlong72) was visiting Kuala Lumpur and we did a short casual portrait shooting session with the awesome model friend, Wendy. The location was Tamarind Square, and I brought along the Canon 5D original with a cheap USD20 lens mounted on it, the old 50mm F1.8 II. There was nothing to write home about the lens, the build quality is bad, feels plasticky, the AF hunts, image quality was ok, not super sharp and optically it comes with some flaws like distortion, corner softness and purple fringing. You get what you pay for, and for a cheap lens, the nifty fifty delivered really good results, and I actually enjoyed shooting with it! I won't recommend this for serious professional use, but for a fun casual shoot, why not? I did a POV video here (click) for the session. I am sharing the images in this blog entry!