ROBIN WONG

My relationship with the Panasonic 14mm F2.5 is quite interesting - I have bought the lens and sold it off twice. Recently, I found one in such good condition in the used market at a price I could not refuse, so I re-purchased it. Technically I don't need it, the Panasonic 15mm F1.7 does everything I need for wide angle (almost 28mm equivalent) shooting - for my paid jobs, filming YouTube videos and as the live streaming lens. However, I must admit there is something so thrilling about using such a tiny lens, and yes the Panasonic 14mm F2.5 is just so much smaller than the 15mm F1.7, while knowing it can deliver beautiful results. I paired the Panasonic 14mm pancake on my Olympus PEN Mini E-PM1, the smallest Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera and did some wide angle street shooting in downtown Kuala Lumpur. I made a POV video for this session too if you are interested (click here). 

When my friend Jon Low asked if I wanted to join him on a trip to Sekinchan (he needed to do some recce work for his upcoming shoot there), I immediately said yes. I just got the Canon 350D, and Sekinchan would be the perfect ground to really test what the old camera can do. Sekinchan is about 2 hours drive out of Kuala Lumpur city, it is near the sea hence there is a fishing village settlement, and uniquely there is also a paddy field nearby. You get a bit of nice Rice plantation landscape, and cool real life scenes of the fishermen, the Canon 350D should be fun to use there! Here are some shots I have taken. 

I bought the cheapest DSLR I can find in the used market - the old Canon 350D from 2005. I wanted to get a replacement for my previous Canon 5D which produces such beautiful color output, but the 5D was just too bulky and I sold it off to a friend. To satisfy the Canon color itch, I found the Canon 350D at such a good price and in very good condition, I just could not resist. There was nothing special about this old DSLR really, it was an entry level DSLR camera made for beginners with stripped down features and capabilities, but I do like that it is smaller than most other DSLR cameras at its time, and the camera still works perfectly fine, capable of shooting some beautiful images. Oh yes, the glorious Canon colors! I did a quick test around town with the Canon 350D!

It was a lazy Sunday morning that I participated in a Fujifilm Malaysia event led by my friend Azul Adnan (IG @azuladnan). It was organized in conjunction with J One Camera Store, and the theme of the outing was Black and White. Yes, you heard that right, it was a Fuji official outing, which means, I have a Fuji camera at hand. More about the camera to be revealed soon, I just wanted to share some quick snapshots taken earlier this morning in the event. Azul, as usual did a fantastic job sharing about black and white photography and he led the group in a short walk from GMBB in Bukit Bintang to Lalaport Shopping Mall, and back. We were asked to submit one photograph for comment and critic, and I submitted the opening image of this blog entry, the panning shot of the man carrying a wrist watch in his hand. It was truly a fun outing, learned a thing or two from the amazing Azul, and I must remind myself to do more black and white shooting. 

When the awkward pink colored broth Ramen showed up on my friend's social media suggestions, I thought this would be fun to give a try. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? The Oki Shokudo restaurant serves fish broth ramen, and their specialty is the Pink Ramen. It was the beetroot juice that contributed to the pink coloring. Since I have not tried a fish broth ramen before (we typically opted for Pork based broth), why not explore new things? Food knows no bounds, and I was glad I went to Oki Shokudo. The ramen was good, but nothing exceptional, I dare say it was a good first try, maybe no repeats. Still, quite an interesting experience seeing and eating something pink. 

It is almost comical when it comes to suggestions on how to improve a photograph, the most common answers are - use a sharper lens, use a certain magical camera feature, use bokeh or add some mystical LUTs, filters or film simulation effect. Most of the times, these tricks do not even work. Instead of focusing on what you can do with your cameras, lenses or even editing skills, why not pay more attention to the subject and see if you can improve the following: lighting, background, composition. Even a single change of background can drastically improve an otherwise, failed, boring shot. An example shown in the cup of coffee here. 

When you hear ISO25600, most people would cringe in fear, but I think that is not the end of the world. I found myself in a position where I had no choice but to shoot with crazy high ISO numbers up to 25600 recently. I attended a play at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center (KLPAC) as an audience and I was shooting from a fixed seat. Since this was not a job, I brought a simpler setup, a small camera, Olympus E-PL6 and a small telephoto zoom lens, the Olympus 40-150mm F4-5.6 R. The compounding effects of smaller lens aperture with dimmer than usual stage lighting and constantly moving actors on stage left me no choice but to shoot with uncomfortably high ISO numbers. You know what? The images come out perfectly fine. Yes, of course there is noise, there is obvious image degradation, but if you don't pixel peep, and if you look beyond the technical flaws, I believe what matters more are the stories, emotions and the moments of the show. I hope I have successfully captured them! Obsessing about high ISO noise won't get you anywhere, if you need to bump up the ISO, bump it up!

Continuing from yesterday's blog entry about using the Sigma 56mm F1.4 for portraits, here are more shots from the same session. All images were taken on OM System OM-1 camera. Initially the plan was to meet up and shoot in a local park. I arrived an hour and a half earlier than the others to film my talking head footage and B-Rolls for my POV video. However, as it approached the meeting time, the sky turned pitch black and it poured cats and dogs. We decided to change location to an indoor venue, obviously so we did not get wet. I have shot in this particular place several times before, and it has been a reliable, versatile location for portrait shooting. Zarah (IG @zarahjuana_06) our beautiful model was a great sport and I think I got some nice shots of her using the Sigma 56mm F1.4! I don't think I will do a full review for the Sigma 56mm, after all it is an old lens and there are already many reviews available out there. I just want to have fun shooting with the lens! 

Sigma 56mm F1.4 is a highly regarded portrait lens for Micro Four Thirds, and finally I got my hands on one. I have used this lens briefly previously, but never had an extensive shoot with it. I mounted it on my OM System OM-1 and did some portraits shooting, with POV video recorded! You can watch the POV video here (click) to see my camera's LCD screen before I press the shutter button. From this limited experience, I found the Sigma 56mm F1.4 to produce very good results - resolving admirable sharpness with plenty of fine details captured, excellent contrast and beautiful bokeh. This was just a portrait shooting session so I did not shoot the lens with a full review in mind. The lens rendering however lacks overall depth, they look rather flat and could use better 3D pop, which I see more from my usual portrait lenses like Olympus 45mm F1.8 and 75mm F1.8. Nevertheless, it is a decently budget lens, priced way lower than the Olympus 75mm F1.8, so I don't expect the output to be equal. For the money I have paid, indeed the Sigma 56mm F1.4 is a great value lens that delivers beautiful portraits! Special thanks to our model of the day, the beautiful Zarah (IG @zarahjuana_06)

We have to acknowledge the fact that smartphone camera is, and has been the most widely used camera for a while now, and even the most dedicated photographers with their die-hard gear of choice would turn to smartphones from time to time. I am no exception, for convenience, for the day to day casual shots where the camera seems to be a chore to take out of the bag, or for just some very quick snapshots, why not? Of course I am not buying into the marketing propaganda of how the latest smartphone camera can outperform the best of the best professional grade mirrorless or DSLR cameras, like they can replace the whole system, seriously? Let's be real, there is a place and time for every device, and for what I want to do with my photography many times the smartphones are just not good enough. That is an argument for another day - why smartphone cameras today is still lagging behind dedicated cameras. For today, I just dug up a recent photograph taken at the observation deck of Icon Siam, the largest shopping mall in Thailand. We have had a full day photowalk and I was completely exhausted. A quick snapshot was all I could manage, and that was the perfect job for the smartphone camera. 

I was kidding with the title, though the lack of abdominal muscular definition was due to my own lack of discipline, instead of blaming irresistible Malaysian food. Not that I was aiming to push myself that far to have abs, but hey, life is too short to starve and not enjoy God's glorious provisions, such as the Nasi Lemak. Nasi Lemak can be considered a national treasure in Malaysia, surely it is the national dish, everyone can enjoy Nasi Lemak at any time of the day, literally. It is a typical breakfast food here, but you can have it during lunch or dinner as well. We have a tendency to make the already not so healthy (full of fats and oils) dish even unhealthier by adding caloric dense foods such as fried chicken. Oh, give me Nasi Lemak any time of the day! 

As I was combing through my insect macro images from the recent months for my latest video topic about diffraction, I thought why not share them here in this blog as well? I think half of the battle of macro is physically being out there spending more time hunting the bugs in the wild. The more time you are shooting the more opportunities you will encounter some really cool bugs, or those little creatures doing something interesting. I for sure have not spent nearly as much time as I would like to doing insect macro, but hey, if only insect macro can being in income. As long as it remains a hobby, it has to be at the back bench - I got to worry about the coming bills and food I need to put on the table. Nevertheless, every time I go out to shoot macro, I always come home with something exciting!

I observe that photography is not merely a hobby for a most people, it has become a platform to chase gratification. Many seek attention and validation, especially through the sharing of their images on social media. How many likes will I get? How many comments saying "wow this is an amazing photograph!"? Will the post go viral and get 1000 shares? Photography in the internet age has been reduced to popularity contest and I hope that we can turn things around before it is too late. 

Me and my friends have been trying to do an outdoor portrait shooting at one specific location - Taman Tasik Titiwangsa. For whatever reasons beyond our control, we were denied the opportunity twice. The first time we had a shoot there, our model stood us up. So we headed downtown for street photography instead. The second time, which was just a few days ago, we had a model that showed up but when we met up the sky decided to pour cats and dogs. We had to switch location to plan B, an indoor venue so we did not get wet. I honestly have not done any outdoor portrait shooting at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa, but now that we failed to shoot there twice, I am starting to believe maybe that location was not meant for us after all. Shall I try for a third time? 

I don't really have a good relationship with fitness, but I do my best within my capabilities to stay in good shape. I believe as a photographer you are required to have a good level of fitness if you want to perform and deliver results. Sure, you don't need to lift massive amount of weight, or run miles and miles to produce photography work, but it is a lot more than just merely holding a camera and clicking the shutter button. Being fit allows you to push yourself further and do your best consistently. As lazy as I am as a person, I understand this, hence I miraculously managed to find myself in the budget local neighbourhood gym and hit the weights. 

I don't do much large scale event shooting anymore, admittedly I am not getting any younger, I don't have the energy of a 20 something years old that can bulldoze anything along the way without food or sleep for 24 hours straight. When this job came, Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival which was the largest arts festival in Malaysia up to date, happening in Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, I just had to do it. It is not just shooting an event, it was the privilege of being a part of something larger than yourself. Being able to contribute my craft in supporting the local performing arts was something I can be truly proud of. Looking at the images captured during the festival, I have to say there is so much to celebrate when it comes to diversity, culture and artistic adventures in Malaysia. The camera is just a tool, but art is real. Being present, showing up and working my skills to get these shots gave what I did as a photographer meaning and purpose. Why else do you want to become a photographer, if not to capture such beautiful moments?

I enjoy giving the stray cats some love and attention whenever I find them or they find me. I have been warned by my doctor friends on the risks of exposing myself to all kinds of bacterial and viral infection if I am not being careful playing with them. They do carry a host of diseases, the most notable one being rabies, which technically is still incurable. Yes, there are still rabies cases here in Malaysia. Nevertheless, nothing beats the affection of a complete stranger cat coming to you, choosing you to engage in some body rubbing and gentle cuddles. Sometimes, when this happens, all the worries and problems in the world just melt away. How can anyone not love cats? Moments like these are best captured with a smartphone camera - it is there all the time with you, and the image does not require technical gymnastics, it just records the scene as is. With the amount of stray cat images taken with my phone, I can actually start an exhibition with this series!

I was fortunate enough to be hired as the official photographer for the largest arts festival in Malaysia, the Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival. This is a biannual event happening at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, with hundreds of performing arts and creative events happening all at the same time spanning one weekend. It was not an easy job to shoot, I had a small team working under me (all Olympus shooters), the shooting hours were long, with practically dozens of simultaneous events happening all at once, but I think we managed it quite well. There was a lot of running around, lots of ground to cover, lots of stairs to climb (5 floors of event space), I was really thankful I used my lightweight/compact Olympus Micro Four Thirds gear that did not slow me down. It was such a fun job to shoot, so much vibrancy and color, so much passion and love for the arts, you can literally absorb all these energies being just there. Having the opportunity to work my camera was simply a bonus!

I first saw the exhibition that featured a few of my photographs in prints on the opening day, my images were scattered randomly and it was like a treasure hunt to locate them one by one. And then my friend Jason Lioh visited the exhibition and sent me some photographs he took with his phone which indicated the arrangements have changed! Now they lumped all images of the same photographers together. I think this new arrangement works much better, it is cleaner, there is a flow to the series of images and now the order makes more sense. Each photographer has a distinct style and shooting approach, even different subject content in their photographs, so mixing and matching everything together randomly was not really a good idea to begin with. Of course, I had to go see it again, and my friend Amir took a portrait of me with my images this time. If you are in Kuala Lumpur, do stop by the Eslite Bookstore in The Starhill, Bukit Bintang and check out the Ricoh GR exhibition there. This is open to public during shopping mall hours until 30 June. 

I think the Olympus 45mm F1.8 is truly a gem for Micro Four Thirds shooters. I have been using it extensively over many years for my professional shoots and my clients have been always happy with the results from this lens. It is such a wonderful lens for portraits as well as anything that requires a medium telephoto reach. It renders sharp results with such beautiful bokeh, yet it is so compact and light. The Olympus 45mm F1.8 represents the ideals of what Micro Four Thirds stands for. I believe it is time OM Digital Solutions update this lens with a Mark II version - add weather-sealing and improve the coating for the lens, I will buy it in a heartbeat! I brought the Olympus 45mm F1.8 and did some street photography with it recently, mounted on my Olympus E-M5 original! If you like to see the POV shooting, you can check out the video here (click). 

It was a brunch catching up session I had with my friends Jackie and Jaslyn recently, that we decided to try this trending restaurant Arimau Beta at Hextar Mall. I had low expectations, it looked like a normal restaurant trying to be hipster and unique by blending different local dishes together, namely nasi lemak and dry chilli noodles. When the dish came, all I did was whip out my cheap smartphone camera and took a quick shot with little regard to my composition. I just wanted a documentation of what I ate. Surprise surprise, the Dry Chilli Noodles Ayam Balado I ordered turned out amazing - in fact it was one of the best tasting noodle dish I have had recently. The photograph may not do the dish justice. It was unlike anything I have tried before - and the unique blend of nasi lemak ingredients inside the dry chilli Noodles turned out extremely well! Who would have thought? Perhaps I should revisit this dish and capture a proper photograph. 

There is a weird mystery going on for a while now, every now and then I'd receive emails or comments on my YouTube videos with random people welcoming me back to Olympus and saying how they got heartbroken when I stopped using Olympus and glad that I have returned. It got me completely dumbfounded, because the truth is I never stopped using Olympus! I seriously wonder where this confusion came from, because I take a lot of pride in not being the photographer/content creator/influencer that changes his cameras as frequently as they change his underwear!

One of the cameras that I wish I have purchased many years ago was the Panasonic Lumix LX5. It came out in 2008, I just graduated and started working on a lousy engineer's salary in Malaysia and I could not afford one. I have always been curious about what the LX5 can do, I have heard so many positive things about the camera. Now in 2026, I found a used unit in the marketplace at such a cheap price, though in quite a banged up condition. It is still fully functional so I brought it out for some shutter therapy. It was so fun shooting with something truly compact in form factor, yet the camera was capable of delivering great results. Panasonic used to make such amazing little compact cameras. It is too bad that they have discontinued the LX series, but I think it is the right time to revive it, Panasonic should definitely bring compact cameras back! There is a huge demand for it, why not? I made a video to talk about the Panasonic LX5 here (click). 

I have gotten this question more and more recently - Robin, why do you shoot with the LCD screen of your camera instead of the viewfinder? It was directed to me at the POV street shooting video on YouTube, with the purpose of the video showing how I composed my images before I clicked the shutter button. For sure, you would know that it is impossible for me to record the viewfinder if my eye was pressed on it while I was framing my shots, right? I thought it would be fun to record the moments before each photography was taken, with the action camera showing wide view of my surrounding as well as the LCD screen itself. Needless to say, this has nothing to do with my preference to shoot with LCD or EVF, the only way for this format to work was to shoot with LCD screen!

I have several photographs printed and exhibited at Ricoh Malaysia's GR Gallery at Eslite Bookstore in The Starhill, Bukit Bintang. It came as a surprise when I was invited so submit some images for this exhibition, because I was only briefly involved with Ricoh Malaysia for the launch of their GR IV last year. It was humbling to be featured and having my images displayed among many other talented Malaysian GR photographers. If you happen to be in downtown Kuala Lumpur, do drop by The Starhill (previously known as Starhill Gallery) and see if you can spot my images there! Exhibition is open to public on shopping mall hours from 1-30 June 2026. 

I did a fun experiment recently - I attached the Olympus MC-20 2X teleconverter on the old Four Thirds DSLR lens, Olympus 50-200mm F2.8-3.5. This combination officially is not compatible, but I managed to make it work. In order to attach the MC-20 Teleconverter, a compatible lens requires a receiving in to slot in a protruding part. The workaround was the Four Thirds to Micro Four Thirds adapter that has a hollow gap in it which allows the protruding part of MC-20 to fit in nicely. I technically had a 100-400mm F5.6-7 lens to work with, so I participated in a birding outing to Fraser's Hill organized by OM System Malaysia and YL Camera! The performance of this combo was a mixed bag, I did get some decent output which I am showing in this blog entry, but if you are serious about birding and wildlife photography, I'd say the glaring compromises are enough to point you to the other direction. I shared everything in my latest video here (click). 

While I had too much fun playing with wide angle compositions during the Pak Peng Arcade job, I was also required to shoot the event like a normal event. To document what actually happened, wide angle lens was not sufficient, often times longer lenses are needed. In this situation, many photographers would prefer the use of zoom lenses for flexibility and convenience, but I chose primes instead. My lenses I used for this shoot were Panasonic 9mm f1.7, Panasonic 15mm F1.7, Olympus 25mm F1.8 and 45mm F1.8. I did bring along the Olympus 75mm F1.8 and used it for several shots. I used my main camera, the Olympus E-M1 Mark II, still rocking on even after almost 10 years now! Since I have showed mostly wide angle shots in my previous Part 1 and 2 of Pak Peng Arcade series, all the images in this blog entry will be from non-wide angle lens. 

The Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro lens is one of the best macro lenses ever made, and also perhaps the most misunderstood one. The shortcut 1:1 dial on the lens is a convenient feature to have, it allows you to quickly jump to full magnification the lens is capable of. However, many people do not understand how the 1:1 dial works and they wish it to be a function that is impossible to be implemented - they want the full magnification to stay at full magnification while they move the lens and camera around. I am clearing up this confusion, and hope to make you see that the 1:1 shortcut is actually a brilliant, useful feature that can help you to achieve great macro results. I made a video to explain all this, you can check it out here (click). 

I mentioned in my previous blog entry that I was shooting a job for Pak Peng Arcade, a mini festival take-over of the old Pak Peng building in downtown Kuala Lumpur, and I was using the Panasonic 9mm F1.7 for wide angle shots. I have had the Panasonic 9mm F1.7 for several years now and I did bring it to all my jobs but I did not find many use of wide angle for the kind of photography that I normally do. I shoot events, stage and portraits, majority of my shots require medium telephoto or longer focal lengths to create good results. Wide angle lens was used for establishing location shots and some tight group portraits, nothing fancy, and I use it for less than 5% of my delivered shots for each job. This particular shoot at Pak Peng Arcade was different, I had more than 50% of wide angle shots in my deliverables, and they were all shot on the Panasonic 9mm F1.7! Not an every day opportunity to work this amazing lens!

I had a really exciting job last weekend, shooting Pak Peng Arcade at downtown Kuala Lumpur. Pak Peng is an old building, a semi-abandoned shopping mall that has seen better days. A community of local artists took over two floors of the building for two days and turned it into a mini festival. I was thrilled to shoot this event because the interiors of the building has very tight spaces and narrow walkways, which necessitate the use of super wide angle most of the time. I took this opportunity to utilize the amazing Panasonic 9mm F1.7, and boy oh boy that lens was a lifesaver! It is so small, light and sharp, it delivers fantastic results. Of course I used other lenses as well for the full day event coverage (mostly Olympus 25mm and 45mm F1.8), but I specifically selected wide angle shots taken with the Panasonic 9mm F1.7 for this blog entry. I made a video to talk about why I love the Panasonic 9mm F1.7 so much, you can view it here (click). 

The enjoyable thing about doing street photography in different locations is finding both the differences and similarities with the usual street hunting grounds. Bangkok can look so different, they have smaller network of alleyways and backstreets that are interconnected and you can basically get lost walking in it, this is something you cannot find in Kuala Lumpur. Yet the same warm smile, the typical South East Asian lighting and textured background all tell very similar heritage and stories, though we are not that far apart. I enjoy walking around and just feasting my eyes with what I can see at the streets of Bangkok, to truly experience it you have to walk the grounds. Whatever I can capture with my camera is just bonus!

I mostly explored around the Chinatown area of Bangkok, Thailand for my street photography. Most images were shot around Song Wat and Yaowarat area, alongside the Chao Praya river. I did venture into the Flower Market, which I intend to visit again more extensively in the future, this time it was mostly passing by and quick snaps while walking along the locations. I miss shooting at Hua Lamphong Bangkok Central Train station, while that place still exists, it isn't as busy as it was back in the day and has lost its charm for street photography. Nevertheless, Bangkok is such a huge place, there are opportunities everywhere, you just have to keep your eyes open! People there are also super friendly, perhaps even more approachable than Malaysians! I had so much time shooting on the streets there. 

I find it really strange every time someone asks me if I shoot in JPEG or RAW. Honestly, the correct answer is - it does not matter. Even if I did shoot in RAW, my postprocessing done was so minimal the images look like they come straight out of camera anyway. I prefer the natural, true to life look, something more realistic, rather than over-processed, or images with exaggerated color biases. I have no problem shooting JPEG too, in fact, whenever I feel lazy, when I don't want to do any editing, I just set the camera to JPEG and fired away. This latest session I did just that, and I recorded everything in video as evidence (so people cannot accuse me of lying or cheating, you can see my camera screen - it isn't set to RAW). You can check the video here (click), I also share my camera JPEG settings there. 

Of course, the one thing I must do when I was in Bangkok was to shoot on the streets. Trust me, it is street photography heaven there! I had my Panasonic GM1 with me and I used the Olympus 25mm F1.8 most of the time. It was just a casual stroll around just capturing anything that caught my attention. One of the days I was guided by the amazing Jojo (IG @jjsupasit), a prominent photographer who resides in Bangkok. Special thanks to Jojo I found some new places to shoot and I must make a point to return again one day in the future, just to shoot more on these awesome locations! 

One the final day before flying off from Bangkok, my travel partner and I decided to just chill and not wander too far away from our hotel. There was this Cafe restaurant, just outside our hotel that we have to pass by every time we walk out to the main streets. The place looks spacious and decent, and there is always a crowd too. It is called the coffee club, and we made the right call to have our final meals here before heading to the airport to catch our flight back to Kuala Lumpur! As far as the last food to eat in Bangkok goes, this is quite an amazing one! Yes we ate too much food, but can you really blame us?

I found this amazing place near the hotel that I was staying at, LonLon Local Diner, or sometimes it is called The Local Canteen depending on where you found it on the web. They serve fusion Thai and Western food, but many of their menu items are based on Thai cuisines. I went in wanting to have some typical Thai dishes, namely Tom Yum soup, fried rice and grilled pork, then maybe a Mango Sticky Rice for dessert. That place did not disappoint, they had everything I have hoped for and more, and boy oh boy, the food was amazing! Though on the spicier and definitely pricier side of things, the food was so worth it. 

The Monochrome Profile was introduced in Olympus PEN-F, and subsequently made available in the E-P7 and OM System OM-3 cameras. It allows control over various color filters options that can dramatically improve black and white images. This exact same Monochrome Profile can be applied to almost any Olympus and OM System cameras (has to be newer than the PEN-F) by shooting in RAW and applying the Monochrome Profile using OM System Workspace software. If you have not tried this, do give it a go, it is not only so powerful, but fun to play with too! I made a video to demonstrate how this works (click here), and also did some POV shooting, of course, this time all in black and white!

Recently I have been shooting more and more with the Olympus E-620, which I bought just to relive the nostalgia of my early day photography adventures with my first DSLR Olympus E-520. The handling the camera, the turn of the dials, the button presses, the click of the shutter button, the sound of the mirror-slapping and shutter clacking, all brought back sweet memories of me fumbling around my way learning the basics of photography so many years ago. Yet the Olympus E-620 is still a capable shooting machine, while being outdate now in terms of tech and imaging capabilities, it still can deliver great results. There is just something satisfying looking through an optical viewfinder (though I would rather have the safety and assurance of electronic viewfinder for serious work these days), and loud shutter sounds reaffirming that the shots have been taken. These portraits were taken on the same day as the previous blog entry, all on Olympus 50mm F2 Macro lens. These older cameras and lenses sure have some charm to them!

I was truly fortunate to have Jojo as my friend and guide in Bangkok, Thailand. Not only he brought me around the streets of Bangkok and showed me his favourite street hunting grounds, he also brought me to some of the best locations for food! Oh how we feasted. In the few days I had in Bangkok I must have gained so much weight, but all was good. I live to eat, food is one way to enjoy life, I don't care if you disagree with me. Glorious food is meant to be consumed and enjoyed! Bangkok indeed is food paradise, every corner you turn to, there is some amazing street food! 

I recently brought the old Olympus E-620 out to do some portraits shooting. Many of you who have followed me from the beginning would know that I started exploring photography more seriously with my first DSLR, the Olympus E-520. Obviously the E-520 has died many years ago after enduring my abuse, well, that only shows I really did use the camera extensively. A few years ago I found the E-620 and I just could not resist the low price in the used marketplace, so I bought it just to relive the nostalgia of my early days of photography journey. The E-620 is still going strong, I paired it with the Olympus 50mm F2 Macro and shot some portraits of my beautiful friend Ivani (IG @ivani_leang). I also made a video to talk about why I prefer to shoot with an older camera like the dinosaur DSLR Olympus E-620 over any modern smartphones, you can check out the video here (click). 

I recently travelled to Bangkok, Thailand for a short holiday. It was a much needed break after the Kuala Lumpur Photography Workshop which I conducted with Peter Forsgard and Matti Sulanto about 2-3 weeks ago. I only have 3 things in mind for this trip to Bangkok - rest, a bit of street shooting and EAT. Yes, food was at the top of my priority. I went with my travel partner, Spencer and we attacked whatever food that came across our paths. We started with something easy and nearby our hotel, BIB which stood for Break in Bangkok, a Thai Contemporary Cafe restaurant. The food there is a fusion of traditional Thai dishes mixed with modern, western influences, and the food there was so good, we had to return for more! 

I always say that you don't have to break the bank to enjoy photography, and that applies to insect macro photography too. Assuming you already have a basic setup, even an entry level camera with a kit lens, any brand will do, you just need to spend an additional USD100 to start enjoying macro shooting. The trick is to get extension tubes and a cheap flash. The extension tubes allows any lens, even the kit lens to go extremely close to the subject creating massive magnification, almost macro like. The flash helps light the subject, there are many cheap, powerful flash available now, though for cheaper options you may need to control the power manually, which honestly is not a bad thing - you get to pick up a new skill along the way. If you don't want to spend more for a dedicated ready made flash diffuser, go make yourself one, there are many DIY options available, a simple Google search will give you some ideas and directions. I made my first DIY diffuser long time ago from a shoebox! Stop making excuses, and start shooting! I made a video to talk about this topic here (click). 

Taylor Swift has been spotted using Olympus cameras over the years. In her Instagram posts, she specifically uses Olympus Vintage Art Filter I for her personal images. I thought it would be super fun to try out Taylor's favourite Art Filter doing a full street shooting session with it. I brought my Olympus E-M1 Mark II together with Olympus 25mm F1.8 and did a full shutter therapy session around Kuala Lumpur, shooting only with Vintage Art Filter, and the images shown in this blog entry were all straight out of camera. I also did a POV shooting sharing some tips on using Olympus Art Filter in my latest video here (click). 

My friend Jon Low made a new SD Card holder, he named it OneMoreShot. I think the simple idea and design work so well as an always ready carry solution. He gave me two units to play around with, and I have been using them for more than 3 weeks now.  I got to say, I love how well it works, and I think photographers should consider this as a wearable solution to ensure you have a back up at all times! I made a video to talk about OneMoreShot, you can find it here (click). To purchase OneMoreShot, you can go to the official product's TikTok Shop here (click). 

I find it amusing that people think those photo touts (as I have mentioned in my previous blog entry) are anything new. They have been around for so long, and the authorities have been battling them, you can easily find news coverage on this topic by Googling "photo touts Malaysia", you can find hundreds of matches dating years back. It is just strange that suddenly this made headlines in news portals outside of Malaysia, suddenly claiming that these are "street photographers" that the government has deemed illegal and tried to crack down in recent times. No, these photo touts are nasty, they deserved the harshest punishment possible and I am glad the authorities are stepping up their enforcement. However, myself and many street photographers out there, we still love to do what we do, and this news causing so much confusion had nothing to do with street photography!

In recent news, it is reported that the authorities are clamping down hard on street photographers in Malaysia. At a glance, it seems like street photography is now banned in the country. However, that is not true, what the news reports were referring to were not street photographers, but photo touts. It is quite sad to watch how poor journalism and classic misreporting has caused so much confusion and misinformed the public about what street photographers actually do. No, it is still perfectly legal and safe to practice street photography in Malaysia. I have also made a video to talk about this topic, you can see it here (click). 

When Peter Forsgard asked me where would be a good spot to both film a video together and do some street photography, I immediately suggested Masjid Jamek area (downtown Kuala Lumpur). In early mornings, there are quiet spots along the back streets so we can film our conversation without worrying about excessive background city noise. Also, the whole area is very vibrant, people there are friendly, just the right place to do some shutter therapy. Peter interviewed me about shutter therapy while filming me in action, doing my thing on the street. You can watch behind the scenes video of me in action on Peter's YouTube video here (click). I am sharing the images I have captured that day here, all shot on Olympus OM-D E-M5 and M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8 lens. 

Since I have recently acquired the old Olympus 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 lens at a bargain, I have been itching to test the optical performance of the lens. I did some tennis shooting previously, but that was not the right place to test the lens image output. To push the lens to the limits, I brought it to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park and did some close up portraits of the birds there. I think the birds have missed me, so a visit was necessary. The lens performed admirably, resolving plenty of fine details, excellent contrast and the sharpness was already so good even shooting at wide open. For a fraction of the cost of what the new OM System 50-200mm PRO is asking for, there really is nothing much to complain about the old Olympus 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 lens. It may not outperform the new lens in any way (lacking image stabilization built in, internal zoom or constant aperture, for example) but it sure can deliver beautiful results! I did a POV video shooting at the KL Bird Park, you can find the video here (click). 

Peter Forsgard was here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Kuala Lumpur Photography Workshop that I did together with him and Matti, so I thought it would be really great to do some street photography together. This time, instead of me interviewing Peter like what I did in my last blog article, I was actually being interviewed instead by Peter. The topic was about Shutter Therapy - how I came up with the phrase and what it meant for me. I guess by now, if you have been following this blog for some time, you would know what shutter therapy is, and I foresee myself doing it for a long period of time! It was really fun hanging out with Peter, he even said that Kuala Lumpur has become his top favorite city for street photography! I hope he comes back to KL soon, and do check out the video that Peter did, about me and Shutter Therapy, and he also shot plenty of footage capturing me shooting in action behind the scenes! Check out Peter's video here (click). All images in this blog are screenshots from Peter's video, used with permission. 

I managed to catch Peter Forsgard while he was here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and did a video interview with him about his recently published street photography book titled "From Snapshots to Stories". We had a coffee sit down session in a local cafe, and the interview went on for about an hour. Peter shared about the inspiration behind the making of the book, the writing process and who the book was written for. He also shared some interesting challenges he faced while publishing the book. The book consists of a wide array of street photography topics - various shooting techniques, documentary vs artistic approaches, the thought process behind images, diving deeper into understanding the key visual elements of photography, ethics of street shooting and many more!  I have personally read the book, and I can highly recommend it to anyone seeking to improve their street photography game. Watch the video interview here (click). You can buy Peter's book here and here.