ROBIN WONG

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 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!

About two weeks ago, I attended a mini concert at KLPAC, and it was their 5th installment of Yesterday Once More, indulging in music from yesteryears. I was an audience this time, and was not hired to shoot, so I attended the actual show instead of the dress rehearsal, and seated at the crowd section. I still intended to grab some shots for myself, so I brought along the most convenient setup I can think of - the E-M1 Original and Panasonic 14-140mm lens. This was quite a challenging shoot as I was fixed at one location, not being able to move around limited my composition options. The lighting on stage was quite dim, and using a superzoom that stops down to F5.8 at the longest end 140mm does require the use of much higher ISO numbers that I don't normally touch when I usually shot with my prime lenses. Nevertheless, the primary goal was to have fun, enjoy the show and I did love the live music show tremendously. Photography in this case was secondary, and here are some mediocre shots from the show. Not my best work, but I love them anyway!

I attended the official Nikon Z6 III launch in Malaysia few days ago, and I had the opportunity to get my hands on one unit to test it briefly. During my short time with the Z6 III, I was truly impressed with what Nikon has done in their latest camera. I like the advanced stabilization feature, which is optimized for focus area VR, the near flagship level AF performance (close to Z8/Z9) yet it can focus down to -10EV in the dark and has reliable AI subject recognition/tracking, the large and bright EVF which has 4000nits brightness which helps me a lot as I shoot under the sun, and overall the camera build quality, handling and ergonomics are nothing short of being excellent. For all this, the latest full frame mirrorless Nikon is asking for a price lower than OM-1 II, at least here in Malaysia, which puts the Z6 III into the top of my next camera consideration list, when I do decide to upgrade. Don't worry, the time is not here yet, I am still giving OM System/Panasonic a chance to come up with a wow camera before I give up on them. My thoughts about the Z6 III in my latest video here (click). 

When my friend Kieron Long informed me a week ago that he was travelling to Kuala Lumpur to give a talk for Leica, I immediately registered myself a spot. Leica Malaysia organized a week-long exhibition and activities for their "Celebration of Photography" event. The main exhibition and talks are happening at Avenue K Mall, which is directly opposite the KLCC Twin Towers right in the city center. I attended Kieron's talk about "Life in Monochrome" last Friday night. I also shot some images covering the event, and of course vlogged the event. The video will be published a few weeks later (I have other videos that need to go up first), but here are some shots that I have shot from the event!

Leica Malaysia's Celebration of Photography exhibition and week-long activities are still on-going. For event listing and registration, go to their official page here (click).