ROBIN WONG

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 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. 

My friends Azul and Grace had their latest exhibition "Under The Shadows of Merdeka" at GMBB, Bukit Bintang, and I was there at the official launch event. I did not plan to do much, since I was a guest and I wanted to show my support just by being there. I brought along the Olympus PEN E-PL7, keeping things as small and minimalist as I can. I only had a few lenses, the humble kit lens Panasonic 12-32mm, Olympus 45mm F1.8 and 75mm F1.8. What started as casually snapping away had mutated into something more official - though I was never the appointed photographer, but my images were requested to be submitted to different parties at the event for social media use. I did what I can, with what I was working with, and here are the images!

I have been following the progress of Azul and Grace's photography project (Under The Shadows of Merdeka) for a while now, it took them a year to shoot the images for their book and exhibition, and the finale exhibition is finally happening now! If you are in Kuala Lumpur, you can check out the photography exhibition happening at Level 3A in GMBB building, Bukit Bintang from 9th to 18th May 2025, 11am to 8pm. Either Azul or Grace (sometimes both) will be there so if you drop by, do say hi and tell them that Robin sent you! I went to the official launch event last Saturday, I did take some images which I shall share soon in another separate coming blog entry, but for this one, I shall post images from the exhibition floor. All images shot with Olympus PEN E-PL7, Panasonic 12-32mm kit lens, Olympus 25mm and 45mm F1.8 lenses. All images are mine, unless otherwise mentioned. 

Two days ago, I attended the Sigma BF launch event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a guest. I wanted to see the much hyped new camera in person, Sigma being bold and daring in creating something radically different from what the other big boys in the market were doing. The event was held inside a restaurant, housing about 40 guests. Since I was just a guest I did not go overzealous with my shutter clicking, and only captured a few moments during the event. I had with me the Panasonic GM1, which was perfect since it was tiny and did not draw much attention. The Sigma BF definitely was quite a refreshing new product in the current camera industry overcrowded with everyone trying to fight the paper specifications war. Being minimalist and stripping away the features bloat, I thought the BF can appeal to those who don't necessarily need to shoot 120fps, or have the highest pixel count, or the most advanced computational features. As the saying goes, less is more. Maybe, if Sigma Malaysia loaned me a review unit (I'd probably have a higher chance of winning a lottery at this point), I may say more about the BF. For now, let's just dump the images I have taken at the event here. 

Fujifilm Malaysia had an event last weekend at Starhill. Bukit Bintang where they showcased the latest GFX100RF. The camera sample units were available for anyone to walk in and have a quick hands on experience. As a curious photographer of course, I went in and have a brief look. The cameras were chained and fixed in position, so we could not bring it around to do any testing on our own. Also, considering there were so many people around that space, it was not a great idea to do a video either. With limited time with the camera, I thought it wouldn't be wise to say anything and make a video - what can I know about a camera in 5-10 minutes time, really? Besides the AF being so slower than the now 12 years old E-M1 I had with me (which I used to take the images for this blog), and overall operation of the camera seem sluggish and unpolished. Oh, I better stop, before people accuse me of bashing Fuji. I don't know, for such a high asking price (close to USD5000) I'd expect a little more!

This coming Sunday, 23 February 2025 at 10pm Malaysian time, I will be a guest on Rob Trek's YouTube Live Stream, together with a group of amazing Micro Four Thirds photographers and content creators! Special thanks to Rob Trek for hosting this, you are the MVP for coordinating and getting everyone together for the live stream. I look forward to joining Emily Lowrey (Micro Four Nerds), Peter Forsgard and Lee Hoy to talk about Micro Four Thirds and photography topics! If you are free, please do come in and chat with us, I do have some interesting things to share during this session! Live Stream link here (click). 

Last Sunday afternoon, I attended a private launch event for yet another exhibition by dear friend Azul Adnan in Kuala Lumpur. This time the location was at a cafe in Cheras, Erni & Tina. This exhibition showcased some of Azul's past work, all compiled in one place, while the patrons can enjoy coffee, tea and treats while viewing the images exhibited on the cafe walls. Since I was away for 2 weeks for Chinese New Year holidays, and just got back to KL in time for this event, my fingers were unbearably itchy and I worked my Nikon Z5, capturing some shots from the event. I am sharing these images here, taken with various lenses - Viltrox 20mm F2.8, Nikon 40mm F2 and TTArtisan 75mm F2. Azul's exhibition at Erni & Tina will continue to run until end of March 2025!

My friends Azul Adnan and Grace Ho have just launched a new photobook titled "Under The Shadows Of Merdeka". This was a one year long project in collaboration with PNB Merdeka Ventures and Think City, documenting the scenes, surrounding activities, people and happenings around the areas surrounding the Merdeka 118 building (currently standing at the second tallest in the world). I am so happy to see the project finally coming to fruition, and the book is now published and available for sale! I attended the book launch event last Sunday afternoon at Riwayat (book store) and of course, being myself my hands got terribly itchy and I clicked the shutter button away, covering the event. Both Azul and Grace were there sharing their experience and adventures not just about the photography process but also the journey of making the photobook happen.  I am so incredibly proud of both Azul and Grace, a hearty congratulations to both of you! 

The book "Under The Shadows Of Merdeka" is currently on sale at Riwayat book store. More places available soon, and you can check both Azul and Grace's socials for updates, or contact them directly. Below are the images shot during the book launch event by myself, unless otherwise stated. 

I was approached by Futuromic Malaysia (official distributor for Nikon in Malaysia) to do a project on their latest camera, the Nikon Z50 II. At first I thought it would be something to do with me reviewing the camera, or shooting some sample images with the camera to be shared on their socials. When I asked further it was none of the above assumptions I have made, in fact they wanted me to do something with my YouTiube, about making a video as a content creator and share my experience using the Z50 II in such capacity to a real life audience in one of their consumer events. I immediately jumped in and said yes! The images shown in this blog entry were all taken by my amazing friend, Van Ligutom. 

There is a super awesome exhibition featuring 12 local Malaysian artists happening now at Sasana Kijang (Bank Negara Malaysia) titled - JIWA MEMBUMI. The official translation of the title to English is "the soul of the land". The exhibition is comprised of mixed media presentation, digital projection, sculpture pieces, paintings and a majority of the exhibits are of course, photography prints! Both my good friends Azul Adnan and Grace Ho (whom I have talked about previously) are also highlighting this show, and I am so, so proud to see their amazing photography work displayed in large prints. Congratulations to both Azul and Grace, you both know how incredible you are, and I will visit both of you again at the gallery some time soon. For those of you in Kuala Lumpur, or visiting the city, please consider slotting some time to check out Jiwa Membumi exhibition running from now till 25 February 2025. Gallery is open to public everyday (except Mondays) from 10am to 5pm. You can check out the official website for more information here (click). 

Technical notes: Bags are not allowed into the event venue, so I packed the smallest setup I can - the Panasonic GM1 and kit lens 12-32mm pancake, carrying into location by hand. If you see some weird skin colors, well blame Panasonic and their weird color science. All images shot on the GM1 except the first image, stolen from Azul's phone. 

I visited my friends Azul and Grace's exhibition at Stadium Merdeka again and this time I brought more friends to go see it. I thought I'd make myself useful and started shooting behind the scenes images while both Azul and Grace did their short presentation sharing their shooting process for the exhibition images. I do make a bulk of my income from shooting event coverage, many behind the scenes images for my clients, and I want to share some tips on shooting effective event images. 

My friends Azul Adnan (IG @azuladnan) and Grace Ho (IG @grace_.ho) have an on-going exhibition happening at the newly refurbished and reopened historic Stadium Merdeka. Both photographers are extremely talented and they were shooting for the project "Under the Shadow of Merdeka" which will be made into a photobook. The current exhibition has been extended to 16 September 2024, so if you are in KL please do swing by Stadium Merdeka and check out both the exhibition and the stadium itself, which was an important piece in Malaysian history. In conjunction with the exhibition, there was a photowalk happening on the Merdeka Day (31 August) which I have attended, and I shall share several photographs from that photowalk, and also some taken during the unofficial talk by Azul and Grace at the exhibition venue after the photowalk. 

Congratulations to both Azul and Grace on the exhibition! Really amazing work there, I highly recommend any photographers in KL to go see it!

Photographic Society of Petaling Jaya had a live panel discussion on main stage at Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival 2024 which happened last weekend. The topic of discussion was Photo Club in Social Media Age, and there were three panelists, moderated by my friend Raja Indra Putra, who is the advisor for PSPJ. I took this opportunity to grab some quick shots and work the camera, satisfying my shutter itch. I was using the Sony NEX-6 (yes, more about this in future content) with a plethora of prime lenses and I gotta say, there was something fun running around capturing images of a live event!

My awesome friend Jaya was invited to an official grand opening of the new DJI Hasselblad Store in KLCC Twin Towers. I had the privilege to tag along, and I got to say, it was nice to see Hasselblad finally opening their flagship store and displaying their medium format products for consumers to come in and see. Of course, it was not just exclusively Hasselblad, DJI also displayed their array of drones, action cams, gimbals, microphones and all other latest products in the store. I personally have used and own multiple DJI products before, and am actively using the DJI Pocket 3 for my vlogs and even making content for my main YouTube channel. Sinec it was a free and easy, fuss free event, I decided to roam around with my Nikon setup and took some random shots of the location and event. All images were sgot with Nikon Z5 and Viltrox 20mm, Nikon Z 40mm and Viltrox 85mm. 

Special thanks to my friend Jaya, I managed to sneak into the official launch of Fujifilm' latest products, the GFX100S II and X-T50. Obviously as I have said many times, I am not important enough to be invited directly for anything camera related. I am not exactly a media blogger and I don't do press releases or announcements, I have never done any here on my blog. This is a photography blog and honestly I don't want it to turn into a media site, hence I guess I shall never get invited to any of these launch events. Nevertheless, since I was there, I had a great time catching up with many friends I have not met in a while within the Fuji active community (Calven, Qippy, Arthur from DCM, TJ, some media and dealer friends). It also felt a little strange because the week before the launch of X-T50 I already made my first impression video on the camera, which was made available for touch and try by consumers in dealer shops. Anyways, it was a fun, exciting event and I was happy to be there, observing. Fuji indeed has come a long way, and they have carved their own unique position in the market. Here are some images from the event. 

I saw the Nikon ZF at the YL Photo Fair 2023, largest photo trade event in Malaysia and I asked the people from Futuromic (official distributor of Nikon, Malaysia) if I could have the ZF for a while on my own. They said yes! So I brought the Nikon ZF and Z 40mm F2 out for a quick test, and I managed to make a video to share some quick impressions on the camera (you can find the video here). I thought Nikon ZF will be a hit - they got everything right, nailing the retro inspired design, fitting in beefy specifications with AF system and processing power from their current flagship Z8, including powerful image stabilization which is optimized and linked to the AF target area and all this, in a package of asking price no more than the latest Micro Four Thirds cameras Panasonic G9 II and OM System OM-1. Yet the ZF is a full frame camera and I think this positions the camera extremely high in everyone's wishlist! Of course I cannot do a full review yet, as I only had the camera for less than an hour, and that is OK - it was good enough to convince me that Nikon is heading the right direction. This classic vintage camera design with modern specification strategy is clearly working - I almost, almost pre-ordered one myself. 

Last Tuesday (10 October 2023) I had the privilege to attend the YouTube Creator Day 2023 event at Google Office inside the Axiata Tower at KL Sentral. I thought it was not an everyday opportunity to get invited into the Google office and definitely a rare opportunity to connect to the key people at YouTube in person. It was a half day event, packed with dense information sharing about growing a channel, reading and better understaning the Analytics for strategy optimization purposes and there was also a panel speaker to share her tips and experience in growing her YouTube channel. Overall, it was like going back to class, sitting inside a lecture hall absorbing as much data as possible to be processed at a later date, and I wish they shared a little more on the monetization tips, but maybe next time they will. This was after all the first Creator Day after the pause due to the pandemic and lockdowns, and the last similar event I attended was in 2019. It was a fun experience, I did learn a thing or two and met some fellow Malaysian creators, none from the photography/camera crowd, but still cool to see everyone doing their own creative things!

Wesley Wong, the man behind Ilford Galerie Malaysia, the first Ilford Galerie in the world, as well as a certified print master in Malaysia, gave the opening remarks as well as some introduction to history of Profoto in Malaysia. 

I am not a studio photographer, and I rarely use studio environment for my shoots. Therefore, I am not experienced enough to write about Profoto light and their newly launched B10. I shall leave the heavy analysis, review and discussions to the real pros. Nevertheless, the new Profoto B10 is so small and light, that it was almost unbelieveable that it could pack so much power. It has rough equivalent power to 5 external flash/speedlights, and is capable to overpower the sun under mid day shoot outdoors when needed. Yet it is portable and compact enough to be stored into a camera bag, and operates on its own battery power pack without the need or external power source. In addition, the B10 also has a powerful video continuous light which has adjustable light color temperature. 

Wesley Wong, a well-respected printmaster from Malaysia as well as the man behind Ilford Galerie, the venue of the event, opened the event for the evening. Leonard Goh from Srishti Singapore followed next, sharing product information about the Profoto B10, and what the "Power of Small" means. Tanes (TJ) the Profoto ambassador and a commercial photographer in Malaysia shared some of his work as well as experience with the Profoto lights. Next, Wesley came back on stage to talk about his shoots with the B10 and specifically addressed how accurate and bias free the colors from the B10 lights were. He claimed that the video light has sufficiently high CRI (Color Rendering Index) that he could use it for his commercial print proofing work. 

After the talk about the products and seeing what the B10 can produce through TJ and Wesley's photo sharing session, TJ then demonstrated live what the Profoto B10 can do while shooting a real life model. He was using the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, and I believe he has set the burst continuous sequential shooting mode to 10 frames per second, and each and every shot was captured with the Profoto B10 firing rapidly. The B10 caught up successfully for each frame and showed completely no color bias, and full accuracy throughout the shoot. 

After the talks and demonstration, the attendees were allowed to try the Profoto B10. There were two beautiful models for everyone to shoot, but I shied away from the shooting session, and I made my time worthwhile by spending time with many other photographers whom I have not seen in a while and finally be able to catch up with them. The good news is, there is a native TTL adapter for Olympus (Micro 4/3) system and my Olympus photographer friends were able to use the Profoto B10 to its fullest potential, with TTL operating capabilities. 

 Tanes (TJ) sharing about his experience and work with Profoto B10, as a Malaysian Profoto Ambassador. 

It was a successful launch event, and I do hope to hear more from Profoto as they announced during the event that they have just established a local business center in Kuala Lumpur. I wish to attend more Profoto events, and maybe some lighting workshops to enhance my own operations with off camera lights. And maybe, I can convince Ming Thein to review the Profoto B10, who knows?