ROBIN WONG : Travel

Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

I went to a hipster cafe/restaurant in Bangkok, just to experience the hipster culture there, which to my surprise is not too dissimilar to Kuala Lumpur. According to my friend Jason who was with me for this trip to Bangkok, everything in Roast was awesome, so we ordered several dishes and stuffed ourselves silly. What is a great trip without overpriced, fancy-looking hipster food? Also, it was the perfect end to my shutter therapy session - a cup of overpriced coffee.

I cannot wait to share my street photography images from my Bangkok trip! The articles are submitted to Ming Thein and are in queue to be published very soon at the end of this month. Do follow me on my Facebook Page for instant updates whenever new articles are being published here or on Ming Thein's site.

All images were shot on Olympus PEN E-PL9 and M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8 lens.

I am flying to Bangkok, Thailand this evening, and will be spending several days there. I plan to fill my coming days with plenty of great local Thai food and of course shutter therapy at the locations that I will visit. I am currently writing this article from the airport waiting for my flight!

I have decided to use a small camera bag by Manfrotto (not sure which model this is, but it is very small). I am including the following items into the bag:

1) Olympus PEN E-PL9
I just wanted to go as light as I can, using the PEN makes sense!
2) M.Zuiko 7-14mm F2.8 PRO
I did not want to use this lens but I admit when I arrive at some of the most beautiful and majestic temples in the world in Thailand, I will regret not having this lens. Hence this would be the only PRO lens in the bag.
3) M.Zuiko 17mm F1.8
I plan to do a lot of street shooting while in Bangkok, but I also realize 17mm is not my favourite lens. This is the "just in case" lens, and why not, since it is so small?
4) M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8
This will probably be my most used lens for this trip. I even had an idea to do everything with just 25mm lens. Who knows, that plan may just happen.
5) M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8
Portrait of strangers in Bangkok streets, maybe?
6) Plenty of SD cards
7) 3 batteries (one is in the camera)
8) Beyerdynamic Byron BT
Can't survive long without high fidelity audio

I am on a holiday and I will not be shooting anything too seriously. Hence the minimalist setup. I would have left the 7-14mm behind but part of me wanted to do some awesome landscape shots too.

I have no fixed agenda laid out for this particular trip. I am travelling with a friend so we will do some touristy things and eat a lot of food surely. I also have an Olympus photo sharing session on the coming Wednesday, 9th January 2019 at Olympus Store in Central World shopping mall.

I think this will be an adventurous trip! I am extremely excited and I cannot think of a better way to start the new year 2019.

When I arrived in South Africa, the first stop was at Johannesburg. We spent a full day there and only flew out to Madikwe Game Reserve the day after. We stayed at Southern Sun Montecasino Hotel, and had an afternoon brief tour around Soweto. We went to the museums, Mandela's house as well as having a bus drive through the city perimeters (we did not get to explore the city center itself). Since I was not that interested in museums, like a few other Olympus Visionaries we decided to explore the surrounding streets. I was hoping to catch some portraits of strangers of local South Africans, and I did, just a few.

All images were shot with Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II and M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8 lens

This gentlemen walked up to me and asked if he could take a photograph with me! It was indeed awkward but pleasant at the same time. We had a short conversation and I then asked to take a portrait of him. South Africans are generally very friendly!

The teenagers were equally as eager to have their images taken!

The sun was still high above our heads and the youngsters have beer in their hands! I am loving this culture more and more already.

The sight of "tuk-tuk" was quite an unexpected one. This type of "touristy" transport originated from South East Asia, one far continent away! How did it make an entrance to Africa is beyond me.

Some grilled chicken by the road side.

Stayed at Southern Sun Montecasino Hotel. Did not gamble at the casino though, I am not one with luck when it comes to gambling. But the hotel was really clean and comfortable.

Managed to sneak myself into the frame via the mirror reflection.

This concludes all my blog articles on my recent trip to South Africa! In case you have missed out on any of the earlier blog entries, here is a list:

On Ming Thein's site:

1) Robin Visits South Africa Part 1

2) Robin Visits South Africa Part 2

On this blog:

3) B-Roll Images

4) Tau Game Lodge, Madikwe Game Reserve Review

5) Smartphone Snapshots

6) How I Packed For This Trip with Strict Luggage Restriction

During the Olympus Visionary photography trip to South Africa, we spent about 4 days staying at Tau Game Lodge in Madikwe Game Reserve. Olympus booked the whole place and we had the entire lodge for ourselves for the full duration of our stay. I had such a positive experience at Tau Game Lodge that I thought perhaps I should dedicate one full blog entry about my stay there.

One of the coolest experience was the opportunity to get so close to the wild animals!

Tau Game Lodge provided accommodation, food as well as game drives (wildlife safari drives) all inclusive in their full service package.

I believe in tight curation and only showing the best images. Therefore I have compiled my best images which were published on Ming Thein's site here and here. However, I do have some favourite shots for multiple reasons, which did not fit into the original editing process, hence I am throwing all of them into one single blog entry here. These are some images which could have been OK and I still quite like some of them. I thought a more extensive look to what I have shot as a whole could be interesting for those of you who do want to see the shots that made it, as well as those that I have consciously rejected.

All images were shot with Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II and M.Zuiko PRO lenses 300mm F4 IS PRO, 40-150mm F2.8 PRO and sometimes MC14 1.4x teleconverter was used.

The trip was organized by Olympus for their Olympus Visionary photographers from Asia Pacific regions. The location of shoot was Madikwe Game Reserve. I shall be blogging about the lodge we stayed in, the Tau Game Lodge in the coming blog post.

I like the mother and child theme in this shot but somehow it seems a little empty. Not sure how to describe it, but I guess it does work better in black and white, drawing more attention to the zebra stripes.

I wanted to capture the misty morning scene, which was quite interesting to witness in the desert like terrain of Madikwe Game Reserve. That morning must have been a little more humid than usual for the mist to happen.

I have taken so many of the "backlit" shots of the cheetahs.

Not even sure what this animal is, but it is so cute!

Oh yes, more lions

This was one of my failed attempt to shoot a bird in flight, as the shutter speed was accidentally set too low. Not having sufficient experience shooting birds, I thought 1/500 sec was sufficient to freeze motion. I learned quickly I needed must faster shutter speed.

There were so many colorful birds! I could do one whole blog entry on birds alone.

More birds

This was probably the most beautiful bird I have seen in my whole life. That long red tail flows gentry as the bird flies.

Symbiotic relationship.

I wished the first zebra did not walk that far ahead leaving that much empty space between him and the next zebra.

I even have this idea of making everything black and white for my blog entry here. You know, just for the fun of it.

A rhinoceros. Can't believe they are being endangered. Such gentle beasts.

More shots of the misty morning

That place has this unique beauty

Lion in the bush

An edible looking rabbit

An edible looking chicken

Cheetah

Waiting patiently.

Gorgeous sunset over the horizon

In case you have not seen these articles on Ming Thein's site, I have published two articles about my recent travel to South Africa there. In Part 1, I shared wide angle scenery and environmental animal shots while in Part 2, I went close up with the animals, zooming in tightly in my framing.

These are the better shots I have taken during my trip. Go visit these articles now!
Robin Visits South Africa Part 1
Robin Visits South Africa Part 2

However, if you have not have enough, I will soon also share more shots, taken from my B-Roll (shots that did not make it to the final curation on MT) here, some include my own personal favourites. I shall also share my very brief experience in Soweto, Johannesburg and my quick review of our stay in Tau Game Lodge at Madikwe Game Reserve. More and more images from my trip will be shown here, so do stay tuned!

I have just arrived at Kuala Lumpur a few hours ago, and I cannot wait to share my photographs from my South Africa trip with all you beautiful people. The past 5 days in Madikwe Game Drive was nothing short of incredible, the experience of shooting alongside such talented and skillful photographers from all around Asia Pacific countries was nothing short of eye-opening. I have learned so much over the span of few days and was deeply inspired to further grow myself as a photographer.

Do allow me some time to go through heaps of photographs I have taken and I shall compile them into my coming articles. I shall be working as fast as I can, so do stay tuned.

Meanwhile, here is a sneak peak of some snapshots of the trip taken with my Motorola G5S Plus smartphone, as well as some behind the scene images. South Africa is such a beautiful country, and I cannot wait to return again some day. I miss it already!