ROBIN WONG

To all my beautiful readers who are celebrating, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir Dan Batin!


Eid-ul-Fitr is a huge thing in Malaysia, and the whole nation is celebrating.

I was involved with a local music video production as the behind the scenes stills photographer and having the song "Balik Kampung" played repeatedly for several hours sort of got me deep into the Raya mood! I just could not get the song out of my head even days after that shoot, and while I was shopping away (sales, sales everywhere before Raya) I stumbled upon this Baju Melayu. I have never owed or worn one before. I thought, why not just try it on, and see how I look in it? You know what, I LOVED IT! So I bought myself a simple, traditional looking Baju Melayu.

One funny fact: when I got the Baju Melayu, I did not know that the set did not come with the buttons for the shirt (yes, I know I am that noob, please forgive me). After doing some online research, Uncle Google told me I had to purchase the buttons separately. I hunted down some plain, simple looking buttons at Kamdar, Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman the next day. All was well again.

To those of you driving long distances home, be extra careful and mindful on the road. I cannot wait to eat all the ketupat, rendang, curry and satays! Thank goodness the waistband on Baju Melayu pants is highly stretchable! I think they made it that way for the purpose of food over-consumption (just my uneducated assumption).

Have an awesome, joy-filled and meaningful Raya 2017 everybody! Any one of my blog readers have open houses? PLEASE INVITE ME OVER TO EAT!

You know those super polished, beautifully lit, totally Instagrammable food photographs? I know I should not join those hipster crowd but being Asian myself sometimes I just could not help it. I too, take plenty of food photographs at cafes and restaurants. So, in this blog entry, I will show you how I do it, in step by step instructions.

Important note:
Hey beautiful people! If you have not found out, I have joined Ming Thein's site as a contributor, and will actively write and share about photography there. However, I will still keep this old site of mine alive, with updates about happenings of photography community around Malaysia, a little bit of personal journal and also random stuff about life and things that go about around me. 

Last evening, I was invited by Mahesh, an awesome photographer friend to attend an exhibition launch that he was participating in. The photo exhibition was titled "Nature Thru The Lens", organized by Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), which was also a fundraising for the MNS group. The exhibition showcases immensely inspiring, 81 tightly curated nature and wildlife themed photographs from dozens of local Malaysian photographers. The exhibition is now taking place in The White Box, Publika, happening daily from 13 to 18 June 2017. The entrance to the exhibition is free, and the photographs on display are also on sale with profits going directly into nature conservation funds.

I have been teasing about a new project I am working on post Olympus departure, and it is finally happening today! I am joining Ming Thein, a fellow photographer who is also based in Malaysia, actively writes about photography, sharing his inspiring photography work and also reviews imaging products. Congratulations to those few who have guessed this right, it is amazing how people can put pieces that were so far apart together!

It all started on the actual day I officially handed my resignation letter to Olympus Malaysia. Ming Thein was visiting on the very same day, and during our coffee session, I instinctively decided to tell him that I have left Olympus though only a very small handful of people knew about that at the time. Ming was shocked by the news of course, then something unexpected happened: he invited me to join him!



Ming Thein was the only one photographer from Malaysia (apart from myself) who genuinely has a strong online presence within the photography crowd. His meticulous approach and expertise when it comes to technical photography execution come almost second to none. In my life, I have not met anyone more knowledgeable, intelligent and passionate about photography than Ming. His imaging product reviews have been used as reference, even against larger photography sites such as DPReview.com. His photography articles resonate with his audience and often many have benefited and learned plenty from his generous sharing of knowledge and experience.

Therefore, when he asked me to join him, my response was an instantaneous, absolute yes.

Both of us love photography, we write articles pertaining to photography regularly, and we produce fresh photographs to share. We both have considerably strong audience base, though we probably speak to different groups and levels of photographers. My target audience has always been newcomers to photography and also entry level photographers who wish to improve themselves. Ming Thein's crowd is generally more advanced, ranging from mid-level photo-enthusiasts to advanced professional photographers, many who live and breathe photography and know what they are doing. It makes sense that we combine our resources, work together and build a platform on a singular page that can speak across to all spectrum of photographers. While Ming Thein elaborates on the real difference that a medium format can make in terms of pure resolution and tonality, I will remind you that it is important to pick up the camera, go out for a satisfying shutter therapy session. I strongly believe our differing perspectives and purpose of photography shall complement each other, wonderfully and further help to create a more interesting and complete photography based website.



Rest assured that I will still be Robin Wong, that will not change. What I have been doing on my blog so far, sharing about shutter therapy sessions and also doing product reviews, I will continue to do so over at Ming Thein's site. I will continue to shoot, explore photography, do more experimentation, share my thoughts and tonnes of new photographs.

So what is happening to the old blog, robinwong.blogspot.com? This site will remain open and available, all my past cameras and lenses reviews will still be online. While I am moving on and update most of my future photography related articles on Ming Thein's site, I will still come back to this old site from time to time. I may want to continue to explore smartphone photography, or write about recommended noodles places in my hometown, that awesome barber shop that is hidden at a corner, and maybe even talk about that new pair of audiophile grade wireless bluetooth earphones I have just bought. I will not update this blog as regularly as before, and after many, many years of photography heavy blogging, I am finally reverting this blog to its original form: a personal online journal.

I am both excited and anxious at the same time, about moving over to Ming's site. To Ming Thein, thank you so much for believing in me and having me on board! This is a challenge to myself to step up my game and continue to push myself to become a better photographer. I am thrilled to see where this collaboration will take us to.

To all my beloved readers from robinwong.blogspot.com, thank you for staying with me all this time, and please to continue to follow me over at blog.mingthein.com! We do have some interesting articles in the pipeline and cannot wait to share them soon.

Griffin Hammond, the Panasonic GH5 ambassador was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia speaking on documentary film making. One of the perks of leaving Olympus Malaysia, was the freedom to receive invitations to attend such cool events, and actually be there!

I was back in my hometown, Kuching for the past few days. Those were full days of shooting, catching up with family and friends, shooting and even more shooting!

I was home to shoot for my cousin Andy's wedding, which was a beautiful ceremony and I cannot wait to share some photos here soon from that wedding shoot. It has been a while since I last shot any wedding assignment, so this was particularly challenging for me, but I had such a blast capturing overabundant joy and happiness of the newly weds together with their family, relatives and friends!

I also spent an evening volunteering myself to cover a local poetry/creative writing/spoken words event, Word Of Mouth 9 (WOM9): Hunger and it was quite an experience being immersed in a different artistic medium for a change. It was quite inspiring seeing local Kuching talents sharing their talent and creativity on stage.

I made sure that I spent as much time as I could with beloved mum, who is doing great by the way, and we celebrated a belated mother's day in Kuching. It was a miracle that I still managed to find time to catch up with a few other close friends.

I squeezed one morning just for shutter therapy. I did not get many usable shots, but it was amazing shooting alongside Jee and Madey, both street photographers whom I have exhibited together with earlier this year. I really did wish I had more time to shoot on the beautiful streets of Kuching, but I also believe that getting my priority right is more important. Time with beloved mum and friends was well spent.

All images were taken with an Olympus PEN E-P5, Panasonic 14mm F2.5 and M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8 lens.

Lighting is the most important consideration when it comes to making a photograph, after all, a photograph consists of nothing but light and shadow. However, lighting is not ideal in most cases.

The worst that can happen, is a strong backlight, rendering the front subjects in dark shadows, and everything else in the background overexposed and burned out in highlights. This is especially true in street photography, you cannot relocate your subjects (I advice not to do so, but if you must, feel free to practice your own style), you cannot change the available light situations. Yet, some subjects are worth shooting despite the crappy light: interesting character in a portrait, which I have encountered so often.

Therefore, I would like to share how I deal with difficult lighting conditions when I am out doing my street shooting, especially when it comes to strong backlight. Kindly take note that these are my own shooting preferences that fit my personal photography style, they may not work for every one.