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

I will be travelling to Bangkok, Thailand for the first time in my life (yes, Bangkok is near KL where I am and it is somewhat strange I have not been there yet) and I am excited for the street photography opportunity there! My street shooting friends have been raving about how they think Bangkok could be their street photography heaven. I will be there from January 6th to January 10th, 2019, and I could not ask for a better way to start the new year.

Incidentally, Olympus Thailand has also invited me to conduct a photo sharing session to Thai audience! The photo sharing will be held at Olympus Store in Central World on the 9th January 2019 at 6.30pm.


If you are in the vicinity and you have been following this blog, please do drop by and say hi, I would love to meet you in person. From my blog traffic stats, I can see that I do have a sizeable Thai audience and please do show yourself!

I am extremely thrilled for this coming adventure and I cannot wait to visit Bangkok in about a week's time (from this writing).

Bangkok, here I come!

To all you beautiful people, have a Merry Christmas! I wish you a blessed and joyous celebration, full with great food and even greater company.

After coming home from the South Africa trip 2 weeks ago I have had back to back shoots, multiple Olympus official workshops and walkabouts as well as numerous meetings that I did not really have much chance to catch my breath. Even on Christmas Eve itself, I have had an almost full day outdoor pre-wedding portrait shoot which was super fun, but exhausting at the same time. I have had an incredible plan for my Christmas Day, and the plan is to "Do Nothing" for the whole day.

Got myself overpriced cup of coffee, hipster brunch, classic horror novel and a laptop to distract me from time to time, it was the perfect day for me. The screen shows a preview of the pre-wedding portrait shoot I did yesterday!

"Do Nothing" means, not meeting anyone, not doing any work and basically just chill and relax for the whole day. I thought this would be the best time to finish up the Pet Sematary which I have had for a while now. All I needed was some good coffee (all good coffee is overpriced in KL) and I can just let the hours slip by easily. This was the much needed me time, and I I plan to slow things down toward the end of the year. 

I understand that Christmas is pretty much the family time of the year for most people in the world, but me coming from a traditional Chinese upbringing, our festive celebration Chinese New Year is when we gather with our families and relatives. Being so close to each other, Chinese New Year 2019 will be in early February 2019, hence I decided not to travel home this time around for Christmas. I do however look forward to going home for Chinese New Year very soon and spend some quality time with mum. 

Oh and to celebrate not only Christmas, but also my birthday (I am a Boxing Day child), I got myself an early present. 

I got myself the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F1.2 PRO lens!

I admit I have had this lens for about 2 months now, and I have been wanting to buy one for more than a year already. While my favourite of all Olympus primes would be 45mm, I acknowledge that the most used lens, both for my commercial shoots as well as personal shutter therapy sessions is the 25mm F1.8. Hence it was only natural that I would upgrade to the incredible F1.2 version. I have been using this lens a lot lately and I cannot wait to share more images with you beautiful people. Also, I will have a dedicated blog entry about the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f1.2 PRO lens. 

Did you buy anything to add into your camera bag during the holiday seasons? I hope you have had a wonderful celebration! I shall have one or two more blog entries before I wrap the blog up for 2018. 


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
I received the loaner Lenovo Yoga C930 from Lenovo Malaysia one day before my flight out to South Africa, and I have used the laptop for the entire duration of my travel. I have watched Tv shows and movies on it during my 11 hours flight from Singapore to Johannesburg, I have downloaded and backed up my photographs taken at Madikwe Game Reserve daily and also post-processed my images using Capture One Pro and Olympus Viewer 3 software. Furthermore, I have written 4 blog articles on the Lenovo C930 including my two main articles published on Ming Thein's site. In this particular blog review, I shall share my experience using the Lenovo Yoga C930 during my travel and how it performed for a photographer.

This blog review is a continuation from my first impression update of the Lenovo Yoga C930 which I have posted here. Please do read that entry before continuing if you have not done so. I shall not repeat the feature highlights of the laptop and my initial thoughts on it.

IMPORTANT NOTES: The Lenovo Yoga C930 was on loan from Lenovo Malaysia, and will be returned after the use for review. I am not associated to Lenovo Malaysia and this blog article and my subsequent review articles pertaining to Lenovo products are done independently. I am not a tech or gadget writer, hence I will not be doing the usual laptop reviews found elsewhere online. I used the laptop as a practicing photographer - for image post-processing and also blog article writing. 


The Lenovo Yoga C930 was so slim that it can be easily fitted into any bag without taking much precious space, allowing me to pack more items 

About

Popular Posts

Facebook