ROBIN WONG

In about 12 hours from now I will be in Perth, Western Australia. Partly to for a photography assignment shooting an old friend's wedding, and partly to get away from the madness of Kuala Lumpur life and just relax. 

I am not sure if I will find time at all to update this blog, but if you do not hear from me for the next one week, rest assured that I will be out there shooting away happily. I miss Perth so much, and I hope to make the best out of my trip this time. 

Having quick spin with the underrated Panasonic 14mm F2.5 lens. Mounted on my E-PL5 and just took it out for random clicks. Guess what? I actually liked what I am seeing from this lens. It is small, light, wide open at F2.5 and works well with E-PL5. 

Last year, I experienced Holi Festival, or the Festival of Colors for the first time. I was not very sure if I could get into the celebration again this year going in as a photographer, due to the newly imposed rules on restricting DSLR users to enter the festival compound. I pushed my luck and managed to secure myself a media pass (thanks Sunil) and braved myself through the colors and water and grabbed myself some shots. My Olympus DSLR E-5 and Zuiko Digital 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 survived last year's Holi, and I was very confident that it will survive Holi again this year. Therefore, my primary shooting gear was the E-5 and 50-200mm lens attached on it, full time. 

Now for those of you who may not know about Holi, it is also known as 'Phagwah', representing the Hindu month of 'Phalgun' which ushers the spring season, when vegetation begins to bloom after winter. Holi is celebrated to usher the spring season with the brightest and liveliest colors. Many people may only think that Holi Festival is celebrated at India (the origin) or other countries outside Malaysia, but we have been celebrating Holi locally here for over 5 decades. It is a time where everyone comes together, friends, relative and everyone to form a community as colorful as Holi itself. 

The Holi celebration that I went to took place at Shree Lakshmi Narayan Mandir (est 1919), which has been the centre for Spiritual, Cultural & Educational activities mainly for the North Indian community in Malaysia. For more information about the temple as well as the organizer of this event, SDS Youth, kindly visit their Facebook Pages.

Shree Lakshmi Narayan Mandir Facebook Page

SDS Youth Facebook Page

All images were taken with Olympus DSLR E-5 and ZD 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 or Olympus PEN E-PL5 and Panasonic 14mm F2.5

Side Note: This blog has just surpassed 8 Million Page Views. That is a LOT for a humble blog of mine. Thank you all beautiful readers for making this happen. I am not sure what made you guys come back again and again, but what I can tell you is that shutter therapy for me continues, and I hope you get your shutter therapy too!

I have always been a fan of longer focal length when I am shooting on the street, No doubt, I also acknowledge the importance of having wide angle coverage and some subjects and composition work much better with wider angle perspective. Though I have used mostly the Olympus 45mm F1.8 for my street shooting, I have always kept the 17mm F1.8 and the versatile 12-50mm F3.5-6.3 kit lens around handy, just in case there was a sudden need to have a wide perspective. That is the fun part of hunting on the street, you never know what to expect, you never know what comes your way, and it is best to be fully prepared. I am all in when someone advised learning photographers to just stick with one lens (prime lens would be strict but helpful in your growth in photography) but I also believe in insurance. Since Micro Four Thirds system is so small and light, it is easy to carry around several more lenses. 

Today, I decided to change my shooting style when I was attacking the streets. I decided not to use the M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8. Instead, I made room to fully utilize the newly purchased, 25mm F1.8 lens. The 25mm is my primary lens which I used 80% of the time, and it is mounted on my OM-D E-M5 full time. Now, this is something new that I am experimenting now, I have now with me, a PEN E-PL5, with a Panasonic 14mm F2.5 lens attached to it full time. I am running with TWO cameras and lenses, and they are both pretty much wider than what I normally work with. I have effectively 28mm and 50mm perspective (equivalent focal length in 35mm format of course) to play with, and boy did I find this combination really useful, and it worked very well for me. As expected the Olympus 25mm F1.8 lens continues to amaze me with the superb results, while that Panasonic 14mm lens was no slouch either. The best part of all, I can still fit everything into my small bag and still the bag was very light. 

I am getting increasingly high amount of emails asking me about photography tips and how I get the shots I usually get. Therefore, I shall share bits and pieces of what I can with descriptions beneath the photos. Bear in mind if you want to find out about the Shutter speed, aperture or ISO used (even the metering modes and white balance settings) I have ALWAYS left the full exif data of my photos intact, and you can view them. I hide nothing!

All images were taken with Olympus OM-D E-M5, PEN E-PL5 bodies and M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8, Panasonic 14mm F2.5 lenses. 

Everything about this one shot was wrong. It was completely out of focus. It has a strongly backlit subject. The image has no definition and the composition was boring, having the man smacked right in the middle of the frame, with nothing else to support the main content. The exposure was all off with too much shadow and highlight burns. No matter how much post-processing the image cannot be salvaged. This shot was a failure. A rejected frame from the series to "edit" and filter out the unacceptable images.

I was away to Sarawak, my hometown last weekend, was busy with work, thus the lack of shutter therapy. Nonetheless, the reward was in the delicious local Sarawakian dishes which I stuffed myself silly. 

Sarawak Kolo Mee. The longer I have been away from home, the tastier it gets.