ROBIN WONG

MY STREET SHOOTING WORKFLOW 

Haze is back with a vengeance. It cleared off after a series of heavy rain last week, but my oh my, when it came back, the haze was twice as bad as it was before, or worse. Outdoor activities are ill-advised, which meant cutting down on my street shooting. I managed to have a super short session last Sunday, a quick walk at Chow Kit just before lunch. Thank goodness I am not doing any important review blog entries at the moment, the smokey blurry city skyline is not exactly the best test subjects for any cameras or lenses. That mystical de-haze filter on Lightroom? No, that won't help either. 

I shall just post up the few photographs I managed to shoot and, add some thought process and ideas behind them in the description that follows. 

For many kind souls who came and support us at Olympus in Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival (KLPF) 2015, you have my deepest gratitude. Thank you for dropping by and say hi, giving words of encouragement, I needed them to push through a gruesome 3 full day event, and seeing so many Olympus shooters coming together in one place was quite incredible! Canon and Nikon decided not to join the photography festival (which shows how much they support or care about the whole photography community here locally in Malaysia, versus their own sales and branding). Olympus, together with Fujifilm and Sony ruled KLPF this year: and you know what, MIRRORLESS is indeed the future now. 

Since I was practically stuck at KLPF for the entire weekend, I had zero shutter therapy. Thankfully, yesterday was a public holiday in Malaysia (Awal Muharram) and I snatched this much needed opportunity shooting on the streets. Originally I intended to spend the whole day shooting with the Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F4-5.6 R lens, and do a mini-review, as requested frequently by many readers here. Having too many things in my mind and the ever stacking workload as a consequence of being away from the office for too many days (leading up to KLPF, and the aftermath), I mistakenly forgot to bring home the 40-150mm R lens. I shall have to revisit this objective, perhaps in the weekend, and I sincerely hope the rain keeps pouring to clear the hazy weather. 

I joined a huge group of friends and photography-enthusiast to attack Pudu yesterday. It was great to just now talk about cameras (I spent almost all my waking hours talking about gear in KLPF) and just shoot and shoot and shoot. I armed myself with the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II and my favourite M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8 lens. 

If you are in Kuala Lumpur this weekend you may want to make some time for the most happening and largest photography event in Malaysia, the KLPF 2015 (Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival). Olympus is coming in huge this year and we have amazing setup, lined up with tonnes of activities for visitors! I will be stationed at Olympus, KLPF full time on both Saturday and Sunday!

Note: Fellow photographer/blogger Ahmad Firdaus Yosman did an honest and interesting review of his experience with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, coming from a DSLR user. He has got some awesome photos taken with the E-M5 Mark II too, so please give his blog a visit here (click)!

This blog space of mine will experience a little bit of slowing down for the next one to two weeks, mainly due to two reasons: first being the horrible haze enveloping the entire nation at unhealthy air pollution index levels, hence outdoor activities are to be reduced and second, which is the more exciting reason, I will be busy preparing for the coming Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival which will be happening this weekend (9-11 October 2015 at Mid Valley Megamall, KL). Olympus will be at KLPF and I will be stationed there at all times, so if you drop by do come to Olympus area and say hi!

While the nation was under thick, health degrading haze conditions, I managed to sneak in a short shutter therapy session, going out in a huge photowalk last Saturday, joining the Scott Kelby WorldWide Photowalk 2015. I met some awesome people and we attacked Petaling Street. I was probably using the smallest camera amongst all photographers, the Panasonic Lumix GM1 and Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8 lens. How I love using this combination!

About three years ago, I have reviewed the Olympus Stylus XZ-2, the then flagship compact camera from Olympus. Many of you may not know this, the Olympus XZ-2 reviews were the most popular blog entries with the highest number of page views. This was further reflected by the number of emails and messages I have received asking generally about XZ-2, even to this very day! I genuinely thought that it was a highly capable compact camera, packed with all the high end features from OM-D and PEN cameras such as Touch AF, Tilt LCD screen, super control panel and having an accessory port to use an external Electronic Viewfinder. The strength of the XZ-2 lies in that Zuiko lens, 28-112mm F1.8-2.5 which is extra bright, and delivers beautiful, sharp images. 

Why a compact camera? After all I am quite comfortable using the Micro Four Thirds system (and that Fuji X100 for a bit now), but compact cameras will always have that place in my heart. I started photography with point and shoot digital compact cameras (no I did not start with film, unfortunately). I used compact cameras for a span of four years, killing three in the process of learning photography. I had Kodak CX300, Kodak CX7430, and Kodak C875. Did I wish I have more controls? Did I wish the image quality was better? Did I wish I could do more with my Kodak compact cameras? Yes, yes, yes and yes to these questions. However, did I wish I had a DSLR during those compact camera years? Did I wish I have picked up a DSLR sooner? Nope. I never regretted using the compact cameras for four years, and I would have continued using so, as I was at my early learning stage, and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience using the compact cameras with their restrictions and limitations. 

Digital cameras have come a long, long way now. The Olympus Stylus XZ-2 would have been the ultimate camera and I would have wished I had nothing more, if it existed during my early learning years with compact cameras. 

Why am I using the XZ-2 now? 

I guess, in a way, I am reminding myself that all the gear that are available and accessible to me now are more than sufficient for the kind of photography I am doing. 

I may not be able to speak for you, as your requirements and usage for photography may differ. For my own shutter therapy, I do not need a million megapixels, in fact the humble 12MP on the XZ-2 is plentiful. I do not use ridiculously high ISO numbers, I mostly stay below ISO400, and the XZ-2 allows me usable shooting up to ISO1600, hence lots of room to work with. Autofocus was not lightning fast like the newer OM-D cameras, but fast enough for shooting on the street, and generally the camera just works. The lens is amazing, with Image Stabilization built in. The camera shoots RAW, and I can run through my usual workflow with Olympus Viewer 3 in my post processing. 

Even after three years since its launch, I can pick up the XZ-2 and still be happy with it. 

Interchangeable camera has been popular and successful, allowing camera users the ability to change lenses and use specific purpose lenses to accomplish a wider range of photography needs. The availability of many lenses has overshadowed the original humble kit lens that comes with the camera. I myself have been shooting often with prime lenses such as M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8 and 25mm F1.8 lenses. Somehow, there has been a general belief that kit lenses are inferior: lacking in many aspects of lens technicalities, do not deliver sharp and desirable results and should be replaced or upgraded to superior lenses such as fast F2.8 zoom lenses or prime lenses.

While it is generally true that prime lenses and higher grade, more expensive constant aperture zoom lenses will provide superior image quality, I think it is too quick to push the original lowly kit lens aside and not fully utilize it. While the kit lens being a bad lens may have been true in the earlier days of modern digital photography (older entry level DSLR), over the years, the kit lenses have improved optically as well as technologically. I acknowledge that the original kit lenses were not designed to outperform higher grade lenses, but as an all round performer and do it all lens, the kit lenses can provide admirable results.