Pavilion Decorations

It looks like it was raining rose petals. It wasn't just me, but many others felt the same. Chinese New Year was around the corner and as usual, Pavilion KL had always put in their shift in making sure that their decorations stayed classy. I must say that they did it again.

Since it would be the year of the dogs, there were not many statues around. There was one outside Starhill Gallery which I saw. But to make sure the Moslems don't get upset, they put up statues of the deities instead. Understandable.

The Centre stage had the usual elevations for shows and what not. The decorations started in earnest from the fountain by the Bukit Bintang entrance. There flowers aplenty leading into the mall, with plenty of Instagram opportunities.

I didn't see any events when I was there since it was actually a weekday. Might as well as it wasn't too crowded when I visited.

With the expanse, I had the chance to test out the wide angle lens on the GoPro. The photos turned out really well. The videos were nice as well. The next couple of weekends would be peak shopping before the New Year. Expect the place to be packed from now on.

The GoPro Captures - Part II

From Part I

As for the bad parts, I'm sure there were plenty of YouTube video about them. But on a personal level, I found that the shutter lag - especially capturing RAW - can be a problem. This made the GoPro not the ideal camera for street photography. The moment may have passed on by the time the shutter clicked.

The RAW file also wasn't universal. I wasn't able to open it on my main workflow - using Aperture. Best to capture in jpg in my opinion.

You can see the flare at the topThe subject appears super-big when you come closeAn indoor capture at ISO 1100The captures may be oversaturated for some people. Luckily, using Aperture, I was able to dial down the colour making it more natural. This may be a plus though if you were doing architecture or landscape. On my cityscape photos, it worked a treat. I felt that it was a feature.

It looked like they are adamant about not parking there ...The nice contrast of blue and yellowWalking further alongFinally I find opening the doors for the charger on the GoPro could be a bit tricky. I supposed that was the trade-off since the unit on its own is water-resistant up to 10 meters. With the right technique, it was manageable.

Another indoor shot. This time inside Central Market.Waiting for my tram ride ....I can't miss a shot of the Twin Tower in the sunshine ...On balance, I was more than happy with my purchase, especially as I got it at a discount complete with a free memory card. It was hard to understand why GoPro as a company was struggling since the product was great. Moving into drone sector was a sensible move but maybe they were not able to complete with the likes of DJI. Hopefully they would continue to survive and come up with Hero 7 some time in the near future ...

The GoPro Captures - Part I

When I bought the GoPro Hero 6 Black, I didn't realise how good the photos were going to be. They passed my expectations to be honest in such a compact and easy to carry unit.

The photos were never going to be better than my Alpha 7R mark II with Zeiss Batis wide angle combo. In the right light, the results were just as delightful. With any fixed aperture lens, you would not be able to gain extra sharpness by stepping down the aperture. There were no optical zoom features and the electronic stabilisation only worked for the videos, not photos.

Captured from my balconyThe street of Orchard. The camera did not cope with high dynamic range that well.I did some post-processing dodging to bring out the coloursLet's start with the pluses. The whole setup was light and easy to use. There were not many buttons needed pressing. Just power up and you were good to go. If you needed to toggle a few of the options, the touch screen was a boon.

The lens as I mentioned was much sharper than I expected. Since it was a wide angle, at any distance, you were very likely to get all your subjects in focus. Point and click at its finest.

Nice effectFrom the top. Captured at ISO 800.A semi close-upThen came the part of transferring the captures either to your smartphone or computer. For the phone, I just switch on the built-in wifi on the GoPro, select the GoPro app on my iPhone. I was able to transfer the photos in seconds.

Bicycle in the crowdI must say I have no issue with this perspective ...The shadows seemed to be captured well at low ISOBack at my study, I used the supplied USB 3 to USB-C cable and using the GoPro Quik app, the transfer was just as straight forward. Charging the GoPro was also easy since it worked with any USB-C charger cables. It worked with my Samsung cable.

St Regis Singapore

I really made an effort to get there. Anita had a good deal booking into one of the suites at the hotel. It would be such a waste of we let it passed. Especially when everything had been paid for.

Arriving at 4 am meant that we wasted a day's stay. But still checking in was straight forward and we declined to be sent up, opting to make our own way there. Straight away we ordered some food - more like a super early breakfast for me.

A quick shower and I was already in fairy land. I was really tired. The bed and the shower were just amazing.

The main lobby. Rather quite in late morning.The next morning, I woke up for some omelette as a second breakfast. The breakfast in the room were part of the package of you opt against going down to the café. Limited selection but in mornings such as this, it was priceless.

I spent the next day walking with my camera while Anita did some exploring in the hotel. The Butler we were assigned to confirmed our booking for the Night Safari later in the day while I had an afternoon nap.

The exterior looked unassuming Time for afternoon teaWe got back from the safari at 11 pm, straight away into the shower while the boys sat in the bath. The next morning, we had a proper breakfast by the pool - again amazing food.

Even though our stay there was short, it was enjoyable. I would definitely recommend it although the pool at Marina Bay Sands was hard to beat. The location being near Orchard Road was a plus if shopping was part of the plan.

Should I have more time, I would've sampled the pool. Maybe next time ...

Airport Adventure

As you would probably knew, we were in Singapore last weekend. The original plan was to fly there. Everything went smoothly until it was time to board the plane. Idlan had a panic attack and started screaming.

We ended up abandoning the plan to fly. But since we had booked our suite and the tickets for the Night Safari, I decided to drive all the way down there.

But first, I had to clear the immigration again to re-enter the airport and then went to claim our checked-in luggage which had to be removed from the belly of the aircraft.

That took almost a couple of hours. We then drove back yo Gombak to exchange the car. My C200 needed servicing and I wouldn't wasn't t take the risk of driving all the way to Singapore in it. That detour to change into our MPV wasted another hour and a half. We finally set off from KL close to 10 pm.

I had to make a couple of nap stops - once in Ayer Keroh and another in Machap. We finally reached out hotel room at 5 am, having a quick supper - or should I say early breakfast - before I took a longer nap. It was before noon when I finally woke up, in time to take Idlan out for lunch.

Then another nap after lunch.

Our transport for the Zoo was due at 6.15. I managed a couple of hours of walking around Orchard Road before we departed - and learn the awesome power of the GoPro.

Then came the trip to the zoo before having a nice KL g breakfast the next morning before we set off again back home to Kuala Lumpur. More tiring than I bargained for but at least we did our traveling.

We still need to sort out Idlan's fear of flying. We thought that he would be OK. We were more worried about Anita. In July, Idlan has a school trip to Chiangmai arranged. Not sure if he would be able to deal with that trip ...