KLPF 2014 Discoveries

The main part of the festival for me personally was the personal work exhibits scattered around the hall. I could always go to the shops to look at cameras, but for exhibits, it was not often I could see this many. There were so many talented photographers around, both in terms of idea and execution.

One thing which stuck on my mind was the quality of the printing. Some of them were pretty awesome but the size of the printouts were too small to be enjoyed. Maybe it was the cost. I understood from one of my friends who had his work shown, all his printing was sponsored by Fuji, but the size of the printed work would never make a gallery show. As if Fuji was not putting in the funding whole-heartedly. I would happily paid to see those work - the exhibition was free.

Presentation to listen to ....... and photos to see ...Subjects to photographAnother thing I noticed was a lack of sitting area. A cafe or two would have been nice. I don't think it was against the exhibition hall regulations since on the previous occasions I went there, there were cafe and stalls strewn across the area. After walking around for a couple of hours, I wouldn't mind having a sit down reading the handouts the stalls passed as I walked by.

On a more positive note, the amount of area dedicated for the exhibits should be lauded. The number of talks and topics covered were also pretty decent. I sat to listen to one of the speakers. Clearly he was enjoying his time on stage, taking us through his work. It was more a talk on motivation and inspiration than just technique.

Panasonic had their own stage - with great production value I must add - next to their booth. I wouldn't mind sitting through a talk about studio lighting, but unfortunately my timing was off.

One thing caught my eye was a portable flying camera system, controlled via remote. The camera would be mounted on a hovering craft, able to travel about 200 meters at a decent height. Was not exactly stealthy, but an interesting innovation ... It was selling for around RM4000.

Seen at Thai tourism boothFor the "Peeping Tom" in usNext year's date had been bookedDuring the walk, I bumped into old friends and we talked about how there festival was to them this time. Most agree that the gallery was good, but the vendors should have made more effort to really offer us something extra. Both in terms of deals and discovery of their new hardware. As it was, I felt like it was merely a glorified shop front. Minus any special offers ....

Still I would definitely be coming again to visit next year's chapter. I felt that it was my duty to keep shows like this going. The quality could have definitely be better and hopefully we would start to see exclusive products which were hard to find in the shops. Well, at least that was my wish .....

Here are my entries for the event in 2011 and 2012.

A Thing of Beauty

I called my usual camera store to inquire if they have a used Ricoh GR in store after having a look at it at KLPF. I can see it being my designated pocket camera. I was lucky.

They just had a four-month old unit just in from last weekend and it was going for half the original price. Sounds fishy. But I must have a look.

After work, I stopped by the shop on my way home and had a closer look. I was smitten. It came with all the original parts and documentation. Plus it still held Ricoh manufacturer warranty for another 8 months. Shutter count acceptable. A bit of smudge here and there but no big deal. It was an aluminum body after all.

I paid extra for an external charger and a memory card. It still had the original pouch, not that I would be using that. Took it round the block for some snaps. My mind was made up.

I went home happy with the GR in hand. Would need to familiarise with the unit before I could really get the best of it. Maybe a photo walk or two. It was light and small enough to slip into my trouser pocket, although a bit bigger than the Sony RX100 III.

I took a series of snap at the apartment during lunch time and processed the jpeg. I still need to get the colour tone to my liking but certainly it had potential. More experimentation then.

Productive Morning

According to my clinic list, there should be around 10 patients due in clinic this morning. But I ended up seeing only a single patient this morning. I wonder what was going on?

But that gave me the chance to sort out the lecture I was due to deliver this weekend. Plenty of stuff got done which was great.

Finally, when I was about to go, patient stated turning up. Late lunch then...

KLPF 2014 First Look

KLPF 2014 First Look : The quality of exhibitions in Malaysia still left plenty to be desired. What was sad was often the subject matter was different to what the exhibition was about.

Yesterday, the exhibition was exactly just that. The Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival was held at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre last weekend, and it was an event I frequent almost every year, ended up with me parting with cash on stuffs which I ended up not using, just gathering dust in my store. That however did not stop me from going again this year.

Some really nice tales hereInteresting talk, but I must say I dozed off half waySpent some time browsing here. The deal of the day was rather decent.I had plans of what I wanted to explore there. No, not the models and the photo ops. I wanted to look at a few specific items. As before, I would not be expecting premium brands such as Leica to turn up. I wanted to have a look at the Pentax medium format, the Ricoh GR, a dedicated bag for my OM-D EM-1, Nikon Coolpix A series camera and maybe some lenses to try on the Fuji X-series range. Plenty to cover actually.

I arrived there well early, before noon. I set off through the program, familiarising myself with the lay out.

There was essentially 3 main areas, with the central foyer being filled with a stage for talks and presentation. I started with the least crowded hall first. Olympus, Photobook Malaysia, the photographic society booths, Ricoh and other generic vendors selling accessories. The cabinet cases caught my eyes, but rather than buying I decided to get their contacts as I couldn't be asked to drag the cabinets into my car.

I also spent some times at the Olympus booth. They had some assessors, and the limited edition OM-10 looked neat. The had a few lenses but they were sold at retail price. so, I moved on to the Ricoh/Pentax booth. I got to fiddle around with the GR. Again, sold at retail price, with nothing extra thrown in. And they didn't have the Pentax 645 Medium Format to show. Lame!

Shazni's work on display. But as I mentioned, the canvas could have been bigger.Some of the exhibits here were excellent despite being hidden away right at the backThis one took the cake. A submission by a competitor entitled "Freedom". A series of picture of him lying on the floor without a care in the World.The back end of the hall was turned into a make-shift galleries. Some really interesting masterpieces were on show. I will write about that in a separate entry later. Compared to last year, the space for gallery had at least doubled, which for me personally was a goor thing. I made my way to the main hall.

Nikon, Sony, Panasonic and a bit of Fuji. But no Canon! At least none that was obvious. Epson got a neat booth showing off their printers and scanners. Spent some time there but owning a decent photo printer at home could be cumbersome, and not exactly value for money.

Part of a bigger pieceI guess our interests are diverse

No Nikon A to see. I spent some time at the Sony booth, but again, no special offer. A few purchase-with-purchase deals, but not really very attractive. Fuji had the X-T1 as their main attraction. I wanted to try the new 10-24 f4, but sadly it was a no show. Seemed to be recurring theme. I spent the rest of the time exploring other people's work at the exhibition gallery.

The third hall was filled up by tourism and travel agency. Some nice and neat offers, but due to my no fly policy for this year, I didn't bother having a close look. I then went back to have another look at Photobook, the Olympus booth and another feel of the GR. I might buy that actually later on. A nice neat camera which I could slip in my pocket. Could be a classic, although I already own the X100.

The Crowd was Back

The school holidays had just wrapped up and the consequence was obvious. The traffic was a pain, and I felt it the most on the drive home. Getting stuck in a traffic jam for 45 minutes was not a laughing matter especially after a long day, doing a couple of clinics at different hospitals.

The drive to work would not much fun either if not for my early start. How I wished that we moved out to the apartment. Life would be so much different.