No Walk Today

The weather had been awful all day. And as I finished my clinic to get home to prepare for the photo walk, Anita called me to say that irfan had been crying all morning with a tooth ache. We needed to get him to a dentist.

Getting an emergency dental appointment on a Saturday afternoon at such short notice was never easy, let alone to ER somebody who could handle children. But we were in luck. Anita managed to get an appointment at 3pm at Great Eastern Mall.

And the dentist was a great one. Although Irfan was having his usual tantrum at the beginning, the dentist spent time with him and won him over. He tolerated his X-rays and had his fillings done, with minimal fuss. It was awesome. And Anita was pleased.

By the time it was over, it was already almost 5pm. It was still raining heavily outside. Even of I made it to the meeting point for the walk, with the wearer being this dull and wet, plus the fact that I did not know any of the group member, I decided against it. Spent the time with my boys instead. And we had tea at Alexis. Irfan hardly had anything to eat all day because of the ache, and finished his plate of pasta in record time.

Irfan was no longer in pain after the visit. We would definitely go back to see the same dentist if the boys had problems from now on.

How Was The Weather?

I was just finishing my clinic when I peered outside and realise how the weather was like. It looked awful. And how would the photo walk go?

The morning group had assembled and were ambling their way across town, wary about how the weather going to turn out later today. Hopefully there won't be flooding ......

Looking Forward

After the busy month, with illness and weekend calls, I finally got a relatively free weekend coming up - although they were never completely free in my line of work. So, I was already stating to wind down even in the Friday afternoon.

We went out for dinner after work Friday, with the boys insisting on Chinese. KLCC was where we headed. And oh boy, did the boys love their Chinese food. We actually had to order extra. It was definitely worth the trip.

For the rest of the weekend, I will be joining my photography friends after work on Saturday, for the Scott Kelby Photo Walk. I attended it since 2009, helped organise it in 2010, but could only afford to be a participant forest year and this weekend due to work commitments.

This would be the fifth installment of the walk. In the years past, we were lucky that the weather had always been kind. The forecast for the weekend was not so great however. For the last week, KL had been having heavy downpours in late afternoons. And to make matters worst, there would be an event in the middle of KL town where a few of the main roads would be closed for the afternoon and evening! Traffic going to be a problem.

Therefore, I have decided to park my car at KLCC and take the public transport across. I would need a comfortable shoes then - and of course a full charge on my phone and camera.

For Sunday, I would have to go to Low Yat to make a survey. My Haematology Society was planning to buy a laptop. I did some survey a few months back but I was sure that the prices were already outdated. And it didn't take much of an excuse to convince me to go for another wall there. Strictly business of course.....

Looking forward to a full weekend.

KL Photo Festival 2012

So, was it worth the trip to attend the KL Photography Festival last weekend? It was for me. For the longest time, I had been looking to get hold of a computer screen colour calibrator. I had been searching around Low Yat for the last few years, but nobody really knew what I was talking about. The KLPF a couple of years back was right disappointing. So, when I set off, I made a list of things I was looking for.

Those were, a decent printing service, a decent portable flash system, and maybe a camera bag. But I couldn't believe my luck when I came across a Datacolor booth, the maker of the Spyder products. Nice! They make the Spyder4 screen calibrator, the SpyderCube camera grey point calibrator and many other stuff. Before long, I was lugging up the stuff from there. I got he Spyder4Elite system, and well as the cube, all with a 25% discount. But I wasn't done yet.

Yes, there were plenty of modelsI was quite surprised to see the number of people carrying heavy camera gear with them to shows like this. Yes, there would be models at the booths for them to get photos off, but plan to browse. I only carried my iPhone. That was enough.

The show this year was much better than the previous, much to do with the recent announcements of products at Photokina. The market for compact system cameras were definitely expanding. I spent some time at the Olympus booth, taking a close look the the OM-D EM5. A neat little camera. Very capable despite the small size. Gat autofocus, but I suspect that the colour reproduction as well as low light performance would be found wanting compared to my X-Pro1. I was also disappointed with the choices of lens for the micro 4/3rd system still. The best of the bunch would be the Leica 25 f1.4. But I have already have the 35 f1.4 on my Fuji. The zoom may be a bit better but I would rather use my 7D and my L lens for that.

They had a separate area for photography tourism packages..... as well as photography talks .....I should stick to what I have at the moment and slowly expand. I was sure that all systems have their strength and weaknesses. It all depended on how you use them.

The next stop would be to look at the flash system. The Elichrome system was mighty cool, but the system - complete with remote trigger - would only be available in Malaysia in the next couple of months. Got the contacts of the dealers and I might give them a visit later in the year.

He next item I bought was a camera tripod. My old one had been a bit wonky and I needed a second stand for my Speedlight. I picked up a nice Manfrotto carbon fibre unit with a ball head at half the price! Bargain!

Last items was light box, for still life photography. A nice portable unit which fold neatly into a bag, with its own light source. It also came with diffusers and multiple backgrounds. A bit expansive but I thought I got what I paid for, judging from the results I was getting. More on the photos on that in my later post.

I left the show with my hands full, with plenty of explaining needed to be given to Puan Anita when I reached home ....

A Different Start

It was a lightly different routine for me for this week. I have to get to the sister hospital at Ara Damansara as I have a patient to see there. I had a few patients there before, and I find that traveling back and fro in the heavy traffic could be taxing. Therefore, I would go there first thing in the morning, and if necessary, last thing in the evening.

The hospital was however a lot different than the busy SDMC at Subang Jaya. More spacious. More relaxing. But at the moment, not geared up to my specialty. Otherwise it was a nice relaxing detour from an otherwise routine morning.