Experiment!

The walk around Bukit Bintang this morning was a first for a couple of things. First it was the first proper walk with my brand new Fujinon lens, the amazing XF 56mm f1.2. On the X-T1, it translated into an 85mm on the 35mm full-frame conversion. Ideal for portrait, and in my case, a great length for street candid.

The wide aperture would help to isolate the subject while throwing some serious bokeh in the mix. I only managed around 50 snaps this time as I was out for some errands. I would definitely be using this a lot more during my Penang trip this weekend.

The second first was using my fenix 2 GPS watch for photo geotagging. It was a success.

As soon as I left Pavilion where I parked my car, I switched on the GPS tracking - after synchronising the time on the watch and the clock on the camera of course - and just fired away.

I left the GPS tagging on for more than an hour. It lost the signal every time I went indoor, but soon locked on again the moment I stepped out. No need to touch the watch at all. It did the hunting automatically.

At the end of the walk, I still got 92% power registered on the watch. I then downloaded the GPX data onto my laptop - can also be done through cloud synching - and booted up my usual geotagging program, Photolinker. Let the program pair the photos and location as registered on the time stamp together and everything was hunky dory.

Definitely useful if I was abroad, as the watch also used the satellite data to set the time. Again, more experimentation this weekend in Penang.

Morning Walk

The third day of Raya, and despite this not being a public holiday any longer, the city was still empty. Plenty of people were taking advantage of the long weekend and school holidays to spent time away from the office I was sure.

The tranquility was soon interrupted when we drove past Chow Kit. Bad idea to pass through there. A lot of people was around there - the majority being Indonesian. The place seemed like a Mini Jakarta this morning.

I had to settle some bills and do some shopping, so Anita and I went around Bukit Bintang this morning. We had brunch at one of the cafe - which was packed. The haze was improving and the sun was out. It started to rain however as soon as we drove home.

We did some packing afterwards before heading to the apartment to spent the evening there. Most of the stuff for the Penang trip was at the apartment and Anita felt that it would be easier to pack from there. Time to get some rest as I would be doing all the driving tomorrow morning.

Then the Satay

For the second year running, satay was on the menu for Raya. We again bought the satay from Satay Sri Melaka at Keramat.

Anita made the booking last week. So, yesterday, we just turned up to pick up the order. By the time we arrived at the stall, the satay were already lined up. All we needed to do was to bring the receipt, and pick up the satay. No sweat!

Picking up the Rendang

We ordered the rendang a fee weeks in advance and the caterer that we ordered them from only take a limited number of orders. We had been ordering from them for a member of years and we were never disappointed.

My Mum came across them about ten years back when she ordered some catered food from them. They were both cheap and of good quality. And most importantly, very reliable.

When I took Anita to pick up the rendang, the items were already ready. We picked them up for my Mum and one of our friends. And the smell .... heavenly.

We would definitely be coming back here next year ...

Haze in an Empty City

https://www.flickr.com/photos/harisrahman/14587052618/

The City dwellers were still away. Might as well as overnight, the air quality plummeted. Visibility was down to less than 200m despite the City being almost devoid of its usual traffic.

Not a good idea for outdoor activities. At least that was what I told myself when I got up this morning and was too lazy to have my morning jog.

Now praying that it would rain, washing the haze particles away ....