Berjaya Times Square

The last time I was at Times Square was when I just returned from Atlantic and needed a new Micro SIM card for my Nexus 4. I went to the DiGi store as it was one of their flagships. I haven't been back there ever since.

It was CNY eve, and there were plenty of people and some of the shops were winding down for an early closure. Surprisingly, I found that more shops were opened there compared to 2009 when I came to visit the indoor playground rides. It was going through a period of transformation then and a lot of the shops there were unoccupied.

I also remembered the nightmare of finding a car park spot here. Luckily, I parked at Pavilion and walked here.

I didn't realise how huge the place was. Almost 11 stories of shops, an Imax cinema, indoor theme park. There was also areas for bazaars and small stalls lining the corridors. One of them was called Central Park which looked neat from the upper floors.

I must admit that the place appeared gloomy at the upper levels - some seedy-looking shops there, but the lower floors looked full of live.

I spent the afternoon trying out my camera and the dizzying rows of escalators caught my attention. It could've been mistaken to a grand hotel rather than a shopping mall instead - yes, there was a hotel on one of the wings.

The theme park however looked to be run down and some of the rides looked to be permanently closed. One whole wing looked to be covered - I really didn't know what was going in there. Even the famous indoor roller coaster seemed to be on hiatus.

All in all, the place could do with a makeover of some sort. It was at a risk of doing a slow death....

Slideshow of the outing here.

Long Weekend Over

It had been a long three days, but things got quieter by yesterday afternoon, so much so that I was able to join my KLickr buddies for a spot of coffee in town.

The boys enjoyed their PD trip, especially Idlan who was still buzzing about it when he reached home last evening. Hour was talking about how serene things were at the beach, not like the hustle and bustle of town over pizza last night.

The boy was clearly growing up too fast.

They have another day of their CNY break today to enjoy before returning to school tomorrow. As for me, I was contemplating cancelling my afternoon clinic in Subang. KL was on holiday still today, so no trip to ParkCity this morning. ‎

23mm Tryout

Finally I managed to take the new lens for a spin this afternoon. And the weather was gorgeous. Venue, as usual around Pavilion, walking towards Berjaya Times Square.

First I took photos of the CNY decorations at Pavilion. Then, across to Fahrenheit before heading towards Times Square. Spent a fair amount of time there - first time I was there in at least a couple of years. The place was packed considering this was CNY eve.

Next, I walked to Low Yat, emerging on the opposite side to walk along Jalan Bukit Bintang. I then doubled back towards Pavilion, stopping at Tours les Jours on the way home.

I finished things off with more snaps at Pavilion before heading home. Total walking time was almost two hours. Bright sunshine and clear blue sky. Couldn't ask for more.

So, I must admit, the lens was razor sharp even wide open in good light. Things got even better stopped down to f4.0, especially when it came to contrast.

I did notice that at f1.4 in low light and high ISO, the photos were soft. Maybe because I was snapping in jpeg, and the sensor over compensated. The contrast were also lost. The 35mm was better at low light resolution wise. It was still an amazing lens however.

With the flower shaped hood, the lens attracted too much attention for my liking. Coupled this with the slow focusing speed of the X-Pro1, there was a couple of shots which I missed. The whole unit also felt heavier than I was used to as I mainly used either the 17mm or the 35mm, but I could do with the weight. The whole setup had some heft to it.

The hood definitely helped with the flare especially in the harsh sunshine.

I must say for indoors, I still prefer the 35mm. Out in the street, the focal length of the 23mm was a winner. Maybe it was a matter of getting used to things. Or the fact that I prefer to take photos of details.

I was planning for another outing this Sunday when I would be meeting up with a few of my KLickr friends. I'll be taking it for another spin then.

Slideshow of the outing here.

Hipster Walk

I finished my afternoon round early yesterday - I don't have afternoon clinics on Tuesdays - and left the hospital early. There were people doing some repairs at the apartment with my maid keeping an eye on things.

I decided to go do some errands and take my camera out as well.

Of all places, I ended up at Pavilion and Low Yat. And there were plenty of people there. But contrast that to weekends, there were not many hipsters and teenagers carrying their oversized DSLR round the place. It was just me....

And the weather was great. Great until ingot a phone call to return to the hospital for an emergency admission.

But I had a couple of hours to burn. Coffee and ice cream at the cafe, and just going around Low Yat checking what was new.

You could tell that there was nothing much going on when the main foyer at Low Yat was showcasing beddings. I knew this was Chinese New Year and all, but this ain't no Parkson! What wer were they thinking?

No new gadget to have a look at, just old stuff. The camera lens I wanted to buy was still not in stock. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Bukit Bintang instead.

Still trying to figure out who's idea it was to turn Low Yat into a bedding store ....The traffic back to Subang was surprisingly reasonable with the traffic police doing their job making sure the flow was good. Took me around 30 minutes to get from Pavilion to SJMC. Hmmm.... I must do this again!

Pavilion CNY Slideshow

The narrative from this visit can be read here.