Friday Outing

The boys were finally done with their assessment and from Friday, they would be off for two and a half weeks. Easter break of sorts. Some of their friends were going abroad. The boys had to make do with a trip to Kedah next week, providing the MPV - currently at the workshop with gearbox issues - was sorted.

As soon as they arrives at the apartment on Friday, they decided to stay in, play with their Lego and video games. Anita wanted to go out for dinner but both of them didn't want to follow.

That would mean a date night for Anita and I.

Looks like some serious filming is going on here ....

We went over for a walk around Pavilion as Anita had to buy some gifts for a birthday party the next day. I took the time to walk around to take some street photos. Weather was overcast. Had a nice walk around, although there were not much to snap at.

I decided to only bring my GR along and ninja around for a bit.

Dinner was at Tony Roma's. But we left early as they boys were at the apartment only with the maid. ‎

This Weekend's Walk

I was on call last Friday, which usually meant that my whole weekend would be occupied. I was somewhat lucky this time around that even though there were many admissions, things settled down pretty well by this morning.

I ended up discharging half of my workload on the Sunday morning.

That meant that I could have a relatively quiet afternoon, catch up with some some sleep, or maybe walk around.

I decided to head to Low Yat Plaza. The missions was to have a look at the soon-to-be-released Galaxy S6 Edge. Great phone, but shame about the the skin which Samsung put on on top of the Android standard OS. Minimal this time but noticeable.

Fantastic screen. Much smaller than I thought - after all, I was carrying the iPhone 6 Plus in my pocket.

But it rained while I was browsing and I spend a good half an hour at Starbucks waiting for it to subside. And then, the sun came out unexpectedly, allowing me to take a few more snaps.

Not much else was going on after that. I was thinking about watching a movie but the timings were a bit off.

Back home then for some afternoon tea with the boys and Anita.

Roadwork at Bukit Bintang

Clearly Bukit Bintang would never be the same anymore. Especially looking at the amount of digging they were doing around the iconic intersection between Jalan Bukit Bintang and Sultan Ismail. And it had been going on for the last couple of years, with an almost constant changing of the road layout around that particular area.

This development also had contributed to the closure of another famous landmark, the Bukit Bintang Plaza.

So, on my way to Low Yat Plaza last weekend, I went past the famous intersection again. There were still a big crowd mingling about, but the layout had changed again. The pedestrian walkway was still preserved but getting across the road could be a bit tricky.

I saw a few Mat Salleh stopping at the junction trying to get around the place. I was sure they stayed at a hotel nearby and wanted to explore the area. Not a good time for that mate!

Some heavy gear there ...I sure hope that all these distractions would pay dividend at the end of the day. There had been a lot of investment here and I hope that it would all be worth it .....

Low Yat Look

Since I had some free time last Sunday, I walked - with the camera - towards Low Yat, enjoying the gorgeous weather. The MWC at Barcelona last weekend came with plenty of announcement - the HTC M9 and the Samsung S6 Edge to name a couple. I was keen to see if there had been any discounts going on at the plaza with the impending release.

No such luck. Business as usual from the look of things. I had a good look around at some cases for the iPad but nothing took my fancy. I was thinking of upgrading my 2 year-old Nexus 7, but the recent Lollipop update gave a new life to the ageing device. Although the battery life suffered big time, the new upgrade offered plenty of new excitement, especially in the notification department. The system also felt snappier than before.

And to be honest, the 7-inch Android tablet market had not been exciting for a while now, and certainly not after the release of Nexus 6, and the announcement that Google was not planning to replace the Nexus 7.The next up would be the Nexus 9, which personally felt to big. Samsung had a couple of offerings, but not much of an upgrade to my current tablet.

Frankly speaking, nothing much to see really. Maybe the next month would be interesting with the release of a host of new devices.

Back with the Cron

After taking the new zoom for a couple of spin, it became very clear that I should stick to primes for photowalks. Zooms were good for the family outings and general use, but for my own snaps, definitely prime lenses were the way forward.

I just was not impressed with the new zoom despite it being top of the line. And I don't think it was the fault of the lens per se. It was more of a personal choice and the fact that I had been spoilt by the quality of the Leica lens I had with me.

So, to prove the point that I still possess some photography mojo, I went for a quick walk around Bukit Bintang last Sunday. With me came the Sony Alpha 7 mark II with the Leica Summicron-M 50mm through an adaptor of course.

The result? Stunning photos. Definitely the lens - and the fact that the Sony was full-frame made a major difference. The colour rendition was a lot better and I don't mind the manual focusing. It took a bit longer to get the snaps, but I was a lot happier with the setup.

The main difference was the micro-contrast on the lens. The Leica had them in abundance. I would still use the zoom, but only when the need arise. For my usual walk-about, the Alpha 7 and Cron combination looked to be with me for a while.