The Second Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk

Kelby Walk 26 - Sultan Ismail, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

If any of yo are keen Photoshop user than you might come across the name Scott Kelby. He writes books. He shows tutorials. All about photoshop. If you want to learn a trick or two about photoshop, googling his name will definitely improve your kong-fu once you try his techniques.

Group photo courtesy of RIPI - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ripiHe understands that the majority of the photographers are a quiet lot. Well, for those who knows me might not agree, but I can understand why he paint that with a broad brush. He decided last year to put out a campaign to get those lot out from their rooms and take to the street with their cameras on tow and socialise. It proved to be so popular that it is now becoming an event. More than 950 cities throughout the world are participating in it. It is estimated around 120000 people worlwide will be doing it on the 18th of July (yesterday), and that was just a conservative figure. A group of 80 of us turned up yesterday for the Kuala Lumpur chapter of the event.

Pic courtesy of Rames - click on the pic for linkI initially planned to park my car at HKL, visit my sister who had her operation yesterday, then walk the half-mile or so to the meeting point, Restoran Sri Shalimar in Chow Kit. Unfortunately I left home rather late, and had to run to the meeting point. Had a quick today, then off with the group.

Ala Sudirman - Chow Kit Road! Chow Kit Road!I can medically certify that there is no chance for this lot joining our photowalk!As I said, around 80 of us was there, and as we were all likeminded, we got along very well. I settled in with a director from ASTRO (no, he was not filming there or anything), Rames, an engineer from Chennai, currently working for MIMOS, Karthik, and ARUP, an engineer from Bangladesh now also working in Malaysia. After a quick photocall at the meeting point, we hit for the Chow Kit wet market.

The sellers there were used to people coming in to take their pictures and has no problem posing for us. However, Karthik made the mistake of trying to take picture of some counterfeit watch seller. He was not best pleased, and we made a quick exit. After half an hour or so, we met up at Plaza Safuan, on the other end of the wet market. More photocalls, more chit chat, more exchanging of kong-fus. We then loosely headed into Kampung Baru, where among other things I had a quick lunch.

Regina, our model at the traditional house in Kampung Baru with the Twin Towers on the backgroundAn empty lot in Kampung Baru. Filled with lalang. But I am sure it is worth millions.Nice pieces of clothing on display at a shop near the Kampung Baru MosqueThere is a particular traditional house take took out fancy and we politely asked the owner for permission to shoot there. One of the photographer actually brought a young lady with him as his model, and we managed to snap a few nice moody pics while there. We also witnessed a incident for good measure. A driver, driving particularly fast honked at some locals who were crossing the road. He then took exception wo what being said, and foolishly left his car. He got a couple of smack and his car kicked at! Stupid man I thought! Not on that he started it, he tried to pick a fight on other people's turf! I had to convince Karthik that this is not the normal goings-on here in Kampung Baru ..... or is it?

Happy faces in Kampung Baru - Terima kasih adikOur next stop, Asian Heritage Row. To get there, we crossed Jalan Sultan Ismail right after the UniKL building. Walk pass SME Bank Headquarters, then the Sheraton and turn left. I never knew that it even existed. I think calling it heritage row is somewhat a misnomer as it is essentially a row of restaurant and bars, and they don't even serve Asian food. I saw a Mediterranean bar and a Mexican restaurant! A few more quick snaps, then we need to head indoors. It was getting rather warm by then.

Karthik paying for my meal at the Tapper's Cafe .... I should've ordered a bigger onePic courtesy of Rames - click on pic for linkThe finishing point was already in sight. Again at a venue that was alien to me, much to my embarrassment, as even Karthik, who has only been to Malaysia for a month knew the place. It was the Caps Square. A nice mall, but still being developed. It was not very full even for a Saturday afternoon. We had some 'teh tarik' at Tapper's Cafe there. It was getting past 2pm and I have to leave as I have yet to visit my sister. Idlan's friend from music school also invited us for a party later in the afternoon. The group was also thinning out since some of them were heading for Bukit Kalil to watch the ManYoo vs Malaysia game there.

I took the monorail back to Chow Kit. Julia (my sister) was doing OK post-op. Her tummy was still tender. Her gallbladder was laden with stones and was close to being infected big time. It was a good call to operate.

Some of my stuffs in Urbanscapes.com.my

Was surfing while waiting for Irfan to tire out. He was still watching his DVD. I then noticed traffic coming into my blog from urbanscapes.com.my when looking at my stats. It turned out that my pics and blog was mentioned at the website.

 

KLicker photoshoot

090708 KLickr Meetup 7 - Let's go!, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

For my birthday tomorrow, I have decided to take an early weekend. I am off both today and tomorrow but spent the whole day sorting out things for my maid. She is flying home tomorrow for a 10-day break. I went to the Indonesian embassy this afternoon since I was told that there are special forms needed to be filled and I needed to get her passport chopped. Otherwise she will need to pay a levy on returning to Malaysia later.

I arrived there around 12.45 since I was busy with both Idlan and Irfan going to school in the morning. When we arrived, I was told that the office is closed for lunch and will only be opened after 2 pm. Then I will need to queue to pick up a form and take a number before meeting the officer. The line then was already 150 people long. I decided that I would rather pay the levy instead. I also did not have a spare N95 mask on me. Catching TB is not nice from what I've seen in hospital .... hehehe. The queue was full of migrant workers.

Since I'm off today, I said yes to the invite to join the KLickrs (KL flickr) for a photoshoot on top of one of my friend's condo in Bukit Bintang. It overlooks the twin tower and KL tower. We first met up for dinner, and started filing up the stairs by 9. We took the lift to the 33rd floor, then climbed a few flights of stairs to the rooftop at 37th. Weather was pretty clear. We brought with us the lighting equipments for the shoot.

View at the rooftopJav doing the rigging for the strobesWhen we were about to unload our gear, the security guard came up. Apparently, our mate that is a resident there did not ask for permission to climb up the roof. For security reasons, they did not want us there. Luckily, he is English and you know how Malaysians treat 'Mat Salleh'. The can get away scott-free even if they murder somebody, let alone climb up to the roof. We offered to take their pictures ... hehehe! Anyway, he gave us 5 minutes, and the 5 minute stretched from 9.30 to just after 10.

Shafina starting the solo photoshootWe got our group shot, and then we went down to street level for our individual pix. We wrapped just before 11. Organising pictures in group is not easy, but luckily there were a few pros in the group. I left the setting up to them, and I just took my LX3 along rather than my EOS. The shoot is for next month's Junk magazine. For some reason they wanted to feature the KLickr group. So, we'll wait and watch.

Yes! We went up this building for the shoot!The end result of the solo shoots. That's me, second row, second from the left. Picture courtesy of Javad Tizmaghz and Prakash Daniel.You can also see Javad's and Prakash's pictures by following the link.

Another unexpected email

Arley House, Cheshire, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

It looks like Lady Luck is upon me lately when it comes to my photos. I received an email - a flickrmail rather - from an editor just now enquiring about this particular photo. She is from Schmap Guide, an online city guide. They are drawing out their next edition in the next few weeks and have shortlisted my photo above to be included. Although there will be no monetary payment involved, they have made it clear that I will be credited with the image and there will be a link to my page in flickr, which can only be good. The guide itself is free. In fact you can have a look at the previous editions on http://www.schmap.com.

Since my photos were published in the Malay Mail, a few of my friends from KLickr - KL flickr group - warned me to make sure that I was not taken advantage of. Apparently in Malaysia, it is standard practice for the newspaper to request to use photos, did so, with no acknowledgment of the source. Should you insist on credit - we are not talking about money here, just credit - they will say thank you very much and go for another photo. Since I don't earn my living from photography, I don't really mind my photo being used, but the professionals do. I can clearly see their point of view, and I respect that. That is not saying if in the future should somebody politely ask me to use my photo, I will refuse. Far from it. What I am saying is, it would be much better if credit is given to the photographer rather than not.

As for me, I have literally thousands of photos I took during my UK days, but since most of them were rather in negatives or slides, it is rather tedious for me to share them online.

I Got it Published!

090627 Urbanscapes 5 - The KLPAC foyer, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Well, usually if a university lecturer says that it means that one of his academically sound, well-researched article has been accepted by one of the journals. That is one of the ways how we get promoted you see. But this one is slightly different, but just as thrilling!

Since putting my Urbanscapes online in the last couple of days, my flickr feed has gone bonkers. We are talking 500+ hits here. Yesterday, I received an email from a reporter from the Malay Mail asking if she can use some of my photos from the flickr feed for a piece she was doing. No probs. Today, it is in the paper. The online version got only one of them put up, but in the paper version, there were two of them.

The featured article in Malay Mail, click on image for link.The other photo featured in the article, but in colour instead.So, I am walking on a high today, and rest assured with the knowledge that you don't really need a big wonking DSLR with you when you have the LX3. I still wouldn't mind the EOS 5D Mark II though! Got to handle one of them during the weekend belonging to one of my fellow KLickr. Got to get ready for badminton later!