Deepavali at Pavilion

Taking my new zoom for a spin, I caught the Deepavali decorations at Pavilion. Colorful and expansive, it occupied the main entrance to this shopping complex.

The kolam extended towards the famous fountain at the Bukit Bintang entrance.

As the exhibits were quite big in size, I was able to test my zoom, cramping the perspective.

I was in a bit of a rush though as it was a work day and I have a ward round later that afternoon.

Low Light Express

I must say I was expecting way thick from the iPhone 6 camera. The day I got my 6 Plus I took it to Pavilion to do some testing. Not in daylight but right after sunset. I really wanted to know how good it was.

There were plenty of people and more than enough subject keep me going. The lantern show was still on, and mixed with the lights at the fountain, it was quite a spectacle.

I got snapping straight away, alternating between the iPhone and the GR. The results? It was better than I expected. And the main reason was the optical image stabiliser. The shots looked crisp and the noise level was more than just acceptable. Not as good as the GR, but certainly no slouch.

Would it replace the GR in my pocket? Unlikely. Was it any better than the 5S. I wager to say that, it was not as big a jump between the 4 and the 4S. The main reason why the shots were successful was the image stabilisation system. You'd never be able to get the same shot on the 5S due the low shutter speed.

The image on the 6 Plus also appeared less contrasty as compared to the 5S. It was certainly easily rectified with apps such as Camera+. Otherwise the camera retained the 8MP sensor size, but I was sure much of the update happened under the hood at the software level.

Shooting speed was reasonable although the bigger size of the phone felt cluncky in my hands. If felt too big for me to position the shots freely, unlike the older iPhone or even my GR.

All in all, the iPhone 6 Plus still carried the reasonably good camera and with the addition of some software magic, the output still was among the best compared to other phones. I felt it better than the Oppo. From what I heard, the Lumia was still the King, and this latest Apple offering did little to knock the Windows phone off its perch.

Bukit Bintang

I was on call today, but usually if I have a Saturday afternoon to myself, I could be found heading around Pavilion and Bukit Bintang for drinks or just good all round shopping. With the occasional stop at Low Yat of course for good measure.

The sale was like constantly going ...The selfie gene is definitely strong in this familyIn the last week, Bukit Bintang had been making headlines. First came the news of the sinkhole around the MRT building site near Pudu. Next came the controversial statement from the Federal Territory Minister banning soup kitchen in City Centre.

Wonder how those events could've changed my Saturday afternoon plans as far as Bukit Bintang was concerned. I wouldn't be surprised if it were to become a centre for protests. Certainly there were a few unhappy campers there. Certainly the MRT work had changed the landscape at the area somehow. It wasn't that pleasant to walk around Bukit Bintang at the moment. And then there was the traffic. Nightmare.

On that note, I would just like to post a few photos from when I took a walk around Pavilion and Low Yat last weekend just before puasa started. Might have to wait until after Ramadan before I venture around there again.

Batman!

The old adage of “the best camera is the one you have with you” strike home big time yesterday. Straight after my Sunday Morning ward round, I headed out to Pavilion to settle my bills and pay my credit card fees. Something I do on a monthly basis, kind of my down time. I usually carry my camera with me, to do a bit of street photography, or anything which took my fancy.

Alas, I didn’t have anything with me yesterday. So, I strolled into Pavilion, and the main foyer was transformed into an exhibition site for all things Batman. One of the local credit card provider sponsored the 75th Anniversary Batman exhibition there. Plenty of stuff to see, including the Batmobile and the bicycle - or whatever you called it.

The place was packed, and I wished that I had my camera with me. My boys were not into Batman - they were more into X-men for the time being.But I was sure they would appreciate it if they saw it …

Luckily, the iPhone 5S with Litely app captured some of the scenes pretty well. It could’ve been worse …

I stayed for quite some time looking at the artwork from years gone by, how the costume and even the Batman logo had evolved. I was sure the Batman movie did wonders to promote the comic, one of the more successful spin-offs.

What? No Catwoman?

Not sure how long the exhibition would go on for, but it was certainly worth checking out.

The Weekend Buskers

The Weekend Busker: It was becoming a trend especially around the Golden Triangle in town. Talented young folks equipped with guitar and amplifier serenading the crowd in the street to mellow tunes.

They called themselves buskers, but not the typical ones. I suspect that they didn't do it purely for the money as well. ‎

It was pretty neat how they were organised. Unfortunately I only caught the start of one of the set before I had to leave. But I liked what I heard.

Maybe one of these afternoons I was able to hang around and sample what they had to offer. I caught a couple of their spots, one at Fahrenheit and another at Pavilion.