Doing the Post

After the walk yesterday, we all spent the night at the apartment. Partly for the boys to play with their PS4 and Anita to do some cleaning. But for me, it was all about the post-production work and posting of the photos I took during the Scott Kelby Photowalk - #WWPW2014# - yesterday. All together, between the GR and X-T1, I got almost 400 snaps, but it boiled down to around 255 post-sorting out and editing.

They were all grouped into five segments, and were already up on Flickr, Facebook and SmugMug for my record. I would be blogging about it after I get some breather.

Exiting ApertureUploading onto SmugMugThe boys were up past midnight playing their console, while I woke up early - always a morning person - to finish things out, do the uploading and then off for my morning ward rounds.

Next would be lunch before returning to Gombak. I might pop out to Low Yat in the afternoon since I need to get a new Bluetooth handsfree unit for my phone. The last one gave up on me last year and never got around to be replaced.

More blogging later then ....

Gearing Up

Another year had passed and it would be another installment of my yearly photo walk and getting to chill out with friends with a camera. Scott Kelby's Annual Photowalk was back. As usual, time to get ready with the gear, get the batteries filled up with the juice, polishing the lens and the lot.

Tomorrow, I would be bringing a couple of cameras. My XT-1 attached to the 56mm Fujinon f1.2 and the smaller Ricoh GR. That way, I would be able to cover wide angle - with the GR able to capture 28, 35 and 47 mm - and the XT-1 obviously the equivalent to 85mm in old money. Should be a great outing although the weather forecasters to be suspect. And there was the issue of the haze as well although it hasn't been too bad today.

My Fenix 2 also needed chargingThis time, we planned to congregate near Pudu Plaza by 9am and would be venturing towards Pudu Market. Should be a decent sized crowd and looking forward to great snap.

We would be spending the evening at the apartment hopefully after that, whereby could get on with post-prodiction and uploading. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

The walk last year was written up here.

Morning Walk Part 2

Halfway down the street, I took a right turn at Love Street, seeing the many colourful hotels and hostels there. A backpacker's paradise, and more snaps. Next was Lebuh Muntri. A misspelling of the Malay word Menteri, it used to host dignitaries from out of town. Many old building still stood, some being turned into museums and some into guest houses. A few nice modern cafes as well had mushroomed up, balancing the old and the new.

There were street markets and vendor but at that time, the number of cars were already building up. I wished that the whole place was turned into a car-free zone ....

I also noticed that there were plenty of bicycles and moppet for hire available at the area. Expensive and they mainly targeted the tourists. If you knew the route, you could cover the town centre and experience the charm in double quick time.

After I was done with Lebuh Muntri, another turn took me back to my hotel within 10 minutes. Which was just as well since the boys were already up and they were ready for their breakfast. I stayed back to have a shower before joining them.

The walk lasted almost a couple of hours, and my GPS recorded the distance I covered to be just below 5 kilometres. A nice morning work-out. And an enjoyable one as well. And the photos? I just uploaded 210 snaps onto Flickr just then. Not bad .....

More stories from this trip here.

House Next Door

While leaving Masjid Ubudiah, I spotted this almost abandoned home right next door to the mosque. It seemed to still be in use, maybe as a makeshift studio at one point. Located in a prime lot, I suspect that the owner may have some idea with the place in the future.

I think they had some exhibits somewhere, and the place now formed something like a storeOld skool!There must have been a big entrance at the frontMost of the intricate walls of the house still stoodI wouldn't risk using those stairsRusty nailsSome parts of the house still appeared well keptI walked around the house and took some photos. Decided against going in as it would be trespassing.

Nice spot for photography actually. If only I could get permission to enter ...

Update on Saturday, May 17, 2014 at 3:41PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

A friend of mine, Kudo pointed out a piece he wrote about this house, called Baitul Anor. You can read it here.

Morning Walk

Yes! Right after breakfast, waiting for the children to get ready and packing done, I had some time to walk into town, with the camera on tow. The sun came out to play, although it was a bit high on the horizon, it was better than nothing.

It turned out that the whole town woke up late. The place started to buzz only after 10am, with the shops opened and the locals venturing out. It was still quiet enough for me to walk around without being bothered although I wished that the market was opened.

I started off in the middle of town, snapping away at the old shop lots and then the river front.

Then, I drove up Bukit Chandan, stopping at Masjid Ubudiyah before making one round at the Istana. I didn't stop this time as it was already late.

It was a nice walk, but I would've enjoyed it more if I was in a crowd, or better still, somebody who knew the history of the place. Kuala Kangsar was one of the oldest Malay settlement and is steep with history. In the future, I would definitely take my boys along and tell them a bit more about the place ...