KLPF 2016

Usually, the Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival was held near my lace, at Mid Valley. It was the first time it moved and with the new place, I was sure the whole festival felt different. On personal note, obviously I preferred the old venue. A bit busier, and getting a parking spot could be tricky, but at least access was pretty OK. This venue - StarXpo - was located on the 15th floor and it has the worse lift service in town, even worse than SJMC on a Saturday morning!

More about that later.

The event was held over three days, and I went on a Saturday late morning, the second day right after I was done with my post-take round. Hence, I was a bit groggy when I got there, and parked on the 11th floor, I ended up using the stairs to reach the venue after tired of waiting.

The hall was massive - a grand setting with another couple of floors of balcony. The main hall was occupied by vendors seeking all things photography as well as tourism bureau and travel company who offered trip services for photography outings. Compared to the last few years, there were definitely a decline both in terms of quantity and quality of the vendors on display. But the same can’t be said about the exhibitions. There were plenty of great photos on display and the talks were engaging.

Sitting in at one of the talkSome of them had projection issuesThey were not blessed with that many vendors this time ....

I managed to sit in on a couple of talks, but unfortunately the third one was in Mandarin - the one I was looking forward too since it was about Mongolia. For proper food you would have to take the lifts to the lower floor - which was a drag. Toilet facilities were aplenty. The exhibit which caught my eyes was a series about Bangladeshi workers working in Malaysia. Fascinating to learn that they actually had a decent life back hope but with no prospect of extra income. Hence they travelled here and to the Middle East.

The only vendor I found worth visiting was the DJI. They showcased the OSMO Mobile, which I found interesting and cheaper than I thought. Oppo, the mobile phone vendor also had a good presence, showing their phones and also having exhibits on photos taken using their products. The there main brands - Canon, Sony and Fuji - did not have much presence as only their third-party vendors were there. Olympus surprisingly did not even turn up!

Looking towards town from the 15th floorFood? This was about it ....More exhibits on the main floorA quick panorama of the city using the iPhoneThe organiser would have to start to up their game to attract more vendors for next year’s chapter, otherwise the whole festival would start to lose its gloss. Maybe they should start thinking about going back to the old venue ….

Let's see how this one compares to 2011, 2012 and 2014.

KLPF 2014 Discoveries

The main part of the festival for me personally was the personal work exhibits scattered around the hall. I could always go to the shops to look at cameras, but for exhibits, it was not often I could see this many. There were so many talented photographers around, both in terms of idea and execution.

One thing which stuck on my mind was the quality of the printing. Some of them were pretty awesome but the size of the printouts were too small to be enjoyed. Maybe it was the cost. I understood from one of my friends who had his work shown, all his printing was sponsored by Fuji, but the size of the printed work would never make a gallery show. As if Fuji was not putting in the funding whole-heartedly. I would happily paid to see those work - the exhibition was free.

Presentation to listen to ....... and photos to see ...Subjects to photographAnother thing I noticed was a lack of sitting area. A cafe or two would have been nice. I don't think it was against the exhibition hall regulations since on the previous occasions I went there, there were cafe and stalls strewn across the area. After walking around for a couple of hours, I wouldn't mind having a sit down reading the handouts the stalls passed as I walked by.

On a more positive note, the amount of area dedicated for the exhibits should be lauded. The number of talks and topics covered were also pretty decent. I sat to listen to one of the speakers. Clearly he was enjoying his time on stage, taking us through his work. It was more a talk on motivation and inspiration than just technique.

Panasonic had their own stage - with great production value I must add - next to their booth. I wouldn't mind sitting through a talk about studio lighting, but unfortunately my timing was off.

One thing caught my eye was a portable flying camera system, controlled via remote. The camera would be mounted on a hovering craft, able to travel about 200 meters at a decent height. Was not exactly stealthy, but an interesting innovation ... It was selling for around RM4000.

Seen at Thai tourism boothFor the "Peeping Tom" in usNext year's date had been bookedDuring the walk, I bumped into old friends and we talked about how there festival was to them this time. Most agree that the gallery was good, but the vendors should have made more effort to really offer us something extra. Both in terms of deals and discovery of their new hardware. As it was, I felt like it was merely a glorified shop front. Minus any special offers ....

Still I would definitely be coming again to visit next year's chapter. I felt that it was my duty to keep shows like this going. The quality could have definitely be better and hopefully we would start to see exclusive products which were hard to find in the shops. Well, at least that was my wish .....

Here are my entries for the event in 2011 and 2012.

KLPF 2014 First Look

KLPF 2014 First Look : The quality of exhibitions in Malaysia still left plenty to be desired. What was sad was often the subject matter was different to what the exhibition was about.

Yesterday, the exhibition was exactly just that. The Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival was held at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre last weekend, and it was an event I frequent almost every year, ended up with me parting with cash on stuffs which I ended up not using, just gathering dust in my store. That however did not stop me from going again this year.

Some really nice tales hereInteresting talk, but I must say I dozed off half waySpent some time browsing here. The deal of the day was rather decent.I had plans of what I wanted to explore there. No, not the models and the photo ops. I wanted to look at a few specific items. As before, I would not be expecting premium brands such as Leica to turn up. I wanted to have a look at the Pentax medium format, the Ricoh GR, a dedicated bag for my OM-D EM-1, Nikon Coolpix A series camera and maybe some lenses to try on the Fuji X-series range. Plenty to cover actually.

I arrived there well early, before noon. I set off through the program, familiarising myself with the lay out.

There was essentially 3 main areas, with the central foyer being filled with a stage for talks and presentation. I started with the least crowded hall first. Olympus, Photobook Malaysia, the photographic society booths, Ricoh and other generic vendors selling accessories. The cabinet cases caught my eyes, but rather than buying I decided to get their contacts as I couldn't be asked to drag the cabinets into my car.

I also spent some times at the Olympus booth. They had some assessors, and the limited edition OM-10 looked neat. The had a few lenses but they were sold at retail price. so, I moved on to the Ricoh/Pentax booth. I got to fiddle around with the GR. Again, sold at retail price, with nothing extra thrown in. And they didn't have the Pentax 645 Medium Format to show. Lame!

Shazni's work on display. But as I mentioned, the canvas could have been bigger.Some of the exhibits here were excellent despite being hidden away right at the backThis one took the cake. A submission by a competitor entitled "Freedom". A series of picture of him lying on the floor without a care in the World.The back end of the hall was turned into a make-shift galleries. Some really interesting masterpieces were on show. I will write about that in a separate entry later. Compared to last year, the space for gallery had at least doubled, which for me personally was a goor thing. I made my way to the main hall.

Nikon, Sony, Panasonic and a bit of Fuji. But no Canon! At least none that was obvious. Epson got a neat booth showing off their printers and scanners. Spent some time there but owning a decent photo printer at home could be cumbersome, and not exactly value for money.

Part of a bigger pieceI guess our interests are diverse

No Nikon A to see. I spent some time at the Sony booth, but again, no special offer. A few purchase-with-purchase deals, but not really very attractive. Fuji had the X-T1 as their main attraction. I wanted to try the new 10-24 f4, but sadly it was a no show. Seemed to be recurring theme. I spent the rest of the time exploring other people's work at the exhibition gallery.

The third hall was filled up by tourism and travel agency. Some nice and neat offers, but due to my no fly policy for this year, I didn't bother having a close look. I then went back to have another look at Photobook, the Olympus booth and another feel of the GR. I might buy that actually later on. A nice neat camera which I could slip in my pocket. Could be a classic, although I already own the X100.