Experiment!

The walk around Bukit Bintang this morning was a first for a couple of things. First it was the first proper walk with my brand new Fujinon lens, the amazing XF 56mm f1.2. On the X-T1, it translated into an 85mm on the 35mm full-frame conversion. Ideal for portrait, and in my case, a great length for street candid.

The wide aperture would help to isolate the subject while throwing some serious bokeh in the mix. I only managed around 50 snaps this time as I was out for some errands. I would definitely be using this a lot more during my Penang trip this weekend.

The second first was using my fenix 2 GPS watch for photo geotagging. It was a success.

As soon as I left Pavilion where I parked my car, I switched on the GPS tracking - after synchronising the time on the watch and the clock on the camera of course - and just fired away.

I left the GPS tagging on for more than an hour. It lost the signal every time I went indoor, but soon locked on again the moment I stepped out. No need to touch the watch at all. It did the hunting automatically.

At the end of the walk, I still got 92% power registered on the watch. I then downloaded the GPX data onto my laptop - can also be done through cloud synching - and booted up my usual geotagging program, Photolinker. Let the program pair the photos and location as registered on the time stamp together and everything was hunky dory.

Definitely useful if I was abroad, as the watch also used the satellite data to set the time. Again, more experimentation this weekend in Penang.

Morning Walk

The third day of Raya, and despite this not being a public holiday any longer, the city was still empty. Plenty of people were taking advantage of the long weekend and school holidays to spent time away from the office I was sure.

The tranquility was soon interrupted when we drove past Chow Kit. Bad idea to pass through there. A lot of people was around there - the majority being Indonesian. The place seemed like a Mini Jakarta this morning.

I had to settle some bills and do some shopping, so Anita and I went around Bukit Bintang this morning. We had brunch at one of the cafe - which was packed. The haze was improving and the sun was out. It started to rain however as soon as we drove home.

We did some packing afterwards before heading to the apartment to spent the evening there. Most of the stuff for the Penang trip was at the apartment and Anita felt that it would be easier to pack from there. Time to get some rest as I would be doing all the driving tomorrow morning.

Shopping Before Ramadan

It was always a good idea to go for the Aidil Fitri shopping even before Ramadan begun. You tended to have the best choice - if not the best bargain - minus the hustle and bustle. You can take your time and have a drink or two while doing that which you can't in Ramadan. The crowd tended to be thinner too.

So, the weekend before Ramadan, I took a walk around Masjid India and Jalan Bunus, a must for the city dweller. All the Aidil Fitri wares were available there, if you could be bothered with the crowd and the traffic.

However, nowadays, the whole place had been turned into Mini Jakarta, as the majority of the vendors there at the stalls were foreigner. The locals could be seen trading inside Wisma Yakin and Semua House. The rest of the bazaars had been taken over. Not cool.

I was at Masjid India right after my walk from Central Market. It was just past noon when I arrived there, and the place was already teaming with the city dwellers. Everybody loved a bargain.

Since I have still got my wares from last year, I decided against doing any shopping. Those clothes old clothes were still good. I wonder if Puan Anita would be keen to come? ‎

A Nice Walk

With the weather being nice and all, plus Anita and the boys went to the cinema with some of his classmates, I was left alone after the morning ward round. I decided to take my camera out for a spin. Thus time, it was the E-M1. Just to see what it could offer.

The route? I parked at KLCC and took the LRT to Masjid Jamek and walked towards Central Market. Bring Sunday, the place was crawling with foreign worker enjoying their day off. Plenty of shops there catering for these lot, and I just !indeed my own business.

Had an early lunch at CM, before walking across towards Dataran Merdeka, then off to Masjid India.

Spent dome time walking around Masjid India. A huge Sunday crowd had started building. Shops there were already gearing towards Aidil Fitri wears. Ramadhan was only 3 weeks away.

I then returned to KLCC via LRT and lingered around Avenue K before returning to apartment. It was still early then and Anita was still out.

A nice day outing, with sunny but breezy weather. Would've been better if in was with a crowd. Going around alone these days with a camera can be an intimidating proposition. People would state at you, and it took a while to blend in.

Still there were plenty of photos to be had. Straight to apartment to get them into post and upload them onto the net. My computer and internet connection there was much better than in Gombak.

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.