Walking around Pavilion

It had been a while since I did a photo walk, be it solo or in a group. I had some free time this afternoon, but due to drizzle outside, the photo walk ended up mostly indoors.

All the malls were packed with Chinese New Year shoppers, and taking a camera out at this time was not ideal. But the decorations were well worth the hassle. Anticipating heavy traffic around Bukit Bintang, I decided to lark the car at KLCC and took the walk across to Pavilion.

The main foyer at Suria KLCCPavilion. This was more like it .....

The decorations at Suria KLCC were rather subdued and predictable. A lost opportunity really considering the number of foreign visitors coming to the place. Not many snaps were taken there and I swiftly made my way across to Pavilion via the pedestrian walkway.

The scene there was different, and I arrived just before the scheduled lion dance show at 3pm. The crowd was too packed, and decided to walk further down towards Fahrenheit, Sungai Wang and finally, Low Yat Plaza.

At Fahrenheit 88It started to drizzleLion dance in front of Lot 10

After a spot of browsing, I doubled back to Pavilion, taking the time - as the main foyer where the lion dance show took place were empty - to snap more frames.

Back to Suria next, and then across to Avenue K at the Leica Store. I thought that there was an exhibition going on there, but I got the venue mixed up. Oh well, I caught up with an old friend there instead, and looking at one of the photographers there setting up a mini-studio to try out the Leica S medium format system. An RM100k outfit that I could never afford! That camera was pumping out 37MP files from its sensor. Mind boggling!

It was time for tea after I left, and I took out dinner for my boys back at Suria. A long day indeed ...

The Photowalk Slides

Apparently according to Ripi, the heaven opened the moment I left. But it looked like he had fun shooting still. Plenty of subjects around Bukit Bintang after we split.

Anyhow, below were the sideshow from the walk earlier .....

Saturday Walk

Saturday afternoon. And I happened to be off - even though I was still on call. Decided to take a walk. With my camera if course. Hopefully the weather would be cooperative.

Pavilion Again

Idlan has his Quran class today, so I returned to Gombak for Iftar today to join the rest of the family. As I was on call yesterday and due to lack of sleep, I ended up sleeping in front of the TV as soon as I reached home. I was woken up in time for Maghrib, and groggily I went upstairs for food. It was one of those meal where you couldn't remember exactly what you've eaten. I was better after the shower.

So, on the way back to the apartment, we decided to take a tour to Pavilion as I had to settle my credit card bills. Peckish since I hardly eaten during iftar, I gobbled down some sandwich, and then with the boys had a nightcap at Godiva. Nice rich, fattening chocolate!

More topping upAfter the meal, Anita did some shopping, and I was left with my camera to explore the Raya decorations around Pavilion. The theme was not very clear, but the had plenty of way - traditional Malay kite - hanging around. Plenty of stalls around the main foyer, selling cookies mainly, but nothing much else to talk about.

The main foyer seemed to have been taken over by wauA big one hanging from the ceiling

The area around Bukit Bintang and the fountain was still buzzing at that hour. There were plenty of foreigners, quite sizeable from the Middle East. And the traffic was still packed even close to 10 pm.

The Pasar Ramadan Shoot

Finally I managed to try the X-Pro1 on its street photography prowess when I took it out for a spin at Pasar Ramadan in Taman Melawati. Being black, it looked discreet enough not to attract much attention. Certainly, people were not as wary at it as much as if I was carrying along a DSLR.

The focusing could be much faster, but not too bad. I could've stopped down the aperture for wider focusing depth, but that would be at the expense of the gorgeous bokeh the lens offered. I set it at f2.0 instead.

The place was still packed as I was about to leaveAbout 85% of my snaps were in focus, which was more than I expected. I was basically snapping away. With a bit more attention, I could've nailed more. The percentage could also be higher if I switched it into electronic viewfinder instead. But that would take away much of the camera's charm.

I also noticed that the camera tended to underexposed a bit. Maybe by about 1/3 stop. It could easily be remedied either on the camera during the snapping or later on Aperture. No biggies really.

The queue for this popiah was easily 40 people longThere was another half with "SELAMAT"A rather novel one, ala tandoori chicken, minus the skewersRows of chicken riceThe famous Khan Cendol in MelawatiLong queue obviouslyAnd how did the snaps looked like? It was amazing. It was sharp even wide open at f1.4, but the problem then would be depth of field. f2.8 should be just about right .....

More photo from this shoot can be seen here.