The GoPro Captures - Part II

From Part I

As for the bad parts, I'm sure there were plenty of YouTube video about them. But on a personal level, I found that the shutter lag - especially capturing RAW - can be a problem. This made the GoPro not the ideal camera for street photography. The moment may have passed on by the time the shutter clicked.

The RAW file also wasn't universal. I wasn't able to open it on my main workflow - using Aperture. Best to capture in jpg in my opinion.

You can see the flare at the topThe subject appears super-big when you come closeAn indoor capture at ISO 1100The captures may be oversaturated for some people. Luckily, using Aperture, I was able to dial down the colour making it more natural. This may be a plus though if you were doing architecture or landscape. On my cityscape photos, it worked a treat. I felt that it was a feature.

It looked like they are adamant about not parking there ...The nice contrast of blue and yellowWalking further alongFinally I find opening the doors for the charger on the GoPro could be a bit tricky. I supposed that was the trade-off since the unit on its own is water-resistant up to 10 meters. With the right technique, it was manageable.

Another indoor shot. This time inside Central Market.Waiting for my tram ride ....I can't miss a shot of the Twin Tower in the sunshine ...On balance, I was more than happy with my purchase, especially as I got it at a discount complete with a free memory card. It was hard to understand why GoPro as a company was struggling since the product was great. Moving into drone sector was a sensible move but maybe they were not able to complete with the likes of DJI. Hopefully they would continue to survive and come up with Hero 7 some time in the near future ...

Exploring the Bungalows

Fraser's Hill as a settlement had a long colonial history. The British longed for respite every now and then while in Malaya and explored a few areas around the peninsular for some sort of retreat. And Fraser's Hill was one of them.

Unfortunately we being Malaysian, we see the British who once ruled Malaya as "penjajah" or colonist, and as much as we could tried to erase them from our history. Me, personally was always quite an Anglophile and keen to find out a bit more about the history of this place. I was sure it would make a fascinating read. After all, you can't change the past - although a few politician thought that they can!

Intricate set of stairs to negotiate the steep climbI think this one belongs to Telekom MalaysiaDriving around, you could have a feel of how advanced the settlement once was. I was sure 50 years ago, getting up and down the hill was both difficult and dangerous. And dangerous in the sense that there were Communist around and the British learned from the assassination of Sir Henry Gurney.

Despite that, I could see many buildings dating back from those times and more being built from the 70s and 80s. It was well known that Tunku Abdul Rahman used to come here for his holidays - another Anglophile. Many of the colonial buildings from the past had been converted into shops, rest houses and holiday bungalows. They were scattered around the hill, not just at the town center. Most of the bungalows were owned by large companies and these were used for their staffs for short breaks. Unfortunately, again due to economy and sign of the times, most looked to be in disarray. those which well-maintained looked empty even at this time of the year.

This one looks privately owned and well-maintainedKinda liked this one ....We ended up taking a peek as nobody was in ...Nice little pavilion to look down onto the valleyInitially we planned to rent one of the bungalows - Bungalow Rompin - but unfortunately since my brother-in-law was not able to join us, we decided against it and stayed at the Smokehouse instead, which happened to be just around the corner. On one of the afternoons, Anita and I drove around to explore some of the bungalows for rent, took the phone numbers and photos. Definitely interesting but certainly not a place to come with your elderly parents. But it looked fun to come with a few friends.

Fresh ....Stalking some more ...The message was clear ....Anita told me that during her childhood, the Armed Forces had a bungalow here as well where she stayed with her cousins. We found the place during the drive and it was located just up the hill from where we stayed. We also explored a couple of other bungalows around there.