Moving On, And MORE Shutter Therapy

May 09, 2017

A lot of people have been asking me, so how is life after Olympus? What is next?

Honestly, I have taken a short break from everything for a while, to refresh myself, and to reorganize my life. My priority was fixing my sleep patterns, eating habits, sorting out plans for income generation since I do not have a full time employment now, and of course, focus more on photography growth.

What better time to focus on repairing my health than now, since I have the flexibility to do it, by having at least 8 hours of sleep daily, going to bed and waking up at consistent hours, eating more healthily, avoiding quick meals and convenient lunches that I have had so often for the past several years.

Mum visited last weekend, for the first time, in Kuala Lumpur, since I have worked here many years ago, and I spent the whole weekend with her.

Do not worry, I have not forgotten about this blog. Far from it actually. Oh I have such huge plans! And as I mentioned, all will be revealed soon. Just give me a bit more time to work out some kinks and finalize the preparations, before the official launch.

I have been busy shooting as well, both for myself, as well as taking in some paid assignment, just to keep some money flowing in.

Life in Olympus Malaysia was fantastic, but that life has come to an end, and it is time to move on.

Oh, and what was this rumor about me joining Sony?

Yeap, I have been following the discussion over at DPReview forums about my departure from Olympus, and boy there were some wild theories flying around. The craziest ones speculated were me being hooked over by Sony (weirdly, I did wish this happened, though whether I would say yes or not, is another thing), I was mistreated in Olympus, being underpaid, and there was some internal conflict. I have to admit, reading those speculations and guesses was quite entertaining! Of course, none of the theories were true, except.... one. Someone actually nailed something right. I will not reveal at this point what that was, but I was shocked, and pleased to know that people actually can be quite perceptive.

And come on, nothing sour or bad happened between me and Olympus, I was a huge fan before joining the company, I believed in the system and fought for Olympus the best I could, contributing positively during my time with them, and now I have left, I am still an Olympus fan. My opinion about the Micro Four Thirds system has not changed. For my latest shutter therapy session, I used the sexy looking Olympus PEN E-P5 and my current favourite lenses for street photography, Panasonic 14mm F2.5 and Olympus M.Zuiko lenses, 25mm F1.8 and 45mm f1.8.

Close Your Eyes

Colleagues

Engineers

Dress Code

Shoes

Father and Son

I think my style of street photography is very reactive. From my personal observations, I found that I have always been seeking for something to happen, waiting for an action or interesting moment, and I would react to that opportunity with the camera. I believe this keeps things fresh and exciting every single time I hit the street, though walking along the same streets again and again but subjects were always changing, and there can be no similar moments happening twice.

Being reactive depends largely on how fast you can respond to a scene. Half a second too late, and you miss the shot. Two extremely important contributing factor to consider here, to nail that split second shot: 1) The speed of your camera/lens combo and 2) your own speed/reaction time.

I rely on autofocus, and I use longer focal lengths which render zone focusing impractical. I need a camera system that instantaneously respond as I clicked the shutter button, so far OM-D/PEN cameras from Olympus (latest generation of course, I am not talking about E-P1 or E-PL1 from dinosaur years ago) did the job splendidly.

Even if you have the fastest camera in the world, if you are not quick enough to move yourself to a good shooting position and work yourself through the camera to get the shot, you will still miss the opportunity. Know your camera. Spend lots and lots of time with it, know the settings inside out, know the behaviour and how to get the best out of it. Then shoot and shoot and shoot. The more you are out there shooting the faster you get and the higher chance of you nailing the shot.