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In the spirit of celebrating the coming Malaysian Independence Day on the 31st August, I thought it would be fitting to do an out of the usual portrait shot of myself than what I normally would do. I bought myself a spanking new Malaysian flag and initially wanted to use it as a cape, you know, with all the superhero hype everywhere now. That did not come out right so the next best thing I did was to wrapped it around myself like a sarung. I shot this in the living room of the apartment I am staying at, with the aid of two wireless flash being fired off camera. I intended for this shot to be in full color glory but due to excessive sun exposure I have developed uneven skin tone, my head and lower arms were significantly darker in tone than my other body parts which were usually covered by the T-shirts that I wore. Black and white made it easier for me to fix that in post. I shot a series of photographs and I was only happy with this particular one. It clearly shows how I feel about my

Nikon has just launched their much anticipated new Z-series full frame mirrorless cameras, Z6 and Z7. There was so much hype and excitement that in an extremely rare occurrence the Amazon owned DPReview crashed after the major Nikon announcement. I did think of trying to get myself an invite to the launch event in Malaysia but knowing how cold the industry has been to myself and other prominent photography bloggers, my chances of getting in would be near impossible. It gets very frustrating that the work photography bloggers do (helping with product announcements, reviewing etc) are generally not appreciated by the brand representatives here. So what else can I do? Just sit back and enjoy watching all the dramas happening from a distance, and maybe, just chime in a little and jot down some of my thoughts on Nikon's latest announcement. Nikon Z7, they say that if you rotate the letter Z, it becomes N, which is for Nikon. Get it? Get it? DPReview, the world's largest photography-

Following the revival of my Youtube channel, I am now creating more fresh contents, but more focused on lighter guides and tips when it comes to general photography. I am not trying to add to the abundance of widely available "how to" videos or tutorials, instead I shall be sharing my own workflow on how I get some of my shots done as shown here on this blog. While most of my photography heavy content will be published on Ming Thein's site, here I shall discuss topics that are more photography beginner/new-comer friendly. It does not matter if you are not using the latest iPhone or the best Samsung smartphone. Any mobile phone camera is sufficient for some quick food snapshots. I personally do not like the idea of spending almost RM6000 for that flagship smartphone, it is just absurd. Use what you have, make the best out of it, and here, some post-processing magic may just add the much needed impact to your shots. Straight out of camera shots from smartphones are usually

Last weekend I have an unexpected visitor from Japan! At first I thought, hurray, finally after so many years of blogging I am getting a visitor from the land of rising sun. You see, I have had numerous visitors from many countries: the US, UK, Germany (too many visitors from Germany, not complaining, but certainly the number is alarmingly high), Finland, Russia, China, Belgium, Itally, Australia and many more, but none ever from Japan. Looking at my blog readership demographics, it has been consistent over the past few years that the top visitors are from the US, Japan and Germany. Sometimes UK and Thailand creeps into the top 3 spot, but Japan is always sitting very high in the list. So imagine the excitement when I got someone coming from Japan! (Having said that, I have met several amazing Japanese blog readers currently working and residing in Malaysia, truly beautiful people.) Here is the plot twist, Humza is an American from New York currently residing in Japan, with high family

One topic that I seldom discuss is dynamic range and that is usually because I rarely stretch the limit of the camera. I always look for good lighting condition and pay attention at how the light falls onto the subject or the frame that I am shooting. However I do acknowledge that in some situations, having good dynamic range capability will can help in obtaining a better photograph. I am not a landscape photographer so I do not need that massive shadow and highlight recovery capabilities. For what I normally do, the worst situation would be people hiding in shades versus those out in the open under harsh Malaysian sun. Even in such a challenging situation an Olympus OM-D (from the first generation E-M5 till now) is sufficient to produce a pleasingly balanced image, with some massaging of the RAW file of course. This is a processed RAW image, with extensive shadow and highlight recovery. Take note it was not an easy shot, with a dark skinned man in the shade and some of the other guys

After numerous requests, questions and weird accusations of me hiding my secrets when it comes to post-processing, finally, I have made a new video published on Ming Thein's site addressing those concerns. Things that I have heard people said about me and my images: 1) There are hidden steps on how to achieve sharp looking images, a complex sharpening process to have that crisp yet natural look 2) The vibrant colors and how to get that look: vivid yet not overly saturated and still looking pleasing 3) Robin Wong has a secret filter that he applies to his images to automatically generate that look 4) It is impossible to get similar images like what Robin Wong does even if you use the same cameras and lenses simply because he has advanced post-processing procedures 5) Robin Wong's post-processing is cheating, because he gets good results all the time. Oh dear... in short, my response would usually be: 1) There is no secret sauce and my post-processing routine is perfectly normal.

I do camp at random cafes often to get most of my blog article writings done, as well as replying emails and doing "paperwork". Why not work from home? Because home is too comfortable, with the bed constantly calling me for short quick naps, the ever present gaming PC with friends forever online with frequent invitations for a game of DotA and basically I have programmed home to be just home for rest and play and not conducive enough for productivity and serious work. Besides moving out of the house into a new environment has its psychology explanation on how it can boost productivity. With good coffee, comfortable environment and a huge enough table for me to work, I am set. I have some favourite locations that I rotate around but recently I found this really awesome place, and an unexpected one: Ikea Cafe. All images were taken with Motorola G5S Plus smartphone camera, using Google Camera app ported over and HDR+ feature enabled for most shots.  An important criteria for

I initially wanted to shoot with an old, old compact camera, the Panasonic LZ8 which I bought in the year 2008. Yes, 10 years ago, I purchased a budget compact camera and I still have it. However, the LZ8 refused to start up properly, giving me an error message (after a few days of inactivity the camera fixed itself and is fully functional again). I was already planning a night photowalk with some friends so I thought why not shoot with my current smartphone, the Motorola G5S Plus, and see what I can produce with the budget smartphone instead? ISO400, 1/4 sec From the short walk we had around KL city area, I only had one particular shot which I was happy with, as shown above. Here are some things I had in my mind while shooting with the Motorola G5S Plus: 1) There is a manual mode that allows full control of shutter speed and ISO which I have not used before this. The manual mode made a world of difference when shooting in low light. The Auto mode daringly bumped up the ISO to ridiculo

Olympus Malaysia has been rolling out some interesting workshops lately customized for social media influencers and bloggers. I was invited to attend an OOTD (outfit of the day) photography workshop conducted by Leslie Png. The venue of the workshop was The Majestic Hotel, a grand location with plenty of "instagrammable" background and scenes to utilize for portraits and selfies. In an extremely rare occasion, I was actually there attending as a guest, learning and enjoying myself! It was indeed a refreshing change.  Workshop was held at The Orchid Conservatory in The Majestic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. The ambient light was plentiful but flat. The room was surrounded by living orchids of various species.  A 4K large screen TV was used to show the images from Olympus OM-D system at their best.  The guest speaker photographer was Leslie Png, who also originated from the same hometown as I did, Kuching, Borneo. Leslie is a well traveled photographer who has stunning portraits of hims

It has been a while since I last took up wedding related photography jobs, mainly because most weddings happen in the weekends and my weekends are tied with consumer activities run by Olympus. I did miss shooting actual day weddings and also all the related events such as registration of marriages, proposals or engagement parties. When the chance came for me to take up an assignment with the right timing, I jumped at it. I probably had too much fun shooting this awesome couple, Frankie and Jess. I covered their official registration of marriage at Thean Hou temple, and of course during the course of the event we took some portraits. Here are some notes from the shoot that I think are worth sharing, in no particular order: 1) The temple was under heavy construction, so it was not easy shooting on location. I had to avoid messy scaffolding and construction material pile ups everywhere in the compound. Nonetheless, using long lenses worked well to isolate the couple in this scenario. Havi

My favourite local band was performing at Commune, Sunway Velocity and as usual I was shooting the band. The stage lighting was predictably dim and uneven throughout the stage, and was unfavorable since in some situations I needed to bump up my ISO to 6400 for sufficiently fast shutter speed to freeze movement. The band members were actively in motion (they do have fast-paced, rock-styled music) so I needed to constantly watch my shutter speed, else everything would turn out in a blurry mess. It was always, always fun to shoot Nadir and Bihzhu and they performed my favourite song, "Why Do We Cry" that night which I recorded in video! NADIR (Featuring BIHZHU) - WHY DO WE CRY Performed live at Commune, Sunway Velocity Check out Nadir at: Website: http://www.nadirmusic.band/ Facebook Page: https://web.facebook.com/musicnadir/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NadirMusicCollective Check out Bihzhu at: Website: http://www.bihzhu.com/ Facebook Page: https://web.facebook.com/bihzhu