sade083

My friends and I were exploring an old neighborhood in the city area where residential flats were still standing amidst the vast development and modernization in the surrounding area. Walking around residential locations, I was being conscious about not intruding into the privacy of the residents there. After all, street photography is valid only in public, communal spaces which excludes private properties and residential buildings. Admiring the old architecture and building structural designs (I was a civil engineer after all) I decided to whip out the smartphone to utilize the wide angle lens, which I did not have with me on my OM-D camera at that particular session. The ventilation wall at the stairs drew my attention and I paid closer attention to it. All images were shot with Motorola G5S Plus using Google Camera App (ported over).  Count the birds  Count the humans  Ventilation wall  Stairs vs Vents My friend actually teased me because I wasn't shooting any hum...

Every time I am walking around, whether I have my Olympus camera with me or not, the ever trusty smartphone camera is on standby to capture something that catches my attention. Usually that something will be visually striking, and I am particularly drawn to interesting and bold colors. Most of the images I am showing in this blog entry were taken when I was strolling around Brickfields in KL, and the buildings there have walls in vivacious combination of colors, I just cannot help it but capture frames after frames. Some images (the obvious one with the fallen road sign, Jalan Sultan) were shot in Petaling Street, the epicenter of street photography activities in Kuala Lumpur. I must admit the Motorola's humble smartphone camera does pretty well in such well lit environment and the colors do pop (with a hint of over-saturation) and come to live. Looking at these images, they were far from what I would usually be satisfied with coming home from a typical shutter therapy session. Non...

Recently, Olympus Malaysia organized a trip to an island off the East Coast of Peninsula Malaysia called Pulau Lang Tengah for bloggers and social media influencers. The trip was filled with numberous photography activities such as portrait shooting, landscape shooting, underwater photography as well as night sky shooting. I was there to conduct workshop and field shooting on night sky photography. For the rest of the day I pretty much had time to myself and I took this opportunity to shoot some photographs as well. Most of my main images shot on the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II and M.Zuiko lens 12-100mm F4 PRO will be published on Ming Thein's site very soon. I am sharing images shot on my own smartphone, the Motorola G5S Plus here on this blog, as a teaser and preview to the upcoming article. There is something about the blueness of ocean water that calms the soul I wish I could be as peaceful as the sleeping cat The scene looks surreal even when it is under rain.  And oh yes, I hav...

During the recent long weekend I had some time to catch up with some friends. We initially wanted to hang out at a audio library cafe where we can sit down and sip overpriced coffee and sample some incredibly expensive headphones that I know I will not be able to afford ever. I found out that the audio cafe was closed on the day we wanted to go so we had to find an alternative location. Bean Brothers was just a few minutes drive away and this was my first visit. When I first entered the venue I knew I have fallen in love with the interiors immediately. It has an unfinished construction look with modern industrial appearance. The slab from the first floor has a huge opening. I took some shots and sent them to other friends, and one of them commented how the opening looked like as if a meteor has run through the cafe! I can imagine how amazing this place would have been to test out a new camera or a new wide angle lens. The uneven lighting added interesting characteristics to the images....

Today I experienced a horror I have not since 2008, I unintentionally left the camera battery in the charging dock at home without carrying out any spares! Not letting that push my shooting enthusiasm back even the slightest, I whipped out the ever-ready budget friendly entry level smartphone, Motorola G5S Plus that I have grown to like so much and decided to do something with it on the street with my friends today. You see, the cool thing about the dual camera module setup of the Moto G5S Plus is that one of the cameras has a true black and white (monochrome) image sensor, stripping off the traditional RGB filters. Having a "true B&W" mode itself is an exciting feature for a photographer like myself who does love black and white photography, and I have not had the much needed nudge to test this feature out extensively. Now that my main camera was battery-less (and basically useless), I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to see what the "true B&W" m...

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 ...

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...