Le Apple Boutique Hotel KLCC

Monalisa Ding (@monalisading on IG) from Sarawak is a smart shopper. The last time, I featured her, was about her stay in a strategically located hotel in Penang, booked through MyCen Hotels. This time she found another ‘value for money’ deal in another big city, Kuala Lumpur. She booked via my website again and I am grateful for her consistent support.

She sent me a pic of her room. Beyond the boutique hotel moniker and stylish exterior, the room looked basic but functional. The real attraction may be its location at the heart of Kua;a Lumpur, Petronas Twin Towers and Suria KLCC are a short walk from the hotel. So is the Ampang Park LRT station, The chain has another hotel of the same name in Bukit Bintang.

See rates, view the gallery and book the hotel here:
https://www.agoda.com/partners/partnersearch.aspx?cid=1775757&pcs=1&hid=686956

#kualalumpur #klcc#hotel #mycenhotels #travel #appleboutiquehotel

Fireworks Shooting Tips For 4th Of July

Happy 4th of July to my dear American friends. Here are some fireworks shooting tips for you. If you are taking a break, you can still find many hotels via MyCen Hotels at http://www.mycen.my/ Every American city and town is covered.

I am tagging Malaysian friends residing there too. Sorry if I miss out anyone inadvertently.

Share with a neighbor, classmate or colleague. Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day To The People Of USA.

Happy 4th of July to my many followers and friends from the land where Ikea is known as Eye-Kea :-). Hope you enjoy photographing the fireworks later tonight. Thought I’ll share with you some tips on shooting fireworks.

As beautiful as each burst is going to be, it is less meaningful if each is photographed in the sky by itself. When someone look at the pictures later, the fireworks could have been photographed in Dubai, London or Hong Kong. The black sky is the same anywhere in the world. Try to also frame some shots with a recognisable landmark where practical.

To do that, it means going out early, finding out where the cannons are erected and walking around to scout for a suitable vantage point. There are no short cuts. Good fireworks photography requires research, planning and legwork.

Where there are no landmarks, you may want to include the celebratory ambience such as the surrounding crowd. With moving humans you need to increase your shutter speed a bit. But doing that will also reduce the streak effects of the fireworks. The trick is finding an optimum balance for both the ground and sky action. Have fun!

Olympus OM-D, ISO 3200, f4, 1/40 sec.

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#fireworks #landmark #fourthofjuly #4thofjuly #usa #celebrations #photographytips #independenceday

A Eulogy

It used to be a empty space or open air car park rented out for promotional activities during the F1 season. A distracting white tent would rise from the spot.

I was worried when I saw some construction taking place. After all, the strategic traffic light junction was the last unfettered view of KL’s most iconic landmark. A multi storey car park rose from the spot. It was short-lived as a guard told me recently that the covered car park was going to be demolished to make way for an MRT station. It is now closed.

The rooftop on the fifth floor was perfect as one can get a nice panoramic view of the skyline that included the KL Tower. Only problem with an isolated place in Malaysia was that it attracted many horny couples who came to park and make out in cars. That made the guards nervous and they would close off the floor to subjugate any acts of immorality.

Photographers can still get up by walking the staircase. I went on a lonely, rainy evening by intent. Reflective wet floors were perfect. It was lonely, unnerving and was easy to forget how a silent drizzle can become heavy. Me and camera were soon totally drenched.

On fireworks nights such as NVE or Merdeka, one can almost not find a spot to park the tripod. Every inch on the edge, on every floor, was taken up by one of thousands of photography enthusiasts congregating there. It was madness as it was an ideal location as it was elevated, there was shelter should it rain and the car can be safely parked nearby.

This picture serves an ode to a valued and unheralded vantage point. The venue faced another Malaysian problem while it lasted. Many photographers were selfish, protective or secretive and they hid the location from others.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f5.6, 2 sec.

‪#skyline #‎landscape #cityscape #nightscape #skycrapers #klcc #petronastwintowers #kualalumpur #landmark ‪#rain #‎sonyalpha‬ ‪#‎a7r‬ #zeiss‬ #tbt

The Shadow Of Your Smile

On that sunny day, I thought I saw the shadow of a giant Christmas tree appearing on the wall of the Selangor Dredging building. It was the shadow of one of the adjacent Twin Towers. The smiling sun put up her own Christmas decor, albeit for a brief moment.

Olympus E-3, ISO 100, f7.1, 1/400 sec.

#shadow #sun #cityscape #klcc #christmastree #christmasdecor #olympus #klcc #tbt