Category: Photography

One Moment In Time.

Through the doorway: the skywell, sun rays, smoke, spiral joss sticks and ancient Chinese architecture appear like art. It can happen only in that one moment in time when the light, smoke and objects combined perfectly.

Photography Tip: Use a tele lens not just for reach. Here; I used the compression effect of the Sony FE 70-200mm lens to reduce the perceived distance between objects. I wanted the roof to appear nearer to the spiral coils than it actually was.

Exercise extra care when changing lens in a temple environment. There is a lot of fine ash that can get into the rear element and sensor.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f4, 1/1000 sec.

#streetphotography #temple #chinesetemple #architecture #smoke #art #josssticks #chinatown #chinesenewyear #cny #sonyalpha #a7r #sonyg

That Soothing Smile

I was sitting on a bench drying my eyes in the smoke-filled temple and breathing fresh air when this cheerful 11-year-old plonked herself next to me. I immediately asked her to move further from me. Hope she wasn’t offended as I knew right away she is very photogenic, even through blurry eyes.

Photography Tip. I asked her to move as I knew she was sitting too close for this particular lens to focus. Know your lens’ minimum focusing distance without even having to look through the viewfinder. This will save you time. Fiddling about is also unfair to an obliging subject, especially when it is a stranger.

I consciously kept her off-center to include the two worshipers in the background. Sometimes, just ask your model what’s going on behind you and she’ll look unsuspectingly over your shoulders. That’s when you click.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f1.8, 1/2500 sec.

#streetphotography #smile #temple #street #portrait #candid #chinesenewyear #cny #sonyalpha #a7r #zeiss

Fresh As Tesco

A 4 KG carton of honey mandarin oranges I bought from them are still juicy today, some 20 days later. In comparison, a box I received as a gift around the same time were already dried up and some oranges are rotting.

Amazing that the Tesco ones stayed so fresh, juicy and tasty so many days after purchase. It was labelled as Fujian Yongchun Honey Mandarin imported from China by Kaishen Trading. Was cheap too. Cant remember the price but hope co-shopper Johnny can remember.

Shopping for perishables is a hit and miss affair and it depends on luck, I know. I was twice lucky and was also happy with the CNY pineapple tarts bought from Tesco.

Panasonic Lumix GM-1, ISO 200, f4.5, 1/160 sec.

#tesco #mandarins #fruits #oranges #shopping #fruits #cny #tescomalaysia

Most Memorable Imbi Plaza Feature

A follower on Instagram Aina Liyana (@pfrsch) commented about remembering one of my blog posts mentioning how the escalators at Imbi Plaza always break down.

I replied saying I am happy she remembered as it was probably written in the 80s and 90s. Also I was dismayed they are working today. That shattered memories that were so characteristic of the now forsaken mall.

I once described it as the world’s only static escalators. They are always in a state of disrepair and the area was dark. Still is.

You may attribute it to Malaysia’s famous lack of maintenance culture, lousy escalator technology or callous disregard for customers when one is ahead or successful. Probably it was also because it wasn’t built or designed with big crowds in mind.

As you can see, Imbi Plaza’s famous escalators are also as narrow as the narrowband dial-up Internet connections available then. It was surreal and painful to see at the time, large and endless crowds stomping up and down nosily.

Because only one direction can be accommodated at any one time, there was a silent unwritten rule about waiting for the break and change of flow. Not the happiest thing, if you are hugging a heavy CRT monitor in a box.

All these happened in the decade or two before Low Yat Plaza (LYP) opened in 1999.

Panasonic Lumix GM-1, ISO 800, f4 1/60 sec.

#imbiplaza #mall #itmall #escalator #history #malaysia #kualalumpur

We Became IT Savvy Through Imbi Plaza

We Became IT Savvy Through Imbi Plaza.

Went to Imbi Plaza today. It brought back so many memories. The once bustling place faded when Low Yat Plaza replaced it as the IT hub. Imbi Plaza had so many shops selling cloned stuff then. It was also the place to go to get a replacement Thundercom 56k dial up modem when it was fried by lightning. Yes, kids. Those days were rough.

When your hypocritical foreign friends, who lectured you about IP rights, come to town, you take them there and they will load up with software worth a few thousand dollars for under RM 100. Imbi Plaza was a must stop for tourists. By now, a whole generation of millennials have probably grown up not ever experiencing it.

People used to buy MP3 music tracks there too. And who can resist those clipart compilations? Clipart is now dead, sadly. Imbi Plaza was also the place to go to get blank CDs if you want to burn copies

I bought a 17″ IBM CRT monitor then, Biggest then and weighed a ton. Almost broke my sagging Artwright 4 feet 2 tier computer table. Everybody had an Artwright 2 tier or aspire to own one then. If you own one, it meant another trip to Imbi to get a flatbed scanner and a buzzing dot matrix printer.

Either you go to Imbi Plaza or you wait for the annual PC Fair.

To its credit, Imbi didn’t handle porn. The most adult material you could get was a copy of Leisure Suit Larry. Adult films and titles were the domain of the red table cloth guys outside a 7-11 or the night market.

The sidewalk cafes next to the old coins and numismatic shops are still there. There was also a stamp (philately) shop. These are some of the non-IT shops I remember. There was a also a Pineapple shop inspired by Apple.

Today, my friend Johnny had a delicious looking beriani rice from one of the sidewalk mamaks. Not surprise to see Pakistani food such as biryani since the computer repair shops are now mostly operated by Pakistanis.

Panasonic Lumix GM-1, ISO 400, f4 1/250 sec.

#beriani #biryani #imbiplaza #rice #itmall