Tag: a7r

The Town Beauty

Her great grandfather was English and her great grandmother Burmese. On the maternal side, her great grandparents were Thai and Chinese.

Their son married a Spanish-Filipina. Her Eurasian father, who lives in Malacca, married a Chinese lady from Kelantan.

With such a fascinating mix, their child Jolene looks exotic and ravishingly beautiful, naturally. So what’s her race? Malaysian lah.

More than that, she also inherits a rich culinary knowledge for which she puts to good use. Jolene owns and operates the only fusion cafe in town. I stumbled upon her and the restaurant walking the kaki lima. More on the food next.

Photography Notes: I used the acclaimed Sony Zeiss 55mm f1.8 lens as an impromptu portrait lens here. It was so sharp that I have to reduce the clarity a touch in the raw processor. Nevertheless, it isolated her from the cluttered background beautifully.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f1.8, 1/800 sec.

The Red Hydrant

Fire hydrants are usually colour-coded so firefighters can tell at a glance the water capacity and pressure available.

Intended as a critical time-saving indicator during a fire, the meaning of the colour codes are not universally standardised though.

The pillar hydrants I see here in Tanjung Malim are mostly red, with a few in yellow.

Behind the hydrant is the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Rest House Road. The Catholic church started as a small chapel in 1960 and was rebuilt in 2007.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f4, 1/640 sec.

Kaki Lima

The five-foot-way or ‘kaki lima’ is a colonial legacy from the time when front of shops were required by law to have a 5-foot wide walkway. The practical and functional architectural design element lives on in the old shops of Tanjung Malim and many other places.

According to Wikipedia, the requirement was first specified in the Stamford Raffles Town Act of 1822 for Singapore. It applied also to Malaya and Brunei.

I think is quite a brilliant design as the overhanging top floor acts as a shelter or shade for window shoppers. Together with classic columns and arches, the shady walkways appear like a long tunnel or corridor to the camera.

Saw this girl gulping milk on the five-foot-way from afar. When I got near, I found out her parents are trading in one of the shops. I asked her father if it is normal to drink milk so fast and furious. He said is normal. Gulps.

Anyway, I like how she multi-tasked by posing, smiling and drinking at the same time.

Happy Mother’s Day, all.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 200, f4, 1/250 sec.

Into The Crowd

Saturdays are ‘pasar malam’ (night market) nights in Tanjung Malim town. The town is usually quite quiet after 5pm and thus was interesting to see a crowd for a change.

Made my way to the front of a crowd gathered around a stall. Was wondering out loud what strange satay this man was selling when this young lady turned around. I thought she whispered “Fish”.

Confirmed moments later with her family members that it was fish indeed. Nice to see a Malay (or maybe Indonesian) hawker attracting so many Chinese customers. All waited patiently as he grilled what looked like mini fishball satay sticks.

Photography Notes: For street photography, the ‘half-press’ AF focus lock is superior to any other focus methods including DMF and MF. Your mileage may vary, though.

When the girl turned around unexpectedly, I pan left to lock focus on her left eye and quickly re-compose to keep the satay man back in frame. All took place within 3 seconds or so.

Without fiddling with manual focus, I was able to catch the spontaneity of her reaction and the semi-candid moment. The result; an unconventional and more interesting capture.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 200, f4, 1/320 sec.

War And Peace

The Larut War of the early tin mining years took place during the second half of the 19th century. Running battles between the Cantonese-dominated Ghee Hin clan and the Hakka-dominated Hai San clan continued until the Pangkor Treaty in 1874.

Near the end of the protracted war, some Hokkiens fled central Perak and settled in more peaceful Tanjung Malim. In the early 1900s, they built two rows of shop houses that formed what is the old town today. A few of these ancient buildings still stand.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f6.3, 1/250 sec.