Multi Faith And JB

Three years ago I caught the sending off or launch procession for the Chingay Festival from the temple in town to the prayer site off town. The JB Taoist procession passed near the very old Catholic church.

I positioned myself and waited for the juxtaposition of icons from the two different faiths. The annual event took place this morning. There was another religious harmony factor involved which I found out when I visited the church a few days later.

The church was built on land donated by the late Sultan Abu Bakar and was then known as the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. There is also a marble statue of Mother Mary gifted by Sultan Sir Ibrahim Abu Bakar and it is still standing at the church’s front courtyard.

#chingay #jb #johor #taoism #procession #streetphotography #jossticks #church

Then And Now – Looking Thru The Time Tunnel

Then And Now – Looking Thru The Time Tunnel.

The Sekinchan Nine Emperor Gods Temple is a good place to juxtapose or frame the vast paddy fields. It sits in the middle of he farm land. The ornamental windows on the perimeter wall fence provided a flash back to 2012. I captured the green paddy fields behind one of the windows back in 2012. Now in 2017, during the monsoon season, the fields are submerged in a sea of flood waters.

If you are attempting a visual comparison such as this, do not pull your hair out in frustration; if the two images don’t line up or match perfectly and there are reasons. The wall and windows were painted over and the paint may be of different pigments and hues.

Also the structure may have changed shape in the heat, over the years. Don’t forget the camera, sensor and lens are different and the rendition will be different. Amazingly, both cameras picked identical exposure settings in auto metering.

Upper: Olympus OM-D EM-5, ISO 200, f 10, 1/320 sec Year 2012

Lower: Panasonic Lumix GM-1. ISO 200, f10, 1/320 sec Year 2017

This post and pic is available as a bigger pic at www.tvsmith.my

#sekinchan #paddyfields #chinesetemple #floods #tbt #timetravel #landscape

Bougainvilleas And Dragons

Ulu Yam Bharu and surroundings may have a turbulent past but today it is a sleepy hollow. Not much activities except for people stopping over for food on transit to Genting Highlands. You may want to explore the town and village on foot to pick out hidden gems with your camera.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f9, 1/800 sec.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Lamps

Saw a temple in the middle of this first stopover town northbound on Federal Route 1. I went inside the See Yeah Kong Temple in Rawang to take a quick look.

Photography Notes: The Sony Zeiss 24-70mm is my ‘go to’ lens for this kind of run-and-gun photography. I also have the 55 mm f1.8 Sonnar T* in the bag, should the interior be too dark or if I need more focus isolation. As it was, the zoom rendered a nice bokeh.

Was a good morning warmup and workout for the gear. I foresee a long day of exploration when I return to the Ulu Yam area afterwards.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 1000, f4, 1/400 sec.