Feelings: Boy Buys Mee.

I have a peeve about landscape or street photography on social media. People tend to garnish a mediocre pic with a quote, without attribution. Happens a lot in the Malay world of Instagram. They take a pic of the sky or a goat and superimposed it with a quote. The end result looks like a constructed meme.

“It was very much like Norman Rockwell: small town America. We walked to school or rode our bikes, stopped at the penny candy store on the way home from school, skated on the pond.” ~ Dorothy Hamill, American Olympic skater.

Insert or add some nonsensical babble or philosophical thought or hipster rant about life.

Taking a pic and not wanting to waste it, you go back to write something to make up at story retrospectively, that wasn’t there. Worst are those who insert thoughts into a stranger’s mind. How do you know what the stranger on the street was thinking without making contact?

The boy is thinking: “I am hoping the colours of my bike add some excitement to this drab town. The umbrella is giving this town the competition it needs. Nothing happens around here since the war, my grandpa used to say.”

End of fiction. I was in tiny town Rasa. It may be good for those who likes writing but there is a danger. Let your picture tell your story, The danger is it may affect your story telling ability with a camera and your audience becomes lazy too. And not everyone can write compelling captions that the reader can rasa or feel.

The opposite is my pet peeve. Those who are extremely frugal with captions. For some reasons, they don’t even want to reveal the subject matter or its location, making it as annoying as a cryptic post.

Nearest decent hotel to Rasa is The Leverage Business Hotel in Rawang
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#smallrown #streetphotography #rasa #selangor #hawker #streetfood #rawang

Good Wishes

Wonderful that today is an alignment of Asian festivals. Happy Tamil New Year, Happy Thai New Year or Songkran and Happy Vaisakhi (or Baisakhi), the important holy day for Sikhs.

Saw these statues of a family at a Hindu temple in Rawang, a town on Federal Route 1. Will see if I can also drop by at a Sikh temple that is on-route later.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 400, f7.1, 1/400 sec.

The Roadside Teddy Bear Shop

Federal Route 1

The Roadside Teddy Bear Shop.

The new Batang Kali town is about 6 kilometers from Ulu Yam Bahru and is now considered a foothill town of Genting Highlands, albeit on the back side. Out of curiosity and to see if I can include a child’s input, I asked a little girl at a fruit stall what she considers a local attraction or an interesting place for me to photograph. Without hesitation, she yelled: “Kedai Teddy Bear!”.

Every adult around us laughed but I thought it was quite an awesome suggestion. Confirmed the location of the shop with her parents and off I went searching for it. It turned out to be quite a charming subject for photography, especially with another enchanted little girl (of about the same age) in it. Nothing beats local knowledge but only if you ask. Nearest comfortable hotel to Batang Kali is The Leverage Business Hotel in Rawang and Rawang Happy Station Hotel.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f8, 1/100 sec.

#documentaryphotography #streetphotography #smalltown #batangkali #teddybear #federalroute1 ‪#‎tvsfr1‬ #sonyalpha #a7r #zeiss

Goyang Kaki

Rawang has soul. And soles. Taxi drivers and a passenger chilling at a taxi stand, watching life going by and sizing up a stranger with a camera. So-called ‘outstation’ taxi service is a waiting game for both passengers and drivers. The first passenger that arrives wait for other passengers to fill the car. It is a cost-effective ride sharing system.

The carefree connotation of the popular Malay idiom ‘goyang kaki’ (swaying a foot or leg in relaxation) is deceptive here. Idleness at this old part of town belies the bustle at the many newly developed areas in Rawang.

Rawang didn’t really suffer when it was bypassed by northbound traffic using the NSE. There is boom instead of gloom for two main reasons. Rawang was a busy hub and remains so. As a commercial and transportation hub, it serves the smaller towns such as Batu Arang, Serendah, Batang Berjuntai and beyond.

Astronomical residential property prices in KL/PJ meant people are willing to stay further in neighbouring towns. The number of new hypermarkets and housing estates in Rawang bear testimony to the phenomenon. Some of the locals I spoke to lament that everything has become more expensive as a result.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f4.5, 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.