Tag: sonyg

Laundry Day In Slim River

When I saw this house from across the road, I knew the dark planks will play tricks on the camera’s exposure reading. It will overexpose the picture if there is no manual intervention.

Photography Tip: Make your brain an important part of the exposure metering process with street photography. I anticipated a -1 EV compensation. I was already rolling the EV compensation dial before bringing the camera to eye level.

This is where the high-resolution WYSIWYG electronic viewfinder of the Sony A7R (or any good mirrorless camera) is superior to an optical viewfinder.

You can fine tune the exposure (and white balance) precisely without bracketing, firing several shots or chimping by the roadside.

Judging via the viewfinder alone, I dialed it further down to -1.7 EV. The pre-estimation saved time as the road where I walked was narrow, the traffic busy and therefore dangerous. I must get it right with one take and as quickly as possible.

On the road and without a calibrated monitor, I don’t like to mess around with RAW. As such, it is important the JPEG is spot on and ready for upload from location, without further adjustments.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f9, 1/250 sec.

The First Tolled Highway In The Country

To tell the story of Federal Route 1, one must note the historical significance of this segment of the route.

Not many will remember, care or even know this. The first tolled highway wasn’t the North-South Expressway. It was this road between Tanjung Malim, Behrang and Slim River.

Built in 1966, the toll booths collected 50 sen from cars. The amount was a lot during its time and it was also perceived by many as mere widening and straightening of the existing Federal Route 1.

The Slim River Highway was indeed a very modest highway, especially when you are now comparing it with today’s 8-lane expressways. Still, in its time, it was an improvement over the nightmarish narrow and winding road that was crowded out by heavy vehicles.

Toll collection stopped in 1994 with the opening of the North-South Expressway.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 125, f13, 1/250 sec.

Behrang Stesen

The names Behrang Stesen and Behrang (town) are used interchangeably. The little town was the railway station and vice-versa. Things changed after electrification and double tracking of the lines.

Like the towns of Rasa and Tanjung Malim I visited earlier, the realignment of roads and construction of flyovers changed the face and structure of the affected towns forever.

But how did this historical station end up as a train’s abattoir? The clue lies in the station itself. We’ll look at this in the next post.

Photography Notes: There is a 6-foot high barrier at every railway track flyover, bridge or crossing to prevent people peeing onto the high voltage cables below.

I remember reading about its implementation after some foolhardy people peed onto the electric cables from above.

It was during the early days of electric trains. I think they wanted to test the electrical conductivity of urine.

Unfortunately. the barrier also makes photography difficult. I held the camera with up-stretched arms but couldn’t see the exposure info nor frame properly with the flipped-down LCD due to midday glare.

No problem. Activated Sony’s Wireless Live View and Smart Remote Control app on my Samsung Galaxy Phone via one-touch NFC.

The Sony PlayMemories Camera App allowed me to monitor, frame and touch-focus via the phone’s LCD screen. The setup is like a wireless or electronic periscope.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f8, 1/500 sec.

Tanjung Malim Train Station

A very big station was built as part of the electrified double-tracking rail project. The new railway station and the accompanying road re-alignment and flyover were to change the face of Tanjung Malim town forever.

Amazingly, the sheltered platform is about 500 meters long. Currently there are only a handful of passengers, even during rush hour. Talk about optimism or building for the future.

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

Wesak Day – Bokeh Paradise

At the Buddhist Maha Vihara Termple in Brickfields is a tent where hundreds of oil lamps are kept lit. It is a photographer’s paradise.

Some newbie photographers think ‘bokeh’ is as simple as an out-of-focus background. It is more than that. It is how the lens render the out-of-focus point(s) of light in relation to the part that is in focus. There is an aesthetic and subjective quality that depend on the lens, aperture and distance.

Here, I manually set the focus of the Sony FE 70-200mm G OSS lens onto the middle row of glass lamps. The blue blobs are daylight from outside and the orange is a monk in saffron robe.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 160, f4, 1/250 sec.