ROBIN WONG

My friends were still persistent in getting more images to join the Fujifilm Malaysia contest, which required them to shoot food and location images in designated cafes. I merely tagged along again, and of course, enjoy the hipster, overpriced food and drinks. This time we went to SWOL Cafe in Bangsar, just after our morning shoot (outdoor portrait of a model). I had with me the Nikon Z5 and an 85mm prime lens, so I took some food shots with this lens. I think longer lenses work so well in managing unwanted perspective distortions that can make the outcome look less natural. When I was shooting with my Micro Four Thirds gear, I'd usually go for the 45mm F1.8, or if I were shooting with the 12-40mm PRO zoom, I'd zoom close to the full telephoto end anyway. Lighting in this cafe was great, plenty of window light for the perfectly balanced colors, without the mixed ambient light that can usually be destructive to the images. At the rate of me cafe-crawling around KL, I can probably start a cafe/restaurant/food review already. 

Viltrox sent me their 16mm F1.8 for Nikon Z mount, and I had the opportunity to test this lens on my own Nikon Z5 at various locations in Kuala Lumpur, at different times of the day. This was not a new lens, they have made it available for Sony FE mount a year ago, and now finally the lens is made compatible for Nikon Z system. Having used the lens extensively, I have to say I am genuinely impressed by what Viltrox has done with this lens, there is so much to like, and almost nothing to dislike about the lens. I have also done a full video review, you can check it out here (click). 

Back in the year 2019, just before the misery of Covid-19 struck, I went to Bangkok, Thailand for holiday, which partially turned out to be a work trip, as I was also invited to conduct a photography workshop there. The workshop did not take a lot of time, and I had plenty of room to roam around the streets, especially in early mornings. I particularly love exploring Hua Lamphong Train Station, which was the famous location for Rammy Narula's Platform 10 photo project, and overall, I just love shooting street photography in Bangkok in general. Now that the pandemic days are behind us, I should make new plans to travel to Bangkok and hit the streets again with my camera. Some shutter therapy in a foreign land, which is not too far away, and on an affordable budget sounds really exciting at the moment. Until that plan actually materialize, for now, I shall relook into older photographs, and share with you guys some of my favourite street shots taken during that trip. All images were shot with Olympus PEN E-PL9 with M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8 and 45mm F1.8. 

This is a continuation from the previous post, my friends Van and Jojo decided to explore a second cafe and we went to Bricks and Bread which was situated about one LRT station away. We got there just in time for lunch hours, and continued our camera clicking spree attacking the food before devouring them. My friends were focused on getting their best shots for the Fujifim Malaysia contest, but as for me, I just wanted to enjoy the moment, had some good coffee, food and conversations with my friends. It all worked out, what a way to end the week, and the start of this week has been crazy hectic. All images shot with Nikon Z5 and Meike 50mm lens. 

I always allocated some time in the weekends to catch up with my wonderful friends. Me being a freelance photographer, my timetable is quite unpredictable, I can get shoots at any day of the week. Most of my recent jobs have been concentrated on weekdays, which was a good thing, as most of my friends work the normal 9-5 jobs, and the only time they have is in the weekends to hang out. My friends Jojo and Van wanted to explore a few new cafes and join the on-going Fujifilm Malaysia photo contest that requires them to shoot on these specific locations. I merely tagged along for the delicious food, and of course, I brought my camera long for some clicking action. Van actually vlogged this particular session, you can check out his video of us having too much fun with food, coffee and conversations here (click). 

During my recent trip back to Kuching, Borneo during the Chinese New Year festivities earlier this year, I managed to squeeze a bit of time for shutter therapy action. I went out with my friend Kieron Long to the streets of Kuching and had a casual street shooting session. The local folks were really friendly, I got some very nice portraits of Kuching strangers, and you know what, we even got invited to have coffee with them! All that and more in my latest POV style video here (click). I brought home the Pentax K-01 and I thought it was quite a fun camera to use - I love its quirky design, the challenges to operate and oh, the super awesome colors the camera renders! The 40mm pancake that came with the camera was not too shabby either, producing sharp enough results, and the unusual 60mm equivalent focal length was a joy to use. I had an issue, I brought back the wrong charger, not sure how that happened (not even sure how I got two Pentax chargers, since I only have one Pentax camera) and I had limited battery charge left, but it lasted the entire session and I had so much fun, shooting on the streets of Kuching! I know I have been receiving some unreasonable complains about my images showing too many males, well, you know what, here are some females this time. 

If you have been following this space, or my YouTube channel, you would know that I have recently added a Nikon Z5 into my arsenal. I have explained my reasons why I did so, you can find it in my previous blog entry here (click). There was something unusual that happened during the acquisition of that camera. Long story short, I brought the camera home without the charger and battery, a mystery which I have not solved until today. I thought this incident was quite interesting and worth sharing here.