Petaling Street, 3 April 2011

Its been some time since I last did some serious street shooting. Fortunately Robin called me out for a shoot last Sunday.

Fortunately, we got to have some Bak Kut Teh for dinner first. Tasted quite good, and relatively affordable too.

A typical street side restaurant that serves Chinese stirfries.

Petaling street is home to the average Malaysian (aka. overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, jobless). You'll find no frills here as compared to the modern shopping centers (eg. Pavillion) in Bukit Bintang. There is graffiti and rubbish displayed openly beside the streets.

A traditional 'ais kacang' machine.

The main street of Petaling Street is pretty cramped once the traders have set up their stalls. Its pretty hard to walk, and you have to be really careful to avoid your personal belongings from getting stolen.

Not sure what Rowan Atkinson would say about his favorite toy being liberally displayed at shops along Petaling street.

Can choose but please do not press.

The average Malaysian Chinese family having dinner.

Super cheap counterfeit sunglasses, anyone?

This place is a haven for foreign tourists, especially caucasions. They really seem to like this place although its dirty and very hot.

Yep, alcohol rules here without interference from Jakim.

Can't remember when was the last time I went out with my parents for shopping. Its been a long time indeed. Oh well..

The Ramli burger man.

Waiting for a bus to go home after a night of shopping.

Not sure what the tots are thinking about as two immigrants stare at them. I'd be really scared I reckon.

 Drinks anyone? Notice the Mr Bean bear in the gentleman's hand.

Velly velly cheap one!

If you're new to Petaling Street, you'd probably be like this tourist... Lost!

This is what happens if you don't have a good filter on your lens. Unfortunately these cool effects disappeared after I removed the filter from the lens. Boring!

 As we arrived in Pasar Seni, we were treated to a traditional dance performance. I hope this performance has succeeded in attracting more tourists to the Pasar Seni night market!

For the Kuda Kepang dance (which originates from Indonesia), the dancers supposedly have to be in a state of trance and be 'possessed' by the horse spirit in order to dance well.

I wrote once about KL being a city of dichotomies, where the affluent and the poor coexist together in a fragile state of apparent harmony. This is where the real heart of Malaysia lies, not our obscenely clean shopping malls!

Thats all for now. Good night everyone.

Nikon 10th Anniversary celebration at Midvalley

*I apologise if some of the images look dark. These are jpegs straight from my camera.

I finally had the chance to go to Nikon's 10th Anniversary celebration at Midvalley yesterday with a friend. Being formerly acquainted with Olympus users, it was an experience for me to mix around with the Nikon gang. This is Nikon's first DX sensor professional camera, the Nikon D1, released on June 15, 1999 - The Nikon D1.

Although it has just a 4 MP sensor, the D2Hs has a reputation for extremely high image quality and excellent detail rendition. It also has a high speed burst rate of 8fps - great for sports shooters and journalists.

Ah... thats my camera - the D3, Nikon's first professional full frame camera. Didn't realise that the design is that old now - 4 years...

Nikon increased the megapixel count from 4MP to 12 MP in the D2X series, with the D2Xs offering many small improvements over the original D2X.

As you've probably noticed already, since Giugiaro took over the helm of designing SLRs for Nikon, they have looked roughly the same, with minute modifications here and there which do help the resultant user experience.

Yep, the D3 is one big block of magnesium alloy metals.

Customers were able to try out a 'limited' selection of Nikon cameras, such as this D300s with the Nikon's newest 35/1.4G. I can say that the AF on this lens is pretty quick and silent.

 I've seen something like this before on the forums but not up close - A carved up D3 and 14-24 lens. At least they had the guts to split something worth RM 21k.

Nikon users went in full force with their best cameras and big guns, such as the D3s with the 24/1.4G, and I also saw a limited edition white 70-200 VR1. Yep, this is a camera expo so why not bring along what you've got and get noticed?

 Several international / Malaysian photographers also exhibited their work, but I reckon some of them are too small to be fully appreciated. Perhaps this is due to copyright issues, or the Epson printer there couldn't print out something larger in size.

There was also a free sensor cleaning service for Nikon users. At first, I was a little hesitant, but I finally sent it in for cleaning and got it back half an hour later. Well done Nikon.

Of course, there were also some Nikon models but I couldn't shoot them because of the limited time I had at the expo.


Nikon's newest flagship.. the D3s. Usable iso 12800? Oh yes. By comparison the 1D mark IV is 1 stop less sensitive because of the smaller sensor size and more megapixels.

Nikon's most pricy camera.. the D3x. If you'd like more megapixels for cheap, get the 5D mk II and pocket the extra money for some nice L lenses.

That's all for now folks. Cheers.