Shooting for myself

It's been quite some time that I've done some street shooting. And as a result of that, my photographic vision has seemed to be a bit dull recently. I needed something to jump start it again, hence I went for a short street shooting session with Robin on Hari Raya.

When I reached Kota Raya (near Pasar Seni), there was a whole mass of foreigners, mostly from Bangladesh and Myanmar. For a moment, I was pretty stunned and wonder where did all these folks come from in the first place. No need to talk about 1 Malaysia - there were not even any Malaysians in sight!

It was really crowded and hence taking a photo was a bit more challenging than usual. Nonetheless we persevered and continued shooting away.

I haven't seen anyone chewing on betel leaves recently, but it seemed pretty common when we were walking around.

Fancy a cheap flight to Dhaka, anyone?

We walked by pasar seni, and everything was eerily quiet. Most of the shops were closed.

Business was going on as usual in Petaling Street.

Hari Raya flowers, anyone?

This Indian temple has been recently repainted. It stands alone in stark contrast to its more 'contemporary' (aka. boring) neighbours.

1 Malaysia.... Oh really ?  :s

We passed by this interesting looking temple and decided to explore it a little further.

You can supposedly light up a spiral shaped incense and make a wish after that.

The old temple caretaker maintaining the oil lamps.

Paid a visit to the Nikon center again to try out the new Nikon 85/1.4 G. Other than the inclusion of Nano coating, a silent wave motor and a redesigned G chassis, nothing much has changed. It's price has also increased to become over RM 5,000 like the 24/1.4G. Ouch! = ="

At f/1.4, its really sharp at the centers, yet retains it's dreamy bokeh-licious look due to the thin depth of field.

A candid portrait of Robin, who loves compact cameras. Note the point of focus is on his spectacle frame, not his eyes.

The 85G focuses slightly faster and quieter than its predecessor. But is it worth the price increase? I'll leave that up for you to decide.

The new full frame superzoom - the Nikon 28-300/3.5-5.6 VR seems to be pretty versatile, but its not sharp when used wide open, such as this 28mm/3.5 shot. Would you pay a thosand dollars for a lens thats only 'okay'?

It has a maximum reproduction ratio of 1:3.2, which isn't bad at all.

Shooting someone across the room at 300mm. Although the fluorescent lighting was decent, I still had to bump up the ISO to 6400. I was also careful to limit the shutter speed to 1/40, because even if I was holding my breath as I triggered the shutter, my subject would still move a little and make the image unsharp.

For dinner, I had some roast duck rice. It's really expensive to have duck rice in KL, at RM10+ per pax.

I hope you guys enjoyed your raya holidays too. Cheerio!