Shy Dog, Pulau Ketam

Pulau Ketam Houses

 

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A Tired Boss, Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu, 161210

Little One in the Long House, Sarawak

Playing in the Rain, Pulau Ketam, Malaysia

I truly enjoyed the one morning I spent at Pulau Ketam last Saturday. It was an organized gathering with Malaysia's Olympus Users. The island seems locked in time, back maybe in the 80s... Kids as young as 5 years old are playing in the drizzling rain... the only vehicle on the island is bicycle... people are friendly (though some are camera-shy, probably too many tourists have been shuffling their DSLRs into their faces?)...

We had our group photo taken outside the one and only Police Station by a police constable. We ate delicious and affordable seafood. The light drizzle softens the day, cools everyone down with a cool temper. We strolled instead of walked fast like the typical "City-chaps". The island was "big" enough to give each one of us "freedom" from one another in doing our own photography. That was nice!

Looking at the simplicity on the island, it's again another reminder to me that knowing contentment is wisdom, and it leads to true happiness.

"Want what you have and you will always have what you want." 

Life in the Long House, Bintulu, Sarawak.

My sincere apologies to all for "missing-in-action" from updating my blogs recently. This is due to my many photographic assignments lately... and I also have been spending much time processing my past negatives which I have shot since year 2009. I shall resume "A Photo A Day" as soon as I "clear out" my current outstanding assignments. Here's a negative I processed lately, shot in 2009.

Gone, It's All Gone... ...

Click to Enlarge

The Longhouse, Bintulu, Sarawak

Lorong Tingkat, Klang . 121110

I have been too busy lately with shooting assignments. Sorry for not updating daily as before. Here's a recent shot I did on Deepavali Day.

Painters . 081110

Still Deepavali . 071110

Indian Lady . Brickfields Market

Happy Deepavali from Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur

The Artist

Selling Vegetables

An earlier post has another image of the same old lady HERE. I wrote about honest living, humble honest living that deserves more respect than some self-made celebrity wedding photographers who often lie and cheat in the name of marketing, and one of them till today still haven't repay off his RMxx,xxx debts owed to freelancers he has engaged. It's shocking what people will do for the sake of money and getting famous. Sad.

A Stranger's Look

This image keeps coming back to me. I kept holding back in posting this image cause I kept thinking I had already posted it in my main site before... cause I have the practice of NOT posting an image twice. After searching through my archives, I guess I uploaded it into my flickr BUT this never appeared in any of my posts...

It's the way she looked at me. I also do not usually crop my shots, so I'll just leave it as it is, a street scene, people walking past. I had to struggle between capturing the way she looked at me versus the passers-by walking past between us all the time. (click image to enlarge)

Life Goes On for the Blind... ...

Relax, The Malaysian Culture

Workers

Back Alley Negotiation

A Poor Man's Meal

Sleeping on the Streets

Mamak Store, The Malaysian Culture

Shadow Sketch

Bird Trapped

Moonlit Site

Afternoon Nap

Malaysia Traffic Police

A Spoilt Neg can be a Nice One too... ...

Cross Culture

Took a 2-day break from my daily photo series. Sometimes, we need that isolated time, away from people, from the internet, from holding cameras, and just to enjoy the fine details in life without the stress of photographing them. There's just too much to capture and it's endless. I enjoyed 2 days with my family, not much of photographing, just some processing of negatives.

The photography hobby can be ironic. We shoot to share BUT yet when it comes to doing it, most of us prefer to do it alone and NOT in groups. It is at the same time a Lonesome hobby BUT a Sharing hobby. If you have a photograph taken BUT it's not shared, it's equivalent to NOT having it taken. Even if we find some friends of the kindred spirit in photography to go out for a shoot, we hardly communicate during our street-shooting. It's just too hard to focus with friends around sometimes.

However, if we restrict our photography hobby all to ourselves, we end up like frogs living in the well. We will keep thinking we are the best and there's no need to look further. We will end up selfish, arrogant and ultimately blind. When a photographer is blind to the feelings of subjects around him, his photographs will be blind. Even a plant can feel sad that it's gonna wither tomorrow and a building can feel grand when it's bathed in golden sunset!

To all you photographers out there, keep sharing! For any photos which aren't shared, it's as if you have NOT taken them.

   

Urbanization

Friendly Punjabis

You're My Man!

Lepak a.k.a. Loiter

For the meaning of "Lepak", the Malaysian Culture, CLICK HERE.

Temple Caretaker

Where's My Bike?

Brotherhood

Why I love Street Photography

Why do I love street photography and photojournalism?

Cause I seriously think photography will not have it's value today without them. In still life, commercial photography, even landscape and wedding portraits for example, shots can be possibly duplicated, depending on the control we have over our environment, subjects, lighting and tools. In real life wedding portraits, subjects change but countless bridal studios have duplicated the same pose, the same background, the same props, etc. and etc... Even in wedding event photography, photographers have duplicated similar poses with different couples, though not exactly the same, but similar. In landscape photography, if the light isn't right today, we can try again tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow... till we succeed, but the mountain doesn't move. And in studio still life photography, we have all the control we need to duplicate that cabbage shot over and over again.

The real challenge comes in street photography and photojournalism. No subjects are paid to do what you want them to do. And God doesn't always give you the best light in that moment you saw someone jumping over a puddle of water, for example...(if you are even thinking of duplicating that Cartier Bresson's shot).

It just doesn't happen. Each moment is unique. Each shot is priceless. Each subject changes. Each human ages and dies. Each detail wears out through time. The lamp post rusts. The structure gets demolished. The machines grow old. The homeless disappears. The children grow up. People migrates.

Street photographers and photojournalists being the least paid or non-paid photographers record the MOST Precious moments in life. Photojournalists risk their lives. Many street photographers go unnoticed, unpaid, unrecognized and even unappreciated.

Unlike commercial photography, the motivation is often money. 

In street photography, it's ALL about passion. The passion to keep memories. The sickness of NOT being able to let go. We want to record every moment we saw and tell it to the whole world!
 

Stencilling Your Own Ad, Kuala Lumpur.

Shoekeeper, Kuala Lumpur.

Puppy, Kuala Lumpur

2 Ladies n a Sleeping Man

My Boy in Blue

Living in a Mess, Kuala Lumpur.

Sun-tanning, Sentosa, Singapore

Nice Tattoo, Sentosa, Singapore

Naked Boy's Jump, Sentosa, Singapore

Bird Watching, Kuala Lumpur

He's watching them, they're watching him, I'm watching him and people are watching me behind and beside me. A quick snap of his spontaneous moment of watching as he walked past the street. We're all watchers. But I chose to be the recorder.

Quietness, Malacca, Malaysia.

I love quietness. Quietness can mean differently to different people. It can mean loneliness, stillness, peace, calm, lost, confused, missing someone, regrets, even hatred... ... I have always believed that in real quietness, you find ways to reconcile with parts of yourself which needs to be reconciled. In this urban society we live in, quietness is desperately needed.