Kuala Lumpur is a beautiful city, more so when Malaysia is now undergoing a new gov that is appeasing the public outcry over corruption and all manners of injustice wrought by the previous BN led administration.
Nothing have changed however when it comes to places to shoot street photography as common people continue their daily lives. From the typical tourist spots at KLCC, petaling street china town and city centre, the dynamics of the different ethnics and street activities continues.
Today, i took a walk around Jalan Pudu. My camera setup for street is the Leica M240 and Leica Elmarit 28mm f2.8. All the images here are shot wide open at f2.8 as per my habit and discipline to shoot wide open any lenses on any setup.
You don’t need a leica to do street photography of course but each gear does have its own advantages. Leica M come with some heft and a nice weight, perfect for doing hip shots, its distance scale on the manual lens are heaven matched for this use.
All the pictures here are processed using CaptureOne’s free film simulation sample.
Shooting from the hip avoids and minimizes any chances of confrontation. This is important in some places. Jalan Pudu is not an upscale area, it is an old place that have undergone very little economic changes. The idea of sharing images in social media and the indirect benefits of reaching out for more visitors is not something that the locals and immigrants here would appreciate.
The photo above was taken after one of the aunty shouted at a fellow photographer “no photos!”, he was using a very small camera and was composing using the LCD (think Ricoh GR, Leica X2 type of cameras). I took it from the hip and avoided the scene.
A noticeable amount of older people gather around this stairs chatting away. Some are waiting for the free food donation that occurs on weekend just across the street (more on this later).
Across the road, i noticed a few interesting aunties (or grandmas, depending on how polite you want to be) sitting at the side of the road. I could faintly hear what they are discussing but they clearly knows each other.
While walking pass by the school, a large number of old people and immigrants are gathering in the middle. I continued to walk with Joe, Stephan and Junrong, a few of my street buddies when a girl in green shirt came running after us. Initially i thought she got something to sell but as it turns out she just needed someone to help her take a group photo along with the pile of food that they are donating.
She said “i just want someone young to help take the photos because the old people here don’t know how to use an iphone”. Sure, that sounds like me (I totally forgot that Junrong is at least 30% younger hahaha). I took the opportunity to take the shot above with my own setup.
There is a morning market nearby selling seafood, groceries, joss sticks and as i entered i saw this old woman with a small setup. Joe, seeing that visuals and story presented immediately went and took a photo. After he is done, i went towards the stall and bought 3 packets of tibits and took a picture of her stall. For most of us doing white collar careers, seeing an old woman at this age trying to make a living by doing whatever she can, just tugs me in the heart. How much could she sell a day? At usd 0.25 a pack, there are barely 30 packs there on the table.
The path to the stalls are very narrow, you have to squeeze thru and move all the time. I came across 4-5 stalls where the workers are chopping on some meat and for the pleasure of my viewers, those photos won’t be shared here. The canopies cast various colors that would confuse any digital camera’s white balance. But since i am shooting in RAW, it doesnt matter at all.
There was this opening between the canopies that i saw this seller with her bucket of fish. I took this shot so quickly, i actually forgot about it until i went home and looked at the files. The fishes look wet and fresh and her expression of whistling made this shot a keeper.
As our shooting time came to and end we walked out of the market and i saw this durian stall at the side wall of the market. Later i noticed the seller is asleep. Must have been a tiring day.
The Hakke Mee stall is interesting in some ways. There aren’t many locals selling food that are below 50 years old, most of the newer generation who owns these stalls prefer hire workers from vietnam,myanmar or thailand to run the stalls.
Overall, i find that 28mm is the preferred focal length for street photography today. 35mm would be too narrow for close ups like the fish and seafood stalls images.
For those readers that have followed my blog, if you are wondering what happened to my Pentax 645Z and why isn’t it used on this set… First off, 645Z is a camera that you should consider very carefully before buying it, after i have used it for the last few months, it has raised my perception standard of pixel acuity and density so much so that i found myself rejecting images from APSCs and 1″ sensors. I am not saying that APSC and 1″ cameras are crap as we know the photographer is the key, i am saying that i found their output unacceptable for normal outdoor shoot.
Take this set for example that i did, without flash, ps, nothing, just some light editing on C1. Now just view it only if you have a monitor that is at least 15 inch (the bigger the better). Once u got used to this kind of pixel acuity and density, your mind naturally finds anything lower a problem. Hard to put a finger on it, it’s like looking at photos taken by mobile phones where ur mind knows something is lacking.
The 645Z is used for most of my model shooting events and this Leica M shall be my tool for the street.
M changing lives with images. 