Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the excellent Thaipusam Festival, one of my favorite religious events of the year.
I had already attended some 5 years ago, but my limited photographic tools had only allowed me to take a couple of good pictures and some very crappy videos.
I got up at 5 am and got to the temple on Serangoon Road just in time to catch some of the preparation ceremonies. Around 8 am I came back home, had some breakfast, and went back to the temple with my mother and sister, who wanted to have a closer look at some of the amazing – and painful – rituals.
I managed to get quite a number of photos, some better than others, but overall I’m not too happy with some of the colors and angles. My small compact camera manages to take good daytime photos, but nighttime shots are more difficult, especially when compared to some of the setups some people had.
Also, this time around I focused more on making good videos of the whole process.
Here are some of my favorite photos/videos.
Enjoy!
PS: I also took many photos with my Horizon, Fisheye, and Disdéri 3-Lens cameras, I’ll be posting the results very soon.
This weekend I went around Chinatown to take some photos with my new Horizon 202 camera, and while I was looking around Sago Lane I stumbled upon a shop just like I like them.
A small and dusty shop containing old record players, old photos, vinyl EPs and LPs, antique furniture, collectibles, and hundreds of other knick-knacks. Mr. Mak, the shopkeeper, passed me a chair and let me go through his crates of 7″ records at my leisure, something that is not always possible.
I bought some records and decided to look through the old photographs before leaving. Here are my findings (which I obtained for a very reasonable price in exchange of a promise of coming back with a lot more time).
During my Christmas trip to Malaysia I decided to try out those color films I’d read about, namely the Lomography Redscale film.
I tried the film out with my Fisheye and Panoramic camera, and I must say I’m not too thrilled with the results. Don’t get me wrong, I’m satisfied and I quite like the colors, but I can’t really say I’m thrilled or blown away…
First of all, most photos are extremely dark, even though I shot in excellent (sunny, bright) conditions. Second of all, while I love the color effect, the final result is nothing extraordinary. I could have achieved the same result – perhaps even better – by shooting with regular color film and then tweaking the color filters with photo editing software.
I don’t think I’ll be renewing the experience, unless one of these days I somehow acquire one of those Colorsplash cameras.
I don’t know, maybe I just don’t get it, or I did something wrong. What do you think?
I spent my long-awaited Christmas holidays in Malaysia, first in Kuala Lumpur where my parents live, then in Penang, a lively city I had already visited some 4 or 5 years ago but I wasn’t able to photograph.
I really like Malaysia because in many aspects it reminds me a lot of Mexico (loud music, lively colors, devout, humble and smiling people, spicy food, sweet drinks, nice beaches, etc.).
Here are my favorite pictures of 5 days filled with museums, art galleries, restaurants, shops, beaches, hotels, Buddhist and Hindu temples, Mosques, street vendors, and many other sights, sounds and smells I tried to capture.
Enjoy!
PS: soon to come, 20 rolls of photos I took with my Panoramic, 3-lens, 4-lens, and Fisheye cameras.
PS2: Also to come, experimental photos I will start taking using my brand new Horizon 202 camera (well, I recently bought it, but it’s second hand from my good friend Andy).
