The PenFan's PhotoBlog

After weeks of salvaging and porting this blog from our old wordpress platform we are now back. This kind of give us renewed energy to revive this blog that we have neglected for far too long. During the period that we were away from the blog our love for photography remain intact. However a number of things have diverted our interest and attention from blogging. First is the maintenance of the wordpress site with this blog being constantly bombarded with persistent undesirable visitors from eastern Europe. I got turned off looking at the web stats and visitor logs and slowly got tired of logging in every time to block them or ban them but they kept coming back with different IP.  Installing security plugins from Wordpress is only a false security you only realized these plugins are not working in a painful way that is after you got hacked. Sometime last year the site was hacked by script injection and hijacked to spam other website. I hope our blogs' new home at blogger w...

Today I was at the MPH Book store in 1 Utama shopping Mall browsing some magazine and books. The MPH book store at 1 Utama once claimed to have  the largest floor space in the City. Sad to say, they are now just half that size occupying only the upper level. The lower level at 1st floor is now vacant with the sign "We Are Still Open. Please Use The 2nd Floor Entrance". Didn't find anything interesting in MPH but was attracted or rather distracted by a nice view from the glass windows at the far end of the book store. Looking down the window panel I saw the 1 Utama Central Park on the ground level. I had never set foot on the 1 Utama Central Park and since there is nothing much for me here I decided to take a walk in the Park. A lone Striated Heron at he One Utama Central park.   --    Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1. Lens: M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 telephoto zoom lens . Setting lens zoom at 150mm and f/5.6 1/4000s and ISO 1600. The 1 Utama Central...

We talked about a simplified and easy 2 layers exposure blending in the last article and so here it comes. In most scenes the dynamic range of the scenes are just slightly out of range of the image sensors' dynamic range.  Therefore, we only need to extend the highlight or shadow area by about 2  to 3 stops and the 2 layers blending method can handle that easily. This image of the The Western Courtyard of The Curve Mall created using the 2 layers manual exposure blend with The Gimp was fast and reasonably good. -- Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1, Lens: M.Zuiko Digital 14-42 mm f/3.5-5.6 II standard zoom, setting lens zoom at 31mm and f/4.9, ISO 200. The shutter speed of the two blended images are 1/15s and 1/60s. In this 2 layers method we use the +1 EV and the -1 EV photos from the three bracketed images. The 0 EV or "normal exposed" image from the camera is not required here. The +1 EV overexposed image has enough details to cover most of the scenes from t...

We saw a nice scene where the sun was shining brightly in deep blue sky and colourful flowers in the foreground contrasting beautifully with the buildings in the background. We took a shot and what we got was a well exposed building with overly dark flowers in deep shadows and a pale featureless white sky. A total letdown!  The beautiful high contrast scene was not represented on the photo we took so we became frustrated and disappointed with our camera. The problem is the tonal and contrast range of the scene is too large for the imaging sensor in the camera to capture. We had the same situation when we were at the Western Courtyard of The Curve mall.  In the center we had natural sunlight streaming in from the top of the open courtyard surrounded by a darkened but clearly visible dining area, leading towards the courtyard were rows of hanging incandescent lamps in beautiful orange glow. However it was all lost with the photo we took - only the beautiful pil...

After taking some photos around noon in the open I decided to take shelter from the blazing sun. Sitting at a shaded corner taking a break and drinking some water to cool myself down,  I started checking out the images taken on the Olympus Pen E-P1.  It was then that I remembered the OM Zuiko 135mm F/2.8 lens was in my camera bag. The OM Zuiko 135mm F/2.8 lens was one of the lens in my collection that I rarely used during my OM 35mm film days. I tended to reach for the Tamron SP 90MM F/2.5 for portrait or the OM 200mm F/4 for telephoto usage. The OM 135mm F/2.8 lens happened to be somewhere in between the other two lenses. After reading some positive on-line user experience on the OM 135mm lens I decided to try it out on my Pen E-P1 camera. A 135mm focal length lens on a Micro Four Thirds camera is equivalent to a 270mm lens on the OM camera or 35mm format camera. 270mm EFL (Equivalent Focal Length) is not an easy focal length to handhold or to manual ...

Koi is the Japanese word for carp fish. However in English the word Koi normally refers to "nishikigoi" the domesticated colourful ornamental carp fish that originated from Japan. Nishikigoi (錦鯉) literally means brocaded carp fish. This large aquarium illuminated with overhead spot-lights that enhance the metallic colour of the koi and add interesting sparkle to the ripple on the water surface. -- Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1, Lens: Zenit Industar 61L/Z 50mm F/2.8, set at F/5.6 and 1/250 second at ISO 800. Koi fish is a very popular decorative fish especially in the Far East. To the Japanese Koi fish symbolises perseverance, endurance and the strength to overcome difficulties in life. The word Koi also pronounced the same as another Japanese word meaning love and friendship. The Chinese character for fish is pronounced the same as the word for 'surplus' or 'abundance' and symbolises profit, gain and good fortune. Carp fish is a popular theme in Chinese...

It has been a month since our last visit to the Pavilion Mall Kuala Lumpur. The magnificent Pavilion Mall dragon was still there inviting shutterbugs to take more photographs. We added some new photos of the Pavilion Dragon from this visit here. In a few more days will be February 6 2012 i.e. chap goh mei which marks the close of the fifteen days Chinese New Year celebration. The Pavilion dragon together with all the Chinese New Year decorations will most likely be taken down after that day. The 183-metre long Pavilion dragon view at the side from the upper floor of the shopping mall. -- Camera: Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2 14-42. Lens: M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II msc standard zoom set at 14mm f/3.5 1/100s ISO200. When we first photographed this Pavilion dragon a month ago it was just completed and a "work in progress" sign was still posted on the ground floor. Since then more new year decorations had been added with the finale being the dragon chas...

The Chinese New year decoration at 1 Utama is a continuation from their Christmas theme. This time they have put up a cute baby water dragon in a clam-shell at their main concourse area.  Most of the structures used for the Christmas decoration were reused except the sea fairies and their Christmas ornaments which were off duty now. Many had complained that 1Utama shopping mall recycled their Christmas decoration for the Chinese New Year and some questioned why a water dragon. In western mythology the dragon is a fire spitting fiery evil monster that lived in barren land, in deep mountain cave and in the dungeon. However Chinese dragon or "Lóng"  is not the same beast as the western dragon. The Lóng is an angelic being that lived in the four corners of the sea or in heaven. 1 Utama shopping mall's Dragon Year decoration for 2012 is that of a baby water dragon sitting inside  a clam-shell at the concourse area. Camera: Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2, Lens: ...

The Chinese lunisolar year for 2012 is the year of the dragon or "Lóng nián". The New year day for this dragon year falls on January 23 2012. The Chinese new year is referred by the Chinese as Agriculture Calender New Year or "Nóng rìlì xīnnián" to differentiate it from the international new year day of the Gregorian calendar. The Chinese dragon or the "Lóng" is a very differently beast from the dragon of the western culture.  To the westerners,  dragon is considered an evil monster that terrorized human kind, therefore should be sought out and slain. "Lóng" - the Chinese dragon, on the other hand,  is regarded as a divine beast that possessed supernatural power and a symbol of supreme authority. The Chinese dragon is also believed to command sound judgement, positiveness and good fortune. The auspicious Lóng is a colourful beast unlike the western dragon which is mostly black or grey. The  Chinese dragon can be in any of these colours - gol...

Tang Yuan is a very popular Chinese snack since the Song Dynasty (960-1126 AD). Tang Yuan is glutinous rice balls usually cooked in sweet broth. Tangyuan resembles the shape of a white marble ball which is made from glutinous rice flour. Some Tang yuan are plain and some have fillings inside. The fillings are usually made from sweet paste of red beans, peanuts, sesame seeds or other sweet candies. A close up photo of glutinous rice balls or TangYuan. The actual size of this Tang Yuan is about 25mm in diameter. -- Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1. Lens:Tamron SP 90mm F/2.5 Tele-macro lens photo taken at 1/20s F2.5 ISO 200 Tang Yuan is also eaten during many Chinese Festivals. Dong Jie or Chinese Winter Festival is one festival that Tangyuan  is a must-have for the day. Dongjie Tangyuan is made from combination of red and white glutinous rice flour. The two colored red and white Dongjie Tang Yuan symbolize Yin Yang harmony and family reunion. This year Do...

Camera manufacturers tend to release new cameras around the third quarter of each year to catch the yearend and Christmas shopping seasons. This is the best time of the year to get good bargain of cameras that are about to be superseded by the newly launched models. If all you want is a camera to take good photographs most current models in the market will suffice. The newest model might get you faster frame rate, focus faster, better performance in low light and better features in the HD video area. If you need those features or faster performance then wait for those newly released models. For us we love a good bargain buying brand new camera from reputable shops. That is certainly better than buying used or shopping for second hand goods. We saw an ad on the local newspaper where a large local retailer was having stock clearance of cameras from Canon, Olympus, Sony and others. The E-PL2 sing...

Other than photography I have a passion for tea as well. As usual I am taking my tea break and this time is LongJing cha. In English LongJing cha means The Dragon-Well tea. LongJing cha is the national drink of China and ranks amongst the top 10 most famous tea from China. In JiangNan area in China LongJing cha is mostly drank from a tall glass tumbler. The officials in Beijing prefer gaibei or lidded tea cup with their LongJing Cha. As for me, I have my Dragon Well tea with a tiny Zhu Ni teapot . Refreshing LongJing cha or Dragon-well tea in mini Chinese tea cup. - E-P1 Industar 61 L/Z 2.8/50mm, f4 1/4s ISO200 Many tea merchants have proclaimed that no one should use a teapot with LongJing cha. They said the delicate Long Jing tea leaves would get cooked by the heat in the teapot and spoil the taste. Well, if you know the reason "why" you can always overcome the problem with little difficulty.  Since the problem lies in o...