The PenFan's PhotoBlog

Panorama photo is nothing new to us. In fact we were making panorama shots since the film day. That was rather primitive back then.  What we did was we pan the camera as we took several photos of a scene each with a different angle. When the film is processed and printed we stack and line up the prints to form a panorama of the scene. When 35mm film scanner became affordable we made a scan of the panorama images from our 35mm negative.  After that we stitched the panorama photos together from the scan images manually with a free software suit called Panorama Tools . The process was time consuming and slow but nevertheless we had fun and enjoyed taking and stitching panorama photos. A 3 photos panorama stitch of the Pavilion dragon taken with the Olympus Pen Lite E-PL2. Camera set to A mode ISO 200 F/3.5 1/80s and the M.Zuiko 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 II zoom is set at 14mm. Today all modern digital cameras have built-in panorama mode and some of ...

We were on the way home after one of our Chinese new year visiting when my wife suggested dropping by Viva Home Shopping Mall. Viva Mall, previously known as Plaza UE3, is situated along Jalan Loke Yew.  Despite Plaza UE3 Mall's location on such a busy highway within the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur, for years this plaza had never really flourished as a shopping mall. Not many people knew about Plaza UE3 then and probably few could even remember such a shopping mall now. Kha Seng Group took over Plaza UE3 a few years back and gave it a new makeover and re-branded it as Viva Home Shopping Mall. It was reopen on April 2011 after almost one year of renovation.  Our first visit to this "new"  Viva Home Mall was around May last year and had not stepped foot there since. Today we decided to spend our afternoon at Viva Home Shopping Mall .  As its name says, Viva Home Mall wants to re-brand itself as a one-stop shopping centre for the home owners with products rang...

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...