The PenFan's PhotoBlog

Our usual go to eating place at Pavilion Mall Kuala Lumpur is Ichiban Boshi; one of the many Japanese Restaurants located at Pavilion Mall Kuala Lumpur. We like it mostly for its handmade soba noodle and traditional Japanese dishes. Ichiban Boshi was closed for renovation about two months ago but is now reopen for business. It was just coincidental that we walked in on the very first day of their reopening as one of their waitresses whom we know told us. The front sitting area near the entrance of the newly renovated Ichiban Boshi Japanese restaurant at Pavilion Mall Kuala Lumpur. This photo was taken at 2.25pm when most of the lunch crowd had left.  --   Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM1s, Lens: Panasonic's Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-f/5.6 ASPH, lens zoom at 18mm aperture set at F/4.2 shutter speed 1/60s and ISO at 800. After 2 months of renovation the whole place is totally remodeled a much welcome change with a cool and refreshing look. The decor is a mixture ...

Our grand nephew insisted we join him and his family to the cinema one evening. Unfortunately the movie he wanted to watch was taken off for the day's screening. Feeling disappointed and dejected he was not in the best of mood so we decided to have dinner first before thinking how to fill our time for the rest of the evening. Kids being kids, after dinner he got over the disappointment  and was running all over the mall and posing for photograph. My wife was pleasantly surprised by his happy mood and quickly pulled out her XZ-1 and started snapping away.  He and his little sister were happily posing in front of the lighted fountain at the mall entrance but the tiny flash from the XZ-1 did not have sufficient power to cover the whole scene. On top of that the alternating fountain lighting from bright to dark accompanied by ever changing coloured illuminations fooled the camera metering. A 2 stops underexposed photo from the Olympus XZ-1 in Normal Program Pattern meterin...

As Chinese New Year is getting closer we went to the Curve Mall to pick up some new year goodies. Last month we were quite happy with The Curve's 2012 Christmas decoration. Naturally we are eager to check out what they have for the 2013 Chinese New Year as well. The Curve Mall's 2013 Chinese New Year theme called the Celebration Of Spring look beautiful from one floor above. ---   Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1, Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42 mm f/3.5-5.6 II standard zoom lens, setting lens at 28mm f/4.6 1/25s and ISO 800. This trip to The Curve Mall is mainly a shopping trip for Chinese New Year goodies. However we are also prepared for some photo shooting opportunity when something nice pops up. Thanks to Olympus for pioneering the Mirrorless Cameras System and reinventing the Digital Pen Micro Four Thirds Cameras. This small system camera with big features is so light and small we can carry it with us almost anytime. Any Olympus Pen camera together...

Our memory is still fresh with the photo session of Majestic Dragon of the Pavilion Mall.  But time flies and that a year has past.  Soon we will be in the Lunar Year of the Snake and bid farewell to the Dragon Year. The 2013 snake year celebration at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur has this cartoon-like Snake leading the 12 Chinese Zodiac Circle of Reunion at the Mall's Bukit Bintang entrance. -- Camera: Olympus Pen E-P1, Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/2.8 Pancake lens, setting lens at f/5.6 1/200s and ISO 200. We were on our way to the Pavilion Mall and expecting to see a big anaconda just like the Majestic Dragon at the Mall for the Year of the Snake.  When we arrived we were disappointed because the Pavilion Mall had a miserable green earthworm disguised as a snake at the entrance. Luckily the Green earth worm looked cute and funny and if not for its forked tongue it definitely is merely a big fat earthworm. The 2013 Chinese New Year theme for Pavilion Kuala ...

In the month of December Ikea is running some one-day special Christmas offer of 2 items per day everyday till December 24. We were attracted or rather distracted by one of the items on offer that day but felt it more of a want than a need. Whimsie Forest with a sprinkle of fairy dust is the Curve Mall 2012 Christmas theme decoration.    --     camera: Olympus Pen E-PL2, Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42 mm f/3.5-5.6 II standard zoom, setting lens at 28mm, f/9.0, 1/15s and ISO 1000. Physically checking  out the item might help but Ikea is quite a distance from our place. If the item turned out to be something not what we really want,  it would be a wasted day out.  Then I remembered the Christmas decoration at The Curve so I said to my wife at least we can shoot some photos to make it worth the while. We arrived at Ikea around lunch time and had lunch at the Oriental Court area at The Curve Mall. After that we mov...

Before we knew it Santa is back singing out loud " HoHoHo I am Back"! Christmas 2012 is just days away and many shopping Malls already decorated with beautiful Christmas theme to draw shoppers and visitors in. A week ago we saw the almost completed Christmas decoration at The Curve mall but we had no photos because it was not lighted yet at that time. A Bedazzling Christmas is the 2012 Christmas theme for Pavilion Kuala Lumpur with plenty of crystals, glittering gold and blinking lights on the Christmas tree. — Camera: OLYMPUS PEN E-P1, LENS: M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 17MM F/2.8 pancake lens, SETTING F/4.0, 1/15s and ISO 200. We were at the Bukit Bintang area running some chores and decided to drop by the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur for lunch. The Pavilon Mall 2012 Christmas decoration looked more vibrant and upbeat than what we remembered last December. The theme for 2012 is Bedazzling Christmas. Visitors entering Pavilion Mall from the Bukit Bintang entrance can never miss...

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...

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: ...