Most of my friends work normal 9-5 jobs on weekdays, and the only time I get to catch up with them would be in the weekends. A lot of my friends already have their own families and usually are tied down with their commitments, which I can fully understand, family first always, I would have made the same decisions. However, the close friends which remains a few, would always make time to catch up, no matter how busy life gets, and I appreciate them doing so. Last weekend, I had brunch with Jackie and Jaslyn (I think we have been friends for almost 12 years at this point?) and boy oh boy, did we feast! I brought out the Nikon Z5 and 40mm prime just for a few quick shots. It was nice seeing everyone again and hearing individual life stories and dramas. Indeed, real life is more exciting than fiction. 

Pouring Kombucha into my Salmon Chazuke
Insect macro is so fun, and I can spend the entire afternoon hunting for bugs and spiders. Besides the thrill of discovering new insects that I have not seen before; part of the excitement was also experimenting with different lighting alternatives and gear setup to boost magnification. The quickest way to do macro is to get the rather expensive dedicated macro lens, but if you are not shooting macro a lot, and it is not what you do 90% of the time, yet you want to achieve some high magnification shots, there are many options for you to do so. The Olympus M.Zuiko 12-50mm F3.5-6.3 has a dedicated macro function, once enabled can give you about 0.72x (equivalent to 35mm format) magnification, which is quite incredible on its own. I decided to amplify the magnification further by adding extension tubes, and this was quite an interesting trial, with really decent results. The image quality, especially sharpness and flaw controls (spherical aberrations, purple fringing, corner softness, etc) are far from the level of a true macro lens, but on a pure budget standpoint, the images are satisfactory. In my latest YouTube video, I also demonstrated my gear setup which includes wireless flash and all my camera settings, you can find it here (click). 

Summary of gear setup: 
OM System OM-1 with 12-50mm kit lens with Meike Extension Tubes
Olympus FL-50R external flash fired wirelessly, triggered by on camera flash FL-LM2
Softbox attached to the wireless flash, and flash power controlled manually. 
Camera settings: 1/250, F8-11 (adjusted as necessary), ISO200

My friend Azul Adnan is currently having an exhibition in Bubble Bee Cafe at Petaling Street area, downtown Kuala Lumpur. It was a mini exhibition showcasing some of his recent work, especially taken in Kuala Lumpur urban areas during the night, with plenty of lights reflecting off glass and wet surfaces due to rain, hence the name play "Illumined". If you are in KL and have some free time, do drop by the cafe and have a sip of coffee while enjoying Azul's work in glorious prints! I highly encourage photographers to print their work, whether to be hung up on the wall, or simply making a photobook/zine, there is a certain satisfaction that comes with seeing the final prints. Also, you get to dive deeper into the curation process which includes selection and sequencing of your photographs into a series. You gain a lot out of the whole process of printing, and it will make you a better photographer!

Azul's exhibition "Illumined" runs from 15 April to 15 May 2024 at Bubble Bee Cafe. 

Azul's exhibition at Bubble Bee Cafe, KL

I have been getting an influx of paid shoots recently, and the calendar is getting filled fast, at least for the coming several months. Thankfully I have also piled up on my content buffer for YouTube, with some free time I had previously, I had as many as 8 videos stacked in the pipeline to be released one by one for the coming weeks. It is not easy being a YouTuber, as we adhere to consistency, we do need to continue pumping up comments to please the algorithm. Being a freelance photographer, honestly I cannot predict my work schedule, I can be free for the entire two week stretch, or I will be fully booked with back to back shoots. Either way, having more jobs is better than none at all, so I should not be complaining. 

Viltrox is releasing their 40mm F2.5 soon (I am not sure when the exact date is at the moment) at the price of USD158. This is the second lens in their budget primes line up, after the first Viltrox 20mm F2.8. They both look very similar, and have similar price tag too. I am privileged to get an advanced copy for review purposes, and I took the lens out for some street photography action. I have made a video review if you prefer to watch in video format (here). I am sharing my thoughts after having used the Viltrox 40mm F2.5 on the streets quite extensively. 

VIltrox 40mm F2.5 for Nikon Z
I have started doing Live Streaming on YouTube about more than half a year ago, regularly on my channel, typically on Thursday night 10pm, Malaysian time. I have written before about my intentions why I started Live Streaming, the challenges that I faced and how I worked around them, you can find my previous articles here and here. Since my last update more than 3 months ago, there has been some small changes which I do want to explore and talk about in this blog. It has been quite fulfilling being able to reach about 150-200 people concurrently during a live session, and throughout the entire stream, thousands of people. My Live Stream is definitely a work in progress, so from time to time it is important to sit down, reelect and make adjustments for further improvements. 

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