ekster’s studio

The more I venture out on foot into the urban pockets of Kuala Lumpur, the more and more I am falling in love with it. There is simply so much to describe, from the rustic pre-war buildings to the new skyrises made of glass and steel, there’s enough in between to satisfy just about any kind of traveler.

And while roaming the streets, I’ve found a few very cool locations for portrait and fashion photography. The first time around, the discovery happened while I was street shooting with Fatini, and on the second round, I explored the same area a bit more with Helen.

Those shots were from the same general location, but from just slightly different parts of the old building. And of course, it will be a location that I will keep going back to for future photography sessions.

Yesterday afternoon, Jeremy, Ibah and I drove out to Putrajaya in hopes of catching a few good landscape shots. Unfortunately there was a barrage of torrential rain that made that impossible, and when the rain died down, the remaining storm clouds blotted out the sun. But that’s when a more brilliant Plan B arose. We found a perfect spot to loosen up, stretch out, and jump around with flying kicks and such! And I felt like a happy little kid again.

Everybody loves Kung Fu fighting! And they were as fast as lightning! - That song is officially stuck in my head now. And I’ve got the full version of this photo up on my Flickr account.

Setting up the shot

Setting this up was actually quite easy if you know the fair basics of light. We waited until the storm clouds covered up the sky enough so that we could get a decent exposure of the sky without blown out highlights using a fast shutter speed, and I used my speedlight to illuminate Ibah. I had the camera shutter set to 1/500 and the aperture set to f/8. We positioned Ibah in front of the brightest part of the sky to get that nice dramatic effect, and the rest was all just timing!

A few weeks ago, two friends and I went for a hiking trip through a not too distant rainforest area called Sungai Lepok. Unlike the other hiking trips that we’ve been to, this one was special. Aside it from being the smallest hiking group, it was also the most challenging terrain that we’ve been on. It took almost three hours to hike up the side of the mountain to get to our location, and it was not an easy or even a very scenic route. I think the others will agree with me when I say that it was the most droning hike we’ve ever undertaken.

Once we arrived at the destination, it began to rain so we took cover underneath a forlorn shelter. At least we were entertained by the small schools of fish swimming around the upper pool by one of the waterfalls, and we even spotted a softshell turtle slowly scurrying about at the bottom of the pool.

Once the rain stopped, we hiked further up the location and up some very steep tree root steps. At least the terrain was much more interesting to look at in this area, and the trail was much more colorful and less droning. When we couldn’t hike anymore, we found a spot at the base of a beautiful waterfall and had a nice afternoon swim. We were too tired to photograph anything, but I did manage to take one shot of our resting place before we departed.

I do have one complaint though. I’ve only chosen to show you the beauty and highlight of the trip, but the surrounding area was bound with rampant ugliness. People in this area have absolutely no civic consciousness at all for there was rampant garbage everywhere. And I don’t mean the little things that are bio-degradable. I’m talking about brightly colored plastic bags, wrappers, and other unsightly things which are probably damaging the surrounding natural area beyond imagination. Not to mention the stupid graffiti that some mindless teenagers (who knows, they could have been adults) put on old growth trees! It simply made my heart sank and it was most certainly not worth the long and strenuous hike up.

The hike down proved to be much more challenging. The forest surface was quite slippery from the rainfall not too long ago, and on the way down some slippery rocks, I managed to twist my ankle. Luckily I did not tumble down and break my face on the rocks though. From that point on, that weak and injured ankle of mine decided to twist two more times. It hurt like a bitch by the time we reached the base and my right leg was shaking from the stress of having to support my entire weight since I had to shift my body away from the bad ankle. But I was alright overall and managed to sustain the injury.

I did learn some valuable lessons though:

• Next time, wear hiking shoes, not sandals.
• Get a lighter backpack.
• Learn to adjust the backpack properly in the beginning, not during the last 10 minutes.
• Scout for more information about the area before going off to kill yourself.

As for the next hiking trip, we’re definitely not going back there again. Ever. Even if beautiful fairy nymphs decide to show themselves and grant you immortality. Well okay, maybe that would be the exception, but you get the idea.