Busy at Work

A scene from Petaling Street (also known as Chinatown) where this man is pulling a cart full of carton boxes.

At the zebra crossing

From August 17, 2012

It's fun to watch people waiting at the zebra crossing.  Have you tried doing it?  My favourite place to do this is at the zebra crossing in front of Pavillion mall.  There is enough space for me to just stand by the side, without being obvious and just enjoy the scene with my camera.

Maju al-Bismi Store

A newspaper stand in Jalan Lebuh Ampang.

Brutality in A Peace Rally

It was the first time that I saw the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) in action.  This is a force to be reckon with if you are in a rally in Malaysia.

My heart was pounding away when I saw the FRU marching towards the rally participants at Maybank Tower.  I silently prayed that all will end well.  Seeing them scared the hell out of me.

I had to stop shooting my video when I saw the police turning into the road where I was shooting this video.  I hid by a stairway with another photographer. A police found us and we both put our hands up, said we were just photographers. Thank God, we were spared from any brutality.  But many were been violently busted by our armed forces.

The brutality that the police can act in a peace rally like Bersih 3.0 is unbelievable.  We came with peace and this is the way the police acted towards the protesters!!!  My prayers go to all the protesters who were injured by our armed forces. May they get well soon.  May they be well.


Even Al-Jazeera news agency team was not spared. Their camera was busted by the police when they filmed the bloody-handed act of the police.

Bersih 3.0 Rally

Bersih 3.0 rally started peacefully as most participants just sat to protest seeking the current Malaysian government to agree to a fair election.




However, things turned bad when the police and FRU team started to shoot teargas at participants and attacked them with baton and kicks.  Can't our government be more civilized to understand what peaceful rally means?  The rally ended with rally participants being rammed by car, beaten, detained in police station. It is a sad day for us that we had a participant who was confirmed dead due to being rammed by a police car.

Group photography

Group photography? Taken at Jalan Bukit Bintang.

Tomorrow the street of KL will be different from what it looks like here.  Police will be seen everyone together with the public who are participating in Bersih 3.0 rally.  I hope the police would not harm our peaceful protesters.

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Tomorrow there will be a Bersih 3.0 rally held in KL.  For the first time I will be participating in this rally. I am a bit scared.  In last year's rally, the police has used excessive forces to prevent public assemblies from being held.   I hope it will tomorrow's rally will go well for all of us.  May all be safe. May all be calm.

For official Bersih 3.0 rally website, please go to:  Bersih 3.0.

At the Cobbler

Met this man at the cobbler at Kotaraya area in KL.  He seemed so sad.  Even when I smiled at him when asking him for permission to take his photo, he simply nodded.  I wished I could make him smile.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend ahead.

Beware of Snatch Thief

These days we will see 'Beware of Snatch Thief' signage in many places. Crime rate in Malaysia is rising. Snatch bag cases are rampant and usually the victims are women.  It is hoped that the sign will caution the public to be more alert when walking on the street with their handbags.

Jackfruit Seller at Masjid Jamek

Recent days I have been reading up on websites and visiting blogs that posted street photography. One inspiring one is by San Francisco Daily Photo that featured many nice scenes of the city. My favourite one is the Doggy Bag.

Another one that inspired me is Eric Kim, a street photographer who recently was in Kuala Lumpur giving a workshop on street photography. He makes being fearless about going on the street and click away very rewarding. He even brought some students from his workshop to the street of Kuala Lumpur to capture street scenes. You can catch a video of it here.

There are some inspiring street photographers with their creative works giving me ideas how shooting ordinary life on the streets, candidly can be worthwhile.

*  Henri-Cartier Bresson (1908-2004) - a French photographer considered to be the Father of modern photojournalism who helped develop the street photography style.
*  Michael Martin of New York
*  Characters of New York City by Pim Henriksen
*  Jason Martini's Chicago 
*  Thomas Leuthard

There are a lot more that I would love to learn about street photography.  I intend to embark on this journey. For a start, I will follow the tips given:

1)  Get close to the people.
2)  Shoot from a fixed focal length.
3)  Shoot from the hip.
4)  Keep my eyes open for some compelling shadows (as featured in Eric Kim's blog:  5 Tips How to Capture Compelling Shadows in Street Photography).

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A jackfruit seller outside Masjid Jamek, KL before Friday prayer.

This photo was taken in Jan before I started reading about street photography and I would like to work on improving on my composition.

Jalan Bukit Bintang

At the major shopping street of Jalan Bukit Bintang. I was standing in front of Pavillion mall and the Sephora building caught my attention! Nice architecture.

From Pavillion

Looking out from Pavillion mall is a good view of Bukit Bintang Road.

Crowding

Living in the city, not only we have crowding populations, but also crowding traffic on the road and crowding billboards on buildings!!

This photo was taken at the traffic crossroads of Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Sultan Ismail. These two streets have heavy traffic day and night!

Ban Chean Kuih Seller

Ban Chean Kuih is a pancake folded into half and stuffed with grounded peanuts, sugar, butter and in the case of Penang, sliced bananas. It is common to see vendor on the street selling it in a pushcart. I love the Ban Chean Kuih in Penang for the bananas added into it. This is not available in Subang Jaya or Klang Valley.

Street of Penang

It's a week day, yet the street of Penang has minimal traffic. This is a scene that can hardly be found in the city of Kuala Lumpur or even the suburb of Subang Jaya. Life in the city is indeed hectic, in comparison to what I saw in Penang.

Would you prefer life in busy city or in a peaceful small town?

You Know The No. To Call

In case the traffic lights break down, you have the tel. no. to dial!
A street scene from Penang Island.

Lee Rubber Building

Lee Rubber is a well-known rubber plantation company in Malaysia. This is an old building owned by it located in Petaling Street, also known as Chinatown. This building used to house Public Bank but now it is occupied by Popular Bookstore.

Street Photography: Petaling Street

Locals & tourists on the street of Chinatown or Petaling Street.

My World Tuesday - Harmony Street

This street in my hometown Melaka is called Goldsmith Street. However it has the nickname of Harmony Street. Why?

On this street, you will get to see the 3 places of devotion for the 3 major races in Malaysia. They are all located on the left side of the street, close to one another, as seen from the above photo.

The building in orange and green is the Sri Poyyatha Vinayaga Moorthy Temple. A few doors away, where you can see the beige and green building with a minaret, that's the Kampung Kling Mosque. Further down, where you can see 2 red flag poles, that is the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia. Isn't it interesting that all these 3 places of devotion are able to co-exist peacefully on the same street?

Please visit That's My World Tuesday portal for more photos.

Nepalese Street in KL

This is a busy street on a Sunday in city centre. The whole street was filled with foreign workers, mainly from Nepal. As you walk along the five-foot-way of the shops, you have a sense that you are either in India or Nepal. The sight, sound and smell that surround you are so foreign.

If you see clearly, the signages on this street even has words written in Nepalese. One can find Nepalese restaurants, grocery, hostel, money transfer services here. It's amazing to find so many of the workers congregating here on their off day, i.e. Sunday. It's a good opportunity to learn about the culture of Nepal by hanging out around here.

Are there many foreign workers in your city? Which country are they mainly from?

Bukit Bintang - On Track for Success

Another street scene at Jalan Bukit Bintang under the huge billboard of ING insurance, taglined 'On Track For Success', with 2 famous F1 drivers.

Unfortunately, I am not an F1 fan, so can someone tell me who are these 2 gentlemen F1 drivers?