A Malay Engagement Day

Let me run you through it.
In a Malay culture when a couple wants to get married, they got engaged first, i mean thats normal everywhere in the world but most of the time, the guy didnt go down to his knees, unromantic right? thats what she said, but that just it, we went straight to the point, its like asking or even telling "Lets go dinner" but instead "let's get married." It is like a planned vacation. "This summer we go to Italy" but instead "This summer we get married"and no.... most of the time the guy didnt get down to his knees. If there is then he probably watched too many Hollywood movies. I think wedding is overrated or at least over budget. Usually when a couple wants to get married they made sure they have enough money first. Duh! Aint we all?? But really, a malay wedding can go up to $20K. True story. But that's the first stumbling block. A wedding can be cheap but with the way malay wedding culture goes, it tends to go over budget. Not "tends", but always.

EM10 with 25mm 1.8. Mad sharp!

X100S

Anyway, lets get into the engagement event.

Usually the guy's family will come to the girl's family home, by family i mean the guy's parents, uncles, aunts minus the groom-to-be, they'll come to the girl's house to meet with her parents as some sort of proposal. Usually, they also bring gifts for the bride-to-be and the engagement ring. Yes, the family is making the proposal and when you're at this stage basically the girl/parents already agreed to this proposal. This is just like a standard malay culture procedure, like a family meet up....

Fuji X-M1 OOC JPGs.

"These are the gifts and the ring"

Most of the time, the guy's family will come up with some kind of a poem,

roses are red,
violets are blue,
bla bla bla bla bla

and the bride's family will respond to that poem.

Fuji X100S

Fuji X100S

Of course this is all in malay. I dont remember what the poem was, but basically what they are trying to say is that their son (groom's name announced) is "interested" with the daughter (bride's name announced). And this is usually also the time to set up the wedding date and other things.

So assuming everything went well, this is when the bride-to-be comes out of her room, meet with the groom's mother, where the mother will put on the engagement ring into the bride-to-be fingers. I said fingers because usually there are 2 rings. I'm not really an expert in malay culture, so i cant explain why 2 rings, why this and why that but thats usually the flow of the event.

Taken with Fuji x100s

Fuji X-M1

After that, food is served. 

The groom-to-be comes for a photo session with family and friends and then after finish with the hi-tea the guy's family gone back home. So thats about it. The rest of the day is just photo session of the just-got-engaged couple. Look at the flower. Look into the sunset. Happily ever after.

Taken with X100S

Taken with OMD EM10 

X-pro1 or not to X-pro1 .... plus Royal Enfield

We have discussed this before have we? More like I myself rambled about this a lot.... i've been eyeing a new or a used X-pro1 on fleabay.... i even make a bid last week and boy was i frustrated... losing at the last minute.... not really losing but my bid was not that high enough... i think it was a real bargain.... damn..... only USD$580 i think... for a used X-pro1 body.... i got confused with the australian currency exchange thats why i didnt bid high enough because i set a limit on the bidding value. i was worried that i might end up paying more, if only it was bid in US dollar... the X-pro1 could be on its way here...

Anyway, enough with X-pro1.... my focus at the moment is to purchase the 25mm 1.8 by Olympus... but still X-pro1 clouds my judgement....

Over the weekend, my friend borrowed another friend's royal enfield, boy, it sure is such a breathtaking view.... i just love classics motorcycles although this one is brand new.... i think its a remanufactured, reproduced, reviving back Royal Enfield by India... i think Royal Enfield got bankrupt and India bought the company to revive this legend.

Shot with OMD EM10

i always brought my camera so its a chance to take photos of this classic! Of course, OMD EM10 being new, it gets to shoot it.... i'm still testing the high ISOs on this one.... i always have the mindset, that the Fuji is better than the Olympus...but many have said that the OMD is capable of doing High ISOs.... maybe i will compare them next post.....

High ISOs make me pixel peep.....

VSCO preset Kodak Tri-X 400+

You may be wondering what its like in color, here's one and VSCOed of course..

All shots taken with Olympus OMD EM10

Street Shooting in Singapore with Olympus OMD EM10 ..... VSCO style!

Ok, today i'm gonna be lazy. I'm just gonna post process my pictures with VSCO's Fuji Superia 400 preset and adjust the tone curve to make it look faded and washed out. I wont bother with the color or white balance or exposure, this is OOC jpgs applied preset and boom!. I am no street photographer but with this kind of hat/thinking i get to just fire away shots, unlike back in the day, i was only shooting iconic places, or statues, or famous landmarks and so forth sometimes with that kind of habit i didnt get to really use my camera because Singapore is full of buildings, what so nice about shooting buildings?...yes, yes, yes, some buildings are awesome, like the white house, abe lincoln memorial, empire state, but those are still iconic, okay cityscapes is beautiful too but you know what i mean... i'm talking about boring buildings.... just an ugly tall building with windows...  but with street photography kind of thinking, i finally be able to just take pictures of whatever in front of me.... its gonna be shitty but hey, at least it brought back memories of the trip!

Just shoot shoot shoot....
thats where digital wins over film, flexibility to delete or keep photos, unless you're super duper rich to buy rolls of films, i dont. i just need an SD card.

So the story goes like this, i just bought an OMD EM10 at Vivo city Singapore, and i straight away want to test the camera.... i havent figured out how to focus at the center, it automatically chooses for me. Hell, lets just do it. This is also in 4:3 format thus the non wide look. i set the auto iso limit to 3200. i dont remember which mode i was, its either aperture or program mode. and so i left Vivo city with a brand new OMD EM10. Black.

Hop into the MRT 

 And stopped by Chinatown

So this is Chinatown, my first time here. its a street market. nice.

Lanterns anyone?

 My main reason to go Chinatown is to eat Chilli Crab or Satay, i'm looking for Maxwell Hawker Centre.

That aint maxwell hawker centre, lets move on

The year of the horse. Chinese new year just ended last week.

i love this kind of shot. blurred pedestrians. in chinatown nobody gives a shit if you have a camera with you. its a tourist area. so its kinda cheat/easier street photography 

My first taste of Boudoir photography. Some onlookers may think i'm a pervert and give me a strange look but hey the lighting is nice. Sorry but VSCO didnt do it justice. told ya im lazy!

This guy needs a bed

Told ya, nobody gives a shit with your camera but i do think twice here that white tshirt guy just seem so mean looking! dont hit me please!

Olympus focusing here is a snap. Olympus really is fast at focusing. Beats Fuji everytime. Thats why i got this shot. i hope there's no car on my left...

Made my way to the temple. Some chromatic aberration here. poor olympus.

 Which way to Maxwell Hawker Centre? No? No Sign?

Wide angle is really handy here. The Fuji X100S cant fit this scene from where i stood. but you can fit a wide converter lens which costs millions.... just kidding... its about SGD$500 here, so thats about usd$390

 Finally here....

 Damn, this place blows..... everything is closing. I did not find any Chilli crab here and the satay here is pork satay. i dont eat pork. What a waste of walking time.

In the end i settled for Indian Mutton Steak. Man, this stuff is tasty. and the lime juice is cold and yummy. i can feel my sweat dried off after drinking that lime juice. The Fuji X100S is for aesthetic only haha, i didnt bother to use the x100s as i had to carry a backpack too.... i dont want too much to carry around. i also want to test the EM10 capabilities. i think at this point the battery died on me.

THE NEXT DAY

By this time i'm already exhausted from my yesterday all day walking trip but i still have to make my way to the airport, i dont know where else to go, i dont want to go to Orchard, i already spent on a new camera, i should just stop shopping now and just wait for my plane but flight home is at 9pm. There's more time to kill. a lot of time to kill. i need to go somewhere. chill somewhere. last thing to do is to eat some good food. shitty part is i have to walk with my backpack and my hand carry luggage, dragging it around. i love that luggage. its been with me everywhere i went, Washington, Vegas, London, all throughout UK, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore.....drag drag drag and the wheels are still working. one bad-ass hand carry luggage. Almost didnt fit all my stuffs but when there is a will there is a way hahah...

Anyway, i charged my OMD EM10 battery the night before and it took about 3 hours plus or maybe 4 hours.... and the charging light went off... i thought it never gonna went off..... pheewww... i thought id fully drained the damn thing till theres no more juices to charge. Again, i keep my x100s in the bag and hang the em10 on my neck.... but to be honest i just wanna stop taking pictures.... too tired.... too exhausting... too many things to carry.... a full hand.... i just wanna go home....

After checking out, i'm heading to Little India 

 Assalamualaikum brothers

i love how that path leading to ............... there....

 i dunno how to explain that...

perspective this perspective that...

 Some funky cool looking buildings...

or a failed window measurements hahah

Uhuh!.. Little india mari.... 

 I had to adjust the shadow slider here to get more details... i wanna take picture of the lady, so i pretend that im shooting this "chef" here... but i havnt figure out the focusing so the camera chooses the background...oh well.... and metered the background too... this is actually a dark picture.

Ah well..

 i'm not being sexist but please ladies... dont urinate here.. hahaha just kidding.

Okay okay its for the guys... Dude, please dont...

 Some dudes waiting for their meal

 The main reason to come here in little India Tekka Centre.. the let-me-translate-the-malay-words

"Power red bone soup"

 And 2nd reason, the briyani.... oh man... i need to lose some weight...

After my little india trip and my awesome lunch, i did not do a thing. i went to Funan, just to feed my GAS some camera window shopping and sit in one corner just killing time. so i decided to go to the airport early. by this time i'm already too tired to take pictures. but when i saw a moment i just took some pictures anyway. i just cant resist.

Thats a giant ass ceiling fan, just circling around like a windmill speed... i wonder how crazy it is on full speed. 

 For the life of me i havent figured out the auto exposure lock, i was trying the Zack Arias skill, pretending shooting the sign board and want to shoot those strangers on the bench but in the end, i couldnt figure to set the exposure right...the camera meters for the background, 

 so i'm left with this dark picture

on 2nd look, this silhouette looks nice too.. 

 Time to head home, 

"its coming home, its coming home, its coming," - Lightning Seeds Three Lions

Again AEL fail, but i like this photo. 

Its not the EM10 fault's, its just me not reading the manual yet!

Thats me on the airplane.... i used my OMD EM10 wifi to shoot this selfie in the plane.. hahahha

just kidding!

That is a lot of pictures...phewwwww....

See you again Singapore.... March!