Petaling Street for CNY shooting

Few nights before ushering the coming of Chinese New Year, I tagged along with my buddies to china town for some night shooting. Mun Keat and Yung Yaw wanting to try out their new Nikon D300. I was buzzed and asked if I am keen. I agreed to join them after 2 seconds of reasoning. Boss, please, please, puuuhhleeeazzeeee…. take me out! - my lens was saying that to me when I was doing my thinking. My Nikkor 35mm f2.0 has been put into the fridge for a while and in fact, I have never used it since purchased and that’s a few months back! Same goes to my lowepro bag! Guilty as charged!

Therefore, together with 2 of my best buddies and a silver kelisa, china town, here we come!

I was aiming to stick with a strong local china town and chinese new year flavour as much as possible. In no particular order, below are some of my favorite take of the night. All were taken with my new eye and my trusty friend, Nikon D70s.

^ A man finished his yeeshang at a small chinese restaurant.

^ A must have ‘lian gou’ chinese delicacy is only RM4.00 each.

^ Fresh fruits.

^ All your chinese new year decorative needs can be found here.

^ Dry meat shop selling..

^ ….these! ‘Yuk kon’, shreaded dry meat in cantonese.

^ This uncle hid behind the duck right after I took this picture. He must be very camera shy.

^ Flowers on sales.

^ Modernized dry meat ‘yuk kon’ paper bag for the younger market.

^ I never seen a nectarine before. In all my life, I have only seen lemons and oranges.

^ I was surprised to find a foreigner selling local fruits magnet just next to a fake watch stall. With camera on wrapped around my neck, he said to me, “You Hong Kong? Taiwanese? Ram-butan magnet you want?”. I replied to him saying I am local and asked for a pose. He posed and said, “Don’t put my face in the newpaper yea? Haha…”.

^ China Press, get your tomorrow’s newspaper today!

^ Gong Hei Fatt Choy. Check out the two ‘ong lai’ pineapples. ‘Ong lai’ is prosperity come in hokkien.

^ Prosperity figure. Every newly wed couple will have one on their bed bank.

^ I like this figure alot. It is cute and it tickles me.

^ Porridge - and this reminds us to move on for supper. I am in love with the silky smooth bokeh.

Hrmm, come to think of it, I don’t have much photo to showcase anyway! Overally, I am pretty happy with my output. I can see Mun Keat and Yung Yaw both having their jaw dropped when playing with their crazy ISO. As for myself, I know I under used my lens. My 35mm has more potential than what I managed to milk from it that night. I still need to get use to the 35mm focal length and to master the big f2.0 aperture.

Thou shall practice more and thou shall not be lazy. This thou shall promise you!

After spending a good few hours in china town, the three of us moved on to a small mamak stall in some alley near my place. As we laughed and waiting our sweat to dry, we unintentionally prolonged the night until wee hours.

It was fun especially having 2 great companions. Hey guys, we shall do this more often. It’s not only a great way to practise, it’s also a good physical exercise. I probably sweat the most that day for the entire year 2008.

On the other hand, happy belated chinese new year to all you guys. Wishing you all a healthy and prosper rat year ahead. Gong Hei Fatt Choy :)