Penang : Home-Street-Home

Some sleep on cold concrete bed.

Some on slightly higher ground. It keeps them away from curious stray dogs and cats.

Some on a bedsheet in front of the shops.

Some have their heads rest on bag pillow and a bike to keep them company.

Others on three-wheel mobile cushioned bed the al fresco style.

And some fortunate ones have the luxury of sleeping in their shop while their workers toil away.

Sleep well.

Cameras used for the shots are Olympus XA and Olympus 35DC on various types of film. If you are interested to find out the film type for each photo just click on them and they will link you to the details on my flickr.

For more of Penang photos from this trip check out the photo set here.

Filed under: Photography, Travel , Film Photography, Penang, People, Sleeping, Street

Penang : Beauty of Tilesmanship

I wish I had a flatbed scanner of an A1 size to scan all the beautifully patterned tiles on walls and floors!

Cameras used for the shots are Olympus XA and Olympus 35DC on various types of film. If you are interested to find out the film type for each photo just click on them and they will link you to the details on my flickr.

For more of Penang photos from this trip check out the photo set here.

Filed under: Photography, Travel , Film Photography, Penang, Tile, Travel

Faces of Penang : The Local People

Scenes of everyday life people, with different poses, at different places and at different time doing different things.

A man having his breakfast at a local coffeeshop. He saw me taking his picture.

Folks playing chess by the sidewalk. How comfortable it is to sit both legs opened wide apart like a peace sign.

A beca man pinching his pimple? I am not too sure.

An old lady and grandson at their home at Chiew Jetty. Notice her fair face? She had powder all over her face.

Some half naked man sitting on a bike talking on the phone. He was wearing shorts, by the way.

A lady at work in a mechanic store.

Men doing welding works.

A man at his rattan shop.

A petite Indian man in sarong. Looking kind of sexy.

Butcher resting his arms on the chopping board. Are you not ready to chop some meat?

Cameras used for the shots are Olympus XA and Olympus 35DC on various types of film. If you are interested to find out the film type for each photo just click on them and they will link you to the details on my flickr.

For more of Penang photos from this trip check out the photo set here.

Filed under: Photography, Travel , Film Photography, Penang, People, Travel

Penang : UNESCO’S World Heritage

Any better reason why should you not visit Penang if it is not for this one? Penang is placed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

The architecture, the colours, the patterns, the oldness, the rusticity of olden day buildings that still stand pridefully are the subjects of admiration to most photo enthusiasts of today.

Filed under: Photography, Travel , Film Photography, Heritage Buildings, Penang, Travel, UNESCO’s World Heritage

Penang : Markets

Can you spot the man?

The morning thing to do – cup of coffee and daily news – to start off the day.

Chowrasta morning market.

The king of fruits – durian! Wherever the durians are there will you find the people crowd around.

Filed under: Photography, Travel , Film Photography, Market, Penang, Travel

Penang : Malaysia’s Food Heaven

Penang is a place that spells F-O-O-D.

I won’t blog much in detail about the famous local food but I will just let some of the photos I took tell the story. Do google to find out more about Penang food if you want to know more.

Penang char kuey tiaw (sometimes spelled as char kway teow). Til today I still cannot really tell the distinctive difference between those in Penang and the ones in KL, but this one I had tasted really favourful.

Deep fried food – lobak, which are meat or seafood fritters.

This hawker stall uncle frying oyster omelette (or or chien in Hokkien dialect) with a style – look at his stylo googles!

Filed under: Food, Photography, Travel , Film Photography, Food, Food Heaven, Hawker Stall, Malaysian Food, Penang, Travel

Penang : Blue blue skies

BLUE.

It is not my favourite colour. It is not the colour I would wear. It is not the colour we would normally find in food. But it is the colour I love to see in the sky.

After coming back to KL yesterday the one thing I do miss the most is the clear blue skies in my hometown Miri. However, here are some of the blue photos from my Penang trip in June.

Are not the blue skies lovely?

The bridge you cannot miss when you are crossing from the mainland to the island – the Penang Bridge! Shot this photo with my eye off the viewfinder. The car was going too fast for me to even focus n my little Olympus XA anyway.

Some simplistic blue sky pictures of buildings.

Filed under: Photography, Travel , Blue Sky, Film Camera, Film Photography, Penang, Rangefinder, Travel

Faces of Penang 2 : Mr. Goldsmith

Filed under: Photography, Travel , Agfa Vista 400, Film Camera, Film Photography, Georgetown, Goldsmith, Malaysia, Olympus 35DC, Penang, Pulau Pinang, Rangefinder, Travel

Sketch : Lebuh King, Penang

Pen : Lamy Safari Charcoal Fountain Pen Extra Fine Nib
Ink : Noodler’s Ink Polar Black
Material : Moleskine Pocket Size Watercolour Notebook

Filed under: Illustration, Sketch, Travel , Lamy, Lamy Fountain Pen, Lebuh King, Lineart, Malaysia, Noodler's Ink, Penang, Polar Black, Sketch

Live sketching in Pudu

I can’t remember how long since I last went for an outing with friends for a photowalk until last weekend a photography friend from Seremban suggested we have one on last Sunday in KL so we went to Pudu with another friend. Me, Ong and Kian Kheong, armed ourselves with only film cameras we roamed around the busy old Pudu market. I have been to this beautiful market a few times and it was the first time for the two guys. They could agree with me that this is a place they would like to come back again the next time. There seems to be so much to see – the charm and beauty of this old part of the Kuala Lumpur city.

As for myself, I got a little bit lazy to lug my SLR around, a little bit lazy to point at strangers and take their pictures like I usually do. I did some random shots for a bit with my little Olympus XA and got kind of bored after walking a few rounds. I wanted to do something I have not done before in this place and so I had got myself two of my Moleskine watercolour notebooks and two Lamy fountain pens ready before leaving my house on that day just in case I saw something inspiring that was worth penned down on the paper and I did. I only managed to make use of the pocket size notebook and left the other big one untouched.

Here you go – two scenes I managed to sketch out live on the spot.

First one : Chinese grocery store
This is a 50 year-old grocery store run by two Chinese men who claimed that the business was passed down to them by their former employer. Located at a corner lot of a row of shophouses in this old market. The interior space is small and congested but I find it rather interesting. Limited by time and space on my small watercolour notebook I decided to focus and pen down just a small corner of the store – where goods are hung up on the shutter doors. The owners were extremely friendly, supportive and happy to have my presence around drawing their store.

Have a closer look at the live sketch I did on site.

And rendered with watercolour when I got home.

Second one : Knife sharpening service man
It was a quick and rough sketch done as my friends and I were almost leaving this rustic yet charming place of the city when we decided to hang around this man’s humble street stall for a little while. His kind of service is one of those that have been continued down from the olden days. As of today only a few old folks who are still doing such business as of this kind. Generation comes generation goes. I doubt any of the younger ones would do this as a career anymore. It is just a matter of time this trade will be gone, forever…

Have I got enough of Pudu market yet? No. I will certainly be back for more sketches.

By the way, stay tuned for my Pudu photos when the negatives are done.

Filed under: Illustration, Photography, Sketch, Travel, Urban Sketches , Drawing, Kuala Lumpur, Lamy Fountain Pen, Malaysia, Market, Moleskine Watercolour Notebook, Noodler’s Ink, Photography, Polar Black, Pudu, Sketch, Urban Sketches, Watercolour

Journal, 14 July 2009

Flying back home day.

Tools and media :
Lamy Safari Charcoal fountain pen with Noodler’s Ink – Polar Black, Steadtler Karat Aquarell Watercolor Pencils, Daler-Rowney Aquafine watercolour pocket set + Daler Rowney White Acrylic, Moleskine pocket diary.

Filed under: Food, Illustration, Journal, Personal, Travel , 2009, Diary, Drawing, Food, Illustrative, Journal, Malaysia Airlines, Miri, Moleskine, Sarawak

Campbell Street Market, Penang

Finally I have finished inking it!

This is the unfinished version.

Done on Moleskine Watercolour Notebook (large size) with Lamy Safari Charcoal extra fine fountain pen with Noodler’s Ink – Polar Black.

Filed under: Illustration, Sketch, Travel, Urban Sketches , Black Ink, Campbell Street Market, Drawing, Hawker, Lamy Fountain Pen, Market, Moleskine, Noodler's Ink, Penang, Polar Black, Urban Sketches, Watercolour Notebook

Journal, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14 June 2009

On the dates I was traveling in Penang.

Pen : Lamy Safari Charcoal fountain pen

Ink : Noodler’s Ink – Polar Black

Colours : Derwent Inktense Watersoluble Pencils + Staedtler Karat Aquarell Watercolour Pencils + Daler Rowney White Acrylic

Pen : Lamy Safari Charcoal fountain pen

Ink : Noodler’s Ink – Polar Black

Colours : Derwent Inktense Watersoluble Pencils + Staedtler Karat Aquarell Watercolour Pencils + Daler Rowney White Acrylic

Filed under: Food, Illustration, Journal, Personal, Sketch, Travel , 2009, Diary, Drawing, Georgetown, Illustration, Journal, Malaysia, Moleskine, Penang, Sketch, Travel

Faces of Penang 1

I am going to start off the Faces of Penang photo series with this batch which was shot on an over 30-year old Kodak slide film which was then cross processed with C-41 chemical. Surprisingly the results turned out beyond my expectation. I thought I was going to lose them from this roll of Kodak Ektachrome 160 Tungsten when I finished shooting I realised the ASA dial on my Olympus XA was mistakenly set to ISO200, which normally in such case of shooting on any old film I would step down the ASA one or two stops to get more exposure. But in this case it did ot ruin the whole roll, which is really good news! So here they are some of the shots of the people in Penang which I picked from the same roll of film.

Stylo old man with a ‘tongkat’
He was very accommodating when I requested him to across over from the opposite side of the street where he was originally standing despite of his limping legs which I did not realise at first until he started walking. This man was just so amazing! He stood right there against the textured wall and let us took pictures of him without saying much.

Notice that blurry brown patch on the right side of the photo? That’s my finger accidentally covering part of the lens of the camera which happens almost every time when I am too engaged with the subject and unaware of the placement of my fingers on that little rangefinder. I have no complaint about it as XA is such an amazingly lightweight, handy, yet powerful little tool! My favourite traveling camera thus far.

Break time
Three men chatting away. A scene I shot while walking in the streets with my friend. I quite like the background.

Man outside a barber shop
What first caught my eyes to capture this shot was not this handsome man but it was the blue talcum powder bottles in the window display behind him. The talcum powder is called ‘Holiday On Ice’ which is very commonly used by most Indian barbers.

Stay tuned for more photos of the Faces of Penang series to come.

Filed under: Cross Processing, Photography, Travel , Cross Processing, Film Photography, Georgetown, Malaysia, Penang, Travel

Picking up Watercolour again

I did some shopping on art materials recently and I got myself some books on drawing and watercolour painting, a watercolour pocket set, a water mixable oil colours set and a Moleskine pocket watercolour notebook. The desire within me has clearly told myself to pick up watercolour painting again after abandoning the skill for more than 15 to 20 over years. The only vivid memory I could recall myself painting with watercolour is when I was a primary school student. I cannot remember if I even did watercolour in college. But here I am giving a good start again. I find it very inspirational indeed to look at some of the watercolour artworks posted on ’skine.art website. It is totally motivational to me to once again rekindle the passion for painting with this medium!

Here I have done the first attempt of a watercolor painting after so many years. This piece was painted with a reference from an old building photo I took in Georgetown, Penang during my trip there recently.

Watercolour painting vs photograph.

Although what I painted may differ from the original picture from the photograph in terms of the proportion and scale I am quite happy with my attempt. Is not it a wonderful thing that with painting we are able to alter a picture by our own hand and make it unique according to our own style?

Passion for painting needs a lot of patience, I think.

Tools / materials :
TomBow 2B recycled pencil
Daler-Rowney Aquafine watercolour pocket set
Moleskine pocket watercolour notebook

Filed under: Illustration, Painting, Travel , Georgetown, Malaysia, Moleskine Watercolour Notebook, Painting, Penang, Watercolour

Drawings of Georgetown, Penang

Beautiful architecture of the old buildings had led me to compile them in this 2-page piece of drawings when I walked around the heritage site of the city of Georgetown, Penang during the period of 4 days. They were sketched out with pencil on site. Composed one by one as and when I spotted the right kind of building structure and sight each time during my walkabout. They were later redrawn in waterproof black ink with a fountain pen.

@ Georgetown, Penang, 9–13 June 2009

Drawing tools :
Moleskine Watercolour Notebook (Large), TomBow 2B recycled pencil, Lamy Safari Charcoal fountain pen (extra fine nip), Noodler’s Ink – Polar Black

Posted also on ’skine.art website.

Filed under: Illustration, Sketch, Travel, Urban Sketches , Drawing, Georgetown, Heritage Building, Illustration, Malaysia, Moleskine, Old Building, Penang, Pulau Pinang, Travel, Urban Sketches

Journal, 30 & 31 May 2009

Went to Cameron Highlands with some photography friends lately. On our way back to Kuala Lumpur we stopped by in Ipoh for a short coffee break. I managed to put my fountain pen into use onto my Moleskine on those two days.

Pictures of me drawing my breakfast at the Boh Tea Centre in Cameron Highlands.

Pictures of me drawing my toast with egg and sausage in Sun Yuan coffeeshop in Ipoh town.

The results after colouring.

Filed under: Food, Illustration, Sketch, Travel , Boh Tea Centre, Cameron Highlands, Coffeeshop, Colouring, Diary, Drawing, Food, Illustration, Ipoh, Journal, Moleskine, Travel

Kampar in Infrared Black & White

At least I tried. It was my first time shooting a roll of Ilford SFX 200, an infrared black and white which has been expired since 2003. It was given to me as a Christmas gift few years ago and was kept for a long time because at that time I did not dare enough to give it a try as I read that infrared films need special kind of care or shooting method whatsoever. Really? I do not know, and I do not like to follow rules, anyway.

So it was a trip to Cameron Highlands over the weekend with some photography friends when we stopped by in Kampar town in the state of Perak for breakfast. I had my newly acquired Olympus 35DC loaded with a roll of Ilford SFX and mounted a piece of red coloured kite paper on the lens by locking it with a normal UV filter. Seriously, I had no idea what kind of photos I was going to get by doing that. It was just an experiment.

The film was sent for developing today. It was processed the same way we process any pure black and white film, as what I was told by the lab. Got the negative back and had some of the photos scanned using my low-end flatbed scanner, just tentatively, before sending it out to a pro lab for proper scanning. I cannot really judge the effects of infrared from the scans, though, but I just like the spocket holes in the pictures.

These are some of the selected shots of the Kampar market.

From the images I scanned I cannot tell if the infrared any different from the normal black and white but will wait and see til I get the film scanned by professional lab.

Anyone who has experience shooting infrared film please leave me some tips?

Filed under: Photography, Travel , Black & White, Film, Infrared, Kampar, Perak, Photography, Travel

Catching sunset in Miri, 16 May 2009

Before I left my hometown on the following day I decided to catch the sunset at Tanjong Lobang beach with my family on Saturday. The sky was a bit cloudy but the moment when the sun hit the horizon it was the most magnificent scene anyone’s eyes could witness. Men, women and kids were playing in the water, running about chasing after one another merrily, making sand castles and drawing their favourite cartoon characters on the sand. And some fishing at the jetty. I enjoyed my time with my family as well. It brought back to my childhood memories…

These were the photos taken with my compact digital camera.

Oh Miri my birthplace will I be back for you soon, I promise!

Filed under: Personal, Photography, Travel , Beach, Miri, Sarawak

A beggar & her child begging for bread

It was the second day in Vientiane, Laos before leaving for Vang Vieng I had this encounter with a lady beggar. I have always wanted this write about this experience I had as the image still sticks in my mind so vividly until today after 1 year.

It was on the 16th of January 2008, I was sitting outside of the restaurant enjoying the morning sun while waiting for my breakfast to be served when I noticed some beggar kids watching the restaurant lady toasting bread. I did not know they were beggar initially. Not too long after then this lady beggar with a child came right in front of me and knelt down begging from me. I gave her a smile and ordered some sandwich for her. I do not know what made me do what I did, out of compassion or pity? Some western tourist came out and gave her a big loaf.

While waiting for the sandwich to be done I invited her to sit down with me but she was too shy at first but later accepted my offer. I was trying to communicate with her but we could not understand each other’s language. She received her bread and asked her for a picture beforeI bidding her goodbye. Too bad I could not get her to face the sunlight so I could get a better exposure her face but I guess I should not demand too much from her or else my request would probably offend or intimidate her.

It is not my common practice to give to beggars. As tourists are not encouraged to give money to beggars because by doing so it will encourage them to continue begging.

I discovered as I traveled up north there were a lot of children beggars. Some that I came across in Vang Vieng who were NOT poor or homeless asked me for money!!! So I thought of an effective way to turn them away was to ask them in return for money, “Kip Kip Kip”! Hahaha! Try it if you have any beggar coming to you for money. :–P

@ Vientiane, Laos

Nikon FM2n, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AIS, Lucky Super 200

Filed under: Photography, Travel , Beggar, Bread, Film Photography, Laos, Travel, Vientiane