Around Pudu market with Robin (Part 3)

Continuing our walk around Pudu market, the scenes are interesting and vibrant - people may stop for a while and pose but they're actually going on with their lives and daily chores. It's hard to get these kinds of scenes in the cleaned up western capitals and textureless shopping malls.

Below, we see a fellow intent on peeling onions - no tears, no running water baths, just everyday practical work. There's more plastic bags behind him and the styrofoam like cover in front of him is reflecting soft light onto his face like an expensive reflector or studio softbox. To be non intrusive, you don't want to get in the way of people's lives and you look for any light advantage that is environmental, ambient.

When you walk through the wet markets, the traders hop onto their 75 cc scooters to carry goods and themselves often. No Occupational Health and Safety, often no helmets, just being real. Others around their path watch out for each other and you and yell out warnings if you are unaware that you are in their way..

Crossing the road impromptu can be quite a challenge in Kuala Lumpur, compared to what I hear of Vietnam, it's relatively sedate and not a nail biting experience. 

Newspaper circulation are on a decline in the West, many people consume news off their digital devices. So far, it seems, Malaysians still have a use for newspapers and will use that to fill their time. I see more newspaper readers  in KL than in Melbourne even though Malaysians do love their digital devices.

Note: I've been using On1 Photo Raw 2017 quite a bit in these photos.

Life with a prime

I didn’t use a prime (fixed focal length) lens until early year, as my general, everyday use lens. Digital saw me with a 3x zoom on the Nikon 775 compact cam and then a 10x zoom on the Olympus C-750uz ultra zoom, then the 5x zoom on the Kodak P880. When I went digital, I had the two kit lenses on my E-510 and the story continued.

This year, David Williams introduced me to the 20mm f/1.7 Lumix pancake (40mm in old coin, film parlance) and 45mm f/1.8 Zuiko Digital (90mm in old coin). And I fell for these lenses. I wanted a shallower depth of field like in the film days plus more chance to take shots in dimmer light levels.

I fit the 20mm a lot – it allows closer camera distance, in fact, it forces a closer camera distance. And I switch over to the 45mm when I want some distance from the subject, when I have the space to back away or when I want to frame a tighter portrait.

Beginners to photography often gasp and say “What can I do without a zoom? I can’t live without one. Walking backward and forward isn’t an option I want to take or I have”. To that, I have to reply – what is impossible or immutable is only a state of mind, not an actuality of circumstances.

The honest gaze of sincere friend Kuan – we’ve known each other since University and now we’re apart except for the annual visit but we still find lots in common

The cup of Malaysian coffee is very important – after all, it’s a coffee shop. I didn’t develop a taste of habit for any kind of coffee. We used to have those old carved wood stools and marble seats, it’s been plastic chairs and melamine tables for a long while now. You’ve got to give the coffee a good stir of course, with the overflow dripping down the sides of the cup, otherwise it’s not authentic. The mouth expression in anticipation of before the event or savouring the taste afterwards.

The mahjong boys are back in town. Mahjong can be a gambling addiction and also a generational family and community pastime. Players and onlookers gaze in concentration and exclamations of animation abound when some event happens. Notice the half tiled wall (to save costs) and the unburied wire running (used to be stapled onto bulky wood runners, the modernisation brought PVC conduits. But then again, you could just run it along the wall.

The stand fan provides a breeze and if you are attired in a singlet, well that’s tropicalised wear for you.

Life goes way too fast in the concrete city staffed by Twenty-Somethings. It’s all hustle and bustle and winning the rat race except there are huge number of rats in the race.

When you’ve had your day in the sun, what you yearn for a nice tasty bowl of Yong Tau Foo. The slower you stir, the slower time passes, or so it seems. You can almost see some glimpses of past splendour and activity in the ripples and the reflections.

We close with a note to people who make such food happen. The lady below is peeling mengkuang otherwise known as Yam Bean. It’s good eaten raw, crunchy like an apple except that it is a root, not a fruit. It’s also the sweet taste in poh piah and joo hoo char

And, at the end of the day, we need money to survive. To keep the fridge stocked and running.

In the photos above, we’re not talking about action shots, urgent 5 frame per second shooting. These subjects are evocative, story telling. Yes, some of these shots are indeed cropped and a zoom might avoid that. But a zoom would, for the same price be darker, bigger, more clumsy – with these primes, you can make like you’re fiddling with your camera instead of framing up a shot.

Memories of Dad

I’m here in Malaysia, where it all began so many years ago. And where I last saw Dad before his last rush to hospital. We’ve visited his resting place in Nilai a few times and it is peaceful there but that’s not what I preserve in my heart and my mind.
We used to go to Pudu wet market, we did.

Mum used to do all the heavy lifting – trudge into the wet places to buy chicken, eggs, meat and so on. The women of the household still do that. They used to wear local clogs and later on plastic washable sandals and they still do that.

Dad and I would wait in the cleaner areas and indulge in his passion for fruit – he was the gatherer of the fruits. I went to the place where we bought bananas and they still sell bananas there, but I don’t know the people, old or new.

It’s a darker corridor and there are side entrances

There were lots of things inside the dim market but as Mum did all the main shopping, I didn’t see the veil lifted. Shallots, spices and eggs.
There would be fish.
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And meatier stuff – curiosities like Pigs Ears.

If we stepped outside, we’d see all kinds of stuff on sale. Just because it’s a wet market doesn’t mean you only sell bloody meat or things that make you go Eeeuuww.

Flowers in garlands

As we walked back to the fringe, we would pass this Taoist worship ornaments shop

The shops by the road that sell fish are still there

Then Mum would still not have turned up. We would wait some more and see peddlars with fake Rolex watches (Dad always wanted a real one but settled for two Tissot in his life, he was realistic – his had a family to feed and two sons to send oversas to Uni on government officer salary). He would reward my patience with two types of Chinese pancakes – the thick and the thin types.
And sometimes, sometimes, I would catch a glimpse of something potentially scary and intriguing. The slaughter of a big lizard, turtle – often in a manner that might bring the RSPCA. Those days are gone of course, all you can see are frogs

The market is still full of wide eyed kids

and their Dad

And people who take might have the advantage of wide eyed adults

And that, is what memories of Dad and our time together is.

Thanks Robin Wong, Luke Ding, Yeow Chin Liang and all the gang for hosting the walk. And a hello to Mithun

Soaking in the vibe

The thing with most humans is that they want everything, all at once, right now. It’s not an unusual desire but in most cases, it just doesn’t happen. And so with photography as well.

I’m on my annual pilgrimage to the air, sights, smells, sounds and vibe that I grew up with. It’s quite a fascinating return each year if I allow myself the pleasure of enjoying the old and the new. I have old memories and perceptions to catch up on and I have new friends to see – Robin Wong, C.L.Yeow and Ronnie Oh were very quick to extend invites to a specially arranged photowalk and friends at the PEN Lovers group (as well as others) were there to make it a social and fun happening.

Although I have very fond memories of the locale (well, I prefer the fond memories than the gawky, fumnbling youth that I was), my street vibe in Melbourne with Marg is quite different. From the very fundamental thing like preferred exposure – Ev -0.7 in Melbourne’s direct sun vs Ev +0.7 in Kuala Lumpur’s gauzy sky, to the way human subjects react when encountering a dude with a camera, it’s different. Sure most passionate photogs want to step off the plane and get way excellent street shots in any city in the world, in reality, it doesn’t work that way. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

So, I changed pace, soaked in the vibe. It isn’t all about photography as well. It’s human watching, taking in the ultra wide angle view of the scene (which only the human eye can do), interpreting the significance of dress, facial expressions, gestures. For maximum satisfaction, absorb that – it remains with you long after you’ve shown off that travel set of shots for the upteenth time.

The shot above – with a Tamron 28mm manual focus prime lens on the Olympus PEN E-PL1, faded effect courtesy of Picasa desktop client. Coming from a long flight, the atmosphere was lethargic – taxi drivers waiting for work. The guy on the left did not appear to be a taxi driver. And you sit on anything other than the floor – the public floor in the tropical Malaysia isn’t something locals are conditioned to sit on.

This was the neighbourhood wet market – the wet market is well, sorta wet. Old customers come back to favourite stalls and money changes hands, for in this case, freshly slaughtered chicken. That’s the way they do it.

Take a drive amongst tall buildings and you are in a different world – where the locals come to shop, relax, be seen.

The Tropical Greens

I like the temperature climate of Melbourne and the plants and flowers. But tropical Malaysia with the benefits of constant rain, sun grows anything you like to grow with less effort.

The oleander bonsai style (if this is indeed an oleander) is a current favourite amongst the residents.

Small bright flowers on small ground cover bushes with waxed leaves are flora du jour as well.

This one’s a firm favourite for the small crumpled trumpets. Sis says they smell lovely.

I recognise the shape of these trumpets – our neighbour in Melbourne has the larger variety, red that bursts into a Rosseau like profusion. This one is smaller, yellow.

Red Hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia. Now there are so many different varieties.

Ah Hun Ee has this gorgeous green coloured spiky grass shrub.

Ladies Fingers (Okra) is nice to eat as well as decorative.

Daun Kadok has so many lovely green colours and textures. It adds a special taste to our nonya steamed Otak Otak.

I love my four angled bean, the Kachang Botol. We can get some variety from the Springvale Vietnamese shops but they’re lighter green and the flavour isn’t as intense. I can eat them raw just like one would munch fresh snow peas off the vine. As a child, I used to grow them at every house we stayed in. The nurturing time was mainly over the seedling phase, once they grabbed root, maintenance free of pesticides, fertilisers – just sun, rain, nearly any soil.

I’m unfamiliar with these variegations. They are nice, anyway.

Keeping the light burning

Why do we leave the light on in the front? Is it to give us working illumination when we wake up earlier than sunrise? Is it because we forget to switch off the night before? Or is it to be a beacon to lost souls?

What people do…

Sometimes, it takes a visitor to see aspects of what one takes as normal and the way living. I’m been away from the Malaysian way of looking at things, so it’s both interesting and absorbing to see the sights with blended native and visiting eyes.

This scene typifies the Malaysia (and South East Asia) that is so vitally intense, engrossing and interesting. As Malaysians obsessively watch Astro (and in this case, Taiwanese Hokkien soaps), they escape (or they see virtualised, abstracted, emphasised versions of their lives and living).

The scene above shows the huge umbrella. It belongs to a street vendor, probably selling food. Obviously, the vendor comes regularly to this spot, so X marks the spot. In the background are double storey shophouses, retailing a melange of goods and services. Not the clean, synthetic, uniformised chain stores that so disenfranchise themselves from being nostalgic tags in the timeline. No doubt, the middle class will remember the good times at KMart in Australia, with a passing parade of staff that service the outlet.

But here, in the Taman Desa suburb of Kuala Lumpur, you can eyeball and see the small business owner. And his wife (maybe) because she runs the non related business upstairs. And their children as they come back from school.

Here, someone’s taking Kodak to the Laundry.

In some capitalist Western societies, being a businessman seems to attract and undesirable trail of ethics, motivational queries. In Malaysia, a fair number of people are in civil service or work as nine to five office workers. But being a business person, particularly a small business person is not a withdrawal from society.

It’s just a place where you can hang your hat.

Play Misty for Me

There was hesitancy about KLIA, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport when it was first opened. Worries about the volume of baggage traffic, people getting lost and things like that. Now, this hub has settled in to normal operations, it’s a wonder that people were initially concerned. At one terminal, KLIA has an indoor treery. I have not walked into it – I was not aware it was something you did. But this time, the doors are open. The airport is cool and air conditioned – you don’t realise that this is a synthetic environ until you walk into the tree-ry and your lenses fog up. Alejandro (one of my Facebook friends) reckons RainX should work – but I am a bit hesistant on subjecting my 7-14 front element to that – maybe I’ll try it one day one a less expensive lens.

Anyway, you don’t realise how much mass the 7-14 holds in terms of temperature inertia until you wipe it, wait, wipe it, wait, wipe it…..

They’ve even managed to get some weaver birds in (or were they recorded bird calls?)