one night at masjid jamek

For those who like to roam the streets for photo opportunities, after rain is the best time to hit the streets as reflections from the wet streets via the night's natural and street lightings are aplenty.

This was taken along the pavement between Masjid Jamek and HSBC building. It rained earlier and as the streets are drying up, ahh...nice!

that 'cover' picture...

I was asked by some readers for the technical data and how this main landing page photo was taken.

ISO was set to 800, shutter speed at 1/100, pre-focussed with lens wide opened at f/4.0 giving me an approximate sharp focusing area of anything between 5ft and its surrounding area.

After setting my camera, all I had to do was to wait for the traffic to stop, walk across, bend down on one knee for that low angle, tilt the camera a little and took a few shots in quick succession.

At PP, I bumped up the contrast and saturation a bit and absolutely love the result.

I mainly use this EF 50mm F/1.8 II lens for my street works, well for most of my work in fact. It is no doubt my ‘prime’ lens.

Not the smoothest and discreet lens but at RM290 (<USD90) a pop, dare I complain? Some toys are way more expensive that this ‘gem’ of a very affordable lens. I hasten to call it a ‘cheap’ lens as I think it will be an injustice to refer to it as such.

This lens is incredibly sharp and focuses very fast, for the price that is. I’ve seen some people comparing this with the L lens and I think those who do that sort of comparison are crap simply because they are going “out of focus” by choosing to compare this with a lens that costs 18 times more than the other. It’s worse when those doing such comparisons are professional photographers (or those who claim to be pros).

One fella commented in a popular forum saying, “it’s a good lens, but crappy construction, mine is full of dust inside…”

I think he should correct his comment to say, “it’s a good lens, but I’m a crappy photographer as mine is full of dust inside…”

Bro, your lens will be full of dust INSIDE if you do not have a clue how to use and take care of it. It has got nothing to do with the construction of the lens, regardless how crappy it may be.

Most of the pictures you see in this blog are shot using this ‘beggar’s gem’ of a lens.

Cheap good lens or good cheap lens? You decide :)

Verdict: this is a must in your camera bag!

And speaking of camera bag, look out for the next entry on camera bags!

(Product photos are property of Canon)