Choice is good. You can have a RM 58 high tea at the fabulous revolving restaurant on top of the KL Tower. Or you can have a RM 1 tea at a hawker gazing at the sun setting over KL Tower. Never mind that the table is not level and the drink will slide down hill. The view is just as superb. High tea, indeed.
Precise sun spotting and trajectory calculation via GPS and Sun Surveyor app on Samsung Galaxy phone. Photographed with the Olympus E-5.
Imagine the nicest breakfast at home. Yummy strawberry puree on warm toasted bread. Lovely morning sunlight seeping through soft white curtains. I arrived at Old Town White Coffee at 4 am and ordered this breakfast dish. There were no sun, no windows. Just a handful of sleepy customers. How?
Enter the built-in wireless flash system of Olympus cameras. The tiny onboard flash of the E-PL2 camera was used to trigger a FL-36R flash remotely. No wires, no cumbersome triggers and full TTL metering retained. As you can see, the FL-36R comes with a handy table stand. To simulate broad window light, I slipped a cheap folding China-made softbox over it. Everything unfolded and stowed back into the camera bag in less than a minute. Bon Appétit!
Water flowing from a tap into a pail in my garden. Olympus OM-D set to 1/4000th of a second and fired at 9 frames per second since the bubbles form nicely only on first impact. If your camera can machine-gun at those speeds or faster, I suggest you use “spray and pray” techniques sparingly. Why? Just like a car, the shutter mechanism has a rated lifespan. Usually averaging 150,000 shots for the average camera. Some less, some more. It should still work after exceeding the rating but why create wear and tear unnecessarily?
Remember this: Every happy, reckless burst and your camera will die earlier. Replacing the shutter assembly can cost as much as buying a new camera. Don’t forget that many cameras also record the shutter count (actuations) and a prospective buyer may check the mileage. Save it for a rainy day or unless it is your company’s camera or part of your business expense as a professional photographer. You don’t want to be trigger happy with your hard earned money.
