Author: Matsuda Mashimaru

Be yourself - everyone else is already taken! - Oscar Wilde

Light, Motion and Shadow

Matsuda MashimaruLeave a comment
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“Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there” ~ Rumi

I am feeling hyper-introvert lately. Spending my precious time with myself is more comforting than being around people … uh uh too much time spent alone either at my studio or behind my mac (doing editing) felt super comfortable. Comfortable is not good. Time to go out and hangout with the extrovert.

I edited my Kuda Kepang image folder during my hyper-introvert mode … thank god. I attended the dance performance last November, which was five (5) months ago … yes, I am mastering the art of “marinate your photos”. I need to wait until the photos are matured enough before I can re-create  new emotions for my photos. Wow … now I sounded like a pro when I said that lol.

Kuda Kepang is a traditional dance originated from Indonesia and very famous among the Johor society. Please feel free to ask uncle google about the background story of Kuda Kepang. I was more enchanted by the light, the unpredictable motion and the shadow during the show.

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Preparing the spiritual being of the Barongan mask

The air was filled with smoke coming out from the burning ‘kemenyan’ or benzoin resin. The ambience was beautifully set through proper used of lighting and background colors (on walls and floor). The traditional dance was performed by the Kuda Kepang Parit Raja from Batu Pahat, Johor and the show was held at the BlackBox Publika Solaris Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur.

Kuda Kepang dance motion is very mystical. The background music  derived from the traditional music instruments: the anklung, gong and gendang were very enchanting. The dancers looked high and disoriented.

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The ‘bapak’ or leader of the pack

I am a ‘logical thinker’ kind of person … I was puzzled trying to logically understand the reason why some adults dancing against the music with a ‘man-made cow-skin’ look alike horse could get high and disoriented by just inhaling the smoke while listening to the soft enchanting background music. Hmmmm … and the dancers moved in a trance state.

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Unpredictable moves by the dancers
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Bapak checking on the dancer. Love the light on his head

Interesting performance … my first time watching Kuda Kepang and my mind went … what the … why.. and 1001 more why-s lol. Curious mind …

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” ~Dorothy Parker

Gotta go and hunt for the extrovert … ;-P

Bye for now

MM

Shadow and Storytelling

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Wayang Kulit Kelantan

 

I am in a very productive and ambitious mood this few days ;-P and I am not very sure on how long will it last hu hu hu. I did an extensive housekeeping and re-organisation on all my external HDs … yeay! for me. I edited some of my old and forgotten image folders.

Sharing with y’alls my Wayang Kulit Kelantan aka Traditional Shadow Puppet show images from a few months back. I wanted to explore more on my local culture this year, so I signed up for any cultural performance or any local art gallery around town.

Uncle google has the detail explanation on what is Wayang Kulit Kelantan or Traditional Kelantanese Shadow Puppet show. My late father never failed to remind the ‘rebel’ me that I am a Kelantanese. He would force me to watch and listen to Mak Yong (traditional Kelantanese dance) and wayang kulit. So, watching this group of street Wayang Kulit performers performing the shadow play at Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur recently, did bring back the sweet memories of my childhood.

 

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Back stage preparation before the show begin
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The show is accompanied by a group of traditional musician playing gongs, barrel drums, cymbals and flutes. 
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The puppet master is called Tok Dalang
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The story was mostly about an ancient epic story from India called Ramayana

Well … my D800 never failed to impress me. In such a low light … I managed to capture the ambience moment behind the stage. I was telling my photographer friend about the stages that we had been through during our photography journey.

I started with just clicking my camera on auto mode. Then I move up further by capturing high key images on manual and aperture mode. At that time, every image should look bright and clear, as bright as possible. Dark and shadow was a no … no. Then, I was crazy about IR images (infra red) … playing on contra and false/ fantasy colours. And …. now I am all crazy about dark, shadow, chiaroscuro, emotion and all those fine art things … a continuous learning process.

bla … bla … bla … babbling. Gotta run now … I need to edit another old image folder of Kuda Kepang dance that I took last year and some more old folders before my next trip.

Bye for now,

Cheers

MM

 

Curiosity Killed the Cat of Tasik Pedu

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Photo taken from Mr Google

I have been reading quite extensively this past few weeks. Upscaling my photography technical knowledge … to be able me to teach (yes! teach … I, myself am surprised too) a Basic Photography Class for a small crowd of students last few weekends. My first teaching stint aka my excuse to learn from my observers.

A good thing that I decided to do this as I found a strong excuse to refresh and brush up my camera and composition knowledge. So … I have been reading more than usual too.

Sharing with y’all an interesting write-up on street photography that I am currently trying to digest:

‘100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography’ by Eric Kim   

Street photography is always my first choice of photography. Being a curious cat since as long as I can remember helps me to enjoy street photography more than any other photography genre that I have tried.

Being curious on the street with strangers from all sort of background makes the process of meeting new people kind of adventurous to me. Like a child mind … everything and everyone looks trust worthy in my eyes. But often enough I have to restrain myself from being too curious or too friendly with my subject knowing that every culture has its own social restrictions that I need to be well aware of.

Saw these hobbyist fisherman and woman at the Pedu Lake jetty
Feeling happy with their catch of the day
I am fishing too … fishing stories with my gopro pole hu hu hu
Feeling curious with these ladies while I was hanging out at the Lake Pedu jetty

p.s – pics of me being curious with these fisherman and fisherwoman at the Pedu Lake jetty

Yep, curiosity killed a cat for sure (my cat lol). Encountered an uncomfortable aka social resistance aka an awkward situation recently, that put me down for a few days too. But nonetheless being an optimistic bitch … my eight (8) other cat lives were struggling up to gasp for oxygen at no time … alhamdullilah.

Maybe a platonic relationship between man and woman will never exist in the world of pessimist. A curious mind of a woman in the world of pessimist belongs to a slut or a husband snatcher huh wth. I am blessed that I lived in the world of optimist … sayonara to the pessimist, I am off to explore more of this part of the world.

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Taking my time-off at my favourite spot at Seri Mahawangsa BoatHouse, Lake Pedu, Kedah

Well … I decided to join my photographer friend for a short trip to Kedah, Malaysia for a quick stress reliever. I took an early train (ETS KTM train) from Kuala Lumpur to Anak Bukit, Kedah. Slept one night at my friend’s house in Jitra, Kedah and spent another night at Seri Mahawangsa BoatHouse, Lake Pedu, Kedah. Then … I took an afternoon train back to KL again.

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Our lunch before we headed to Lake Pedu, Kedah
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I got to shoot the full moon
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And, I got to shoot the morning sunrise too
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And, I snooped around and shoot the lovebird

And this was how I spent my time at the Seri Mahawangsa BoatHouse, Pedu Lake, Kedah. Ahhh …  a simple mind and a simple life …nothing more. 

Bye for now …

Cheers

MM

ps – … … … 🙂

 

 

 

Chasing The Light in Tasik Pedu

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Seri Mahawangsa Boathouse at Pedu Lake, Kedah

“In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.” – Aaron Rose 

I learnt from observing and listening to people around me, therefore most people that I met are my teachers and mentors in their own way. Yup … a bit cliche, I know but well … a lazy middle aged woman like me doesn’t have much time to spend on trials and errors 🙂 .

I have been following Yaman Ibrahim for closed to a year now. Observing and learning from him, a great teacher who loves doing whatever that he is doing. He has that eyes for spotting good lights around him … he called it “Yaman’s Eye”.

By all means … the “good light” in photography yeah peeps. Not that near to death moment light or that spiritual spotlight or that seeking the light aka mysterious haunted light thingy huh.

So, I spent a ‘rich’ 3-days with him and a group of great companion at Pedu lake, Kedah, Malaysia last weekend. We were ‘chasing the light’ around the lake. Good light that can creates a sense of drama to our subject.

Yaman has been working closely with tourism Malaysia for years. He has the experience and opportunity to explore Malaysian culture more than other photographers that I know. Looking at his photos made me longing for the same opportunity to shoot and document my own home culture through my own lens.

Sharing some martial art moves from the boys of Silat Gayung Nusantara Kedah with y’alls. Fyi … I got a lot more interesting shoots around here in Pedu Lake but well, every picture has its own moment.

So, I had my first opportunity to shoot subjects that close to my heart. A traditional action-packed Malaysian Malay martial art. The morning light and the rays were superb.

I was enjoying my moment. The backlight from the morning sun rays were a bliss.  There were 10 of us … photographers from various genres. And listening to our camera shutters sound at the highest possible burst rate, at the same exact time … was interestingly comical.

Listening to them (and myself) again and again, commenting and admiring our own photos was hilarious too. Yep … photographers and their egos, right? We were ‘high’ with our own moment, self achievement moment … lol, I am guily as well, it felt pathetic now … as I recalled back the moment he he he

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My second favourite spot after the hammock

I had a good time while in here. It was super quiet … no phone coverage, no wifi, no TV … a total disconnected from the noisy life. And, having surrounded by a great companion was a bonus too. The owner of the boathouse is a very talented host. He is the boatman, the cook, the wireman, the karaoke man, the technician, the talent etc. Yaik … talking about him … I still owe him a collection of his portraits.

If I was not holding my camera … I would either chewing on food or daydreaming in the hammock … enjoying my quiet moment, snoozing. My companions were as noisy as always hu hu hu yep! a very cheerful and lively crowd but my mind was at peace … alhamdullilah what matters is the heart … right?

I will repeat this trip again in March 2016. Thinking of spending more time there … like a week of totally disconnected from the world. In Sha Allah …

Bye now

 

Cheers

MM

 

p/s … “You wander from room to room … hunting for the diamond necklace … that is already around your neck!” ~ Rumi

 

 

 

 

Perfectionist vs Rightist

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Tools vs Photographer

“People call me a perfectionist, but I’m not. I’m a rightist. I do something until it’s right, and then I move on to the next thing” ~ James Cameron

I kinda like this quote … and yes, I am a rightist for sure 🙂 .  An attempt to explain my super slow reaction on each job that require my thinking hat. Yeah … and I am blunt if I didn’t have my thinking hat on.

Alamak! (oh my!) … and I have not posted any new entry since November 2015, which was last year. Last year sounds like a long months ago. Happy New Year 2016 to all my readers and to my followers (small group of followers coz I am too shy to market myself lol), thank you for putting that extra effort to follow my writing aka babbling. I feel honored … thank you.

I fulfilled at least 1/3 of my last year 2015 New Year resolution (… I shall think so 🙂 ). And … I don’t have any new additional resolution for 2016. Thinking of not having any new year resolution this year … maybe I will let my options stay open and just follow my heart.

What was I doing in the past few months that kept me locked up in my own cave? I wonder too or must be that laziness syndrome again … I need to write often as the more I write … the more I read.

I settled down (not so peacefully) in my new home in mid November, traveled to Nepal in early December, flew around Cyberjaya and Kundang air space with my paramotor buddies during my free weekends, traveled to Krabi, Thailand via train/ van in early this month and now I am packing up my gears again for my next weekend gateway to Pedu Lake, Kedah, Malaysia.

My Nepal trip was very different and interesting at the same time. Giving me the urges to keep on coming back to Nepal. I will share more about my Nepal trip once I am properly settled with my new office and my new studio. Yes … I am having my own creative space now … uhh and am super nervous and excited about this too.

Sharing with y’all my moment with my new friend Nima that I met on my way back from Pokhara to Kathmandu, Nepal. Saw him at one of the street side coffee shop on our tea break and I decided to approach him for a quick street shoot. His beautiful “sad look” caught my eyes … and he had a cultural shocked too (I bet!), seeing a daring blunt woman wanting to photograph him lol.

The thing that I love about street photography is … meeting up with beautiful strangers on the street. Beauty is very subjective though. Beauty in my eyes will not necessarily a joy to your eyes.

I am so hooked up with faces now a days. Maybe this is just a phase …

Bye now

Cheers

MM

p/s:  …. blank