Secret Hideout in Kuala Terengganu

September 26, 2017March 30, 2020 Matsuda Mashimaru2 Comments

I found a new secret hideout in Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia.

A simple, quiet and rusty place for an introvert soul, like mine … or let me rephrase it again, an OLD and worn out soul like mine. Lol … Selfish me, everything has to be like mine … mine all mine, no sharing and I do not want to share my soulmate either (if I ever have any) … gth! mental … oh yes!
Pak Awi’s Yellow House located at Pulau Duyung, Kuala Terengganu Kuala Terengganu has a few small islands in-between the mainland and Pulau Duyung (Duyung Island) is the largest island. I flew over the islands during a paramotor event last 2 years. Never occurred to me that there are interesting stories to explore down there on the islands.

Well … Pak Awi didn’t pay me anything to promote his place so don’t get me wrong. I just love the place.

I found a new hidden place that I could stay for a few days or even weeks without creating a big hole in my wallet. A cool and safe place to go home to after hours and hours wandering around Kuala Terengganu.

What would I do here in Kuala Terengganu? Hmmm … I am going for a story hunting and I myself not sure what is the outcome gonna look like, lol.

I plan to hang around with the makciks (mid-aged ladies) around the villages listening to them gossiping he he he and the pakciks (middle-aged man) around the coffee shops or jetties reminiscing about life. Tengok berapa lama boleh tahan … the rest is a secret.

A few more photos of my new found hiding place before I end this post.

Surrounded by mangrove trees

So, you can here all kind of birds and insect sounds here

This antique …

the hangout hut

sleeping inside a mosquito net

Last but not least … my all time favorite breakfast, Nasi Kerabu. A blue colored rice mixed with fresh vegetables, salted egg, stuffed green chili pepper, a piece of roasted chicken and sambal (chili paste). Wallah … am hungry now … gotta run.

Bye

Cheers,

ps- sambil dengar lagu “kutuliskan kesedihan, semua tak bisa kau ungkapkan, dan kita kan bicara dengan hatiku” dan perut yang lapar

Light Painting with Fire

April 7, 2017March 30, 2020 Matsuda MashimaruLeave a comment

MYS_6642-Edit-Edit — **Lake Gardens Taiping, Perak at wee hours**

I was with my three (3) other travel companions last weekend playing with lights at Taiping, Perak. A short weekend outing to start off our new travel team (we called us the #gengbajetravel). We planned to travel together since God knows … very long time ago … but it always canceled at the very last minute. Excuses after excuses …

Then, we decided to make it happened, by hook or by crook. The weather forecast said that it’ll be raining the whole weekend … oh boy! there goes our plan for sunset, sunrise and Milkyway. We had our backup plan though … if everything failed then we’ll experimenting steel wool photography instead.

We were at Lake Garden Taiping, Perak, Malaysia as early as 4 a.m, praying for a clear sky to shoot Milkyway …but the sky was too cloudy. It was not possible so we headed straight to Plan B, light painting with burning steel wool. I was excited to try something new …

MYS_6614-Edit-Edit — ***The making of Dorayaki***

It was fun, experimenting new technique with good companions while listening to the frogs’ orchestra performing live background music. Always … always … always surrounded with good people, am I blessed or am I blessed, alhamdullilah.

The four of us are super crazy. Well, crazy in a good way lol… crazy seeking for something new to uplift our skill. We are very competitive towards each other but our sense of humanity are still strongly intact. I adore friend like that.

People said that your friends are the reflection of you and if that is the case, well … I want to be my friend :-p <— perasan kan?

MYS_6611-Edit-Edit — **The Cinderella carriage**

Steel wool photography is not as hard as I thought it would be. It’s easy to learn. I love the dramatic and artistic effect too and I am officially curious to explore more on this.

MYS_6652-Edit-Edit — ***My sunrise landscape***

I set my camera on manual mode, the speed at 10-15″ and ISO at 250 to 400 accordingly (for those who are curious about the camera setting). Trying to incorporate “ring of fire” onto my landscape in future … just to feed my curiosity on how my landscape image would look like with this additional art.

Gotta go! Cheerios …

ps – …

It’s better to know how to learn than to know ~ Dr. Seuss

Light, Motion and Shadow

April 14, 2016March 30, 2020 Matsuda MashimaruLeave a comment

SSP_4305 — “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.

SSP_4291 — 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.

SSP_4324 — 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.

SSP_4580 — Unpredictable moves by the dancers

SSP_4577 — 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

Shadow and Storytelling

March 24, 2016March 30, 2020 Matsuda MashimaruLeave a comment

SSP_8322-Edit-Edit — 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.

SSP_8348-Edit-Edit — Back stage preparation before the show begin

SSP_8359-Edit-Edit — The show is accompanied by a group of traditional musician playing gongs, barrel drums, cymbals and flutes.

SSP_8352-Edit-Edit — The puppet master is called Tok Dalang

SSP_8372-Edit-Edit — 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

Curiosity Killed the Cat of Tasik Pedu

March 6, 2016March 30, 2020 Matsuda MashimaruLeave a comment

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.

DCIM100GOPROGOPR5106. — 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.