Street Photos: Leica M9 + Kuala Lampur

Julie over on Le Blog Des Carnets De Traverse shared with us a wonderful, extensive set of street photos in "Street Photos: Leica M9 + Kuala Lampur" (in French). As the title alludes, they were all taken with the Leica M9 and Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 ASPH lens (shot wide open almost exclusively). A colorful snapshot of life there - merci, Julie!

Translation into English (via Google):

Four years that I have and I love my Leica M9 ... For street photography, this is a must. And I would even travel photography in general (for my taste). It is discreet, quiet enough and a lot less offensive / intrusive than a large SLR. The Olympus XA too, but I had the choice of Leica Malaysia before leaving: I needed to share photos live on Instagram, and why ... a film is not really ideal ;)

Leica M, it is not that easy to start to take control, mainly because of the development. There is no autofocus. It is a rangefinder, that is to say that what you see in the viewfinder is not exactly what the future photo, the framing is slightly different. In the viewfinder you have two overlapping images: the place where you want to stitch the two images must be aligned. It takes time to get used to it and become faster in the manip! But once you have taken the shot, you think less, and this feature becomes a real pleasure.

For street photography, where you have to shoot faster than his shadow, I increasingly found it to. That is to say, I must know where to position the ring focus according to distance to my subject. It can be a little tricky, knowing that I shoot with an open bottom 2.8 goal! But for a beautiful bokeh (blur associated with a small depth of field), I'm willing to risk a few blurry pictures. I'm too shy for my taste, so too far from my subjects, and work in wide angle (28mm) does not help my business! This is currently the only goal I have, I wish I had a 35mm or a 50mm, but the price of Leica lenses grows long reflection (like a few years :)).

I've only seen bits of Kuala Lumpur between two conferences and formal evenings. It appeared to me busy, modern, full of shopping centers, business men, and in the evening, pretty girls in very short skirts (surprising for a country with 60% Muslim). There is of course much more popular streets where I felt very comfortable, like Chinatown. And the Petronas Towers can not leave indifferent (especially above).

Among the fashionable places, special mention to the rooftop bar Marini's 57 and its spectacular view of the famous towers, mojito in support, in good company with friends Julien and Marie.

Photos taken with the Leica M9, ​​28mm, aperture 2.8 almost all the time.

Thank you to the Office of Tourism Malaysia and WeLikeTravel for this beautiful journey.

See you soon for further journey: the pretty town of Malacca, jungle Belum and tea plantations in Cameron Highlands.