After enjoying a company of good people on Saturday’s evening, I drove toward the Parliament and the Tugu Negara to sharpen my photography skill. I am always dissatisfied with my photos under low light and so, I finally decided to do something about it that evening. And for the first time, I used my tripod!
By the time I reached the Parliament, it was already midnight. A drizzling midnight. My presence was enough to rouse curiosity that two security personnel approached me to inquire my business. I had nothing to hide and even if I needed to lie, my equipments would have betrayed me. So, I was franked, which is unusual because I simply do not share personal information with strangers. They wished me well before leaving me alone with my camera.
The Houses of Parliament proved to be a tough subject at night. The lighting was uninteresting and the streetlights produced distracting side effects on the photos. I tried various settings but all the shots deserve a place in a trash can. I honestly hate the orange-colored light. It provides some kind of challenge which I do not quite understand at the moment. I thought, maybe I should move on to the Tugu Negara.
The Tugu Negara offered better opportunities for a person like me whom has a lot of learning still need to be done. The Cenotaph was the first object of interest:
There are lists of names of those that fought and died during the two World Wars and the Malayan Emergency at the bottom part of the Cenotaph.
And this, a shot of the Jata Negara, is my favorite:
Still, despite having the camera mounted on a tripod, the shot looks blurry. It is not as sharp as I would like it to be.
Anyway, if you are interested, I have a post that walks through the possible evolutionary path of the Jata Negara. As you can see, the Fleur-de-lis is still visible. The current version has a betel nut tree and a bridge replacing the Fleur-de-lis. More interestingly, the symbols that represent Sabah and Sarawak do not seem to correspond to any of the images I posted on the entry about the evolution of the coat of arms.
As for the Tugu itself, I simply could not get a good shot. The gates were locked and there was no way I could enter the compound without climbing over the fence. I did try but as the sky threatened to offer me more than drizzling rain, I left.
