#073: Snapshots

Second half of the year, and the colour is back on the streets.

If the first half of 2025 was about stripping everything down to black and white, the second half has been about slowly turning the saturation back up — bringing colour back into life on the streets. Same city, same routines, but suddenly the yellow and red tables, a colourful umbrella, feel important again. The blue of a stranger’s shirt, the green of a truck, the warm light at dawn of the city - all those things I’d been happily ignoring in monochrome came rushing back in.

It wasn’t some dramatic decision. No “I hereby declare the Monochrome Era over.” I shoot in RAW anyway, so all the colour is there, i just switched it to black and white before, and now… i see it as it is, as they happened. The novelty of black and white had done its job — it made me pay attention to light and shadow again — but now it felt like time to let those lessons run loose with colour. My Lightroom catalog for the second half of the year is a lot more alive: splashes of red and yellow and teal scattered across the grid, with the occasional muted frame when the scene called for it - as seen in some of my more recent blog posts.

A lot of these walks have been under unforgiving light. High noon shadows cutting across faces, overhead awnings casting harsh stripes, people squinting, fanning themselves, doing that Malaysian shuffle of moving from patch to patch of shade. In colour, those scenes have a different energy — the harsh white glare, the dark blue shadows, the sweaty shine on skin, the bright umbrellas trying their best to fight the sun. A plastic chair isn’t just a shape anymore; it’s that faded red you see in every other shop. A stall umbrella pops as a block of yellow or red instead of just a tone.

Mornings are still my favourite. Also, weekend mornings are when I usually meet up with some friends on the streets, all with cameras in hand. There’s that hour when the city hasn’t fully woken up but the machinery is already running — stalls half set up, steam rising from pots, sleepy faces behind the counter. I find myself standing across the road, pre-focusing, just waiting for one person to step into the right spot where the light hits their face and the chaos falls away behind them. Most of the time it doesn’t happen. Sometimes it does. Those are the frames that stick.

There have been a few late afternoon walks too, the kind where the sky threatens rain and everything feels heavy and sticky. The streets look different in that sort of weather — reflective, a little sullen. It’s not dramatic light, but it’s honest. People move faster, plastic bags rustle louder, umbrellas bloom along the walkway. In colour, the wet pavement picks up little hints of everything around it — tail lights, shop signs, the dull green of roadside trees, the grey-purple of an about-to-rain sky. You can almost feel the humidity just looking at the frame.

What I’ve noticed most in the second half of the year is how the camera has become less of an event and more of a routine. There’s no grand “I’m going out to shoot” announcement in my head anymore. Sometimes it’s just: toss the ZF over the shoulder, grab kopi, take the longer route back to the car, and see what happens. Food stall operators shimmying around with their food, ladies with their new fancy face masks to protect their faces from the sun. A banana seller framed in layers of bananas hanging all around him. Click, move on.

Not every outing produces something worth keeping. Some days are complete duds — bad timing, bad light, or just a mind that’s elsewhere. But looking at the contact sheets (or whatever the digital equivalent is called in Lightroom) from the second half of 2025, I’m starting to see a thread: slightly busier frames, slightly more patient compositions, less rush to press the shutter just because something is happening. I’m also learning to let go, and not be so picky with my photo edits (selections) and with this blog I want to try and show more of the every day life that goes on, on the streets.

Maybe that’s the real story of these six months. The city hasn’t changed dramatically. The traffic still snarls, the kopitiams still fill up, the markets still bustle. But I’m learning to stand still a little longer, to let scenes breathe before bringing the camera to my eye. To trust that another moment will come, and if it doesn’t, that’s fine too. Not everything needs to be photographed.

So this post is a follow-up to that first-half entry — same city, same camera, same photographer, just with colour turned back on and a little more comfortable in the rhythm of it all. These are the snapshots from the back half of 2025: fragments of mornings, harsh midday walks, almost-rainy evenings, little gestures and glances that would have disappeared if not for a shutter click and a willingness to let colour back in.

I’m off with the family in now Thailand for our end of year holiday. Taking a few “different” camera’s with me this time. So look out for something different, something experimental, that i’ll post early next year.

Hope you enjoy this second batch from the year. Let’s see what next year brings.

Merry Christmas and a have a happy and prosperous new year!

Cheers.

All photos taken with the Nikon ZF and a combination of the 28mm f/2.8 & 40mm f/2 lenses