Exploring Pulau Lang Tengah

At a recent Olympus event for bloggers and social media influencers, I was requested to conduct a night photography workshop at Pulau Lang Tengah – an island off the eastern coast of Malaysia. Since it was the start of the monsoon season, we anticipated rain and cloudy weather which is counter-productive to night sky and landscape shooting. I had most of the day before sunset to myself – a good opportunity to explore the island. I’m a land creature, allergic to the presence of water. So scuba diving or snorkeling was a non-starter, but given the great location and my purpose for being there, landscape photography was the natural answer!

Growing up in Kuching, the nearest beach was about an hour’s drive away but the waters were never as blue or as clear as you see here. Now that I reside in Kuala Lumpur, the nearest beach is Port Dickson where the waters are always muddy and uninteresting as well. During my university days in Australia (aeons ago), I fell  deep in love with the deep blue waters of the ocean. I have been yearning to see those blue waters again and while we do have some great beaches and islands in Malaysia, they’re too far off for a quick spontaneous adventure. And since I avoid water-based activities, there is no reason for me to visit any of these islands regularly. So special thanks to Olympus Malaysia for the opportunity to explore Pulau Lang Tengah!

I was on the island for 3 days but as expected, we had rain and clouds for half our stay. I only had clear skies on the second morning for about 3 hours (before a thunderstorm swept over), but that was more than enough time for me to take some quick snaps around the island. I like that the water was clear and there were not many people roaming on the beach. I did not have specific plan for this shooting session, it was a relaxing day off (a much needed respite) and the last thing on my mind was a serious shotlist of images. After all, as I have always mentioned, photography should be fun!

During the day, I armed myself with the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-100mm F4 IS PRO on the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II and captured anything that caught my attention. For me shooting landscape is not always about going as wide as possible – some reach and compressed perspectives can expand your landscape photography quite a bit. For the night shots as well as sunrise I used the M.Zuiko 7-14mm F2.8 PRO lens instead. Naturally, I used a tripod for long exposure shots.

I took advantage of the rain, a time when others put their cameras away and took long naps in their rooms, I ventured out into the shores with an umbrella in one hand and camera in the other. I managed to capture the islands in 4 different conditions: 1) late morning with perfectly clear sky with deep blue water, 2) during a heavy downpour, 3) nightscape with some visible stars and 4) the beach at the break of dawn. I only managed this after being out there shooting for so long. If I were to return to the same spot in the future, I will have a more structured mini photo project to effectively display the variance of all these different situations and times of the day.

I don’t shoot landscapes often, so I am not equipped with expensive filters to smooth out water even in the middle of a sunny day. However, that did not stop me from wanting to create a similar effect in my shots. The alternative to filters, I figured, was to shoot early in the morning before dawn. Sunrise was just before 7am, so I woke up at 6am and headed to the shooting spot. As expected, even as early as 6.15am, the sky was no longer pitch dark. Taking advantage of the small amount of light and long exposure photography I was able to produce the smooth water effect in the ocean water. I am not saying this beats shooting with an actual ND filter when there is more light available, but hey, it is still a good and effective alternative.

Also, while in the rain, the light level dropped significantly, allowing slower shutter speeds to be used. The black and white shots in this article were shot during the rain, with shutter speeds varying between 1-2 seconds.

For the night landscape shot, I originally intended to do star trail photography. Milky Way is out of the question during this time of the year, not to mention the extensive amount of light pollution coming from ships in the ocean as well as the resort nearby. Constant cloud cover made it difficult to produce a complete trail and I had to settle with just a single shot of a rock on the beach, with stars overhead.

Am I satisfied with the shots I have acquired from this trip? Not entirely – I wish there was more sun, and I wanted to shoot the sunset as well. I had so much fun shooting in a wide, open space and there was just something therapeutic about the ocean but I don’t think my photography successfully reflects this. I suppose in the presence of all that nature, shooting became secondary and I did not want to live through the viewfinder. After a few shots, I simply put the camera down and dipped my feet into the warm waters and imagined myself being taken away into the unknown.

I guess the best photograph to describe my state of mind while on the island, is the peaceful sleeping cat below.

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