Travel by Photos – Putrajaya, federal administrative centre of Malaysia

Recently I have a question tucked in my mind and I just wished to get the answer: How could my Nikkor 35mm f1.8 fixed normal lens handle outdoor landscape shot at day? Well, I’ve been using it for a few months and all of the time I used it for night portrait shots, night scenes, isolated portraits and close-up photos. These are the main areas of photography where you need a fast lens and this little Nikkor baby is fast enough with its f1.8 aperture. However, if it can also be used for my travel photography which covers cityscape and landscapes as well would be another plus point! So, I decided to fixed it onto my Nikon D60 recently at daytime and went to shoot outdoor city scenes… and the destination was: Putrajaya, Malaysia! 🙂

Putrajaya is the 3rd city of Federal territory in Malaysia, after Kuala Lumpur and Labuan. It is the federal administrative centre of Malaysia since 1999. It was a totally new city development on a piece of agricultural land covering an area of 46km², in between KL and Malaysian International Airport, KLIA. The total cost of development is more than USD8 Billion and is still increasing! Spearheaded by the former premier of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohd, Putrajaya has divided into 20 precincts with government buildings at the centre and township development such as residential, commercial, schools and shopping malls at surrounding lands. Those administrative buildings at the centre precincts are surrounded by canals with 9 suspension bridges connecting it from other precincts. The whole concept and town planning have created a place with full of exciting architectures and landscapes and it has become a tourists spots for travelers visiting KL and Malaysia. What are the photography opportunity? I walked around the city and captured some scenes around. Please read on… 🙂

With the effort of maintaining 38% of its land as greeneries, lots of landscaping and flowers were planted along its wide motorways and boulevards. Dedicated pedestrian walkways and bicylce lanes have also been incorporated in its master planning. Huge DOF is achieved here with f8 Aperture Priority mode.

Tropical flower bushes are all over the place. Maximising DOF with F7.1 and 1/200s shutter speed.

For general landscaping shots and most of the photos here, I set the aperture to f7.1- f9  for sharper image all over the frame.

With some creativity, flower bushes could look nice with a normal lens…

For flower close-up, f3.5 is sufficient to isolate it from the background while having the whole flower including pedals and filamens in focus.

Another huge DOF shot of flower bushes with aperture set to f9.

Fields of Gold! F8 and 1/100s.

This is a flower garden at the entrance of Precinct 2 just beside the main road. I dropped by and shot endlessly.

Wide pavement encourage people to either walk or riding bicyle.

At the centre of Precinct 2 is the Perdana Putra, the landmark of Putrajaya as well as the official office of Malaysian Prime Minster.

Next to it at the square is the Putra Mosque. It has become a tourist attraction lately. Well, rain was going to come shortly, look at the cloud!

This is the main tourist attraction of Putrajaya, Putrajaya Lake and the Putrajaya Walk. Large depth of field achieved by setting a smaller F10 aperture. Look at the photo, everything is in focus and sharp! I love this lens! Though it’s not wide enough, it’s good enough. 🙂

Another angle of the Putrajaya Walk.

Another resonably sharp photo with F10 and 1/100s shutter speed.

Down to the main boulevard of Precinct 2, there are parks and garden at both sides.

The Gorvernment Adminstrative buildings and Islamic motivated architecture designs.

Standing in the middle of the road and looking to one side for great city view with huge boulevard at the centre and huge buildings and offices at both sides. The road is straight and long.

Looking back to the other side of the road and you will see the Perdana Putra and Putra Square is right in front of you.

A little Bunga Raya (Hibiscus) garden is tucked between 2 office building. Bunga Raya is the national flower of Malaysia.

UPDATED: Click HERE to view original High Resolution files of the above photos in Flickr.

In order to freeze the motion of my object caused by wind blows, I had to open up the aperture to its maximum of F1.8. This had inevitably created a super shallow depth of field of the image. So, only filamens and one of the 5 pedals of hibiscus were in focus.

That’s it. This trip to Putrajaya has proved to me that my beloved Nikkor 35mm f1.8 normal lens has the capability and potential to capture great travel photos for me, if putting my photography skill aside. 🙂 – Travel Feeder.