Alley by night in Kuala Lumpur, shot from street level, where the rats scuttle...

I photographed this street before, a few years back (see this snippet), also in the evening, and recently I had the chance to take some more photos. The colors are still fascinating, but one side is now boarded up with ugly blue plating, so I couldn't take a photo from a similar position. Mind you, the green on the house (further down the alley) isn't real. The house isn't green and the light isn't green. So I was a bit surprised to see this result. Explanation is probably the shutter speed of 1/30s, with a 60 Herz street light, and the camera catching it somewhere in the off-cycle. Other photos show the right redish color.

I was crouching to get this one right, in the mean time trying to watch my back for traffic, and my sides for rats crawling out of pipes and peeking through fencing and grilling (not to mention the mosquitos). Besides the rats there's also the smell of garbage and the partly open sewer. So sitting still for a long time in these types of alleys isn't advisable (nor relaxing). But despite all that, if you ever visit KL, peek into these alleys, because some of them are stunning visually (just stamp around a bit, that usually scares off the rats)...

Leica M9 with Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 26 November 2011