Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, one of the worst hit places I've come by is Glo Damansara, a community mall not far from where I stay. Even prior to the lockdown, Glo was already low in foot traffic, and it had mostly repurposed itself as a furniture mall with a supermarket downstairs, and some restaurants and diner, as well as a co-working space, clinic, bank and post office at the top floor.
The first round of lockdowns in March 2020 however, wiped out most of that. Practically all but one furniture store was gone as of my last full walkabout last year, and barely 10 shops remain now.
It wasn't my intention to turn this into a photo project, nor is this one. Shooting this was more of a passing curiosity. But since I won't be able to seriously shoot for several months, I might as well make do with the existing photos.
This is intended to be a one-off for now. While I may add photos should opportunities arise, I don't have any plans to turn this into a long-term project. Also because I don't have any pre-lockdown photos for context.
I ended up snapping in the first place because of several reasons:
Glo was probably the worst affected mall by the pandemic and subsequent lockdown I've personally been to, and can follow-up relatively easily.
I've always been fascinated by spaces and shapes in photography, and shooting an all but deserted mall was as low-risk as can be for indoor shooting in the middle of a pandemic.
It's near enough from home that I can make a stop at the supermarket and take a few photos without violating lockdown restrictions, as most of what I'd shoot are on levels with almost no foot traffic.
Previously when there were still furniture shops, I found it a cosy and quiet place to sit down and read undisturbed. I would also collect my recyclable plastic, paper and glass waste to bring here every so often, as they sorted their trash. With almost everything now boarded up however the silence is now eerie and uneasy where the human furniture conveyed a sense of warmth and comfort. There was also a small diner that had since closed down to break from the monotony of furniture shops while lending some human presence. Now what's left of Glo Damansara only hints at what was there.
Observations
This section is me essentially putting my thought processes into words. It serves mostly as an appendix to the article. Do feel free to skip if you're not interested in the technical aspects.
This was a good exercise in shooting technically, and walking around to find appropriate angles to shoot. All shooting was done handheld on a Panasonic GM5. I sincerely doubt the mall management would take kindly to me setting up a tripod to take photos of a practically desolate mall. As such, I had to work with relatively show shutter speeds, my 14mm f2.5 lens mostly at its widest aperture, and the lowest ISO where possible. Working with shutter speeds as low as 1/15 without image stabilization, it's natural I'd get several shaky and unusable shots.
Perspective correction in post: yay or nay?
Some of the shots were impossible to get the perspective right, because they were taken at the ground floor, and I needed to tilt the camera to cover the upper levels where a totally level shot would give me too much floor (you can see that most in the final image). So I used the perspective correction in Lightroom. Keeping that in mind, I had to shoot probably something like 20% wider than usual to give room for the perspective correction to work.
Which brings up something of an ethical consideration, though not necessarily a dilemma. Does using the perspective correction tool in Lightroom count as cheating? I think that would merit some discussion.
On one hand, I'm a firm believer in having good shooting discipline. Meaning levelling shots and keeping them straight whenever possible. Dutch tilts should be deliberate, and I use plenty of them myself for my stage shooting. Although I also concede that some of our best shots occur through happy accidents.
However, I also see LR's perspective correction as a tool to replace tilt shift lenses. In this case since I was shooting interiors and architecture of sorts, I'd need to get things as straight and level as possible, even when shooting handheld, guerilla-style.
Shooting with perspective correction in mind requires framing your shots with room for Lightroom's correction algorithms to work. Otherwise, you'll find the corrected shot using up more than the entire frame. Even so, you'd still need to get at least your horizon or verticals level so that the correction works as intended. Else your shot be unusable because it's unevenly stretched. Ultimately, if you already have good shooting habits to begin with, then you'll find that even when you toggle perspective correction, the changes are usually never very drastic.
So I'd say, by all means, use perspective correction where necessary. But don't let it be an excuse for sloppy shooting. And the way I use it is to never toggle it automatically on import, but rather, looking at the before and after comparisons and deciding whether to accept the suggested change, reject it or manually correct the perspective.
Aspect ratios
I had meant for all the shots to all be in the 3:2 aspect ratio as I preferred a wider look, plus I didn't want too much ceiling and floors. Unfortunately, a number were framed in 4:3 without consideration for crops since that is the default aspect ratio of the GM5. Hence the inconsistent aspect ratios. This is probably most apparent in the first exterior shot.
Next steps
If I were to expand on the project what would I shoot next?
- More exterior shots of the shops outside. There's still a couple still running.
- The uppermost level with the clinic, post office and bank. I don't know if they're still around.
- The last time I checked the upper levels, there was one remaining furniture shop, but it was closed. If it's still around, I'd like to take a photo of it during business hours.
- Photos of the remaining shops.
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