GX GARNERINGS

(Everything’s Vanishing: The building disappearing in the distance is about 500 metres from where I took this picture.  It is more foggy on the waters) Today is extremely foggy.  The fog is even thicker than yesterday when two accidents of ship collisons happened, injuring many.  One old fisherman lady of 62 y.o. was seriously injured when the sampan carrying her and her husband was tore into two halves by a catamaran, dragging the lady to the bilge of it.  I hope that she will be up and about soon. So, I took some photos at the old Kai Tak International Airport to convey the theme of foggy, for which I came up with the word Masked. Have a nice weekend! (Behind a Beehive: I looked through the patterns and the van was like a jigsaw puzzle.  The illusion came strongly when I stared at the scene longer and the lines of the van became disconnected) (Spikes: The shapes of the fence just echo the spikes of the wheel nicely. I like the rhythm in the...

SY Hsu, a famed photographer in Taiwan, has been introduced to our readers here , here and here . This time, let's continue from where previously we stopped short of the matter plucking his heartstrings. All photos were taken with Sony DSC S85 and F828. Photos: SY Hsu Text: Isa Translation: Nevin This is Yan (the pseudonym "Sweetheart" has been used for her photos published) and the photos were done by the guy I am acquainted with since my freshman year, SY. Although Sweetheart smiles with a delicate aroma of sweetness really, filling the viewer's heart, I am going to talk about the other one instead of her. I wish to say something about SY, an admirer falling for Sweetheart head over heels. I recall that I first knew him when messaging on an online BBS board one day during my freshman year. He impressed me with a huge sense of humour, which is written on his face too. Around the same time he bumped into Swee...

(Walkie-Lookie: The man was so engrossed in the horse racing journal as he climbed up the footbridge that I was able to walk side by side with him, pointing the GX200 towards his direction without being noticed. The active space on the left balanced the static man with some dynamism by showing where he was moving into) Horse racing is a heritage left by the British. It has been a much loved pastime of the local gambling community. Horse racing has all along been a big business monopolised by the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), founded in 1884 and formerly known as the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club from 1959 after granted the Royal Charter by QEII * until 1996 before the return of Hong Kong to China. (Happy Vally Race Course, circa 1966) The HKJC has a legal monopoly over betting on horse racing and football. In 1974, it opened 6 off-course branches where the members of the public could wager on horse race meets at the club's Happy Valley racecourse. There are now in excess of 100 ...

(When Three Know It: The good thing about always carrying a camera with you is that there may be an interesting scene showing up in any minute and you will never miss it. I shot this pocture in the morning. Since the three placard ladies could not see me, I stood in front of them and took time to meter the scene with my GX200 before shooting the picture. The big characters on the placard read, "Good job positions; Click and you'll get them", advertising a website for job seekers. The common saying has it that, "When three know it, all know it." Maybe that's why there were three of them) As I had read about superimposition as a composition technique to reveal the inner nature of a scene, I knew what exactly I was doing when taking the picture of the three placard ladies. Some weeks ago, I also used the same technique in shooting the strawberry lady in an open market with a red lamp shade superimposing on her head. There, I tried to use superimposition in th...

(I have just updated this post with links for the CX1 versus F200EXR in terms of high ISO nightshots, together with some shots showing the barely noticeable purple fringing in CX1's images. My initial conclusion is that Ricoh has made the CX1 tick. The coming replacement models for GRDII and GX200 should therefore be something really exciting) (CX1 @ ISO 800) Ricoh's CX1 has started selling on the market in this part of the world. In Hong Kong, it is officially priced at HK$ 3,080 (around US$395). Impatient users (impatient because they have already bought it without waiting for a proper review) have uploaded some photos to various websites. From the photos I have seen, the CX1 performs quite good in rendering images in difficult lighting situations. The high ISO images are not bad for a camera with such a small sensor, and the improvements are actually very visuable. The price can go down a bit to make it really competitive though. Shots with DR Double Shot mode on/ ...

(The shadows of the spotlights are casted on the big outdoor billboard, which is surprisingly empty, on the facade of a building facing a busy thoroughfare in Kowloon) Last Sunday, I took a bus trip with my GX200. With less traffic and people in the street, the streetscape was very different from what one would see on weekdays. Visiting usual places at different time of a day is a proven way to give the photographer renewed perspectives on familiar scenes. As the bus moved on, the moving scenery unfolded outside the windows. They were so familiar and yet so strange. (As the bus went under a flyover and stopped at the traffic lights, I found it visually interesting for the straight lines seemingly stretching from the road dividing railings to the wall on the far side and the underneath of the flyover above the bus) The scenery looked different also partly because my mind was at ease. Sunday mornings are always the best time in any week. Do you have any pictures taken on a Sunday mornin...

Some of the serious compacts are sold with free neck or wrist neck. In Hong Kong, the LX3 comes with a nice, free leather (feels like deerskin)  neck strap. For the G10, you get a decent leather neck strap for an additional minimal payment. The GRD has a primitive nylon neck strap which I think doesn’t quite match the camera for its class. As regards my GX200, I use a neck strap which I detached from an old lens case. I think a neck strap is a good idea for serious compact users. The Artist and Artisan ’s leather cases and straps are well known among compact users. But I have just discovered a handmade alternative by a Taiwan manufacturer, Chad Leather Craft (CLC).   CLC’s design allows the neck strap (blue, brown, dark brown or red in colour) to be partly detached to form a wrist strap. Customers enjoy English words etching service on the strap for free for ten alphabets (not “words” as translated by Google). Blogger Noodle has a nice photo illustration of h...