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Showing posts from April 4, 2010

The Colours of Wanchai

A customer with a satisfactory grin at the "Toy Street” of Waichai where shops selling cheap toys old and new franked the open-air market I walked the NX10 (Did I think that it's a dog?) today in Wanchai, definitely one of my favourite district in Hong Kong.  It is a place filled with exotic yet modern atmosphere, always bustling with as many expats as locals for business in the western and eastern ways.  It is a place of colours, literally so (check open the photos to see'em in colour), mixed with new and really old things. A typical side street in the district where you find surprises for food and shopping   The colour of these stalls gives this image a very atmospheric touch   Such a fairly pastel scene is not uncommon in Waichai, which I think is one of the elements making the place unique among all other areas     This is rather girly to me but very comfortable to look at   Waichai is a place to see old buildings; these ones are older tha

Believe It or Not

A defocused shot with the NX10 at the critical moment. It looks good for its unintended dreamy effect though. While I truly admire the hard work to produce a lengthy multi-page review of a camera (you know who, don't you?), I still think that the best choice can be made not other than trying it out oneself if there is a chance. However meticulously an effort is made to produce an unbiased review, a review is by nature subjective. Sometimes, it is exactly because a review is so scientific in most parts that it leaves little room for suspicion, let alone objection, regarding the subjective parts. The tester says that several crew members have tried the NX10 for an extensive period and have no complain about the focusing speed. The NX10 is even comparable to Nikon D5000 in this regard, he states. I have been shooting with the NX10 for a week with all of its three lenses (now nearly 1,000 shots), which makes me more circumspect in reading such a conclusion. No, I am not implying th

Insight of the Year!

Netted insights and opinions are galore. Self-styled experts (like me!) are offering advice on this or that. The how-to advice on photographing sports I stumbled into recently was truly jaw-dropping. Hold onto the armrests of your chair and be prepared for this greatest photographic advice of all ages (and put down your camera or you may drop it out of scare): QUOTE 8 Tips for Photographing Sports 1) Acquire a DSLR (Eek!) 2) Acquire a lens (Urk!) 3) Learn how to use a DSLR (*@*) 4) Find a place to take pictures (......) 5) Set Your Camera Mode (Let me guess: the next one is Press the Shutter Release?) 6) Set Your ISO (Oh!) 7) Set Your Shutter Speed (Brilliant!) 8) Set Your Auto-focus to Continuous (Bravo!) UNQUOTE I didn't make these up. The brilliant advisor? HERE ! Note that the tag for this post is HUMOUR!

Selected Excellence: Fair Face in Cafe

The photos featured today were the works of DaDa'r from Taiwan. In her camera cabinet, there is the new acquisition: Ricoh GXR. I have found the 16:9 mode of the GXR exceptionally impressive. As discussed eariler on, the 16:9 images took with the GXR boast an unspeakable Japanese-style aesthetic quality. These few photos taken by DaDa'r caught my attention because of this same aesthetic quality. The second thing is that the model looks really relaxed with a good natural expression on her fair face, giving the portraits the atmosphere just what one may feel in a cafe. I am really fond of the tone of the image below even though it is a bit blurred. The tone and the ignorant look of the model match the overall mood of the image which seemingly belongs to a certain historical time. Responding to the question about her impression of the GXR, she says, " GXR is a handy piece of photographic tool to me. It produces images of great quality. To me, it is positioned as a tiny DSLR.

Good Morning, Folks!

The best time to observe a place for its people is in the morning, especially with a camera mounted with a 19mm wide-angle lens (or a converter in the case here with my GX200). An old lady has just done shopping from a supermarket and am curious about whether my camera would take her in the shot.  "Yes, it did, ma'am.  Too late to duck." This folk is going to buy a newspaper at the magazine store.  Fact is, most people buy newspapers from the convenience stores which offer a discount on even newspapers.  The most popular newspaper is the Apple Daily, a gossip kind of newspaper with a marked stance leaning towards the democratic camp in the local political arena. Some people are having breakfast at a sort of daipaidong.  If you're not sure about what a daipaidong is, search this site by using the search bar in the left column. Some may feel like paying more for a nicer breakfast at a posher restaurant.  Here, a breakfast set costs just 20 HK dollars.  Not e

Will We have Classic Digital Cameras?

Leica M series: saw the light of the market since 1954. This legendary M6 is selling for HK$24,000, or US$3,000 or UK$2,400. Photography was invented 170 years ago or, to be exact, 171 years ago. The development of cameras have taken several quantum leaps in the last century. The advent of digital cameras was one of the big leaps forward. Some photographers, whose number is dwindling though, have a penchant for film photography. There are good reasons. First, film photography represents a history and a time-honoured value. These photographers may have grown up or been first taught about photography with film cameras. Sticking to a film camera is a nostalgic act to ascertain themselves of the good old days. Rollei 35 series: first produced in 1966 and production ceased in 1996. What is special about it is that this Rollei 35 is by far the tiniest 35mm mechanical camera in the world. It looks very German. Some believe, rightly of wrongly, in the texture of images reprod