GX GARNERINGS

This is Sunday.  Have a hearty meal of meat!

     Illusion is a good medium to create special effects in an image.  The device of illusion is especially useful for photographing lifeless items to give the viewers a creative perspective to the otherwise boring feeling of stillness in the photo.  "Water", the topic of this month's photo contest at ricohforum, is exactly when illusions can help bring the image to life.  A clear example is Danielygo's entry . You don't need expensive tools to achieve illusions in an image.  Apart from making some effort to use our imagination as Danielygo did, we can make use of the illusions readily available. Reflective surfaces are one of the approaches I use a lot. There is actually a tag titled "Reflections" for the posts here. As far as my experience goes, the effect is best when the surfaces reflect images from various directions and reproduce them with different opacity qualities.  I have the penchant for even using reflection to give out this riddle: where

If asked what Cheung Chau is most associated with, there would not be an easy answer because the island is famous for so many things. The Buns Festival? The pirate's cave? The fishing port? The walla-wallas? The beaches? Its iconic geographic shape? They all are assoicated with Cheung Chau. So is seafood. Just as one cannot visit Beijing without setting foot on the Great Wall, visiting Cheung Chau without trying seafood is a sin absolutely not to be committed. Do it alfresco at any of the Daipaidongs (search this site about what it is) lining the promenada. If you ask for my recommendation, don't miss the one located immediately next to Pak She Fourth Lane. It offers the best seafood with good value for money. It is advisable to book a table in advance or arrive eariler during weekends or holidays. To take streetshots like these, or actually under any situation, using the flash is a non-starter unless a special effect is intended. Alas, we have ISO 3200 and 64

The rule of thirds is at play for this shot. It was divided in three equal parts with the primary subject -- the man in the moving boat -- being placed one third down the image. On the promenade fronting the bay of Cheung Chau protected by two long arms of breakwaters extending some hundreds metres offshore, I spent over an hour shooting pictures. The bay, serving as a shelter for vessels during stormy weather, had an inherited peaceful quality to it even though the vessels were bustling about. I highlighted the man by placing him at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal lines according to the Golden Ratio.  Added to this basic measure was the expanse of water in the background which hopefully arouses the viewers' imagination of the route the boat has moved along, thus eventually giving a longer attention to the man. Long-time readers may recall my comments about the focusing issues somehow plaguing the like of NX10.  The focusing with these cameras is general

Cheung Chau is primarily a fishing community. For the most iconic of Cheung Chau people's daily life, look no further beyond its fishing port. It is the first sight greeting the visitors on incoming ferries. The haphazard clumps of boats scattering over the bay may make the place look confusing, but there is an unspoken order of things amid the disorganisation. The ferries worm in and away from the pier while walla-wallas crisscross their routes. On the narrow channel separating the clumps, there are always vessels going this way or that and giving out a tutti of hums from the puffing motor engines. But vessel accidents have never been heard of in the bay. To any photographer, this port offers the most enticing yet challenging photo opportunity. On the one hand, the activities and liveliness are fascinating. On the other, it is so festooned with different shapes and colours that virtually no scene can be trimmed into a decent image. So, I started with the obvious: human subje

Owing to some technical twitches, the effort spent on today's post was dissipated as I inadvertently overwrote the post with a draft when saving to Blogspot. "Quack, quack!" Very smart indeed. Have a nice day!

There have been some animated debates over Sony's NEXt cameras to be shipped and to hit the retailers' shelves. While the photography community railed at the mediocre optical quality of the 16mm pancake lens, Sony made the announcement which sounded unusual to me that all the 16mm lenses were pre-production samples. Is this a hindsight? Well, this doesn't really matter as long as Sony lends an attentive ear to us and makes improvements to the lens. Then some critics are concerned about the ergonomics of the machines. To be honest, I quite like the way how the testers hold the camera by the lens barrel. The camera body is really slim and chic. I pointed it to a few non-into-photography ladies who immediately said that they could buy it. But the critics are actually more upset by its way of doing adjustments which they think are simply cumbersome. I really admire Samsung for making the menu system of NX10 so blissful easy to work with. The ladies' approval and the critics

This is the Mercedes Benz in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong. Sunday, have fun!