GX GARNERINGS

(Camera: Ricoh CX1) It is generally thought that indecisive focusing is quintessential of contrast detection adpoted in smaller-sensor compacts.  This detection operation has an inherit constraint: it is limited by the level of contrast available for detection.  In a nutshell, in low-light situations, the photographers have to convince and wait for the focus to really lock on the subjects.  This observation still holds true.  But the perception of contrast detection as such is changing. Until recently, contrast detection has lagged behind in focusing when compared with phase detection.  As the Panasonic's top-class model GF2 attests, the MFT sensor using contrast detection is really fast in good lighting situations.  Probably in those situations, it is marginally slower than phase detection.  If you've not checked it out, go here . So, while contrast detection still sucks in low-light settings, it has caught up quite close focusing-spee...

(Camera: Ricoh GX200) Shots of scenes with clear-cut subjects against a simple background have an eye-catching, philosophical quality to them.  Deduction, almost the sure-fire way to get intriguing pictures, is at play here which help produce most of my keepers.

(Camera: Samsung WB600) "I am ashamed of my rootlessness, " sighed Freedom when floating over Work. "Fact is, " responded Work to Freedom, " I know how tied up I am when I see you." (The smears are not caused by artifact, but the dirty window. :))

Autumn is here.  We have the best weather in a year.  Everything looks clear and full of life.

I have walked to some gardens with the EX1, seeing the plants meticulously cultivated by the caretakers with their green thumbs, and taken shots of the mind-smoothing green setting.  As evidenced in the images, the Schneider lens of the EX1 manages to reproduce the images with good tonal transition from brightness to grey areas (crop at left).  Certainly it is no high-grade lens costing thousands of bucks.  Corner softness is noticeable.  It was taken at about 50mm.  But it is not any worse than its competitors. Some green hands in photography have asked whether the F1.8 capability of EX1 has an advantage in giving bokeh to the shots.  The answer is yes... if you shot in macro mode like the close-up shot of the flower below. The answer is no otherwise for normal shots since the sensor is tiny and the focal length of 24mm to 72mm is only a conversion of the actual length of 5.2mm to 15.6mm.  The following shot shows how the F1.8 will give out in nor...

Kowloon West is the best place for doing sunset shots in this territory. When the old Kai Tak international airport was still in use, chances were that the photographer could get in the picture a plane flying out to this direction. Here in the image the wash of pinkish orange tinging the sky is peaceful. The silhouettes of the cranes springing up from the barges rightly balance and complement the tinge on the upper half of the image while the dots of street lights break the otherwise monotonous swath of darkness at the bottom. In the film era, the surefire way to get the 'right' exposure combo for sunset shots was to spot-meter the area right below the sun without including it. In the digital age, this technique does not rule such shots as the moon rules the tides, so to speak, because the photographer can tweak the shutter speed and the aperture value while monitoring the real-time result on the screen. But if you know this trick, doesn't it give you a sense of "...

Now that we are all exposing a scene with the instant cue on a LCD screen, the techniques of doing exposure are left to the wind by and by. In the above contrasty scene, which I photographed with my film Minolta Dynax 7, how would you expose? The present-day metering system and micro-chips in the cameras are so sophisticated that giving it an average metering will do the trick. The photo will come out okay. But, what if you wish to know exactly what you're doing, and to end up with a final image turning out to be exactly the way you want? For this photo, I cared about the foliage under the shade by the footpath. I didn't want it to be unduly darkened in the final image. So, I metered the area. Since I presumed it to be near zone 5, I just exposed the scene as suggested by the camera and took the shot. Zone 5? Read on here .

^Monkeys and Monkey Bars: Instead of photographing the subjects, I shot their shadows which told of their action in a more intriguing way with the rhythmic shadows. It is almost a cliché to say that light is the soul of photography. If light is the soul, a shadow is the body. Taken together, they are the tools for photographers to draw the pictures, much like a brush to a painter, a carver to a sculptor or a musical instrument to a musician. But light and shadows are more than just tools. They are also the important factors in a composition. ^A Long Working Day: Hopefully the theme is somewhat echoed and enhanced by the long shadows suggesting the day was closing. In fact, it was taken on a winter morning. Having known the ABCs of light and shadows: - The light coming sideway gives subjects a richer three-dimensional quality and the light coming from behind is best for putting the subjects in silhouettes, especially when the sun is low, or putting your own shadow in the picture; - Sha...

^Click the photo to check out the colours, which I like best for it. This is the show performed by the Flying Troupe in Hong Kong Ocean Park, an attraction which also fascinates me. I'm less verbose today for you to enjoy the show.  

^Highland Reservoir, the biggest of its kind in Hong Kong   What is the difference between a restaurant and a reservoir?  To most Hongkongers, the difference may not be a conscious one but definitely an obvious one.  It is in the pronunciation.  Cantonese, the mother tongue of Hongkongers and the Southern Chinese, doesn't have  the "r" or "v" consonant sounds.  Worse still, Chinese (including Cantonese) is monosyllabic with, interestingly, one exception * .   Saying aloud the multisyllabic English words doesn't come naturally to a Cantonese speaker. ^There are two hiking trails snaking to the east and north along the reservoir.   Taking the one to the north leads you to at least a four-hour trekking over the mountains and on the beautiful beaches (DON'T swim there cos the undercurrent has killed a dozen of swimmers including the uncle of my friend).  This is almost the splitting point. * The exception is t...

What to be packed in my luggage must include some afterthoughts about what the Uk is made of as I see it. This is my second time to the UK, the first to London being a decade ago.  The break from the humdrum routines at home has been refreshing to me.  Travelling is a medicine in itself, apart from being educational. ^Of Birmingham The country is too vast and varied to be learned in any single trip.  But I have seen and learned a few peculiar things about the country.  First, it is the ubiquitous "but" in conversations with the slightly exaggerated pronunciation of the middle "/\" sound.  Second, it is the unmistakable stances among the newspaper publishers.  Some smart persons having pondered on the situation bore fruit in the shape of the following catchy phrases: The Times is read by the people who run the country; The Independent is read by people who don't know who runs the country but are sure they're doing it wron...

^ The statue replicas featuring Roman emperors atop the Roman Bath In a city with so many things from the days of yore, one tends to be nostalgic and philosophical about life which will reflect in the photos taken. The lure of old things lies in their connection to the past, the days when people led a primitive life. The ways they acted and thought are reflected in the relics having stood the test of time. Where I touched and walked and watched could be the places some ancient poets and generals did the same. « The Roman Bath The captivating thought is those people died a long time ago and the present-day me will not be missed by the visitors coming here some hundreds of years later. By then, I will be a part of the history, long gone, a past tense. ^The intriguing roof patterns of the Bath Abbey This thought perplexed me further when I wandered inside the Bath Abbey, looking at the tombs of different descriptions. I walked past a tomb which a husband made for his dead wife. The epita...