Beijing!

I recently visited Beijing on assignment covering China's preparations for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. It was a short trip and I only had one day off to visit the Forbidden City. This is one of the few shots of Beijing I have which is not of the Forbidden City -- captured while traveling on a bus. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Self-portrait

A reflection of me in one of the modern barriers in the Forbidden City. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Ross in the jungle

This is the editor of a tech magazine in Singapore, shot against the interesting mural at our hotel in Beijing, China. I just thought it looked pretty cool. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Seeing red

Apt title, don't you think? I'm always on the lookout for shots with contrasting colours when I walk around anywhere -- this was near the entrance to the Forbidden City. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

All along the watchtower

Apparently, this hill with the three pagodas was where Kublai Khan's palace once stood. The palace was demolished on orders from the Emperor after the Mongols were finally driven out of the Kingdom. These pagodas were built on top and overlooks the Forbidden City from the South. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Wall detail

Nothing much to say about this shot, except that I was incredibly anal about getting it properly centred in the shot. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3,5-5.6 VR

Roof guardians

A closeup of the ornamentation the roof of one of the many buildings in the Forbidden City in China. Apparently, the more guardians there are on the roof, the more important the building is. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Forbidden City Gates

This photo turned out very well, I thought -- I could have joined these shots together without the major distortion, but I think it looks more balanced this way -- architectural accuracy be damned! The major challenge with this shot is taking the series as fast as possible to avoid having duplicate humans here and there as they move from shot to shot. Amazingly, the new Adobe Photoshop CS3 photomerge is incredible at avoiding cutting humans up even in a complicated scene like this. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 VR

Red doors

Not the best shot ever taken by me, but again, this was an attempt to shoot the famous main doors of the Forbidden City in a different way from the conventional shots you see. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Forbidden City Panorama

Yes, what series of shots from me would be complete without a few panorama shots. This is the main courtyard for the Forbidden City and covers about a 180-degree field of view made up of about 4 shots. Like all my panoramas these days, the shots are just simply shot handheld -- the only thing to remember when shooting photos for panoramas is to meter the scene and then lock down the shutter and aperture to the same settings for each shot. Failing to do this will cause one or two shots to be brighter or darker than the others. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm VR

Pair of knockers

Yes, haha I am aware of the naughty connotations to the title. Most of the shots I have of the Forbidden City are closeup shots because there were just too many people in the way to take a nice wide shot, and again, I was consciously trying to shoot something a little different. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Stealing a yawn

Sometimes being able to recognise photographic potential in a situation is everything -- while this might seem like a grab shot, it actually wasn't -- I saw this lady standing framed like this and decided to wait for her to do something interesting and then take a shot. The trick is not to bring the camera up to your eye to shoot until you anticipate that something interesting is going to happen, otherwise the spontaneity of the shot is lost if the subject notices you. I actually waited and took 3-4 shots surreptitiously for quite a few minutes until I got this one. :) Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Chained lions

The challenge in a place like the Forbidden City in Beijing is always to shoot something different from the usual tourist snapshots. These lionheads are actually brass handles that adorn huge urns that are within the City's grounds. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Peering in

Another shot of the giant brass urns in the Forbidden City. I thought it was pretty interesting that this guy was absorbed in his telephone conversation yet found the time to satisfy his curiosity to peer into the mouth of the urn! :) Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Perhentian Panorama

The photos for this panoramic was shot years ago, but it wasn't until tonight that I decided to revisit some of my old shots and recreate this.

These shots were taken when I was still a greenhorn at creating panoramas, and due to the slight exposure differences and the major distortion from shot to shot, I was unable to make a satisfying panorama from the shots.

However, a few years on, I decided to retry again with Adobe Photoshop CS3's new automate panorama feature and amazingly it came out nearly perfect on the first try. I did tweak it slightly after that but this is almost exactly how it came out in Photoshop CS3. There's still a bit of exposure difference near the joints of the shots, but it's actually not bad at all.

This panorama is about a 180-degree field of view. Do click on it to really appreciate the shot in larger size. Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6

New category

For once a post without pictures. :) After a few years of posting photos, I realise that some of my nicest shots are now lost in a virtual deluge of other photos. Well, today, I went back and looked at all of them, chose the nicest ones and added them to a category called Favourites. If you don't have time to look through all of my voluminous collection, click on the link and check out the distilled version.

Generally I've resisted having a Favourites category for a while now because it's a lot of work having to go through every photo and add a new tag. Plus, it's difficult to choose the best since I like em all. :p

Anyway, it's here now, nestled amongst the other country categories, so click and enjoy. Remember to click on "Older Posts" when you reach the bottom of the page, since there are about 77 shots in total to see.

Fun with macro

A technique I've tried before, this is a shot taken with flash illuminating a translucent plastic table which the flower is resting on which provides all the light. The only thing worth mentioning about this shot is that it's a first test with an extension tube set I borrowed from Jason. The flower is actually only about a quarter the size of your fingernail. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 with Nikon extension tubes.

Anemone

I had the chance to visit the Berlin Aquarium while I was in Germany. Not that great compared to Malaysia's Aquaria but there were a few nice exhibits. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

D300 at IFA Berlin

Haha I just thought the look on this lady's face while she was looking at the Live View on the camera was funny. That's the all-new Nikon D300, by the way -- the new version for my D200 and I have to say it's a real nice camera -- autofocus was faster than on my D200, and the noise level at High ISO was incredibly low. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Conflict

There aren't that many historical buildings left in Berlin after the War, but in one particular place (I can't remember the exact place) there are still a few. This was shot from a moving double-decker open-top bus which I was on. Notice the incredibly blue sky -- I wasn't using a polarizer at all in this shot -- the sky was REALLY this blue. Sigh. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Dali on the bear

The bear is the symbol of Berlin and there are lots of statues of bears to be found all over the city. This one in particular caught my eye -- in case you don't recognise him, the artist featured on the side of this bear is Salvador Dali -- the guy who produced that famous melted clock painting. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Accordion girl

Foreginers of all kinds are seen on the streets of Berlin every day playing some instrument or other for money -- other than this girl I just missed the Scottish people in kilts playing bagpipes! Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Night rider

If I had a choice, I would have framed this shot better, but unfortunately, it was raining, I didn't have a tripod and I couldn't stand where I wanted to stand. :) As it is I only had the chance to prop my camera on top of a convenient rubbish bin and set it in self-timer mode. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Pictures

Part of the interior of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is used to showcase photos of Berlin as it once was. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4

Chained to the sky

This modern sculpture is only about 300m from the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. Here, I'm trying to shoot an unusual angle of it while giving a sense of its location (hence the inclusion of the Berliner name on the building). The interesting thing about any European country is that perhaps because of the more acute angle of the sun when away from the equator, the skies are always bluer. Sigh. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4

Watering the plants

This shot came out exactly as I had planned it -- I took great care to frame the little window in this modern art sculpture/fountain in the middle of Berlin right smack in the centre of the frame. As such the final image has a natural frame around the subject and I think the water droplets add a certain something to it. I converted this image to B+W for the simple reason that it looks more striking this way -- the original was in brown monochromatic tones. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Chairs

This colourful display of stacked chairs is the perfect subject for this kind of shot. When doing repeating patterns like this, I always try to shoot it from a variety of angles, both in protrait and landscape mode and then decide later which one works best. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Ceiling detail

The ceiling of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin has an astonishingly ornate ceiling which has survived the war. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4

Kaiser Wilhelm Church

Some 75% of Berlin was destroyed in World War II but still a few relics have remained standing and one of these is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Even then, only part of the bell tower survived but a new church was built around it -- the building on the top left corner is actually the new church, with tiny windows which allow light to shine through the stained glass windows (see below). Nikon D200 AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Seeing the light

The inside of the new part of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is amazing -- what looks like a million little TV sets behind christ are actually little stained-glass squares which let the outside light shine through. I had a very clear idea that I wanted the man to be sitting on the right corner of the image, but there were quite a few people walking around inside, so I had to wait till most of them moved away from the left side of the hall and quickly snapped this shot. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4

Things are looking up

Sometimes a scene like this just comes along and begs to be photographed! I don't know what trishaw guy was looking at -- probably on the modern art Mt Fuji at the Sony Centre (which is where this was taken)! :) You'd think that I switched to continuous burst shooting for this shot, but actually I didn't -- I'm from the old school of shooting and I like to try to shoot without having to go into machine gun mode. In fact, this shot was the middle of just three shots I took as I panned the camera to follow the trishaw's movement. Don't let it be said that cameras that shoot a large number of frames in a second are needed for action and sports shots -- I've always been able to get by without. :) Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6