Footsteps

I didn't set up this shot. I just noticed that a kid had just left his wet footprints on the sand and snapped a couple of quick shots. I'm not even sure why the footprints only had a wet outline and wasn't wet all the way inside the print as well. I kinda laugh when I look at it because of an old Archie comic that revolved around the phrase, "footsteps in the sands of time." Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 VR

Down by the seaside

Yes I'm not sure why but I'm still in a black and white mood. Anyway, I made a trip down to a seaside location to test out my 10-stop Neutral Density filter. What does it do? Well essentially, it's like dark glasses -- it makes things a LOT darker, and in a camera, this means slow shutter speeds, and the effect is that the sea is rendered as a smooth blur like this. The photo was converted from RAW and edited in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and slightly cropped. You'd be surprised how little editing there was to get it to look like this-- the major work involved removing many dust spots. The image was shot at f/32 so every little bit of dust that normally doesn't show up on wider aperture shots all made an appearance here, despite cleaning my image sensor before going on the photo shoot. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm VR

Fire in the sky

Not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I'm a great admirer of the work of renowned B+W landscape photographer, Ansel Adams. Adams' mastery and understanding of the relationship between light and dark tones has always left me in awe and has always inspired much of my B+W work. Anyway, this shot was taken in Seattle from the top of the Space Needle. On that day, there was an amazing sunset in progress and I was lucky enough to capture this. Obviously, there has been some contrast and brightness adjustment done here (as Adams did-- his was a mastery of the darkroom as much as the framing) but the sky really was mostly like this. I'm quite happy with how this photo turned out. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Electric dreams

This shot was a simple grab shot with an Olympus E-PL3 I was testing. The subject is a friend's daughter who was totally engrossed playing Angry Birds on his smartphone. Originally shot in colour, I felt the image was better served in B+W so I converted it and did some minimal contrast adjustment. Olympus E-PL3, 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6

Shinjuku Sunrise

Woke up at sunrise, looked out my hotel window and saw this amazing sunrise over Shinjuku in Tokyo. The problem with trying to capture a scene like this is that you can either get an exposure from the sky and get buildings dark or get an exposure for the buildings but the sky will be too bright. The answer? High Dynamic Range (HDR), where you take two shots -- one with a proper exposure for the sky and another with a proper exposure for the buildings then join them together. I don't have any special software for doing this right now and just manually pick the areas that I want and layer them over the other using PhotoForge2 on the iPad. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5.5.6 VR

Image stabilization

This is the first video I've ever posted on this blog, but I thought since I've been showing photos taken with the Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD, I might as well also show you a video I did showing you how effective the optical image stabilization in the lens is. Nikon D7000, Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD

A Day at the Zoo

I haven't been to the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur for a number of years now. The last time I went, it was pretty disappointing -- animals kept in cement enclosures with very little in the way of mental stimulation. However, when o went back today, it was a completely different story -- the Zoo has had a major remodeling and the animals have now been moved into properly landscaped enclosures with a more open concept, mostly without bars, very much like the Singapore Zoo or Taiping Zoo. One of the reasons I went to the zoo was to test out the new Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD, a telephoto zoom that's reasonably priced yet offers some amazing images when used properly. Even at 300mm wide open at f/5.6, as this image is, results are really impressive with only a hint of softness and chromatic aberration which goes away if you stop down one stop to f/8. This photo is slightly cropped for balance and some contrast adjustment was made, but no sharpening. Nikon D7000, Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD

Get back

One thing I never noticed about tigers until now (probably because I've only looked more at the front than the back) is that tigers have white spots on their ears! Nikon D7000, Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD

Portrait of an Orangutan

The thing about shooting at the zoo is that you really need a long telephoto lens to get really tight portraits of animals. Here, again, I shot at 300mm with the Tamron, and the results were pretty good. The image has been cropped slightly on the right to better balance the composition. Nikon D7000, Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD

Lazy leopard

This photo really bothers me a lot -- frankly, if I had gotten the leopard's right paw in the frame, the shot would've worked. As it is, my eye keeps getting drawn to the fact that the paw is just out of frame in this photo. Nevertheless, something to learn here apart from proper framing, is that even though I had a busy wire mesh between me and the leopard, shooting with the telephoto lens with the mesh quite close means that it'll be rendered completely out of focus in the shot, except for a slight greenish blur over the leopards back. Another thing to note is that the Tamron performed admirably when stopped down to f/8. Nikon's D7000, Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD

Fighting flamingoes

I decided to go against conventional wisdom to present an image of flamingoes in full colour and instead decided to convert this shot into a more stark black and white image. I think stripping the colour away produces a more arresting image of these fighting flamingoes. Nikon D7000, Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD

Getting a tan

This shot is presented unedited just to show you how good the Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD is when at it's best. I have to say that's pretty darned sharp. As for what this stork is doing, I think it is getting some sun to warm itself up after getting wet in the pond. Nikon D7000, Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD

Bokehlicious

This shot only works because of the amazing bokeh -- the buttery smooth blur of the out of focus background -- and the almost painterly effect that you get because of this. I recently bought the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 which has the advantage of isolating the subject matter thanks to a shallow depth of field. In reality, if it were sharper in the background, you would clearly see the ugly wires holding up the flower pot and some other extraneous detail. With this shallow depth of field, I simply shot between two other leaves, made sure the front 3 flowers were sharp enough and blurred everything else out. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G

Monochrome orchids

Yes I'm still in a monochrome mood. This photo was taken with the express intention to turn it into black and white. I noticed how these two orchids are very similar in position and wanted to shoot a monochrome image to emphasize this. The image was then converted to B+W and adjusted in my iPad. Turned out pretty good I think. Since I did not have my usual 60mm macro I had to borrow my dad's Tamron macro lens. Nikon D7000, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8

Retro couple

I was waiting for my ride in Seattle when I saw this couple waiting at the taxi stand, dressed in what looks like 1920s or 1940s style hats. looks kind of sweet and I waited till their position was just right and snapped a few photos. Again, this was originally in colour, but I converted it into black and white in-camera with a virtual red filter. I was standing right behind the couple btw. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Sleeping in Seattle

I've been saving this title for years, I think, waiting for a shot that would fit it! Anyway, unlike the accordion photo, this shot was converted into monochrome in-camera, using the D7000's black and white conversion feature, which is surprisingly powerful -- for example, shooting in RAW, I can not only convert it to monochrome, but simulate a red filter to darken other colours and lighten skin tones in black and white. I actually shot another version of this where the father's face is visible, but I quickly realised it would be better to focus on the kid more, so I quickly zoomed in a little closer and took this one. There are lots of split-second decisions to make when shooting a photo like this -- this photo is not cropped at all, and I had to decide at that moment not to include the father's nose and yet make sure his lips are not cut off. I was standing practically right next to the father and son, btw. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Streetside Accordion

Seattle's Pike Place is a street photographer's dream, I think -- it's got lots of interesting people doing interesting things. This shot was converted to monochrome using Photogene on the iPad, with a slight contrast adjustment and a bit of cropping and sharpening. Amazing what you can do on the iPad these days. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Wesak 2011

Seems like I'm here every year. I'm not a particularly religious person, but I'm at the Thai temple every year for Wesak day to take photos and partake of the excellent Thai food. :) This year, I challenged myself not to take exactly the same photos as I did in previous years, which means I'd have to actively think of new angles and new things to shoot at a place I've visited and shot for many years now. This is one of the first shots, taken at a lower angle than I did before. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

For luck

This is perhaps one of the most often shot images at the Thai temple on Wesak day. These donation pots are often shot by numerous photographers and every year, I shoot these as well. This year, instead of taking a shot of the coin going in, I thought this one, of the person hoping to get a blessing by touching the pot instead, was interesting. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

The dragon's back

Again, instead of the obvious shot of the dragon's head, I thought I'd focus on something else. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Praying

It's interesting, but Chinese people tend to hold their joss sticks this way while Thai people tend to keep them close to their chests as they pray. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Solitary candle

Sometimes taking a shot of small details that people would normally miss helps to avoid the many similar shots that popular events like Wesak day produces. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Let there be light

In keeping with the challenge to shoot the same things in a different way, this time I chose to shoot the oil lamps from a top down angle by just lifting the camera over my head and pointing it straght down. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Moonshot 20/3/2011

This shot was taken at the period when the moon is supposedly the closest its been in many many years. Taking photos of the moon requires the longest telephoto lens that you have, a steady tripod and spot metering. Contrary to what you might think, the moon travels across the sky at quite a speed and between each shot I have to reposition my camera or in just a minute or two the moon would be out of frame. The shot could be sharper if I had a better lens, but considering that I'm using a cheap Kenko 800mm f/8 mirror lens, it turned out ok. A bit of tweaking of contrast and sharpening to help bring out more detail is required as the Kenko tends to be lacking in contrast. Nikon D7000, Kenko 800mm f/8 manual focus mirror lens.

Welcome to New Zealand!

Probably the most travel-filled month of my life, February was a month where I visited Hanoi in Vietnam and also Queenstown in New Zealand. You'll find the Hanoi photos further down. This is one of the first shots I took when I arrived on a bright sunny morning in New Zealand. Needless to say, the view is simply breathtaking. A little walk down from the hotel in Queenstown, NZ and you get this view. One of the reasons I love taking panoramas is that I naturally like to frame photos with stuff on the sides, and it works really well with panoramas. Nikon D7000, AF-S 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Lake Erskine

Ever seen one of those mountain scenes with a beautiful mirror-like lake? Well I've actually had the privilege to visit exactly that in Queenstown, New Zealand. Lake Erskine is apparently a UNESCO World Heritage site that sits right on top of a mountain. In a word, it's breathtaking especially since it's only easily accessible by helicopter, and above a lot of clouds. The chopper landed on a narrow ridge on which I shot this photo. On the other side of the ridge is yet another breathtaking view:
Yes. This view. I think I've died and gone to heaven. In fact, the view is just so great it's practically impossible to shoot a bad photo. So here's another one:



Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Chopper Panorama

Here's a shot I took as a panorama but forgot about until I went through all my New Zealand photos again. :D Thing is that each photo in this particular series that I took for the panorama looked like it could stand on its own so I didn't really think they were connected until I took a long look at them recently. As far as my numerous panoramas go, this is one of my favourites, as the framing is just right -- there's some foreground interest, and a nice background of mountains and right at the corner on the right, a helicopter. Doing panoramas these days has become a lot easier -- I never put it on a tripod these days and instead just stand and shoot so the virtual horizon helps keep the horizon as level as possible as I pan across. After that Photoshop CS4 does all the work and stitches it all quite seamlessly. This is a 180-degree shot made up of 5-6 shots. Unfortunately, Blogspot's resizing of photos means that you can't really appreciate the photo at the size that's ideal. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Maori

This Maori was part of the troupe who performed the Haka. Just a nice portrait, I thought. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Busy bees

I often hear that shooting photos of insects with a 60mm macro isn't easy as the minimum focusing distance of the lens is so close that it will often scare away the insect you're trying to shoot. In my experience though, I've rarely had such problems -- I find insects are usually so busy doing their thing that they usually ignore you even when you get really close. I spent some hours shooting these honey bees collecting nectar and pollen from the lavender plants around the hotel and I literally came back with about a hundred sharp shots. The reason I shot so many was that the bees were so compliant that I could really spend the time just concentrating on getting a properly framed shot. I kinda like this one the best because it has a bee actually with its head in the flower while in the background, you can see another one in flight. I also have this shot:

I like the framing and the depth of field in this shot because the lavender stems seem to be framing the bee nicely. Nikon D7000, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Salmon of doubt

I was fascinated by this metal sculpture on the wall of the Heritage Hotel in Queenstown where I stayed. I wanted to shoot a picture to showcase the interesting (and surprisingly realistic) colours on the back of the salmon but at the same time, I wanted it to be an interesting photo and not just a record shot. I think I hit a good balance. Click on the image to get a closer look. D7000, AF-S 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Lake Wakatipu Pano

This panorama of Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand is actually the same balcony view as the one below this post, except taken at a different time and of course, made up of four different shots. I always resort to panoramas because I often feel that its difficult to convey the full majesty of a place unless you get a wider view. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Happy (Star) trails

I've always wanted to shoot star trails, and the clear skies in Queenstown, New Zealand afforded me this opportunity. The problem is that with digital cameras, there's one drawback -- to take a really impressive star trail photo, you need to leave the shutter open for several hours. However, with DSLRs, taking long night exposures is a two-fold problem -- long exposures heat up the image sensor quite a bit, and consequently results in noise, and on top of that, running the sensor that long, you risk the sensor being damaged from the heat. With the new Nikon D7000, I decided to risk it and leave the shutter open for a maximum of 10mins at f/8, ISO320. Ten minutes is all I dare -- my thinking is that the D7000 can shoot video for 20mins in one go, but with still images the camera needs an equal amount of time for its Long Exposure Noise reduction which uses dark frame subtraction (essentially the camera shoots the actual exposure, then closes the shutter and shoots another exposure of the same duration and removes noise from the first image by comparing the two shots in-camera). What this means is that for a 10min exposure, the camera's sensor is essentially running for 20mins. Contrary to what it looks like in this photo, the landscape was in almost total darkness and I could only focus by manually focussing the lens to infinity. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4.

Welcome to Hanoi!

Sometimes it pays to look down. It's been a busy month for me -- I've been traveling since Chinese New Year -- not just back home, but to Vietnam and then to New Zealand. This little bit of detail was captured in Hanoi and only about the size of a coin stuck on the sidewalk . The city had just celebrated Chinese New Year and there's some remnants of confetti or something on the ground. I realised the potential of this shot the moment I looked down and saw it. The image is slightly post processed to increase contrast and cropped a bit to keep the little red Communist heart as central as possible. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Statuesque

The one thing about the D7000 is that the gamma on the camera's LCD screen seems to be set a little high. When I took this photo, it looked like the exposure was off so I bracketed quite a bit to make sure I got the exposure right. However, as it turned out when I viewed it on the PC later, the exposure recommended by the camera was correct even though it looked off on the LCD before. This is a statue at the front of t St Joseph's Cathedral, one of the few churches left in Hanoi. Converted to black and white in-camera. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Flowers

I believe this is a relative of ulam raja (cosmos caudatus) that grows in Malaysia as well, although the leaves seem smaller. They definitely can be eaten though. Getting down to the level of the flowers and using a wideangle, this shot makes it look like the flowers go on forever. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Concentration

I quite like this photo. Enlarge the photo and you'll see that this vendor has almost the same intense look as the painted portraits above his head. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Masks

Look closely and you'll see they're not really masks but serving trays made of bamboo and painted with an endless variety of different faces. A photo like this requires careful framing, and with a bit of cropping on the side I got the very symmetrical look I was looking for. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Sandals

Needs no explanation I think, except that it was shot at one of the many stores selling shoes and sandals on the streets of Hanoi

Temple detail

I can't even remember where exactly I took this, but I think it's somewhere around Hoan Kiem Lake. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Kids in motion

Another grab shot that turned out rather well. For this one, I knew the shutter speed wouldn't be that fast, so I panned the camera to follow the motion as best I could. The result is a photo with a lot of motion blur, which in this case, works. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Hoan Kiem Lake

This shot was taken by propping up my camera on a convenient electrical junction box and setting it on self-timer. There is still a bit of camera shake, but it's acceptable under the circumstances. By the way, Hoan Kiem Lake is one of the major centres of life in the city -- in the day there's a lot of activity and people selling food and souvenirs and at night it's a make-out haven. :) The name translated means the Lake of the Returned Sword, where as the legend goes, the King was bestowed a magical sword by a giant turtle to defeat his enemies. After the successful campaign, the King, as agreed, returned the sword to the turtle here. This temple sits right in the middle of the lake as a memorial. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Cathay Life

I like this shot -- it says everything. There's Hoan Kiem Lake in the background, two people kissing and a chair that says, "Cathay Life". High ISO shooting on the D7000 is pretty amazing -- this was taken handheld at ISO2500 and it looks pretty darned good considering. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Contemplation

This shot was taken at Hoan Kiem Lake as well. I noticed this lady sitting by a row of trees next to the lake and fired off a couple of shots. I don't normally take note of technical details, but for this shot, I intentionally shot at the 200mm end of the lens to make the trees look closer than they are. There is of course some post-processing going on here -- I adjusted the curves a little bit, then desaturated the shot till only a hint of colour is seen. Interestingly, the shot looks as if I selectively removed colour in particular areas, but in fact, it's all in colour. The trees were so grey and the lady's bag was so red that this level of desaturation made the trees look monochrome while there's stil a hint of colour in the lady.

Water puppets

Taken at the same place as the classic kitchen, this is a shot of the water puppets used in a traditional water puppet theatre. White balance here was quite tricky -- the default Auto1 white balance setting on the D7000 produced a slightly bluish shot, not what I was seeing at all. After fooling around with the settings, I found that the new Auto2 white balance (which is biased slightly towards warmer settings) produced the most pleasing result. I love the colour and lighting of this shot, although the little white sign really spoils it a bit. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Water puppets closeup

And here is a closeup of the water puppets. In a show, these puppets are actually immersed in a pool of water, with the performer stationed behind a bamboo screen, controlling them via a long pole connected to the puppet and hidden under the water. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR.

Classic kitchen

This kitchen is kitchen is part of an old building in Hanoi. It's actually still used even though it's more of a showcase for tourists. Because of the extreme contrast between the bright and dark areas, I decided to turn on D-Lighting in my Nikon D7000, just to get a bit more detail in the shadow areas without overexposing the bright areas. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Bevy of bikes

Hanoi, like much of Vietnam, has more motorbikes than cars. It's not surprising, really, when you see how narrow most of the roads in the city are. Vietnamese do everything on their bikes, from sleeping to reading, and er...I presume other things. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR