Gloomy and Chilly

It's been a month since winter started. I never really like the chilly temperature and wind, esp those with single digit temperature. However, it has not been as cold as May and June last year. Having said that, I avoid heading out unless it's necessary just to prevent the incident from recurring. I had bronchial spasm in my first winter here in Melbourne.

Anyway, I again did a shoot with my friend last week and here are some of the pics taken.





On another note, Nikon has just announced another full frame (FX) DSLR and it's D700 of which it's with plenty of D3's features in a D300 body. Will I get it? I doubt so as I'm in need of 70-200 lens to complete my lens collection for event and wedding shoots. Perhaps, the existing 70-200 may get a minor update due to some complaints by the FX users. Time will tell.........

Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an

I have finally completed the photos of my trip a couple of hours ago. They are being uploaded to my website and at the same time being burnt to DVD since I'm running out of HDD spaces! I need to clear a lot of my photos from the laptop to my portable HDD as well as burning them to DVDs as I had a wedding shoot as an assistant the whole of yesterday (from 9 am til 12am).

Anyway, here are some of the shots taken during Xi'an. What really amazes me during the trip is none other than the Terracotta Warriors!

Chariots in Sanmenxia are over 600 years older than Terracotta

Sculptures of Buddhas in Longmen Grattoes

The trip to Xi'an is certainly breathtaking and will forever etched in me.

I was asked by mom about our next trip and was quite hesitant about visiting China again since it's kinda very similiar - tombs, temples, sculptures, long bus rides etc.

Time for other photos!

Penang and Xi'an Family Trip in April 2008

My recent trip back was tiring though it was for about 2 weeks, a week being spent touring Xian and Henan with parents. Since returning from the Xi'an trip, I have been feeling really tired. The tour wasn't as tired as previous trips. Sleeping late and getting up early since the trip had certainly worsened the condition as I'm feeling the effect now.

As for the photos, I am still editing them and at it will take some time since it's about 900 shots. Here are some of them.

Airport train in Guangzhou that is not functioning, so we walked for a distance! We arrived late in Guangzhou and had to rush to another terminal far away. 6 of the tour members were lost after arriving in Guangzhou. It's mayhem!

Simplicity is beautyColours

Teracotta Warriors in Xi'an were simply spectacular

I did have some great time catching up with friends in Penang and Singapore. Certainly, I am delighted for making this trip. Chatted with Uni bro til late on my only night in Singapore was fulfilling.

Unfortunately, I left before I could celebrate my birthday at home though it's always been just another day for me. Having said that, a good friend brought me out for dinner to celebrate 2 occasions - my early birthday and friend's new job! A night to remember though my friend didn't eat much!

Anyway, I experience another first! On the way to the airport, dad's car broke down! Perhaps, it's a sign that I should have stayed longer!

Photography Workshop

About 2.5 weeks ago, I attended a workshop to pick some tips from other photographers, not only from the pro! Anthony McKee is one of them who gave an interesting talk on ambient light. A quote from him (which was from his master) goes something along this line "The study of light takes a lifetime, not 10 years".

"Give me light and I'll bend it"

Surprisingly, I didn't take lots of photos that are worthy of posting. The models (Claudia, Mel & Mel - Bruce tried to get them all named Mel!!) are certainly very accommodating to us newbies. Most of the time I was just trying out the lighting and absorbing as much as I could without trying to get distracted by taking too many pics! Anyway, here are some of the keepers I thought are nice.

Here's the group shot of us - fellow photographers and models.

Lessons learnt:
Emotion, emotion, emotion
Reflections, Ambient, Skylight, Colours, Rim Light, Scrooge on Flash
Relax and Chat (no counting down) to get candids

It's certainly a worthwhile workshop. Thanks to Bruce who organised this event, the instructors - Anthony (ambient & overall), Wayne (flash), Dave (macro) & Bruce (studio lighting)!


On a not too related note, Anthony was one of the 3 pre-production D3 testers in Australia. He's in for the available-light and ambient lighting tests and the other one for sports photography (forgotten about the other tog though - might be macro or product). He's still waiting for his actual production D3 (last check) from Nikon.

Nikon D3

Oh my gaaaaawd...D3 really is revolutionary in almost all areas! Available/Low-light capability, High ISO (25600!!!), Low Noise, near-instant AF at low light, 9 (11) frames per second, Full Frame (FF or FX in Nikon's term), Wider Dynamic Range, etc.....!!!

I'm loving it.....!!

Here are some high ISO shots (min ISO3200) taken without flash, indoor at night and straight out from the camera:
Aren't they amazing (not the composition as they are just snaps out of excitement)! More on whoALSE website. More pics to come (lucky me, perhaps!)...... ;P