The One Where I Think To Myself

The One Where Three’s A Charm

For the 3rd consecutive year, I have included Nikko (日光) in my annual 紅葉 pilgrimage. As they say, “three’s a charm.” And a charm it was.

The One With The Birds

Jurong Bird Park, where all the birds are.

The One With Redang

I needed a blue sky holiday……

The One Where Summer Draws To A Close

Decided to get our lazy asses moving and make use of the last summer weekend before the beckoning autumn. Beach volleyball on a cold Sunday was the activity and Hitachi in Ibaraki was the venue.

日立市、茨木県。

The One With The 葡萄狩り

Late summer is the start of the various 狩りs in Japan. 梨狩り, 苺狩り, 蜜柑狩り…, they literally mean “hunt” but trust me, more often than not the fruits are hanging at eye-level, waiting to be devoured. The previous blueberry hunt (ブルーベリー狩り) at Yamanashi wasn’t exactly a sweet affair so I was particularly looking forward to this grape hunt. And the 葡萄狩り was a good opportunity to give my 17-55mm f/2.8 a test-run.

葡萄狩り, 鎌ケ谷市、千葉県。

The One With The Nifty Fifty Bokeh

The hexagonal bokeh of the Canon Nifty Fifty. A cropped night shot from my 29th storey room in Coex Intercontinental Hotel, Seoul, S.Korea at f/3.5, 0.3s.

 

The hexagonal bokeh can be attributed to the five non-rounded aperture diaphragm blades are used in the lens.

The One With The Lens Monster

If EOS7D is the Image Monster, I would deem this to be the Lens Monster (at least for EF-S lenses).

Je vous presente, le EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM.

Photo from photozone.de

Good range (17-55mm, an equivalent of 27-88mm on my 1.6 crop body) - check!

Image Stabilizer -  check!

UD elements (as per those used in L-series lenses) – check!

Large constant aperture at f/2.8 - check!

So, I bought it.

The One With The Polaroids

Hooked on PolaDroids! It creates pseudo-Polaroids, complete with the shutter sounds, processing noise and the long wait while it “develops”.

向日葵祭り、野木市、栃木県。

The One With The Shutterbug Rediscovered

What should be my next lens?

1.) Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM 56,290円

From the-digital-picture.com.

A 50mm might be the best focal length in 35mm photograpghy. However, my Kiss X2 has a cropped sensor (At 22.2×14.8mm, it is even smaller than a “default” APS-C size of 22.3×14.9mm!) So the 50mm behaves more like a 80mm.

I am starting to see the narrowness of this pseudo-50mm on my APS-C sensor. To get a true 50mm (in a full 35mm context), I would need an approximate 35mm lens and this 28mm seems to be the right candidate to fit the bill.

And I am simply swooning at the F1.8 speed.

2.) Canon EF-S10-22mm F3.5-4.5 USM 72,520円

From the-digital-picture.com.

I have seen some sample shots from this ultra-wide zoom but it’s really more of a landscape lens.

newyork-photosblog.com shoots mostly with this lens. You can see some samples shots there.

The choice of lens is highly dependent on my decision to get a full-frame body (the Canon EOS 5D Mark II is sounding really good for now) in the near future.

The 1st picture below shows the 50mm lens mounted on a full frame 35mm body while the 2nd shows that mounted on a body with an APS-C-sized sensor (an 80mm equivalent.)

Both from dpreview.com.

Argh. Canon lenses are so darn expensive. Hopefully the DFS at Gimpo sells them cheaper.

Sent my EF 50mm f1.8 II for another test run over the weekend.

The One Where Everybody’s Changing

And I don’t feel the same.

Brighton, England, 2004.

The One With The 50mm Prime

Gave my 50mm Prime a test-run over the weekend. Pretty sharp. But it being my first prime lens, I wasn’t really too used to the lack of zoom functions.

And this is what the shopping street (商店街) of Motosumiyoshi (元住吉) looks like when there is a Matsuri (祭り) going on.

The One With Hokkaido Revisited

Hokkaido revisited. 952km. 6 days. What a magical whirlwind.

The One With AF 447

Telling debris has been found. There is no mistake about it, quashing all speculation on the whereabouts of the crash site. The distinctive red- and blue-striped stabilizer from the tail of the Air France Airbus A330-200 has been recovered.

From www.nytimes.com.

The One With The Foolishness And Randomness

Now reading: Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

The One With Daegu (대구, 大邱)

Decided to stay in Daegu for a good part of my business trip this time, and Novotel City Center was a pleasant surprise. Despite the travelling time to the fatory being extended from 10mins to 50mins, Daegu Novotel was way better than Gumi Century that it justified the 5-fold increase in travelling time.

The One With Gyeongju (경주, 慶州)

So business trip aside, Jun drove us from Gumi (구미, 龜尾) to Gyeongju (경주, 慶州) on Friday night. It didn’t really seem far but at 160km/h, the 90min journey made Gyeongju look near.

The capital city of Korea’s Silla Kingdom for over 1,000 years, this cultural capital has been described as the Korean equivalent of the Incan capital Cuzco in Peru and is supposedly full of archeological surprises.

View from Hilton Gyeongju.

The One With Atami (熱海)

花見 2009. ノキア・ジャパン　メカチーム.

The One With The 庐山瀑布

I’m still here.

I vividly remember learning this way back when I was in HBS in Pri 5 (or was it Pri 6?) and to date, it still remains as my favourite poem from Li Bai.

望庐山瀑布 – 李白

日照香炉生紫烟
遥看瀑布挂前川
飞流直下三千尺
疑是银河落九天

From Wikipedia.org

The One With Shibuya (渋谷)

Only in Japan.

Nice aerial video of the Sakuras in Tokyo, taken by the Asahi helicopter.