View of Hong Kong Island from Harbor City Mall.
At last I'm done with our Hong Kong pictures. Instead of doing a day by day or place by place gallery, I decided to choose some of the best and just group them all together. All of the pictures here and a lot more are available on my Multiply gallery here, and for our friends, some not in the gallery are posted on our Facebook accounts.
So many cameras, so little pocket money.
It's hard to choose a favorite destination in Hong Kong. I really love the feel of the island. I love Victoria Peak and the view of the island from above, Ocean Park and it's many attractions, and my first time at Lantau was a blast.
The famous red taxi cabs of Hong Kong.
My camera started to act up as we headed for Lantau on our third day, and on our last night it went totally kaput. But I'm thankful I was able to shoot everything that I came for: the view of the city, the Buddha, the cute pandas, and of course pictures of us on our second anniversary. It's also great that Roxanne's camera didn't fail us, we also have lots of shots there.
The Buddha at Lantau Island.
The view inside the cable car at Ocean Park.
Jellyfish rocks!!!
And one last thing. I didn't have too many pictures from Disneyland since my camera was on the verge of failure, but I was able to get the best shot from our stay. At exactly six in the evening on the tenth of November, I proposed to Roxanne. And the rest is history.
The best photo of the bunch. Priceless.
So there you have it. We really miss Hong Kong, and we hope we could go back there soon. Please visit my Hong Kong gallery for more pictures. Happy weekend.
Thanks for the memories.
My G5 on its fifth year of service. Read more here.
I called up Canon this morning to follow up on my 400D, and get a quote for my G5's repair as well. Turns out the cost is no longer practical, just add a few more and I could already get a decent point and shoot. So after almost six years of taking pictures, it's about time to retire my Canon Powershot G5.
I still blame myself for leaving it in my check-in luggage during our US trip, which caused a dent and damaged the LCD. But it turns out the camera's optics are also in need of replacement, so I guess this is really inevitable.
And maybe it's time to upgrade as well. The new G11 is smaller, has a bigger LCD, and has cleaner images at higher ISO (I can't go past ISO 100 on my G5). And from our recent trips this year, I realized that having a small camera can really be handy.
I remember when I bought my G5, I wanted this camera not only because I wanted to learn the basics, but because I wanted a tool that will last me five years. And it did. Even when I had my 400D, I would still use the G5 very often.
My Flickr G5 gallery is full of memories captured by this little beast. And for that, I will always be thankful to my G5 for documenting a part of my life.
I made it to the finish line. Thanks to Gelsen for the picture, you can see more from his gallery here.
I did it, I ran and survived the Animo Run. Okay, I lied. I walked, and I took my own pace. I didn't realize 5km is that long.
Yesterday was my first time to join such an event. Gelsen has already invited me to several marathons in the past, but not being a morning person I decided to skip them all. I guess that extra dash of green and white made the difference on why I tried the Animo Run.
I might join the Animo Run again next year. Other marathons? Well, I guess I'll stay with jogging around the park for now, and see if my mind and body will be up to it.
Oh, and since we're on the topic of sports, congratulations to Manny Pacquiao once again. A true symbol of Filipino pride.
Not exactly the way I wanted to shoot it, but at least I still got the shot.
Oh boy, back home again. Roxanne and I really miss Hong Kong, seeing those bright lights for the last time on our way to the airport made us realize that reality is just around the corner.
So far, nothing much has changed in Hong Kong. Taxi cabs are still red, and neon lights are still, well, neon. But there are also some changes. The MTR seems to have more lines and stations now, including one exclusive for Disney. And prices aren't as cheap as I imagined. Or maybe I'm not really after anything that's why I say so.
Now for the bad news. My camera acted up again, thankfully I was still able to use it during our trip. Today, it has gone kaput and is back at the service center. It is really time for me to upgrade. I also realized how handy a small camera can be when traveling, so I'm also thinking of getting a small "prosumer" camera in the near future.
And now for the good news. They say a picture paints a thousand words. I'll let the photo below do the talking.
That's about it for now. I'll post more about Hong Kong soon, including the pictures from our trip.
Well, not exactly 50mm, since on a camera like mine it becomes 80mm (see crop factor). Sometimes I wish it could be wider, like Gelsen's Sigma 30mm f1.4.
Back to the story, yesterday I decided to bring my camera and nifty-fifty to work. Gelsen and I were supposed to do a photowalk on our way for lunch, but bad weather sort of changed our plans. We were still able to take some pictures, but to maximize my camera I just took photos of the things I saw in the office. Random stuff that is.
I'm beginning to love this lens again. It's really small and light, plus the bokeh and colors it produce are just awesome. I just wish it could be a bit wider.
Anyway, please check out my gallery here. I didn't bother do post processing, just resized and posted them right away. I feel like I could do more damage if I altered some of the settings.
View from Victoria Peak, circa 2005. I want to do this shot again, only wider.
It's November again. Every tenth of November Roxanne and I celebrate our anniversary, this year it's our second. So on Saturday, off we go to our country's nearby neighbor, Hong Kong.
I have been to Hong Kong twice already, but this one will be special since I will be with Roxanne all the way. It's also special because this is the first year I'll be out of the country more than once. Yahoo!
I'm excited to return to Victoria Peak, and probably do a redo of the photo above, well, maybe wider. I'm also excited to visit Lantau Island to see the giant Buddha, and if we're lucky, we may get to visit Macau.
So now I'm starting to pack my clothes, and use the remaining days before our departure to fix stuff at work.
And to Roxanne, happy anniversary honey. I love you so much.
One more post before the long weekend ceases.
Photographing children can be unpredictable. They move around a lot, but on the other hand they pose and smile whenever they see your camera pointed at them. It's hard but fun.
Last week Debbie celebrated her second birthday, and it was a chance for me to practice photographing kids. Having an external flash gun was a big bonus to doing this, especially when it communicates well with the camera (E-TTL II).
And I also had the chance to play around with Canon's Digital Photo Professional software. In a lot of ways, it's similar to the more expensive Lightroom, but does the job pretty well, especially for Canon RAW files.
So that's it for now. Tomorrow works starts again, but thankfully there's something to look forward to for next week. Stay tuned for that. For now, please see the rest of the pictures here.
I think Xantino's a better blogger than me.
Almost a month with no activity in my blog. Not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that I felt lazy blogging these past weeks. It seemed like sleeping and reading other blogs were much more fun that updating my own online journal, add to that work and the daily errands that I have to perform.
But of course, I always found time for photography. I've been trying to learn flash photography, and it's not as easy as it seems. Well, thank heavens for E-TTL II for making on camera flash a bit more bearable. But I really want to learn off camera lighting. People like Zach Arias and David Hobby make it seem so easy, yet I'm far from mastering the technique.
I'm also trying to find my own workflow in post processing pictures. Using Canon's Digital Photo Professional software (which comes free with every Canon DSLR), I think I'm on my way to achieving my own style, all I have to do is train my eyes more in correcting skin tones.
I realize that I still have a lot of pictures left unprocessed, some still from my US trip several months ago. I know I'm not really obligated to show these to the world, but what's the fun in photography if you don't share what you've done? It's a form of self gratification, and a way for me to see how my work has improved over the years.
For now, I'll share this: night shots of the Skyway here in Makati. I've always wanted to shoot this, but there's always something that gets in the way (usually the need to sleep, hehehe). Thankfully I had the chance to turn this plan into reality, and hopefully I can repeat this again (best if I do it with friends).
Please see the rest of the pictures here.
So I guess that's it for now. I'll try to post more pictures in the coming days.
