Chris lives here

ramblings

2012-01-31T03:06:00.001+11:00

I know I said last time that I wouldn't put any of my work photos up, but I've had a change of heart.. I'll do it, but just not so many. Long story short, I feel that, I am not profiting off these images, and using them for my own personal use, I should have the right to put them up on my blog!

Now that that's out of the way, there are A LOT of photos since the last time I said I wasn't going to put any up, so i'm just going to pick a handful of photos that hopefully show a bit of everything from of the past month of so.. this is going to be tough, as I love spamming the page full of photos!

Copyright Christopher Chan/The Observer

I guess this is really quite self explanatory, but what I like about this photo is just that it gives a different perspective to the typical horse racing type shots. I was shooting this with the 16-35 f4, so, besides it being a very wide angled lens, it means that things are a lot closer than they appear. As you can see by the edge of the barrier on the top left, i was directly under the barrier and this horse would've been maybe 1-2m away from me, galloping at full speed. I was lucky enough to get the shot framed nicely, but also to have all 4 of the horses feet off the ground. I only got 1 shot at this photo, as I was told to move away, as there was a possibility that I might spook the horses being that close!

Copyright Christopher Chan/The Observer

We do things in the paper like Me and My Ride etc. Just showing off people with their cool cars/bikes/boats/trucks - whatever the hell they want. It's a stock standard photo but I think its quite nicely composed, lit etc. Just had a single speedlight to camera left, pointing straight at the guy to light him up and make him pop a bit more against the red car.

Copyright Christopher Chan/The Observer

This photo was quite fun, as one of the reporters was telling me we were going to be doing a story about chess. He had an idea about the players sorta, staring each other off, which I thought was a cool idea, but I really had this idea in the back of my head too. We shot his, but this one ended up being used. I had another photo, where there was a whole line of white pieces, not just the king, and I think it looked better, but unfortunately at the time i didn't realise he wasn't smiling and it made it look really serious, but still i think that this image is pretty cool, considering the story!

Basic lighting info: 2 speedlights, one to the left and one to the right, shooting both directly at his face/body to give some nice cross lighting effects.

Copyright Christopher Chan/The Observer

Part of being a newspaper photographer means that you have to go out and get random photos, ones that sometimes make no sense to you, and sometimes ones that just seem really stupid and pointless. Weather photos sometimes give me the shits as the reporters sometimes, out of the blue, ask us to go get weather pics. This is an example of a weather pic. Sometimes I hate them and sometimes I love them. This is one that I quite like. I was doing a story about some guy and his boat, and realised his friend had some kids sitting in the car doing sweet FA. So I asked if it was ok to steal the kids and get a quick weather shot. What I hate about weather shots, is that they have to have people in them. Can't jsut take photos of flooded roads or lightning etc. HAS TO HAVE A PERSON IN IT, cos the theory is "having faces in the paper sells papers.." sigh.. anyway. Saw these kids and shot it. Turned out nice. I like it. Obviously with the umbrella, you know it was meant to be a weather pic about the rain in Gladstone. Unfortunately there was a clearish patch over where I was at the time, so the dark rainy clouds really couldn't be seen, but you can still sorta see some grey dark clouds in the corners. I've done about 4 weather pics since then, and I swear the same umbrella has been used in every single shot!

Some quick camera info, 16-35mm @ 16mm to get nice and WIDE and see the background as well as our subjects. Subjects are lit with 1 speedlight to camera right, and I under exposed the sky by about 1-1.5 stops, to get it dark and moody.

Copyright Christopher Chan/The Observer

Now, this image is not the best but I do like it for some reason. The story was about cane toading and how to catch them etc. Just basically had a mum and her 2 little ones out near the duckpond looking for cane toads. This was obviously a staged shot, as I wouldn't be able to get that sorta lighting if it was on the run. What I like about the image I guess is how its lit. There's a nice spotlight feel to it, and i especially like how the tree has been lit up, and the foreground is almost black and creates a natural vignette on the ground. I dunno. I like it. And yeah, Speedlight, camera left.

Copyright Christopher Chan/The Observer

Yeah I know, it's a pretty stock standard swimming photo, but again, I like it. Just so sharp. Natural light, with 70-200. great combo.

Copyright Christopher Chan/The Observer

Those of you who are familiar with F1 photographs, a lot of shooters like to drag the shutter (long exposures) and get blurry shots of cars. Well, blurry background and sharp cars. I went to shoot go karting the other week and seeing as there is only SO much you can do with car photos, I experimented. I'm annoyed cos I asked for this photo to be used in the paper, they ignored me. stupid. I think i was shooting the lowest ISO my camera could shoot and at like, F22. Normally, you'd never do that for so many reasons, but I needed the shutter speed to drop to about 1/30th to get it slow enough to get some movement in the shot. It took a lot of trial and error to get it right, ~~mostly~~ always it was because the driver was never in focus or sharp. Took a lot of tries but then they turn out, they look pretty cool!

Copyright Christopher Chan

This photo. Is not from or for the paper. I mentioned a few weeks ago when I took photos down at Tannum beach I wanted to take photos of Gladstone, something like a little project, that I could take away with me and remember this town by. I've had this 'shot' in my head since i first moved to Gladstone. I was driving around and saw it, tried to take a photo, but it just never worked. Granted, I wasn't using an ND or Grad ND filter, so the images looked bland, flat and just ugly. Today, I wasn't planning on shooting, as the clouds were low and dark, gloomy, just not ideal landscaping conditions, but, for some reason or other, I went out there and knew I had to come here. As soon as I arrived, there was a break in the clouds and due to the humidity in the air, the light created these beautiful shafts and glow around the power lines/station things.. i dunno what they are.. But yes.. the light, just created this light. Just magic. Unfortunately I didn't have time to switch over to my telephoto, put on the ND and Grad ND and then take the shot at a much tighter view, but I think this wide shot still gives a good sense to the atmosphere at the time. Bit of a composed image, I had a long exposure of the water, and blended it with a shot of the clouds to get this dreamy sort of look. I hope you like it, I really do!

THat's it for now, thanks for reading, be sure to check me out time to time for more photos and adventures. Until then,

Ciao.

-Edit- that horse photo has been used before but... oh well.. doesn't matter!

New year, new post

2012-01-10T00:09:00.001+11:00

I haven;t been posting on here as much as I said I would. My bad. Apparently i'm not allowed to show my photos on my blog anymore.. which is kinda shit. I'll still post some up but I'm afraid it'll be limited.. we'll call it self imposed censorship.

Anyway, went out and did something that I haven't done in a while, which was shoot for fun. Headed down to Tannum beach and took a few landscapes with my ND8 filter and Cokin graduated ND filter. They basically stop the light from coming into the camera, so you get nice slow shutter speeds, ie. milky smooth water.

This is the first photo I took for the day. well not first first, but. the first one I liked. I used my special technique of using welding glass and putting it infront of the camera, to get ridiculously slow shutter speeds. This was about a 20second exposure, at 5pm @ f5.6? something stupid like that. THe welding glass is so dark it looks black. Unless you put it up to the sun, you wont see any thing through it. The drawback is, that the welding glass gives off a terrible green cast...

Yeah.. not very pretty. I mean, if you were going for an, outer space, martian green landscape then, yeah, welding glass is perfect. Unfortunately for this application, green was not the desired effect we wanted. I like black and whites, so converting it to b/w didn't bother me at all. I've been wanting to do the whole 'slow shutter speed black and white' look for a while and have never really gotten the chance to. Lack of subject and not caring enough to do it, being the 2 major reasons. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out, however I have a few problems with the welding glass, eg, light leaks, so i've bought another one and i'll look to improve it so it will be more reliable in the future. Until it does arrive, this works fine.

I haven't used the Grad ND filter for a long long time and i've forgotten why I used to love it so much! This is one exposure, no HDR no photoshop, all one photo, with a few contrast tweaks. Using the Grad ND and ND8 filter combined really saturate the colours and make the image pop. Something photoshop can't do. Nice slow shutter speed to get the waves looking milky and smooth. Haven't done landscapes in a long time and I really miss it. Will definitely go back to Tannum and get more shots.

The last 3 shots were.. how I would say 'art wank' more abstract artsy photos. I really liked how the slow shutter speed made the water look like smooth milky carpet and the Graduated ND and the ND8 filter really saturated the colours creating some really nice, minimalistic abstract photos. It's a shame the horizon was hazy and obscured the moon to show its full potential. The moon was a beautiful red from the sunset and I loved how it just rose above the horizon and the boat sailing across as well. Quite unnoticeable but i think it adds to the image. Hopefully if I go back next time, there wont be any haze and I can get a nice clean image.

Anyway, short post this time, hopefully I can put some more of my work up there, otherwise it'll be more of this stuff!

Ciao.

Oops, i've been away

2011-12-18T00:30:00.000+11:00

I know I said I was going to constantly update my blog, but i've been away.. and or busy. So therefore, I have a few photos to show for the few weeks I haven't updated for. So lets just get started and straight to the pics.

I can't even remember the order these photos were taken in, but I think this is probably one of the earlier ones this month. This guy had won (earned) a contract with some NRL training camp where he gets to be on their watch list and potentially play NRL. I don't know NRL so it's a pretty rough idea of what it really is.

It's a pretty basic portrait, but what I like about it is the full body portrait, which is something i've been conscious about lately. I'd gone through a lot of my work in the past, and a lot of portraits I always cut off their feet at the ankles, or thighs, which has always annoyed me. Either shoot tight, or shoot the full body, so now I like the full body look and i'll try this for a while and see how it turns out. 2 light set up, set off with the SU-800. 1x high up near his face and the other one was down low near his legs, to the right which filled in a bit of light. THe original shot was too dark down there, so the light really makes the image pop out, just that extra bit. Other technical jargon - under exposed the background -1EV to make it a bit more dramatic.

This story was about an elderly couple, pictured, who were about to lose their house in Gladstone, as they can no longer afford the rising rental prices in this town. I had another shot where you could see that this guy had his arm chopped off, we ended up running that, but the lady had he hand under her chin, which made her look silly. So I am personally a bit conflicted between the 2 and which I like. I like this only cos she doesn't look as weird, but the one where his arm is chopped off adds more to the story. If it wasn't for the paper, i'd photoshop the 2 together.. bu I can't do that... Lighting setup, again, another light off camera to the right (you can see the shadow behind them) in hindsight i'd rectify that to make it less obvious, but, too late. Only 1 light and under exposed the BG (background) -1EV as per usual.

Another sad story about some girl who's Dr or something shortage.. wasn't paying attention.. but lighting was clamped onto the stairs above them, wide beam to illuminate a large portion of them, and underexposed the BG to add a more dramatic feel to the image.

Now this is where I forget which comes first, so i'm just gonna throw them all up and briefly explain them all.

These 2 are probably my favourite portraits i've taken for a very long time. why? its nothing special? perhaps, but I really like the lighting and the environment he's in, Combine it all together and it makes a really nice photo. This guy didn't want his photo taken, which was the news I got told before I went out and had to convince him to get his photo taken. Turns out he was pretty cool, he didn't mind, but I made his life easier by having these photos done in 30 seconds. I shit you not. I got there a little early and had time to set up, The car park was in a perfect spot where you could see the refinery in the background, which adds interest to the shot, and most importantly, where he would be standing is in shade, no stray light interfering with the flash or anything. Told him to stand there, 'click click click click' "All done mate. See ya later." And that was that.

Speedlight was on a tripod on the boot of the car, right to his face. Nice rembrandt lighting . Simple.

Not into fashion photography. I dread it. The thought of it makes me uneasy. Not because I can't shoot it and not because I'm shit at it.. I kind of am, but only because I don't know how to pose the models. As a doco shooter, you capture things in motion, as it happens before your eyes. Editorial portraits/Environmental portraits are one thing, but fashion.. *shudder* just cannot. SO with this shoot I really kind of struggled in posing her, making it look.. fashion-like. We were in a clothes store in Gladstone and I had one of the flashes clamped onto one of the rails to the left, set at about 24mm to let off a wide beam of light. I wanted to be different and experimented with the 50mm lens. Shot it at 1.8 which normally isn't a good idea, but I really wanted to have the focus only on my subject. In a perfect world i'd pull out the 70-200 @200mm, but with the 50mm I was already backed up against the wall. So basically this is the shot we got. I like the shadow infront of her caused from the window behind her.

P.S they ran this image on the Weekend liftout, which In ever knew existed.. shows how much I know about my own paper.. oops.. Here's how it looked.

Similar set up with this shot, but shot it with the 28-70 @ 28mm. Again, I had no ideas on how to pose this model, the only thing I could think of was 'movement' so I asked them to find a 'flowy' dress. Ended up with this. Turned out better than I thought. I'm happy.

Brief: Try not to buy pets for Xmas as people dump them. This is true, and it pisses me off when people throw away animals cos they are no longer able to look after them. Such a shame. Having 3 dogs and Cats, this was somewhat personal for me. I wanted the image to be sad, somewhat. I really wanted to have a photo of a dog behind the cage looking sad, but that would make the RSPCA look bad, so I went for a happy medium. They wanted a shoot outside in the garden with the dogs running around. Wasn't going to happen. That was too happy a photo. We went inside the dog cage and shot it like this. I wanted people to see the bars, the sterile colours and the concrete. This would emphasise the point I wanted to make. 'These dogs will end up back in jail if you dump them.' 1x Speedlight, high to the left @between 35-50mm to get a beam not too wide, as the flash was about 2m from them.

Kids, read more books! this is my interpretation of that brief. On the job slip it asked for library workers to pose for me, they all bailed so we (I) found some kids to be willing volunteers. I really wanted the DOF and line of focus to run down the books and end up on the kids, however the aisles weren't long enough so that didn't happen. Shot with 70-200 @200mm, 2x Speedlights above high and adjacent to each child set at 70mm to get a nice beam and create that light on the ground under them. I'd like the BG to be a bit darker.. or have some interest in the background, but I didn't and there isn't, but the image still looks nice IMO.

Real simple photo showing off some artists painting, I don't know why I like it. I just do. I like the ambient WB which is Orange, and how it contrasts with the cold white flash.

Simple dance rehearsal photo. Nothing to it. No flash, 70mm 1/125? @2.8, some stupid ISO, probably 8000. Could be wrong.. can't be bothered looking at the EXIF data, if you want to, by all means do so.

Had to take photos of people out and about in Gladstone and I always saw these kids riding around at the skate park. So me being me, I wanted to shoot it. And I did. I had a really cool idea of doing portraits of kids while another one did tricks in the BG. This is how they turned out sorta. With our portrait model I had 2x Speedlights @ 70mm, as it was BRIGHT afternoon sun, and it would need a lot focused light to overcome the sun and get a nice blue in the image.

This is how it was meant to look, but stupid kid looked away. But it's still cool.

Just some photo I liked.

Finally, there was sport, always shoot sport. I was going to upload more softball pics but they all look the same. This ones different cos she gets hit by the ball. I laughed.

So that's the end of my blog. It was a long one, and i'm tired from writing it.. hope you enjoyed it as it's been awhile. Anyway until next time, probably next next week. I'll see you then!

PS I graduated.

I used the Observer paper cos I thought it'd be a good laugh. The girls at work found my graduation photos and posted them all over the office, and they ALL loved the Observer paper in my hands. haha.

Ciao.

November 16-20

2011-11-21T00:50:00.000+11:00

SO it was a pretty slow week this week. Nothing happened, well, nothing too exciting anyway. The week started with a few basic portraits with a lot of emphasis on Christmas and doing things leading up to the day.

This was a pretty simple story from the Salvation Army and how we should all adopt a family this year and give to those in need.. fluff.

Robb Kidd is the local DJ in Gladstone with Zinc radio. sorta like a rock station and such.. I personally haven't listened to it, maybe because its on AM, but it's pretty big around here. Our editor is on there every morning giving the morning news and telling Gladstone what's in the paper for the day. This was for Xmas/Movember.. more fluff.

Now some more interesting stuff. These are probably my favourite shots of the week. These kids are pretty talented. They're both 15 but are heading to the UK to participate in the EPL training academy or something along those lines. They'll be there for 2 weeks, representing QLD and hanging out with the pros and learning a few tips while there.

The lighting is pretty much the reason why I like the shots. The sun was in a nice position, low and behind the subjects, creating nice natural rim/hair light on them, which makes them jump out. I added 2 flashes to the right of them (our left) set them at 85mm and fired them both off at about 1/2 power, not too much, but enough to make them stand out and look quite natural. Shot it with the 70-200 at about 200mm to get the real nice bokeh and to isolate them from the background. Had originally started with the 28-70 but the look just wasn't there. Really like this shot. Technically anyway. Something i'll keep in my folio.

Again the week included sports. Cricket. same old same old. Tried to try a few new things but in the end, all the same.

This was actually shot before Cricket, but I can't be bothered switching them around. So this story, was some 18 year old girl who has an online store and she's since become quite successful in Gladstone selling ladies clothing. Again used some off camera lighting again, definitely my favourite thing to do when I get the time. I like these editorial shoots as it gives me time to play with lighting and time to chat with the subjects and experiment. This was with 2 lights again, one to the left and one to the right. The one on the left was aimed at her back, to give a nice rim light around her hair and arms, while the other, aimed at her face to light up the other side.

Again, shot with the 70-200 at around f4. I've found that 2.8 can be a bit hit or miss and I don't have the luxury to reshoot images if they're soft or out of focus. Really should shoot 5.6 to be safe. but, hey, it's working for me now.

Shot some ladies only tea party as well this week. Again used off camera lighting. Can't tell too much in this shot (which i like) but the lights are set up to the left, bouncing off the wall which gives a nice soft light around her and in the room. Very natural looking, but definitely adds to the image.

They had a small fashion show. Nothing special. I just shot. Same lighting set up. nice soft light. Now the coolest thing i've shot this week and for a long time was, believe it or not, remote control car racing. very, very cool. These things get up to 80km/h and they flew around this race track. Got some massive hang time as well, as you can tell in the images.

The first few shots were done with the long lens, got some nice tight isolating shots which really showed the cars flying through the air without too much distraction in the background. Eventually the shots all looked too similar, so I wanted to try something new and got onto the race track. Chucked on the 16-35, wide angle lens and did some pretty cool low angle stuff. I shot the SHIT out of this event. Ended up with about 500+ photos of these cars flying around, and they flew pretty close past my head. Big adrenaline rush! On the wide angle lens, things look a lot further away than what they really are. These cars would have been about 30cm away from the front of the lens, while flying through the air at speeds upwards of 60km/h. Really really cool stuff.

This one ended up on the front page. Who'd have guessed that RC racing would make it to the front page. Ha! The problem about shooting really wide, was that the shallow Depth of Field that I usually use to isolate subjects became non existant. Everything becomes sharp, and shooting at 'safe f8' made everything from me to infinity, relatively sharp. The hard part was that the cars, if in the wrong place, can hide into the background and hard to distinguish. So the shots that really stood out are when the cars are contrast in the clear blue sky.

Anyway. Definitely the coolest thing i've shot this week. Really got the heart pumping fast with all those cars flying around, dirt and dust being kicked up. real fun. So, that's the week. Hasn't been too exciting but work is work. They pay me to shoot. Gots to do it! Anyway, until next week, all the best. I'll leave you all with a picture of a dog named Jemima and some drunk girl tryna show me her boobs.. Because I can.

Chris.

Weekly wrap up.

2011-11-13T20:21:00.000+11:00

Like I promised, i'd keep my blog more up to date now, since i've got a lot to shoot and no lack of motivation. So whats been happening in Gladstone this week?

Started the week with the standard R1 portrait (readers first) it's apparently an APN term which essentially means "take a photo of someone that the readers will relate to."

This guy, who owns a fishing charter company in Gladstone is feeling the pinch and loss of business due to the Gladstone harbour and sick fish fiasco. He runs his business out in the reefs, away from all the sick fish and dirty water and basically wanted his photo in the paper to say "Hey where I take you is safe!"

Remembrance day was a pretty big thing in Gladstone this week an quite a sombre experience. Not sure exactly why, but I guess it had something to do with all the old diggers standing around, the laying of the wreaths and some lady singing really opera-like sad songs, all added to the experience.

This is my favourite shot of the day. This old fella who's obviously seen some pretty horrific things in his life, seeing many of his friends die and maimed for this country. He slowly waddled up to the statue, lay his wreath and gave a salute. A great gesture to those who never made it home. Luckily for me, this made front cover. Editor was happy. Can't ask for too much more than that. I was summoned to her office where she told me the good news, after thinking "shit what have I done now.."

We do a section called 'Me and My Ride.' essentially, people showing off their cars and fancy stuff like that. This week to my surprise and excitement we didn't shoot a car. We shot....

A 100 tonne crane. Really nice guy and really fun to shoot. I've been sneaky and been using my own gear to shoot for the past few weeks. Not that there's anything wrong with the D300s.. well there is.. but.. I've been so comfortable using my gear and at the end of the day.. I'm working towards my folio. Not going to give up an image for nobody!

Been playing with a lot of flash lately and in this image I stuck a flash on the passengers side and set it off with the SU-800 Commander unit. You might be able to see the flash going off on the LHS.

The weekend came and with that brings more sport, this week I went back to softball, but this time it was a higher grade and man, these girls can play. They got really into the game as well. Won't bore you with too many softball images, they're all similar to last weeks ones any way, but i'll show you this one. Which I fluked. Wasn't paying attention and then all of a sudden. Screaming and yelling. swing the 70-200 f2.8 across and machine gun away. Luckily a few frames were in focus and I got a usable enough shot. Shame about the white balance though.

Which brings us to today.. nothing too exciting, except I got to go to my first house fire. House was already extinguished by the time we got there, but got a few good shots. This being the favourite of the series.

And this picture will be front page for tomorrows paper =] happy days. I've finally started getting a few front pages that i'm happy with!

Anyway that pretty much sums up my adventures in GLA this week. Hope you've enjoyed seeing what I do and the people that live in this town! I forgot to add in a picture last week from Gladstone's cup week, which i'll leave you all with to look at and enjoy. Until next week.

Sorry for being away.. but..

2011-11-09T22:27:00.001+11:00

I've gotten a job as a photojournalist, for those who don't know. Bit the bullet and made my way up north to QLD where i now live shooting news everyday. Do I love it? definitely!

It has always been a goal in my life to pursue a career in photography, better yet, photojournalism. It's been a busy few weeks and I must say, getting paid to shoot everyday is better than I ever thought it' be.

It's only been 5 weeks since i've started this new job, but its gone by so fast. My first few days were pretty nerve racking and the pressure of performing and impressing editors and co workers was a big thing. But luckily (I guess) they knew I came from RMIT and had tertiary training in photography and let me do a lot of things my own way, which I really appreciated. TO see my name for the first time in print was something quite special and I guess i'll never forget that feeling.

Anyways, here's just a small sample of what i've been up to.

Having graduated from RMIT and learning all the things that i've learnt, I must admit it has made a difference.. 12 months ago had you of asked me, i'd have said no.. RMIT was just an excuse to go to uni and get a degree in a craft anyone can do.. But you'd be surprised how much you seem to remember when you're out and about. Obviously i'll get better as I go, but the fundamentals are there.

But back to the photos.. As you can see, there is a wide variety of different photos ranging from my first ever car crash (non fatal) and a wide variety of sports and environmental portraits. I got crucified back home for having a lack of sports photography in my portfolio but i'm glad to say this is now a problem of the past. I'm getting more creative and going back to my love of using external flash during my portraits, which is something I want to maintain and keep a certain look to the images which i've been so used to shooting.

Hopefully, now that i've got a lot to shoot, i can keep this blog more updated than what I have this past year.. such a shame.. anyways. until then.

Chris.

for the sake of it.

2011-07-25T17:44:00.000+10:00

Not very good at converting black and white images but i've always wanted to try it. I don't have the patience to sit and try to tweak channels and tones to get the b/w I want.. maybe i should just buy Nik Silver Effex Pro... but I don't like to pay.. this will have to do for now.. They are old photos I found lying around, thought they'd look good in mono.

Colour cos I can.

I've been busy editing a bit of architectural stuff. I'm not sure if i've ever put any of it up but I do a bit of work wit han architect. It's good fun and i'm trying to get more work with more architects, stayed up till 4am sending out emails.. now we wait. already got 2 knock backs! hai...

I made them with white borders in my PDF, so they may look a little funny here. Anyways, thought I might as well post something since i haven't in a while..

Chris.

and we're back

2011-06-02T19:08:00.001+10:00

It's been such a long time since i've had the time or motivation to put anything up onto my blog. Have since last year graduated, therefore making me officially a.. "professional" photographer. Been looking for Fulltime steady work for over 6 months and it's been tough. Have had a few interviews but nothing seems to stick. Oh well. must keep trying! Have an interview coming up in NSW so fingers crossed for that!

So, the last 6 months or so.. i've been to the US of A. One word: Amazing! I will post photos up soon but there are just too many photos to go through. In the mean time here are a few photos I took today when I took the dogs out to the local dog park. Nothing special but it's the first post for 2011.. hopefully i'll get back into the swing of things!

Credit to the girlfriend for this photo and the photo of me (can't take all the credit!)

New beginnings.

2010-11-15T02:37:00.000+11:00

Hello again.. It's been a while.. so whats been happening.. lost a job, no money, finished uni, need a job, need money.. nice how the world just goes around in a big circle and you end up where you started.

Got a degree, i take photos for a living.. what goods a piece of paper without a job... or a job without a piece of paper.. sigh.. who knows.. who cares.. anyways.. uni is done.. forever.. i hope.. its been a tough 3 years but everything is finished.. it feels weird.. no direction, no goal no objective to fullfil.. OH WELL... anyways.. back to what i was here to do.. got a new Macbook Pro.. is very nice.. 17" i7.. i like it.. need to give it a real work out.. but having said that.. Adobe premiere really kills it.. stupid Adobe.. well after taking lots of PJ doco shots i finally got the chance to take photos in which III wanted to take photos of.. was standing on my balcony this morning and noticed the small tree at the front of our house which was swarming with life. Bees, hover flies, wasps, birds.. everything..

anyways.. D3s, extension tubes, 50mm 1.8, speedlight. went out and took some snaps.

Can get pretty close to things with the extension tubes.. hardest part is tryna lock focus when you are that close to everything. luckily for a few shots it paid off. This is just one of those little moths which fly around fields and such like that. It was sitting on the head of one of those... wheat looking things.. i dunno.. next time you go for a walk you'll see them.. long bits of straw like things... yeah.. doesn't matter.. lol

as mentioned earlier, the little hover flies.. you might have seen them around before.. te little things like dragon flies which just.. hover around and move shit fast. zig zagging thru the air.. hard to shoot these little bastards.. hard to focus on something that small and that fast. The extension tubes are tricky to focus with.. more like a magnifying glass and having to physically move back and forth to hit focus. Luckily he wasn't moving.

Unlike this guy.. fluke.. i tell you that.. machine guy.. and wishful praying result in fluke shots like these.. got a few in focus in this sequence, but this one i liked the best, can see his wings. Have always wanted a shot of something in flight and with such detail.. was pretty lucky i guess.. but i suppose all photography is about luck.. well.. the amazing ones anyways.. Henri Cartier Bresson rings a bell.. luck, timing, patience.. whatever.. same shit.. uni's finished.. don't need to care anymore.. Had a bitta fill light in this to make him "pop" a little more. not bad.. will definitely try for more macro stuff later this year. love macro.. always have.. maybe should invest in a macro lens?

And lastly.. took this one while taking Jack for a walk.. for those who are unfamiliar with Jack he is best friend. 4 legged, stupid faced big nosed and lanky legged best friend. WEll yeah... took this one while walking HIM and yeah... Jack likes walking but doesn't like waiting for me when i take photos.. lies there and barks at me if i don't walk around with him.. i thought this photo was too important to miss. This fly would have been.. half the size of a grain of rice in real life, if not smaller, shows to prove how close these extension tubes can get. Anyways i like the colour of it. so... nice..

Any hoo, thats all i had to show and share really.. have done some other free lancing work, one with an engineering firm, which i need to have screened before i can show you the images, and then another one with some architect wanting to start his own firm.. ah well.. we'll see.. anyways... that's it for now.. i'll blog a bit more soon i hope..

Ciao for now.

P.s Jacks down there

\\//

Back from nothing..

2010-10-06T23:17:00.000+11:00

Hello friends and whoever else reads this/.. yeah its been a while since i put anything up here, been busy working, and.. that's about it.. haven't shot in over a month which is NOT a good thing to do considering i'm graduating at the end of this year.. eek.. anyways.. this shoot was organised over 3 months ago, before i went on my trip to Japan. Had emailed Steg engineering as part of my series on industrial work places and thy were nice enough to reply and let me go down and have a shoot. Today was the day.. out in Hastings.. 65km out THAT way.. anyways.. photos.

First photograph i took was of this guy. Kevin aka Kev. top bloke, wanted to do a calendar shoot of the boys at Steg engineering after being inspired by the naked lady calendar hanging up at his work station. Felt strange shooting something.. i like.. after have a month off.. well.. since i got back from Japan really.. been doing a lot of video work.. but that's a different story.

Kev asked if i wanted to hear something scream.. let this thing whirl for a while and it made a God awful screeching sound. i think he was enjoying himself.

it was only a small workshop, would have been about 7 people in there max. They make most of the things for the steel company up the road, OneSteel i think it is.. oh well.. whatever.. they'd never let me shoot with them.

not so happy about this portrait.. sort of rushed it, probably should've taken more time with this one before i took it, most probably wont be using this one, i think the first portrait is a lot stronger and tells more than this one. But, we'll see.

Quite like this photo as well. the series will be made up of about 4 images, so... i guess it'll be 4 out of these 8.. if there's 4 to be chosen.. i hope there is.. i think there is.. you cn make up your own minds on which ones you like or don't like.. anyways.. sent off like 10 emails last night.. got 1 reply.. "thanks for the email, great photos but we're not keen" sigh.. thanks for that... oh well, 1 down 9 to go.. lets hope i can get more before i graduate and time runs out.. need to print them too as well as other shit assignments.. ok... till next time..

Changas.

now that i'm back in the land of Oz

2010-08-24T21:54:00.000+10:00

Hello all and now I am back home! has been a fantastic trip and i hope that my photos are enough to justify the beauty and essence of Japan. The assignment was initially to go and document the cultural and traditional heritage of Japan and the continual essence of their culture and history in a modern era they live in. Having an idea which thought to be, at the time, an easy and simple idea to complete, it turns out that Japan, although a country which still cherishes and harnesses its culture and traditions, is not completely enveloped with Geishas and girls in Kimonos.

There were lots of Kimonos, but didnt see any geishas. My assignment took a slight tangent and ended up being a documentary on the cultural differences Japan has to Australia, a documentary on the life and the way the Japanese live their lives. Broad topic but... hopefully I had enough to cover it all.

just some random image which i quiet liked. Was outside the gates of Osaka castle, which you will see photos of soon..

What i found to be quite interesting about Japan is their continual interest and belief in traditional cultures and heritages. Yes, all the silver there is money.. i'd say alot of money.. in Japan the silver coins are 1, 50, 100, and 500 yen.. so... i wonder how many coins are of which amount haha i wanted to steal some of it...

Kimonos were everywhere.. everyone wears them and its amazing how its such an accepted style of clothing in Japan. in western cultures indifference is considered strange and unwanted, in Japan it seems this is acceptable and welcomed. I've actually lost track of these photos.. so i'm just gonna put some random ones up in no particular order..

At Osaka castle there was a lantern festival, absolutely amazing, i'd say atleast 30000 candles where lined up all over the premises of the castle grounds, every candle had a wish written on it, its believed that if you write a wish and put it over the candles the spirits will take your wish and grant it for you.. was something to behold.. just amazing..

I could go on forever with these photos.. i'll leave it at that.. but it was amazing.. great night, great place.. wish i coulda taken a few people with me and experienced it with them.. sigh..

oh before i leave on Osaka castle, they had this awesome lantern walk. awesome.. the balloons were filled with little LED lights in there, amazing.

Bikes everywhere in Japan, even ride them in shopping strips..

Not much to day tonight.. but that's enough of the images.. enjoy.. i'll post some more soon!

Chris.

Konichiwa?

2010-08-19T02:58:00.001+10:00

Hello all.. so i've been in Japan lately for those who were wondering.. It's been a very interesting trip and its been very, VERY hot... mid to high 30's with high humidity.. good fun.. been sweating like i'm in a sauna, just drenched with sweat. Drinking a lot of water and my sweat just tastes like water.. maybe thats not good? hah who knows.. But yes.. hot and interesting.. In Kyoto at the moment and moving to Osaka soon, hopefully I get some good images and this trip has not just been a holiday.. The snaps i'm getting are alright but nothing has been amazing yet.. probably my expectations are too high.. Wont post too many images today.. just a small sample of what's been happening.. in no particular order..

Right... So that's a quick glimpse of the stuff i've been up to in the past.. 3 days.. time certainly flies.. Need to get a move on and start heading this doco into a more refined direction. The main idea was to focus on the traditions Japan still retains in this modern age we live in, it's a broad topic but I don't know.. we'll see how it goes.. I'm feeling okay after 3 days.. I should have something.. Moving to Osaka tomorrow and hopefully I can take it to the next level.

Hope you enjoyed the sample. The main will be out soon!

Ciao ciao.

Chris.

On a side note.. i've realized a lot of my work is looking more... martin parr-ish... as much as i hate to admit it.. maybe Donald was right..

Car Wreckers

2010-08-10T17:41:00.000+10:00

SO as part of my ongoing assignment with the industrial portraits, I went to visit a car wreckers the other day and got a few snaps there. It turned out okay I suppose.. nothing amazing and i'm starting to think that this series may just be a lost cause... but we'll see how we go.. Had a chat to the teacher about my series and he suggested I do them as like.. mini series of images and not just to focus on the portraits.. different but we'll see how it turns out..

So I tried it out at the car wreckers and I'm not sure what I think yet but maybe as a collaborative it'll look better..

I really wanted a nice portrait of this guy, but too bad he was camera shy and refused to have a photo taken of him standing there.. woulda looked really good.. but what can you do.. take what you can.. bit annoyed..

Pile of these cares stacked up which I thought was quite interesting.. was a miserable wet and muddy day as you can tell by the mud all over the place.. it's hard to capture whats there.. so much going on it's almost too much visual information to absorb through the camera, which is a bizarre thing as a photographer to experience.. not good..

This bad boy was pretty cool. It's amazing how powerful these things were, just picked this car up and threw it around, punched through it like nothing was there, absolutely amazing. Snapped away at this bad boy for a while watching him dispose of cars and pick out parts from the car as skillfully as a surgeon would.

Wish i was really good at editing photos.. this photo reminds me of an almost... Crewdson-esque photo.. okay maybe not.. no where near.. i lack his talent, lighting and editing skills.. and most importantly the big budgets.. but anyways.. if I have time i'd edit this just for lols.

Probably the best lot of the series.. which isn;t saying much about the quality of my portraits.. shit.... this was a really nice guy, he offered to be my model which made me happy, save me from busting my balls and getting rejected by people, top bloke.

Not a fan of this portrait.. there was a lot in this shed which I wanted to document, but having uncooperative people does not help when you want to take portraits. They just wanna shoot and scoot, no time to fix anything up.. I wanted portraits.. I tell the people at these places.. I want portraits.. set up shots.. nice lighting like I did at the boat builders.. these guys... they all expect me to walk around and get a portrait within 20 seconds.. fkn ey.. I should probably demand more.. I need an assistant to hold lights for me so I can have nice lighting instead of always having to rely on natural lighting.. I like flash.. these people don't give me the time to do so.. shit.

I quite like this image and it's probably a pretty good image to finish the series on.. I wont use all the photos for these mini series, Jerry (teacher) reckons 4 images max for these minisodes.. 1 portrait, 1 working, 1 detail and 1 overall image.. I hope i've covered everything in my shoot on the day and I'll just have to go back and sort out the onces i want.. sigh sight.. more to come.. hopefully.

Chris.

More portraits..

2010-07-29T18:58:00.000+10:00

Its been a busy few weeks. Writing emails, getting responses and then.. they decide not to help me anymore.. not very good.. bit annoyed about that.. I need to chase people up and make them give me an answer.. are you helping me or not.. don't say you are then stop writing back to me.. whatever.. I don't care.. well.. I do.. Anyways..

Went to Harrops today, some engineering company who specialize in car parts, making all this stuff which I know nothing about but.. yeah.. Was a pretty quick shoot and not exactly what I wanted.. I was after a more.. how we say.. structured style of shooting like back at the boat builders, these guys were a bit rushed and some of them didn't want their photos taken. It was ok, I got a few images. A lot of the people were like"why are you taking my photo" "who are you?" "where are you from?" all the typical shit.. Sorta walked around the factory floor with a guy and he walked around asking people if they wanted a photo or not, and when they agreed they were nervous and timid, left me not time, shoot and scoot. Hopefully some of them worked, didn't use any external lights, all natural lights.. well... natural artificial lights, which leave a disgusting colour cast and some shit weird colour banding..

I didn't use this photo for obvious reasons, but that's the shit banding thing or whatever you wanna call it from the fluro lights, I have a feeling its just the different wave lengths of light emitting from the fluro lights which gives crazy colours. If I shoot in quick succession you don't see the light, or if i over expose 1/3rd a stop its ok. Anyways, i'll show you some proper photos from the day.

I quite like this one but i'm not sure if it counts as a portrait considering you can't see his face.. I still like it.

Shot a few more photos than these but I think these are the ones which probably worked out the best. I'm probably gonna have to re-edit a couple of those photos like the 2 in the middle, i think they might be a little hot and over-exposed a bit. But yeah.. I dunno.. Kinda wanting to do a few more portraits of industrial workers just to see how this whole series is going to work out. I'm really keen on the car yard to get back to me.. which he hasn't.. after i met him last week and he said he'd call me.. or the OTHER one who told me to call him, i left him 3 messages and still no call back... shit... it's too hard to organize these shoots, i've sent out like 10 emails to different places and only a handful have replied back... what can you do... i'll probs have to chase people up.. anyways.. that's it for now.

Chris.

Babies babies

2010-07-17T23:09:00.000+10:00

So you're gonna think.. babies.. this will be interesting, and you are correct. It was probably the first time i've actually enjoyed shooting a baby.. strange i know. This family had contacted me months ago and I had never known how they got onto my website to send me a message to shoot their little baby.

I haven't shot kids since I first started shooting which was over 5 years ago now.. time flies.. i'm starting to feel old.. When I first started shooting babies I had no idea what I was doing and honestly.. I still didn't today, was very nervous to say the least. Arrived at the Doshi's and I asked how they found my website, turns out the mother, Dee, is now a stay at home mum who likes to surf the web and somehow came along flickr, and then RMIT photographers on Flickr... Found me and sent me a message.. what are the odds?

But having said that, lovely family. Really, no bullshit. So like I was saying, nerves. Already being nervous and worried about how to shoot the "kid" I realized I left my trusty 70-200 at home.. SHIT! okay okay.. relax.. plan B.. use what I have.. 28-70 + 50 1.8.. this could work.. well.. it has to.. I have no choice..

So.. started with the 50mm wide open.. yeah nice look nice photos but foolish.. focus can be a little off. Luckily enough the out of focus ones weren't too bad that they were unusable, this being an example of that. We actually started shooting outdoors but.. I liked this photo, so I put it at the front.. sue me..

The weather was relatively nice this morning so we thought it'd be a good idea to get a few shots outdoors, as some of you know, I'm not a fan of.. indoorsy, staged looking portraits.. it's probably the doco photographer in me. Again another shot with the 50mm wide open. Love the shallow DOF on FX. yum.

I really like this photo for some reason.. maybe its the framing, maybe its a sense of fragility in mothers arm.. I don't know.. it's most probably cos of the bokeh that makes me like it.

Now before you go and start screaming child abuse.. Sidi enjoyed being up in the air hence the smile on the face. Really nice parents, really nice guys, been in Aus for 5 years. used to live in NZ, they were there for 7 years. Spoke english really well.. I thought he was gonna be a cab driver, my ignorant naivety, he isn't a cab drive..

I really like this photo, something very special about this photo. Bit of mother, child love. I like it. I wish I had a photo like this with my mother.. sigh.. oh well.. Really digging the 50mm lens, I think it works well as a general purpose lens, maybe be a bit short in some circumstances, but overall I think its a good 'go to' lens if you're out doing a few portraits. The 28-70 is good too but.. for portraits.. I dunno.. which is ironic cos I used the 28-70 yesterday with my other portraits...

Good way to finish off this post, a nice family photo. Great parents, great kid. Sidhant aka Sidi, cute kid, didn't cry, didn't hissy fit. I like that. Shot a shit load on this shoot.. 355 images in 2.5hrs.. I normally only shoot 250-300 when I do weddings.. eek.. something wrong there.. Always good when you get paid for a shoot =]

Anyways, no more shoots for a while I don't think.. unless those bastard industrial people get back to me.. it's been 2-3 weeks.. worst.. might have to make some executive decisions and just call people and force an answer out of them.. ANYWAYS.. till then,

Chris.

Rejuvenation

2010-07-16T22:58:00.000+10:00

Is what i need. So its been a while since i've blogged or put anything onto this site, i've been working a bit.. or a lot, making money which I guess I can't complain about. I haven't had the chance to do any shooting which i've wanted to do for myself, had a shoot the other week for a wine company, it was okay, nothing special.

This lack of motivation and time has made me a bit lazy and my endeavors to chase up on industrial based portraits has since waned. However having said that, I had a call from a boat building place which was happy for me to go down and do a few portraits which was good, haven't had a proper shoot in ages.

This is the first portrait I took, I was originally going to go with the idea of shooting my images only with a 50mm lens, I wanted to keep a certain consistency in my series of images, but as usual, I changed it and didn't follow the plan I had. Story of my life.. I shouldn't complain, being impulsive has gotten me a lot of good images. Simple set up, 2 x sb-600 up high with shoot through umbrella. D3s + 28-70 @ 2.8, wanted the real shallow DOF< probably should've stuck with the 50 1.8 and shot right open.. who knows.

2nd image, I found this bloke to have more... character in his face than the other chap. His beard, paint on the clothes, weary face. Same set up, same lens. I'm feeling okay about this shoot, not the best, not the worst. I feel there is something missing in the images. I wanted a simple styled portrait, no posing, no smiling.. I don't know how successful this is as a start, that's for you to decide. Oh well..

Another shoot tomorrow, this time its for a baby.. I don't know how they found my site but they wanted a shoot which they planned months ago. Hopefully that goes well, maybe i'll show you some more pictures then =]

Until then,

Chris.

back to weddings and shiz..

2010-06-04T00:49:00.000+10:00

So i finally got back into shooting weddings, has been a good couple months and to be honest i'd sort of missed it. was good to get back to it. Had this job lined up about 3 months ago, Simon had mentioned it to me ages ago and its scary when 3 months becomes today! ah well.. photos..

Cute couple, Brian and Kazu from Japan. Pretty cute story. All i can say is that a simple letter from Australia to Japan reunited them after years of no contact amd eventuated to this wedding. Quite cute. Brian came of a bit pompous to start with but he's a good guy. Apparently when i got there Kazu said "i like the way you look, i like that' hmmm Simon talked me up and said some shit. Always good to get off on the right foot i say.

Horses? yes, they are horses. Wedding was shot at Moonee Valley racecourse. Never been there before and for some reason something tells me it'll be the last. Horse racing officials are very... how we say.. anal.. Needed special passes to go anywhere and needed to be "accompanied" by officials everywhere we went.. hmmm strange. almost cult like.. whatever.. douchebags..

Kazu's mum straight from Osaka Japan. She was cute.

Decided to try things a little different this time, never shot photos like this before but it was a good time to try and experiment. good to widen your horizons. I know its been done before but something new for me. all good.

the whole gang from Japan. Wish i knew Japanese.. sigh..

AS luck would have it.. as soon as the ceremony started it began to rain a little.. gotta love Melbourne.

But luckily it didn't dampen anyones spirits, esp the bride and groom. It didn't rain that hard which is good. just Drizzle. that shitty annoying rain where its like "are you gonna rain or not?!" that shitty rain..

all important kiss.

Don;t know what happened here but something made them laugh. Luckily i was facing them.

Love it when people come and do my job for me.. you'd think i was joking but i'm not. Makes my life easier, and time to snap people snapping people. one of those things i like doing. strange..

wish i had shot this on a crane or something. She was standing in middle of a circle of people. THought it looked really interesting. Wish i had of shot it from a high angle to really get that feeling of closure.. oh well.. what can you do.

cute kid. i wanted a photo of Kazu and Brian, but he wanted to stick his head up against the glass. Pissed me off at first as he ruined my shot.. kinda glad he did now.

i lol'd

decided to actually stay clear for the cake cutting for once. I kept the 70-200 on and let Simon shoot up close. Decided it's a better way to shoot these days. Work as a team. let him do what he has to do. trust.. kind of hard when you normally shoot solo.. but.. we're a team.

ok.. i'll leave the weddings there for now.. just finished batching these to JPEG so you guys are lucky to see them so soon! need to mail it out to Sim tomoz.. hmmm 1.5gb for 57images.. fk .PSD files are large.. ANYWAYS.. on other news.. went back to the CFA the other day.. yesterday..

heres a quick snaps to leave you guys with. Enjoy. until next time.

- Chris.

Ok a shit load of photos but Enjoy guys.

CHRIS!

Flash..

2010-05-28T21:37:00.000+10:00

Thunder! ahhh Band of Brothers.. gotten into a war mood, helping kiwi with some footage. Got a big intro to start filming soon. see how it goes. So... photos. Been CFA lately, gotten into the good stuff, started playing with fire. Last three weeks of the training and earlier this week i'd been htere till about midnight shooting the fires. pretty fkn amazing.

It gets hot.. feels like you're in hell.. looks like hell, but was bloody fun.

Love when they set the cars on fire, air smelled like burnt plastic and rubber.. yummm. Bitta kerosene helps with the fire going.

Looks like snow? well its not.. it WAS foggy up there.. very, and the foam they used in the water does make it look like snow. was quite bizarre.

Fire does make things look better. mmmm

something about this photo i've always liked.. i dunno.. maybe the colour contrasts of yellow and blue, who knows. That sack of crap in the photo? its a 'body' they train to save casualties all the time.

love fire, maybe a bit of a pyromaniac but thats cool.. i just wont burn shit lol.. but fire is a beautiful thing, amazing, spell binding, could watch it all day.

<3 this one.

This reminds me a bit of a movie still, maybe its that beam of light through the fog, who knows. but i stood there for a while waiting for that ONE guy to walk into the beam of light, luckily i didnt have to wait too long.

one of the last fires we had that night, was around 11pm and they set everything on fire... let me tell you.. hell on earth. i have footage of it, may upload it oneday. wanting to make a nice video at the end of this since i've been getting into video.. yeah i know.. whatever.. but we'll see how it goes.. Anyways, there is only a small sample of the photos i took the last few days. was pretty good fun.. more to come, more movies to film for WK... see how it all goes...

Chris.

in hiding

2010-05-16T15:03:00.000+10:00

Is where i've been for a while now, i think my last post would've been nearly a month ago? shit i dunno.. a while anyways.. so i've been shooting, a little.. Been back at the CFA lately and had a few more shots there, with some pretty good results. Gonna go back next week where they will start playing with fire, can't wait for that one!

So i've been doing a few things lately which aren't exactly related to me. Been DOP'ing for Kiwi's honours films which has been good fun. I quiet enjoy DOP'ing i think doing photography probably helps a bit, and it gives kiwi the opportunity to focus on directing.

A couple of stills from the shoot "Going Home" and our main character "Lee" played by Daniel Wu, can't wait to see the final product, looking good so far.

So like i mentioned earlier, i went back to the CFA and took some new shots, this time they were training in chemical suits, which was a lot different to what i've been seeing the past few times i've been up. Next week they start playing with fire. should be fun. hopefully i have time to go, gonna be a busy week school wise next week. worst.

So full chemical training, had the suits on and they had to get washed off each time, like they would in real life.

Don't worry, thats just food dye, but it is quite convincing.

As well as shooting CFA i've just finished doing a shoot for my mates band "Sheer Abandon" can myspace that shiz. Not my kinda music but good guys. used Kiwis basement as the make shift studio and i think it adds to their kind of style.

Very David Hill style look, oversharpened contrasty images, they like it. That's all that matters.

ANyways that's pretty much what i've been doing lately. Got a movie coming up, well i'm gonna be filming it for uni, you'll see it soon.. I like how i blog instead of write essays.. i'm a photographer, why write essays.. ffs.. anyways.. enjoy

-Chris.

12 Doors

2010-04-13T00:29:00.001+10:00

So as part of uni i have an elective called Digital Video and as the name suggests.. we make videos. This weeks task was to do a video about doors, 12 doors to be exact and show them opening in different ways or.. something along those lines. Again Donald and I teamed up and we did something a little different. actually. REALLY different. I like, we like it. hope you like it.

Enjoy. more photos soon! ps. D3s + 28-70 2.8

p.s click on the file twice and it'll open up in youtube for a proper aspect ratio!

bushpigs

2010-04-06T15:43:00.000+10:00

white trash, redneck bushpigs is what a group of girls called some of the guys at the rodeo i attended last week with Kiwi. The rodeo was down at Stawell and let me tell you.. certainly was something.. different.. being the only 2 token asians for 99% of the day at the rodeo was a pretty daunting thing. There were about 2-3000 people there? not bad. lots of fun lots of Aussie bogans, scary at times, but most of the time they were a good laugh.

I've had a few people ask me "hey chris, howcome you went to shoot a rodeo down in Stawell?" how do i answer that? well.. the only thing i can think of is.. cos i can? haha nah i dunno.. i was jsut going through the net on things that looked awesome and what i could shoot and for some reason the rodeo ust popped in mind. Was a bit of work trying to find out where rodeos were in Victoria, as i'd never been to one or yet alone heard of many rodeo events. but they're huge.

got pretty close to the action. my cameras are due for a clean..

Very lady like behaviour. I think she asked him to buy her another drink, he said "fk off" she kicked him. Class all round.

lets not forget what rodeo is really about. There was alot of cattle rustling and of course the horse and bull riding. which was pretty fun to watch. Got pretty close and kept the 70-200 on the D80 all day. I'm happy the AF was fast and accurate enough to keep up with what i wanted.

bro wasn't too happy. Horse fell under him and rolled over him. but he was alright. don't think he was happy that he fell off thought... death stare.. The rodeo continued on till about 930 that night, a lot of people had already head of and started making fires.. Kiwi and I walked past a few holes inthe ground and laughed as to what they were. the girls who said the guys were bushpigs, explained that they were burning pits "where the bush pigs burn all there shit in there and throw shit at you as you walk past."

There was free camping at the rodeo. A few people took up that offer and let rip with their little bon fires.

Camping just next to the rodeo arena.

Overall was a really good night. Got about 60 images from that night which isn't bad for a days shooting. We were planning on camping that night as well, however i sorta finished what i wanted to do in a day.. I thought that all the guys would go to a pub or something after the rodeo, but.. there was noting there.. just a rodeo in the middle of nowhere.. Not to worry.. next time. Anyways, hope all's well, back to shooting the CFA tomorrow and probably staying over at a near by motel for a 2 day shoot. we'll see how that goes!

until then.

And now i'm going to show another..

2010-03-31T17:17:00.000+11:00

wedding? no.. no weddings today.. but i am shooting another on Sunday.. busy busy week ahead.. anyways, like i said last week i'd try to get some CFA photos up. *hooray* So went up on Tuesday and spent a whole day there shooting. They were only just starting their practical training and this day was spent by blindfolding the recruits and making them do drills in the dark (pun intended)

Nice guys, let me roam around and do what i want. Had a quick induction to assure that i am ready to go on the 'hot fire' exercises. I got given a fireman suit which i'm pretty stoked about. I'll get a photo of it soon, overalls, jacket, helmet and gloves. best.

It's the old uniform so it looks pretty retro. The new one is a bone colour and thye are 3k a set. the recruits get 4... damn.. Like the Army, these guys march around all over the place

Pretty nice place at the CFA training grounds, like a hotel, there's rec. areas and i get free food! best.. can stay for lunch and dinner. Home cooked meals.

Basically today was all about the recruits learning how to use their breathing apparatuses and walking around blind. the theory is that, if you can do it blind you can do it anytime. true i suppose. there's lots of photos so i'll just post a few that i like.

this reminded me of a line of ducklings haha

Search and rescue in the dark.

Ok, all that from one day isn't bad. Shot 99% of the shots on the D3s which i must say is AWESOME.. if i haven't mentioned that already. Those last 3 shots were shot at 8000iso and look good to me. Got about 36 keepers from the first day, so im pretty confident i'll get a few good shots for the rest of the time i'm up there. Nice guys, looking forward to going back up. Next Wed, hopefully stay over till Thursday. see how we go. Anyways, watch this space for more CFA and weddings..

Happy Easter.

So this might just become..

2010-03-23T18:55:00.000+11:00

a wedding blog? lol i hope not.. but i wouldn't be surprised if it did.. i mean, i probably am shooting more weddings currently than assignments. Will be shooting my CFA assignment next Tuesday, so look out for that one, hope it doesn't fail like my circus one... worst.. I need to get in contact with some industries. I've emailed a rodeo, and iron foundry, might need to chase them instead..

Anyways, another wedding, 19/3/10 this one was more organized and a little easier for the shoot. Things didn't change within the last second, better looking..... place...

The D3s certainly does do well in low light situations, Most of the shots which were indoors were shot around 6400iso. Having the ability to shoot this ISO really does make a huge difference. I'm not a fan for on camera flash and more into the 'natural' look and lighting of things.

My friend made a really god point with some of my photos... there's a god damn mother f*cken fan in some of them.. I didn't notice it until i started shooting and the ceremony started.. if i REALLY have to, i may clone it out. Well i'll Simon to do it..

Yeah that'll do for now, just a quick look into some of the photos i picked out for Simon. I like the going into weddings taking it like a documentary and doing it in a real documentary style. Am struggling to find a reason to shoot my D80 now in wedding situations, but i really need the 2nd body when shooting. If this wedding photography gets serious and I start getting some income from this, a D700 is looking really tempting. Anyways, that's all for now. Until next time.. and maybe another wedding..

First Wedding

2010-03-18T23:40:00.000+11:00

So, for those who keep up to date with me, i've gotten a gig as a 2nd shooter for weddings. Had my first gig last month and i tell you what.. its tough.. running around trying to be at the right place at the right time, focus, aperture, shutter speed, composition.. everything running at 1000 miles an hour.. sure, i've shot doco's before, but.. when i do that, i'm in my element.. cool, calm, clear idea of what i want. There's no pressure but for me to succeed.. weddings.. it's my neck and THEIR DAY if i stuff up.. argh... anyways.. had a go at it, and i did it my style.. doco..

The 28-70 is working well on FX, first "proper" run with it, and it's wide enough. most of the time. I'm still thinking about investing in either 17-35 or 16-35.. who knows.. wait till i get the money first.. still need the SU-800 first.. fk..

Shallow as it sounds, weddings don't look awesome unless you have awesome looking brides and grooms. This one was.. one of those.. But hey, as long as they think they look good. job complete.

Loving the 2.8 on FX. DOF just fades out, loving it. Funny thing, i thought that having a DX and FX body would compliment nicely, but i'll have to tell ya.. once you go FX.. man.. never wanna go back. Seriously considering a D700.. i'm happy to lose the "reach" on my longer lenses for the versatility of FX, and better noise control.

I'm quite enjoying being second shooter. Less pressure and the ability to just roam around and snap at things which Simon misses (photog)

Simon. Number 1 shooter. There's not much to it really being a second. Just get the FK out of his way if he's shooting. I made sure of this by staying behind him. playing it safe.

These kind of shots are what i'm pretty much paid to do lol.

like mentioned earlier, as a second i'm out of Simons wat when he shoots. No i didn't tell them to look at the sky like hero's, Simon was up on a ladder doing a high vantage shot, so.. being a 2nd, stay low and snap away!

Different angle from Simons but it's nice to have choice. So thats it for now kids.. Weddings.. who woulda thought.. I'm still not used to it yet, but i'm getting used to it. Got another gig tomorrow, another trial, before my first proper paid gig for Simon. don't wanna look like a noob >_< Anyways, i'll keep you all posted. CFA and circus shots up soon perhaps? we'll see how we go. Also, although early days. Might be off to HK to work by January.. but hush hush for now....

Absence makes the heart grow fonder..

2010-03-08T01:49:00.000+11:00

OK, so here we are.. been a busy few.. weeks? yeah i think weeks. Sorry for those who read my blog, i haven't been around for a while.. I've been busy organizing shoots for Uni, one being the CFA and the other is a local circus just up the road from my place, so it should be a busy few weeks! which is good.. need to get back out there and start shooting..

Gotten myself a job as a... wait for it... wedding photographers assistant.... yeah.. -_-" look, not the thinkg i want to do ideally, but its money.. Simon, my wedding dude, is a pretty nice guy. First real gig is April 25th.. arghh so watch this space for that.. Anyways.. my point.. been shooting some video lately, and having shot my Tasmania video and really getting into the whole video thing, thought i'd do a proper one this time. more constructed, more thought out, more everything.. so here it is. i'll link you.

Sorry, not the greatest quality. i Dunno how to upload to youtube properly.. i know.. fail.. anyways when i finish the vid i'll upload a HQ version of it, i'll make sure of it.

Anyways, got a busy few weeks ahead of me, and this video to finish. hopefully it'll be done in a few weeks.. i think i'll take this slow and edit better etc etc.. anyways.. hope you're all well. let me know what you think of the video or just to comment on anything.

Ciao. =]

Werribee

2010-02-15T23:04:00.000+11:00

Sorry guys, its been a while since i lasted posted. Been a bit busy/nothing to shoot. But i went to Werribee open range zoo the other day and took a few snaps. Nothing super awesome.. like.. it's a nice place and all but nothing super awesome. I remember it as a child and i was amazed by it.. but the older you get, the less cool things become. sigh.

As you'd imagine, i took the D3s out, used it mostly with the 70-200.. wait.. its all i used it for.. Not too used to the range yet, kinda shit focal length on FX 200 just.. isn't long enough, but fkn awesome lens. I hate pixel peepers who say it vignettes in the corners and isn't sharp. Who looks there anyways? fk.. whatever. i like it.

I don't like monkeys.. they kill people.. or.. no.. gorillas do but.. they're too smart.. don't like it. and they look like people..

did you know hippos are the leading cause of death in Africa? well.. animal killing human deaths. go figure.

what a life.. the one on the left looks so happy ^^ hah

i like meerkats. I have a video of them playing but which i should upload, but youtube takes too long to upload shit. need to find a good way to upload things to my blog without youtube, i'll figure it out.

Went on the bus ride which Werribee has, which was pretty fun. The bus ride which looks at all the animals is included in the fare which i thought was fair cheap $24.50 for all day and a bus ride. not bad. the Aquarium is $32. fts.. but i'd still go.

this looked better in my head. oh well. giraffes are huge.

i like this photo. =] touch it up a little it'll be alright. haha big butts

Was quite lucky. Waked up to the lion exhibit and he was just chilling on the grass. RIGHT infront of me. was pretty good. nice view. lucky. I just love his face. The scars and scratches can tell so much about him. Fairly interesting.

His Missus came over to join the party and got quite close as well.

got some video of kangaroos too which i should upload somehow. I'll make sure i figure it out next time guys! even if it means youtube. sigh.. anyways. something short nothing amazing. Feel shit using hte D3 for petty things like this. but i guess its only what i make of it. Anyways enjoy, be safe

Ciao.

Tasmania - The Video

2010-01-31T12:13:00.001+11:00

Hi again guys,

I've spent the last few days trying to edit some video footage which i took during my trip to Tas with my new D3s. The footage is not the best as i didn't really focus on making a video, was more like video for fun. So anyways, mosto f the footage is shot at 720x1280 and the other is shot at... i dunno.. 640X something something. using DX mode reduces the video quality so some of it is not as nice as it could be.

Next time i'll try and make a proper movie with better panning techniques, focus, movement, lighting etc etc. Certainly was fun to play with. Hopefully i can do more of this in the future. Anyways. quick film with a quick edit. There's one scene where the aspect ratio is wrong. i need to fix that up, so ignore that.

Anyways. D3s, 70-200, 28-70 for most of the shots.

p.s the footage is a little squashed in my blog. so if u want to see properly, click on it again and it should open in youtube. sorry.. enjoy.

Tasmania

2010-01-30T00:24:00.000+11:00

Tasmania.. where to start.. Went with a friend to do some photography shooting which we do atleast once a year for a few years now. This had been the biggest and longest photographic "expedition" we'd undertaken as normally we get screwed around with weather and.. yeah.. weather.. this time was good. Lucky i guess.

There were a lot of Australian flags in Tasmania, thats the first thing that struck me, i don't know why but Tasmania had a lot of Aussie flags.. everywhere.. cars.. houses, roads.. lets see photos. First shot is Cradle Mountain.

Got lucky with the sunset, thought it was gonna be average but at the last minute the sky decided to give me something. We'd been hiking all day around Cradle mountain for a good photo location, took us 7 hours and we ended up shooting where we started.. what a waste of a day.. tiring as hell but.. whatever.

that's cradle mountain in the b/g. We hiked up there..

Hard hike.. took too long..

Little hut near Cradle mountain. I was going to shoot here but.. i don't know.. changed my mind in the end. I'd like to go back and shoot from this spot.

some nice light was hitting cradle mounting in the afternoon after our 7hour hike. this was taken when we were walking back to the carpark.. another 5km away.. fml.

i was on animal watch when Donald was driving. They liked to jump out just as the cars are coming towards them.. i don't know why.. lot of road kill as you can imagine.

We had visitors at our camp site. Not scared of humans at all.

ballsy enough to beg for food.. bastard possums.. All shot with a flash light at 20K iso. D3s ftw. This possum bit Donald. I lol'd.

We went to a few places and i've skipped a few locations.. nothing to see.. maybe there was but.. i cbf going thru X gb's of images.. sorry.. maybe i'll sort thru some later.. This was at Freycinet National Park. I loved this place i must say.

I was planning to shoot this image at sunset.. but that never happened.. i was determined to get my shot at sunset. I wish this had of worked the way i wanted it to. but.. such is life, cant win them all.

Had to settle with this instead the next night. if only there were DAMN CLOUDS IN THE SKY.. fml... feeling frustrated and unsatisfied Donald and I went to have dinner, canned food, and came back at night. I wanted my shot. I wanted something at least.

I quite like this one. I'm glad i came back.

This is how we spent most of our time. Napping in cars. Waking up at 430-5 every morning for sunrise and sleeping at 12-1 every night took a toll on us.. we're bloody crazy. 8 nights with 4-5 hours sleep.. fun times.

He played the staring game with me. I won.

Tried to do some birding at the wetland park in Launceston. too hard on a FX camera body, had to use DX mode which meant 5mp images. I don't care that much. but this camera sure is fast. Sure takes some good images too.

I have a lot of video footage of these little guys. They swarmed the whole beach at Freycinet.. it was scary.. but cool. The ground was moving and all you could hear was the sound of them scuttling around. I need to upload the video.. i'll edit the vid at a later date and post it up later. Made a little vid of Tasmania. filmed a bit too late. missed the first half of the trip but.. whatever.

Sunrise at Freycinet.

The last 2 nights Donald and I went exploring the towns of Launceston and Devenport for night photography. Was a lot of fun i must admit, something different instead of landscape photography.

A lot of nothing really but its good to play with design, colour and form when you do abstract sort of art.. whatever.. i'm glad to be home.. Melbourne, i missed you. I'll get on that video soon!

Chris.

Ok..

2010-01-16T21:51:00.000+11:00

so it finally arrived.. It's been while since i blogged but i've been busy for the past few days playing with my new toy. For those of you who keep up with me, i've been waiting for me new toy and it finally arrived on Thursday.

RAHHHH yessss my D3s finally arrived.. and let me just say.. its huge and heavy.. especially when its mounted with the 28-70 2.8 as seen in the photos above. For those who are camera nerds you may understand the next bit i'm talking about, for others, perhaps not.. but whatever..

Probably can't tell from such a small image, but thats 12800ISO.. i was fairly speechless. heres a 100% crop.

which i don't think is much MORE helpful, but you get the idea.. crazy.. love it!

What i have noticed is the DOF is so much shallower than on standard DX sensors

First time using the 70-200 on the beast. must admit that the FX sensor means i lose a bit of reach on my long lenses, as i've been so used to the DX sensor 200mm just is so short. however the ISO and speed are enough to make up for this. But i can shoot DX mode on the D3s, however at lower quality. roughly 5mp

which gets me a little closer. Might invest in a teleconverter.. AF is fast.. and accurate.. just like 9fps..

Video seems a bit buggy i hope it works.. whatever.. anyways.. super fast.. enjoying this camera but it is a major upgrade from my humble D80. Haven't quite gotten used to the colours and the way it meters

light yet, but i'm sure i'll get used to it soon. I did try the crazy 102400ISO..

there was no light in the bathroom, besides the light which was coming from my bedroom 2m to my right.. 102400ISO is fairly FKN amazing... not the greatest image quality at all, but still usable if needed.

I've taken some video but not sure how to upload it properly to my blogger yet, but i'll upload some once i know how to upload it well and when i get some good video footage. Anyways, small update, i'm eager to take it out for a good test run and i'll be back with more updates!

Ciao.

All good things must come to an end.

2010-01-08T01:45:00.113+11:00

Well, just a month ago i landed in HK and started doing my blogs. And before you know it, its been a month.. time flies.. shit.. spent my 2nd last day in HK taking photos of course. WEnt to Wetland park instead of Macau as the weather was a bit average. It is winter after all. I'd seen photos of wetland park and it looked quite nice. Lakes, blue skies, birds.. didn't see much of any of those.. there was lots of water, but no birds.. well.. ones i could shoot. If you don't like flowers you may as well stop reading my blog.. i took lots of photos of flowers as i couldn't get many birds.. bastards.. 200mm just isn't long enough for birds..

Vented my frustration by shooting flowers. There are gonna be lots of flower photos.. don't like it, stiff shit.. i do.

Place was full of observation decks, hideouts, where you could go and view the hundreds of birds. Too bad i didn't have a long enough lens =[

see who this scope is made by ;) beautiful scope might i add.. very VERY clear images.. amazing actually.

this is all i got from my 70-200 @ 200.. sigh.. i need one of these bad boys.. one day..

don't get me wrong, it's a great place. just that the weather made it shit.. well.. anti climatic.. i still enjoyed it, its good to try and make something out of a nothing situation.

i don't understand how this can be..

Lots of these flowers, seemed like there was only about a handful of flowers still in bloom during winter, but thats alright, i took a lot of photos of them anyways..

sorry, didn't save to sRGB profile so a little bit of the oomph has been lost in the colours, but truly vivid colours. I like the red on green, stands out. i like colours.

Great place to take wedding photos, photog < left assistant > right. Don't agree with the way this photog worked though to be honest. sorry. Overcast day, nice soft light would have made a nice huge giant soft box effect, yeah i get that, but.. bro.. use a bitta light, make some light.. pull out some flashes and make your subjects stand out instead of being washed away in the background and fixing it all up in post.. whatever.. what do i know.. ;)

I'm sure they'll like it..

Don't know what flowers these were, looked like lavender but.. not at the same time.. if anyone knows comment it for me! loved them, took too many photos of them.. but can you blame me?!

70-200 shoots flowers nicely =]

If you have time go deviantart.com and look up 'gilad' does a lot of this.. here's my tribute to him.. whatever.. there were lots of boardwalks, unfortunately unlike the wildlife.

Empty fields.. no birds in there.. heard them.. but didn't see. Heard some other birds.. made a hell of a noise.. i saw them atleast.. The red army came rolling in.. flew some choppers over a few times, maybe training.. or.. being communists and checking on their people.. who knows.. but still cool

Although we were in a wetland park as per say, a national park in the middle of hong kong is never ever that far from civilization. The park is in the middle of a town pretty much. the urban jungle is just over the hedge.

There was a board saying what kind of animals and insects were around the wetlands.. this is the only one i found.. its like some insect that walks on water.. sigh..

there... finally a photo of a bird which doesn't look like a speck..sigh..

oh how i wish i had a 600mm lens or some teleconverters.. next time... this is the view from one of the hideouts where you can jsut sit and view the birds. Is a really beautiful spot, there have been some great photos taken form these hide outs. There is a kiosk at the info centre where you can submit photos.. i didn't submit anything..

too bad they didn't have one for flowers.. i woulda submitted a few..

This little fella got a lot of attention from people. He was swimming in a tank with a crocodile who is a local celebrity around here. "Pui Pui" who was captured in a local river, which is strange, considering she is a salt water croc, who some people believe either escaped as an illegal pet, or was dumped by someone.. either way, she lives in the wetland park now. In a tank however.

Pui Pui was cool but i liked the fish more.

Good subject. he liked to be photo'd

Back to my flowers.

while taking my flower photos, something caught my eye. had a closer look turned out to be ants on a leaf.. but they were fricken huge.

it happend to be that the whole tree was covered in them.. i quickly left.

nearly a bird shot.. but.. i finally one.. by accident really.

While walking back on one of the board walks i looked down and this little guy popped right out and sat infront of me just long enough to snap about 15 frames.. fairly happy.. not the greatest photos, but i got my bird photo.. bastards.. all that waiting around for birds for nothing.. we left.. i was content.

but not before we stopped and took photos of this.

fast shutter speed vs slow shutter speed. just for kicks.

And that was the end of my adventures at wetland park.. it was alright, not the best.. but such is life, can't have it perfect always. Sadly this will be the last adventure i have in HK until i later return perhaps in March, so stay tuned for that kids. I have lots of photos of my Aunty's cats which i might post back up when i get back in Oz.. but i'm sure i'll post some stuff when i get to KL. planning on staying in a hotel which will give me access to the net, and more importantly, a bed for the night.. fkn 12 hour wait.. sigh.. anyways kids, talk to you when i'm in KL or in the land of Oz. I shall miss Hong Kong.

Changas, over and out.

You can play in the fields, just don't sow the seeds.

2010-01-05T22:27:00.000+11:00

hmm some words of advice from my aunt and uncle when we went for lunch.. dunno how that come up but.. whatever.. anyways.. today was fairly uneventful, nothing major but whatever.. i took some shots but nothing special, mostly just town trippin'

If i haven't mentioned that my aunty has lots of pets, well, she has lots of pets. I'll post some of the photos up one day. These are just some things she has sticking on her car. i like them, but then again i like a lot of things.

My Uncle Joseph the Pediatrician, the first time i saw him this trip we went to some uber fancy restaurant. this time we went some where more, as my aunty and i like to say "down to earth" for his standard haha. Uncle Joseph is... living a comfortable life.. lets put it that way.

We wanted to go in here, which we did eventually. big line. apparently it's famous for its good tasting noodles. I can't eat so everything tastes good to me.. whatever.

After lunch Dr. Joe had to go deliver some kids or something.. always busy busy.

Little fella was pretty cute. Always animals in my posts..

waiting for his mother.

who eventually came.

this scared me, but i still took a photo.. mixing people and animals is just... wrong.. ick.. Aunt went shopping, gave me some time to go shooting. 15mins to be exact, time flies when you just go and wander off. Thoroughly enjoy exploring unknown places and jsut snapping away. Took the 50 with me today, nice and light. Took off the MB-D80 which can add a fair bit of weight. Felt good with a smaller body today. should do it more often. hmm

I don't know. I just liked the little Donkey Kong looking guy. Lots of things go around in my head when i take photos, sometimes they don't make sense..

Staring doe eyed out of the van for a few minutes. Makes good photos.

I've wanted a tailored suit for a long time. But maybe i should wait for Thailand.. or HK.. don't know how much it'll cost though. Could just get a Hugo Boss suit.. sigh.. oneday... oneday..

Just missed his butcher knife coming down... shit..

Lots of stray cats and dogs in HK, saw a dead one on the free way on the way to lunch, sad really, but life goes on. Wonder how long the average life of these stray cats is. Wouldn't be surprised if people chopped them... hope not..

Little bit of colour in a dull world. Coming from Aust. where things are green and trees grow and grass is on the lawn, coming to HK where the there are less trees and no grass in houses, a little colour sticks out pretty well, like the flashing neon lights.

HK is a food lovers paradise i reckon. Food stalls, food shops, food stands food everything.. always food! i'm surprised everyone here is so thin.. haven't seen that many fat people to be honest.. i'd balloon hard if i stayed here long enough.. arghhh

random street shots all have a story to tell.

fkn hell.. ok sorry for those people who are super.. whatever.. anyways.. excuse my agnostic views on life..

bro was up there with his nail gun. looked me straight down the lens. =]

made me laugh. on the phone and faced the wall. hmm

This is where Christmas trees come to die.

Lots of taxi's in HK, all fairly impatient too. Dunno what this guy was up to, but kept in sticking his head out looking for something/one? whatever..

bitta slow shutter work for kicks.

just like taking pictures of myself. After i took this photo some bitch came up next to me and looked at my lcd screen and stared at me. I was like.. tf? and walked off... NO effen idea..think she wanted to sell me something,.. lots of those people around.. weird..

Bro was still here when i came back.. this time more frustrated.

A classier version of Kanye glasses. Not that i ever liked them, but people seem to. Anyways, that's about all for today, slow day. Tiring.. Off to Macao tomorrow, weather pending, hopefully it's not too shit so i can come back with something interesting. Enjoy yourselves.

Changas.

So I guess it's another day..

2010-01-02T05:46:00.000+11:00

To sit around and think about what happens at the stroke of Midnight on that one day of the year where there are more fireworks in all the public holidays and festivals combined, which we call New Years Eve. Is it just another day, or something worth celebrating? I don't know, the novelty has worn off on me now, just like Christmas, and Easter.. maybe cos i'm not religious.. not even baptized.. guess i know where i'll be going when i hit the hay for good ;) Always amused me.. religion can be summed up so well.. "do what i say or i'll kill you and send you to hell.."....Sounds like a good thing to follow? I dunno.. i'm against religion.. i lied.. not against.. too much and too many lives have been lost in the name of "joe blog" and "jim smith" sigh.. same shit different name.. anyways.. lets not get political..

Spent the last day of the 9th year of the 2nd millennium walking around the suburb or Sha Tin with my uncle. These lifts are pretty small but have nice reflective ceilings. Left the 12-24 at home.. well.. my OTHER apartment i've been living in, so i just had the 28-70 with me. Big mofo, don't use it as much as I should. but its a funny focal length on a DX body.. i'll be using it a lot more soon ;) Just went strolling, good to walk around and relax. Would've rather gone bike riding but. i've done that already.. need to post those photos up..

Lots of people ride bikes around here, Asia in general. Rekindled my love of bike riding, need to get bike fixed when i get home.

Uncle Hugo took me site seeing, well.. wanted me to be in touch with my chinese heritage. I didn't disagree, it's good to know hwere you come from. know your roots. This suburb.. i don't remember.. Tai Wo.. Fo Tan.. don't know.. they're pretty close to each other.. one of those places you don't know about unless you live there. Strangers never walk around here for no reason.. well, i wouldn't.

See these all the time and never stop to get some..

Quail eggs. high in cholesterol apparently. i'll take my uncles word for it.

Asians.. dried shit.. always.. dunno what it is about it.. walked into a market which sold lots of fresh shit.. really fresh.

Lots of these guys.. but.. people gots to eats.. they help you kill it apparently. At least you know your meats fresh.

I should've blown this up but whatever. See that little bump on the hill in between the cranes and on the left of the powerline? if it looks like a person sitting down you are not wrong. There is a story behind it, of a woman who climbed that mountain wither her child on her back waiting for her husband to come home, which.. he never did.. and she turned to stone..

Since i like you guys i blew it up.. CAN YOU SEE IT! it freaked me out when i saw it first.. deep story.. China is full of these old tales. love it!

More market places. Great place to take photos. but fkn 28-70 sticks out like a sore thumb. shoulda taken the fity..

The best meat is meant to come from there.. i can live with 2nd best.

nawww

Lots of bike shops around HK. Lots of people like bike riding. I do too. $10AUD ride aslong as you wont. not a bad deal.

One manes trash is another mans treasure. These guys, often 'grandpas' and 'grandmas' who have nothing to do, like, job wise, will go around collecting peoples recyclables and sell them. Apparently its good money. They pay you to give them stuff. not a bad deal. not bad, quick buck for some left over boxes. This dudes got about $3-400HKD worth of goods. not bad for trash..

getting the eff outta there. going to another suburb to explore some more.

Old Sha Tin district. very spiritual. some houses around here are 300+ years old.. amazing to think sometimes.

saw flowers again.

somehow ended up in ikea.. nfi.. clever bastards them swedes.. make you walk ALL the way thru the store before you can exit..clever clever.. at least you get the hot dog and a drink for $10HKD at the end of it.. thats about $1.40 for my Australian chums. Back on the streets. This time back roads.

haircut anyone? in there..

always run into these little fellas. I'm glad they like having their photos taken. she was nice. let me pat her. =]

but not him.. ran like the wind..

bitta mahjong. never understood how to play.. looks like a whole lotta nothing to me.

bloody arm in the way!.. i like the photo still.

liked the little fat dog more.

light, shadow, continuity, line, colour, repetition, whatever.. photo.

petrol electric power to dad power. =]

Government housing. lots of these around HK.

and lots of markets.

sell a bit of everything.. fruit, veg, meat.. clothes, electronics. We bought our food for dinner that night and headed back. we'd walked a bit and got fairly tired. Went home.. bout time.

now we wait until the big hand and little hand hits the 12..

2230 hours.. time to head out. We hung around Sha Tin. kept it low key. nice and simple. still a bit to see.

had some dancers, lots of dancers at Sha Tin count down. more of that to come.

I think she was enjoying the show.

not him. lost his parents.. hope he found them. poor bastard.

pretty lights and colours

main stage for count down. more dancers.. salsa.. then latin.. then.. more dancing.. got a bit boring.. mreh.. whatever.. justh ere to see the fireworks.

bro.. your flash is not going to work when you are 50 meters away.. fk... esp with your diffuser dome too. enjoy killing your batteries firing at 1:1 power each time. notice the recycle time getting slower? fk..

yeah i'm a snaparazzi.

i liked the decorations they had. I like how everything has a face.

cutest kid. waited so long for her to look while the light was on her face.. fk.. need better things to do.

or not.

glad to see that young and old all came out to watch the countdown. good to see. =]

And that would be that.. midnight. Hard to take photos with iPhone in one hand recording and SLR with 28-70 in the other.. whatever. Fireworks weren't huge, nor spectacular. But you know what. I enjoyed it. The small community all came together and threw a little celebration of its own, wouldn't have been more than 5000, yes.. thats not many in HK.. but.. it was good. small, intimate, family orientated.. not with the hussle and bussle they have in Central and TST nor the grandeur. But 5000 is better than 1.5million. yes. apparently 1.5million turned out to watch the fireworks in HK in Central, TST, HK island way.. crazy crazy..

this is i.

love these lights. love the atmosphere.

"Happy new year" is what i imaging is what it said.

Wonder if he knew what was going on, besides lotsa loud bangs and bright lights. Good to see either way.

Aunty Grace enjoyed the show. Was the first time shes ever been. Lived in Sha Tin for over 10 years.. First time she stayed up past midnight on NYE.. =] glad she had fun.

f/4 and f/2.8 make a big difference =] he's not a camera nerd like me =[ he prob doesn't care..

We started to head off.. i still took photos.. its how i roll.

Something about this character.. i dunno what it was. she seemed excited.

even after mum and dad left.

fkn starbucks.. every where..

shooting blindly makes the best photos. i shot and hoped i'd get something. Guess i did. haha

bro did something.. or something happened to him.. all i heard was "A sir, listen to me please." dunno what's up. Hope the start of his 2010 wasn't a shit one. Probably was..

Train home. wasn't packed as i htought. guess most of the people who went to the countdown were Sha Tin locals. good for me.

had enough, perhaps it's late for them. good to see =]

Hope this guys life wasn't ruined on NYE. suited up, roses, sad face, alone.. hmm poor guy. chin up soldier.. woulda been a shit start to the year if he just got rejected though. lol.. devastated.. i dunno.. lets not jump to conclusions..Anyways, thats all there is from me, enough visual garbage from me, hope you all had a good NY, all having fun and playing safe!

over and out.

-Changas

Food For Thought

2009-12-31T06:17:00.001+11:00

Hello all again. Some oldish photos but whatever.. same shit.. photos are photos =] Its fairly late and i'm watching 'Bad Boys' while blogging. yes Bad Boys is a classic movie haha haven't seen it in a while, i remember why i liked it.

Well anyways back to the point. My aunty has lots of animals.. they're pretty spoilt. occasionally my aunty likes to take the dogs to the centre and feed the dogs.. they eat people food.

Barney talks.. i'll film it oneday and show.. but he throws tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants. sook.

She was looking at the 3 dogs. They get a lot of attention.

Saucy and Woofer are waiting for food.

It came to my attention that Barney has different colour eyes. he looks cross eyed at times. Big oaf.

The centre is pretty good. There's a lake there, running track, playground.. fairly good. Actually it's really good. Nice community centre. lots of food there. mmm

This was taken on another day but it was my point about him being an oaf. Got his head stuck in between the bars for a while. started to cry but got his head out eventually. I lol'd and took photos. haha BARNEY! anyway,s back to it.

Big bird with bigger fish. I like how they just followed him around. After we ate we had a bit of a break and took my Aunty photo shooting. She wanted to learn how to use her camera, so i guess i had to show her.

This was meant to be a demonstration on how ND grad filters worked, but i likeh ow it turned out. Some empty field next to my Aunts house. I like the sky. Well seeing as the sun was setting we went down to the canal near by and did some bird shooting.

I need to go back before i leave and get some nice bird shots. lots of these bad boys flying around. sometimes 200mm just isn't enough.. fark.. guess you gotta make do with what you got. Got a beautiful sunset that day.

I like those colours. We spent a few hours there just taking photos. It's hard tryna teach someone how to use a camera when its sorta just second nature to me now.. but slow and steady wins the race. i hope what i said got through to her.. she's on holiday now, wont find out until she comes back on how her photos came out haha. Anyways went out to dinner that night. Just a local restaurant near where this photo was taken. Too bad it doesn't have the same view as this.

Good way to kill time, taking photos. Always salted nuts where ever i go to eat in HK.

Uncle Paul picking which fish he wanted to eat.

So the dude went and got his net and scooped him out. I always feel bad when people pick which animal they want to eat. I should really be a vegetarian.. too bad i like the taste of meat too much.. fk..

GG, Mr. Fish.

Take some more photos while waiting for food. My little 6 year old camera still takes some pretty good photos. Sony Cybershot ftw. Pretty sure this fish has been devoured by now.

yeah.. no comment. Food eventually came out.

His life was not in vain. He tasted nice.

Like the way this one came out. Good to see things when you just stop and have a look sometimes. This was the back of the restaurant. nice grungy feel to it. I was surprised my little camera coped so well. I remember how when i first applied to RMIT, half my folio was done with a little point and shoot.. hmm funny how its not what you use but how you use it. Applies to a lot of things in life. Lets not get to sentimental and DnM right now.

Barney and co. came for dinner as well. They ate pretty well.

I wouldn't complain if i was them.. ok they didn't eat all of it.. but some of it.. lucky bastards.. This makes their macaroni and ham with toast look like dog shit compared to this. Walked the dogs back home after dinner. Was a good idea.. Ate way too much. fk.

I got given Barney. He actually walks pretty well. Running.. no.. he tends to jump into me when he runs.. i've tripped over him a few times while running. not fun.

1030PM and people dancing in the community centre. Fairview park has a pretty good community. I like how people in HK are still awake late in the night. Well. Late for Australians anyways.. shops are open past 1030! far out. no late night shopping in HK either. people.. just do..

Even tennis.. at 1030.. good on em. i wanted to play but i'm not a member.. dang..

Went out the next morning for a walk. These hills are similar to the ones we climbed with the 3 dogs. Although it wasn't this one.. it was along the same ridge as these hills. Really quite a beautiful view. The whole estate is surrounded by them.

So anyways, i think that'll do for tonight. nice and simple and not the usual. haven't been up to any adventures lately. Well.. i have but nothing to fancy.. Sorry guys i'll post something more interesting up soon! well anyways it was good to use the point and shoot for a while. Carrying and SLR gets heavy.. backpack, lenses.. far out.. too much thinking about angles and ISO and aperture shutter speed, all that shit. I mean, theres Auto mode on it but i never use it.. It's good to just have a little camera where u just go.. take photo now, and it does it.. dont have to worry about too much shit. I read on one of some rando blog where the photographer said "its better to have less gear where it means you have less to think about" something along those lines. Couldn't agree more. Too much = too much clutter. more is less.

This one I just took the other night with the cybershot in Manual mode. goes alright. good to have a change from the SLR like i said earlier. Anyways, nothing special guys but whatever. hopefully you can tell which photos were taken with the SLR and which were with the cybershot. If not we have a problem on our hands.. I'm off. oh btw.. Hope you all have a great new year! don't know what i'll be up to yet, probably at home. might go take some photos. we'll see.. Enjoy yourselves. =]

I'm no fashionista.

2009-12-30T05:25:00.000+11:00

Bot occasionally I get asked to do some fashion/modeling shoots. I like shooting people.. but when I shoot it, most of the time they are unaware of me, or its has a story and message behind the images. But who am I to turn someone down? Anyways, On the 10th of December which also happened to be the same day I flew out to KL.. yes that is correct.. My time management skills are so good that I shoot the day I leave for overseas and I don't even pack.. sigh sigh.. Well anyways, these photos I took were for my neighbour who is an aspiring singer. Well, she sings but.. you know.. I don't know enough to really say.. but she sounds good. =]

Like I said.. i don't normally shoot people.. or people like this. I don't NOT like it.. jsut that I feel awkward giving directions and shit. I like things to fall into place infront of my lens, not me creating it.

Initially she.. I should use her name. Elena, wanted some more, well as I would say.. "serious" kind of facial expressions.. I didn't like it.. but customer is always right. I took some more candid ones anyways.. cos I can.

I like the teeth.. they're all pretty similar but whatever.. Photos don't look to well on this. Click on them and make them larger, Looks a little over sharpened.. oops on my part. Have I mentioned how much i love the 70-200? Pretty sharp wide open. I shouldn't shoot wide open but i'm a sucker for shallow DOF.. not that f/4 at 200mm will make a difference in Bokeh, yeah pixel peepers and shit will say differently, whatever.. but I like shooting wide open.. That's just me.

This ones nice. Lighting this was pretty simple. Used a reflector at first, but the light was too harsh on her face, I'd done this before on another "fashion" shoot I did mid 09, where i took the reflecty part off the reflector and got left with this semi translucent scrim like material.. amazing, is all I can say.. Giant soft box. Love how the light wraps around using it like this. Oh and by the way. This was shot mid afternoon. Not the best time to shoot. Thought I had a photo of with and without the scrim like thing. but I guess I don't.. Whatever, take my word for it.

We went inside for some other shots. These shots were for her portfolio of something like that. Her manager wanted some photos for.. I don't know.. I don't care. honestly. I just take photos.

The background is a giant painting they have in their living room. Almost like a Vincent Van Gough with that flower. but its not.. similar.. Giant painting of a droopy flower.. makes a nice background.

All natural lighting like before. Window Light to her.. well our right, reflector down low, kicking a little light back up on her back to create a little fill light and to show the texture in her top. Those frilly bits.

Not that I am overly pleased with this image, however I do like the almost high key look to this image. Looks almost angelic. Very white. Very soft lighting, again with the reflector scrim.. best way to light a subject by far with high afternoon sun. Should thank my assistant for holding it for me =]

Holding a reflector, like what all good assistants do. Holding the reflector in the wind is troublesome, but she did well. =]

I like this shot. I like bokeh more =]

And just FYI, this shows how much of a difference the scrim makes. (on the arm) Anyways, that's about all I have tonight. I know its not HK and its old.. 3 weeks ago.. but it's all that i had which was converted and sized to jpeg on my comp. can't be arsed sitting and batch converting 230+ NEF files to JPEG and then batch converting and automating 230+ images to correct dimensions... I'll get some more recent things up soon, (well.. recent like.. within the past week or so) so stay tuned!

Well yeah, Chris does some "fashion" too.. not my cup of tea but it wasn't a complete disaster. i hope.

Enjoy yourselves.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-27T04:14:00.000+11:00

Like the title says. =] Sorry i'm not doing this in chronological order.. but we'll backtrack eventually..

Well, i was alone for Christmas as my family had all gone overseas on various trips, Yes i was asked to go, however i declined, as plans i had made with a friend had some last minute changes, hence i was stuck on Christmas day alone. HOWEVER it was fine. I had a good day doing what i enjoy the most.

by the way.. this is going to be long..

Woke up stupidly early on xmas day and stared out the window for a while. the sky was blue.. Really blue.

This is my view each morning. It's not much but nice enough in Hong Kong. And isn't that sky blue?! Haven't seen a blue sky like this since i landed 2 weeks ago. THe sky was enough to get me out of bed.

Went back to Pacific Place to catch the train (place where those bell players were) This time there were like a trio of musicians.

I don't know who this guy was, but people were lining up to take photos with him.. i dunno.. he seemed friendly.

this guy didn't.

or her.. but whatever.. they sounded aight..

There were a lot of people there on xmas day, surprised me a bit. lots of people with cameras too. nice gear some of them

Had enough of P.P, caught the MTR to TST or Tsim Sha Tsui and looked at the "tourist" board for ideas of where to go. I chose Kowloon Park. Good decision. It was closer to the station that i thought and a shit load of people there. Most of them phillipinos, i assume they had a day off, as most of them, well, A LOT of them in HK are house workers. or.. people that come work for you and look after your house, clean, cook, wash, walk your dogs etc.. But more on them later. There was a maze there. but not like you think.

Smart having it short. Atleast you wont get stuck i there forever.. I didn't walk it. I got distracted taking photos.

This place was amazing. I'd been here for 5 mins and already amazed and taken back by it. I tried to take a photo of the place, but.. it just doesn't do the place justice. Bustling with people and the the BIRDS everywhere.. it was fairly beautiful. no. it was beautiful.

There were flowers. fyi. The colours are a bit muted, i never convert the colour space for web viewing. imagine the photos 20-40% more VIVID.

There was an aviary there. No joke. it was cool. I went.

I don't know what birds these are, and if you are wondering "something about this photo.. looks strange" yes. I was shooting thru a metal fence thing.. you'll see it a bit later, so the "strangeness" about hte photo is the fence out of focus giving that look. Hate shooting thru fences and shit.. but no choice. btw. LOVE the 70-200.. used it all day. except for a few photos. you'll see..

You know. As a foreigner, what seems strange to us, is normal for the natives. Like, when we, Westerners, see parrots we say "hello" or.. shit like that, cos.. parrots can talk... they said it in chinese to the parrot. i know like yeah whatever thats normal. But i've been so used to hearing it in english i had to pause for a second and think about it. haha

That's not his beak on the top of his beak.. i don't know..

From birds in cages to birds.. not in cages.

I like pretty flowers.

I love DOF more.

Looks almost like a love heart. nawww. I was there for 10mins trying to get a good photo. I looked like a loser.. but whatever.

I put this in here, although i don't think anyone wil lget it. you DO NOT understand how beautiful this place was. The light on this tree is light reflecting off the pond, and it just shimmered.. and it moved.. the leaves in the tree shimmered from this light.. amazing.. absolutely.. when i get my D3s i'll come back and take a video.. absolutely.. breath taking..

Turtles =] They liked to climb up on things.

Something simple but i liked it. Felt like new life.. new beginning. This walk was like an epiphany for me. haha

70-200 can do a little bit of macro. not really.. but good enough.

Photos jsut don't do it.

This caught my eye.

I like families doing things together. I went pigeon hunting. Shot one.

If you saw this at 100% you'd see how sharp it was. Love this lens.

back and forth, back and forth.. cute fella.

More trees and plants.

He had just swallowed a berry the size of his head. no shit.

Wonder what he's thinking.. wonder where his family is. This made me sad.

How do they grow in the roof? It was about 230pm. hadn't eaten since 10am. I was hungry. but i still stopped for photos.. sigh..

i like flowers =] Saw a soccer game while i went to look for food.

D80 can do sports too.

There was a fair turn out. Nice atmosphere. Don't see much of this back home. Unless i look in the wrong places. It's true. Locals know less about their own city than tourists do.. shame.

little girl wasn't too into the game.

He was though. Game for everyone. Young and old.

Went to go eat food after this shot. I don;t know who won. But i got my fill and went back to Kowloon park and took more photos..Aviary to be specific.

Everyone likes birds. =]

I could probably or should probably do some post work to my photos. But trying to sort and edit photos is a pain in the ass. esp for blogging. Sorry guys.. photoshop > automate > batch. is my friend =] and THOSE wire fence things i was telling you before, is what i was shooting thru.. hmm

At least I wasn't the only person alone on xmas =] It was fairly warm. Lots of people wanted ice cream.

Only ice cream and sundays. No hot food.

Found another pond. This was was epic.

This side had ducks.

AHHH!!! ^_^ i like ducks..

duck...duck...goose.

Bro had a sigmonster.. 150-500mm... hmmm

It sure would have come in handy.. Anyways.. the other side..

Do you know what they are..?

yes. Flamingos. epic.

I have too many photos of them.. so did these guys.

Little friend having a bath.

She liked the Flamingoes. Had enough of this place.. continued on..

I like taking photos of people taking photos.. its a thing i have.

Big fountain. Lots of people. very pretty.

I dunno who they were.. if anyone but they were being photographed. I think it was like a group of guys with lots of good gear on a photo taking adventure.. the dude in the red was the leader.. haha I didn't join.. didn;t want to show them up.. *cough*

By this time i had had enough of Kowloon Park. Left and headed towards the Harbour.

Still fairly busy on xmas day. as usual in HK

this is I. should smile more often.

Fishballs anyone? Had walked a little further by now..

mainlanders..

This dude was there for a good 5mins setting up before running back to join the photo (tall dude, 2nd left) i probably should have offered to take the photo for him instead of having him put it on a tripod. However i must say, it was a good effort to have noone walk thru the image. Hope it turned out nice.

Nice place here. lots of people get married on xmas day.

Lots of photographers too.

100%... mainlander.. i should photoshop something underneath her...

Very smoggy.. what started as a beautiful blue skied day had become this.. really the whole view was like this..

I probably should've posted this a little to see it better but.. thats how it was.. very smoggy.. but it created an almost dream like feel to the image..

I am fortunate enough to take this photo.. my new personal favourite.. don't know why.. but.. really.. i love it. should've given them a copy.. but too late now.. well.. that's where i'll leave it for tonight. on a happy note, and that christmas can really bring the best out of people. family and love. i'm glad i had this day off to experience it and capture it. i'd be happy to spend 10 more xmas's alone if i could get 10 more shots like this. well.. I like it... a LOT... Hope you all enjoyed your Xmas. The next post will probably be pre xmas.. i'm all over the shot.. whatever..

Ciao ciao.

more of HK pt.II

2009-12-26T01:22:00.000+11:00

OK.. likei promised i'd get back to part 2 of HK.. theres probably not that much to see, but i'm sure i'll drag it out and make something of it.. where were we last.. oh i dunno but we'll just start from new..
We went to Time Square,

I don't know what was going on here, but there were lots of cameras and vid cameras filming it and interviews going on.. I dunno who this guy is, but he must've been saying something epic cos everyone clapped super loud for him.. hmmm, but yeah, we went in side and we saw little Christmas decorations.

I wanted to give mine a kiss. Len wanted more..

-_-" sigh..

The girls had a nice photo with the creature things.

We sort of split up and went our own separate ways. WK and I and Len and the girls did their own thing. I went to Fortress to window shop as WK was after an HDD for all the bloody video he was shooting. MJPEG eats up space.. 1min = 800MB-1GB fk that.. Well while WK was doing his own thing i got distracted by the sony party shooter.. or whatver its called. Epic.

SOOO cool, i want one.. It like face tracks and takes photos when you smile. Hence my smiling. =]

After we got our shit done, had to pee.

FML.. The mens bathroom was on the next floor, at the opposite end of where we were.. but we got there eventually, Crisis over. By the time we left Times Square it was dark. It gets dark early here. But the night time is just as, or even sometimes, brighter than the day. its Odd.

We went there next. I didn't take photos.. i'm sure you know what kind of things were in there..

I like taking photos at night time. I love the 50mm too =]. So cheap, so good. Had enough of Times Square, off to LFK. Back on the MTR.

Back to taking photos, wk too this time. =]

Dania.

We'd been strolling around for a while trying to find LFK, didn't know it'd be that difficult.. Len was a bit agitated by this time i think ahaha ah well, he'll be right. We walked up this hill, turned round a corner and found a 7/11. Bought some beer and asked where LKF was. It was back down this hill. sigh.. but we got there eventually.

It was busy, and this couple were getting their photo taken. FYI if you didn't know. The lady in purple is holding up the photogs flash and aiming it at the couple. I think it woulda been a really nice shot. I didn't have a good look at the back of his LCD, but in my head it woulda looked good.

Something about this. dunno. like it.

We pretty much came and had a look where Lan Kwai Fong was and went back home, we were all carrying luggage of some sort and it was fair late so we went back. But we knew where it was now. Ran into something cool on the way back.

see it? if not, here's a better view.

lol, i shit you not. i was like GTFO! but its there.. i'm a comedian =] haha epic. No idea how the guys saw it, but they did and informed me of it. good times.

That was pretty much the end of the day/night

short and sweet.

Ciao.

Moving Homes

2009-12-25T00:37:00.000+11:00

So today is the day i moved out from my Aunty's house to my OTHER aunties apartment closer in the city.
I'll be living alone as my Aunty has gone to Malaysia for holiday and I am left behind for Christmas alone! oh well.. This apartment is my Aunty Angela's and is basically her spare house which has become a storage room for all her stuff.. i'm not joking.. She's... how can we put it... well off.. So i've moved into her 'storage room' and will be here for the next 10 days or so. I was a bit excited to move but now the novelty has worn off. There is no supermarkets in this area of town, so i can't buy food to cook for myself, the TV doesn't work and i dont get how the hot water works.. sigh... troublesome..

Anyways, this is my bed and the view i have. Don't get me wrong, this is a beautiful apartment sort of thing.. Big bed, theres a kitchen and bathroom behind me. Clean it up and it'd be a perfect place to live.

Anyways, the thought of spending Christmas alone this year made me a little reminiscent, so i went for a walk down the road just to explore and get my mind off things for a while.

At my current location, the apartment is situated on a steep hill.. Luckily this guy was walking down the hill not pushing up. But yes.. steep none the less.

Up the top of the street they're building again.. For those who don't know, in Asia and Hong Kong they use Bamboo to hold up that green security mesh and basically create a bamboo skeleton of the building, i wondered how many acres of land had to be cleared to create enough bamboo for one building. Then times that by a few thousand, and you get an understanding of how much of the earths natural resources we are destroying for our own needs. All that bamboo.. poor pandas..

I'm sure they reuse the bamboo. I hope they do. I mean.. it is amazing how strong this stuff is, and the people of Hong Kong obviously think so too, if they walk and hang stuff off them 300+ feet in the air.

scooter struggled to get up the hill with his pizza delivery.

There's a street market just down the road. They all look the same to me. Probably are. Saw a pretty girl walk past. She was holding another one in her arms. I'm sure it was in the bag earlier but wanted some air to breathe.

Lots of trolleys on the streets of Hong Kong.

Even sweet potato trolleys =]

Was going to grab a bite at this restaurant, but she poked her head out. I took a photo instead.

Something about this playground in the middle of a metropolis made me think for a while. I should've HDR'd it but got lazy and pulled the detail out from the shadows. Looks a bit ugly, but whatever.

More trolleys.. Love shooting from the hip. Bloody cameras are too obvious, however i can't afford a Leica M9. I think i can live without one. I saw Santa today.

Outside Fortress =] too bad he didn't give me anything from inside the store.. Looks like he lost a bit of weight. Unlike myself.. shit..

Catfood, but no cats today.. I hope it was left for the cats ad not eaten by people. But then again.. some food is better than none. I walked up those stairs.. it was fucken scay.. so i came back down, felt like i was being watched.. no joke.. *shiver* stick to the main roads..

I like dogs.

Went to Pacific Place in Admiralty.. There are NO supermarkets around here.. fml.. only LV, Coach, Prada.. have to MTR it to another suburb, where, I don't know.. 711 is good enough. Anyways, Pacific Place.

So so pretty. Can you guess what they're doing?

Yes. Playing the bells. They actually sounded good. Played some classic Christmas songs to the tune of Bells. There's a skill to it. Really.

This guy would know.

Mr. Conductor.

70-200 f2.8 VRI...<3

If only my camera were a little bit better.. =] soon.. soon.. But yeah.. 70-200 love it.. best $2k spent.. bargain at that too.

The.. bell ringers?

love you 70-200... My artistic interpretation of the bell ringers and christmas lol. ahhh well.. love the bokeh though.

Saw santa again, but i didn't like this one as much..

hmmmmm... s...e...r...i...a...l...... K.......... no.. santa doesn't do that.. but FUCk he looks scary..

I live down there somewhere.. anyways, Merry Christmas to you all. Enjoy it. I shall spend the day doing.. what i do most days.. ;)

I'll photos up soon.