Food For Thought

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.

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

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.