15mm DA Limited Test

After October, I didn't shoot much. Then Pentax offered a photowalk & I tried out the 15mm DA Limited lens. I read all sort of nice things about this lens online. How it has pixie dust and I had a bit of lens buying addition kick in. Only things that held me back was I wasn't about to spend so much on a lens.

It is a nice little lens. Small and light. Once mounted to my camera, I started holding my dslr with just my right hand. Although it is a gem of a lens, it is quite hard to use since I'm not used to such wide angles. And my composition is rather crappy. With the 15mm DAL, it became more apparent to me.

With software nowadays, you can correct almost everything except motion blur, mis-focussed and composition. You can do much with a badly composed photo. You get all sorts of things in the frame.

Anyway, here are 2 shots with this lens.
 

And old tree
 

With help from an experienced eye, I was guided to get this shot. I would have missed it totally.

A wide angle lens is an interesting lens. You really have to move around to get the proper angle, lighting and a host of other distractions out of your photo. One more thing. You have to be literally in someone's face to to get close enough.

Running In The Dark

Got up early to photograph Run For The Nation 2011, RunNat for short. The run starts at 5am.



I planned to shoot the runners against some interesting background. In the end, that did not really work out since I have to drive runners back after a segment in the run. Lost the other runners after that. Having a camera that don't focus well in such low light levels didn't really help either. This is one of those situation where a camera with better auto focus and clean high ISO is required. Anyone want to sponsor a Pentax K-5?

Got this shot using a 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/2.8 ISO 1,600. Not really a great shot in my opinion.

Thumbs Up for a Good Book

Took this photo when I needed an image of a bookmark for a website. I didn't use this one since you can read the short write up. Thinking back, perhaps I should. Words make the image more interesting. Maybe I'll change the image on my website. By the way, the bookmark is made of leather from Australia. It is a bit old and therefore a bit dark. May have to redo this photo to see the other eye.

Charles Swindoll book is great too.  The one you see above is a compilation of 3 books titled "The Quest for Character", "Improving Your serve" and "Strengthening Your Grip" You can get Charles Swindoll's material here.

Discussing The Future

The economy at the moment is full of uncertainty. Many are concern about the Eurozone debt and if it would affect Malaysians. Discussion at the mamak restaurant circles around the issues and what to do.



Candid shot taken at a coffee shop. Not enough separation.

You can't enter here

Tight security on the 10th anniversary of Sept 11. This photo was taken on Sept 11, 2011 at Bukit Bintang area, Kuala Lumpur. The first time I took part on a photo walkabout organized by members of PhotoMalaysia.com

The theme for the shoot is something to do with Sept 11. At first, the only thing I could think about it damaged building, plane crash etc. How does one find that in the heart of KL.

The next best thing I could come up with is security. So we walked around shooting security guards till I got this nice sign at the Pavillion. Managed to get this shot. Did you notice another palm behind the Security Check sign? It was just a coincidence.
 

Butterflies Flying At Night

Butterflies at night. No they don't really fly at night. Only fake ones do.



Painted with light.

Dry Flower In The Dark

I tried out the FA 50mm f 1.4 lens and was really impressed by its sharpness. Off course, I can only compare it to the 18 - 55mm zoom. If I see the photo below at 100% crop at the base of the vase, I'm truly impressed. This has really gotten me to look at prime lens more than a zoom.



This bunch of dried flowers sits on my coffee table. Lit with a LED torchlight that gives out white light, I had a bit of fun experimenting with lighting it from the top and the side.

Butterflies In The Dark

I've often wondered what butterflies do at night. Do they sleep? Or do they just find some flowers and wait there till morning? Or are they as busy as us? I found out that they like to be photographed. The fake ones anyway.

I took the vase into the bedroom and set it away from the wall. We have a lot of windows so the room wasn't totally dark and I worked quickly to the this photo.

ISO 200, f/7.1 Shutter 6 sec

Been Thinking Lately

 

I've been doing a bit of thinking lately. Since I don't have much time to shoot outdoors, I decided to shoot this fella. He's been created to think, this wooden sculpture. I didn't have a model so he's the next best choice.

Shot at ISO 200, f8, 6 sec, lit with a LED torchlight

Checking Your Shutter Count

Finally, wanted to find out how many shots I've taken with the K100d. I downloaded Exiftool. Exiftool is a command line tool. Unzip that file. I do not know whether the path Exiftool is specific in Windows. Since the tool is small & you do not need to install it, my suggestion is to just cut & paste Exiftool to a temporary directory. Copy & paste your photo to the same directory. Go to Start Menu, Programs, Accessories and click on Command Prompt. Change the directory to where your temporary directory is located. Then type "exiftool imagename.jpg" You have to type in the full filename including the .jpg or .pef etc.

Here's my shutter count

Besides the shutter count, you can also see things like circle of confusion, your hyper focal distance, view of view. Have a blast.

Then I check up on the photo before the K100d was handed to me & I realized the shutter count was around 3,600. Practically brand new. In a span of 7 month, I've shot closed to 6,300 shots. Off course I bracketed my shots for HDR & shot a bunch of photos to stitch a few panoramas.

By the way, the photo I took was really crappy so I'd rather not post it up here.

Caught a Porsche

Had my camera by my side wanting to shoot something today. Just about to reach home when I saw this dark Porsche. I hope it would slow down & it did. I grabbed my camera and just shot it. Adjusted exposure since the K100d likes to under expose, tone curve, split tone and added a vignette.

Butterfly Resting After The Rain

A heavy thunderstorm hit our home suddenly. One moment it was hot and bright. Then next moment, the wind was howling and rain poured down. After the rain, a butterfly rested on our orchid to dry its wings. Allowed me to capture a few shots.

It flew off after my last shot. Without a proper lens and with the light fading, this is the best shot I got.

Used to see quite a few of these butterfly years ago when I shot film. Nowadays, don't see them around so often.

ISO 800, handheld, f/5.6, shutter 1/40sec 55mm

Reflection 2

Got another quick shot at Sentul Park during the Sunrise Easter service.



Since there were some friends with us, I didn't really go all out for photo. There are some nice old buildings there that I'm sure will produce some interesting photos. Maybe another day.

Reflection

Two sides to everything


This photo was taken in Kota Kinabalu at the river mouth. We had seafood at the place. At first I wasn't really happy with this photo until I saw it on the computer screen. A bit of tweak here and there and a  mirror image came out. I loved the way the tones came out. YMMV.

The seafood was not that great actually and pricey. The other location nearby was better but next time.

Unexpected

Was looking to shoot landscapes & panorama. Shot this instead.



ISO 200, kit lens, f/4.5 Shutter 1/200sec

Backyard Photo

I've been showing quite a bit of photo from our travel. Here's one just 10 minutes walk from my home.

Kota Kinabalu

We took a short trip to Kota Kinabalu. It is an amazing place for photography. I guess once you are away from the city and smog, the sky is just so much prettier. Don't you think so?



And the sunset is simply amazing.

Vietnam - Part 1

We took a longish holiday by our standards to visit Vietnam. We did not have any real breaks for about 18 months and decided we needed to relax. While Europe was considered, the exchange rates would have created a large hole in our finances.

Finally after much back and forth, Vietnam was chosen since we haven’t been there. Since we booked our flights rather late, the flights to Hanoi are much more expensive. AirAsia to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) was much cheaper so the plan was to land in Ho Chi Minh and take a connecting flight via Jetstar Pacific to Hanoi. From Hanoi, we will visit Northern Vietnam and fly back to Ho Chi Minh for a few more days in the south. The places we wanted to visit in the north included Halong Bay, Sapa, Ninh Binh and Tam Coc. We spent considerable time researching the Hanoi and the surrounding area & thought that we can plan for the south once we are there.

That plan did not work out so we had to alter our plans. Before we left for Vietnam, the weather forecast showed low temperatures. Sapa in the mountains had temperature ranging between 5 to 15 deg C. So we were debating whether should we head to the mountains there. Since we are backpacking, we wanted our plans to be flexible.

“We are millionaires the moment we converted some RM to Vietnam Dong. A million dong is about RM 160”

 

 

While we read about crazy drivers in Vietnam, for us, it began with a crazy taxi right in Malaysia. Flight to Ho Chi Minh was uneventful until we landed in Tan Son Nhat International Airport. After getting our luggage, we found out that the flight to Hanoi was delayed for 12 hours. After spending some time to look for alternatives, we were told the flight was cancelled all together. Having read the reviews about Jetstar in Vietnam, our conclusion is that if your travel plans are not as flexible, it is better to pay more and fly Vietnam airlines.

The cancelled flight was also a blessing in disguise since we later found out that the temperature up north in Sapa went to as low as 1 deg C. Apparently, a cold front hit the north and we met travelers leaving the north due to the cold.

Having decided to skip the north, we took a cab to Ho Chi Minh city to get a room and to plan our next move. We went to Pham Ngu Lao St which is the centre of District 1, where there are plenty of hotels and is the practically the centre of Ho Chi Minh city.

After we checked in, we got online to see our options and went for a walk around Ho Chi Minh. Banh Thanh market is about 10 minutes walk from the hotel. It sells all sorts of things including t-shirts, souvenirs, food, bags etc. One thing that was cheap is bags. A large backpack can cost only about RM 50 odd. That’s before we bargain. Apparently, if you can speak a bit of Vietnamese, it will be even cheaper since Banh Thanh seems to cater to tourist. Malaysian chinese can pass off as locals since many people speak to us in Vietnamese until we open our mouth.

There are nice parks in the middle of the city and we came back to this park later on since the Reunification Palace and War Museum is nearby.

We didn’t have time to visit the Reunification Palace since they close at 4pm. In Vietnam, when they close, the people there literally shoo you out of the building.

In the midst of tranquility, you are surrounded by traffic like these below. Crossing the road is quite an experience.

 

We wanted to buy some bread from this stall but changed our minds when we saw this.

Why roadside food can be hazardous to health

At first, we thought of giving the Mekong delta a miss but with quite a bit of time on our hands, we decided to book a 2 day tour to the upper and lower Mekong Delta for day 2 and 3. The tour including 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, hotel and transportation to & fro costs USD 19 per pax.

Breakfast at Orient Hotel Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), Vietnamese bread, sausages, tea, banana

Morning traffic in Ho Chi Minh

Included in the Mekong tour are the small boat ride, honey farm, rice noodle making factory, coconut candy factory and visiting floating markets.

Making coconut candy

Rice noodle factory

Determined to sell something, Mekong floating market

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