Hong Kong, two albums

Clouds over Hong Kong, 20 March 2011

Running a little bit behind with the albums... here's the second and first album from Hong Kong. Click on the photos to view the 17 photos from the second album (photo above) and the 13 photos from the first album (photo below).

Taking a break, in Kowloon Park, Hong Kong, 18 March 2011

Click here for the total index.

Slideshow

Added somewhat of a slideshow to the main album page. Some of my own personal favorites. They are randomized, which means the order in which they are shown will change every time you refresh the page. You can click on any of them to see the full version.

Turns out there was an error in the photobrowser code, causing Firefox not to show that last thumbnail with 'Info' on it if you viewed an album. That one is fixed.

The 'Info' thumbnail produces a page with some info about the album and a background story if there is one. The info page also shows any related albums.

Also, you might have spotted it already, the first album of Hong Kong is online.

For the album with 13 photos click on the photo and for the story click on the very last thumbnail in the album.

Festival

Although technically some of the photos in the next 'new' album do not meet my self imposed present day standards, I show them anyway, since some of them do reflect the atmosphere of the event quite well. Also the resizing to 'bigger' doesn't help some of them, so not all photos are resized in this album (mostly the portrait ones).

It also contains a few new ones not shown before.

For the album click on the photo and for the story click on the very last thumbnail in the album.

Downside Up

Was playing around with older photos from Zoo Kuala Lumpur.

Was concentrating on this one:

Not great, bad lighting, black creatures lit from above hanging upside down at the wrong time of day with the sun full out. Makes it hard to see any details or their heads and the contrast is harsh. Fill flash might have worked, but I wasn't that advanced back then.

I do have flashes now for the Canon, but I hardly use them.

They're inconvenient, too much hassle, and with a bit of a lens they propel the camera to 2 kilos. Let alone the fact that flash photography is darn complicated. As if taking a good photo isn't difficult enough...

Truth though is that this photo was taken with a Canon EOS 40D, which has the built in flash, I simply didn't realise I should use it during the day...

Anyway, playing around with the photo I thought: what if I turn the picture over, like they were standing?

And I found the result to be quite interesting (note that the crop is a bit different, so this one has more bats):

They transform into these elegant fashion models, wrapped in designer clothing, with the one in the corner about to break into dance (and perhaps song)... little Grace Jones'... you can almost see him tip-toeing around the others on some Tchaikovsky...

They also seem more vulnerable, standing up, and less intimidating... these guys just eat fruit by the way, so they're quite harmless...

Amazing faces also these bats. They somehow reminded me a bit of pictures of Egyptian gods, and after some googling it turns out I was thinking of Anubis, ancient Egyptian god, protector of the deceased and their tombs. The guy with the jackal head...

Still the not so great lighting, that didn't change :-)

Anyway, thought I should share...

Click on any of the photos above for the full new album of Zoo Kuala Lumpur with 21 photos.

Qibao

The next reworked album is not for the squeamish, vegetarians or devout animal lovers.

They better not click on the photo, which in itself looks harmless: the album behind it isn't, especially with the bigger size photos...

Don't say I didn't warn you if you choose to ignore these words (and note that despite my somewhat dry sense of humour, I'm really only partially kidding here)...

It was the next - rather gloomy - day in Shanghai, visiting Qibao... from that same brochure:

Located in the center of Minhang District of Shanghai, only 18 kilometers (11.18 miles) from the downtown area, Qibao Ancient Town can satisfy your curiosity about ancient water townships without the bother of either long distance or the rush of crowds. As the only ancient town forming part of greater Shanghai, with a history spanning over one thousand years, Qibao is more than just a living fossil of ancient Chinese conurbation and urban planning.

The town was built in Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126) and grew into a prosperous business center during Ming (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911). Qibao is the Chinese for 'seven treasures' and there are two popular theories about its derivation. The more reliable one says that the name originates from the Qibao Temple, famed for its good reputation. It was this that contributed to the growth of business and culture of the previously unknown town. The other theory seems more popular among the local people who tell folk tales about seven treasures. These were an iron Buddha made in Ming Dynasty, a bronze bell also dating from the Ming Dynasty but said to have mysteriously appeared from nowhere, a Gold Script Lotus Sutra written by an imperial concubine of the 10th century, a one-thousand-year-old Chinese catalpa tree, a jade axe, a gold cockerel and a pair of jade chopsticks. Actually of these seven treasures, the existence of only first four can be verified while only the Scripture and the bell have survived to this day.

Click on the photo to see the whole album...

Click here for the total index.

Favorites?

Sometimes people ask me: what are your own personal favorites?

Well, actually nobody has ever asked me that, but let's pretend...

I have a bunch, with some favorite-favorites, so when they ask me that question I always show them at least this one:

Or, depending on my mood, this one:

No just kidding... Charlie is cool, but he's no match...

I meant 'or this one':

If you stare at it a bit you can almost hear the silence... I think it's the still water responsible for that effect... anyway...

The weather was nasty.

It was cold - December, around 5 degrees Celsius - and drizzling almost the whole day. My shoes were soaking, the water was creeping up my trousers and my mood wasn't too great after slouching through the rain with only 4 hours of sleep.

But that all lifted pretty quickly when I saw the scenery.

And there are some advantages to not so great weather: less tourists polluting the nice scenes and the rain and mist do give a different atmosphere you won't find in the brochures.

It's Zhouzhuang, an hour drive from Shanghai, also called 'the Venice of China'... you can see why...

From a Chinese travel brochure:

Zhouzhuang, one of the most famous water townships in China, situated in Kunshan City which is only 30 kilometers (18 miles) southeast of Suzhou. It is noted for its profound cultural background, the well preserved ancient residential houses, the elegant watery views and the strong local colored traditions and customs. In the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC), Zhouzhuang was a part of the fief Yaocheng and called Zhenfengli. After being donated to Full Fortune (Quanfu) Temple by Zhou Digong, a very devout Buddhist, in 1086 during the Northern Song Dynasty (960 - 1127), Zhouzhuang got its present name as a memorial of the donor. In an area of half a square kilometer (124 acres), 60 percent of the Zhouzhuang's structures were built during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which is from 1368 to 1911.

These photos are from one of the reworked Shanghai 2007 albums, click on any of the photos above, to see them all.

Click here for the total index. You'll find all the reworked and new albums under 'New albums' (how convenient...).

Terengganu

Turns out that after my trip to Terengganu, I left out some nice ones, like the one shown here. Not sure why, maybe I was rushing things...

Click on the photo above to see some new material and reworked photos of Terengganu, in total 21 photos...

Also redesigned the album page, have a look here for that one.

Like cleaning a window...

This reworking of photos seems a bit like cleaning a window: once you do a little bit you have to do the whole thing (that's why I usually don't touch my windows... ever...)

I used to process my Canon RAWs with DPP (Canon's software), but since I got the hang of Adobe's Lightroom a bit, I seem to get better results.

I don't think it's DPP versus Lightroom though, but me probably, paying a little bit more attention to the end result. Although Lightroom does seem more subtle with the possible tweaks.

On the other hand, DPP seems easier when it comes to getting the colours right. Not sure why. Just a feeling, or perhaps a matter of 'being used to'. This whole post processing business is rather subjective I guess.

I don't particularly like to use two applications for processing photos, that's another consideration, so this was also a bit of an experiment to see what Lightroom could do with the Canon RAW files. Lightroom can handle both Canon and Leica (DNG files), but DPP can only handle Canon, so Lightroom it is for now.

So, on I went... another album resized and reprocessed, some photos removed, some added...

Click on the photo to see this album with 13 'new' photos from 25 December 2009...

Elephants once more

And in the spirit of the monkeys I also reworked the elephants.

Some more detailled post processing, and the full version is bigger.

Click here - or on the photo above - for the 20 photos in this album.

Click here for the total index.

New albums

Have been restructuring a bit...

Albums now go through the photobrowser.

You'll see a little thumbnail list on the left side. You can scroll through the list with your mouse wheel if you keep your mouse above the thumbnails, or by clicking on the little arrows to the left of the list.

You can also navigate through the photos by clicking on a thumbnail, or by clicking on the buttons at the bottom of the list. Those will present the previous or the next photo. Note that loading of the photo might take a while, especially on the full version.

Tested all this new php stuff in IE8, FireFox 4 and Safari, and they all seem to function properly. Haven't tested it on Chrome or Opera.

A recently added album is of a trip to the East Coast and Sungai Lembing.

Click here - or on the photo above - to view the 23 photos.


Monkeys

I also reworked the monkey album.

New post processing and upscaling the size a bit. You've probably seen most of it already, but if you're interested in the bigger versions, click here - or on the photo above - for the 22 photos in this album.

Click here for the total index.

Not all albums go through the photobrowser yet...

Shanghai 2010, album III

And finished the third album of my August trip to Shanghai.

Click here for the album with some 12 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Shanghai 2010, album I

And finished the first album of my August trip to Shanghai.

Click here for the album with some 26 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Singapore 2010, album

And already for a while in the photo list on the right, here the album of a recent trip to Singapore.

Click here for the album with some 21 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Port Dickson, album

Here some photos of a recent trip to Port Dickson, on the west coast. Photos taken on 15th of May 2010.

Click here for the album with some 14 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Terengganu, album

And here the second album of the trip to the east coast, Kuantan and Terengganu, the end of December 2009. Photos taken on 26th, 27th and 28th of December.

Click here for the album with some 21 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Small harbour in Kuantan, album

And here the album of the trip to the east coast, Kuantan and Terengganu, the end of December 2009. Photos taken on 25th of December.

Click here for the album with some 13 photos.

Click here for the total index.

East Coast II, third day - album

And here finally the third day of a second trip to the east coast last year...

Click here for the album with some 22 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Elephant orphanage, the album

And here's the album of Kuala Gandah...

Click here for the album with some 22 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Beijing, the final album

And here's the last album of Beijing, the seventh and eight day.

Those were two rather lazy days. Done with all the tourist sites we just walked the city center and one of the outer areas which turned out to be a sort of little Russia, with a lot of fur industry going on. Quite a depressing neighbourhood actually, with a lot of ugly buildings. Not many photos of that day.

Click here for the album with some 17 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Phnom Penh album II

And here's the second and third day.

Click here for the album.

Click here for the total index.