KFC

Women at KFC...

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Aerobics

Had to compromise on the quality here to keep the upload small. The quality of the movies of the new camera is amazing, but the files are huge. The original was 300mb, for only about a minute of movie. Uploading that would take too long.

Complication of filming with the camera is the focus, which isn't set automatically. So during filming I have to do it manually, which account for the sometimes fuzzy images - clearly not used to using the camera for movies.

In the real movies they have someone for that, called 'the focus puller'. I had to do it myself... :-)

This was just some testing and playing around with new features of the camera, not meant as a 'keeper'. But I hadn't counted on the younger girls passing by, which made it quite funny (if you're me), so I decided to show it...

I'm not fully sure how this player works, but after hitting the play button and a bit of 'Buffering...' it should start playing...

Mind the volume though, it's quite loud...

Beijing album I

And here's the first album of Beijing, the first day with some 19 photos.

Visitors from China will have trouble with these albums, since the used domain is blocked there. They can click here, but will have to click around more to get to the bigger versions of the photos.

Entrance

Entrance to the Forbidden City at the Jingshan park side...

Click on the photo for an extra big version...

Generations

Click on the photo for the bigger version...

Posing in the Park

Found her in Jingshan park... sadly she belonged to another photographer, but that didn't stop me... And although he did give me some dirty looks when I snapped away (my lens was way bigger), I think she liked me... :-)

Close up...

Click on the photos for the big version... first one is a bit larger than usual...

Beijing ducks, not yet roasted...

Ducklings in a box... being sold on a market...

Inspecting the merchandise, chicklets in a bag, being sold from another box...

(click on the photos for the big version...)

The Scorpions II

And for the people who think I was brave, I wasn't brave enough to nibble on a black one... those were a bit too much... Click on the pic for the big one...

The Great Wall

Yesterday we climbed the wall.

The scenery is amazing.

We took the train, from Beijing North Train Station, which looked rather new. I had read about it on the Internet and the cab driver kept insisting there was no train to the wall from there. I pushed for it anyway, and it turned out there were trains almost every hour. It's a beautiful ride. A big train, very new and modern, with big windows almost all the way to the floor, so you can enjoy the scenery. Half way when it enters the mountains it slows down to begin its climb. My guess is that it climbs at least 500 meters, if not more.

From the Badaling station it's about 800 meters walk to the entrance of the wall.

Even in the mountains there's a lot of dust and sand in the air, which makes the view look very foggy, but that hardly spoils the magnificence of it all...

Here's a few pictures...

Beijing North Train Station

First view of the mountains, photo taken from the train...

First view of the wall, photo taken from the train...

View from the wall...

Part of the wall...

Click on the photos for the bigger version...

The Scorpions

Yummy...

Click on the photo for a bigger version

Vietnam - Hanoi album III

And the second day of Vietnam is finished.
Click here to view the album...

Spin

Took the new camera out for a spin last night.

And although still without the lens I need to get before China (the 50mm) - and therefore stuck with the 35mm (which acted like a 50mm on the old camera - I really like that 35mm lens, it's tiny, light, acts great in darker circumstances with its F2, and it gives the pics a strange quality I find difficult to describe. It's like it renders the pictures less glossy than my other lenses), it produced some cool photos quality wise.

Obviously wider than on my old camera (which I already explained in this nerdy post)...

The colors are great, lots of details, and on the higher ISO it really produces much better pictures than the old one.

And since Refie would kill me if I show you the photos of him eating an icecream, he's only visible as a body in a grey T-shirt...

The Bag Man...

Japanese Pepper Lunch for Dinner... Friendly girl at the counter, who went a bit shy when I pointed the camera at her...

Cook it yourself...

Side of a building... to be redone properly with a more wide angled lens one of these evenings...

Click on the photos for the bigger version...

Kampung Budaya

Kampung Budaya is a cultural village on Sarawak. At a beautiful location - between misty mountains - they portrait the lifestyle of the Iban, one of the indigenous tribes of Sarawak.

I feared some tacky theme park, as some of these places in the west can be, but it was done in a very tasteful fashion. No MacDonald's half way...

I'm currently working on the pictures of that day, here's a few. The full album hopefully online soon. This was last year, 17th of February 2008...

Long house... this can also be seen 'for real' on Sarawak, not just in this park...

Weaving...

Making some sort of rice cookie... the end product is visible in the basket on the left...

Click on the photos for a bigger version...

Droplets

And what is this then?

Well, it's water on one of my plates in my kitchen, after a droplet had bounced off. Isn't it amazing?

So there I was, holding Peng's water dispenser, messing around with plates and light, the camera on a tripod, trying to take a picture of a water droplet... I saw it on television, on one of my trips, lazing around in the hotel room. Some amazing pictures taken with a high speed camera of bouncing water droplets. And then I thought: let's try that too...

It was my first attempt tonight, so give me a break. The lighting is not good, the pics are underexposed, because I needed a very fast shutter time, and the focus can probably improve... I'll get there.

It was an interesting first experiment.

Funny enough, the photos are taken with the old camera, since I don't have a macro lens for the new one yet...


The droplet, almost free...


Yes! My first droplet(s)!


Aftermath...

As usual, click on the photos for a bigger version...

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For the technically inclined and for all the droplet photos:

Canon EOS 40D
Canon EF-S 60mm macro lens
F2.8
ISO 250
1/1000 sec

Those Towers II

In this entry I showed you one of my personal favorites of the towers.

And since the hamsters started to bother some people (I will not mention names here :-) - they left my place in good health by the way, dad is still here, but mum and her kids are gone), today I'm showing you a picture I'm not sure of. It's one of the towers from a less obvious perspective, also during the evening... I just can't make up my mind about it, which usually isn't a good sign...

Click on the photo for the bigger version...

Peng and Ping and Offspring - The Album

With some unseen shocking new material!

Click here, for the ultimate hamster experience and view them all!

The good life

My hair looks good, so nice and straigth up, it didn't even need gel this morning... yeah baby, I'm bad, I'm a bad bad boy, maybe I'll go club tonight in The Wheel! And wow you know, I'm really enjoying this thing I'm eating...? This crazy thing... erm... this... well, whatever it is, who cares, it's just too crazy dude! Yum yum...
*nibble*

Click on bad Ping Ping for the bigger version


Think I need to check those seeds!

Nosey

What the hell is this thing?

Where Peng Peng wonders what a nose is exactly...

Click on the photo for a big version...

Vietnam - Hanoi album II

And here's the second album.

Vietnam - Hanoi album

Finished up the Hanoi photos, and here's the first album.