Go to China

I just found this website.
GO TO CHINA

There are some great photos and basic information on there, check it out!

Flickr Fun

Hi to Michelle over at Bleeding Espresso :)

Here is my flickr fun grid. I have omitted some of the questions though.

1. What is your favorite food? Italian
2. What is your favorite color? Light aqua
3. Who is your celebrity crush? Paul Walker
4. Favorite drink? Isotonic drink
5. Dream vacation? Mayan Riviera
6. Favorite dessert? Cheesecake
7. What you want to be when you grow up? Librarian
8. What do you love most in life? Photography
9. One Word to describe you. Unique

1. Italian Job Set, 2. light aqua, 3. Paul Walker, 4. No Sweat, 5. Mayan Riviera - Aventura Spa, 6. cheesecake, 7. Librarian, 8. 23.366 I have an eye for photography, 9. pathway to heaven

Turning a child's artwork into a photo

I've been busy lately and have lots of entries in my head, just have to find time to do them all, hopefully in a few days time.

Meanwhile, I found this through one of the fifty billion blogs I read...

It's a Korean artist/photographer's attempt to recreate children's drawings. I am totally amazed. How much effort it would require to style a photoshoot like that? But I love the fun atmosphere, the quirkiness, the whimsicalness (is that a word?), the creativity, the colours, the cuteness, everything!

The Bund

Link

The Bund (simplified Chinese: 外滩, pinyin: Wàitān) is an area of Huangpu District in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The area centres on a section of Zhongshan Road (East-1), which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent areas.
The Bund is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai. Building heights are restricted in this area.

The word "Bund" means an embankment or an embanked quay, and comes from the Urdu word band, meaning an embankment, levee or dam (a cognate of English terms, bind and band, German term, bund, etc.). "Bund" is pronounced to rhyme with "fund". "The Bund" as a proper noun almost invariably refers to this stretch of embanked riverfront in Shanghai.

The Shanghai Bund has dozens of historical buildings, lining the Huangpu River, that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from Britain, France, the U.S., Russia, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the consulates of Russia and Britain, a newspaper, the Shanghai Club and the Masonic Club. The Bund lies north of the old, walled city of Shanghai. This was initially a British settlement; later the British and American settlements were combined in the International Settlement. A building boom at the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century led to the Bund becoming a major financial hub of East Asia. The former French Bund, east of the walled city was formerly more a working harbourside.

The Bund was famously featured in novel Empire of the Sun by British author J.G. Ballard, based on his experiences as a boy during World War II. The book was later made into a film by Steven Spielberg.
The Bund is a setting (and namesake) of the Hong Kong television series The Bund (1980) and film Shanghai Grand (1996). The story of both involve pre-World War II era gangsters competing for control of the Bund.

Boring intro aside, I had been planning to go and take photos at the Bund for ages but since I'd been here over a year now I thought I'd better get my butt into gear - before the hideous extreme heat of the summer comes - to take nice sunset photos. This requires a bit of planning.

I consulted this site which has sunrise and sunset times (it's excellent and has any location in the world, I've used it many times before, every photographer should have it bookmarked IMHO). So I knew that the sun would set around 6:45pm which meant that the 'golden hour' would be around 5:15-5:45pm (it is usually 1-1.5 hours before sunset). I also knew that it would totally dark at 7:19pm.

I planned to get there at 4:30-5pm but I was running a bit late plus it took way longer to walk there that I thought (from Nanjing East Road station). I just read on some website that it takes 5 mins to walk there. I don't think so!! Maybe because I was hot and tired, and carrying a tripod. I don't know. But I definitely wasn't walking slow and it took me at least 15 mins to walk to the Bund. So by the time I got there (and being peak hour there were fifty billion people and cars everywhere too!) it was already after 5:30pm. About an hour after I left home. D'oh! Oh well. Still, not too bad, I was still in the 'golden hour' period.

At the time I got there there were sooooo many people milling about, mostly tourists but some locals too I think. I had to get someone to take a photo of me (since I was by myself) and just stayed awhile admiring the beautiful view, and the interesting people at the Bund...

After a while I moved further south so I could see the World Financial Center building more clearly. When that building is completed it'll be the third tallest building in the world, and tallest in China, and taking over the Jin Mao building for the tallest building in Shanghai.

On the way I looked across the road to all the former French/British/American buildings. Unfortunately there wasn't much to see because that whole area was a massive construction zone and you coud only see the buildings unobstructed in a few certain areas of the Bund.

Then, I found 'my spot' and then waited for it to get dark. I set up my tripod (which is as tall as me, at 1.65 metres). Then of course people stopped and stared at me, but I just ignored them (you kinda learn that skill very quickly in China, or if you take as many photos as I do!) So I left my tripod up for quite a while and took photos of the Bund view over the Huangpu river to Pudong. I also took some self portraits using the 10 sec self timer (yes geeky and embarrassing! but hey they turned out great!).

I also have to mention that I had this 'idea' of doing this for so long in my head but was worried about the safety aspect. Would someone run away with my camera or my handbag? Well I was pretty much 'on guard' the whole time keeping my eye on both but I wasn't overly paranoid or fanatical about it. I just had common sense and actually I did feel really really safe. Not once did I think I was going to get bag snatched or mugged or anything like that. In fact, everyone was really friendly towards me, and just curious and interested about what I was doing/what I was taking pictures of.

I had several people ask if I could take a photo for them and I was happy to do so, and emailed it to them. I also offered to take photos for couples (with their own camera) while I sat around waiting for the sky to get dark. I think they were very grateful (and I'd appreciate the same gesture as I know how annoying it can be when you're travelling with someone else and there is never anyone around to take a picture of the both of you and if there is they have CRAP skills (blurry, off centre, tilted, head cut off, horrible composition, etc) OR there's that thougth that they might run off with your camera ala that Mr Bean episode...)

Anyway so I was actually pretty tired standing the whole time after having walked all day from morning to afternoon, only going home for about an hour or so. I was busting to go to the toilet but had to keep holding it in. Aahh the joys of being a photographer.

After it got dark, the atmosphere was beautiful. People milling about, lovers kissing under the lamplight and my favourite weather, the cool breeze of a summer night. It reminded me of Sydney and in Hawaii where even though the day time can be quite hot, the night time is just lovely with temperatures in the low 20s which is just perfect.

There were lots of people selling things (which is illegal and they'll run away when the police comes through every so often) and I bought some cute intricate ox bone carving pendants. I bargained down to 30 RMB for 2 and then I realized that I should've paid more. I felt bad because it takes 2 hours to carve one so that's 30 RMB for 4 hours of work :(

Anyway I had loads of fun and I think my pics turned out pretty good, especially since I don't even have an SLR.



---

An expat (living in Wuxi)'s account of his visit to the Bund at sunrise here

I have two comments about what he wrote... the English in the taxi? Hahaha. "Welcome to take my taxi" and "Please don't forget anything you take" don't exactly make sense. LOL. And 15AUD for a haircut? My hubby goes to a little place across the road from our apartment and only pays 10 RMB (that's $1.50 AUD). He's been there dozens of times and is really happy with them. I do agree with the author in that they do a better job than in Australia, and you get a free head and shoulder massage every time!

Strange happenings at Flickr

Ah yes how I love Flickr. I've gotten a few requests from people representing certain companies wanting to use my photos for an article. This, I think, is highly flattering considering that I think compared to the rest of Flickr my photos aren't even that great. But still, it's good for an ego boost I guess :)

Anyway just got a msg from a girl from nowpublic.com wanting to use one of my pics for a strange but interesting story. Apparently Japan is using face recognition technology in their cigarette vending machines to determine if you are old enough (20 is the legal age) to buy them! Apparently it's accurate 90% of the time. The rest of the time they need you to scan in your driver's licence. Sounds pretty hi-tech to me although I doubt it would've worked for me considering when I was 28 I looked 18 (and now I look approx. 6-7 years younger than I really am).

In other news I did a pilates class. Naughty girl I should be doing this every week but only manage to do it once or twice a month. The class is nice and small (usually around 6-8 people) all housewives like myself ;) who else can attend a class at 10am on a weekday? Ah yes.. the life of a 'tai tai' who does nothing but go to beauty salons and manicurists. oh puh-leeze, we're too busy making sure our figures are nice and lean at the gym! hahaha. Well in the case of most women in China, it seems, most are naturally slim and lean anyway. Pilates is good for strengthening your stomach and back muscles and feels really good afterwards, but the next day I'm in so much pain.

Our apartment compound was collecting money on behalf of the Red Cross for those earthquake victims. I gave them everything I had in my wallet (I mean, how much money should one carry to the gym which is in/right next to my apartment anyway? Not much right... ) I gave them 150 RMB and felt quite proud of myself. There were donations ranging from 20 to 3000 RMB that I saw, most giving around 100 RMB.

Well I'm feeling good now, the weather is lovely, I now should make myself some lunch before heading out and doing something else to occupy my taitai life ;)

Hack your Canon P&S camera

I was reading this article which tells you how to "hack" your Canon point and shoot camera. It covers these models: A450
A460
A530
A540
A550
A560
A570
A610
A620
A630
A640
A650 IS
A700
A710 IS
A720 IS
S2 IS
S3 IS
S5 IS
G7
SD450 (IXUS55)
SD500 (IXUS700)
SD630 (IXUS65)
SD700 (IXUS800)
SD800 (IXUS850)
SD850 (IXUS950)
SD870 (IXUS860)
SD1000 (IXUS70)
TX-1

It looks really complicated to me but could be lots of fun for a geeky gadgety camera person!

Canon G9 revisited

Related post

Last Saturday we took my mother who was here visiting to our fave massage place. I got into a discussion with my mother's massage girl (who I picked out for her) about my camera. Turns out that she had that same camera as me (Did I also mention that I noticed some girl at the Nanhui blossom festival also had the same camera - I had no idea it was so well-known and popular). Now, when I bought it it was a brand new model so the most expensive it'll ever be. It was more expensive than Hong Kong or USA, but cheaper than Australia. Anyway so this girl tells me she also bought the G9 and I was really shocked because to me it was a lot of money but to her it must've been a mega huge fortune.

Anyway, it turns out her 2 year old son threw it out a window!!! Can you imagine? He likes playing with things and throwing things.. I was horrified. Gosh this poor girl who spent her life savings on a fairly expensive camera (expensive for a point&shoot anyway, and very expensive for an average Chinese person). I felt so heartbroken for her. But he's just a little kid who doesn't understand so what can you do? :( My mother took it upon herself to give her a lecture on parenting and not keeping expensive objects within his reach. haha.

Anyway, I'm thinking of getting a flash unit. One that will be compatible with Canon SLR models too. The 430Ex Speedlite is the smallest unit (current model) with a rotating head. It looks hilarious and kind of stupid this tiny camera with such a massive flash on it though!

Here is a good article about flash units for the G9.

Old Family Photos...

A 21.5 year old photo...

I've been sleeping in my grandfather's study slash spare room and just discovered that underneath all that clutter on his desk is a thick piece of glass and underneath that glass were some old family photos.

The photo is a bit blah because of the glass (there is no way I could move it) but you can just make out the people in it...

Across the back row:

The first three people on the left - I don't know who they are but I think they are my granduncle's family... (is that what you call your grandfather's brother?!)

Then, there is my granduncle (who has since passed away :( ), my grandfather, my great grandmother (who turned 90 then and has since passed away :( ), my grandfather (who I am staying with now), my mother, my grandmother, my uncle (aunt's husband), my uncle (who is here from Sydney now as well), and my father (who is here from Sydney now as well).

My aunt is missing (she probably took the photo), and my other uncle (and his family) who lives in California.

The three kiddies in the front row are: Me, my one and only sister, and my cousin (who is here now in Taiwan as well, from Sydney!).

Yes I know I bloody look anorexic and I can assure you I was well fed! I get my 'skinny genes' from my dad.. you can see how skinny his legs are too! (LOL) and also the socks thing... why my sister and I both had our socks like that?! ... What was the deal with that? It's pretty funny I guess. My sister is now 28 and my cousin is 25. How fast does time fly?!

2008 Pirelli calendar shot in Shanghai

From http://www.meta-solution.net/anp/labels/Pirelli.html:

PIRELLI launched “The Cal” 2008 calendar in Shanghai, the 35th edition of the Italian tire maker's famous calendar collection and the first ever shot in Asia.

23 portraits in the calendar were shot entirely in Shanghai by renowned fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier: the bustling Nanjing Road E., narrow lanes in the old French Concession, the beautiful gardens at the Yong Foo Elite restaurant (the former British Legation) and ancient Chinese style architecture.

11 beauties as raising supermodel Agyness Deane, Lily Donaldson, Doutzen Kroes, Catherine Mc Neil, Gemma Ward, Sasha Pivovarova, Coco Rocha, Caroline Trentini, the chinese actress Maggie Cheung and top models Mo Wan Dan e Du Juan

First published in 1964, the calendar is famous for its artistic portraits of beautiful women and limited availability. It is not for public sale and is given as a corporate gift to a restricted number of VIPs and celebrities including Prince Charles. About 23,000 copies were printed this year.

Pirelli opened a US$97-million plant in China's Shandong Province on Tuesday. Both of the company's two plants in Asia are in China.

"China, for us, represents the future, a new world to explore," said Francesco Tarallo, head of communication of Pirelli. "China and the other Asian markets are the new frontiers for international expansion of the group."

I think the images are beautiful. Breathtaking. Stunning.
I could only dream of looking as beautiful as those models, or being as talented as the photographer!

The site

The Canon Powershot G9 digital camera

I feel compelled to write about my camera because three people/friends have bought the same camera recently upon my recommendation.

This is the third digital camera I have owned.

The first one was bought in 2001 and was a gift from my mother. It was a small, silver Kodak somethingorather and had 2 megapixels and NO optical zoom. Also, photos without the flash came out looking like nothing. It only really took good photos outdoors in adequate lighting. It was pretty crap and I ended up resorting to using both my SLR and compact film cameras instead and was dying for a new digicam...

The second one was bought in 2004. I bought it on eBay because I really wanted the black model which was not sold in Australia (I really really hate silver!). Also, I could get it cheaper that way. I paid AUD$600 (including exchange rate and shipping) instead of the $800 I would have paid if I had bought it in store locally. It was the Canon powershot S50 and had 5 megapixels and 3x optical zoom. The seller didn't ship overseas but I got it through a very unconventional way. I had it shipped to my uncle who lives in the States, he brought it to Taiwan. He and my dad were going to be in Taiwan at the same time so then he passed it to him and then my dad brought it back to Australia - phew! I was so happy with it. It was brand new in the box and what with all the bad stories about eBay I didn't have any problems with the seller nor the item. It still works perfectly now, despite me dropping it a few times too.

Despite the S50 being a great camera (has several manual modes and can record in RAW format) there were some things I longed for which it didn't have. I really missed the ability to use filters (as I could with my SLR camera), I really wished the optical zoom was 'better' (preferably at least 10x), I wanted 'image stabilization', a better macro mode, a 'vari-angle' LCD screen, and the 2:3 format.

I researched and researched (am a research-aholic as well as a camera-aholic) and concluded there wasn't a single camera that existed that met ALL my criteria. I searched through dpreview.com endlessly to no avail. I contemplated getting the Panasonic or Olympus models with the superzoom - 10x, 12x, 18x even! or the Canon S5IS (at the time S3IS). However the more I researched the more I realised I really wanted a smallish camera and a Canon camera as I really think they make the best cameras. Almost all the news photojournalists use them.

I found a little beauty called the Canon G7 and decided that was the one I wanted. But what with being in debt from the wedding, it had to take a back seat for a while... luckily I waited because in September 2007 the Canon PowerShot G9 arrived on the scene. I had suspected that a new model would replace the G7 but Canon wasn't giving anything away! I perused forums and blogs awaiting any news and hoped that the G8 would be able to record in RAW format (the G7 couldn't) and have a better than 6x zoom. I got the first wish but not the second. However, the LCD screen on the G9 is much better too. It is a whopping 3" and you can view it easily from all angles making overheard or low shots easy.

So in October (just before the Japan trip) I finally got my hands on the little G9 beauty. I bought it in Pacific Digital Plaza in Xujiahui (after scouring PDP, Metrocity and Hong Kong Plaza for the best price). I paid about AUD$580 for it (it had only just come out in China at that time).

It's not a perfect camera by any means but it suits me perfectly. Many have asked me (knowing I'm a photo/camera buff and that I studied photography throughout high school and university) why I didn't get a DSLR. The reasons are simple:

1. They are expensive and get outdated much more quickly than film SLRs
2. They are big and heavy and after having a neck injury I no longer wish to carry a heavy camera around my neck
3. I like to take 'photojournalistic' every day type shots and you can't do that easily when you have a big huge camera which attracts attention
4. I don't like the feeling of being a target of being mugged whilst I am travelling overseas. I have actually been mugged before for my cameras (they didn't get away with anything except some cash) so it's not a pleasant feeling!
5. I know people buy SLRs and mean well but never end up using them much and taking them out because they are 'too big', 'too bulky' and stuff. So what's the point of a camera if you aren't going to use it?
6. I don't believe that SLR cameras 'take' better photos, in the same way that buying a Porsche won't make you a better driver. It's the PERSON that takes the photo, not the camera!

So, I wanted a camera that had SLR type features and functions but was still compact. The G9 is not small by any means but I can easily still fit it into my palm, my pocket, or a pocket inside my handbag. Best of all it has the ability to use filters with it, or to add on an external flash (which is my next camera-related purchase). I think the 6x optical zoom is good enough. I rarely need to zoom in that much and the digital zoom takes it up to 24x zoom! Another bonus for me is that it takes the exact same batteries as my other Canon camera.

I love it! I won't rave on about the technical aspects and tests as you can read about that on various sites online. But if you are a G7/G9 owner who stumbled upon this make sure you check out this site - customized accessories for the G7/G9 which look like they actually were made by Canon, including a hot shoe cover, and the new cable release.

I spoke to a friend who is also a Canon fan and was also looking for a new camera and was contemplating getting a low-end DSLR till I told her I had my eye on the G7 and together we awaited the released of the G9. We contemplated getting the G7 (since it would now be cheaper) but both ended up getting the G9. Then, I had another friend tell me that they bought the G9 too (previously a G2 owner). Then, recently, I met up with my sister and her boyfriend here in Taiwan and he was fascinated with my camera and I was telling him all the great features about it and it won him over too! And he ended up buying one just hours before leaving for the airport to go back to Sydney. He was particularly impressed by the fact that it is 12.1 megapixels! :)

So to summarise... I'm a secret geek girl at heart, I love gadgets (except mobile phones), and I love the Canon G9! It fits most (but not all) of my criteria and I hope to use it for a long-ish time (well, at least 3 years judging by my history ;) )

PS - the reason why the model 'G8' was skipped was because it sounds like a rude word in Chinese!! hahaha...(the S4IS was skipped too because 4 is a bad luck number in Chinese/Japanese superstition).

PPS - I have now taken over 10,000 photos with it (5,000 alone on the Japan trip) in just 3.5 months - scary!

China: Internet censorship from HELL! Flickr blocked.

I am soooo angry words cannot express how mighty pissed off I am to find one of my favourite websites, flickr.com is now blocked in China too.

Last night I accidently typed in flicker.com without realising my mistake and saw that some cybersquatter is trying to sell it, and rejected the latest offer of US$600,000. What an idiot.

Meanwhile, after I realised my mistake and went to the correct site, strangely, none of the images were displaying. None At All. Not my own, none in a search, NONE. I immediately assumed it was my computer or ISP being slow or something and just left it....

...to try again this morning, to find that it was still like that. I got suss. I got very, very suss. I went to my trusty Shanghai sites to find that it had gotten blocked by China. Interesting, it is also blocked in parts of the Middle East. If you do a google search you can read more about it.

Geez!!

As if it isn't bad enough that every time I find something through google for a wikipedia article I have to circumvent their blocking by going to answers.com first, and as if it isn't bad enough that I even have to go through another site to access this blog, my own blog, (and any other blogger blog, as well as livejournal blogs), but now I can't even view my own photos on Flicker!

Bastards.

There are always ways around this though. It's just a pain having to use them but better than nothing.

Someone has already invented a Firefox plug-in to view flickr here.

Why I like Flickr

* I love photography. I love looking at the beautiful, awe-inspiring photos from people's everyday lives, holidays, events, everything. I have only a handful of pictures up there but always planned to put more up when I got my next computer upgrade.
* I love that I can search for random things and find a RECENT picture of it. If I go through google images I have to search through tonnes of crap to find anything half decent of what I'm looking for. Some examples of things I searched for... when I was planning our wedding I looked for bouquet, cake, invitation, dress, veil, etc ideas. When I am holiday planning I liked to search for hotels as I can actually see what the room looks like inside for real, not some fake glossy brochure type outdated photo that is on the hotel's website. I like to look for places to go to, or things to do. I love I can search for almost any keyword and turn up a bunch of really interesting photos on that topic.

I just realised I don't know if that plug-in works for Mac or not. If it doesn't I'm going to cry.. booo hooo... :(

PS - if you are interested (which I doubt you would be unless you are in China), you can read more here on the flickr website for updates.