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  • 10 Things To Do When You're In Perth

    11:37 am on October 8, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Australia, Destinations, Perth

    This flyer from Malaysia Airlines arrived in the email, with a list of 10 interesting places to visit and things to do in Perth, Australia.

    (click to see a larger version)
    Malaysia Airlines Flyer - 10 Things To Do When You're In Perth

    1. DNA Tower in Kings Park offers majestic panoramic views of the city skyline, Swan River, the mountain range & the Indian Ocean.

    2. Head to the beach! Swim, surf, sail, kayak or just relax & soak in the sun at Scarborough Beach, Cottesloe Beach or Mettams Pool.

    3. Bring the kids to AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia) for a first-hand experience of the region’s sea life!

    4. Take a day out to explore the port town of Fremantle where cafes and outdoor markets are abound.

    5. Swim with the dolphins at the seaside town of Rockingham. Fishing & crabbing are also available. Or head to Penguin Island for an up close with the Fairy penguins.

    6. Indulge in some retail therapy at the city malls, King Street or at the factory outlet centre Harbour Town.

    7. Sample local fares especially fish and chips in cafes by the river. Or opt for succulent, freshly-caught blue manna crab & seafood feast at Peel Inlet.

    8. Spend a day or two at the Yanchep National Park, a favorite nature & wildlife attraction for both tourists & locals alike.

    9. Feel as though you’ve stepped back in time as you wander the historic country towns in Avon Valley. Go rafting on Avon River!

    10. Catch a ballet or an opera performance at His Majesty’s Theatre, the only Edwardian theatre in Australia that has been operating since 1904!

     

  • Malayan Water Monitor Lizards on Tioman Island

    4:02 pm on August 21, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Destinations, , Tioman

    These large, strong swimmers are everywhere on the island.

    A Malayan Water Monitor Lizard, spotted in Tioman Island - DSC_4921

    They’re not dangerous to humans, unlike the venomous Komodo dragons.

    References: Malayan Water Monitor Lizard (Varanus salvator), Wikipedia.

     

  • A Photographer's Guide to Santorini, Greece

    8:30 pm on August 18, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Destinations, Greece, Santorini, Travel Photography

    Sebastian Vaida writes a fantastic article on Santorini for the photographer – places to see, locations to photograph, what equipment to bring, how to get there and around, interacting with the locals, and other tips.

     

  • Stunning Nikon D40 and Nikon D60 Iceland Photos by Bas Fokker

    7:37 am on July 25, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Destinations, Iceland, ,

    Two sample galleries are Iceland – Birds, Horses and Sheep (taken with the D40), and Iceland – Scenery (photographed with the D60).

    (via DPReview forum post)


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  • 3:07 pm on July 23, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Destinations, Fuji F100fd Samples, Germantown (Tennessee)

    Colorful Horses at the Germantown Charity Horse Show, Tennessee – Nice Fujifilm Finepix F100fd photos by James Cafferty:

    Here are pictures of 8 of them. Some have been heavily PP to eliminate distracting backgrounds. All were taken with the F100fd.

     

  • 4:49 pm on July 21, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , , Destinations,

    Gorgeous HDR Photos with Canon EOS XTi / 400D + Canon EF-S 10-22mm – Various scenic landscapes taken around Malaysia during Blue Hour.

    vedd, the photographer, says:

    I normally work with 9 exposures for all of my HDR images, ranging from -4 to +4 EV.

    Regarding HDR post-processing:

    Well, I shoot RAW when I took the bracketed images and then using DPP to convert it into 16bit TIFFs (somehow I prefer DPP output result more that other RAW converters). Once done, I feed the 16bit TIFFs into Photomatix and tone mapped it. I then saved the tone mapped output as 16bit TIFFs as well and made final touch up in Photoshop CS3. When I’m done with all the touch ups in CS3, then only I converted the images into 8bit Jpegs.

    On camera settings:

    Actually for 9 exposures I’ll be taking 4 sequence of bracketed exposures. This can only be done in Av or Tv mode (but I advice you against using Tv mode – DoF issues). In Av mode, once you’ve set the AEB, by default it will be at -2 to +2, you can further decrease/increase the EV to -4/+4 by using Ev button. But the downside is that, you’ll have redundant exposures at +0, -1 and +1 EV, so I’ll be deleting the redundant exposures to save space…

    Off course when playing with EV in AEB mode, you need to take special care on the shutter speed – if at +3ev, you’re already hitting the 30 second (or 1/4000 second) mark, then there’s no point of going to +4EV because the shutter speed will still be at 30 seconds. When this happens I’ll be switching to BULB in M mode and calculate the exposure time manually.


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  • 10:47 am on July 21, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Boston, Destinations,

    Where To Eat in Boston – An interesting site, which compiles information on restaurants, cafes, eateries and hotels in Boston from multiple Twitter streams.

     

  • 9:46 am on July 21, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Destinations, New York, , , ,

    Summer 2009 in Central Park – Stunning horizontal and vertical panoramas, and portraits. A great glimpse of life in New York.

    rfc used the Nikon D200 plus Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor lenses to snap these photos.


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  • 9:37 am on July 21, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Beit She'an, Destinations, Israel

    Summer temperatures near Beit She’an, Israel – KEVZPHOTOS:

    I used to live near Beit Shean, Israel in the Jordan Valley. It used to get up to around 46C (118F) during the summer, and a few times got over 50C (125F).

    I loved that kinda climate. I used to work outside all day long in the sun.
    Dry, sunny every day and baking hot.


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  • 10:46 am on July 16, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Destinations, Kapalai, , Sabah, Sipadan

    Kapalai Island Resort – Recommended by a friend, Ahmad Faizal.

    The island is just a few minutes away from Sipadan island.

     

  • 2:33 pm on July 14, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Bali, Destinations, Indonesia

    Best Island – Bali, Indonesia – As voted in Travel + Leisure magazine’s “World’s Best Awards – Islands”, 2009.


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    (via Yahoo News, India)

     

  • 7:07 am on July 14, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Destinations, , Udaipur

    Udaipur voted world’s best city in travel poll – Yahoo! India News:

    Udaipur, known as the “Venice of the East”, was voted the world’s best city for travellers in 2009 in an online poll by Travel + Leisure magazine, trumping last year’s winner Bangkok.


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  • 9:53 am on July 13, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Africa, Destinations, Ghana, Kenya

    Ghana vs Kenya – Bono on Kenya:

    Despite Kenya’s unspeakable beauty and its recent victories against the anopheles mosquito, the country’s still-stinging corruption and political unrest confirms too many of the headlines we in the West read about Africa.

    Bono on Ghana:

    This is a country whose music of choice is jazz; a country that long ago invented a genre called highlife that spread across Africa — and, more recently, hiplife, which is what happens when hip-hop meets reggaetón meets rhythm and blues meets Ghanaian melody, if you’re keeping track (and you really should be).

    … and …

    Ghana is well governed. After a close election, power changed hands peacefully. Civil society is becoming stronger. The country’s economy was growing at a good clip even before oil was found off the coast a few years ago. Though it has been a little battered by the global economic meltdown, Ghana appears to be weathering the storm. I don’t normally give investment tips — sound the alarm at Times headquarters — but here is one: buy Ghanaian.

     

  • Gurgaon, India

    11:23 pm on December 11, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: Destinations, Gurgaon,

    One of the “perks” of working with a big corporation like Oracle (ORCL) is that you get to travel a lot. Well, one reason why I decided to quit Oracle mid-2005 was due to all that travelling.

    But a visit to Gurgaon, India in the last quarter of 2004 was a good experience.

    That, and I got to stay in the very nice and classy Trident Hilton Gurgaon Hotel.

    The hotel is beautifully designed (you’ll feel as if you were on an Indiana Jones set), service was top-notch, the room was luxurious and staff were friendly.

    Trident Hilton, Gurgaon, India

    This photo was edited in Google’s Picasa program ( ) using its array of one-click image editing features, and subsequently resized and sharpened in IrfanView. I’ve just started giving Picasa a spin, and will have more to write about it in future.

    Equipment used? Nikon D70 and the dirt-cheap, USD100 Sigma 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6 DC lens – I now own the more expensive Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 lens, but I have tons of nice pictures captured with the cheaper version.

    Other Fun Things To Do In Gurgaon and Surrounding Areas

    Top on the list is to have a cobra round your neck – something I’ve always wanted to do for a long time.

    And this was in Delhi. Be careful with the pricing though – the handler will tell you that it costs, oh USD5 to hold the snake, and when you’re starting to really enjoy it, he’ll put the reptile round your neck and charge you $10 later.

    By the way, the prices I mentioned were back in 2004 – you’ll have to factor inflation in if you go there now. The taxi driver took this image, and I’ll always remember him for charging me more than what was originally agreed.

    Have A Cobra Around Your Neck, Delhi, India

     

  • Night View From A Room In The First World Hotel, Genting Highlands

    9:44 pm on December 11, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: Destinations, Genting Highlands,

    It looks like the 598px x 900px image dimensions of my pitcher plant photo is a bit too wide for this blog’s template, so I’ve shrunk the picture in my second “photo post” to 500px x 752px.

    This photo was taken with the Nikon D70 on a tripod. It was shot RAW, and the NEF file processed through Nikon Capture 4.4. Nothing was done except for resizing and sharpening, so I think I’ll go ahead and append the EXIF data after the image.

    Night View from a room in the First World Hotel, Genting Highlands DSC_5294

    Exif data
    Nikon D70
    Focal Length: 35mm
    Optimize Image: Custom
    Color Mode: Mode Ia (sRGB)
    Long Exposure NR: Off
    2005/10/23 23:07:23.9
    Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
    White Balance: Auto -3
    Tone Comp.: User-Defined Custom Curve – I used Komin’s curve for this one.
    Compressed RAW (12-bit)
    Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
    AF Mode: Manual
    Hue Adjustment: -3°
    Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000)
    30 sec – F/10
    Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached
    Saturation: Normal
    Exposure Comp.: 0 EV
    Sharpening: High
    Lens: Sigma 18-50mm F/2.8 G
    Sensitivity: ISO 200