Bee There

Bee, hover fly, or some other beast… he’s quite a territorial animal. If you disturb him, he doesn’t fly more than ten feet before he’s right back on his perch, or another perch nearby.

He’s nearly as inquisitive as the praying mantises… if you have a camera, he wants to be on it. If you’re using a cable release, so much the better — it’s just another tree limb to him. Jerk the cable release around to get him off and he’ll just hang on for the ride… or do a little loop in the air and return to where he was.

Given enough time, I think that I could teach him tricks, or just figure out how he works and tell people I’ve taught him tricks.
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My Best Bird Shot

And it’s not even a bird. In fact, it may not even be a bee. An amateur naturalist friend of mine suggests it’s a hover fly… if so, it’s certainly the fattest one I’ve ever seen.

One thing that leads me to think he’s correct is that its not a communal animal… there’s just him and his mate (or buddy). For a week now, he’s been on guard at the gate, standing on top of the bamboo fence and keeping an eye on things — things like Leela side-stepping through the entrance to keep him as far away as possible.

Another reason to think he’s innocent is that when I was taking his photo, he flew over and landed on my finger. If I were any good shooting left-handed, I might have been able to capture that moment… but erring on the side of caution I gently blew him away. As usual, he did a hula-hoop-sized loop and landed back on my camera. What a guy.
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Food for the Gods

Yesterday, Leela and I went to the wet market — a traditional Chinese market selling everything you can imagine, from dried goods to meat to fish to vegetables and fruits. Cherries, lychees, rambutans, mangosteens and mangoes are all in season, so we bought enough to get our trial membership cards as Fruitarians. Now we just have to eat them.

But before we do, I had to take a photo of the largest, best-looking mango I’ve ever seen. I know the big ones aren’t necessarily the tastiest ones, but I had to have this one just because it existed. I looked around the house for a good place to shoot it and finally decided that Buddha should hold it for me. He’s in our bedroom facing the window and keeps an eye on us while we sleep.

I’m afraid it was food for the gods only for as long as it took to take this photo. Then I plucked it back and headed for the kitchen. It was better than I expected and half of it fed both of us, so there’s more in the fridge. Just before the carving I measured it at 9.5 x 4.25 x 4 inches (24 x 11 x 10cm)… all for about US$3.

You’ll need to click one of these links to see the prize…
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A Place in the Sun

Spooks on his favourite rug on his favourite sofa… or at least it’s become his favourite since Leela trained him that this is as close as he would normally be getting to our laps. He finds it irritating that we watch television instead of petting him, so he makes too much noise to have any closer than this.

But the photo is equally interesting as an illustration of the depth of field control the large sensor of the Sigma DP2 gives you — it’s one of the main reasons I bought this camera. This was shot at f/2.8 and, as you can see in the larger versions below, just his head is in focus.
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Gisle Hannemyr

A photographer on GetDPI.com asked about converting his DSLR the other day and I was reminded of one of my oldest bookmarks — Gisle’s Digital Infrared Resource Page.

If you convert a compact digital camera for infrared, you’ll naturally use the built-in lens. But if you’re modifying a DSLR, you also need to consider the lenses you’ll use — they have their own quirks and limitations when it comes to capturing infrared (center hot spots — areas of unwanted brightness — being one of the most common).

If you’d like to know how sensitive a particular camera is, or what lenses work best, check out his infrared page. You might also like to read about the man behind the page on Wikipedia (which I did for the first time last week), and then read what else he has to say on other photo subjects.

How big is a pixel, anyway?

Fish out of water

Taken in Western District, Hong Kong — specifically Sheung Wan, a rustic neighborhood and one of the older districts of Hong Kong that is just next door to the island’s Central Business District with its towering banks and skyscrapers and vast, gleaming shopping malls with their designer-label shops.

Hong Kong viewed from the air is laid out almost like a department store — find one hardware shop and you’ll probably find many. The same is true for marble, glass, coffins, bathroom fixtures, machine tools, watches and anything else you can think of.

The Sheung Wan District is home to tiny wholesale warehouses and tea shops (selling wildly expensive tea and crockery) and snake shops and Chinese medicine shops and dried fish shops and a whole line of small stalls just big enough for one person to sit in and make business cards and Chinese chops — in a word, exotic. I loved it and lived there for six years, from 1986 to 1992.

Leela and I wandered back a year or so ago and saw these fish drying on the other side of the curb (red brick) in the street on double-yellow lines that normally mean no stopping or parking… but perhaps that’s just for cars.
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Village Dog

For the last dozen years, Leela and I have lived in a village in the New Territories of Hong Kong — giving us the enjoyment of living in the country, along with easy access to the city. If we drive to town, the Central business district is only two tunnels and 20 minutes away.

One thing we learned about village life is that people have dogs. The most we’ve counted in one flat was seven, but they were small. The homes with fewer dogs tend to have larger ones. We have Golden Retrievers, Yellow Labs, Huskies, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Boxers and Big Mixed Breeds.

And then there are the dogs who live by the generosity of the villagers. This is one of them. I leave him pretty much alone when we meet, so he’s not unfriendly, but when I get close, he usually hoists himself up in case he needs to move. I raised the camera, took this single one-handed shot, and walked away to leave him in peace.

When I processed this DP2 photo in Sigma Photo Pro 3.5, it looked all right, in terms of showing another photo the camera could take. And then I popped it up to full-size and the dog entered an entirely new dimension. I must say that I almost hate to see DP2 shots in less that full resolution, because once you’ve seen the entire photo, you realize you’re missing a lot of their impact in smaller sizes.
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Always Smile

Sometimes as I walk along, I cradle whatever compact camera I have in my hand near my waist, with my thumb on the shutter button, and I just take whomever comes my way. Usually, it’s best to dial in Manual Focus for a particular distance (7 feet or 2 meters is good), so that there’s no shutter delay. And then snap away.

With a little practice, you’ll figure out how to hold the camera, where to point it to, and when to press the shutter to get things in frame. After that, it’s a matter of luck. You won’t often get something worth keeping, but it’s not like you’re paying for the film, so enjoy the experience.

Sometimes you’ll capture something that makes you smile.
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Tin Cans

Not far from where I work in Causeway Bay is Haven Street. it’s just one block long but I always seem to find something interesting to photograph, like these cans. Considering the wide dynamic range between blinding sunlight and the cave-like interior, the DP2 did a good job of capturing detail here and not overexposing the highlights.
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Richard Franiec

I consider any camera a miracle… but even miracles can be improved. When I found Richard Franiec’s custom grip for the Canon G9, I knew I’d found a thoughtful designer and superb craftsman. I liked his accessories so much that I posted a thread on DPreview.com, but realized that it would soon disappear along with all the older threads — so I created a page on my website.

Since that initial grip, his range of accessories has grown. If you want want you camera to be even more of a pleasure to hold and use, I suggest you look at Richard Franiec’s accessories.

My reward is the satisfaction of recommending a fine product, although I will say that Richard and I have become friends (half a world apart) in our email conversations since.

The crab photo is a souvenir of a Christmas 2008 trip Richard and his wife Elizabeth took to the Galapagos Islands.