the.blog @scwleung

When’s a good time for writing a blog post? Well, when you’re waiting for the sleeping pills to kick in, naturally. [They work like a charm, I don't know how I ever did intercontinental without them for so long.]

Today was a long one – woke up before 6 [that sounds familiar] and went out for breakfast dim sum with my grandfather and parents. Good start to the day, overall. I had about 4 hours to kill afterwards [before my next bout with dim sum], so I decided to grab my camera and go out for a leisurely stroll around the city. I wound up catching some interesting sights and shots [to be uploaded when I have time to touch them up], and even managed to get up to “The Peak” district [guess...it's one of the tallest points in Hong Kong - total tourist trap.] Doing that in 4 hours is no easy feat, especially when the only forms of transportation were a boat [ferry, to be precise] and a tram that goes up at something like a 50 degree angle. The photos didn’t turn out as well as hoped – the smog today was pretty dense. I can barely get anything past the barrier. I’ll see if Lightroom can help with that, but I think this is something with which not even the Almighty can help.

I went for lunch dim sum with my other grandfather back in the city. Nothing more needs to be said about that.

Wandered the city a bit more, tried to get some souvenirs [might have to make a trip in Beijing instead...not much here anymore], and finally got home to rest for an hour or so before being called for dinner. And that brings me to now. Feet sore, sleeping pills kicking in like no tomorrow. Think it’s time to wrap this one up.

Morning in Hong Kong, followed by airport lounging, with the day topped with meeting Jenn and Steve in Beijing.

Good times, no?

I’m safe and sound in Hong Kong – at my parent’s place. It’s definitely been a hell of a day.

The flight across the Pacific was done in one of those fancy new Boeing 777s, where there is noticeably more legroom and personal space as compared to my previous intercontinental flights. This was a huge plus. On the down side, it seems like the extra space came at the cost of precious inches in the aisle. For my 15 hour flight, I must have had everything but bodily fluids spilled on to me. That was mildly unpleasant. Hopefully, the red wine stain will come out of my trousers and the instant noodle soup smell will come out of my shirt. Otherwise, the flight itself was quite dull. I met a couple whose kids went to Waterloo for Engineering [they complimented on my spoken Cantonese, which was different], and they had Easy as Pie on one of the ‘Canadian’ movie channels.

My stay in Hong Kong has been anything but dull. My parents immediately dragged me to the funeral halls to pay my respects to the faimly….lineage. That was kind of nice. It turns out I’ve become quite incompetent with the whole fire concept since my last trip back; I had trouble lighting incenses, making candles stay upright, and if it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t burn myself, I would’ve labeled myself as a fire hazard. I am, however, more than happy to report that I am simply incompetent with this ‘fire’ concept. Thank goodness I was never back in the stone ages; I would certainly have pushed back the development of the homo sapiens species for quite a few centuries.

I had hot pot tonight with most of my extended family. It was nice – and I even tried to speak more Cantonese than I’m used to. I may eventually get a hang of speaking this language again. But then again, maybe I may just be deluding myself. I’m certainly at the age where my mind has become a frozen tundra that is impervious to anything new.

Not many plans tomorrow just yet. If I wake up early enough, I may go for dim sum with my grandfather [dad's side]. I’ve got lunch dim sum with my grandfather [mom's side]. Hopefully, I’ll have some time to go around the city and take some quick photos if the weather cooperates. A part of me suspects that it may have other plans for me instead.

Needless to say, I’m exhausted. I’ve barely slept on the plane, and I was up Saturday morning before 5:30 to get to the airport. Hopefully these sleeping aids will work as advertised, otherwise, I’m going to be in for a rough ride come morning.

Take care y’all. Be home in 6 days or so.

It’s been a while, and I wish I had more to say. But I don’t, so let’s leave it at that.

I’ll be travelling quite extensively next week [YYZ-->HKG-->PEK-->HRB-->PEK-->YYZ, for those who understand airport codes]. I’ll definitely be taking tons of photos, and I’ll try to upload those on the road if I get net access.

It’ll be a rough trip, but I hope it’ll be a good one.

Take care, y’all. See you guys on the flip side!

Sam

At long last, the final installment of my flower photos for the week. Sick of them yet? Probably are. Don’t worry, there will be a bunch of new stuff for you to peruse next week. I guarantee it! [This is not a real guarantee.]

I guess of all the cool and neat things I got out of that Sunday intro session was the concept of Shallow Depth of Field [aka Bokeh]. I’m not sure I’m in any capacity to explain this concept to you [it's 3:40 in the morning, and I'm not great at explaining these technical things], so I’ll let Wikipedia explain it for me. [Ok, if you're lazy like me, you probably wouldn't click through. Bokeh means pretty blurriness in the background ] Combined with all the other things I learned that day [backgrounding, exposure, lighting, manual focusing, and so many others], this photo here exhibits all of that to the best of my abilities. Yes. This was my favourite shot from the entire day of shooting, and I hope you feel the same too.

In case you’re wondering, yes, I will probably be taking more classes from David Allen. Not until the spring, unfortunately, but that’s the way the flowers bloom, I guess. And yea, I’ll probably be checking out his site pretty often. It’s a good source of pretty pictures.

Until next week!

One thing about flower photography that I found interesting is how awkward you need to contort your body sometimes to get a decent shot. You have no idea the weird positions I often found myself trying to get a decent shot with good lighting from a nice angle. Take this photo for example. I had to do a side lunge with my arms up, head and torso tilted slightly, and holding it there while I got the sun to hit the petals just so. Trust me, my thighs burned for a few days after this shoot. It was good times though, and if I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t have these lovely flower photos to show you.

A big thanks to David Allen once again. None of the photos would’ve turned out this good otherwise. Check him out at highparkphotos.ca.

Now, one of the few things that I got out of the intro session is that the background is just as important as the foreground. In fact, that’s pretty much the only thing David Allen kept telling me, and you know what, it stuck. Go figure. While this photo here doesn’t necessarily showcase the best background imaginable, I feel it does support and contrast the foreground very nicely. That’s what makes this one a favourite of mine.

So here in Toronto, it seems the case that it is only sunny on the weekends, and seeing as how I took these pictures on a Sunday afternoon [a gorgeous Sunday afternoon], my photos came out gorgeously sunnified. It’s a good thing, really, and I used it for some really cool shots for some of the photos later this week. For now, though, a relatively generic shot of a relatively generic yellow flower. And no, I have no clue what this flower is. Like I said yesterday, I’m no botanist.

Once again, just wanted to link back to David Allen at highparkphotos.ca for his great insights into these shots. He’s really a good teacher, you know.

As promised at the end of last week, I have flower pictures. 5 of them, to be exact, and I’ll be spending this week showcasing each of them to you in relatively unpainful detail. I was at Allan Indoor Gardens [it's just past Jarvis on Carlton here in Toronto] for an intro course with David Allen. You can find him and his work at http://www.highparkphotos.ca. He’s a funny and insightful fellow, and I encourage you to go to one of his workshops when available.

This first flower is, unfortunately, my least favourite of the 5, which isn’t to say I don’t like it. In fact, I like it quite a bit. If I were more of a botanist or a flower-buff [oxymoronic?], I’d be able to tell you what it is. But alas, I’m more of a computer-scientist-geneticist-business-marketing-overall-geek, and that precludes me from telling you what this flower is. Isn’t it pretty though?

How does one effectively start a petition?

One of the final musical acts at Toronto Wintercity was The Stills. I think they’re pretty popular; they certainly drew a good crowd that night. I’m not convinced I like their music [ I mean, I did stand in the middle of cold for an hour listening to it], but they were good technically and artistically. It was quite fun playing around with my camera in a concert setting though…as you can tell, I don’t really take pictures of people, and this was a very nice change. I started with my starter glass, but eventually upped to my faster, 50mm prime, only to realize I have to be much much closer to get some decent shots. You’ll have to excuse my poor photography skills in some of the other pictures in this set. They really could have turned out much nicer if I actually brought my telephoto stuff with me. In fact, most of my photos from that weekend could have benefited from a telephoto lens. I really should start carrying it with me more often…

In any case, this was a pretty good week for pretty pictures . Next week, I hope to bring you some photos from my trip to the Allan Indoor Gardens. I’ll be going with a group, so I’ll definitely be getting some good coaching and learning out of it. Until then!