We finally had some nice weather, and took the opportunity to actually go to the park across the street. YY is finally big enough t go on the rides, and he had a great time. He got to take the flying swing, drive an airplane car, and ride a train.
Alison took a bunch of these, seems its hard to keep the camera to myself sometimes :). I still manage the post processing though. I am looking at the more esoteric controls in lightroom and finding some of them pretty cool.Patrick Deng, Chairman and CEO of MMClick, a mobile marketing company in Guangzhou, spoke about his company and the mobile marketing industry in China.
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For those of you wondering what you can do with a 7D in video mode, here is a prime example. I had the opportunity to freelance as a cameraman to for a Time Asia interview. I jumped at the chance, and brought my own gear to the site. Using the huge picture window as a large softbox, and a hotel lamp as a fill light, I was able to get a really comfortable and clear shot of Mark. The 50mm prime lens at f/2 was just perfect for the interview, providing stunning image quality.
The drawback of course is the 7Ds built in 12 min clip length. I wasn't aware of that, and so I missed some of the interview with the 7D.
In contrast, the Sony camera overexposed everything, and the white balance was such that everyone looked blue. But this camera of course recorded for 45 min straight without any problems.
Finally, journalist Ling Liu was able to cut everything together and normalize the footage from the Sony so there isn't too much of a jump. You will notice the difference in image quality though.
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A first set of pics from our weekend road trip. This trip made me realize something... our family needs 2 cameras!
Of the 227 shots taken this weekend, I only took about 50 :). This is my set, with Alison's set coming soon. The trip itself was a lot of fun. We spent a LOT of time in the car, but we were with good friends and in a beautiful location. From searching out the pagota, to getting stuck in traffic at a coal processing station, to going from the most beautiful road I have driven on to the worst - the excitement never ended. There's nothing like watching as a bus overtake you, uphill, on a road with potholes the size of a Volkswagen beetle; cutting you off at the last minute before coming to a head on collision with Mr. Cement truck coming down from the other direction.There's also nothing like coming out from a tunnel to find yourself suspended on a road in the sky, surrounded on both sides by jagged tooth mountain ranges as you head straight into the next tunnel half a mile away. I can't wait to head back out to explore the countryside now that the weather is cooled down. Hope to have more road trip albums soon.Comments [0]
Today was a looooong day. What we thought would be a long but predictable 4 hour drive on the highway turned into a very entertaining 8 hour ordeal. There was some traffic, some GPS mixups, a search for a pagota, and a stretch of very old road that required very creative driving.
Anyway, the great benefit to driving yourself is the ability to stop where you want and take photos. Here are some iPhone shots. All post processed on the phone.Sent from my iPhone
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Today we took YY to to the local pre-school/daycare for his first half-day. It was quite a momentous occasion for all of us. Overall things went smoothly and he came home very excited and talkative.
The school itself is not quite what I expected, there were several classes at different age groups rotating through various activities. It is quite an operation. While we were at the front filling out paperwork, kids just kept streaming in. Some crying on grandma's arm, some rushing and pushing with friends, while others calmly walked in and said goodbye to the parental units. To explain the 2 photos where YY is not the subject: The first is from the entrance, they were checking every kid for throat infections as they walked in the door. The second is a group of older kids holding plastic staffs, um, marching. Yes, it was weird. Once all the forms were filled, YY was presented with a new school backpack and shuffled off to his group. He tried to break away and come back to us, but we promptly put him back and let him know it was time for school.Comments [0]
Just got back from our monthly networking gathering for local techies and Web denizens. Heard a great presentation from Junde and Rex, met some new people, hung out with some old friends.
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This weekend I took the camera out for a short play session in our apartment complex. YY went straight for the slides that he apparently has already spec'ed out as being the fastest. On the way he met up with another little friend and they ran around together.
I spent some time working in camera mode this time, I'll post some of that separately. I'm still using Lightroom to import my pics, since I can't offload the raw files with anything else. I am starting to get the hang of it, but I also am realizing that its just not for me. I'm a shoot and email kind of guy, and LR is built for something completely different. Also, it really frustrates me that I don't have an easy way to get my pics onto my phone. I don't know if that's sad because of how much I rely on Apple, or a testament to how easy Apple has made everything that I can't be bothered if its not automatic.Comments [0]
This weekend YY and I are on our own. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera out with me on Saturday, these are all from Sunday. We had a great lunch with a friend, and then headed over to the park for some great rides.
The best part about lunch was a slight mixup. We ordered chicken porridge, the table next to us ordered chicken + snake porridge. Of course, the snake version ended up on our table, and we dug in. I honestly thought they had just thrown in some really odd chicken parts, and YY was tearing into the "neck". Of course once the snake-less porridge landed on the other table, they complained and all was revealed. So finally, I guess I can say that snake rather does taste like chicken :)Comments [0]
This evening I took the 7D down with me to the playground at our apt. complex. This is a covered space lit by 2 bare fluorescent tubes, a perfect place to test out the low light capability of the camera.
Since I only have my old camera to compare against, I have to say that the results are stunning. I can take photos in horrible light as if it were the middle of the day. Of course 6400ISO is a little grainy, but those are the breaks. But with the 50mm f1.8 lens wide open, I found that I could actually use 3200 and still get 1/80 shutter speeds. I really like that lens. I still am not really good with the flash, so I only tried it towards the end. I did figure out how to stop it down so that it doesn't overwhelm the scene. The flash really helps with the graininess and saturation, and it also affords some nice effects. But finally I still prefer the ambient light. This may change as I get better with the flash though. The biggest problem I found in low light is getting the auto focus to lock on the subject. Without enough light to provide contrast, the AF algorithm doesn't have anything to focus on. When you have a fast moving subject like a 2yr old on a jungle gym, you have to rely on the AF to do it's job. on top of that wide open at f1.8 leaves a really narrow margin of error. It is really frustrating to try to capture the moment only to have your camera refuse to open the shutter. I think there is a way to use the built in flash as a strobe to acquire focus, then take a shot without the flash, but that will require more research. I have a feeling my research partner will be happy to participate again soon.Comments [0]
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