Went out to a club house over the weekend along with my new lens, a 50mm prime and the reowned Minolta beercan that I obtained from ebay recently for a combined price that is less than Sony's own 50mm offering inclusive of postage from USA! What a deal for two highly rated lens for the A mount system.
Sucre's take of the clubhouse with the 50mm f1.7 prime lens
Here's a reason to support the 50mm prime lens as a portrait lens, its so sharp that I could see find hair details
The Minolta AF 70-210mm f4.0 zoom lens that is shaped like it's nickname, beercan arrived a few hours after my 50mm prime so this was the first outing with this 20 year old solid glass. Solid because it is really heavy. I was lucky to find lots of kids running around in what looks like a Halloween party at the clubhouse. I didn't have to try too hard to get these shots with the beercan. I'm impressed.
Slightly out of focused due to fast movement of those kids... but I liked this shot nonetheless, if only it is focus I would put it down as one of my classic photos...
Seems like a little international kids party there..
This is the expression you get when you spin too fast on a merry-go-round
This photo gives a better perspective of what is going on... Don't have to use 210mm all the time... especially when...
Right next to the playground there's these potted plants for me to test out the macro capabilities with the beercan. Given that the lens diameter is 55mm too, I could try to use the beercan with my closeup filter in the near future too. Now where's another caterpillar when you need them. Meanwhile, I would have to settle for this.
Almost 4000 Alpha photos and still counting. Gotta go out more with my camera.... All photos taken with the Sony Alpha A100 dSLR with either the 50mm f1.7 prime lens or the beercan.
singapore kids flowers photoblog sony a100 alpha beercan
Its been quite a while since I last saw xiaobudian, and one of my new lens arrived 10 minutes before I left for the dim sum restaurant. Just in time for me to bring this fast portrait lens (that costs about S$125 including postage from USA) for an outing. Yippee... now my dry cabinet space is almost fully utilize...
Sugar posing for my camera while waiting for sucre's arrival... nice morning sun light on it.
More xiaobudian here... hee.. she just got into her "why?" phase... 
She's so cute, she even gotten some free display dummy handphones for her to use to call "hello! I'm here, bye bye"
Her first helium balloon... fascinating... 
Wee... holding onto daddy's car keys tied to the balloon...
When the balloon was floating up, xiaobudian scream for her dad to catch hold of it... lol... food was secondary that day... taking photos was my main motive... nice little lens...
All photos taken with Sony Alpha A100 with the Minolta AF 50mm f1.7 lens. Its a small fast and sharp lens that is great for portraits and indoor shots like these without using flash. Cool!
singapore photoblog sony a100 alpha
I know Hari Raya Puasa was over and I'm a bit late in putting up my photos. But this is a photo to show the importance of Hari Raya to all Muslims in Singapore.
The carpark near the mosque on Hari Raya morning
This is the first time I see this whole carpark totally occupied by vehicles. And I need to take 7 images using my kit lens at 18mm (24mm equivalent) wide to stitch this photo. And it also demonstrate the effect of trying to fit a 3 dimensional curve space on a 2 dimensional photograph. Much like the curved space in General Relativity and also why USA seems larger than it is on a flat 2D rectangular world map as they distort and stretch it to get it to fit.
So much to learn from just a photograph
Photos taken with the Sony Alpha A100 with the 18-70mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens and stitched with autostitch, the brainless way to do 2D panoramic photographs. Try it, it's free!
singapore hari raya photoblog sony a100 alpha
The caterpillar is ready for photo shoot and gone by the next day (most probably eaten by the birds). My students, okay, some of my students are in their holiday period and its time for me to start packing for the coming shift. Here's the 2nd batch of caterpillar photos, this time round I had two sets of batteries for my flash.. kekeke...
Trying out a new style with framing...
Meet Cathy...
Flowers waiting to bloom... and hopefully the birds would come back...
Really shallow DOF here and the slightests shake would make my shots out of focus. I know you should use tripods for these shots but it's easier to find the right angle handheld... Photography, like Physics, is phun too...
singapore caterpillar photoblog sony a100 alpha
They still don't get it. And I doubt they can come out with measures to lure drivers back to public transport except imposing heavier ERP rates and reducing COE quotas. Straits Times had a few articles on transport because of you-know-what, including one titled "My other car is a bus" which can be summarised in a few lines below:
Singapore transport system (including bus/mrt/erp/coe blah blah) is goodThe innocent title "My other car is a bus" led me to believe that this is an article of a driver who takes the bus regularly and explains his reasons of doing so. But it was a jargon laden big picture type of article that quotes statistics and figures such as 12% of land are roads to convince readers that cars are bad, buses are good stuff. How could these articles appeal to the public to take the public transport when they don't address the "lesser" issues of unimportant stakeholders (public) such as inconsistent EZlink system and poor service management leading to empty/overcrowded buses.
Transport systems elsewhere are bad
We need to make our transport system 'better'
In another ST article on transport titled "Push to get more people to take public transport", it was laden with more facts, figures and statistics and worst, ominous signs such as the following.
The new land transport roadmap will have to contend with issues such as the level of tolerable road congestion, electronic road pricing (ERP) coverage and rates, and whether more trees should be cut down to make way for roads.= More ERP gantries
... ...
Improving the bus system, with full-day bus lanes, more stringent service standards, and more niche services for commuters willing to pay more for faster or more direct travel.
= Higher ERP rates
= More traffic jams with full-day bus lanes (and complains of over zealous wardens taking pictures and hazardous turns when you need to cut into bus lanes)
= More expensive public transport to pay for more "direct" routes
Before I get branded as an armchair critic, here's my suggestion for improvements on public transport before I would consider it as an option regularly.
1.) Remove those noisy and irritating TV Mobile.
2.) If 1.) is not feasible, at least improve it such that the screen will display the stage no., road name and bus stop information for the next stop. (If it can be done in Europe, why not SG?)
3.) Fix that darn EZlink over deduction problem
4.) Increase the number of buses/trains, that would improve the public transport service in two fold - reduced waiting time and more comfortable rides (more chances of finding a seat).
5.) Let private bus transport company compete with SMRT and SBS so that SMRT and SBS can improve their service and realise what they missed out
Note: Taxis are not included as public transport as it is not a good alternative to driving since it would cost as much as paying for my Getz if I take taxi to work and back everyday. Plus one could easily pay for petrol, erp and parking charges if one were to take taxis to work when they can drive.
singapore public transport sbs bus smrt train essay
DSLR are not so great when it comes to macro due to the larger sensor and shallower depth of field. But hey, it didn't perform that badly when I attach my close-up filter to my telephoto lens. Hmm.. seems like my H1 may be going on sales soon if it totally replaces it in all respects. Then again, maybe not. H1 can be my multi-purpose all in one camera.
Using the H1, this is how the caterpillar looks like...
This is how the alpha sees it
Another angle. The caterpillar was climbing down but I rotate the photo such that it seems horizontal
Please do take note of the differences in both shots as they are taken at different time (5 months apart) of different caterpillar (duh, look at the colour!) Though I wanted to take shots of similar caterpillar but the green one disappear so I had to settle for the brown one. Hope that it turns green soon.
Also, I had to stop shooting cos my flash went out of juice and I'm out of fresh batteries so I have yet to be satisfied with the results but it aint that bad either. Wonder how much would my H1 fetch if I sell it away (I hope at least $900 with both wide and tele lens)... hmm... Decisions decisions decisions...
Taken with the Sony Alpha 100 with the F56AM flash, Minolta 75-300mm f4.5-5.6 (D) lens and the Sony M3358 close up filter with a 55-58mm step up ring.
singapore caterpillar photoblog sony a100 alpha dsc h1
Remember back in those primary or secondary school days where your Chinese teacher punishes you by making you copy a word/sentence/paragraph/essay 20 times? Remember that you and your good friends had to spend the whole afternoon copying all the wrong answers n times just because you failed your Chinese spelling/test? Well, 10 years after graduating from secondary school and spared from Chinese lessons, I found the practical purpose for all those mundane stuff.
- Filling in lucky draw coupons
When you make a large purchase of $p (e.g. computers) and they give you a lucky draw coupon for every $q you spend, that's p/q coupons to fill in! And it takes you more than 20 minutes to just complete all those lucky draw coupons to deposit it inside.
How I wish I had a stamp that says my name, nric, address and contact number.
Wish me luck with that 42" plasma tv or that 37" LCD tv
singapore lucky draw
For those who missed it... here's what it is all about...
Going through the police gantries
First you need to be invited and go through those gantries to make sure that you did not bring any weapons of mass destruction into the ballroom...
Then you wait for the VIP to arrive...
Bodyguards on duty the whole night
After which you get two body guards standing near to your table while you eat... Of course, there's the speech but that wasn't the interesting bit.
We have our patrols too...
Local news media reporter was here...
We had such prime location where everybody likes to work around us to make our dinner a fascinating affair..
No liquor or beer served that night..
And the food was below par... the kawaii chicken at my house tastes at least 10 times better than the roast chicken they served.
The departure of the VIP...
He left before our last dish...
Always blur but others sharp...
I think our VIP moves a bit too fast for my camera that night... Everybody was sharp and clear but his was a block of motion blurred images... darn...
So that's the whole dinner with my personal high of being 2.0 m from the PM (any closer and those bodyguards might come around to corner me) and of course the free parking at Suntec for almost 5 hours.. LOL... better than the $9 I paid last time.. yippee
singapore prime minister lee hsien loong photoblog fuji f11
Man! This is classic Daily Show from Jon Stewart!
- "Internet is a series of tubes"
- "Your mail get delayed when it's clogged"
- "Fiber ... optics"
- "As we all know, the Internet is just a series of tubes.."
Laughing out loud!
Two weeks ago, I took a train to City Hall to meet my friends from university, who all happened to teach or will be teaching soon. I remember that in the past, not so distant past, but more like the 90s past, I could always find a seat at the MRT station near my house if I walk towards the end of the stations during off peak hours. Now, I stand a better chance of finding a comfortable standing position if I walk towards the end. Hey, I just live a couple of stops away from the end of the line!
What's happening to Singapore!!? On one hand we keep reminding Singaporeans to be gracious, polite and kind but on the other hand the conditions totally encourage people to be rude, short tempered and ugly. While SMRT churns in larger revenues and stockholders get bigger payouts. Yes, we may have handicap access to the MRT, but who on wheels could squeeze into the train, especially during peak hours?!
In this profit driven private company that almost monopolise the public transport, I don't think we could achieve an inclusive society in practice. Not happy? There's always taxi you know? SMRT taxis.
singapore smrt transport gracious society essay
Just gotta do a video on General Relativity but really doubt I would ever get to use it now that the school term is coming to a close. What a shame!! If only I could find some GR videos online, I don't have to DIY some of my own.
I think if I put a few more years of teaching with my crazy ideas, I may have enough to do a video like Paul Hewitt. Now Physics is Phun! Unfortunately, the maths involved isn't.
Image is taken with the Fuji F11.
singapore physics photoblog
While driving home from dinner yesterday, I was tuning to YES 93.3 FM when this horrible DJ who kept clearing his throat and sinus while talking! Oh my god! I know it's almost midnight but that doesn't mean that the quality of DJ can go to atrocious levels? He was obviously high on drugs, the cough syrup lar, because I he doesn't even talk sense at all! No wonder gold 90.5 is still Singapore's favourite radio station.
It seems that Barney's letter to upper management in education went through as the ministry is looking into SPA using forums. I should pay a visit to the forum on Monday. Hopefully SPA would be improved upon and become a lesser nightmare for both teachers and students ASAP.
I'm second time lucky. I just had my camera with me for some other reasons and chance upon this event at Jurong Point yesterday. Too bad I did not have the right lens for the job and had to do massive cropping in all the shots you seen here so far. My telephoto lens would do much better given that all the vantage points had been taken up when I took my spot for shooting. Had to resort to holding my camera high up to take 'blind' photos since Alpha do not come with live preview. Sheesh...
At some distance away from stage, I had to avoid raising arms of camera phones too.
There isn't much hype and the crowd size is much less than the time when S.H.E. was down at IMM doing some promotion of sorts. The idol powers are waning I guess given the massive drop in viewership and the number of idols/superstars/fillinyourblankshere in Singapore.
One head among the rest. You can see there's plenty of breathing space around the centre.
Perhaps due to the Canon Photo Marathon held at Suntec, I didn't see any photographers using power gear to cover this event except one. Either that or people are just not interested in idols anymore.
She's so well hidden that I almost did not spot her. I heard that security would stop photographers using big white lens, maybe that's why she is doing it tactically.
All photos here are taken with the Sony Alpha A100 with the 18-70mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens.
singapore idols taufik hardy olinda sylvester hype up photoblog sony a100 alpha
Signs you see around NUS carparks
Have you ever wondered why you could find a campus security vehicle patrolling around NUS almost every 15 minutes? Well, they need a vehicle to store their clamps and signpost to clamp wheels right?
Wheel locked! $100 for the keys..
Eh.. the clamp from the sign post looks very different leh...
"Your wheel is clamped" Duh... isn't it obvious?
In case you didn't see the sign posts around the carparks and couldn't call them to unlock your vehicle, they went the extra mile to provide this too, at no extra charge. First class service....
To prevent petty thieves from stealing the cone and sign, they even lock it to the wheel.
Good thing I brought my camera along for no reason at all...
Moral of the story: Don't anyhow park lah!
singapore nus carpark photoblog sony a100 alpha
An ostrich from the birdpark
Flightless birds are birds that "devolved" due to lack of natural enemies. They grown bigger in size, gain weight and lost their ability to fly. Unfortunately, their brain lagged far behind in the devolving process, since there is little use for it too.
Ain't the prettiest birds around, but the most entertaining to watch
Are you watching me?
The biggest bird ear hole you could possibly find... wonder if we could reach the brain from there...
Adorable blur look... ohh...
Most of them smell very badly too when we visit them, since they produce more poo and fortunately, those poo won't find its way on the top of my cars. Birds, the natural enemy to the newly washed cars...
singapore birds jurong bird park photoblog sony a100 alpha
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