Category: Blog

July 2025

These images were taken in Yunnan province China January 2015.

The Portrait of the construction worker is my favourite. It is not often you have a background like in a photostudio with a white sheet behind your subject. This image reflects the harshness of his work and his stoic adaptation to the job. The style of the image replicates one of my favourite artists Michael Ponder.

Photography gear talk

Its amazing what images I can get from the Nikon D3S as it only has a sensor of 12 MP. After I took the shots I regretted not changing to my D750 which would give me more information on cropping as it has a 24MP sensor. However being a lighter camera and not as well balanced with the 200mm zoom I might have ruined the shot with camera shake. Also all this was taken in less than 5 minutes as the bus was leaving after lunch. So the best camera you have is the one in your hand. Also all the lens tests talk about maximum resolution and sharpness. This obviously is very important, but I feel we do not place enough emphasis on the coatings and flare control. If I used a lens with less multicoatings, the details on the mans face would be washed out with glare. You can boast about the vintage lenses and they may be sharp but can they handle strong backlight?

June 2024

In March 2024 we revisited the Yunnan province of China. This time instead of visiting the Rice Terraces we went to Shangri- la. The tour started at Kunming, then onto Dali, Lijiang, and finally Shangri-la.

Along the way we stopped at all the major sites. These included Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yulong snow mountain, Lugu Lake, Potatso National Park and meeting the Mosul people.

The tour company provided excellent service and overall the standard of accommodation was very good. Unfortunately because I don’t speak any chinese and had a bad cold I didn’t appreciate all the places we visited. Also like a lot of “pack in as much as you can tours” it tends to be the greatest hits attractions. And because its the greatest hits, it was like a rock concert with lots crowds. Imagine trying to see Mt Cook from Peters lookout where there were bus queues, and people queues all trying to get to the front facing Lake Pukaki. That sums up my impressions of any guided tour in China. Local Tourism is so popular now, post covid. As mentioned in previous blogs , its not the destination but the journey that is rewarding. Unfortunately because we were on a speeding bus with a dead line there were very limited photo opportunity stops, just for toilet stops. Fortunately they were biologically timed to suit an old man like me.

I chose to sit at the back of the bus where I could open the windows and dash from the left to right side depending on the orientation of the bus. I had on my 35mm lens and shooting at 1/1000 sec at the moving target. At least the bus provided a higher shooting angle than being a pedestrian. I photographed a lot of tree trunks and power poles as well!

However the tour achieved our main objective and that was to have a quick look at places we would like to revisit on our own.

September 2024

These were taken at the Meiji Shrine Tokyo where Shinto wedding ceremonies are held. Photographers may notice the camera I was using and still have. Its amazing what 12 megapixels can achieve, and with some heavy cropping, as you can see with the before and after post processing shots.