Zhuhai New Year 2012 Autoshow

I saw this advertisement while watching the news every evening. The advertisement is all about a local TV station sponsoring a car show. Thinking that this is a local activity I am not expecting glitzy cars and most of all pretty car models.

 Since it is a three day holiday,  I asked my friends for a visit and just check the place out for any interesting thing.

Two of my friends whom I convinced to tag along.

And interesting it was. Not only they have top  of the line cars on display but they also have a handful of pretty car models. Pretty and photogenic car models is what makes me come back to  these shows.

a pretty face

9th Auto Guangzhou 2011

The 40RMB tickets to the AutoGuangzhou 2011.

The 9th Auto Guangzhou is the second car show that I had been to last year here in China. It was held last November 22-28, 2011 at the China Import and Export Fair Complex in Guangzhou. This one is far bigger than the Shenzhen-Hongkong-Macao International AutoShow.

International Auto Show 2011

Shenzhen-Hongkong-Macao International Auto Show 2011

I met my friend in Shenzhen last June 5 to go to IAS 2011. I read about this event last year but it was too late for me to go that time. This year I will not be missing the event no matter what.

Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center

Zhuxiandong (竹仙洞) Park, Zhuhai (Part 2 of 2)

The second and last part of my Zhuxiandong Park post. The photos are too many to fit on just one post so I will finish where I left off.

Deities

This park is dotted with temples containing different Chinese deities. Most of them I cannot recognize except for Buddha. I am not sure if I was just lost in translation but as my friends explained it looks like there are many variations of what Buddha looks like.

Buddha in yellow cape aka "The SuperBuddha"

As my friend mentioned, this is also an image of Buddha.

Easter Bunny

Happy Easter everyone!

Today is a much celebrated religious holiday in the Christian world. Aside from the commemoration of the risen Christ, Easter also marks the end of all fasting that comes with the Holy Week. So it’s time to be a carnivore again. As a matter-of-fact, I just had a taste of Easter bunny here in China and it is delicious

Easter Bunny is a delicacy here in China. A picture I took the last time I went to the mini-zoo of Zhuhai Agricultural Scientific Academy (珠海农科奇).

Zhuxiandong (竹仙洞) Park, Zhuhai (Part 1)

The weather last Saturday is warm and sunny. So off I got to Zhuxiandong Park in Nanping to check if the cherry blossoms are still present.

The arc that leads to Zhuxiandong Park. This is the landmark you will be watching for coming from the street.

Continuing your way from the arc near the street you will encounter this gate and ticket counter. Ticket cost CNY10 per person.

This is the tree and flower-lined road that leads to the park

To my dismay I cannot see any trace of pink blossoms on the trees. Looks like the flowering period for this year is over. So I decided just  to roam around the park and take photos of anything interesting. This park is one of the major attraction of Zhuhai especially on Spring Festival, the time the cherry blossoms are in its peak. Aside from the cherry blossoms, this place is also famous for its stone carvings, stone statues of famous personalities in Chinese folklore, altars of various Chinese idols or deity. Going to this park is also like communing with nature because of trees and bamboos along the trails. Numerous gazebos can be found around the place for a relaxing rest and chat with friends.

Hello WordPress!

I successfully migrated my photo/travel blog to wordpress. I hope the GFW doesn’t tag this site. Sit back and enjoy.

My Lakbayan Grade is Low

I’m such a pathetic local traveler. hehehe I’ll try to make up for it in the near future.

My Lakbayan grade is C-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Comparison of cheap macro set-ups (Reverse Ring Method)

I found this photography forum and I was amazed by the way they take macro photos with very simple tools particularly the Reverse Ring Coupler.

So I bought one myself to try it and also bought a 52mm-52mm ring coupler for stacking lenses, another cheap method for macro/closeup photography. But prior to that I already owned an automatic extension tube. During shoots I am usually confused on what to use the extension tubes (ET) or the  Reverse Ring (RR). Since my primary objective is to take macro shots whose magnification should be 1:1 or greater, my choice between the two would be in their magnifying capabilities.

Unfortunately for reverse ring method I haven’t found a formula to compute for its magnification factor. But for ET I found magnification formulas on numerous websites. To solve the magnification factor for ET you just divide the ET size with focal length of the lens. So if you have two ET stacked together (36mm + 20mm) for a total of 56mm and the focal length of your lens is 55mm then you would get a magnification of (56/55 =) 1.018x . Using the stacked ET and a shorter focal length like 24mm  would give you an impressive magnification factor of (56/24 =) 2.333x .Unfortunately in ET as well in RR method the higher the magnification you use the shorter the DOF (depth of field) you can work with.  You will have to find a way to overcome this problem. Focusing distance is also a problem wherein sometimes your lens is almost touching the subject.

Since I can’t find a formula for the RR method, I have no choice but to take an actual shot and measure its size on the photo. For a 1:1 magnification you must fill the frame with a size same as the sensor of the camera. So for my Nikon D3000 camera with an APS-C sensor a subject  with a size if 23.6mm x 15.8mm or lower must fit the whole frame.

I tried and tested different methods like the RR, ET and the stacked lens. For my very crude test setup, I shot a photo of a ruler using different method.

Midway on my test I realized I was shooting the english side of the ruler instead of the metric. So instead of repeating the previous shoots I continued and I just converted the ruler reading in metric. I used a Nikon D3000 camera with a YN460-II Speedlite+diffuser.

1st setup: D3000+RR+ reversed Kit Lens (18-55mm)
@ 1/200s,  ISO200, F??

macro setup - RR

feisha beach

We went for a photo trip last weekend and our destination is Feisha Beach (飞沙滩) in the southwest area of Zhuhai. It is located to the once Gaolan Island (高栏岛). The island is now directly connected the mainland after laborious land reclamation. It took us more than an hour of travel to reach the beach. Midway on out trip the weather turned bad but became hot and sunny with clear skies when we reached the beach.

Perfect day for a swim in the beach