Snowdonia and memory
· Thursday March 12, 2009
Already it feels like a lifetime ago that I spent a weekend in Wales (Snowdonia National Park) with the walking club. On the other hand, it seems incomprehensible that a month has gone by already? Such are the paradoxes of memory and experience, I suppose.
Normally on away trips, we have a day of rain (“pissing it down” as we say here) on Saturday and then a blustery but sunny Sunday. Our trip to Wales saw a great deal of mist and light rain, but nothing decisive toward either extreme in weather. The drive out toward our drop-off point on the first day had a lovely view of Snowdonia, as presented by my friend Dave:
David Edwards Presents
Due to the slightly sinister nature of this photo, as pointed out by my friend Nadia, Dave has earned several new nicknames (“Mr. Burns,” “Dracula”) in addition to his usual repertoire (“Smiley,” “Devious”).
I didn’t feel like there were many “wow” photos to be had, perhaps given the ‘atmospheric’ nature of the weekend’s weather. However, there were some beautiful scenes of trees in mist.
Hushed audience
This photo reminds a bit of an image by a fellow photo-blogger named Colin Griffiths that I came across some time before the trip:
Reaching out
Photo by Colin Griffiths
I think to some degree, my artistic subconscious was influenced by the memory of this image, given the placement of the foreground tree’s lower-right branch. If you have a chance, check out Colin’s blog as there’s some nice content there.
Although I’d already blogged about the recent daywalk a couple weeks ago, I thought I’d mention a couple more photos. The walk originated in Micheldever and ended in Whitchurch.
Whitchurch, Hants
I realized partway through the walk that I’d done more or less the exact same route with the club nearly three years ago! At the end of the walk, we passed over a bridge at the train station…
Whitchurch Station
... upon which the the following photo was taken almost exactly three years prior:
Whitchurch Station (2006)
As humans, we’re naturally inclined to organize our experiences into logical little blocks. Through these structured elements we understand the narratives of our lives.
An interruption to the normal flow is often quite welcome! I think holidays (or away trips) are often memorable because they are so disjunct and isolated from our ‘normal’ lives. Photographs are also isolated from our lives because they represent data recorded over a finite and discrete amount of time. So, like holidays, photographs are special in part because each conveys an experience that is isolated from the steady stream of life.
In any case, I’m waxing philosophical and straying from the photos :-) In the next post, I’ll have photos to share from my holiday to Scotland! Take care ‘till then…
— Emery Ku
Mind your Macro
· Tuesday February 24, 2009
I’m always impressed by people who blog frequently. How do they find the time?? Things are extremely busy here at the moment… I’m writing up some results from my thesis as a journal paper, and weekend trippage seems to eat up much of my free time.
The weekend before last I went to Snowdonia National Park up in Northern Wales with the walking club. There were some nice photo-ops, but it’s a much more involved post so I will save it for later… (regular readers know I tend to put things off and never get around to actually making blog posts on them, but I do put the pics up anyway, haha)
This past weekend, I was again out with the walking club, but just out into the Hampshire countryside near Micheldever. The weather was stunning, and the early spring flowers are starting to come out!
I have to say, I don’t much care for the bokeh of the Pentax 35mm Macro Ltd. when there are harsh variations in the background. But this problem seems to disappear completely when taking macro photos, presumably due to the tiny depth-of-field.
Snowdrop
The bright spots in the snowdrop photo’s bokeh show some mild polyhedral qualities, but they’re still fairly unobtrusive, aesthetically speaking.
The bokeh in the next photo I find totally lush and delicious. The out-of-focus areas seem to actually add to the dimensionality of the image, though of course this is helped by the fact that there are no harsh transition from bright to dark.
Fleur
I am slightly embarrassed to admit the latter photo caused my friend Dave and I a bit of hassle. This was the second time I’ve gotten separated from the walking group as a direct result of my photographic pursuits (the first time we were in the town of Bath… I had to phone several people in the group before I figured out where they’d disappeared off to!), though I’d rather not make a habit of it. And on top of that, in our haste to find the group, we strayed into a somewhat annoyed homeowner’s garden in the process!! In any case, all’s well that ends well…
This weekend, Dave and I are taking a long weekend to go visit some other hillwalkers in Scotland! Unfortunately for us, our friends are much more hardcore than either of us, so hopefully we’ll be able to keep up on the munros (Scottish for ‘mountain’)... and perhaps even take a few photos now and then =)
— Emery Ku
low on inspiration
· Sunday February 8, 2009
I have to admit, I’ve not been producing many images I’m happy with the past few weeks. Part of it is just getting used to the new camera. The K20D and I are still having some minor differences of opinion on what constitutes ‘correct’ metering (unfortunately it gets the last say. fortunately this camera has a great dynamic range, and my blunders are usually not fatal). But beyond exposure issues, there’s something lacking artistically, too.
It sounds so cliche, but I think part of the reason why I produce pictures I’m happy with when I’m on vacation is because I have time to get into a groove, a photographic ‘zone’ (no zone-system pun intended). Images and how to capture them just kinda make intuitive sense when you’re in the right place— physically and psychologically.
Today I went to Glastonbury with my recently-engaged friend Luke to pick up a rickshaw. Fairly random, I know, but he loves his cycling and he’s planning on using it as his post-wedding vehicle! Now admittedly, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for pictures, but we had a wander and I took a few snaps. Nothing worth showing here, but in a sense that’s okay because they have personal meaning.
One of the reasons why I love taking macro photos is it’s a very meticulous process. For instance, you have to keep the camera incredibly still and pre-plan your depth-of-field; even the tiniest camera movement can cause motion-blur or loss of intended focus.
Owl
This crystal owl is one of my most prized possessions. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember— I think my parents gave it to me when I was about 4? I was a total pack-rat as a kid, and kept certain things (like this owl) squirreled away in secret nooks and crannies in my room.
After I cleaned out my childhood belongings at home two summers ago, I decided this owl should return with me to the UK. And now it continues to shine brightly here on my desk in Southampton, a ‘living’ memory of my youth :-) Sometimes you have to look back to find inspiration to go forward.
— Emery Ku
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a few brief thoughts
· Wednesday January 28, 2009
I know I promised a posting about the new printer (which is awesome, btw), but there are a few brief thoughts about the K20D that have been rattling around in my brain that I wanted to get down.
Colour
This camera loves it. The colours it produces are so rich and beautiful, it’s like falling in love with colour photography all over again. I first assumed the lush reds and blues from the Zion pics were just due to the subject matter, but the K20D has been producing lovely images back in Blighty, as well:
Immaculate conception
The above photo shows a church that’s just around the corner from where I live.
Part of the technical success of these images may also be due to the 35mm Macro Ltd. that’s been seeing a lot of active duty. As mentioned before, Mike Johnston at theonlinephotographer calls this lens an Optical Paragon. I’ve also been trying my Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7 manual-focus lens (because it’s the only other Pentax lens I own currently).
Manual focus
... is really difficult. The depth of field wide open with the 50/1.7 is tiny, and I’m still finding it quite difficult to shoot accurately with this lens (even when the middle red light blinks to say the image is in focus).
Over the weekend, I went on a night-hike through the New Forest with the walking club. It was a nice walk; not too cold, a bit muddy, but nice company. The last time I did a night hike with this group a couple years ago, I was able to get a decent shot with my Canon 50/1.8:
map faff
I had a couple similar opportunities this time around, but my focusing was just not as fast as my 350D’s autofocus (even with a bit of focus-hunting in low light). Not to mention exposure problems.
Exposure metering
Admittedly, this is one area that I knew would take some getting used to. It took a while to adapt to my 350D’s metering-brain; most shots were set to -2/3 stop exposure compensation with matrix metering.
The K20D’s matrix mode seems to things right most of the time, hence setting 0 stop exposure compensation as standard. Though sometimes, when I think it needs compensation (like an extra-bright scene), it just doesn’t and I end up blowing highlights. I think this is just something I need to get used to… either that, or break out of my go-with-what-(kinda-)works mold and learn how to use a more ‘predictable’ mode like spot metering…
In-body shake reduction
I still don’t think this is as effective as Canon’s in-lens image stabilisation. I’ve been shooting quite reliably with it on at 1/30s with the 35mm lens, so that’s close to a stop of gained usability vs. no shake reduction. But anything slower can be a bit more hit-or-miss.
Pixel-peeping at slower shutter speeds reveals slight blur (vs. much worse blur w/o SR), though the images are still usable at web resolution or for smaller prints. Maybe I’m just not used to the fact that I now have 15 megapixels to play with?
my faithful Inspiron 9300
Processing images now is much ssslllllooooooowwweeeerrrr than it used to be. I put this down to the fact that the K20D’s RAW files are twice as large as those produced by the 350D. The solution? Buy a new computer!!! — I wish.
I’m upgrading my laptop’s RAM from the current 1gb to its maximum 2gb, and hopefully it will be as if I had bought a new computer, haha ;-)
—
Happy (Chinese) New Year to all, or as some have been saying, Happy ‘Niu’ Year!! This is the Year of the Ox according to the Chinese zodiac, and the Mandarin word for ox (or cow, depending on the context) is ‘niu’, hence the wordplay above. Finally, a mentor of mine has offered yet another permutation— Happy ‘Gnu’ Year =)
— Emery Ku
Due Up, and reflections
· Wednesday January 21, 2009
A few days ago, I came upon the photoblog of Shaun Lunt, entitled Due Up. What makes this blog unusual is not the fact that there are many outstanding images, nor that many photos were taken from the air above Alaska in Shaun’s own airplane. What makes this blog unusual is that this talented individual died tragically in a plane crash in June of 2008.
A story like this always gives me pause. While I wonder what great things Shaun might have gone on to do, it’s clear that he was an individual living life to its fullest— all the while making and sharing some beautiful pictures of his journey. This eventually causes me to reflect upon my own life, how I’m living my life.
There are of course accomplishments in my personal history I’m proud of— being co-captain of my swim team in high school, performing a senior piano recital at swat, being honoured with a Fulbright award and most recently, completing and defending my doctoral thesis. But what about the now? Am I making the most of my time?
In the grand scheme of things, I have a great deal of freedom. And, while clichéd, I do believe that with such freedom comes the responsibility to do something worthwhile and productive. For me, that ‘something’ is often artistic in nature.
I’ve previously written about how photography has overtaken music in my life as a creative outlet. This is as true now as it was when I wrote that article more than a year ago; taking and making photos is what fills my existential void.
This is also why I’m super-excited to start making my own prints— to ‘develop’ yet another aspect of this amazing craft. The printer arrived yesterday, which was amazingly fast shipping from amazon!! Unfortunately, it preceded my photo paper so all I had to show for it yesterday was a couple printer-alignment test patterns, haha.
But the paper finally arrived today, and I’ve been busy making some test prints tonight, playing with printer profiles and generally running around excitedly! A fuller account of my foray into the inkjet world will follow soon :-)
It’s great to be doing, to be creating, to be alive.
—
I think ultimately stories like Shaun’s serve as an inspiration for those of us still earth-bound. They remind us that each day should have meaning, when sometimes they seem to slip by so easily. There is so much to be thankful for.
If you have a chance, check out Shaun’s blog. It’s something special.
— Emery Ku
Vegas and daytrips, part 2
· Tuesday January 20, 2009
Day 3
On the morning of our third day, we did a bit of shopping at a(n excessively) large outlet mall. Both my mom and I bought a pair of shoes, and at quite a reasonable price. I do wish I’d walked past the first hundred stores or so to see the Sketchers outlet first, though. Alas, my shopping inexperience in a big-city outlet mall showed through here.
Afterward, we drove to Red Rock State Park which is just a short trip into the hills west of Las Vegas. The light was quite variable, and I didn’t feel like I got many ‘keepers’. It was a nice drive, though (fashioned as a one-way loop through the park), and we got out to walk a few miles of their trails.
This was one instance where my 35mm macro didn’t quite feel right for the situation. Walking along the path, I didn’t see many compositions that were quite right for the focal length; 35mm was too long to capture the expansiveness of the landscape, but it was too short to pick out interesting details in the distance. Shooting near dusk was also not ideal, given that I wasn’t carrying my
I’m sure more time in the park would have exposed a much larger set of potential images (no pun intended), but the scenery was just not immediately astounding in the way that entering a national park makes your jaw drop. That was to come the next day.
Day 4
I have had the great fortune to visit a variety of national parks in the states. At the top of my list is still Yellowstone National Park. Its sulfurous features and landscape comprise one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen. The other parks I’ve seen each have their oooh- and aaah- views, too: Acadia in Maine, Badlands in South Dakota, Redwood, Yosemite and Death Valley in California, and now Zion in Utah!!
The following picture was taken on the highway between Las Vegas and Zion:
Hidden Valley
I think it’s interesting not just because of the slightly ironic nature of the location name, but also the various degrees of motion blur as noted by my friend Niamh. Due to the moderately wide field of view (covering a range of distances from the camera, itself within a car speeding along at 70 mph), the motion blur looks almost hyperbolic.
Visiting Zion only a couple days after Death Valley was incredible because of the stark contrast between the two. Death Valley is, as the name suggests, a truly extreme environment and well below sea level. Zion is set high in the mountains, within noble forests and majestic sandstone canyons. For me, photographically, Death Valley was dominated by the shapes and textures of its features; on the other hand, Zion was dominated by its beautiful colours.
Zion
Driving through Zion in only a day was extremely frustrating for me. I know I passed three definite places that would have made awesome pictures had we had the time/space to stop— and this was just along the scenic drive!! I know I will return to this park someday, to more fully explore its beauty.
Zion Lodge
Day 5
Our last full day in Vegas was spent at the Valley of Fire State park, about an hour’s drive northeast of LV. Unfortunately, the light was very overcast that day, so the interesting stone formations lost some of their texture and definition in photos. Though I didn’t have any pics I was overly excited about showing, I would definitely give this park two thumbs up for interest, especially as a daytrip from Vegas :-)
Thus marked the end of our vacation in Vegas. I had a great time, but really it was just a taster session and could have spent easily a week in either DV or Zion. I hope all of you dear readers have the opportunity to visit these locations someday!!
— Emery Ku
a Printer in the Now
· Saturday January 17, 2009
So after due consideration, I decided that really it makes no sense to wait 10+ months to buy a photo printer. I’m not sure if I’ll sell it before I move or ship it out, but for Now I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new Canon Pixma MP610!!
I considered a variety of printers, but given that this is my first printer, I didn’t want to splash out for a professional range model. A quick google showed that the MP610 is quite favorably reviewed on a variety of sites. The newer model (the MP630) is reportedly identical in print quality, but uses ink cartridges that are smaller and more expensive. Going for the 610 seemed to make sense.
Its maximum print size is about A4 (8.2” x 11.7” for US readers), which should be ok. Going from an A4 printer to an A3+ printer is a jump of at least £50-£100 in price, and I think I’ll be pretty content with this size print for now. I expect to be making plenty of mistakes along the way, so making test prints at 4“x6” seems a good way to start.
Thanks to a Christmas gift certificate c/o Nick, the patron sysadmin/saint of the server that hosts my blog, the final cost of the order (including photo paper supplies) came to less than £60. Nick— expect some thank-you prints to come your way over the next few months =)
— Emery Ku
musing of the moment
· Saturday January 17, 2009
A printer. Specifically, a photo printer. I would love to have one.
Why?
To be able to hard-proof my photos. To be able to print a photo or ten at 1am. To be able to make prints for friends at a whim.
So what’s holding me back?
I have the hard-earned cash, plenty of desk-space… It’s the same reason I’ve resisted getting a new computer, even though my Dell Inspiron 9300 struggles with the RAW files produced by the K20D— it’s the knowledge that I’ll be moving back across the pond in less than a year.
Acting upon a future that hasn’t yet come goes against 95% of the advice I’ve ever given friends, and really isn’t how I aspire to live. Maybe I should just man up and buy a printer.
— Emery Ku
Vegas and daytrips
· Friday January 16, 2009
On the first of 2009, my mom and I flew south to Las Vegas. Why Vegas? Well, it’s fairly cheap to get there (due to the subsidies provided by the casinos), there are plenty of things to do in the area, and it was a nice way to escape the chill of Winter in the Northwest.
When my mom first suggested the idea in December, I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. We had first visited when I was about 12 (with many extended family members in tow). Even then it had just all seemed a bit… excessive. An extravagant city in the desert may have been a testament to modern development and America’s technical prowess (i.e. the Hoover Dam) when it was first built in the ’30s, but nowadays it just seems so wasteful. Indeed, there are (and have been for some time) mounting concerns regarding the sustainability of water supplies to cities in much of the Southwest.
However, I also knew that as time goes on, there will be fewer opportunities to travel with my mom and take ‘family vacations’. So I put aside my ethical and environmental doubts and began to look into possible activities in the area. It turns out there are astoundingly beautiful parks that one can visit as a day-trip from Las Vegas. Here’s how we spent our time:
Day 1— Wander the strip
Day 2— Death Valley National Park
Day 3— outlet mall, Red Rock Canyon State Park and food shopping
Day 4— Zion National Park
Day 5— Red Rock Canyon State Park
One of the most beautiful sights of the trip, however, was the stunning sunset that we saw from the plane during the flight south and its associated afterglow.
Afterglow
I’ve been on a fair few flights, but I don’t think I’ve seen any sunsets like this one. My friend Suyeon who also flies often says they’re very common, though I remain dubious (or perhaps I’m always asleep, haha).
Day 1
The Las Vegas strip is what it is— so over the top you can’t help but cringe, smile and shake your head! I took some snaps with my K20D, but wasn’t terribly satisfied with any of the shots I got. I didn’t feel too out-of-place with my dSLR, though— this was tourist central. One place that my mom and I enjoyed wandering through was M&M’s World. There were at least 5 levels full of M&Ms-related merchandise (again, excessive). The best bit, though, was you could fill a bag with your own selection of ANY combination of M&Ms-colours under the desert sun!
M&Mom
Day 2
The next day, we piled into our Red Chevy Cobalt (it rather bothered me that a car named after a blue compound was *red*) and drove the 120 miles to Death Valley National Park (via a town called Pahrump! We drove through again in the evening and dined at a delicious restaurant called the Red Sky which was situated on EMERY STREET :-D).
The drive took about two hours, plus half an hour’s faff at a Smith’s grocery store for lunch and a super-Wal*Mart for a tripod.
tripod-related mini-rant
I fully admit I have nobody to blame but myself on this one, but I’ve bought yet another cheap tripod. This makes four that I’ve picked up over the years. I can never seem to justify spending $100+ on a nice Manfrotto with a great ball-head given that I know I only use it several times a year. This leaves me with crappy tripods whose performance I’m never satisfied with and don’t always schlep along with me on vacation. This vicious cycle really must end…
(end rant)
I knew even before we arrived at Death Valley National Park that a single day would only begin to scratch the surface of its beautiful scenery. The first site we visited was Badwater, the lowest region of the park— and indeed, all of North America.
Badwater
Badwater is a location that is bursting with character, and it’s no wonder that photographers journey here to capture its singular beauty. It was quite pleasant in the winter (if a bit dry, haha), but one could easily imagine the deathtrap it would become in the summer.
One of my greatest photographic concerns before departing on the trip was that I wouldn’t have a wide-enough lens to capture the scenery. The widest lens that I did have was the Canon 18-55mm IS kit lens, which is what I used to take the above picture. I remain rather unsatisfied with its wide-angle performance (sharpness, distortion); this is probably just because I’m fussy and have become accustomed to the standards of prime lenses. While I would’ve liked a lens wider than 18mm to get down closer the ground to bring out more of its details, the image turned out more or less as I’d envisioned.
What was surprising to me was that I really didn’t miss not having an ultra-wide angle lens. There were maybe two or three instances where I thought the scenery really called for such a focal-length, but otherwise I was quite happy shooting mostly with my 35mm Pentax macro lens!
In the next post, I’ll finish narrating the rest of the trip and talk about some of the other stunning sights I saw. As my friend Elizabeth will tell you, I’m terrible about finishing my blog posts about trips. But I promise I will do my best :-)
— Emery Ku
the Pentax Paradigm
· Sunday December 28, 2008
During the week or so I’ve had to play with my new K20D, I’ve taken roughly 400 pics. Though the locations of the controls are a little different from my 350D, using the K20D is quite intuitive. What’s also amazing is how customizable this thing is!! In each mode, you can set what the front and rear wheels control. For instance, in TAv mode (the one I use most frequently), I’ve changed the default setting so that the front wheel changes the aperture while the rear wheel adjusts the shutter speed.
TAv mode
So what is TAv mode? It’s another quasi-manual mode, like Shutter-speed priority (Tv), or Aperture value priority (Av). The user (you) sets both the shutter speed and the aperture, but the camera calculates the appropriate sensitivity (ISO). This is great because you can choose the appropriate shutter speed to minimize blur, the aperture for desired depth-of-field, and the ISO varies automatically within a user-specified range by 1/3 stops (I tend to set mine between 100-640 when outdoors, and 100-2000 or 2500 indoors). The only problem I’ve had with this so far is that I’ve accidentally left the shutter speed too low once or twice, thus causing a scene to get overexposed (because the camera can’t set the ISO below 100).
In the below example, I set the camera at 1/50s to eliminate blur due to motion and f/7.1 to ensure sufficient DOF— the camera automatically set the ISO at 640.
Breakfast
ISO 3200
Admittedly, there are very few situations where I need such a high sensitivity. The K20D lets you expand the ISO up to 6400, but a couple test shots at the upper end show really terrible degradation of image quality. 3200 on the other hand is still quite usable.
Raggedy
As you can see at the bottom edge of the basket, you start to lose some dynamic range at higher ISOs, though the detail in the dolls’ shirts is still well-preserved.
In-body shake reduction
This seems to work reasonably well, but I haven’t done any strict testing. My initial impression is that it’s not quite as good as the in-lens image stabilisation that my Canon lenses offer; I would estimate that you get a solid 2 stops of shake reduction on the K20D, versus 2.5-3 stops with my Canon 18-55 and 55-250mm IS lenses. However, being able to use this feature on any lens (including fast primes) is fantastic.
Lenses
I currently have two lenses at my disposal— the 35mm f/2.8 Macro Ltd. and an SMC Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7. The latter is a manual-focusing only lens that I picked up on ebay for £37; pretty good value! The 35mm has been praised by Mike Johnston, blogger at theonlinephotographer, as being an Optical Paragon. I’ve certainly found it very enjoyable to use, and its macro capability has been a lot of fun.
Snowflakes
It certainly produces nicely saturated and natural-looking images, and is capable of producing decent portraits at wider aperture values. The following image has a funny story associated with it, which you can read by clicking on the thumbnail :-)
Kevin
In any case, these two lenses seem a decent place to start. I’m notably lacking at the wide- and tele-photo ends. The next lens I’m looking to purchase has been announced, but not yet released— the 15mm DA Limited. I often find when I’m shooting landscapes that I wish I had a slightly wider lens, and I think this will fit the bill.
Unfortunately, I don’t yet own anything in the ultra-wide category, either for my 350D or the K20D… especially because I’m going to Vegas/the Grand Canyon/Death Valley on New Year’s Day with my mom!! Now, winter is not exactly the ideal time to be visiting these locales, but my mom wanted to travel, so we booked some tix. Given my recent flying experiences, let’s hope that the travel gods smile upon us :-)
— Emery Ku
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