Self Belief is Everything

All words and pictures copyright Alastair Rose 2011

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Last shots from the old lens

I have been holding off buying a new lens for a while but my trusty old Tamron (the massive 18-270mm f4.5) is struggling on many levels. There is a vast amount of dust inside the lens, its very shaky, auto focus does not work at various lengths, manual focus is pretty messed up (leaving me with the annoying process of flicking between manual and auto to try and get the focus ring in the right position). After much deliberation I went lens shopping today and relaced it with Canons L series. (Just realised this is probably boring for non photographers so if your interested I will put the deliberations at the bottom of the post!)

The last couple of weeks have not seen me outside too much. I decided not to go to Yangshou at the last minute and have been out climbing and kayaking a bit in Hong Kong as well as working in the office. Below is a collection of shots from the last couple of weeks

Can anyone say light pollution? A long exposure from the hill behind where I live (next to the windmill for any locals) of Pok Fu Lam, Cyberport and the edge of Aberdeen on a clear night as the clouds roll over Hong Kong Island.


Taking a Sampan over to work yesterday morning with a sea kayak that need fixed, beautiful morning heading over to Aberdeen
The stormy season has started, this was taken out of the office window in the middle of the day. It suddenly went dark and then started pouring with rain.
Sunset from Lamma looking toward Lantau island.
The Star Ferry that runs across Victoria Harbour. It amazes me that the star ferries still run, they are seriously old and it only costs two and half Hong Kong dollars (about 20p)
Waves breaking over a rock at Shek O.

Lens deliberations - I decided to buy into the L series lenses as they are fully weather proofed and at first was thinking of getting a 16-35mm f2.8. I then started looking at the 24-70mm f2.8 and switched my mind to this (thinking that I will probably buy the 16-35 at a later date). At the last minute I decided to go for the 24-105mm f4. It seems like a good deal for me as I dont shoot indoors too much and it has an image stabiliser in it which kind of makes up for f4 as well as being smaller and lighter than the 24-70mm. It is also cheaper!

Camera shopping in Hong Kong is pretty funny, haggling is pretty easy and you just have to get well off the main tourist areas (Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui) and choose a few shops. The smaller and more disorganised a shop looks the cheaper it is seems to be the rule. Today there was a HK$2000 (£160) difference between the highest and lowest prices I was quoted!

I also managed to go to a "touch and test" (no really that is what it was called) of the new Hasselblad H4D (the body alone retails for over 20,000 US dollares). It was completely ridiculous with 60megapixels and a 18-90mm f1 lens on it. The average file size would be 60mb! For some amazing old Hasselblad photography check out Clyde Butcher - http://www.clydebutcher.com/ . Alright. Enough geeking out.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Hong Kong Life

Heading off to Yangshou, China tonight for some climbing and a bit of a holiday but thought I would throw some photos up on the blog taken in the last few weeks. Its been a busy couple of weeks and that added to the main lens I use slowly dieing has meant that I have not been taking quite as many photos as usual...
Pak Sha Wan (Hebe Haven) at night with Ma On Shan in the background (Ma On Shan is the peak) taken from Wong Sui Seng. Hong Kong folks might know this better as the peninsular W of Sai Kung with Trio beach on it.
The patter of tiny feet - I took a couple of these as some students ran around on an evening scavenger hunt at Wong Sui Seng
The 21st floor - Probably taken around 7am, the first challenge of every program is getting all the (correct) gear from the store on the 21st floor into the back of the truck on the 5th floor!
Bioluminescence - probably the brightest I have ever seen on the Wan Tsai peninsular. This image is not photoshoped, this was a couple of minutes of exposure at a high ISO speed with about 15 people chucking rocks into the water the whole time. The far small pin pricks of light are probably fish breaking the surface for food.
Hong Kong signs never fail to amuse. Taken with my new fancy pants Ipod after my very old one gave up the ghost.