Another Day in Vientiane

Another day in Vientiane and I started it with a visit of the market, it received some updates since the last time I was here.

It's a bit of a mess with a different buildings, levels and stalls situated in between buildings s finding anything is not easy but it's nice if you're here for taking photos or wandering around.

After the market, I went to the Patuxai arch to take some photos of the people around but didn't go up this time.

In the afternoon, I decided that it was time to go and see something new. Since I had my motorbike I decided to head to the Buddha Park a bit outside of town.

Although I spent a few days in Vientiane during my around the world trip 2 years ago, I didn't go to visit the Buddha park then. It is actually a shame since it's pretty cool and would have made for a nice stop during my trip then.

Still, it was good to go now and I enjoyed walking around the Buddha statues and taking photos of the statues but also the people there.

On my way back, I came across a few groups of people partying on the street, dancing, drinking and listening to very loud music from massive speakers.
They invited me for a beer which was a nice refreshment for my drive back.

Hue Waterpark

When you're in Hue you can go to see some of the old tombs, temples and pagodas or take a trip on the Perfume river.

That is all fun but if you want to see something different you have to head to the abandoned Hue Waterpark.

The watermark was a short lived attraction in Hue which now lies abandoned and overgrown a short drive outside of town.

As is typical in Asia but unheard of in the (more boring) western countries, you can walk and climb around all the old disused buildings and slides as you please.

Going during the week means you have the park almost for yourself, during the weekend however it's full of mostly students having picnics and taking photos around the park.

It's definitely an interesting sight and something else than just seeing temples and tombs. If you like to explore a bit and get off the beaten path it's well worth a trip.

The camera most fitting to take for this was the Epson R-D1 with the Ricoh GR lens although I should have also taken the Heliar 15mm for the wider angle.

Tree in B&W

This is a 20mp image created by zooming in and using the rectangular panorama mode on the OnePlus One phone with the Google Camera app.

Now, you might rightly ask why I bothered to zoom in and use the panorama mode given that I could have much easier taken one photo with the 13mp camera as is.
My reasoning was that by zooming in, I got a slight different field of view and while this decreases resolution, by utilizing the panorama mode I did not only get the resolution I lost back but also the field of view closer to what I wanted. While for this photo it was not really necessary as I could have got the same result by moving closer, it is certainly something I am thinking to explore more.

Blossom Mural

OPO, f2.0, 1/1099, ISO 101, JPG

Maybe a bit too much processing but I wanted this to look like a painting or wall mural and a bit abstract.
Sometimes it's not about being close to reality but having something different to look at and here I did like the result more than some other photos I processed a lot less.

Bird Watching

OnePlus One, f2.0, 1/562, ISO 100, JPG

Another nice and sunny day in London, quite unusual for a bank holiday but much appreciated. I didn't quite plan what to do so just ended up going to Hyde Park, a park I don't relay like and usually avoid (like the whole area around it).
Still, it was actually quite nice for a change to go there and while I had my GR with me, my photography got done with the OnePlus One again.

Springtime

OnePlus One, f2.0, 1/1783, ISO 100, RAW

You might have wondered why there were no posts for the past week. After not feeling very inspired, I needed a break from photography so during the past week I have hardly taken any photos.
I did miss the daily posting though so I think this is not something I want to give up fully but I am thinking to maybe only post when there is something to post. I am not quite decided on that yet so will see how it goes over the next week.

Thanks to the low Euro and me being fed up with the crappy battery life of my Nexus 5, I decided to get another phone. Since I would never again want to spend more for a phone than for a computer, I decided to go for the OnePlus One phone.

The phone is great for the price and the built in camera app might be crappy (so I replaced it with the Google one) but it does offer RAW capture. Curious as I am and having nothing better to do on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I took my phone with me and headed to the park.

I took some comparison photos with the different camera apps and looked at he RAW files and have to say, the JPGs are pretty rubbish with sharpening artefacts and weird contrast levels but the RAW flesh are actually pretty decent. 

Daffodils

a7s, f5.6, 1/100, ISO 100, RAW, 50mm (Sony SEL 16-50mm)

Since I still had the Sony a7s and my NEX-3n doesn't work anymore, I figured I try the 16-50mm kit zoom on the a7s for fun and to see the results it gives. The 16-50mm kit zoom is not a very good lens on the APS sensor of the NEX-3n so it's pretty useless on the a7s. Still, it was fun using it in a Helga/Loom kind of way.

Fountain

GXR A12-M, f2.8, 1/100, ISO 766, RAW, 53mm (Jupiter-12 f2.8 35mm LTM)

It started off as another nice and sunny day but became overcast in the afternoon. While I had more photography planned, I only went for a walk around the park here and took some photos with the GXR A12-M and Jupiter-12 lens.

Crystal Palace Walk

It's been a cold but sunny day today. Great for a walk and some photography. For this, I decided to take the Epson RD-1 along. It's a great camera but usually too big, bulky and unreliable to take along more often.

Since the weather was good and it didn't feel too cold, I decided to walk to Crystal Palace, it's only just over an hour walk and taking the Green Chain walk you go through a few parks so this is very nice.

Crystal Palace is actually a lot nicer than I thought with good views over London from the hill it's on and some nice restaurants, funky shops and decent pubs.

I've never been to Crystal Palace Park before so figured it will be interesting to see it. The park is a bit strange with different things in there, from old ruins, a radio tower, a council estate tower, stadium and even some dinosaurs you do get a bit of everything in the shield shaped park.

Sunny Saturday

GR, f8.0, 1/160, ISO 100, RAW

It was a cold but very nice day so I went for a walk around and through the mud in the nearby parks. It was good to be outside and enjoy some sunshine despite it being a bit chilly, kind of miss the weather in Asia.

Sunny Sunday Afternoon

The nice thing about fall is the light on a sunny day, the laves turning yellow, the low hanging sun and long shadows really provide a great light to take photos.
The rainy and grey days are not so nice but on a sunny day it's indeed very nice.

Sundial

Took this while out for a walk and enjoying the nice sunshine in Streatham.
Although the focus of the camera is on the sundial, he focus of the photo was on the couple on the bench in the background and it was them why I took this photo.

Day 23 - Beijing Parks

After the last two rather grey days, the sun was out again with slightly lower, more tolerable temperatures and a rare (for Beijing anyway) clear blue sky, not washed out, greyish blue but proper deep blue.

This was the perfect occasion to finally head to the Forbidden City, Jingshan and Beihai Parks.

It was a very nice days and the crowds were not too bad but I found that while walking through the Forbidden City, I did not have much to add to my previous pictures from 2006.
It is great to revisit certain locations as you can just wander and enjoy them without feeling like you need to document this but it's also strange to hardly take any pictures of a quite cool place.

But rather than taking the same pictures, just with a different camera (was one of my first GRD I trips in 2006), I decided to just taken pictures of things I did not get last time or where I had anything new or different to add.

This continued on through Jingshan Park, where you have the best views of Beijing and I plan to go early in the morning for hopefully a nice sunrise, and then to the Winter Palace or Beihai Park with the nice white Dagoba, where I waited to capture the sunset baking the lake and Dagoba in warm orange light.

Tomorrow, I have a visit to the Great Wall planned and then I am mostly done in Beijing and will move on Saturday evening to Xian, after going to the Temple of Heaven.

No people in today's picture selection after having too many people pictures yesterday.