Vacation Photos - Shantou China (Dec 2010) - Part 2

It was early in the morning... I had woken up at around 0500hrs to shoot some sunrise. This is something that I loved to do.

ISO: 200, S: 1/125, A: f/8

Well... taking sunrise pic is boring without other subjects to bring up the sun. So I position myself to take the sunrise from an angle and using some of the house as 'side dish' for this sunrise shot. Everywhere was still dark but exposure is spot on.

It was pretty exciting this day as one of my cousins will be bringing us for sightseeing. We are going to a temple (well, China had lots of temples, thousands of years of history... and each dynasty new temples are build in different province). Being a history nuts too... I would like to see all these magnificent structures... and many of them had withstand thousands of years... many of these years are of turmoils.

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/4.5

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/4.5



Flash are being use, as the place are very dark... Well... I have never been one who are too shy to use the flash, unless it is forbidded.

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/4.5

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/5

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/5.6



Well... the temple that I have shown was build in Song Dynasty that is around 800 years from now. Well... it is not a thousand years old temple, but it is still a very very old temple. And the structure is grand in its own way, not like the cathedrals in Europe, but it is as beautiful.

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/14


As it was a sunny morning, everywhere was very brightly lit by the sun, it is very difficult to get the correct exposure. I ended up having to manually compensate the exposure (-1/3 Ev) to achieve a correct exposure that is needed. For these type of photography, actually I would prefer to make them B&W... especially when our architect is old. But right here... I am not doing it. I like to show the colours of the Chinese temple. If it was a European cathedral or fortress, I would have no problem making the photo B&W.

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/16

ISO: 200, S: 1/200, A: f/9



Well... one thing that I don't like to take, is people standing in a straight line... like all those group photos... it is so predictable and so boring. I would like to have more interesting pose... but... well... this is what you get when you have no idea how to pose your subjects.

ISO: 200, S: 1/200, A: f/10




Well... and that conclude the temple tour...

And on to our next stop...

ISO: 200, S: 1/500, A: f/14


Herewith I have taken into shooting the gate or door that are far away, using a very small aperture to ensure that my entire frame are in relative sharpness.

My first car photography... Well, like all other photography genre that I am doing, I love to isolate the objects.

ISO: 200, S: 1/25, A: f/5.6

ISO: 200, S: 1/30, A: f/5

ISO: 200, S: 1/30, A: f/5.6



I seldom took the entire car in view... although there is... but I am not going to showcase here.

ISO: 200, S: 1/100, A: f/5.6



A playful show whereby I and my mum are each trying to capture each other in our frame. I would say, I won. Hahahaha.

This place was actually donated and built by a very very rich person. He dedicate this place to his mother... Well... the place was massive... I think it is bigger than Singapore's Istana... I was amaze... and the amount of money put in... must be enormous. I was impress.

(Beautiful wall carving and decoration)


ISO: 200, S: 1/50, A: f/5.6

ISO: 200, S: 1/70, A: f/4



Actually the place is kind of a boring place. It had not much items that could really interest me... except that the person staying here is very very rich and I am not that rich :) Anyway, as an aspiring photographer... one of the thing that I needed to do is to make my photo interesting... even if that place is not.

ISO: 200, S: 1/125, A: f/5.6

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f:5.6

ISO: 200, S: 1/400, A: f/16



Yes... always on a lookup for different weather, cloud formation and lighting when taking photos. And the above had applied just that. I found that the cloud and lighting are just nice and so immediately I took a shot... the result is good.

ISO: 200, S: 1/400, A: f/14




Well... sometime a flag can be pretty amazing when you have capture it right. I would have purposely cropped it to the side to make this look better... well... I didn't. And it kinds of bother me now and then... live and learn.

Anyway... that is about it for the 3rd day...