That stuck and sinking feeling....

A fourth church in M'sia has been firebombed. Now M'sian PM is saying his party is not racist. hummm... Why is he saying that? Do his party members have anything to do with the bombings? If yes, then well its the same old same old. If no, it shows he's lost it and clearly on the defensive becos of all the past racial cards he's played on the people. Including allowing violence by Malays on Chinese and others. Now it seems things may be getting out of hand.

Remember his party's name starts with "United Malays..." Thats a racial party. Same as a number of other political parties as M'sian politics is still in the dark ages... its mostly based on race. And for the Malays, religion as well.

Crunch time for M'sia. Is it going to be 1M'sia? Or Malaysia for Malays only?

And where are the swift arrests using the ISA? The police's political masters (i.e. the elected govt) seem to be afraid to take action. Unlike previous crackdowns against the Chinese and Indians where the police and undercover agents moved swiftly with orders from the Home Minister using the ISA to silence dissent and prevent 'criminal acts'. But now criminal acts are being committed and nothing is being done accept for them to appeal for calm. A bit of a double standard I say.

If the court ruling is favourable to the other races, the Malays will riot. If it's favourable to the Malays, UNMO will loose votes from the coalition. Just the kind of political quicksand UMNO likes to dish out. One get that stuck and sinking feeling. Now UMNO gets a taste of its own medicine.

Its that time of year again...

Gosh, just realised that it is just under 3 weeks before Christmas. How time really flies. Meanwhile I have been testing out the new Canon EOS 7D for several weeks now. And my comments are that this camera is definitely worth it, especially if you are coming from an xxxD or even xxD EOS camera.

The EOS 7D is breaks new ground in terms of high ISO image quality. Its noticeably ahead of the EOS 50D. The grain on the images from the 7D are much more even with none of that streaking and blotching found on the EOS 50D. Next the 8fps shooting speed puts the camera squarely in the professional sports camera league.

Of course professional frame rates are useless without an equally good AF system. And the Canon EOS 7D does not dissapoint here. At first I was a bit wary of new AF system as I noticed that AF coverage across the frame had not actually increased. I would have much preferred an additional 4 AF points at each of the four courners, just to round out the "semi-diamond" layout. But I guess that would have been too much to ask. After having tested it for some weeks now, I'll say that the current layout and spread is adequate. I wouldn't go into the new iFCL / 64 segment metering system, AF tracking speed control, Focus Shooting Priority, AF zone selection, AF points expansion, AF points display, VF grid display, AF points tracking display, and automatic change of AF points given orientation change- all of which contribute to getting in-focused shots while the action is taking place at high speed. You can read all about that in official Canon literature. How the camera performs in actual use is the most important of all.

See full pixel crops of BIF (Bird in Flight) photo sequence below:

You'll notice that the camera's AF system was not easily fooled by items that came between the lens and the subject being tracked. I had the burst mode set on Focus Priority. Meaning that the camera only fired when the AF had acquired focus. The trick is to let the AF system lock on before letting loose the 8fps shutter.

And speaking of burst shooting, I found the buffer of the Canon EOS 7D to be more than adequate when covering the short flight of these birds across the wetlands. Of course, you'll need to use a high speed CF card. I was using the Sandisk 32GB Extreme III CF card, not the fastest CF card money can buy, but pretty fast enough.

The Canon EOS 7D is definitely worth the upgrade. Readers will note that I haven't even touched on the high definition video capability of the camera yet. That's because I'm currently teaching myself how to cut video. I'll have more on that in a future blog post. For now, I'm going out to take more pictures and record more of that gorgeous 1080p full HD video using my collection of Canon EF mount inter-changable lenses.

Update (8th Dec '09)
It seems the weather sealing on the Canon EOS 7D is also pretty impressive. Here a Canon shooter takes his own Canon EOS 7D out to Antarctica for 3 1/2 weeks and shoots during snow storms and while lying down on wet ice. Altogether an excellent performance for the new camera. I'm glad to be using one now. This now gives me a lot of confidence in its all weather capabilities.

Corporate Greed Strikes Again

In another case of corporate greed, Apple is now taking legal action against a business in Australia that has been using "MacPro" for its brand of computer and technical support services for over 26 years.

Orginally being handed a ruling in favour of MacPro Computers (the small business), Apple has now made an appeal to the Federal Court. According to The Age's report, Apple has spurred a number of requests by the small business to settle out of court.

It seems the company is not interested to negotiate but rather is out to exhaust the other business financially so that it will simply quit the fight.

It reminds me of the Firewire fiasco years ago when Apple (which invented Firewire) told PC makers that it wanted up to 50 US cents per PC per Port for Firewire licensing. I'm sure PC makers, seeing the technical merit of Firewire tried to negotiate. Eventually Intel and others, probably HP and Compaq included promptly "gave Apple the finger" and went on to create the Universal Serial Bus or more commonly known as USB. Which today has become ubiquitous. Had Apple been ready to compromise, today will see Firewire being the commonest standard instead of the much slower USB.

Despite all the talk and showmanship shown by Apple's top executives including Steve Jobs. It seems Apple is just another greedy corporate giant that will use its financial resources to do anything and everything to get its way.

That's another good reason why I don't have any brand loyalties to products. To me, they are just tools to get something done. No room here for Apple Fanaticism or any kind of Fanboyism of any sort.

Amazon / Dpreview.com threaten web blogger.

Askey / Amazon threatens Karel Donk for "using dpreview's images" without permission". They also demand that he give written reply that he will in future not use any of dpreview's material. Effectively gagging him. He replies by arguing fair use and mentioning principles used by the US courts on determining what is fair use. Amazon's lawyers then BACK DOWN. I think dpreview's objectivity was compromised long ago since Amazon took over. Nowadays, almost every camera is "Recommended" on their site.

As far as I'm concerned, Karel gives pretty good insight in his analysis and critical writing. I think these matters concern free speech, fair use, and exercising one's own critical thinking and not having the "wool pulled over our eyes" by camera companies, camera sellers, and their "independent camera review sites". http://www.kareldonk.com/karel/

New Passion & Creativity Unleashed

Having thrown off the shackles of manipulation and passive intimidation (see previous post), I now have a renewed sense of energy and creativity.

Below are just a selection of the photos created by myself in the days leading up to that fateful decision and the days immediately after.

Oh! What a change! What an awesome improvement! My photography has gone further and reached a whole new and different level. A higher level.

The color, the mood, the composition, the picture! Definitely moments worth capturing!

Friends & the Passon of Photography 2

Its been slightly over 3 months since I've posted to this my blog. The main reason is that I've been reflecting on some of the things I see and now I've decided to post this so that I'll get this out of the way and move on.

Bear with me as I recount a few incidents that will be used to make my point. A number of months ago I posted an article which described my personal experiences on what kind of photographers one should get along with... those who have a passion for photography and are willing to share and learn with you. Versus those who simply make use of other people and hoard all the information and know-how and only seek to learn from you without giving. A friend of mine advised me to take it down and give the person a chance. I also thought perhaps I was wrong and it was all a misunderstanding. One bad taste doesn't mean that one apple is rotten right? Since taking down that post out of respect to my friend and her advice, I have since felt and still do feel that I had been right in my assessment of that person all along. I felt suppressed in my own thoughts and feelings. I've been mulling about it in my mind. Its as if some people turn from Mr Hyde into Dr Jeckyl when they pick up a camera. And that bothers me. I've since put it back up for obvious reasons. Its here.

Now back to the continuation of the story... A few weeks ago, I did some photography for a couple of good friends who were getting married. I know both the bride and groom. Being responsible for ushering in guests to the wedding, I didn't do much shooting, until only after when it was clear no more new guests were coming and the wedding was well progressing did I being firing away (b4 that only candid shots). Next thing that came was really strange, that same photographer came over and quietly said to me that guest were still coming in. I immediately made my way out to the foyer and withing 10 seconds I was out there. It was a small church. As I was getting out to the foyer, a couple who were also ushers were on their way back in, having stood out in the foyer. Still, I went out to check and there was not a single soul in sight. I though it strange and didn't think more about it and quickly went back to cover the wedding. It was then that same photographer, when he saw me again seemed more determined to get more shots. He also seemed slightly agitated that "I had returned" and that seemed to make him more eager to fire away with his camera. In fact, he was so eager that he began to be "getting in my way" pretty often whereas I would make sure I didn't get in his way and take shots carefully. Usually as professionals, we photographers know to keep out of each others' "line of fire". So it seemed really odd to me that I was being blocked.

In both instances, its that same photographer. Some of you reading this may think that I'm being really naive and that I should really get over it and move on. Perhaps he's just a jackass. Others may think that this is now big deal, that its very common and one shouldn't be paying too much attention to it anyway. I think that's both correct.

But how does one then reconcile this fact with the fact that I'm in photography for the creative expression and that photography has to be fun and that once that is being tampered with I then tend to loose my creative excitement? And also the fact that I'm a nice guy generally and like to share and learn from others? Whereas there are others out there that are quite simply - feral.

Also since taking down my original post about that bad experience / taste, I have felt that I suppressed my own self even though I had made a correct assessment of the situation and there are more instances btw. But really when there is a clear trend, I really can't be stupid twice. I guess he just turns into Dr Jeckyl or Jerk when he picks up a camera. Stay clear from such kinds of people, especially when they are about to pick up a camera. This sounds crazy but its true.

So what do I do?

Here's what I'll and this will be the "moving forward":

1) Continue to be a nice guy. What?!? I hear some of you say. Pro photography esp in Fashion is cut throat. Nice guys get trampled on. Well that's me and I'm not going to compromise my character for this. Plus, doing so will eventually kill my passion anyhow. So being like the rest of them is definitely no go.

2) Carefully pick the ones I call my friends when it comes to Photography. And not just photography but those things in life where passion from your heart is important. Choose people who build you up and not those who leave you with a sour or bad after taste. Continue to learn, give, share, and grow with those who share the same passion AND are willing to share, learn, and give as you do.

3) Last of all, go out and take more photos and grow your passion!

With that lets move on soul and let your passion grow to new heights!

Looking forward to do more posts here from now on.

Fall Colors

Taken a few weeks ago in the Mt Dandenong ranges.

Fall is nice, but I can't wait for warmer weather to come. Will not come for many more months...

www.pbase.com/danyong/fallcolors