Ideal Travel Camera for Old Moi

In our younger days, we were all guilty of NOT travelling light. In my younger days, travel usually meant work; as a photographer for a newspaper. I recall fondly the time I was with a fashion team to India, shooting for a Singapore paper; travelling with me were 30 KG of photo gear.

I was amazed how I managed to lug all those gears around! But then I was much younger...

In 2010 I concluded that...

A good travel camera should have the following quality:

1) It must be relatively light weight.
2) Able to take interchangeable lenses.
3) Digital, with video.
4) Larger sensor than a point and shoot.
5) Able to shoot RAW.

Come 2017, I decided that another two features are also a "must have" in my travel camera.

6) Able to shoot panoramic scene.
7) In camera image stabiliser.

After returning from a long 5 weeks stays in Penang, Hong Kong and Taipei recently, I was asked what make me decide to take what I took for our travel...

Once Upon A Time In INDIA 3

Our last day in India was a full on fashion shoot day in Agra.

According to Wikipedia:

Agra is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located at the banks of river Yamuna, 363 kilometres (226 mi) west of state capital, Lucknow and 200 kilometres (124 mi) south from national capital New Delhi.

With a population of 1,686,976 (2010 est.), it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most populous in India.

Because 80 percent of the city's sewage flows into Yamuna River, it is 20th most polluted city in India.

Yet, it is a major tourist destination because of its many splendid Mughal-era buildings, most notably the Tāj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpūr Sikrī, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

We woke up at 5 am and head for Taj Mahal to catch the rising sun.

This is what we came for! The stunning Taj Mahal, 6.30 am. One of the New Seven Wonder Of The World!

Once Upon A Time In INDIA 2

Theory of Chaos! The more I look at the pictures in the India Fashion CD, the more confuse I was! There were no caption and indication where they were taken! 1994, the year of meta data none existence ;) No help from colour films either!

But there must be some sort of order in all these chaos? A little thinking out of the box and Google took me to india-travelpackages.com and I discovered their Golden Triangle Tour, Tour Code : IOYO-01; for 5 nights & 6 days; with Routing : DELHI - JAIPUR - AGRA - DELHI. Is exactly the SAME type of tour that we took for our fashion shoot!

Reading their detailed itinerary and by looking at pictures (in Google graphics) of each location, I am able to identify where my shots were taken! Cool eh?

Our little fashion group from Singapore first landed at Delhi, after a short rest we went to work; trying to get some shots around the hotel.

Once Upon A Time In INDIA

After the last house flood, our stuff and junk are still semi organised in the garage. While rummaging through the chaos last week end, I discovered some forgotten memories; images that were forgotten.

A CD found was labelled "India Fashion", ahhh... memories flood back, it bring a smile to my face :)

I remember someone said, "It took me a long time to figure out that it's not where you are that counts in life; it's the memories that you make there."

And since, "Everybody has a story to tell, but stories forgotten can never be retold." Here's the great time I had with a group of energetic and creative young Singaporean before I forget!

1994 - I was head hunted and landed a well paid job as the first Picture Editor for Lianhe Zaobao in Singapore. Life was good, the Editor; Mr. Loy liked me a lot. Believe you me, this "LIKE" thing is very important in Singapore ;)

I just bought and set up the first Electronic Picture Desk for the Chinese Paper Division. I was getting acquainted with the Apple Macintosh computers and learning to use Adobe Photoshop 5.0 to scan negatives with a Kodak Professional RFS 2035 desktop scanner then output the pictures to a S$40,000 Kodak dye-sub printer!

Looking at the images in the India Fashion CD gave me a shock! The quality of the scans were terrible and they are all in PICT format, which; Photoshop CS5 DO NOT support! Suffice to say, the "rejigging" of the 1994 scans took me some very late nights :)

But how did I ended up shooting fashion in India?

In 1993, the features section of the Chinese paper ran a nation wide Most Promising Young Models Contest. The winners (male and female) will go with a fashion team from the paper to India for a week of fashion shoot.

Before I start, here is a plead; I had no record of the names of those in the pictures and this old mind cannot really recall their Chinese names! So if you are reading this or if you are their friends, please inform me yours / theirs names. Thanks!

We were in a chartered bus heading for Jaipur, the Pink City; this boy was selling poppadom in the middle of the road. I shot through the bus window.

PENANG Island, a Full Circle! (Part 2)

"Please, sir, I want some more!" - Oliver Twist

Yes! Food, glorious Penang food, is what thousands of tourists and homesick Penangites oceans and clouds away; coming back for more!!

They own one of the Hokkien Prawn Mee stall in Penang, you got to eat their noodles to savour the "hot", sweetness and oomph to realise why patience customers sat in the humid afternoon heat up to 30 minutes, waiting for their order! We did!

Never underestimate "hawker" who serves Penang goodies, most likely he make more money in a month than you in a year!

Penangites claimed to know hawkers who own half a dozens of "hi-end" properties on the island!  And looking at the customers at some of the stalls, I believe the gossip ;)

PENANG Island, a Full Circle! (Part 1)

My blog posts on our 4 weeks break should have started from Penang, our Malaysian hometown!  But like the Star Wars Trilogy, I started from behind and wrote about Taipei, then Singapore and now, a full circle later; Penang!

It was a long, long EIGHT YEARS ago that we were in our hometown! This time round we only have EIGHT DAYS to get whatever we needed done on this often known "The Pearl of the Orient", or "东方花园" (Garden of the East)!

Before we landed on this now over crowded "garden", I had promised to meet up with good friend like Jeff Ooi; FB friends like Sam Ong (of Eat Out With Sam fame) and Bea Chai, but alas; like life, it did not work out as we thought... there were just too many commitments with relatives, so here; thousands apologies to all those friends that I cannot catch up with. So so sorry :(  It was my loss!

The Penang I remembered fondly has changed!  It is now SO CROWDED, the number of cars on the road; I can imagine the massive traffic jams during festive seasons!  Just as well we did not arrive during the Lunar New Year!

We ♡♡♡ Taipei Part 3

Taiwanese love their night markets! If you are visiting Taipei, you must go and experience the Shilin Night Market!

Shilin Night Market (士林夜市; Shìlín Yèshì) is a night market in the Shilin District of Taipei, Taiwan, and is often considered to be the largest and most famous night market in the city.

Our hotel provides a free van service to this famous night market.

What's inside the market?  Pictures are better than words!

We ♡♡♡ Taipei Part 2

Taipei 101 (臺北101 / 台北101), formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a landmark skyscraper located in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan.

The building ranked officially as the world's tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. In July 2011, the building was awarded LEED Platinum certification, the highest award in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system and became the tallest and largest green building in the world!!

Taipei 101 was designed by C.Y. Lee and Partners (nothing to do with C.Y.Leow ;)) and constructed primarily by KTRT Joint Venture. The construction was finished in 2004. The tower has served as an icon of modern Taiwan ever since its opening.

Fireworks launched from Taipei 101 feature prominently in international New Year's Eve broadcasts and the structure appears frequently in travel literature and international media. - Wikipedia.

We ♡♡♡ Taipei Part 1

Hardly a week in Penang, the super humid and hazy weather was driving us up the wall! We decided to take a four nights trip to Taipei :)

We bought the rather pricey China Airlines direct flight from Penang to Taipei, other airlines do a round about trip to get there in 8 or 9 hours; China Air only 4!

The service of China Airlines was impeccable! Since I am on a walking stick, we are given priority check-in and boarding :) They even have priority seats while we wait to board! This was the first time I find out about this service to seniors with impaired movement, I was given special attention in Penang, Taipei and Sydney BUT SADLY, NOT in New Zealand!

Our plane landed at the beautiful Taoyuan International Airport and a wheelchair and a friendly helper was waiting for us.

In Singapore, What The Duck!!

No, that is NOT a typo; if you read on, What The Duck is correct ;)

On our recent break in Malaysia, we decided to spend three nights in Singapore; before we head home to Wellington.

The last time we were in this island nation was 6 years ago! Goodness, the Little Red Dot has changed; a lot, from what we remembered!

The most eye catching building is the Marina Bay Sands which jut out like a sore thumb, in my view; not a very attractive structure ;)

However, two days later; we were taken up to the KU DÉ TA restaurant up at Marina Bay Sands Sky Park, and the panoramic view really impressed me!

Lunch At EASTBOURNE, New Zealand

Lazy Monday, we are still going through the "Silly Season" in New Zealand; we got up late and my wife suggested that we take a drive to Eastbourne for lunch... and why not, the last time we were at this "retirement town" was TEN years ago! When I was the wedding photographer for Sam and Lei on their big day!

Sam, Lei and entourage at the Eastbourne sea front in 2003.

Eastbourne is a suburb of Lower Hutt city, it is 5 kilometres south of the main Lower Hutt urban area, and directly across the harbour from the Miramar Peninsula in Wellington city. - Wikipedia

My Ideal Travel Camera

In our younger days, we were all guilty of NOT travelling light. In my younger days, travel usually meant work; as a photographer for a newspaper. I recall fondly the time I was with a fashion team to India, shooting for a Singapore paper; travelling with me were the following photo gear...

2 units Canon EOS1 camera bodies, only one with a drive to save weight.
1 unit Leica M6 camera body with winder.
1 unit Canon 580 Speedlight.

Canon 14/2.8 L
Canon 17-35 2.8L
Canon 28-80 2.8L
Canon 85/1.2 L
Canon 200/1.8L
Canon 1.4 extender
Canon 2x extender

Leica Elmarit-M 21/2.8
Leica Summicron-M 50/2
Leica Summicron-M 90/2
Leica Summilux-M 35/1.4
Leica Elmarit-M 28/2.8

Chargers, batteries; 60 rolls of Kodak Ektapress colour negative film. A Monopod. And a Tenba Pro Pak camera bag.

I was amazed how I managed to lug all those gears around! But then I was much younger...

3 Nights In Melbourne

 I have a soft spot for Melbourne, may be it is because the best part of my 6 years were spent in this city as a student, or is it because Melbourne has been ranked No.1 as the world’s “Most Liveable City” for the second year in a row by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability survey?

That's yours truly on the left, at the Melbourne Essendon Airport; 1967.

46 years after that picture was taken, me and Le General heads for the city I love :)

We landed at Melbourne Airport, Thursday; at 8.30 am.

We got a mild shock when we join the Q at the immigration check out, a couple of planes from China must have arrived at the same time; we were swamped by hundreds (look more like thousands) of Chinese tourists!

Took us 90 minutes to pass through the check point!

We made our way to the Sky Bus stand, we bought a return ticket; A$28.00 each. Don't even consider taking a cab, unless you just won Lotto ;)

The BIG, fast; Sky Bus took us to the Southern Cross Station where we changed to a smaller hotel transfer bus. It is very efficient, and in 40 minutes we were outside our hotel.

Chill Out and Déjà Vu With Good Friends In Brisbane :)

We arrived Brisbane domestic airport after our non-stop, 5 touristy days in Sydney.

We were a bit stunned by the SIZE of this domestic terminal! It must be 20 to 50 times larger than our Wellington terminal!

What we did not realise is that Brisbane Airport  is the sole passenger airport serving Brisbane, Queensland and is the third busiest airport in Australia after Sydney Airport and Melbourne Airport. Brisbane Airport has won many awards. Brisbane is currently served with 46 domestic destinations in all States and Territories and 32 international destinations. For the 12 months ending May 2011 total passengers were 20,056,416!

The reason we came to Brisbane was to catch up with our good friends from Karori, Boon and Jackie (B&J). They moved to Brisbane in 2005 and that was the last time we had a chill out with them, goodness; EIGHT years has vaporised!

Boon took a shot of me and LB near the South Bank, Brisbane in 2005.

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā @ Sydney & Brisbane - day 4

Day 4, last day in Sydney; so we will try to see and do what we wanted! We will be flying off to Brisbane the next day:)

I know there is one shopping complex I do not want to miss, not for shopping but to eat the famous Japanese ramen I heard so much about! the complex we wanted to go is Westfield Sydney Shopping Centre.

Again, from where we stay; we are able to walk there!

Westfield claimed they have 3,000+ brands and 1 million + products!  So who is counting??

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā @ Sydney & Brisbane - day 3

Day 3, we found out that from where we stayed; we can walk our way to Sydney's Chinatown in 20 minutes!

I have read that Sydney's Chinatown is the largest in Australia. It is located in Haymarket, between Central Station and Darling Harbour. Unlike the Chinatowns in some other countries, Sydney's Chinatown has been relatively free of crime and hygiene issues.

I reckoned you have not visit Chinatown if you do not enjoy a "Yum Char" in this Chinese business district!

Market City, the outer walls of the original vegetable market, built in 1909, were preserved and restored as an example of Edwardian architecture. They were part of the original city markets—designed by city architect C.Broderick—which were bounded by Hay Street, Quay Street and Thomas Street. They were built to replace the old Belmore Market, which had failed because it was too far from Darling Harbour.

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā @ Sydney & Brisbane - day 2

Day 2 at Sydney... we took the train to Circular Quay which is the hub of Sydney Harbour, the quay is a vibrant, bustling place with ferries leaving every few minutes to different parts of the harbour, including Manly.

On the southern side of Circular Quay is a walkway that leads to the Sydney Opera House and Royal Botanical Gardens; while on the northern side, a short walk along lovely landscaped walkways takes you to the Harbour Bridge and The Rocks.

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā @ Sydney & Brisbane - day 1

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā  走马看花 [to gain a superficial understanding through cursory observation; given only a passing glance at things; giving a hurried and cursory glance]

I finally made up my mind to use up my accumulated Qantas Frequent Flyer points, after days of deliberations we decided to spend four nights in Sydney then hop over to Brisbane catching up with Boon and Jackie; the last time we stay with them in Brisbane was 8 years ago!

Somehow it seems a bit silly that even by using up my 72,000 points, each of us still have to fork out NZ$ 600.00 for the trip! "Severing" relationship with the flying kangaroos is not cheap ;)

So on the 22nd of March we were at the Wellington airport staring at Gollum chasing rainbow trouts :)

Penthouse Cinema & Cafe @ Brooklyn

Sunday... we were informed by our MetService that this will be the last day we are gonna enjoy the hot, sunny summer day!

We can't complain really, it has been TEN DAYS of sunshine; I don't know about you but we NEVER experience that kind of continuous "You Can't Beat Wellington On A Good Day!" for 10 days!

To make full use of this Sunny Sunday, we had a yum-char at a Chinese joint that we have not been for a long time... Le Gen insisted they got themselves a NEW chef, we were disappointed!  I vaguely remember the previous chef was slightly better ;)

Lake Hanlon - Middle Earth's Hidden Gem!

We settled in Middle Earth since 1988 but we never been to Lake Hanlon!

According to the Buller District Council...

"This lovely tranquil lake is relatively recent as it was formed in 1929 as a result of the Murchison earthquake.

This mirror lake sits on a south terrace of the Karamea Bluff.  It is in the middle of beech forest with a track that is an easy grade – rising moderately and then winding down to the lake.  A beautifully built viewing platform allows great viewing and photos."