NOSTALGIA - SPOT (SPORTS) ON!

Nostalgia - a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.

A Redux... larger and sharper pictures :)

My friends asked me if I miss shooting big sports events, I do and I don’t; I do miss all the excitement and the adrenaline rush… I don’t, because physically I cannot handle jobs like this anymore!

I remember fondly that in the 70s and 80s, all you need for covering sporting events were a film based SLR and two lenses, the 35-70 and 80-200 zoom! The relatively “slow speed” of f4 was not a problem because of the classic Kodak Tri-X film which we often “push” processed in D-76 soup and raising the ASA (ISO) film speed to over 3,200!

For football match in dimly lit stadium at night, the standard arsenal was the 180/2.8 and the 105/2.5 lenses.

Those were the good old days when we were forever young, cameras and lenses were compact and light weight and shooting sports were FUN!

A Late Dragon Year Parade In Wellington

Because Wellington was hosting the Rugby Sevens last week, our yearly CNY parade has been pushed back a week to Sunday, February 12.

Traditionally, Chinese New Year celebration finished on the 15 day of the new year; which was February 5, last week.

But since "when in Rome...", I mean when in Wellington, do what the Wellingtonian do; the show must go on ;)

Olympus OM-D, Retro Out Of Control?

The word "retro" derives from the Latin prefix retro, meaning "backwards" or "in past times" – particularly as seen in the words retrograde, implying a movement toward the past instead of a progress toward the future, and retrospective, referring to a nostalgic (or critical) eye toward the past. - Wikipedia

The last few years it seems, everyone are trying to jump on the retro bandwagon; manufacturers somehow think their retro products can sell better!  In camera manufacturing, the-mother-of-all retro must belong to Olympus, in 16 June 2009 they show off their retro baby; the camera is reminiscent of the Olympus PEN half frame film cameras and is marketed as the Olympus digital PEN.

Nikon D800 - the BABY D4!

The King of DSLR, the Nikon D4 gave birth to a baby; the D800 was born to replace the venerable 30 months old D700.

After the lack luster response to their new "small sensor" Nikon 1, Nippon Kōgaku came back with a vengeance and caress their fan boy with a whopping 36.3 mega pixel CMOS inside a solidly build body!

This is what Nikon said about their new sensor:

"The D800/D800E render levels of texture, nuance and detail to your photography that, until now, have been the exclusive domain of the complicated medium-format system.
 Define every eyelash, every line in tree bark, and every shimmer of light. Savor the exceptional depth in your still images — with the combination of an astounding 36.3 effective megapixels, the world's highest*, and the outstanding performance of NIKKOR lenses, you can.

Lantern Festival 2012 @ Auckland

Every year for the last thirteen years Auckland celebrates the Chinese New Year with a grand lantern festival. This popular event is held over three nights at their inner-city park, the Albert Park.

According to Wikipedia...

Albert Park is a scenic park in central Auckland, bounded by Wellesley Street East, Princes Street, Bowen Avenue and Kitchener Street. From the entrance at the corner of Bowen Ave and Kitchener St, sealed footpaths climb steeply through native trees to the large flat area at the summit, where flower gardens encircle a fountain.

All these years we are in New Zealand, we NEVER been to the Albert Park or seen the lantern festival! This years it is going to be different, Le General exclaimed; we are going to see what this fuss are about, we are going to the lantern festival!

They Shoot Lo_Yusheng with P&S Don't They?

A reunion dinner is held on New Year's Eve of the Chinese New Year, during which family members get together to celebrate.

This CNY eve, thanks to Michael and Debbie Moon we (Le General and Ming) were invited to their family reunion dinner :)

I brought along two sets of Yusheng and we also bought two thick slices of fresh salmon to add more oomph to the mix ;)

Since most of the Moon clan has not experience "Lo Yusheng" before, I thought it will be a refreshing experience for them.

Yusheng come in different styles, this one was from Janet in Auckland.

Happy Dragon Chinese New Year!

Thousands of NZ Chinese will welcome the year of the water dragon on Monday.

Prime Minister John Key open the Chinese New Year Festival and Market Day at ASB Showgrounds today, without an incident.

I remember he fall off the stage at the same function in 2009!  He broke his arm in three places! 

He commended the extremely safe stairs set up by the organisers this year.

As a matter of fact, "If I fall off it I'll just be confirming I'm an idiot." ;)