2 seats available for chess

Anyone wants to sharpen their chess skill?

There was a friendly chess match at the most CROWDED street in Sydney (Pitt street) and it was 1 guy vs 5 players (kids/adults/young and old). 2 seats available (sitting on the ground actually) when I took the picture above. 

Giogio's general store in Watson Bay

I was walking down the street of Watson Bay, the yellow building and the striking red car caught my attention to take this picture. On the outlook, the owner managed to keep the building in good condition except the crack at the top. I like the red mini car that matches the building's age as it was like the time has stopped.

The shot above was taken 18-55mm kit lens attached with polarizing filter.

Flowers in my garden

I was testing my newly arrived polarizing filter (Fotga, $10) with my 55-200mm lens. The result didn't turn out that I was expected. Loss of detail, vignette at corners and it was horrible. Then I took the same picture again without the filter and details are way lot better.

In short, cheap polarizing filter does not fit with zoom lens and best fit with wide angle lens.

The picture above is shot in raw and post-processed with high-key settings.

TIDAL High Fidelity sound test

I did the test yesterday and I got 3 out 5 correct. I did the test again (second try) today and also got the same result. 3 out of 5 correct. The third try I was confident with my result, without waiting for the song to finish and submit my choice except the Dixie Chicks track that I had to listen twice.

In the end, I got all 5 tracks ticked.

Go to here for sound-check your equipment or system to see whether you can hear the difference.

Have fun.

Reference:
http://test.tidalhifi.com/

My gear:
Cmoy amp with Shure SE215

Woman and her dog at Putty Beach

Last Sunday, I joined my friends on a bush walking trip from Putty Beach to Bouddi National Park and back. 

At the beach, I saw a woman sitting there with a camera attached with a long zoom lens taking photos of people on a surfing board in the sea. Her dog dug a hole not far away from the Green Surfing board and got back to her when it saw us coming.

A day at Coogee beach

A friend from meetup organised a day gathering at Coogee Beach, Australia. Well, he brought cards, frisbee and it was good fun at the beach (altogether is 5 people). Below are some photos I took while I was there.

Spring is here

Flowers starts to pop up in front of my house. 

Sydney supporters of Umbrella Revolution (HK protest)

I passed by the Hong Kong House in Sydney and it caught my eyes. Notes were stuck on the wall with words from supporters and yellow ribbon tied along the hand grill just right in front of the house. Wow!

Moon

First try at taking a shot of the moon.

Weed

Just some weed growing around my house and all flowers happen to be in yellow. :/

Free DXO software (v7) for DSLR photo processing

Just want to give a shoutout of free photo processing software (DXO version 7) for DSLR photographer with lens distortion and chroma aberration correction based on popular camera + lens. Software supports up to win7.

Follow the link below:
http://www.dxo.com/intl/digitalphotouk

Snowy Moutain - Perisher

A 2 day trip to snowy mountain, Perisher. 

From the Sydney City to there is about 6 hours. We stayed a night in Jidabyne and traveled to Perisher Ski Tube station by car on the next day. The sightseeing ticket is AUD $49 per person and that's including ski clothing, tube ride, toboggan/sled for family fun and one ride up to the mountain top.

In the ski tube.

 

 The tube station on top.

 The weather is good and the sun is bright. Luckily I got my sunscreen on.

A long queue at the ski lift, but it was quick when it gets to us.

 Here we go...

We met up a guy while riding the ski lift and he was paying AUD $120 for the unlimited ride to the mountain top. He told us he is not going to have lunch or break because he going to keep riding ski lift and ski for the whole day. If I would pay the same money for the ride, I will be doing the same too.

On a ski lift, reaching to the next station.

Further up again to the top. 

 A view from top of the mountain, everything seems so small.

 Then, there was this bunch of school kids we met on top and they all went amok.

 On my way down.

I promised myself that I will take the ski lesson if I come back again next year. ;)

Vivid Sydney 2014

Sydney held a light show called the Vivid Sydney at major attraction site in the city. I got the change to go there with my wife and a friend to have a look and take some photos.

It wasn't really crowded on the first night (23rd May 2014) and we were lucky to enjoy the show without too much of a hassle.