The Tadpole from Passion Pictures on Vimeo.
Directed by Bonzom
Via John Nack. Had to share it with the world again! Totally brilliant. I keep waiting for more when the credits roll. Turn up your volume and be lost in the rainforest wilderness. FYI I have a whole new take on Tadpoles now!
It has been a little quiet here lately but some nice travel updates are due soon. You’d have to wait till Saturday morning for the next installment, but in the mean time I thought of sharing some colourful moments of 2011 I’ve shot so far. Yes, all in 2001 
Make sure you click on the thumbnails.
Autumn is finally here. Horrible summer be gone already. Its not always the start of the month that mark the cut off…. but nature sure has its own way of reminding you how time does pass by. I walk by this tree everyday to work but it wasn’t until today I noticed the big change in colour. Yay, here comes autumn. The king of all seasons!!
Autumn leaves in Naremburn. Click image for a larger version.
And here is how it looked just a month before.
Hand-made cushions with Indian sequence and mirrors handicraft. Click image for a larger version.
Pillow talk is exactly what Doris Day would have in mind if she was reading this from her beautiful paradise in Carmel… These are Robyn’s cushions. Aren’t they gorgeous.
One never has to go far to shoot a good (subjective, I know) photo. Inspiration is all around us. Whether one choses to see it is yet another question!
Sunset reflection at Copacabana
Its that time of the year when we head up to Copacabana. Yay! It sure has come around quick and thank God for it We may not have perfect clear blue skies but we’ll make up with lots of drinking, lots of laughter, lots of cooking, BBQ, and swim in the ocean. I took these photos last year on my then Canon EOS 40D. Sunsets at Copa are amazing! You’ve got to witness the golden hour with a cocktail or two in hand. Lifes too short. Even shorter on the wrong side of 30 I tell ya!
Hanging lanterns in a shop in Hoi An, Vietnam, 2006
Good old memories of Vietnam came flooding back as I was looking through my old photos tonight. On our last day at Hoi An just before we left the cute little artsy town, we did the rounds of local crafts market. And gee there is a lot of it for a small little village it is. If only Australian Customs were relaxed we’d have bought some back with us as these are hand-stitched, threaded and made out of thin bamboo frames right off the jungle. Almost! They look so pretty. Don’t you think?
Just a little confession 
I truly am a Nikon lurker but with good reason. I’d so love to own the Nikon D3X right now But alas!
Canon & Nikon are both top-notch camera makers — but they both have slight advantages over each other in different areas of their game. If you’re new to the field of photography and have to choose one over the other its relatively easy to weigh your options. But it sure as hell gets complicated and very expensive if you’ve gear vested in one particular brand, sadly Canon over the years and looking to go the other way: Nikon that is. More so if it is a hobby. Winning the lottery would help but I never seem to be in luck.
Its been over ten years I’ve been shooting with Canon and with more concentrated effort in the last probably four odd years. From my limited experience, travels on the Internet… Canon seems to make great camera bodies and lenses and seemingly dominates the Landscape world. Nikon on the other hand dominates Sports, Journalism, Portraiture, Low-light all around. Not everything is rosy for Nikon either, one has to lug extra weight and the menu system is hideous is some ways. Resetting a Nikon setup or changing quickly between one type of shooting to another type is not as easy as it is on Canon. But when you see how Nikon gets its colours spot-on without any extra tinge of blue(outdoors) yellow(night-time) and red(on skin tones) then the extra weight and hideous menu system seems like a small price to pay isn’t it? Nikon also has excellent AF points while Canon only gets good AF measurement on the middle spot mostly(sorry Canon). Nikon offers very good low-light captures, far lesser noise both at low-light and high ISO and higher burst. Canon of course fights back with higher resolution(file-size) but unless you’re going to print every image and crop every image heavily higher file-size is good but not an imperative. What is important however is to fix Canon’s back-focusing on its lenses and noise! Canon’s low noise reduction in the current model I have(Canon EOS 5D Mark II) is over-hyped. If you are a Canon shooter check your shadow noise at any ISO with an equivalent Nikon shot.
The succulent that didn’t quite make it through last Saturday’s heat 
The poor thing couldn’t tolerate the 41 degree C Sydney went though. It was a record high from the last 85 odd years!
RIP Succulent
I must be in the middle eastern flavours lately. I talked about Za’atar a few days back and now here comes Harissa Chicken with Coriander. This is an easy dish and can be prepared in less than twenty minutes should you have the chicken marinaded all ready to go. Marinate the chicken at least an hour for flavours to flow through but nicer if you can afford about 2-3 hours.
Chicken with olive oil, freshly chopped coriander, Harissa & sea-salt. Marinate.
Sunday morning outlook from our balcony
Levain from Victoire, click for a larger view
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 1/25 sec, f/2.8, 50mm, ISO 200, Bias: +2/3 EV
Having a good bakery close to home is God sent! We are really lucky to have Victoire in the neighbourhood. For those not in the know Victoire supplies bread to establishments like the Rookpool and the likes.
Rose at Naremburn. Click for a larger view
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 1/1,600 sec, f/2.8, 50mm, ISO 320, Bias: -1/3 EV
When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed
that with the sun’s love
in the spring
becomes the rose
– Bette Midler
Jamieson’s Lookout, Wentworth Falls
People often think when you shoot landscape its ones of the easiest things to do. And most times it is except when you have the vast expanse of the sky open right in front of you and how well or badly you meter your light will decide how accurate or off your photo will turn out.
Life is too short to waste on average food. You agree right? Well in that case you should really try Café Sopra at Fratelli Fresh, Walsh Bay. We have already been there a couple of times in the last three to four weeks and the food really doesn’t disappoint. And when its all freshly cooked with beautiful Italian wines its hard not to like it! They also have outlets in Waterloo, and Potts Point which we haven’t tried but if the one in Walsh Bay is anything to go by am sure the others are going to be equally good. Dare I say Fratelli Fresh made the mark in Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, and has recently been awarded “Best Cafe” by Time Out magazine. Needless to say I have not had tomatoes this juicy and sweet and peaches that make me crave a whole lot more.
Antipasto at Fratelli Fresh
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 1/320 sec, f/2.8, 43mm, ISO 250, Bias: +1/3 EV
Kookaburra perched on a tree at Clontarf
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 1/160 sec, f/3.5, 200mm, ISO 1000, Bias: 0 EV
Kookaburras are large terrestrial Kingfishers native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. Very typically known for their loud call that somewhat echoes a human laughter. There is more on Kookaburra at Wikipedia. This one in particular was rather fearless and after our BBQ.
Hope you all had a lovely Australia Day!