Went to Stanley Park for biking yesterday with Wendy. We rented a “tendam”, a bike that sits two people. We were skeptical at first but it turned out to be really easy to ride and lots of fun! We spent a good four hours at the park, biking and stopping for pictures…etc. I brought my two SLRs that I just got for test shots. They are actually quite easy and fun to use, as I enjoy manual focusing a lot. I was using the Olympus OM-1n camera and Wendy got the OM-10. I was fully prepared for the worst, that the pictures would turn out real bad as I had never used SLRs before, plus these are 30-year old cameras… It turned out that the OM-1n was perfect, photos turned out to be very sharp, though overexposed a bit probably due to the fact that the 1.5V battery installed had a higher voltage than the recommended 1.35V and therefore the light meter was a little off, well at least I know how to calibrate it for next time. On the other hand, shots taken by the OM-10 were ALL blurred Not 100% sure why but I think it’s because of the focus screen not held level inside the camera - I was playing with it the other day, maybe it was loosen after that. I’ve calibrated it a bit hopefully it’ll turn out good for the next time.

All in all, it was a great day for bike, and a great experience to use the SLRs! It was just a perfect day.

Recently I’ve acquired the Cokin filter adapter, two Hi-Tech ND Gradual filters, and s Hi-Tech Star 4 filter from 2filters.com (They’re quite pricey, whole package came to about $200 USD). Actually not until very recently did I get to read about these ND gradual filters and their usages. They turned out to be the missing piece of my photography puzzle! I’ve always been wondering how people take these amazing “surreal” kind of landscape/waterscape pictures and these filters turned out to be the thing that make it all possible. They basically work by darkening the sky (without darkening the ground) so that longer exposure can be used during daytime. So far I’ve tested them out twice, with pretty good result. I’m very stoked about owning them and I’ll make sure to keep them handy wherever I go…

Today I went to the Iona Beach in Richmond to try out the filter with Wendy. I figured that the best time to make the best use of the filters is at around 9:30pm which is about 10 minutes after the sun has fully gone down. The 1.2 ND filter gave me the best result, as it gets darker, the 0.6 ND filter will do the trick.

Did a lot these few days, not sure where to start…I went to Alice’s place to BBQ and I had some best lamp chop I’ve ever eaten, and some really tasty grilled portobello. I sold my Canon SD1000 digicam for $100. I bought a camera bag at London Drugs for my new Panasonic ZS3 digicam, the same bag that I bought for the SD1000 but a bigger version of it since I like how it has a clip at the back and also the magnetic cover. I finished the last demo for my client today, no more demos at least in this month! I bought two SLR cameras and two Olympus OM lenses (did I already talk about it in my last post?) and they were delivered today but I’ll have to drive to Point Roberts to pick them up, maybe tomorrow. I installed a flower basket at the window of the basement and planted some really cool flowers there…

Except for that my mom’s been here for just about 4 days and been nagging me all day long, for the past few days I’ve been looking at the Olympus OM vintage SLR cameras a lot, mostly on Ebay. I’ve been wanting an Olympus OM 50mm f1.4 lens for quite a while (and the 50mm f1.8 as well even though I want the f1.4 more), and due to the fact that most of the auctions usually come with both the lens and the camera, I was exposed to the names of a few of Olympus’s vintage SLR cameras like the OM-1, OM-2, OM-4, and OM-10. Apparently the OM-4 was the king of all SLRs but then it costs almost $400 USD to get a nice quality one. On the other hand the OM-10 is cheap, costs less than $30 USD. But anyway the one I really want is the OM-1, which is a fully mechanical camera, meaning the camera operates fully without a battery! The drawback is that you’ll have to manually set the aperture and exposure, whereas the rest of the models all feature Aperture Priority therefore the camera can do all the settings for you. I still want the mechanical OM-1 though, just because it’s one of the oldest and greatest SLRs, and the fact that it doesn’t require a battery - really cool. I’ll probably be getting the OM-1 plus the 50mm F1.4 lens, if I’m lucky enough to come across one on Ebay…

My dad bought me this Panasonic ZS3 digital camera from Hong Kong, that I’ve been wanting for quite a while. It’s going to be a replacement to my beloved Canon SD1000, and it’s going to mainly serve as my video recording device for use when I travel. It’s got a sweet 12X optical zoom, plus HD (720p) video recording capability. However the most impressive feature to me is the camera’s ability to let you zoom in/out optically while you’re recording video - there are very few, if at all, compact cameras in the world that are able to do that. My dad bought me a spare battery, a Sandisk 16GB SD card, and a pouch as well

I played around with the camera for a bit, it seems to be quite easy to use, in fact “too easy”, as it lacks manual controls. I think it’s alright since it’s just going to a camera for casual use, when I get serious I still have my Olympus E-3 DSLR. I’m going to bring it with me now whereever I go

I google-mapped Iona Beach last night and decided to check out this place that I’ve never been to even though it’s super close to where I live. I wanted to take pictures of birds, with my Zuiko 50-200mm telephoto lens combined with my 2x tele-converter. Went there quite early around 9:30AM and there were already crowds of cyclists gathered around the parking - apparently a really popular place for cycling. I saw on the map that there’s this really long/narrow pathway but I ended up not checking it out since I spent so much time in the wasteland area. After I parked I wandered into some grassy area with super narrow paths (less than a feet). It was quite challenging to walk around since not only the paths were narrow but there were thorny branches that stuck out from everywhere. I didn’t see too many birds probably due to the strong winds, but I did saw a huge amount of blue tailed damselfly and I think they are fairly common in Vancouver. I took quite a few shots of them (had to lay on the ground to get close) with my Sigma 105mm macro lens. The lens was so sharp… Anyway that place was like a maze. I got lost and had to use the GPS navigation on my Blackberry to locate myself….

In the afternoon I went to the Home Depot to check out some mosquito repellent/lantern that I could use in the patio. Ended up getting this lantern made by “Cutter”, that has an oil-filled tank and all I have to do is to light up the wick and let it burn. It says one bottle of oil lasts 12 hours.. we’ll see. I also bought a set of six patio lights (come with the power supply as well). They were quite pricey but suited my needs.. I thought they were easy to install (really should have been easy) but due to the fact that I had to make sure all wires are hidden inside the fence (where I set them up) plus there were plants around some of the places where I set them up, I got super tired (and dirty). I think I spent around two hours screwing / nailing them in place, plus wiring them up so that I could control the lights from inside the house. Now it’s all done and they look AWESOME. Pretty happy with the result

Went to the Vancouver Central Library with Peter for some books on photography. The place was pretty huge, and there were lots of people but most looked like students. I got my new library card for free and went straight up to the 6th floor for the books I need. They had a LOT of books for photography, I think four huge standalone shelves of them. It didn’t took me too much time to find some books that interest me (those with tons of pictures). I ended up finished reading one book on filters and borrowed five. Also took a couple shot of the interior of the library since it was so nicely built with this curvy sides and tops - perfect subject for my 8mm fish eye lens. Took some exterior shots as well, and it was just as stunning.

Rest of the day was just work.. as usual. I finally deployed the app that I’ve been working on since April 3rd to the QA environment for the testers to test. After almost two months of intensive non-stop work, I really hope that the app will turn out okay…