Tunxi (屯溪区) – Anhui - China

Tunxi Ancient Street

Arrived here late afternoon from Shanghai. Due to a stuff up of our flights by our less than observant travel agent we missed the last cable car up to the Mt. Huang so we will have to spend the night here in Tunxi. After checking in and a quick rest we wandered down to ancient street.

               ISO 280 f/4 1/60                                              ISO 200 f/4 1/60

                 ISO 3200 f/4 1/60

This tea house is about 800 years old. The girl is performing a traditional Chinese tea ceremony and later instructed us on the proper tea drinking etiquette. I really enjoyed drinking one so much so I bought some.

                                                   ISO 3200 f/4 1/60

We then tried out Chrysanthemum tea. It was lovely, sweet and mellow. I really enjoyed it.

                                                     ISO 3200 f/4 1/60

This was lovely too and the most expensive tea we tried that night. Excellent green tea indeed.

                                                     ISO 400 f/4 1/60

Hmm, looks like some sort of bicycle convertible. How cute is it?
Wonder if it would catch on back in Australia.

                                                    ISO 640 f/4 1/60

I found this bicycle parked all on it’s lonesome in a back lane off ancient street.

                   ISO 560 f/4 1/60                                            ISO 900 f/8 1/60

                                                     ISO 500 f/4 1/60

                           Drying clothes the traditional way.

                                                       ISO 800 f/4 1/60

                             Fan Artist/Calligrapher/Painter.

                                                       ISO360 f/4 1/60

Seal stone Carver at work. He is actually carving this one for me. You can see what it looks like at the top right hand corner of this photo.

                                                      ISO 450 f/4 1/60

                                      A very friendly local.

                                                      ISO 500 f/4 1/60

              ISO 2800 f/4 1/60                                              ISO 500 f/4 1/60

                                                        ISO 3200 f/4 1/60

Random tourist trying to decide which fan to buy or get both. This goes on for an eternity. Okay, I am exaggerating.

                                                      ISO 640 f/4 1/60

Fast food Chinese style. The food was actually very tasty and ridiculously cheap.

History

This street with centuries-old history dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Emperor Huizong (1082-1135) moved his seat of government to Lin'an (now Hangzhou), when many architects and workmen were conscripted to construct the new capital. After returning to their hometown, they imitated the structural style to build architecture along the street, so Tunxi Ancient Street was formed.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a merchant in Anhui invested money to build 47 stores so as to attract businessmen, which contributed to the communication of the street with outside world.

Gradually it developed into the distribution center for materials in and out of Anhui in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The street is paved with maroon flagstones with a total length of 1,273 meters (about 1,392 yards), of which 895meters (about 979 yards) is the pedestrian commercial street.

Shops standing on both sides are generally of two or three floors, which feature the local Anhui style of stone base, brick construction and tile roof. The layout of these buildings commonly takes on the appearance of shops in front while houses and workshops are to the rear. Once a professor from America was amazed by the street and he said he had found an Oriental Ancient Rome. Nowadays the street is also used as a natural studio for films and TV series.

Tunxi, Anhui, China

Tunxi, Anhui, China

Nikon 16-35mm f/4 & Heliopan 10 Stop ND Filter

Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens

This is a sharp lens, Probably not as sharp as the 14-24mm at the corners but still happy with the sharpness. However, the is definitely noticeable barrel distortion at the wide end, around 16-18mm. I don’t have this problem with my 14-24mm.

Samples

Here are some shots I took with the lens, coupled with a Heliopan 10 stop ND filter, at Turimetta Beach last weekend.














The results were tack sharp with zero colour cast. I really love long exposures and its effect on water.

Distortion

Original

There is noticeable barrel distortion at the wide end. This was taken at 16mm, notice the distortion of the horizon and where it starts dipping at either end.

Fixed using CS4

No biggie, easily fixed in CS4 using Filter>Distort>Lens Correction. Used +8 and did a little cropping and alignment of the horizon. LR 3 can also be used to correct any lens distortion.

Fixed using PTLens

The example below was fixed using PTLens. I used the plug-in for CS4 instead of the stand alone app. I like the way it fixes the distortion. The difference is subtle but it is there. See if you can spot the difference. PTLens is very easy to install and use.

Thanks again Andy for the heads up on PTLens.

Panoramas

I was interested in seeing if this lens was any good at doing panoramas. So I did a couple in both landscape and portrait modes.

ISO 200 f8 1/400 16mm

Distortion fixed using PTLens.

This 180° panorama consist of 5 separate frames in portrait mode. Each frame contains 3 separate exposures (-1, 0 +1). This was then fused/blended using Photomatix Pro and stitched together in CS4 and tweaked in LR 2.7. Actual size is 5759 x 2881.

ISO 200 f8 1/400 35mm

This 180° panorama consist of 7 separate frames in landscape mode. Each frame contains 3 separate exposures (-1, 0 +1). This was then fused/blended using Photomatix Pro and stitched together in CS4 and tweaked in LR 2.7. Actual size is 10985 x 2373.
I am very happy with how both the panoramas turned out.


Conclusion

If you are still trying to decide whether to get this lens (16-35mm) or the 14-24mm. I recommend that you get this one. It is tack sharp, cheaper and much lighter. This would be an excellent lens for travelling.

It is also much easier to get filters for this lens. You can use either screw-on filters, as it has a 77mm thread, or opt for square/rectangular filters made by Lee or Cokin.

If I didn’t already have the 14-24mm I’d be happy with just this lens. Besides being tack sharp, I really like the colours and contrast this lens produces.

Turimetta Beach – North Narrabeen

Sydney Vivid Festival - 2010

Thanks Mr. B for organising the “usual suspects” to shoot this year’s Sydney Vivid Festival. We met outside McDonalds in Circular Quay and things didn’t look promising as it had been drizzling all day. I was pleasantly surprise with the large, than normal, turnout considering the crappy weather. It has been quite awhile since we had almost everyone turned up for one of these sessions. Except three, who piked out, as they didn’t want to get wet, you know who you are.

We decided to start off at St. Mary’s Cathedral and work our way down to the Sydney Opera House. It was still drizzling so I put on my rain poncho which became a mini portable sauna and the humidity was getting higher the longer I walked. However, it did keep me and my camera bag dry. The rain miraculously stopped when we got to St. Mary’s Cathedral. Hmm, wondered if it was the praying or cursing?

St. Mary’s Cathedral

Some of the guys decided to do some impromptu light painting with the free torch given by the festival’s organiser. All these shots were taken with my Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8.

We took a break and had dinner at Wagamama, Have to say that I wasn’t overly impressed with the food, Their ramen was rubbish and wasn’t cheap. This is not the worst food ever but definitely not the best either. Anyway, after dinner we headed off down to the Sydney Opera House.

Sydney Opera House

This is how the images are projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House.

All the shots of the Sydney Opera House were taken with my Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8. I will upgrade to a Nikon 70-200mm when they bring out a f/4 VR II version.

The original plan was to head back towards Hyde Park Barracks but most of them were complaining that it was too cold and tired to carry on and just wanted to go home. Looks like we have to come back another night to finish the shoot.

Heliopan 10 Stop ND Filter Testing

I have always wanted to try long exposure shots in daylight so I finally decided to bite the bullet and splurge on a 10 stop ND filter. The Hoya ND400 and B+W 110 are the ND filters of choice for most people on Flickr and the forums. I could’ve gotten the Hoya locally but it was only a 9 stop ND filter, so I decided on the B+W 110.  Do you think I could find one? These suckers are in high demand as there appears to be a worldwide shortage until further notice.

 

ISO 100 | 50mm | f/22 @ 77secs

After some more research I found another 10 stop ND filter from a company called Heliopan, apparently these guys are huge in the cinema world but I’ve never heard of them. Anyway, to cut a long story short, they have an excellent reputation for quality and they make decent ND filters and CPL filters.  They were not cheap at $158 AUD shipped to my front door from the UK (Teamwork ).

ISO 100 | 50mm | f/22 @ 25secs

It has been hard to get out and test them as it has been raining heavily in Sydney for the last few weeks. Finally managed to out on Saturday afternoon when the weather was sunny instead of the forecasted rain all weekend. However, the change did come later in the day.

ISO 100 | 50mm | f/22 @ 25secs

ISO 100 | 50mm | f/22 @ 25secs

I cranked down the ISO on my D700 to 100 (Lo1.0) instead of the default ISO 200 so that I could doubled my exposure time. I also used f/16 – f/22 to maximise my exposure time.

 

ISO 100 | 50mm | f/22 @ 75secs

I put the D700 into manual mode. I then compose/focus without the ND filter and take note of the exposure time. I turn AF off and screwed the ND filter on. Using the NDCalc app on my iPhone, I enter the exposure reading (without filter) and select ND 3.0 (10 stops) and it calculates the optimum exposure time required for a 10 stop ND filter.

I use bulb mode with the aid of a remote release cable with the aid of a countdown timer (NDCalc) to let me know when to release the trigger.

 

ISO 100 | 50mm | f/22 @ 30secs

ISO 100 | 50mm | f/22 @ 30secs

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test it with my Nikon 14-24mm lens for obvious reasons. The only other options were either my Sigma 70-200mm or Nikon 50mm lens. I decided on the 50mm, as the 70-200m was too long, but had to get a 52mm to 77mm step-up ring. I am seriously considering getting the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens.

I have to say so far I am super impressed with the results and there is no colour cast,  which I do get when using Cokin ND or ND Grad filters. I really love the LE effect on the water. Further testing will be required with an UWA lens. :-)

Bare Island  –  La Perouse

 

Sydney Opera House

In preparation for this year’s Vivid festival, I’ve decided that I would like to take some shots of the Sydney Opera House from Lady Macquarie’s Chair. Last year, I took all of shots from the other side.

I wanted to get there just before sunset so that I could get some dusk shots, just before the sun dipped below the horizon.

I love the sky colours and the greenish light on the sails. The shadows from the other sails gives an almost 3D feel to it. The test shots were promising from Lady Macquarie’s Chair and I am definitely convince that it will be amazing when the sails are lit up again.

Hopefully, it will be even more amazing, than last year, when the festival starts at the end of this month.

Here are some of the other shots I took that night.

It is not often I pull out the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 as I mostly shoot landscape and my favourite lens being the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8. The Sigma is probably not as sharp as the Nikon 70-200mm VR II but not bad at all for an “el cheapo” lens.

I also managed to brush up on my panorama technique. I took the panos in both portrait and landscape modes. I think I prefer the second because of the sky colours and also the lights from the office buildings in the CBD. I used my beloved Nikon 14-24mm for the panos.

Hmm, I think I stayed too long as the gates to the Botanical Gardens were locked so I had to walked back to the car the long way round.

Lady Macquarie’s Chair

Lady Macquarie's Chair