I now stay just next to Victoria Park in downtown Hong Kong island next to Causeway Bay, and it would be a sin to not run around it. The hotel concierge mentions something about a jogging track that runs 600 meters. I have recently developed this habit of running at night. Firstly, my workplace has moved farther from home so 30 minutes in the morning is out of the question. Plus I feel more warmed up at night meaning that I can achieve longer distances.
So, back to Victoria Park, my Polar pedometer measured the jogging track at close to 700 meters. But it is rather dark so after one round I ventured to the outer track which passes the football field on the inside, then tennis courts, and so on. On the outer circuit, each round is around 1 kilometre which is perfectly perfect.
This marks the first time I’m taking a train from the new Shanghai South train station. I have been here a couple of times but it is impossible to get train tickets to Hangzhou on the day itself, especially for weekend trains. When that happens go to the back of the station and take the long distance bus instead. It is a little more expensive and takes longer to get to Hangzhou. But what matters is that it’s the train today. Plan this trip is to spend a night at the west Lake in Hangzhou and shoot morning at the lake. Too bad weather will be bad this weekend but lets see what comes out of it.
Hangzhou should look better in spring and one of the equinox days, but I’ll treat this trip as a scouting trip. Found a hostel (Mingtown Garden Hostel) on the west bank of the lake, strategic for morning pictures on the lake. Lenses I brought goes from 12mm to 50mm on DX sensor, and a rangefinder for night shots. I’m rather self sufficient this trip. I have a towel, and change of clothes. Packs quite small into the backpack. Will be using primarily this E71 for GPS duties, but I just can’t leave the Garmin behind so that is in the bag as well. I really need to think about leaving things behind and not duplicate for the duties I will be performing during trips!
Packed quite heavily for a weekend trip. Normally I’ll just bring a small pack for a night, but I’m trying to simulate my next medium duration trip next month. Going with a 30 litre pack with external attachments. On the left side is attached a gitzo 1541T tripod and my mont bell jacket attached on the right. In a small bag inside the pack is a leica M2 with 35mm f1.2 Voigtlander and in the second think tank speed demon belt pack is a Nikon D300 with 2 lenses. This is quite a heavy setup. Will need to lighten up for the longer trip. The backpack balances quite well, but definitely no room for a sleeping back if I need one. Will be travelling with the ipod touch and just a phone/blog machine this time. No blackberry. That will stay home.
Continue reading 'Travels: Overnight in Hangzhou West Lake, China (26-27 October 2008)'»
China, Travels
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12-24mm, 1541t, gitzo, hangzhou, lake, leica, longjing, m2, nikon, nikon d300, tea, train, west lake, xihu
View from Sheshan (Nikon D300, 12-24mm f4)
Was planning to go to hangzhou this weekend but its impossible to get a train ticket nor hotel room next to the lake so sod it, this saturday will be a shanghai trip. And I went through my mind thinking where in shanghai I always wanted to hike to but never had the time,and Sheshan comes up.
Sheshan Basilica (Nikon D300, 12-24mm f4)
Sheshan is a place where it seems only people on company team building trip goes to and stay in one of the 5 star resorts. In fact that was the only time I went there and I did notice there is a metro line that goes there, not too bad. Did see a cathedral object top of a hill as well and a little wikipedia research tells me this is the only real hill in shanghai.
Sheshan Basilica on top of the hill (Leica M3, 50mm f1.5 Summarit, Lucky SHD100)
Ok I confess. The reason for the trek today is to test out my new configurations before my holiday in November. For one, updated my blogging phone from Nokia E61 to the new and very nice E71. The phone is a lot smaller and easier to carry but nothing is free, the keyboard is very small now. But the predictive text seems to be making up for it. My pack is also heavy as I have packed a D300 and Mamiya RZ67 and a new hiking tripod, the 1541T from gitzo. Plenty of heavy gears I can assure you!
Continue reading 'Travels: Shanghai Sheshan. China'»
One of the main complains I have when hiking light, is that you have to compromise what you bring with you. I have tried to hike with less than 3 cameras but at the end always convinced myself to bring a point and shoot, a rangefinder and a SLR at a minimum. The point shoot for everyday tourist shots, rangefinder to shoot people, and SLR for the more artistic shots where I need a TTL-accurate compositioning and filtration system.
So I found myself oogling at a compact Gitzo GT1541T 4 sectioned tripod while on business trip in Taipei, and before I knew it, I had that tripod in the hotel room. It weights just shy of 1kg (0.98 to be exact) and extends to a height where you just have to crouch down, or get down to your knees to shoot. For a 6 footer at least. Not too bad considering I wouldn’t be able to cover the hiking distance I usually cover in a day if I had to bring my old Gitzo 1228 tripod with Kirk Photo’s BH-3 ball head.
What is so special about the 1541? There are many sites on the web with the technical feature description, but for me, the foot folds over the top of the head to create a compact system, enough to fit into my 25 litre backpack and sturdy enough to put on a DSLR with a wide angle lens. I know I don’t carry anything more than a 105mm prime lens when I hike, so there’s no need to consider the weight of a 200mm or 300mm lens weight on that thing.
Continue reading 'Gitzo 1541T Tripod with RRS BH25 Ballhead system'»
Photography
| 1541t, 6x, aluminium, bh25, BH3, carbon, carbon fibre, d300, fibre, gitzo, gt, kirk, l-bracket, nikon, Photography, really right stuff, rrs
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