Free as a bird

Paraglider

I was sitting on the balcony of our apartment in Phuket, dozing over the corrections to my new novel, when I was awoken from my reverie by what sounded like a large lawnmower flying overhead. Looking up, the beast turned out to be a powered paraglider (aka paramotor) skimming the roof and the treetops. Grabbing the camera, I fired off a few shots as the pilot swished around and then descended into the valley over the local village and out over Kamala bay. Looks like fun!

Canon 40D with Canon 70-200mm F4.5 L lens at 200 ISO 400 1/3200 at f6.3
Cropped and tweaked in Lightroom

 

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Phuket Spider

Spider

This rather large spider took up residence in a very durable web of his own making next to the steps leading down to the car park from our apartment in Phuket. For a while he was in another web directly over the steps, but found that a little precarious. Either that or he ate one of the residents and decided to move to one side while he digested the unfortunate victim.
He’s gone now, but I find I miss his alluring mask which kind of says, “Come closer, enjoy my party!”

Canon 40D with Canon 70-200 f4.5 L lens at 155mm with Canon 12mm extension tube. ISO500 1/200 at f9 with built-in flash.

 

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Chinese New Year Fireworks 2

CNY Fireworks2

What’s the collective noun for a load of fireworks in a display?  A confusion? An explosion? A cacophony? A spectacle?

Here’s another shot of the a whatever-it-is of the fireworks in Hong Kong harbour at Chinese New Year

Canon EOS 40D with Canon EFS 10-22mm lens at 22mm on manual. ISO1600 1/30 at f10

 

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IFC Panorama

ifc1 -1

I’m just blown away with the panoramas you can take with the iPhone 5. Not only is the process fun but the quality of the image is excellent.

This shot was taken in the IFC 1 mall in Hong Kong. The couple on the left are the same pair as the couple on the right. Completely oblivious to me and what I was doing, they just happened to walk behind me as I was panning the phone/camera (phonamera? -there’s a new word in the offing here!) and arrived my right as I completed the shot. The glass/chrome railing I’m standing by is in fact a straight line; the panning causes the curve. There’ll be more of these!!

To see this image larger, click on ‘Panoramas’ in the menu bar

The data recorded on Lightroom from the iPhone is as follows: ISO200 4.13mm 1/120 at f2.4. It’s all automatic, of course.

Chinese New Year Fireworks

Year of the Snake Fireworks

There’s a collection of these in the gallery, but a few are special favourites that I want to post here as well. Here’s the first, a somewhat abstract shot that captures a fleeting moment in the ever-changing spectacle of twenty minutes of exciting sound, light and flashes from three barges in Hong Kong harbour. There’s nothing like it!

Canon 40D with Canon 10-22mm EFS lens at 22mm ISO1600 1/30 at f10 (manual setting)

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