ABC Wednesday: P is for Pretty

My granddaughter, Sailee in our eyes is the Prettiest little girl.  When she put on a new dress, she would say "Pretty!!"

Here she was dressed in her new dress that her aunt gave to her and playing with her Pussycat, Pookie.  Pookie is a lot older than our granddaughter and shows a reasonable tolerance with her.

Two of them are quite good friends.

You think who will blink first, Sailee or Pookie??!!

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Today's Flowers #91: Azalea

I was at my daughter house this past two weeks.  She wants me to photograph her azaleas which are in full bloom.  I tried several times, in the morning, in the late afternoon, from a distance and several macro shots. None came out as I would like till my granddaughter walked over to the flowering bush and picked a flower.  I snapped a shot and it is perfect, both for her and for the azalea!!

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Camera-Critters #108: Formosan Blue Magpie 藍鵲 Urocissa caerulea

Formosan Blue Magpie (藍鵲), Urocissa caerulea

In 2007 National Bird Voting Campaign held by the Taiwan International Birding Association, Formosan Blue Magpie was voted as the Taiwan National Bird. With over 1 million votes casted worldwide, it gathered close to 50% of the vote. It is an endemic species of Taiwan, normally living in the lower altitude mountains of Taiwan.

One Sunday afternoon in mid-April, I was sitting in study when I heard cackling noise from outside. It did not sound like the bird sound that I normally heard. Looking out, I saw this Blue Magpie sitting on top of the tree branch. I quickly grabbed the D700 with the 85mm 1.4 lens and took the picture through the window glass.

I have seen the Formosan Blue Magpie in the wild before, but usually as a blink of blue on the tree top. We did went down stairs to the garden to check them out. There were two pairs of Blue Magpie, they flied away the minute they saw us approaching.

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ABC Wednesday: O!

I am at Washington, DC visiting our daughter's family.  Our grandson is now four-month old, weights over 15 pounds and seems is getting bigger everyday.  He will make this funny "O" voice followed by a big sigh after a satisfying meal.  Life is good at this age.

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Today's Flowers #90: Yoshino Cherry Blossom

I left Taiwan on April 15 to the US, the main purpose is to visit our daughter's family in DC. I was told that I missed out the cherry blossom season in Washington already. On my way to DC, I stopped by our home on the Cape Cod for two days. The Yoshino cherry tree in our garden was in full bloom.

I initially planted three of them seven years ago, two died, the replacements died also. Thus out 5 planted only one survived. It was the first time that I came back on the Cape in the early spring to see it in full bloom.

The whole tree is covered with flowers. I arrived just at the right time, none of the flowers were on the ground yet.

You can see I am very proud of this Yoshino Cherry Tree.

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Camera-Critters #107 & ABC Wednesday: N is for National Taiwan Museum

During our "L" post for ABC Wednesday, we show the new branch of National Taiwan Museum, which was originally the head office of Land Bank of Taiwan. The main attraction in the main hall is a brand new exhibition of dinosaurs. The structure of the museum and the exhibition is probably less than 10% of the main hall of the Natural History Museum of British Museum in London. But, still, it is very impressive and educational. I joked with Grace that , since dinosaurs are such popular culture items, there must be a whole industry of making dinosaur models to provide exhibition for small museums around the world. I was so wrong, there is an industry of dinosaur bones all right but not for fake dinosaur models. I thought that I must make an amendment in this follow up blog.

Deep in Taiwan's mountain, there are deposits of marble of different quality and color. There used to be a thriving industry of these materials. The trade was eventually banned by the government to protect the environment. Some of the merchants turn to importation of crystals and semiprecious stones. Two buddies in the trade also developed interest in the collection of fossils. Their hobby and now business took them to all over the world. One of them went so far as went to Germany to receive formal training in fossil cleaning, including dinosaur bones. They started business with 4 people in a 180 square feet room 12 years ago. Now Paleowonders Mineral and Fossil Museum with is affiliated Institute and Nature Shop is the only professional fossil cleaning service in Asia, and one of the only four in the world.

Their little office in Taipei has a collection of over 10,000 dinosaur specimen. They provide service for museums around the world. But fossil trading is not just for museum and academics anymore. Last November, Nicolas Cage just outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for a dinosaur skull for US$ 276,000.

The dinosaur exhibition in the new branch of National Taiwan Museum are real dinosaur fossils provided by our local Paleowonders Institute.

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To see more Camera-Critters from around the world click here. Sorry for the Camera-Critters fans, these are not cute, huggable pets. These are the carcasses of vicious animals from the ancient past.

Today's Flowers #89: Papaya

Everyone has seen and probably eat papaya before. Today, I walked by a small private garden of our condo, I saw this papaya tree is flowering. The owner planted this papaya tree six years when they moved in. I have never seen papaya flower before. If you look closely, you can see flowers that are in differ stages of becoming a papaya!!

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ABC Wednesday: M is for Myna

Pied Mynah (白頰椋鳥), Gracupica contra

The Mynas (also spelt Mynahs) are Asian species of Starlings (椋鳥) in the family Sturnidae. Mynas occure naturally only in southern and eastern Asia. For me, they look very different from the American or European Starlings.

Common Myna or Indian Myan (家八哥), Acridotheres tristis

The term Myna is used for any Starling in India and surrounding areas. The Common Mynas adapt well in different environments even thrive in urban and suburban area. It is among the World's 100 worst invasive species (IUCN), one of the only three birds in the list.

Jungle Myna (林八哥), Acridotheres fuscus

Mynas are kept as pets in many Asian countries. Escaped birds have formed feral population locally. Both Jungle Myna and Common Myna can be found in the wild (if you call parks in Taipei as wild) in Taiwan.

Black-winged Starling (黑袖椋鳥), Acridotheres melanopterus

Black-winged Starling is endemic to Indonesia. Once, it was an abundant bird, but now, it is treated as endangered by the IUCN.

Bali Myna (八里白椋鳥), Leucopsar rothschildi

Bali Myna as its name implies that it is endemic to the island of Bali. It is now critically endangered. The wild population was at an all-time low of just 6 birds in 2001. A conservation program was initiated in 1999 from two pairs of birds brought from London back to Bali. In 2006, birds from the breeding program have been started to be released into the wild.

Yellow-faced Myna (黃臉樹八哥), Mino dumontii

The Yellow-face Myna is native for New Guinea. I photographed the Yellow-faced and Bali Myna at the aviary of Hong Kong Park. The other four birds were photographed at aviary of Taipei Zoo. All pictures were taken with Nikon D700 and 80-400mm VR lens.

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Today's Flowers #88: Taiwan Cherry Blossom

Taiwan cherry or Formosan cherry (山櫻花), Prunus capanulata is a native plant of Taiwan. We called it Mountain Cherry. It was first described in 1883 by Russian Botanist, Carl Johann Maximowicz. It flowers in early spring. The blossom is not as impressive as Yoshino Cherry of Japan. But it has its own character.

I always have difficulty to really show the feeling of the numerous of flowers on this cherry tree in photograph. It is hard to get all the flowers in focus and convey the visual impact of hundreds of flowers blooming at the same time.

I photographed this tree last February near our condo, when I just came back from the States. It was still early in season. Some area in Taiwan of higher altitude, the flowers only come into full bloom in March.

Here is a cluster of Mountain Cherry flowers against the warm early February sunshine.

Here is a close-up of the flower.

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Camera-Critters #105: Reptiles

I have been to Taipei Zoo, especially for photographing birds in the aviary several times. I thought I can rely on the Zoo's official website for the identity of the animals. But to my amazement, the information is not complete at all.

I was quite upset with it and went to the zoo again last week determined to take a photo of the sign post in front of each animal to have a record of what I have photographed. I have with me only the 50mm 1.4 lens for the purpose.

It turned out that the lens was perfect for the dim light condition of the Reptile House. I photographed them through the think glass that protects me and them. But nothing is too difficult for Photoshop, a little tweaking of "Curve" brought out all the necessary color and contrast.

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ABC Wednesday: L is for Land Bank

If you follow our last "ABC Wednesday" blog, I did not have the chance to buy the 80mm 1.4 lens and we did not go to the new branch of National Taiwan Museum. We did both last weekend. The building was the old building of Japanese Kangyo Bank and Mitsui Bussan Company built in 1923. After the WWII, it has been used as the head office of Land Bank of Taiwan. Here are two of us in the original vault. It is our reflection from a mirror taken with the 85mm 1.4, a gift from Grace for my birthday.

There is the exhibition of the history of the Land Bank in the vault. The far away picture is the founders of the company when the bank was first opened. The map shows all the branches of the Land Bank in Taiwan. The red in the foreground is the original document of founding of the company with the signature of all the founders. Grace took the picture with the 20mm 2.8.

The main hall of the building now houses an exhibition of dinosaurs.

They look fierce, and it is a big attraction for the kids, young and old alike.

Here is the main Hall of the National Taiwan Museum. It was built in 1915 by Japanese.

Since it was Children's day in Taiwan last Sunday, there was a puppet show inside the main hall. All the kids were sitting on the ground waiting for the show.

The show started, it was about native aborigine people's legend of their origin.

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Today's Flowers #87: Citrus Maxima 柚

Citrus Maxima 柚子is a plant very special for the Southeast Asia. The only counterpart that is similar to it in the Western world is grapefruit. However, Citrus Maxima has a special fragrance coming out from the oil of the skin of the fruit. The smell and taste are completely different from those of grapefruit.

We saw from the newspaper last week that it is the Citrus Maxima flowering season now and they can be viewed in a local fruit farm called "Doris Farm". It also serves very good lunch. Grace and I made it there last Sunday. It was about one hour from our home.

We have seen peach, plum, cherry blossoms before but never for Citrus maxima. The flower is very fragrant and the whole farm is filled with that fragrance. The flower comes out as a cluster of over 10 flower buds. By natural selection, most of them will fall off, with one left for forming the fruit.

Doris Farm is half way up to a small mountain overlooking Taipei Harbor. It has flowering beds, mountain walk and of course hundreds of citrus maxima trees. I brought two lenses with me AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2D and AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED. I had some very nice close-up shots of the blossoms and some portraits of Grace, and indeed we had a very good lunch in the countryside.

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Camera-Critters #104: AF VR Zoom-Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED

Greater Flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus

Last year, I bought this lens for about $1500 when I was starting to do some bird photography . The lens was introduced in 2000. I remember clearly that year, the Nikon booth at the photographic show in Boston was surrounded by hundreds of people eager to try out this lens. It is the first VR lens on the market, which allows the photographers to hand-held the lens for most photographic situation without tripod.

Scarlet Ibis, Eudocimus ruber

At the time I bought the lens for use with my D700, I have two concerns, one is the lens is about 10-year old and may the replaced; second, it is not AF-S and was known to focus too slowly for action photography. Well, for a telephoto lens of 400mm, there are really not a lot lenses that we can chose from at that price range and body weight. The lens weights 1.2 kg without tripod mounting foot, which is less than the 70-200mm lens that weights 1.5 kg.

Scarlet Ibis, Eudocimus ruber

I use the MB-D10 with my D700 and a Nikon AH-4 Hand Strip to have a good hold of the camera and lens. I usually use ISO640, f/8, speed at at least 1/100 and almost never use a tripod.

Toco Toucan, Ramphastos toco

However, I recently read a report claiming that this is the worst lens that Nikon every produced, not only the focusing speed was slow, but also the image quality was low. At larger aperture, the image quality suffers by Chromatic Aberration, stop down, then the image immediately suffers Lens Diffraction. As I quote "Since this lens is a consumer grade telephoto-zoom lens, the user cannot expect to receive sharp images at all apertures".

Guinea Turaco, Tauraco persa

Well, AF-S Nikkor 400mm f/2.8G ED VR weights 4.6 kg and 500mm f/4 wights 3.8 kg, both cost close to $8,000. It will be a while that I ever think of moving up from my 80-400mm. The last image was taken hand-held at 200mm, ISO2200, f/5.3, 1/100. It is good enough for me now, a consumer not a professional.

You can click on the photos to get a closer and clear view of the images.

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Happy anniversary Camera Critters!

ABC Wednesday: K is Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty (ハローキティ Harō Kiti), was created by a Japanese company Sanrio and first designed by Ikuko Shimizu. It is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow and no drawn mouth. It has such a popular following worldwide, the licensing arrangements worth more than $1 billion annually.

Last Saturday, after her facial, I dutifully pick Grace up and suggested that we might go to the new branch of National Taiwan Museum, which has a very nice museum coffee shop. It was the old building of Japanese Kangyo Bank and Mitsui Bussan Company during the Japanese occupation era. It has been used as the head office of Land Bank of Taiwan. The building has only recently been renovated and became part of the National Taiwan Museum with a new exhibition of dinosaur bones.

The museum is located at the western part of Taipei, an old part of the city with many small shops and restaurants. We first had a quick lunch in one of the oldest Shanghainese restaurant in Taipei then walked through the small alleys. I photographed this Hello Kitty sign outside of a shop carrying various Japanese clothing while Grace was browsing. She bought a hat.

I then photographed this advertisement for Pantene shampoo on a city bus. It featured two models and one actress who are famous throughout Chinese speaking world. The ad said, "Try and Believe, 10-day use will decrease the hair-end splits". I suppose that it has something to do with Keratin.

This is the store sign for iRoo, Milan, Italy. However, it is a 100% Taiwanese clothing store. Grace was inside for a long time. I swore if she stayed in there for 5 more minutes, I would go to the next store, which happens to be a photographic shop to buy myself a new Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens. Luckily she came out in time dressing in her new outfit and the new hat.

We then walked through a busy market street and bought over 10 baby cloths for our grandchildren. It was about time to head back to the car. Mmm..., what museum we supposed to go to? Well, next time!!!

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AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2D

Many years ago (30+) when we were young, the first lens that we would get other than the 50mm, was the 135mm. It is between the 85mm portrait lens and 200mm real telephoto lens. It was kind of comprise and do everything lens. .

In the old fashion magazine, we can often see the head shot or full-body shot of models with blurred background. The telephoto lens that did this shots did two things. One, a telephoto effect that raises the background forward; second, a shallow depth-of-field that blurs the background.

Nowadays, Nikon does not even offer an ordinary 135mm lens anymore, but its proprietary AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2D, a hard to get item. The lens can controls the degree of blur (out of focus image) either in the background or in the foreground. Japanese call this blur, BOKEH. Other than the normal aperture control, the lens has a Defocus Image Control ring, to control the BOKEH in the foreground (F) or in the background (R). Although, the 135mm seems is out of fashion for the moment, but discussion of every telephoto lens always still include on how good the BOKEH looks for the particular lens. The BOKEH of the AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2D looks really good. We can even add BOKEH to the in focus image, the marvel of the DC lens. However, with the Defocusing Image Control, it is quite complicated to find the sharpest setting for the lens. This is what I set out to do this afternoon. The test is relatively easy. I put up a photo magazine cover on the wall and shot the image at f/2, 2.8, 4 with different Image Control ring settings. The objective is to find the best setting that gives me the sharpest in focus image with no BOKEH appears on it. As comparison, I also tested the AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED and AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G.

The results are

135mm DC: f/4 and Defocusing Image Control at 2R

105mm Micro: f/4

70-300mm (100mm): f/8

Nothing surprise for the 105mm and 70-300mm, but it is good to know the sharpest setting for the 135mm DC lens. Diverting from this setting, I started to see small amount of BOKEH appeared on the image.

Another important point for the 135mm DC lens is focusing. Set at f/2, for a head shot, the depth-of-field is only about a few centimeters. The focusing plan of my 135mm DC lens is at the rear of the depth-of-field. Thus, when I focus the lens on the eye of the model, anything behind the eye is out of focus, the nose is still in focus. If the model is facing side way from me, it would be a good idea to focus the eye further away from the camera in order to keep the eye closer to the camera also in focus.

Today's Flowers #86: Japanese Garden II

This is the scene from the East Garden of Japanese Imperial Palace in Tokyo. It was a beautiful spring day when I (Grace) visited the garden in February this year. The season was too early for the famous cherry blossom (the cherry blossom season just peaked this week). These are ume flowers, Prunus mume (梅花, also known as Japanese apricot or Chinese plum).

It comes in two colors, here are the white ones.

And these are pink-red ones.

They look so nice against the crystal blue sky.

This camellia tree must be over 100 years old.

It is covered with big red clusters of flowers.

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