Bigma II

Tonight's moon was the largest and roundest seen in Hong Kong in 12 years. The moon was 350,000km away from the Earth rather than the usual 380,000km and it happened to be a full moon, making it extra visible.

I've been itching to buy a super telephoto lens for quite some time now, so I took this momentous occasion as the perfect excuse.

Behold, the mighty Sigma APO 150-500mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM (aka the Bigma II):

Took this nasty canon for a spin tonight. This is a 100% crop from my D80 shot at 500mm, f/11 @ 1/125s, ISO 100:

Hope the skies remain clear these coming weeks so I can take some waning gibbous lunar photos (full moons are nice, but the shadows in the waxing/waning phases really bring out the crater detail).

BTW, 3 guesses to what this is:

Kinda reminds me of the poster for "Hollowman". Yep, that's my face you're looking at. That main shape in the center is my nose and the 2 dark splotches in the upper left and right corners are the bottoms of my eyes. Just for fun, I took a self portrait of myself using the Bigma II at arms length and this is what I got. The minimum focusing distance of the lens is 2.12m and clearly I don't have a 7 foot arm length so this is that I ended up with. I got the idea from seeing all those stupid movies that show photographers using huge telephoto lenses shooting at people standing a couple feet away. Something to keep in mind the next time you see a reporter or paparazzi in the movies.

At long last!

After years of hearing about the infamous Tung Chee Hwa rock in Shek O, I finally found it toady. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Tung was Hong Kong's first Chief Executive after the Handover to China in 1997. Whether he did a good job or not I'll leave to the historians, but most of the public saw it fit to nickname him "Old Confused Tung" (老懵董). This rock very eerily resembles the famous caricature of him:

Here's a sample caricature:

Spent so much time looking for him that I didn't get around to shooting much afterwards. But I did get some nice wave action:

2009

It's scary how fast time goes by with each passing year.

Here's wishing everyone a great 2009. Savor each day!

Sun Boston

It's funny, I used to work in Wan Chai but I never tried Sun Boston Restaurant. I mean, I knew of the place and I passed by it a lot, but I never went in. It wasn't until I read an article in a food magazine about the Flaming Beef Steak that I decided to give the place a try.



Turns out the place was worth a visit just to see the waiters sear their eyebrows everytime someone ordered a plate!

And voila, the finished dish. I prefer prime ribs coz the bone and fat bring out a more beef flavor, but as for as filet goes, this place wasn't bad at all. Very tender, and the rum sauce had a delicate sweetness to it.

Lunar Cosmos

Been doing a lot of lunar photography lately because the skies have been amazingly clear these past few weeks.

Ironically, it wasn't until tonight's sky clouded up that things got interesting. The cloud cover coupled with the light from the near full moon created the illusion of a stellar dust cloud.

This is an HDR photo. The moon was exposed at f/5.6 @ 1/40s and the clouds at f/5.6 @ 1/4s (all ISO 100). Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G lens.

So Moody

Just a single day later, Mr. Smiley becomes Mr. Frowny. So bipolar.
(In case you haven't figured it out, I flipped the photo 180).

I heard on the news this morning that last night's Stellar Smiley won't happen again until July 2036. I'm so happy I was able to see it, and that conditions were good enough to allow me to snap some photos.

Anyhoo, took some close-up snaps of the Waxing Cresent. I hope the sky stays clear enough over the next few days so I can get some good First Quarter and Waxing Gibbous phase shots.

Technical details: Nikon D80 + 70-200mm f/2.8 VR and 70-300mm f/4-5.6G. Mmm, if this great weather keeps up I gonna probably cave in and buy a Sigma 150-500mm soon...