More on SONY NEX-7

Another shot of Anastasia; also captured with SONY NEX-7, further proving NEX-7’s capability as studio compact.  However, the advanced electrical viewfinder in the studio when primary light source is strobes became slow to react – as the lens setting close down to f/11-13 at the camera’s lowest ISO setting, the user needs to go to the setup for “Setting Effect Off” on the Live View Display of the Setup menu to be able to focus – slow but still useful – this is something the future mirrorless system with EVF to improve.  Of course, the user can select the AF/MF Select to DMF, which will provide a useful manual focus aid in with a selected enlargement., while setting the flexible spot focusing where it is needed.

So what’s next?  Typically, following the Minolta footpath, the series “9” will be reserved for the top model in the camera line up, and it is safe to predict a NEX-9 is inevitable, hopefully a little beefier, can be a little bigger, with yet improved sensor?   Will it be a FF model later?  I hope so – doing it with a hybrid mount that can accept E lenses and legacy Alpha lenses?  We might see that happened soon.

Bangkok, 2012

The studio compact?

Shot of beautiful Anastasia in my studio using SONY NEX-7 with 18-55/3.5-5.6 OSS, a milestone camera in term of compactness, resolution and flexibility.  The studio flash was triggered with the use of Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 on a hotshoe adapter on the SONY.

Since 2010, photographers around the world have no longer much debate over if digital is better than film – such debate may go on forever but becoming irrelevant.  The real question is where will the technology lead to? And how good they can be?  

For example SONY NEX-7, which by number has the similar resolution as my studio DLSR workhorses – Canon 1DsIII, 5DIII or D3X – on a sensor less than ½ the size but with newer sensor technology that can produce very close result – close enough that it well suit the regular requirement of magazine print AD.  

So will SONY NEX-7 become one of my studio cameras?  No, may be not in 1-2 more generations because I prefer larger and heavier camera for studio use but it can certainly serve as a studio compact for point & shoot.

Studio SOTA 96, Bangkok, 2012

Element of light

Glasses displayed at the Library, on 6^th floor of Eslite Shin-Yi Branch, Taipei, Taiwan.

Taipei, Taiwan, 2012

The lone horseman

Portrait of a lone horseman, Badain Jaran, Inner Mongolia.

Badain Jaran, Inner Mongolia, 2011

Boat of the desert

The camel is known as the “boat of the desert”, responsible of the real culture merge between East Asia and the West Asia and Europe. 

Even the camels do not like hot weather; grooms often start their journey at nightfall and stop traveling at midnight in order to avoid the scorching sun of the day.  Those who raised camels look after them well as they depend on them for survival at time.

Badain Jaran, Inner Mongolia, 2011

Between the shoots

Capture between the shoots when Anna was half way through her hair styling.

Often the journey can be more fun than arriving the destination.

Bangkok, 2012

Being somewhere

While common consensus says change is inevitable, Laos like to say “Lao P.D.R. – Laos Please Don’t Rush.”

There is a difference between being somewhere, and being somewhere.

Vientiane, Laos, 2012

Doorway to the heart

“The beauty of woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.”

~ Audrey Hepburn

Bangkok, 2012

Fisherman of Mekong

In the morning be first up, and in the evening last to go to bed, for they that sleep catch no fish.  ~ English Proverb.

Vientiane, Laos, 2012

Fisherman of Mekong

Originated from the roof the world, Tibetan Plateau, runs through 4,350 km, 6 countries, eventually into South China Sea of Pacific Ocean.  Mekong is the 12^th-longest river in the world, hundreds of million live upon. 

When it is originated, it was called the Lancang Jiang – means “Turbulent River”, while in the Indochina Peninsula, it is rightfully called as Mekong, derived from “Mae Nam Khong”, a term both Thai and Laos origin, signaling “mother rivers”.

This image is shot in the riverbank of Mekong in Vientiane, Laos, a young fisherman casting net for fishing, as many millions others, live by the river.

Vientiane, Laos, 2012

Vesākha

Vesākha (Pali; Sanskrit: Vaiśākha, Devanagari: वैशाख, Sinhala: වෙසක් පෝය) or sometimes referred to as Vesak is a holy day observed in greater South and South East Asia.  It was normally celebrated as “Buddha’s Birthday” while it actually encompasses birth, enlightenment and passing away of Gautama Buddha.

In Thailand, it is called the Wisakha Bucha and it is today, a national holiday and national tree day, a day when most Thais go to temple; a day of political bodies hustling the rivals, a day eventually can be pivotal to Thai future.

Picture was taken in a bronze foundry in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Mandalay, Myanmar, 2011

Danxia Landform

Named after Mount Danxia, one of the most famous examples of the Danxia landform, it is a unique type of Petrographic geomorphology.   This image was taken at Zhangye Danxia Geopark, 30km south of Linze County.

Zhangye, Gansu, China, 2011

Still and movement

Digital technology today offers photographers choices of tools for creativities that was not possible before it, of course, the result is still very much base on the photographer, and the photography it self.

For example this image, shot at Dunhuang, China, with Canon 5D2 using EF 70-300/4-5.6L IS, stopped down to f/16 with shutter speed of just 0.3s., the lens was setting at 70mm.

I handheld the camera to capture the image preparing to create camera shake for some motion blurring while intend to still have the camera register certain recognizable details.

Photoshop was not used here, it is purely a single capture from the camera with some color tuning during raw process using Capture One Pro 6.4.1.

Will image such as this be produced with film, sure, except the color adjustment may be a little more limited.  But the digital technology today provides an instant review of what I took on a subject that I have imagined, I was given some allowance of mistakes, and with some tries, I got what I want.

Dunhuang, China, 2011