Longford Park

Thanks to D and family for telling us the existence of Longford Park. I have heard of the park before, during my travels along the Coventry Canal - but today was the first time we've had the chance to actually give the park a visit.

All members of our family have been unwell recently with quite a virulent flu. Sarah had spent most of Saturday sleeping, and Amar spent most of today crying. As for me, I'm unwell as well but I've always felt better while at work. I thought that a day out for the family would be good for everyone. It turned out as a semi-good idea. The visit to town with Arep & Dina was spoilt by Amar's constant whimpers but in Longford park everyone seemed to perk up.

Here are some of the pictures we took:

Picture Onslaught: Winter and Festivities in Coventry

Winter could be a very depressing season. It is always cold and gloomy -making everyone prefer to hibernate indoors- and the day is extremely short. The sun sets at around 3.40pm meaning that on a weekend such as today, by the time we have all got out of bed and showered, it is already almost dark!





At 3.40pm, it was already almost dawn.

The family tends to stay indoors during weekdays when I'm occupied with work so every weekend, I always try to get take the family out to stretch their legs and get fresh air. It is very fortunate that today was sunny and bright; a marked change from the last 2 weeks gloom, rain and cold. Our destination this weekend was a walk from Swanswell park (above) to the city centre (below).



If the colours seem a bit garish that's because thanks to Rosli's recent visit, I've just discovered to hue/saturation tool in Photoshop. Today I've been tweaking the colours in my photos to death. One particularly unsuccessful attempt was this one:

I'm still finding it difficult to make my Photoshopped images look realistic, hopefully another visit to Rosli's would remedy that.



Above are pictures of the family on the blue bridge heading towards the Whittle Arch, which I've photographed again and again. This time Puan Mama Sarah is juxtaposed against the arches, just to give an impression of size difference.




At night is when the magic starts; the city suddenly jolts to life with a myriad of different colours from the Christmas lights.







Sarah indulged on several rides around town - even Amar braved one on a tractor. Just look at Sarah's delighted expressions! The atmosphere during this time of year is brilliant (unless it's rainy and cold).


It was really nice to bring the family out to absorb the atmosphere of the festivities, and believe it or not, all the pictures above were taken between 3 and 5 p.m. Talk about short day eh? After 5 p.m it gets so dark that we all tend to lock ourselves indoors and think about sleep. I'm already looking forward to next weekend ... hopefully, it'd be as sunny as today.

Another solid weekend

I hope everyone's weekend was restful and productive, ours was quite so. The usual for our family is that the morning after I finish an oncall I would bring the whole family for breakfast at a "non-specific" family restaurant. I know it's unhealthy to eat fast food, but my excuse is that we only indulge ourselves once a week or so.

I come to like breakfast in this "non specific" family restaurant since I met Orang-Kilang and Kenakelayan for breakfast at the restaurant in London many years ago. I ordered the "egg muffin" and coffee at that time, and I have liked the egg muffins ever since. Do you guys still remember that breakfast O-K and KKL?

Also, since our family's visit to Paris recently, I have come to like coffee again after not having the craving for around 4 years or more now! Apart from the egg muffins, my favourite for breakfast is the pancakes and maple syrup.
Yum.

After our pleasant and filling breakfast, we parted ways. The ladies PMS and Sarah, went shopping for groceries at a "non specific store" while the boys; Amar and yours truly, ventured to the Coventry Canal again in the hopes of more photographic opportunities.

As usual, Amar fell asleep in his push-chair before long while I busily and happily snapped away.

(ps. That night at around 12 am, Amar shrieked and wailed in his sleep like he's never ever done before. He cried to such an extent that he was sobbing inconsolably afterwards. It certainly freaked out PMS and yours truly to say the least. PMS asked me, "You bawak balik hantu air ke bie?"

Alas, before reaching my destination (the Canal Basin this time) the day started turning dark and it started to drizzle. To make matters worse, Amar woke up and didn't want to stay in his chair. In the end, I had to carry Amar, all the photography gear as well as Amar's push-chair all the way back home.

By the end of the journey, my shirt was wet with sweat despite the cold Autumn day.

It's also a special weekend because we have a visitor - my brother who has just arrived from Malaysia. He's stopping over for several days before he flies to Ireland. Sarah and Amar have both found a brand new source of attention and follow Uncle Azim everywhere he goes.

We brought Azim to the town centre today, specifically; the cathedrals.

(Time for you to skip this paragraph DITH and Anne) This weekend I have discovered several new things about digital photography that have changed my style somewhat. One - I have discovered how to use the histogram (thanks Rosli! and this article). Two - I've discovered what it means by post-production using Photoshop. It's a long story and will likely bore you Dith and Anne (and many others!). So if you're photographically inclined, the article is here. The gist of it is, I have somewhat learned to use the histogram to not blow highlights and then use Photoshop to expose the shadows (told you it's boring and technical).


The results though, are the slightly surreal and strange-looking pictures you could see above, almost HDR-like in quality. Err, I think I'll change the subject to something else less boring ...

Darn it, thanks to the Fotopages meet last week, our family has become slightly addicted to producing these "jump" pictures! Arep and Alynn, I blame you guys for this!!!! No denying though, it is fun to make AND funny to see.



We also learned something about the Whittle Arch today; it turns out that the arches represent the wings of a plane, as a tribute to the creator of the jet engine. Pretty cool.

I have been quite inactive on the blog lately and if I'm honest it's because I have been absolutely glued to the TV watching the US drama series "Heroes". To those of you who have yet to discover this brilliant series (I like it as much as I like Lost and Desperate Housewives), imagine X-Men but in the real world. Anyway, it's a must see - my highest recommendation for this series - watch it!

OK my friends, now that the weekend is over, do have a good week ahead. Later!

Coventry: The Whittle Arch at Night

I braved the cold and the darkness tonight and went alone to the city centre in the hopes of capturing a picture of the Whittle Arch, one of Coventry's most famous structure, at night. I've seen before how the area lights up beautifully and I have been planning this for ages.

This morning we've had storms and heavy rain, and by evening the day became extraordinarily clear. Anyway, here are the results:










I've discovered something new from the experiment, which was how to create the "starburst effect" seen in the above series as the star-like emanations from the light sources. One way is to use a starburst filter, but I found that using very small apertures (e.g. F22) could create the effects seen above.

Quite a few people gave me puzzled stares, a teenage couple even approached me and asked for me to take their picture in front of the structure. Mental note: next time bring a friend for night photos, as the experience could be scary!

It was also an opportunity to test my new tripod: a SLIK Pro 330DX:

Overall, I'm moderately happy with the tripod. Features:

1. Relatively cheap
2. Comes with a 3-way pan-and-tilt head
3. The handles are covered with foam for handling comfort, especially during winter (you know, the metal gets cold)
   
4. The legs could be spread quite wide apart for really low heights, e.g. for macro photography.
5. Weighs 1.5kg

It feels relatively solid, and it weighs relatively light and overall, for the price I'm quite happy with it. However, if I had more for the tripod budget I probably would have bought a Manfrotto 190Pro. However, the Manfrotto 190 costs £100, and comes WITHOUT a tripod head.

A good tripod head costs around £200.

Yup, photography is an extremely expensive hobby!

PS
Across the continent back home in Malaysia my brother is actually getting married at the moment, so Congrats(!!) and god bless Muzaffar & Nani. Above all I wish you two happiness and a blissful marriage.

Unfortunately my parents have yet to send me pictures so I'm not sure how the ceremony went but I'll post pictures as soon as they become available.

Early Morning Photography Adventure

I've been frustrated for the past 2 weeks with the weather in England. Most days, especially the weekends, have been nothing but overcast and rainy. This weekend however, the weather was forecasted as pristine. Perfect for yet another photography field day.

I woke up at 6.30am this morning, and after a quick shower and subuh prayers, drove to the Canal Basin. I was hoping to catch the sunrise which was scheduled to be at 7.17am.

Canon 44mm F11 for 1.3s ISO 200

For this shot I basically placed the 400D on a book on the ground (yet to get a tripod), took the exposure, activated the self timer and waited patiently. I love night photography.

Canon 44mm F4 1/6 ISO 200
This shot was handheld as by this time the morning has become a bit more bright

too lazy to write the EXIF:p
I like this shot for the reflections, implying the tall buildings surrounding the basin.

Symmetry. Again, I love the reflections which seem to pop out from the water. Taking pictures in the early morning makes the buildings appear bright orange and gold.

Early morning macro. My hands were shivering due to the cold morning, yet surprisingly the picture was more or less sharp-ish. I took this picture while waiting for the sunrise.

Lavender. I took the picture during sunrise. By this time it dawned on me that observing the sunrise while being surrounded by tall buildings MAY NOT be the best idea. The sunrise was obscured leaving me feeling very foolish and really disappointed. D'oh.

Organic. I love the texture of this tree and how it lit up in the morning. In retrospect, I should have selected a warmer white balance setting.

Coventry University. By now the sunlight has become too bright and harsh for certain pictures but I love the long shadows it produced in front of Coventry University.

I took this picture of the devil again just to show you guys that the statue is actually VERY big. Compare with the size of my shadow at the lower left.

Silhouette. This was also taken right in front of Coventry University.

Coventry. This is the blue bridge outside the Coventry Transport Museum. My intention was for the curvy lines to lead viewers' eye towards the word "Coventry"

Whittle Arch. This is one of the most famous and unique structure in Coventry. I like how the squiggly lines on the street leads towards the flags and the flags sort of point to the arch.

Details of the Whittle Arch against a (rare) blue sky.

My field day ended at around 9.30am and before I went home I paid a visit to our local Jessops (it's a camera shop, just in case you don't know). One lesson I've learnt today is the importance of a Neutral Density Graduated Filter - so that the sky appears blue against whatever structures one is photographing on the ground. I was also looking at tripods. (But I didn't buy anything).

At the end of the day this is one satisfied, but sleepy (newbie) photographer. Later everyone, have a good weekend.

PS

This was the exact frustrating moment when I suddenly realised:

1. I wasn't at the right place to capture the sunrise as the enclosed basin practically obscured all the view. Mental note: next time choose a place where you could at least see the horizon!
2. I also realised I don't know how to capture this very contrasty scene. The foreground is very dark and the sky is very bright. How could I make the sky more prominent??
3. The answer is (a) taking multiple exposures of the scene and combine them in Photoshop/GIMP (b) to use a Neutral Density graduated filter. Hu....
4. Here's an unrealistic looking GIMPed image of the above: