Keukenhof Netherlands

This is just a short post of my shots during a visit to Keukenhof Netherlands. For me, Keukenhof = Heaven of Tulips, as simple as that. There are thousand kinds of tulips there and you will totally enjoy this place if you are a tulip lover ; not me. It took about 50minutes drive from Amsterdam to arrive here and the entrance fee cost 14 Euros.

Cliff Hunting Trip-The End

I ended up my Cliff Hunting Trip project with this few long exposure shots, captured somewhere in Snowdonia National Park Wales. As my personal experience, i had never seen such a view like this in my entire life. It’s such a calming place, with a big lake surrounded by mountains in front of me, the water itself transparent and i could see clearly small rocks through it, the water surface was so clear and i could see the reflection the mountains on the suface, the air was so refreshing and the moment became more meaningful as i experienced one of the most beautiful sunset in my life.

Those pictures below were captured during the blue hour (a few minutes after complete sunset). Since many people asked me how i got such purple color of the sky, so here i share the secret behind this color. With a normal shot, you will get a picture with dark blue color of sky. But i tried something new, with a combination of ND8, Circular polarizer and Cokin P121M (NDgrad) and shot using bulb mode, the color will mix up and produce such little purple color. If you move the P121M (NDgrad) filter, you will get a normal color of sky. That’s all….and..the best part of playing with filters & long exposure photography is that you will not need much editing process because the color and composition are already there. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself. Enjoy….

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Cliff Hunting Trip-Snowdonia National Park Wales

Snowdon is a region in north Wales and a national park of 838 square miles (2,170 km2) in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951. The English name for the area derives from Snowdon, which is the highest mountain in Wales at 3,560 ft (1,085m). I arrived there after about 2 hours of drive from Aberystwyth and along the way, you can experience the beautiful landscape of the countryside of Wales.

To be honest, Snowdonia National Park is the most amazing place i have ever been due to the landscapes, the location, the air and also the enjoyment of ride through the National Park. I suggest to anyone who wants to visit Wales, visiting this National Park is a must, you would not regret it. I can guaranty that.

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Cliff Hunting Trip-Aberystwyth Wales

My journey continued along the coast of Wales directed to a small town, Aberystwyth. Aberystwyth is an extremely isolated town, considering the population density of the United Kingdom. The nearest substantial settlements are located at least 1 hour 45 minutes drive away: Swansea. But Aberystwyth is a historic market town and famous with beach. I got only 45minutes to shot in Aberystwyth, so here we go….

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Cliff Hunting Trip-Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Wales

You can see clearly that the name of this project is “Cliff” Hunting Trip, but until now, you have not see any Cliff photos from me.hahaha…Actually, based on my trip plan, i’ll capture some Cliff shots in Pembrokeshire Coast of Wales, about 2 hours journey from Cardiff. I arrived somewhere in Pembrokeshire about 3pm and felt so excited to play long exposure photography at a cliff. There is no exact address or postcode of the “main” cliff that i was heading to.( “main” here means like the most interesting cliff there, where tourist always visit because Pembrokeshire has a lot of cliffs along the coast). So i just follow my instinct to get to the cliff. And somehow, i arrived to a place, ‘looks’ like a tourist attraction because there were lots of vehicles and people at that place. I thought that was the correct location of the “main” cliff, unfortunately that was totally the wrong location. It’s actually just a mini jungle with a small lake in it. Then one of my friends asked a local (a granny), the direction to a cliff. She said that we need to walk 20min through the jungle, across the lake, turn right and left..bla bla…and then we will reach the cliff. We walked for God’s sake through the jungle just to find that cliff. After 20min walked, we arrived at……………………………erm…i could say the highest point of view of the lake!!! About 7 meters high from the lake. I looked out for the sea view, where is it?none!! There is no sea near me, not even close!! And this place is totally not a cliff. We were lost in the middle of a jungle!!ohhhh granny, it was all your fault……so i walked back to the parking lot and it took another 20min. Then, after the devastating incident, we asked a young man the direction to the nearest cliff and at that time i don’t even care if i reach the “main” cliff anymore. I just want to find a cliff, any cliff will be fine! After 10min drive finally, at about 5p.m we arrived here, i think only the local know this place.

All the cliff shots was captured using Cokin ND8,Circular Polarizer,Cokin P121M (NDgrad),remote release,tripod,manual mode.

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Cliff Hunting Trip-Landscape Cardiff Wales

Continue from the last post…My 2nd destination was Manchester. I have no particular landscape shot in Manchester because i was there to rest and have fun with some new photographer friends. Then, the next destination was Cardiff, located in south of Wales. In Cardiff  i visited the Caerphilly Castle and went to the Brecon Beacons National Park. The view of the National Park was simply awesome, like you were standing in the middle of nowhere with the landscape of mountains and hills around you, but it was so cold at the time i arrived there and i could not hold any longer to shot more; i forgot to bring my glove with me and my hand was getting pale.

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Cliff Hunting Trip-Landscape England

I’m so sorry for so long not updating this blog with photos. In this post i’ll share the landscape photos during my Cliff Hunting Trip around UK and my 1st destination was London. Yeah…There is no cliff in London, but i got the chance to snap some landscape shots around London…not much….but more to come when i write in the next post.

How to get the above shot?

My equipments were Tokina 11-16mm combined with COKIN ND8,NDG (P121M) and Circular Polarizer. At lowest ISO and by using manual mode, i set the shutter ( bulb ) and aperture to get the correct exposure. For this shot, i think it’s about 40sec shutter speed. And how i got such purple sky? It’s actually not from editing process in photoshop but actually because of the long exposure with the combination of NDGrad (Grey) of P121M filter. The color is actually fresh from camera.

And for this shot, it’s actually simple, move all your filters in front of the lens, even the UV filter to avoid the dirty flair around the star effect. By using manual mode, set the aperture to the smallest opening of 22 or 16, then set the shutter speed to get the correct metering ( normally about a few sec ). Then set to the lowest ISO value possible and don’t forget a tripod. For a better result, use remote release or timer to avoid vibration of your camera.

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April 2010 Wallpaper

I’m so sorry for not updating this blog for about 3 weeks. There were a lot of stuff i have to settle up. But i come back with this post. Like i promised before, i’ll give free wallpaper each month and i’ll never break that promise.

For April 2010 wallpaper, i come up with a simple landscape shot, a shot that actually breaking the rule of third. Rule of third is actually a simple rule in photography to guide you so that a picture look balance in the frame of your shot. I’ll explain just a ‘little bit’ about this rule because i think most of you already know about it. Basically you need to imagine like in a frame there were 9 small rectangles OR 2 vertical lines and 2 horizontal lines.

For a landscape shot, to apply this rule, normally photographer fill up 2/3 of the frame (6 boxes) with ground or land and other 1/3 (3 boxes) of the frame with sky. Instead, in this shot, i did the exact inverse of it. “Rules were made to be broken”, a cliché statement. But, don’t break this rule if you don’t even understand totally about the rule. The question is ” Why i did something like that?”. You don’t break the rule just to have fun with no purpose. I did break the rule to add some impact to the shot. I want to show the gigantic group of the cloud, the movement or direction of the cloud. You can see that the cloud move like a curve to the left. If i apply the rule of third in this shot, you will not get the chance to see the direction of the cloud.

All right, back to the topic, remember about the “Cliff Hunting Trip” in my previous post? This wallpaper is actually one of my shots during that trip. The shot was captured around the area of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Wales. The exact location remain unknown because i just followed the GPS navigator directed to the Coast and i just stopped by to this place on my way to the coast.

So here is the wallpaper according to the resolution of monitor.

1280×800 and 1920×1200

I hope you enjoy the wallpaper and wish you have a great month ahead.

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March 2010 Wallpaper

Here we go….free calender wallpaper for March 2010 and this time, it’s a Silhouette shots of sunset during my visit to Spain. This picture was captured from the Garden of Generalife, viewed the landscape of Sierra Nevada mountain. but the building in this photo is not the Alhambra!!

The Palacio de Generalife was the summer palace and country estate of the Nasrid sultans of Granada. The palace and gardens were built during the reign of Muhammad III (1302-1309) and redecorated shortly after by Abu I-Walid Isma’il (1313-1324). The complex consists of the Patio de la Acequia (Court of the Water Channel or Water-Garden Courtyard), which has a long pool framed by flowerbeds, fountains, colonnades and pavilions, and the Jardín de la Sultana (Sultana’s Garden or Courtyard of the Cypress). The former is thought to best preserve the style of the medieval garden in Al-Andalus.

Originally the palace was linked to the Alhambra by a covered walkway across the ravine that now divides them. The Generalife is one of the oldest surviving Moorish gardens. The present-day gardens were started in 1931 and completed by Francisco Prieto Moreno in 1951.

So here is the wallpaper according to the resolution of monitor.

1280×800 and 1920×1200

I hope you enjoy the wallpaper and wish you have a great month ahead.

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Madrid – Day 4

We arrived at the Barajas Airport, Madrid after a short flight from Barcelona on the 4th day of the trip. I really love the interior design of the Airport, it’s quite nice and stylish. This is actually the Terminal 4 of Barajas Airport, designed by Antonio Lamela and Richard Rogers (winning team of the 2006 Stirling Prize), and TPS Engineers, (winning team of the 2006 IStructE Award for Commercial Structures). Terminal 4 is one of the world’s largest airport terminals in terms of area, with 760,000 square meters (8,180,572 square feet) in separate landside and airside structures. After taking our begs and belongings, we headed straight to a backpackers Hostel located in the center of Madrid City and rest for a while before we continued to have a little walk around the City at night.

Palacio de Comunicaciones is the Central Post Office in Madrid and it was built in 1904. In front of the palace is a very busy road and and square and this is where the soccer team of Madrid celebrates its victories. In the middle of the square is a fountain called Cibeles which consists of the Goddess of Fertility, sitting on a chariot that´s being pulled by two lions. Supposedly these lions were originally people who were turned into the predators because they had ruined the Goddess´ temple. The whole statue is made out of marble. Around Plaza de Cibeles and the post office are several other buildings, including the Bank of Spain, the House of America and an army headquarters.

A little details about the shot of Palacio de Comunicaciones, i captured it at the smallest aperture of 22, with shutter speed of 15sec, absolutely with the help of a tripod, WITHOUT star filter effect because there were many of my friends asked me how i got such star effect without the star filter. The answer is, i don’t really know about it actually but my friend, who studied in optic said that maybe it’s because of the manufacture of lenses. Lens with more small lenses in it, will produce more lines of star for night photography, but i don’t know if the fact is correct or not. For an example, Tokina 11-16mm ( about 16 lines) produces more lines of stars compare to Sigma 10-20mm ( about 6 lines ).

The Metropolis Building is one of Madrid’s headquarters of a former insurance company. wo of the French architects who were entrusted the task of the Metropolis Building in Madrid were Jules Fevrier and Raymond Fevrier. They won the competition of the work and commenced work in the project on 1907. The Metropolis Building project was begun by demolishing seven homes which facilitated the construction. In the year 1910, the Metropolis Building was completed. It was inaugurated on January 21, 1911. The Metropolis Building is an exquisite piece of architecture with its perfectly symmetrical proportions and an impressive dome which is visible from a distance.

The summit of the Metropolis Building was originally crowned with a phoenix, the mythical and sacred firebird that is mentioned in Egyptian and Greek mythology. The phoenix has references to the insurance company. However, in 1975, Metropolis bought the building and crested the apex with the winged statue of victory in the place of the phoenix. The statue of victory – the Roman goddess Victoria – was designed by Federico Coullaut Valera. The street where the Metropolis Building stands, the Gran Via contains a number of shopping malls and restaurants for travelers to frequent.

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