Black Card Photography II - Fireworks

Fireworks photography is a relatively easy theme in photography and the two most important gadgets needed are a tripod and any camera that has an adjustable shutter speed no less than a few seconds. The principle of fireworks photography is to catch the moving trail of fireworks from launch until it's finished exploding which usually takes a few seconds. As a long time exposure is used in fireworks photography, secure your camera to something that will ensure it doesn’t move during the photo shooting. If you have a better camera, there are a few settings to perfect the fireworks photography.

General settings:
Set your camera and lens to manual; focus on something in a distance (infinite usually works just fine); a low ISO (100/200) to get the cleanest shot possible; turn off Noise Reduction to maximize the number of photos you can capture (noise reduction can slow you down by half); photo format in RAW (an ideal format for post editing if needed, expecially for correcting white balance and noise reduction)

Aperure setting:
Set your aperture to f8-f16 with ISO 100, which gives you a pretty good depth-of-field. As the emission of fireworks is very bright, a mid to small range of F stop usually works well in such settings. The difference between mid (f8) and small (F16) aperture is that a smaller aperture gives thiner trails of light whereas bigger aperture fattens trails out.

Shutter speed:
Set the shutter speed to buld. A remote release in hand in buld mode gives you total control of shutter speeds, resulting in various fireworks patterns. (Details later)

Black card:
Unlike my black card photography part I, the application of a black card in fireworks photography isn't to get a balanced exposure in a great dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of the image but to black out smoke as well as to prevent an over-exposed image due to too many 'bursts' in one frame with complex exposures.



Left: over-exposed due to too many bursts at the bottom of the frame; right: the complete trails of fireworks in different altitudes were captured by using a black card.

Black card photography in fireworks, first, use spot metering mode to measure the exposure time of the foreground and follow the steps as follows:



Don't be afraid to try, you never know what you might get as a result. Good luck and let me know.

2010 Tainan City Bloom watch season

Date: March 6-28
Official Website: http://2010flower.tncg.gov.tw/ (Chinese only)
Schedule for the event: TFAC news letters Vol. 16

Two days itinerary in Tainan county--winter version

In Nansi township Tainan county, a hill that used to be called Banana Mountain is now the biggest plum tree plantation in Taiwan and was re-named Meiling (梅嶺, Plum Peak) by the former vice-president Hsie Dong-Min. Every year, around New Year, Meiling attracts tons of tourists for not only the snowy white plum blossoms but also its speciality: plum chicken (梅子雞, boiled chicken with pickled plums). Facing north, you overlook the Tsengwen reservoir on a sunny day; to the south, the greenish Yunan basin is unveiled. The Meiling Scenic Area is one of the most famous hiking spots in Tainan. There are 9 hiking trails in the area and the Guanyin (2.5km, 1.2 hr, difficult) and Wulong Temple (0.9km, 80 min, easy) trails are the two most well-known. (More hiking info)

The miserable experience of my friends attempting to go to Meiling by public transportation and ending up being trapped at the Meiling Tourists Center, was an important information to share. Apparently, the bus to Meiling only goes to the tourist center which is about 5 km away from the trails and plum blossoms. Like every tourist attractions in Taiwan during the weekends, it's almost impossible to find a parking space. From the parking to Guanyin temple is a pleasant hike, plum blossoms line both sides of the concrete driveway all the way up to the temple. You can also take the stairs which lead you into the forest, away from the driveway. For those looking for a real hike, they may continue the journey by taking the trail on the side of the temple.

Wen Chuan Mei Zi Gi (文川梅子雞, add: 115, Zhong zheng rd, Nansi township, Tainan county; tel:06-5751886) is probably the biggest and the most popular plum chicken restaurant in the area. It's right next to the parking lot with a big fountain in the middle of the restaurant. The owner's daughter is married to a foreigner who sells ice cream in the restaurant on weekends. Even though there is no English menu, you don't have to worry about what/how to order in that restaurant, instead finding a table would be your biggest challenge.

After the lunch, I headed to the county highway NO 175 via provincial highway No3, and county highway 174. County highway 175, connects Baihe and Dongshan townships, is also known as 175 coffee highway as coffee trees in Dongshan township are mostly planted alongside the road. The history of coffee plantation here can be traced back 60 years, when tourism become popular in the area, many coffee shops were built right next to the coffee farms between mile marker 9k to 20k of county highway 175. Da Chua Hua Jian (大鋤花間, 109-17, Gaoyuan village, Dongshan township, veer off the hightway 175 around 11.5k; tel: 093972311) is one of the distinctive coffee shops on the road. Sipping organic coffee in the tree house was a luxurious indulgence.

County hightway 175 ends/starts at the Red Leaf Tunnel of the Guanziling Scenic Area. The King's Garden Villa, located at the upper part of the Guanziling old street away from the bristling hot spring hotels, has great male/female naked hot spring 'nude soup' (NT$300, free for tenants, 09:00-22:00) and lovely cabins to stay overnight. Guanziling hot spring belongs to alkalinity carbonate hot spring, the murky and satiny texture is a result of a mixture of shale particles, a variety of minerals, salts and sulfur when spring water gushes through the argillite. The hot spring has a temperature of around 76 degree and is regarded as one of a kind peculiar mud hot spring (Nichuan, 泥泉) in Taiwan. Currently only Japan, Italy and Guanziling has this kind of hot spring around the world.

It's easy to spend a day in Guanziling Scenic Area, the google map below marks most of the tourist attractions and 4 recommended routes in the area.

Itinerary in brief: Day 1: Meiling hiking-> lunch at Wen chuan restaurant->afternoon tea at Da Chua Hua Jian, 175 coffee highway-> dinner/hot spring/sleep at The king's Garden Villa, Guanziling. Day 2: one of the recommended routes in Guanziling Scenic Area.

View Guanziling in a larger map

Supplement:
Public transportation to Guanziling: Take a train to Shinying Train Station, the Shinying Bus Station is across from the train station. The bus ride takes about 40-50 mins from Shinying to Guaziling Lingding park (NT$69).
Time table: (check official website for update)
from Shinying to Guanziling: 07:00, 07:50, 08:40, 10:00, 12:10, 14:30, 18:15
from Guanziling to Shinying: 07:50, 08:40, 09:30, 10:50, 13:00, 15:20, 19:05

From Chia Yi train station:
Take Chia Yi Bus No:7214 (NT$81)
Time table: (check official website for update)
 from Chia Yi bus station to Guanziling:
07:00, 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:30, and 17:40
from Guanzhiling to Chia Yi bus station:
08:30, 09:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 13:30, 14:30, 15:30, 16:30, 17:40, and 20:00

Credit cards and foreigners in Taiwan, an endless battle no more

"I earn more than NT$100,000 every month and my wife just stays at home collecting my money, yet, no banks would issue me a credit card while my wife has 3 platinum cards in her wallet" Sounds familiar? Being an outsider, one of the obstacles in finance is that no bank would issue you a credit card even if you can find guarantors to endorse for you, unless you are a manager in a big company. Well, except for asking your wife/friends to pay for you when it's needed, you do have other choices in Taiwan.

In Taiwan, ATM cards all have a chip embeded in the front of a card and a magnetic stripe on the back. When withdrawing domestically, ATMs verify the pin, 6-12 digits, you've typed in with the info in the chip; when withdrawing overseas, such verification, 4 digits pin, goes through the magnetic stripe on the back of the card. A Visa ATM Debit card replaces the ATM magnetic stripe with a VISA magnetic stripe, a card that serves as an ATM card as well as a VISA card. Like any VISA credit cards, a VISA ATM Debit card can be used in any VISA merchants both domestically (Taiwan) and in foreign counties. It works as a debit card, the balance is directly deducted from your bank account and there is no delay in payment functions.

There are 15 Banks in Taiwan issue VISA ATM debit cards, including Chinatrust Bank, Taichung Commercial Bank, Taipei Fubon Bank, Taishin Bank, Taiwan Business Bank, Shin Kong Bank, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Mega Interbational Commercial Bank, First Commercial Bank, Hua Nan Commercial Bank, Cathay United Bank, Union Bank of Taiwan, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and the post office. Anyone who opens a savings account is eligible to apply for a VISA ATM Debit card, including foreigners.

Currently, only 6 banks allow internet online use, they are: Taishin Bank, Hua Nan Commercial Bank, Chinatrust Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Taiwan Business Bank and Cathay United Bank. You should find your name, dates of validity and expiry, as well as 2 account numbers, your savings and VISA numbers embossed on the cards that are issued by those 6 banks. On the others, you will find no embossing nor your name, but a statement "Electronic Use Only" on the front of the cards.

Since the ATM magnetic stripe is now a VISA stripe in a VISA ATM debit card, when withdrawing overseas, it is considered as "borrowing" cash from VISA. Therefore, except for paying an international withdraw processing fee to the bank, a VISA international exchange settlement surcharge will be added on top of your withdrawl.

Nikon Picture Control

By default, Nikon D90 has 6 picture controls (Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape) installed and these controls endow distinct feelings to photos by changing the setting of saturation, contrast, color hue and sharpness etc. The result of these default picture controls are usually satisfying, however, if you have a different preference other than the default, it is possible to create a custom picture control via the camera or via the Nikon ViewNX program. You can even minic the legendary Fuij S5 Pro color in NIKON DSLR.

Create your own picture control using Nikon ViewNX
The software should come with the camera, if you lost the CD, you can also download ViewNX for free from Nikon's website.

After installation, run ViewNX and click on 'Quick Adjustment' tab on the left bottom of the program.
Step 1: Click on Launch Utility to activate the Picture Control Utility
Step 2: Select a stored Picture Control. Select a predefined picture control as a template for your modification; vivid is a good start if you like a highly saturated photo.
Step 3: Click on 'New' button on the right
Step 4: Rename your Picture Control then press OK button. You can find a new picture control is created in the Stored Picture Controls list.


To modify the Picture Control to meet your need:
Step 1: You can adjust all parameters in 'Level Adjustment' the way you like; to adjust Curve, select 'Use Custom Curve' to enable the custom curve control.
Step 2 (optional): Load Custom Curves. You can also download custom curve files (*.ntc) from PC1, PC2, PC3, PC4.
Step 3 (optional): Select downloaded curve files
Step 4: Press 'Overwrite' button to save your modifications.

Now you can edit photos with your own picture controls by selecting a specific picture control in 'Quick Adjustment' tab of the ViewNX.

Upload Picture Controls to Camera
Except for 6 default picture controls, there are 9 extra spaces in Nikon D90 that allow users to upload custom picture controls to the camera. To do that first plug in your SDHC card to PC via USB. Open the Picture Control Utility window and select the picture control you want to export as step 1. Step 2: Select a number then press 'OK'.

The program creates 2 folders in your SDHC card which are NIKON/CUSTOMPC and the custom picture control file is sent as PICCON01.NCP to the CUSTOMPC folder. The number of the NCP file is coresponding to the No. you select when exporting.


Plug in your SDHC card back to the camera and press the MENU button. Select SHOOTING MENU...






To set Picture Control:


The photos will be recorded as Vivid-01 style.

References:
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/c8631506
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/wingmanzero/9179577

Mandarin or English

Foreigners who can speak Mandarin fluently are often times treated as a rare breed in Taiwan. They are the minority among the outsiders, as a result, speaking English to foreigners is a response reflection and no matter how good their Mandarin is or how hard they try to communicate in Mandarin, most of the time conversations are spoken in English when they are around. It's a very interesting phenomenon in Taiwan and it's also a frustrating experience and a constant reminder of being an outsider for the foreigners. So why do Taiwanese like to speak English to foreigners even if they can speak Mandarin fluently and why do foreigners prefer, sometimes insist, to speak Mandarin to Taiwanese if they are able to? Except for the reasons mentioned above, it would be interesting to make a poll to see the reasons behind the phenomenon but I don't think there is enough traffic from my blog to make a valid poll but here are a few theories I have:

To show off/to boost self-esteem
Except for business or attending English classes, there is not much chance for Taiwanese to speak English in their daily life. It's a once in a blue moon opportunity to bump into a foreigner who will actually have a conversation with them, and it's a great time to make an impression to their freinds, family, colleagues and also the foreigner they are speaking to. Do foreigners try to make such an impression by speaking Mandarin in a conversation? I'll say some of them need that kind of recognition, not as much as Taiwanese though. Afterall, they don't have be to able to master Mandarin to get sincere yet nearly "insulting" comments like "your chinese is great" even if they can only order dumpling in Mandarin without making the restaurant confused with sleeping.

A great practicing opportunity
Practice, practice and practice is the only way to master a language. One of the reasons that my blog is written in English is to practice my English writting skill; just like many foreigners who study Chinese in Taiwan have a Chinese blog. It's a logical assumption that both Taiwanese and foreigners speak a foreign language in a conversation to practice their speaking skills. As the English speaking Taiwanese outnumber Mandarin speaking foreigners, English is usually the default language used.

To blend in
Foreigners who study Chinese in Taiwan wish to blend in to the culture by speaking Mandarin; a shortcut to be recognized by the locals. On the other hand, Taiwanese speak English to minimize a possible intimidation built up with language barrier creating an atmosphere to feel free to speak.

You aren't really that good
Even if foreigners can speak Mandarin fluently, there are times when conversations get too serious for them to handle, sometimes, it just can't be translated. Once the language switching is made, the impression of 'they aren't really that good' makes the conversation stay in English.

Amazon Kindle

I bought an Amazon Kindle (6 inch display , global wireless) and paid USD$26.97 for international priority shipping via UPS. According to the shipping and delivery condition on Amazon, I should get my kindle within 2-4 business days. It was the 3rd day after my purchase, I got one missed call alert on my cellular phone showing that the time of the call was 17:30. I didn't pay attention to it as I didn't recognize the number and the next day I got a call from the same number at the same time. I picked it up this time, it was UPS calling for a copy of my ID, a signed declaration that declared that the kindle I bought would not be used for other purposes but private use and an authorization that designated UPS to pick up the kindle on my behalf. I was skeptical about the request, what's it all about? Was the National Communications Commission (NCC) in Taiwan worried that the built-in global wireless feature in kindle might cause some kinds of national communication crisis when falling into the wrong hands? I faxed the documents to UPS but it was too late to send the documents to NCC after 17:00. It was Friday night and I ended up having to wait for another 5 days to get my kindle.

What I don't understand is that the UPS is designated for kindle shipping internationally by Amazon, since I was not the first one who purchased kindle in Taiwan UPS must have known the rules in Taiwan but the documents required by the Customs weren't mentioned while purchasing. Moreover, UPS called the consignee to prepare documents after 17:00 which made it impossible to send the documents to NCC for reviewing on the same day, so exactly how did they expect to deliver a kindle to a consignee in Taiwan within 2-4 business days?

The firmware of my kindle is version 2.3 which can now display PDF natively, however, I can't change the font size in PDF format nor can I enable text to read feature. The unchangable font size is a big problem as a PDF file in a 6 inch display is too small to read. I tried to convert the file via Amazon kindle personal documents service system that converts documents to kindle compatible files without extra charge. I sent a PDF to my kindle account: hanjie@kindle.com, and right away I got the file in my kindle with a notice telling me that I have been charged USD$1.98 for a wireless delivery, and the delivered file still in PDF format! It turns out that the free wireless delivery only applies in the USA, since PDF files are a native format in kindle, the system will not convert a PDF to AZW which is the Amazon Kindle ebook format. There is a way to make sure the file you sent is converted and send back to your email without extra charge: type "Convert" in the subject of the e-mail when you submit your personal document to username@free.kindle.com.

I've learned the hard way, if you ever want to order a kindle in Taiwan, make sure you have all documents prepared before UPS calls you.

Useful Links:

• Send PDF to kindle
• Online books
• Manybooks
• Find e-books