All Hallow's Eve, Hallow E'en, Samhain, Halloween.


What ever you call it, it's today.

We had a party. Lots could be said, but I'm not gonna on the grounds that it might be incriminating... so here' the pics instead:


































These photos seem a lot darker than what I originally uploaded... but you get the idea. It was fun.

:)

Featuring the all new Nikon D40

So I've had my Canon for a while now and with the new zoom lens, it has been taking some amazingly good close-ups and some very nice pictures... but I've been struggling to get the pictures I want.

You see, with my old film Minolta, I rarely had to think about what settings I needed to get the photo I wanted. And the colours usually came out the way I expected them. Using it seemed intuitive. Maybe it was because this is the first SLR camera I learn't how to use properly.

Somehow, with my Canon Kiss digital camera, it's been more difficult. It does take some beautiful pictures, but I really have to think about the settings and often have to play with different values to get close to what I'm after. Rarely does it have the colours I want.

Each type of camera will cast a different hue on it's photos (much like switching between Fuji and Kodak film changes the photo). It's not that the colours are in-correct, it's just a different colour value. The Canon has a more blueish hue to it's photos. To me this makes it look slightly cold and sometimes washed out. My old Minolta had much warmer colours.

The other down side to my Canon is that it is a very heavy camera to take hiking and places where I'd probaby get great photos.

So last weekend, I had a photography weekend (see previous post) and struggled most of the day getting the photos I wanted. The next day I went to the mega-electronics-store, Kumho World and bought myself a brand new Nikon D40 digital SLR.




This camera actually has less Megapixles that my old Canon, but really, unless I'm blowing things up to poster size, the difference is unnoticable. By the time I'd taken the first 5 photos, I was already feeling much more in control of the camera. The metering and colouring of the photos were perfect!

I've now taken approximately 200 photos with it (in 2 days) and every time the pictures have turned out as good as I expected. Sometimes even better! And this camera is so light! The first few times I picked it up without looking, I thought the battery had fallen out or the lens had fallen off. There's just nothing to it.

That, together with the fact that it cost less than half my Canon, and I think I'm in love!

So here's some photos to show what this little baby has done for me so far...


























These photos are all sunset shots, because I haven't had the chance to take it for a test run during the day... but I can't wait!

So... anyone wanna buy a cheap Canon Kiss Digital SLR?

Wando by Camera

This weekend I invited a few people over to Wando to have a day of taking photos. Here are some of my results:


Through the Window




Coral




Spikey View




Melisa & kids




Halmonies II




Reflection




Decision




Contemplation




Colours of Grain




Collecting the Nets II




Old Man Stone I




Shingles I




The Lamp




Through the Hole




Outside Hall




Peek-a-boo



Thanks to Zepher, Dave & Tyrone for making it a fun day out. Hopefully there will be more days like this in the near future.

The Photoshoot.

Last Wednesday was my schools birthday and how best to celebrate this wonderous event? Well... have a day off of course.

So I had the day off and decided to skip over to Mokpo. I spent the day hanging out with the wonderful Miji Kim. She very kindly agreed to act as my model for the afternoon so I could practice portriture photography.

Here are the best of the days play.

Aussie Quiz

For those of you who are Aussie, you must get at least 90% to retain your citizenship.

For those who wanna become Aussie.... you've gotta get 100%

:P


2007 Australian Citizenship test

1. Do you understand the meaning, but are unable to explain the origin of, the term "died in the arse"?



2. What is a bloody little beauty??



3. Are these terms related: chuck a sickie; chuck a spaz; chuck a U-ey?



4. Explain the following passage: "In the arvo last Chrissy the relos rocked up for a barbie, some bevvies and a few snags. After a bit of a Bex and a lie down we opened the pressies, scoffed all the chockies, bickies and lollies. Then we drained a few tinnies and Mum did her block after Dad and Steve had a barney and a bit of biffo."



5. Macca, Chooka and Wanger are driving to Surfers in their Torana. If they are travelling at 100 km/h while listening to Barnsey, Farnsey and Acca Dacca, how many slabs will each person on average consume between flashing a brown eye and having a slash?



6. Complete the following sentences:
a) "If the van's rockin' don't bother ?
b) You're going home in the back of a ?
c) Fair crack of the ?



7. I've had a gutful and I can't be fagged. Discuss



8. Have you ever been on the giving or receiving end of a wedgie?



9. Do you have a friend or relative who has a car in their front yard "up on blocks"? Is his name Bruce and does he have a wife called Cheryl?

10. Does your family regularly eat a dish involving mincemeat, cabbage, curry powder and a packet of chicken noodle soup called either chow mein, chop suey or kai see ming?



11. What are the ingredients in a rissole?



12. Demonstrate the correct procedure for eating a Tim Tam.



13. Do you have an Aunty Irene who smokes 30 cigarettes a day and sounds like a bloke?



14. In any two-hour period have you ever eaten three-bean salad, a chop and two serves of pav washed down with someone else's beer that has been flogged from a bath full of ice?



15. When you go to a bring- your-own-meat barbie can you eat other people's meat or are you only allowed to eat your own?



16. What purple root vegetable beginning with the letter "b" is required by law to be included in a hamburger with the lot?

17. Do you own or have you ever owned a lawn mower, a pair of thongs, an Esky or Ugg boots?



18. Is it possible to "prang a car" while doing "circle work"?



19. Who would you like to crack on to?



20. Who is the most Australian: Kevin "Bloody" Wilson, John "True Blue" Williamson, Kylie Minogue or Warnie?

21. Is there someone you are only mates with because they own a trailer or have a pool?

22. What does sinkin piss at a mates joint and getten para mean?


My personal answers will be published later.

Good luck.

PhotoChallenge Blog.

For those of you interested, I'm updating the PhotoChallenge Blog and changing it so there is no time-limit.

Now I'll just put up tasks randomly, and if you're interested, you can go out and take the photos when ever you want.

I've created a Facebook group called "PhotoChallenge" where you can put up any photos you want to show-off, or you can e-mail them to me and I will add them to the PhotoChallenge Blog.

Happy Photographing.
;)

My Jaunt to Jeju-do

Chuseok holiday was another time for fun and games. Billie and I decided to jump on the ferry and head to the "Hawaii of Korea", an island called Jeju.

8am saw us ship off from the docks and it was blue skies and fine weather. I made a couple of Korean friends on the boat, and they kept me entertained for the 3 hour (which ended up being a 5 hour) trip.


Some of my company on the ferry


Sadly, as is becoming all to common on any of my planned trips, as I rolled off the ferry at the other end, the clouds rolled in and by the time I found our cabin... it had started raining.


Rocks on the wild and wet shoreline


That night and all the next day, I was in a foul mood. My friends had hired a car for the 5 days, and after a half hour ride in the pouring rain, I decided to ditch Billie and go for the dryer option. My mood very much reflected the weather and all day I couldn't get out of a funk... until 6pm.

We were on our way back home and it was getting dark, when we spotted a sign: ATV's. After a discussion that lasted all of 5 seconds, we pulled in and all 7 of us went to check out the quad bikes. They were asking 20 000 won for a 20 minute ride (that's about a $1/minute) but after seeing us hesitate, the lady dropped the price to 15 000 won and won us over.


The quad crew


I have to say, those 20 minutes (which I'm sure turned into more like half an hour) were some of the best 20 minutes I've spent on a motorised vehicle. The leaders soon split us into the advanced riders and beginner riders.

The old lady motioned I was to follow her, and I was thinking "Oh great, were gonna be putting around for the rest of the ride". I couldn't have been more wrong. This lady was crazy. She had us fish-tailing around courners, jumping over rocks and going up and down virtical hillsides.

By the end of the ride, I was almost dancing in one spot I was so happy.

That night (and all the nights we stayed there) we had a wonderful dinner cooked for us by our resident chef, JP.


Our Chef


The next day, Garrett and myself decided to take our bikes out for a spin. He was going up the mountain to find a crater to hike and I decided to follow him. Well, this turned out to be a little more difficult than I expected. As soon as we got to the mountain road, the fog came in and in no time I could hardly see a few feet in front of me. By the time we reached the parking lot for the start of the hike, Garrett had decided it wasn't much point hiking, as he wouldn't be able to see any of the scenery anyway. We gave the rest of the crew a call to see what they were up to and much to our chargrin, we were informed that they had had sunshine most of the day. It turned out half the island was covered in cloud and the other half was sunny.

We finally found the beach the others were at and had a quick bite to eat. Garrett decided to stop there, but I was chaffing for some proper riding, so I jumped on the bike and went off for some fun. And fun it was. By the end of the day, I'd racked up about 300 km's of mountain and forrest riding. I was happy again.

The next day started out a little later, and much sunnier. Half the group got up at the crack of dawn to go tackle the biggest mountain on Jeju, Halla-san.
Meanwhile, Jessica, Tyrone and myself went and met up with Jessica's friend and rock climbing buddy Dan, and his friend Danielle. Dan took us down to an amazingly beautiful (and very rocky) creek and here we spent most of the day trying to scale a virtical rock face.


The crazy small rock-climbing shoes I forced my feet into.


It was a few hours of sitting around watching intently, trying to pick up some pointers, followed by about an hour of intense full body, physical exertion. It was incredibly difficult (for us beginners) and Dan was a hard taskmaster, not letting me back down when I felt I couldn't go on, and always encouraging me to "give it one more good try". I was very thankful for this when I finally reached the top.


You want me to put my feet where???



Trying to scramble over the underhang



Trying again without the torturous shoes.


Actually, I didn't make it all the way to the top. I was getting very close when I noticed a massive boulder (which we would have to climb over) had come away from the rock wall. After Dan climbed up to check it out, we decided that it wasn't safe to climb over... so this became the new "top" of the climb.


Getting up there.



At the new "top.


After this, with very little convincing, I talked Tyrone into jumping on the bike with me and headed back to the ATV place. I was having a lot of trouble finding where it was, but passed another place that offered ATV rides and decided to give it a go. This one was different from the first. The ground was much more flat, but it did have mud patches to play in. It was fun, but I told Tyrone the other place was better, so we decided to go there as well.

Once again, we had about half an hour of adrenaline filled fun and adventure. It was one of the guys who took us out this time, and there were only the two of us riding with him, so it was full throttle the whole way. I was very impressed with how Tyrone went, considering he'd never ridden before.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and I can't wait to get back over there again for some more fun.