Book Stroll (Book Inc, Mountain View)

Salander rules.

But competition is coming, this time, from neighbor Norway.

Two very funny cards.

Will a book's title help its sale? Not working for me in this case.

Tiger Mom is in paperback now.

Book Stroll (Book Buyer, Mountain View)

I had so much fun shooting inside the second hand bookstore. With the panorama feature of X100, finally I am able to show the bookstore as I see it (though I wish I could use a tripod).

On My Way to Lunch, Rose

I usually walk to the Rivermark plaza near my company for lunch. If I take a small detour, I can bypass a small garden inside the residential area. (This route was discovered by my friend Chinchih, when we both worked at Sun.) Last Friday I noticed this beautiful rose in the garden. I had only my cell phone with me. Knowing if I didn't take a photo immediately the flower might wither soon, I decided to take a shot. Though the result didn't do the flower justice, the color was very accurate. I stopped by the garden today and sure enough the rose had started to fade away. It is a good thing I still have a photo to remember it by.

A Fun Day in SF (Black/White Studies)

Stair of Light

The black/white rendering of X100 is its another strength. The B&W photo rendered by X100 has a film like quality. I was never happy with the Nikon rendering and had to use photoshop to postprocess it. It was error prone and time consuming. Now I have a better tool.

A Fun Day in SF (Japanese Tea Garden)

I was looking at the reflection in the pond, thinking, "how come the reflection looks more real? Is the reflection the real one while the real one a reflection of the reflection? Damn, forget about the zen talk, I need a fish to make the composition work". Right at the moment, a fish swam by (exactly the color I wanted) and I clicked.

The Japanese Tea Garden is very photogenic, but also has a lot of tourists. 

I know, I should use a tripod.

My camera was out of battery after my visit to the Japanese Tea Garden. Guess that's a sign to go home. Judging from the condition of the leaves, I think Thanksgiving is probably the best time to photo the Japanese Tea Garden. I will be back next year.

A Fun Day in SF (Music Concorse Park)

I had a hunch the Music Concorse Park would be a perfect location for panorama shots and I was right. I was too lazy to bring my tripod so I shot everything hand held. Even though the result was lacking, I realized my X100 could be a powerful composition tool, especially for shooting panorama. I can do a quick "sketch" using X100, check the composition, then take the real shots using D3X. It removes a lot of guess work.

A Fun Day in San Francisco (California Academy of Science)

Fake Africa, looked so real.

The humidity inside the rain forest dome reminds me the weather in Taiwan.

Under the Rain Forest Dome

Under low light, the shutter drag effect can be very interesting. 180 degree panorama.

I was taking photos with my X100 inside Academy of Science. Somebody spotted my camera and said "Oh, look, a film camera". I smiled and said "no, it is not". Such, is the joy of owning the X100.

Stop Amuse

Saw this one in the parking lot of a movie theater. In-camera flash came in handy in this lighting condition.

Miniature at Dana Cafe

I am getting better at using the X100 macro mode.

Book Stroll

No interesting new books before Christmas, but the magazine section is vibrant.

The legendary film critic is now in Library of America.

Roz Chast, my favorite New Yorker cartoonist, paranoid (and funny) as usual.

Take My X100 to Safeway

X100, Macro Mode, ISO 400

I think the autofocus of X100 should be renamed "auto-unfocus" because focus for this camera is hell. In low light or close range, the camera had so much trouble focusing. (Believe it or not, the autofocus is even worse than my cell phone camera.) Sometimes I felt I needed to prey. However, for its size, the 35mm Fujinon has an amazing shallow depth-of-field and the bokeh is pretty pleasing. The best part of the camera is its beautiful color rendering. You have to shoot raw, though.

36MP D800 for real?

Hard for me to believe this rumor could be true, but camera expert Lloyd Chambers seemed to think so. (He even mentioned there would be a 16MP D4, which was very possible.) Anyway, if it's true, I am going to order one, pronto.

Holiday Plan

A friend asked me what's my holiday plan. Actually I had none, but that got me thinking...

• visit SF Academy of Science, I have never visited this wonderful museum, it will be great to take photos with my X100. The museum is open on Dec 26th so it's perfect.
• either watch "Girl with Dragon Tatoo", or finish reading "The Girl Who Played with Fire". Perfect activity for Christmas or Christmas Eve.

Opening X100

The package of X100 is beautifully designed.

Wow, I had never seen a digital camera wrapped this way. Even my D3X felt cheap compared to it.

Side by side with Panasonic LX5. X100 is larger than I expected.

The X100 may have tons of flaws, but its packaging is definitely not one of them.

Elizabeth R

I have to admit Glenda Jackson is still the best Elizabeth I. No wonder she went to politics later.

First Impression of X100

Playing with in-camera panorama. It still suffers the ghost effect (look at the weird face of the barista).  

Color is pretty accurate.

Jpeg is ok but image looks much better after raw adjustment.

With 16x9 format, it's exactly the same as my phone camera, with much more details.

With its slow auto-focus, it's almost impossible to photo Miti.

Focus is way too slow, manual focus is even slower. Still, I like its color rendering.

The fun of shooting B&W

Played with X100 this morning. First impression, it has tons of flaws. It's too heavy. Focus is slow (slower even than my D70). Usability sucks (I consider any camera that requires me to read user manual has usability issues). It also has the slowest writing speed to the SD card (slower than any camera I had ever owned). Also, when using raw, the shutter speed cannot be lower than 1/1000 so I got a few over-exposed photos and it took me a while to understand why. In short, my D5100 is a much better buy at half the price.

What's its strength? The 35mm Fujinon is an excellent lens, rendering low distortion and very accurate colors. (Color has always been Fuji's strength since the film days.) It will be a good replacement for my cell phone camera. But will I take it with me all the time? I doubt it. So for now, it's more like a white elephant I have to learn to justify.

Coffee!

Spotted this at Peets couple of days ago.

Human Being's First Best Friend

My fever finally recede and I am feeling human again. Spotted this dog this morning during my "zombie walk". The loyalty of dogs always amazes me.

Walking Zombie

I ate something bad yesterday and spent most of the night sitting on top of the toilet (ok, I will spare you the details). When I woke up this morning. I was weak and dehydrated. Still, I felt slightly better so I drove to Mountain View for my Saturday book stroll, hoping that would help restoring my mood. Turned out it was such a disappointment. I didn't have enough energy so I walked slowly, shoulder stooped. I could hardly talk. I stumbled aimlessly, my brain half shutdown*. Then I realized that was exactly what a walking zombie looked like. "So, this is what being a zombie feels like", I told myself. I had to admit this idea appalled me, so I drove home and decided not to go out again till I could behave human.

* Strangely, my mind was blank yet I felt very calm.

P.S. I am having a minor fever now. According to the zombie rules, soon you die and become a real zombie.
P.P.S. I lost 2 pounds after 1 day. It's just how dehydrated I was.

Expressive Cat

The Cashmere Cat?

Cats are so expressive. They can look self-content in one moment, then totally goofy in the next. I am never tired of watching Miti and observe all sorts of her expressions.

Feeling Generous on My Birthday

I decided to donate some money to ASPCA as a birthday gift to myself. Not all cats are as lucky as Miti.

What Should I Get Myself this Year?

Tomorrow is my birthday. Usually I buy a birthday gift for myself. (Two years ago I bought myself a D3X, but that was reserved for the big one.) This year I can't think of anything. Somehow I feel sad about my failing to think of a gift for myself, as if the whole year went by without any meaning. Hmmm, maybe I should consult Miti and see what she wants.

P.S. heard a 36 MP Nikon camera is coming. That definitely gives me some idea...

P.P.S. A story came to mind. Don't know if it's true. Joseph Heller (Catch 22) and Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-Five) once went to a party hosted by a New York billionaire. "Wow, look at his house, look at his cars, this guy has everything." Vonnegut said. Joseph Heller then said "but I do have one thing he doesn't have". "What is it?" "Enough."

Five Years Later...

I started working at Sun's (now Oracle's) Santa Clara campus again. It had been 5 years since last time I worked here. Today I went to the gym on campus to work out. Things looked so familiar. Suddenly I realized it was because all the equipments were in the same exact location. They had not been moved, not even one inch. The familiarity triggered so many memories. My best friend Chinchih and I used to work out together when we were at Sun. She usually did stretch in the big yoga room, while I rode the exercise bike. I walked by the empty yoga room and felt just like yesterday, yet it had been 5 years. 

During the 5 years I had worked at 5 companies (including going back to Sun once and then quit). The shortest one lasted only 2 weeks. For more than half a year I didn't have a job. (The self-reliance I learned during this period is priceless. And I finally learned to disassociate my identity with a job.) I joined a startup afterward and had a wonderful adventure for 2 years. Then I met my best boss and got the closure to my college blunder (I jokingly said it was a 20-year therapy session). Now I am at where I was. Full circle. Is it destiny? Only time will tell.

Feeling Regret?

Actually I like her tatoo (and its symbolic meaning), but no way I am going to get one.

The Pensive Cat

Mitty loves sitting on the bookshelf and watches her "reality TV".

Feeling a bit under the weather today, I spent most of the time home watching the DVDs of "Rosemary and Thyme" (my favorite TV mystery series). Mitty stayed on top of the bookshelf, enjoying her own "TV show". She looked so pensive. I decided to take the chance to take a few photos. Mitty usually hated to be photographed. Autofocus lenses upset her. So I used the Zeiss 50mm and manual focused on her eyes. A cat is a perfect companion for moment like this.

Holiday Reading for P.D. James Fans

Who would think that P.D. James is a Jane Austen fan? (She definitely doesn't have Ms Austen's sense of humor.) Now the mystery writer has taken on "what happened after Pride and Prejudice" and created a murder mystery. The result? We have yet to found out.

P.S. I briefly scanned through the book. The style is more James than Austen. James fans may be rejoiced but Austen fans may want to skip it.

Ginkgo Tree in Mountain View

The ginkgo tree is having a slow burn of its leaves.

First Day at Work

First day at my new job, I found I was sitting next to a conference room named "Sorry"...

My Favorite Plugin - Evernote Clearly

I have been a fan of the app Evernote for a while. How can't I? They keep amazing me with cool new features. For example, I like their "Clip" browser plugin, which allows me to quickly clip web pages to my notebooks. So useful when I want to put all the info from different web sources together. 

This week I tried their new "Clearly" plugin (Chrome only as of now). It reformats the web page you are viewing and displays it in a clear, clutter-free way. You can even "clip" this "cleared" version to your notebook (right now it doesn't let you choose notebook yet and it goes to your default notebook). I like the plugin so much that I have decided to totally switch to Chrome (I had been using both Chrome and Firefox) so I don't have to switch browser when I want to use it. 

I drive by Evernote (it's in Mountain View) often. A lot of the time I want to stop by and say "thank you for making such a cool app". If someday somebody will say the same thing to me, I think that's the day I can die happily.

Mountain View, California

The Street Behind Book Inc.

The more I use my cell phone to take photos, the more I realize what a powerful composition tool it is. With no depth of field control and only a constant focal length, there is nothing I can do other than "aim and shoot". It's limitation, however, is also a liberation, free me from many technical considerations during shooting.  Now I only need to focus on what to put inside the frame. Is the background too cluttered? Should I leverage the long depth of field for the near-far effect?

I also develop a more intimate feeling with the camera. I know what is the perfect lighting condition to use it (sunny days, with vibrant colors). When to pass. Whether the dynamic range exceeds what the camera can handle. I am also playful, trying it under extreme lighting condition and see what happens, walking with the shutter opened and see the world through the camera's eyes. I start to realize how Henri Cartier-Bresson shaped his vision with a Leica and a 35mm lens, how having more equipments can actually distract you and making your a lesser photographer. Maybe, this is not a bad thing for my wallet!