Happy New Year 2011

fireworks-1293, originally uploaded by Marcus++.

I took this while experimenting with the DP2 at the Royal Chulan hotel.
The view to KLCC is crystal clear minus the crowd since not many people in the hotel went to this spot to see the count down.
Awesome display!
Click on this photo to see more of the fireworks.

How to take fireworks on the DP2?
- Get a tripod or gorilla pod
- Make sure you get into that position that can view the action 10 minutes before time
to get to position yourself
- Set to manual and set the f7.1, 3 seconds exposure and 2 seconds timer
- Good Luck

Critics hands-on

SDIM1015, originally uploaded by Marcus++.

Dinner @ TGIF and a friend of mine (who have on numerous occasion criticized my choices on gears such as GXR and DP2) decides to
give the DP2 a hands on.
I set the dp2 to manual which got him irked =) and he took this shot after looking around the dinner table.

Not a bad shot i must say! :-))

Twins?

Today i went to office and met two of my colleagues on the hallway. One of them have resigned and will be moving to greener pastures in the coming 2011. So i took the opportunity to shoot some pictures of these two friends, today it seems that their clothes have pretty contrasting colors.

Night shots In Puchong

SDIM0991, originally uploaded by Marcus++.

This is IOI mall, Puchong's Icon and landmark. Puchong is a town in Selangor, Malaysia.
Puchong started to grow around 10 years ago when cheap houses are built to serve the growing population in KL/Selangor. Most of Puchong early houses are built on mining ground which have been landfilled.

Today, Puchong is one of the most vibrant town in Selangor.

Free model shooting

Well since i ain't no "pro" its not easy to go around asking if any ladies would want to have
an album of themselves being produced FOC. On one end i don't mind doing it free as long as
it has to be conducted outdoor since i am very keen on maximizing the DP2/Foveon capabilities.

Here is one volunteer i have, she only wore one set of clothes so there isn't much full size pictures that is suitable at this place (its actually an open carpark on top of a shopping mall). It would be best though to do this on a park or where ample trees and other natural objects could be leveraged on.

Foveon

SDIM0839, originally uploaded by Marcus++.

The foveon (as observed in my DP2) performs very well in outdoor where light is abundant. Although that is applicable to all cameras but
there is a unique and realistic quality that the Foveon produces in broad daylight that other cameras will find it pretty hard to trump.

Its like Superman exposed to the Sun vs Superman in normal light.
In indoor and lowlight, the Foveon is practically unusable without a tripod.

Perhaps all the expectation and physical performance of bayer sensors have dominated us so much so that we tend to enforce its characteristics and performance to something that is totally different in design.

However, whatever it is, Sigma is taking much too long to leverage on the Foveon advantage in low light (or is it really none?) by working with its unique characteristics.

It would be funny if one were to say that Sigma cameras are used for color in outdoors and b&W for indoors and night shots.