Melbourne-based performing arts company “Stange Fruit” appeared at the Chinese New Year celebration in Singapore’s China Town on January 27, 2011. Perched atop 5-metre high flexible poles, the troupe bends and sways in the air at pace with intriguing bits of new-agish music. The first half of their 25 minute performance at thet heart of Singapore’s China Town is shown here, captured with the EF 24L II lens wide open on the EOS 7D.
Ok, this not jazz, as it was written several centuries before jazz was invented, but it is a truly amazing recording nevertheless. Masterly interpretation of Luys de Narvaez “Seis libros del DelphÃn†by Argentine guitarist Pablo Marquez for the ECM label. Marquez got to choose 17 of the more than 40 pieces included in the “Seys libros” compendium. Originally published in 1538, the pices were composed for the vihuela, a predecessor of the modern guitar.Here Marquez skillfully demonstrates how rewarding these pieces can be even in a modern instrument. This impecable performance preserves the intimate, introspective character of the pieces. Timeless, beautiful music of a mystical nature. Pablo Marquez was born in the northwest of Argentina in 1967. He has played with bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi, cellist Anja Lechner, the Rosamunde Quartett and the Ensemble Alma Viva.
Not unusual to encounter a great variety of marsupials in Tasmania, particularly if you find yourself in a nature park, such as the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. A prime example of true Tasmanian fauna, the famous Tasmanian Devil, is not as devil-looking as one might think, here caught sniffing out the mid morning air.
A Spotted-Tail Quoll run frantically in circles around his domain. A Koala, quite a bit calmer by nature, stared flematically at some point in the distant horizon from a vantage point by his favorite tree.
And, of course, the ubiquitous kangaroo, or at least one of the many varieties of it. Here in a close-up portrait, with his own body bokehing away in the background.
Tasmania is truly a photography paradise. The Mount Field National Park offers endless opportunities with amazing greenery and breathtaking waterfalls. Here a few examples, starting with the iconic Russell Falls.
An exposure of 0.5 to 1.0 seconds, like those shown here, makes the falling water silky smooth, strengthening the sense of movement. In plain daylight, however, such exposures would clearly result in a totally blown-out image. A neutral density (ND) filter can be used to diminish the light getting into the camera and so allow longer exposures in bright natural light. The Vari-N-Duo from Singh-Ray combines a neutral density filter adjustable from 2 to 8 f/ stops and a warming/polarizer in a compact and convenient design. The desired amount of density can be dialed to achieve a proper exposure. The combined warming/polarizer reduces glare from sky, water, wet rocks, and other reflective surfaces and enhances color saturation for added drama. Polarization can be easily controlled by rotating the ring just behind the min/max ND ring. A sturdy tripod is a must, obviously.
“I want good data, a paper in Cell
But I got a project straight from Hell”
“I wanna graduate in less than five years
But there ain’t no getting out of here”
“Oh oh oh… caught in a bad project”
Crazy mice. Smelly brain cells. Empty Western blots. It’s a bad project alright. Or… is it? There are indeed bad projects out there. Research projects begin with a question that is to be answered. If no question has been formulated, however general, and experiments are being done only because they are doable, then a bad project is on the horizon. With a question at hand, hypotheses have to be made as to the posssible answers, ideally covering all logical possibilities. Lack of hypotheses in a project is not a good sign. The question posed may not be answereable. (We’ve all heard about hypothesis-free studies. That’s okey for a group leader with 50 postdocs and lots of other projects. Not recommended to anyone that wants to graduate and get a job in less than five years!) Hypotheses help designing the experiments that are going to distinguish between them. Experiments are typically designed to systematically disprove them one by one. A neat, key experiment to prove one of the hypothesis upfront is more difficult to come by. Some experiments may just add support to a particular hypothesis, but not prove it or disprove it outright. So far so good. But a good project should also allow for serendipitous discoveries. Paradoxically, serendipity is one of the most common ways of advancement in science. Alas, serendipity can not be planned. But it can be encouraged. In addition to concrete goals and defined questions, research projects that allow some amount of open-ended possibilites have greater chances to extend into (positively) unexpected directions. It’s a fine balance, in which informed intuition plays a vital role. (For a discussion of intuitive thinking, see Making Science Part III.) Lady Science in the video above seems to be having more problems than just a bad project. But those are topics of other discussions.
The web would sometimes seem to be infinite. Looking for something else, I recently stumbled upon the You Are What You Hear blog site. Dedicated to unreleased live jazz recordings, it contains thousands of mp3 files with previously unheard-of jewels from all corners of the jazz musical spectrum. Remarkably, the last entry in the site was made two years ago. But everything is still there: a time capsule carrying a treasure trove of music, floating in cyberspace.
The catalogue is endless, and one should make sure to download everything indispensable as soon as possible. To me, that includes this incredible recording from Norweigian saxophonist Jan Garbarek live in Kiel, Germany, the 10th of July, 1979, with his quintet from the iconic “Photo With…” ECM album featuring Bill Connors in guitar, John Taylor in piano, Eberhard Weber in bass and Jon Christensen in drums. The concert contains no less than 10 tracks and 2 hs 20 min of uninterrupted joy, all there at the YAWYH site. As the proof of the pudding is in the eating, here we have two tracks from this amazing concert. “Blue Sky”, the first track of the “Photo With…” album (15:32 min) followed by “Melting” (21:38 min), the first track of Bill Connors’ “Of Mist and Melting” ECM recording from 1977. (Also available from the Audio files sidebar.) Truly incredible stuff.
Mount Kinabalu lies in the Malaysian province of Sabah in the island of Borneo. At 4,095.2 meters over sea level, its summit on Low’s Peak is believed to be the highest peak in South East Asia.
It does not require specialized skills or equipment to climb Kinabalu, as I did on May 5 this year of 2011. A good physical condition and a bit of psychological preparation will do. A guide is assigned to the climber(s) when these enter the national park. This could be avoided, I gather. My guide, a young boy from the village, was pretty useless, primarily because of his limited (or non-existing) knowledge of English. He limited himself to walk a distance behind me texting with his girlfriend on his mobile phone. It is important to climb with a light luggage and there is fine balance between having the right amount of extra cloth and carrying a really heavy backpack. After gathering some information on the web I opted for a set up that proved very good. A light water-proofed jacket is a must. Mine was from Patagonia and could be squeezed down to almost nothing. I had with me a pair of convertible trousers, two t-shirts (one long-sleeved), long under trousers, two pairs of gloves (regular sturdy gloves and liner gloves), a cotton high-neck sweater, a skiing hat and good and sturdy hiking shoes with hiking socks. I started the climb on shorts and a t-shirt. I put on my jacket when a shower came. Also important to have is a head-lamp (you’ll really need it for the final climb!). I also packed with me 6 energy bars and a bunch of nut/fruit bars as well. A half-liter (at least) bottle for water is also necessary. It can be refilled along the way. All this, plus my gripped EOS7D with the EF-S 10-22mm wide angle zoom lens found room in the 200AW slingshot from Lowepro. The set up was perfect, as I later found out.
Sungei Buloh is a wetland nature reserve in the North of Singapore, across the strait that separates the island from the South coast of the Malay peninsula. It is home to a wide variety of migratory birds like the Great Egret shown here on the mud left after a low tide. (Note the walking fish on the background!).
It was a hot and sunny day, but we spotted plenty of birds.
Follow the link HERE for more photographs from the Sungei Buloh reserve, including close-ups of Grey Heron, Yellow-billed Storks, Black-naped Oriole, Redshank, White collar King Fisher and Purple Heron. All taken with the EOS 7D and the EF 100-400L telephoto zoom.
At Saariselka, a small village of 300 inhabitants 250km above the arctic circle in the Finnish tundra, Northern Lights can be seen over 200 days per year. They could also be seen during three spectacular nights spent this past March, right after the equinox, a good time to spot this amazing phenomenon. A 5D MarkII was rented for the occassion along with the 16-35mm f/2.8 L II wide angle lens. Most of the pictures, however, came out best with the 24 f/1.4 L II , which allowed shorter shutter times and greater texture in the sky.
Exposures varied anywhere from 6 to 30 sec with ISO maxed at 800. Apperture was always maxed at whatever the lens could deliver. Tripod, cable release and mirror lock-up were used at all times.
Here are some astonishing examples of high-end Japanese cousine from the selection available at Takumi Tokyo, a fashionable restaurant of traditional Japanese ambience, elegantly decorated in Chanto style, overlooking Singapore’s Keppel Bay. The restaurant specializes in Teppanyaki (iron plate), Robatayaki (charcoal grill) and sashimi. All fresh ingredients are flown regularly from Japan; fish and sea food twice a week straight from Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market.
The photographs were taken with Canon EOS 7D and the EF 24mm f/1.4 L II lens using available light. They attempt to capture the freshness of the ingredients as well as the subtleties of composition and presentation of the dishes.
