Category: My Good Life

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My Hobbies Photography

First Batch of Photos from Our Bandung Trip – A Teaser and More to Come

Shooting from the Back of the Car - Cynthia and I

I know I have been slow in publishing the photos from my trips and now that I am heading to Hong Kong in less than 72 hours’ time, it’s a high time to release the first batch of … erm … teaser. Recently, I have added a telephoto zoom lens into my collection. Though it is rather chunky and heavy and make my entire setup (with flash) weights more than 3kg, it adds a lot of fun to what I couldn’t have done with a wide angle lens. The widened space between my subjects and I have created new means to articulate my vision.

In this collection, half of the photos are created using the telephoto lens, from the casual pictures taken inside Indonesia eating places to the garden of Cynthia’s home in Bandung. Inside the car, I use the wide angle lens (see picture above). I took a picture of that “Satay Building” (the government building with a pole that looks like a satay stick on top) and later at night, I attempted to capture the light of the sunset around the estate, hand held.

Coming soon, I intend to share sets of the selected photos from the close to 2,000 shots I have made during the trip. At the end of this mini-series, I am pretty sure that you would fall in love with what Bandung has to offer. Proposed blog titles are as follows.

  1. Last Day of Our Trip and Sierra – A Cafe at the Peak of Bandung
  2. North of Bandung – Air Terjun Maribaya (Waterfall) and De Ranch
  3. South of Bandung – Kawah Putih (Volcano)
  4. My Family My Friends & A Good Driver / Tour Guide to Recommend
  5. Pigeons, Lots of White Pigeons
  6. Shopping at Rumah Mode & Paris Van Java
  7. High Speed Street Shots
  8. Wildlife at Taman Safari

Categories
Linguistic My Hobbies

So This is What the Spanish Exam at Las Lilas School Beginner 2 is Like

Studying Spanish at Coffee Bean

Oh dear me, the Spanish Exam for Beginner 2 was mind blowing.  I dragged myself out of the bed just hours before the exam, having a fever of 38°C.  Oops, that was no good.  My body ached (still does) and I have these non-work related appointments coming into my mobile phone’s Gmail application as I was trying my last ditch effort to memorize as many Spanish words and phrases as possible.  I think nothing really entered my head at the last minute of studying, even at my heightened mental power with the help of BRANDS Chicken Essence.

Leveling up to Beginner 2 is easy as there is no exam at the end of Beginner 1.  Our beloved Spanish teacher Anna remains vague on what the exam is like and got the whole class hopelessly guessing.  OK, she did hint to us that we have to work hard on …

  1. Describe our families, our cities, and our home.
  2. Able to understand and give street directions.
  3. Able to describe objects and where they are.
  4. Describe what we like and don’t like to do in our pastimes as well as what our day-to-day life is like.
  5. Able to … duh as it sounds … converse in Spanish.

I think I have too many theories for my own good.  People in general panic when they come face to face with exam.  I do too but I had a theory that I used to calm everybody around me, including me.  You see, Beginner 2 is level 2 of 20.  If Las Lilas School fails too many students at such an early stage, think of the potential loss of income!  How many would retake the entire course of 10 lessons just to pass level 2?  I wouldn’t.

It is rather strange that the exam is smacked right into the Christmas holiday period.  Most of our classmates have been holidaying overseas.  So Cynthia and I have missed our last Wednesday’s lesson – the supposed day of exam during our Bandung trip – and instead, we took up today’s slot.

We were expecting the Director to appear as the independent examiner and instead, there came a lovely lady from Peru (I have another theory on ladies who speak Spanish as first language).  We were expecting one hour of revision and then one hour of oral exam like what Anna has told us but instead, we had …

  1. Listening Test
  2. Written Test
  3. Oral Test
  4. Reading Test (too bad it didn’t happen as it is my strength in a larger scheme of work)

I had a splitting headache when I was pulled into a room for my oral test.  Gosh!  Okay, Mamy – the Spanish teacher from Peru – is very friendly, which is good.  Conversing in Spanish is my weakest subject.  I struggled so hard and fortunately Mamy has been very encouraging.  She asked me what I like and don’t like to do in my past time (thanks Anna!) and I said … me gusta comer … (means I like to eat) and I paused.  That got her laughing and I continued … las tapas (some kind of Spanish food).  Everyone laughs when they hear me saying me gusta comer las tapas.  A lovely piece of icebreaker.

Then she asked me (I think) what my home is like, what kind of furniture I have inside, what I do in my daily life, and that is!  End of oral test!  I seriously don’t have a lot of high hope on that test.  I really need to work on the Spanish grammar.

Written test was OK.  Fortunately, I did 12 lessons worth of Spanish exercise (a separate book from the text book) over the weekends.  Our Spanish teacher Anna is not that into drilling us on exercise.  And I bet most of us in our class have not been working hard on those exercise, except Cynthia of course.  Many of the examination questions came straight from the exercise book.  I did a lot of brutal memorization over the weeks and it helped.  To give you an idea, I would keep writing Monday to Sunday in Spanish non-stop till I get it.  I take every hobby of mine very serious, Spanish included.

Oh, and we needed to write a mini-essay about our daily life (40 words).  That too went OK.

Listening test was OK too.  Two Spanish people on tape asking each other about the time.  The conversation is fast and furious but Mamy was kind enough to pause between each conversation and to replay it again.  I asked if we could listen to it again.  Mamy looked at our answers and smiled, you all should go home now.

One student from the Monday class (Cynthia and I are from the Wednesday class) asked when the class for the next level will start.  Mamy said, let’s see if you can pass first.

Oh gosh, I really hope that Cynthia and I will pass this exam.

PS. I was at Vivocity’s Coffee Bean studying for my Spanish exam while waiting for Cynthia to finish her facial.  Right in front of me was a “No Studying” sign.  It takes time to finish drinking a regular cup of coffee right?

Categories
Diary

Nokia N96 Test Drive Episode 4 – Satellites Watch Me Jog

Sport Tracker on Nokia N96

The Nokia N96 is without doubt more than just a phone and yesterday, I took it for a jog, with the satellites behind me.  I have stopped jogging for more than a year after I have hurt my knees at the Mount Kinabalu.  It is hard to describe the fear of not being able to jog again for those who love to jog.  Avid readers of my site may remember that I do love to jog, even with my injured knees I tried.

Sport Tracker Route

18 months have passed and I have decided to give it another try.  To see if I still can jog.  Of the many applications that Nokia users can download (many are free), I love the Sports Tracker by Nokia a lot.  There are in total 7 live views for any outdoor activity.  Once the phone has locked onto the GPS coordinates, the main view (as seen in picture above at starting position) has a mini map that outline your route live as you jog, walk, cycle, ski, and etc.  Besides the mini live map, this main view shows the pace in min/km, the distance covered, as well as the time lapsed.  I found it very useful to monitor the pace as I jog.  I can easily tell if I am slowing down or doing well in keeping pace.  The sweetest of all data is the distance covered.  I often wonder how far I have jogged and with the satellites watch over me, I no longer need to guess.

Switch to other views there are useful information such as average pace, altitude (!), speed in km/h, and exact GPS coordinates in latitude and longitude.  Also, there are live graphs on speed versus time, speed versus distance, as well as altitude versus distance.  Finally, for the curious minds, there is even a view on how many satellites are above you and how many the Nokia N96 manages to lock onto (note: one wise man told me that we need at least 3 satellites to tell us the exact position).

Sport Tracker Results

After each workout, the application stores a full report in the Nokia N96 and tags it to the internal Sports Tracker calendar.  There are different options to export the reports in various formats.  In this example (on the left), I exported a screenshot of my jogging result to Cynthia’s Nokia 95 via Bluetooth.  There is a function to export directly to Nokia’s OVI but I don’t seem to be able to get that to work for now.  Other formats such as Google Earth, GPX, XML, CSV … Gosh, I think I will stick with screenshots for now.

I guess there must be some sort of connection between my bio-data entered (such as gender, age, height, and weight) and the amount of kCal burned.  Is 254.4 kCal a lot?  I have no clue.  And it seems that I have covered 4.12km in 22.47 minutes.  I think with practice, I shall do much better than this.

I have tried turning the tracker on when I was driving on the highway today for testing purposes.  Shall I say … it is a good estimation!

Other Cool Applications I Frequently Use on my Nokia N96

Besides Sports Tracker, I use Facebook Mobile and Fring (messenger equivalent) a lot.  With these two applications, I can keep in touch with my friends via my favorite social networking application as well as to be able to chat with my friends online anytime, almost anywhere.  Most of the hotels I have visited lately provide free wi-fi connection.  Communication via SMS cost me up to S$0.61 per message sent and received when I am overseas.  Communication via my Nokia N96’s wi-fi capability is free when network is available.

For those who love to have their emails pushed into their phones, you may wish to try out the Nokia Email application.

In Closing

My knees seem to be able to take the impact.  At least for this first run.  With Nokia N96, new ideas and opportunities have opened up for my passion in jogging.  No longer do I need to stick to familar routes for the sake of tracking my progress (I have this 4.5 km route that I once measured using my car’s meter).  Now, I can jog to the reservoir and back and I can proudly note it somewhere that I have jogged X km today and burned Y kCal.

Sweet!

Related Tag: More Nokia N96 Test Drive Episodes

External Link: Sports Tracker by Nokia

Categories
Diary

I Faced the Moon As My Block Leave Began

Camera : Nikon D700 Lens : AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED Exposure : M mode, 1/1000 second, f/4 Sensitivity : ISO 200

I have been holding back on writing the crazy drama and frustration I faced at work questioning why some people have this lens that see the perspectives in life that is so different from mine.  But I choose to focus on the happy things in life.  It was hard till the very last few hours countdown to the start of my compliance leave and it is all worthwhile.  I always see my work environment like a game of survivor.  Season 2 begins unexpectedly even before I wrap up this meant-to-be a wonderful year at work.  I still hold firm to my belief that do the right thing and I will be taken care of.  So I do just that and the moon has smiled at me tonight.

So I am happy, very happy today.  I can’t tell you too much about a Singapore entity I am involved that is officially registered today, nor I can tell you too much about the fruition of this global initiative that I have poured in 18 months of blood and sweat.  Just take my word.  I am a happy man.

My brother-in-law-to-be called me if I would be his best man for his wedding with my sister in Hong Kong.  Certainly I am honored to be.  I have known him for so many years ever since I have stepped into Singapore.  I can’t think of a better man on moon earth to marry my little sister.  That reminds me.  Wasn’t I the emcee for my guitarist’s wedding with my band manager just earlier on this year?

Life is good.  I am happy.  By the time you read this, I shall be inside a jeep taking pictures of the wildlife in an Indonesian Safari.  I still want to see the volcanoes although Cynthia told me that recently, these volcanoes have coughed out poisonous gas.  Some tourists have died.  Maybe we could … wind up the windows and hide inside our jeep?

I will have Internet access, however limited it is going to be.  So, do keep the comments coming.  This is going to be an exciting block leave.  All the way till Jan 4 next year.

~ 12/12/2008

PS. A casual picture taken from my window.  No post production work has been done to the … moon.  Actual image resolution after cropping.  The picture of the moon does look better on a Google browser, less jagged than on IE.  I wonder why.

Categories
My Hobbies Photography

Photo Shooting at Singapore Night Safari – No Flash, Hand Held, Total Madness

Knowing that I will visit Taman Safari Indonesia next week, I managed to purchase the perpetually sold out Nikon zoom lens and wanted to give it some practice at our Singapore Zoo or Bird Park during the long weekend.  I stared at the sky everyday and willed the rain to go away, without success.  So one evening I took my Nikon D700 with my new lens and headed to Night Safari, alone.

I have totally underestimated the challenges ahead.  Before I left home, I was very pleased to finally leave the flash gun behind since it is morally irresponsible to shoot these lovely animals with flash.  Flash photography has been a steep learning curve for me; shooting moving wildlife hand held with no flash in near pitch dark and less than ideal light source is very hard.  It is hard to describe unless you try it out yourself.

I have seen many visitors gave up after some test shots (all black, grossly under exposed).  Looking at my LCD, they were amazed at what I took; but I was less than thrilled by the results of this trip.  Sorry guys, I promise to do a better job next time.  Perhaps with a monopod and a different setting.  Below are 28 pictures selected out of close to 500 shots I took that one evening (no Photoshop, no cropping).  I have put in some captions to better describe the condition.  If the OVI player moves too fast, feel free to mouse over it, click pause, and manually forward the slide.

After the first few auto shots, I was stunned by the result (in a negative way no fault of Nikon).  Bear in mind that I have just invested don’t know how many years of my future Christmas present budget into this one lens, I stood still trying to figure out what to do next.  Auto focusing option is out because it was too dark for my camera.  The animals kept moving and the shuttle speed could not be too low.  Some animals kept moving towards and away from me and I had to keep changing the composition (i.e. zoom) and the focus.  Basically my left hand was busy with the two rings on my lens.  I have to go for full manual mode anyway because it is not a question of getting the right exposure, it is a question of how low you can possibly tolerate.  I learned as I shot.

Most of the shots I was shooting at a focal length of 200mm (widest aperture of 2.8 for all).  That works out to be an ideal shutter speed of 1/200s for hand held condition (please let me know if I talk rubbish)?  VR – vibration reduction – can slow down the speed for 3 stops for those who have steady hands (I leaned towards stationary objects whenever possible) and I had to go even lower than that.  Most of the shots, I used a speed of 1/15s.  Some I manage to up it to 1/30s.  Still, it is very hard to get a good shot with that speed at 200mm.  I tried to get a better ISO whenever I could but rarely could I go below 3200.

I had no prior experience nor read anything on manual setting prior to this trip. Most definitely, I have committed a lot of laughable mistakes.  My last manual focusing practice session was when I was a very small boy.  I did the best I could and figured the above out through experiments on the spot that one moist evening.  How glad my scientific mind kicks into action when I need to make my art works.  As always, all online and offline feedback is welcome.

Categories
Linguistic My Hobbies

Nokia N96 Test Drive Episode 3 – Coffee Break Spanish

Orhhh … Look at this dreamy picture of that one true beauty, don’t you want to … take one home?  I love listening to podcast on the Nokia Nseries.  It enables me to download video and audio episodes in the morning wirelessly through my home network way before Apple has figured out how to implement wi-fi connectivity into their over-hyped, overpriced products.

And as this lifestyle continuous, years later today, I am counting on my Nokia N96 to save me from failing an examination that I cannot fail.  If you notice, I have not been blogging about my Spanish class lately.  Onto level two, though it has not really gotten that much tougher than Beginner 1, my poor foundation seems to have cracked under the weight of these 10 new lessons.  There was no examination at the end of Beginner 1, but there will be an examination at the end of Beginner 2.

Having an examination, in principle, is a great idea.  Who would practice music without a gig?  Would would treasure a computer game without the long wait, long queue, and 8 flights of stairs up?  Who would study … without an examination?

I cannot fail my Spanish examination because:

  1. Everyone including Cynthia will move onto Elementary 1 …
  2. … while I have to repeat Beginner 2.
  3. And I will miss my old classmate a lot …
  4. … have to re-take the examination again.
  5. And pay an extra S$323.

¡Qué horror!  Time for more green bottle mental booster!

One evening, I was really stressed out.  Cynthia has started listening to a podcast channel called Coffee Break Spanish while I was still staring at the two Spanish books I have bought, but haven’t started reading.  OK, my strategy certainly was not working.  An idea struck me, how about subscribing to that channel that seems to have captivated Cynthia using my new Nokia N96?

The process was so simple that I banged my head onto the table for my procrastination.  I took out my phone, navigated to the podcast application, and entered the phrase Coffee Break Spanish onto the search bar.  And voilà!  80 odd episodes to be downloaded onto my phone with a click of a button from this award-winning beginners’ Spanish show.

Both Cynthia and I love this channel because the pace is good and the presentation of the materials is interesting.  We have gone through 10 episodes in details listening to the Spanish teacher Mark working with his student Kara.  The episodes are packed with exercises for the listeners to orally practice with Mark and Kara, interesting long dialogues to practice our listening, and they do seem to interject the Spanish culture into their materials whenever possible with interesting guests from Spain and Mexico origin.

Speaking as such, let me download the next 10 episodes now.  Wish me luck on the examination!  And you know me.  Pass or fail I will post out the results.  By the way, I notice that Nokia N96 has done a much better job in handling simultaneous download of multiple podcast episodes compares to its predecessor.  And it seems faster too.  I am glad that Nokia N96 comes with 16GB memory (+ another 16GB externally if you want).  I reckon it can fit all 80+ episodes nicely.

Related Tag: More Nokia N96 Test Drive Episodes

Categories
Diary

First Ever Singapore vs. Malaysia Blogger Challenge by BRANDS® – I Will Be There

Out of millions of fans Singaporean blogger EastCoastLife has, exactly why she picked me as her teammate for this first ever BRANDS® blogger challenge between these two friendly countries, I have no clue.  Of course I am honored to be part of the ‘Team Singapore’ for this unique blogger event come next Wednesday (Dec 3).  Wish me luck in helping Singapore to score better in Mental Performance.

Exactly why the PR folks at Burson-Marsteller agreed to pick me, I also have no clue.  Interestingly, I do genuine love the taste of BRANDS® Chicken Essence.  Maybe I am a Cantonese who is used to take in essence of this and that; or maybe since young, my mom has been feeding me with BRANDS® Chicken Essence during my exam period; and even when I was studying in UK, I had got to stock up the same Chicken Essence only available in Chinatown; I simply love to drink the stuff from these cute little glass bottles.  In fact, I often find that one bottle is hardly enough to satisfy my craving.  I wonder if I would overdose on Chicken Essence if I take more than one a day.

As though I could afford this would-be lifestyle.

This little experiment I have signed up for reminds me of something.  Last year I agreed to be an experiment for my sister’s boss in one of the Singapore Universities to analyse my strengths.  I sat through a 3 hours long online examination (or call it survey) and was told that I did well in the IQ section.  Till today, I have yet to read the full report as promised.  Dear Lora, if you happen to read this entry …

Back to the countless bottles of green fuel that were sent to my office (and caused a small commotion), inside that cute little transparent box that I am going to reuse as a container to carry my makeup and cosmetic to the plane (kidding!) there is a briefing pack.  Inside this briefing pack there is a set of mental exercises that I will have a go once my chicken essence level in my blood stream is high enough.  And I am given a highly encrypted BRANDS® Asia Mental Performance Survey Fact Sheet too.  I really should be worried if I can’t even figure out what the report is trying to say.

It appears to me (from reading the fact sheet several times) that the participants from both Singapore and Malaysia are satisfied with their mental performance but Malaysians are the ones who are more actively seeking ways to enhance their performance.  Such as the usage of health supplements.

How I am reading this is that if Singaporeans are to be more proactive in enhancing our mental performance (like drinking BRANDS® regularly?), we shall end up way more satisfied with our mental performance than our friendly neighbor.  And how I am reading this is that since ‘Team Singapore’ has been injecting chicken essence into our blood stream, we are destined to take the grand price of S$1,500.  That would make a lot of sense.

Interestingly, according to the report, people from Hong Kong are not as satisfied with their mental performance as the Southeast Asians and they are not as actively seeking ways to improve either.

That is a strange finding beyond my comprehension.  Maybe the environment in Hong Kong is more demanding and people have a higher expectation of themselves?  For sure, from what I know, people in Hong Kong are seeking ways to enhance probably through the traditional channels.  They have 101 types of soup for 101 different purposes.  Perhaps the report has normalized all these external factors behind the scene.  I have no clue at this moment.

OK.  I must be thinking too deep.  Anyway, I am popping one bottle of BRANDS® Chicken Essence a day and now, we shall be on a leveled ground with the Malaysians!

So who will be there in the ‘Team Singapore’ besides the Singapore blogger megastar EastCoastLife?

Mr. Endoh will be there.  I met him a couple of times in a social setting.  He is a cool guy and is recently featured in our newspapers.  Aaron Ng will be there too.  I haven’t met him in real life.  From what I read in his blog so far, he seems smart.

And the popular blogger Sheylara will be there too.  I met her in person during one of the blogger events.  These days I think of X-Box, I think of Sheylara.  Her face is on the covers and posters everywhere.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Categories
Diary My Hobbies Photography

Clarke Quay is Lovely – Project Experiment with Nikon SB-900

Clarke Quay holds a special place to my heart, it has always been since I first visited Singapore more than a decade ago.  The vibrancy, the color, the tourists, and when I was toying with a location for me to experiment my new flash unit Nikon SB-900, I thought of Clarke Quay.

To tell you that I know how to operate that flash unit would be a lie.  Half an hour before we stepped out of our home, I was busy going through the manuals and tips-and-tricks the first time.  I got the essential information – pretty much like most that I do in my life – and reckon that the best way to learn is to go out to the field and experiment.

This Nikon SB-900 is a large flash unit.  Attached it to my already monstrous tool make me look like an alien walking on earth with a huge laser gun.  When TK joined us, he was shocked by the size of my tool.  Oh well, I was shocked too.

So we had a Spanish meal – my first – at The Tapas Tree.  One of the staff whom we have not met before is a teacher from Las LiLas School, where Cynthia and I learn Spanish.  Cynthia was shocked that I initiated a Spanish conversation with her.  I was shocked that the lovely Spanish lady understood what I said.  And she gave us a 10% discount.  How nice.

We bumped into a couple who asked if I could take a picture for them.  I offered to send them the photo via email but I guess they were too drunk to response.  I think I got a bit better with the flash unit towards the end.  Keep practicing I guess.  If all (pictures) fail, at least we’ve had a lovely evening.

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For the Geeks

In the World of MMORPG, One Game Rules Them All – World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King

God knows how many hours some of the avid gamers have queued for the 1pm launch party.  It wasn’t so much of a party per se and when I was a few blocks away from my destination, minutes before the gate at SAFRA Town Club opened, a random group of lovely ladies right beside me crossing the same street, one of them started, “Look at the queue!  Something free is it?”  Another one replied, “No idea leh.  Maybe free food?”  And they continued speculating the obvious.  I really wanted to turn around and say, “That is for the launch party of the new World of Warcraft expansion”.  But I held my tongue.  Because they would have stared at me as though I was from another planet.

Like the way you stare at me now.

Just how big is this online gaming business?  It is huge.  At minimal, each gamer pays S$20 a month subscription fees to Blizzard, the company that created World of Warcraft.  And at this very moment, there are 11 million active subscribers worldwide.  That is a S$2.64 billion annual revenue.  But that is not all.  Whenever they release an expansion pack, assuming that all who are actively playing the game will get one, that is a S$770 million additional revenue within a very short time.  World of Warcraft enjoys a commercial success unseen of in its gaming domain, not to forget to mention the growth of player base.  On the flip side, it is also featured from time to time in the world news due to its negative social impact.  As for me, I joined the game in 2004 and am now a casual player.  Cynthia has recently joined me in the worldwide phenomenon too.

So tell me, in the world of massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG), which game is king?

Random Observations:

  1. The event organizer needs to get some hot young girls as helpers next year.  Though all geeks love Lara Croft, we do prefer real life beings at times.
  2. Walking up 8 flights of stairs just to get the game is very un-gamer friendly.  The (rather plumb) foreigner in front of us was panting hard and complained to me, “We are gamers.  We don’t exercise.  How can they do this to us?”  Uh-huh.
  3. Maybe it is a little bit of truth that when people see you carrying a huge camera, people immediately think that you are a pro and/or you are from the media.  When I talked to the staff, they were very friendly to me.  Did you know that estimated market size for the new expansion in Singapore is 30,000?
  4. When I told my buddy Mark that the queue was too long, he joked that I should tell them that I am an avid blogger and jump the queue.  Now, that would draw lots of aggro that is more than I could handle (note: aggro means that if you piss off someone in the game, you will get an attack!).  Mark, please come back to the game.  We need you!

Categories
My Hobbies Photography

My First Ever SLR Photo Shooting Session – A Test Drive of the Nikon D700 at the Singapore River

Love, can be nurtured.  I think.  I have been staring at my new Nikon D700 for quite some time wondering what I shall do with such a complicated, heavy, fine piece of equipment.  Today, I took it out for some test drive at the Singapore River during lunch.  I think I am falling in love.

When I was back, sweating and feeling a bit tired, I couldn’t hide my excitement and shared with one of my colleagues who is really into photography (and owns a D300) the first day in my life using a SLR.  Yes, all my life I have been a point-and-shoot guy.  Hence, pardon the amateur results and I am keen to hear your opinions (note: my personal preference are those wild and crazy colors).

I don’t think I am and will ever be a big fan of post production work on the photos taken.  Hence, all you see here are the actual results from the camera, with no modification except a simple resize and the addition of captions.  I am still trying to find my way as there are quite a number of settings that I can and do use on the spot.

PS. A big thanks to a friend of mine who was gamed enough for me to take a picture of her while I was doing street shooting during the lunch hours.

PS. When I told my colleague (who owns the D300) that it is hard to go unnoticed on the street carrying such a huge camera, he joked with me that he was used to carry big lens on the street.  And he stopped after realizing that he drew more attention from the men than the girls.  I thought it was a funny story he shared.