Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 36

May 27, the last day of my graduation trip. T_T

Some pictures:

A view from my room in the morning.


Signpost #1


Bus stops


A house by the river


Signpost #2. Wonder what it means!


Had a late lunch at a bagel cafe with Vicky. Her bagel looked more delicious than mine. Ha.

Photo of the day: a random snap just before I left the restaurant.

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

That was it. Left to get my stuff from Rita, and then headed to the airport for my long flight home.

I really enjoyed my trip. There is still much to explore and photograph in Italy and the Netherlands. I hope to be back soon.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 35

May 26, spent the better part of the day travelling from Rome back to Leiden. First a plane to Brussels, then train to Leiden. It's funny but I felt a strong sense of homecoming when I reached Leiden station.

After unloading my luggage at Rita's former residence (the landlord was kind enough to let us use the storeroom), we met Vicky for dinner. Had some nasi padang (haha), then headed to a nice restaurant for some Dutch pancakes. Some fellow diners:

I thought the pancakes looked like crepes. But they were nice.

Had a walk about town again that evening. Can't help thinking that I will miss this town.

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 5

April 26, it was raining the whole morning and early afternoon. So couldn't go to Brussels early, and stayed home to clear my photos till dinner time. The girls brought me to a Greek restaurant in the neighbourhood, and the food was great. (photos will be up on FB soon) But not before we had to down a strange liquor that came in cute little cups like this:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Even at 1/128 power with diffuser, the flash was too strong, so I had to use the serviette to cover the flash. Unfortunately, the serviettes there were yellow, which gave a very strong yellow tint to my photos. And after correcting slightly for the yellow, the poor candle in the background looks discoloured.

Note to self: bring your own white serviettes next time. Now where's the nearest Mac's...

Regardless, the food was great value for money -- about 12 euros for a full meaty course plus salad bar. Greece eh... something to look forward to in the future?

Anyhow, I reached Brussels that night quite late at about 10.30pm. It was still raining there, but luckily, the streets were quite easy to navigate.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 4

April 25, was off to Maastricht, the oldest town in the Netherlands. Was planning to go to Bruges but according to weather reports it was raining that day, so change of plans. It was a very cloudy day in Maastricht, but at least it didn't rain.

Took this in the middle of a busy street, of Rita and her friend Vicky:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

I didn't have my ND filters with me, but I did bring along my GND so that's all I could use. Closed the aperture to f/22 and pushed down the ISO to 100 to get the slowest aperture possible for a proper exposure.

Always wanted to take a shot like this back in Waseda University, where there is a street that is often jammed with students during the intervals between lessons. Which was why I bought my ND filters in the first place! But I never got down to it though. And this time, when I had an occasion to use them, I didn't have them. Oh well.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 3

April 24, woke up very late. Still struggling with jetlag. Rita was gone soon after I woke up, and I took my time with breakfast before heading out to Amsterdam for a walk.

Not really a photo-taking day and my best perhaps was taken at my temporary residence. Rita's landlord is an Indian national who is working in the Netherlands as a researcher. He lives with his family of three, and this is his adorable (but slightly overactive) baby son Guru:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

I usually prefer my pictures tack-sharp, but I quite like the softness of this one.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 2

April 23, spent walking around in Leiden, where I was staying. It's a small university town with quite a few canals, and perfect for an afternoon walk.

Especially if you come across a bright red sofa on a boat like this:

Set up the SB800 on a coffee table in front of the sofa and put my camera on tripod. After a few test shots I decided to hop into the photo to make it more interesting. Tried it without diffuser and zoomed out to 105 first before deciding to use the diffuser instead. Taken with my Tokina 12-24mm f/4. Final shot:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

The sunlight was less harsh by the time I changed to the diffuser though, which made the colours in the background relatively muted as compared to the test shots. Sofa was a little too big for just one person though...

Anyhow, hope to get more interesting portraits for the rest of my trip!

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 1

It was certainly a long flight -- the longest I've been on so far anyway. It was thus a major relief to finally meet Rita at Schiphol Airport on Apr 22. I was initially confused about the time zone because I didn't expect the Netherlands to be on Daylight Savings Time. It's still a rather foreign concept to me, actually.

Anyway, as soon as I settled into my lodgings at Rita's place (her landlord was kind enough to let me sleep in the study) we went to the famous Keukenhof, the world's biggest flower garden that is only open from March to May annually. And we effectively spent the whole day in that beautiful place.

Anyway I was the only person I saw walking around with an SB800 mounted on tripod and an SU800 mounted on camera. Despite all that, it was not easy taking good photos... I wasn't happy with most of the pictures I took that day and on the whole, the portraits I took of Rita and her friend were my favourite shots of the day. But the last couple of the hours produced a few surprises, such as the photo of the day:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

What you see behind are tulip fields. The colours of the tulips in the background, together with the water and greenery in the foreground, somewhat made up the full spectrum of the rainbow.