Memories of Hokkaido

[giantcanopy]

#50

I am no cat expert. This particular cat had a very hefty tag to go along.
The serrated edge on top was a result of shadow casted from lighting inside

 

[giantcanopy]

Got a few queries from members pertaining to my setup for this trip.
Here is a run down of wat i prepared this time.
( did not manage to fully utilise some of them , underestimated their inconvenience in a holiday trip with my gf )

D80
3 spare batteries
Lens cleaning stuffs

Nikon 70-200mm/2.8 VR
Nikon 24mm/3.5 PC-E
Nikon 85mm/2.8 PC
Nikon 12-24mm/4
Nikon 50mm/1.4
TC-20EII

MC-DC1 cable release
ML-L3 wireless release

Singh Ray
+2 Reverse Grad, + 2/+4 soft step GND, +3 hard step GND
+4 ND, 77mm thin mount Vari ND

B+W 52mm CPL, Nikon 77mm slim CPL II

Velbon CF tripod + Markins M10
Nodal Ninja 3 ( probably the most underutilised piece of weight )

2x Ducati SDHC 4GB
160 GB Nexto OTG + 120 GB portable ( in the end 160 GB was much more than enough )
My Eee PC

A mixed and match LowePro OffTrail 1, and a Slingshot 200 AW

Ryan

 

[giantcanopy]

Hitsujigaoka Observatory Hill 羊ヶ丘展望台
A small compound with a great view of Ishikari plains of Sapporo. We took a subway to Fukuzumi station and bus 84 from Fukuzumi station right into the compound ( the bus enters the compound gates, and the Observatory Hill staff boards the bus and collects 500 yen pax for the entrance fees, as the bus makes its way to the final terminal at the carpark ) It seems there is a bus from ? JR Sapporo to the Observatory but the journey is much longer.

There is an elaborate Hisuijigaoka Wedding Palace, and remember to visit the Sapporo Snow Festival Museum - giving you a good reason why you should visit Hokkaido again in Winter.

Here is the famous statue of Dr William S Clark and his popular phrase " Boys, Be Ambitious! "
( Taken from ground level, there was abit of slant as a result of pointing the camera upwards at the statue. The skies were so blue a polariser was unnecessary ( i would not use a polariser anyway when stitching a panorama with my 24mm,the uneven polarisation will give me headaches in the stitch )

* Every visitor will be queuing a long queue to take pictures with this statue.

I happened to see a sunrise shot of the statue in a postcard some time later after my visit. Very scenic, pity i was there at the wrong time. Might give others an idea of how to better take this already much taken statue.

 

[giantcanopy]

#52

Flowers taken at the perimetry

 

[giantcanopy]

#53

More flowers

 

[checkers]

And this boy seemed transfixed on something, so undistracted that he never did turn around to look at me ( which i hope he did actually )

#11

So cute :lovegrin:

 

[g-khoo]

#50

I am no cat expert. This particular cat had a very hefty tag to go along.
The serrated edge on top was a result of shadow casted from lighting inside

Lol i wanna take him/her home. Did u see how much it was selling for?

 

[eng_keow]

:thumbsup:

Great job giantcopy! fantastic pics. beautifully composed and wonderful colors.

Did you have to use your ND filters for your pics.

What is your post processing routines? Care to share with us.

thanks

 

[two200]

Got a few queries from members pertaining to my setup for this trip.
Here is a run down of wat i prepared this time.
( did not manage to fully utilise some of them , underestimated their inconvenience in a holiday trip with my gf )
.............

Just kaypoh but is your gf into photography also? I am sure if I spent as much time as you taking photos, my wife and children will leave me behind!! :bsmilie:

 

[acpical]

2 person spent about 12k in total for the 13 half day trip ( counting hotel plane tix and daily expenditures )

I just ran through JAL's web site. SIN to CTS round trip costs over $4k per person! How much did you buy your ticket for?

Thanks.

 

[giantcanopy]

So cute :lovegrin:

Haha thx. I didn know wat he was staring at tho.

Lol i wanna take him/her home. Did u see how much it was selling for?

I think was ard 2k SGD. Some of the chihuahuas there were more atas

:thumbsup:

Great job giantcopy! fantastic pics. beautifully composed and wonderful colors.

Did you have to use your ND filters for your pics.

What is your post processing routines? Care to share with us.

thanks

Thx eng_keow. So far for the landscapes I used GND where applicable. I only had a few instances of playing with ND, mainly because i got not much time to sit at a place to take long exposures for this trip.

I am using PS at the moment, and noise ninja to filter for the higher ISO shots. I have some subsequent shots where i tried bracketting, might try out the HDR function in PS and see how it works out to be.

I have only used curves and USM, with minimal cropping. Panoramas stitched with photomerge function in PS

Just kaypoh but is your gf into photography also? I am sure if I spent as much time as you taking photos, my wife and children will leave me behind!! :bsmilie:

She is not. So for holiday trips I shoot wat i can on the go
For sunrise especially, I wake up earlier ( sunrise ard 430 am ) and not inconvenience her while i wander off for some *time out* hehe. Be sure to be back with some nice breakfast when she wakes up

For a non photog trip , i am pretty satisfied with what I got.
If it is a dedicated photog trip then, I might have the chance to put abit more attention per shot.

I just ran through JAL's web site. SIN to CTS round trip costs over $4k per person! How much did you buy your ticket for?

Thanks.

Hi acpical

My trip included JAL flight from singapore to Osaka Kansai Airport, then domestic JAL to new chitose airport and back ( round trip ) with free 2 night stay in Keio Plaza Hotel. less than 1.5k pax i think. i got the promotional package from Creative Travels. The rest is free and easy

( as for the exact finance my future finance minister manages )

Ryan

 

[nemo]

excellent pictures there, ryan :thumbsup:

thanks for sharing.

 

[two200]

She is not. So for holiday trips I shoot wat i can on the go
For sunrise especially, I wake up earlier ( sunrise ard 430 am ) and not inconvenience her while i wander off for some *time out* hehe. Be sure to be back with some nice breakfast when she wakes up

For a non photog trip , i am pretty satisfied with what I got.
If it is a dedicated photog trip then, I might have the chance to put abit more attention per shot.

Ryan

Wah she trust you to sneak out so early in the morning ah?! :devil: Lucky man you......

 

[giantcanopy]

excellent pictures there, ryan :thumbsup:

thanks for sharing.

Thanks nemo. Much more to come.

Wah she trust you to sneak out so early in the morning ah?! :devil: Lucky man you......

Ya my friend. Early morning no one around only me and my sunrise, so she trusts me :bsmilie:
Sometimes she can get abit worried. Most of the time I am too tired after coming back the previous night I just sleep past sunrise.

Ryan

 

[giantcanopy]

Otaru 小樽市

The city/town that all tour groups will bring you to when you visit Hokkaido. In fact it is one of the top tourist destinations in Japan. Just a short JR ride from Sapporo, and easily reachable by bus, most of us would have spent at least half a day there and bring you to the walk canal in daytime ( which is not the best time to go if you are taking pictures of the canal ) . A half day tour gives you a flavor of Otaru, but a full day tells you why you have to visit this place. I had the luck to plan a full day in Otaru in my itinerary.

Talking about waking up early in morning, this was taken from the port end of the town.
Woke up at 4am in the morning and had a brisk 15 min walk from Hotel Sonia II to the port.
My immediate company were the sea gulls. Later an old man cycled passed and exclaimed " 難しいですね !"

You might be able to walk abit further to the sides to get other shooting points. I was not too adventurous.

Total of 3 shots taken with 24mm PC, handheld ND 4 filter, bracketted, HDR + photostitched in Photoshop.

Click here for a larger picture

 

[two200]

Love the sunlight colours....

 

[giantcanopy]

Thx two200.

We went for a sumptous seafood breakfast at the nearby Sankaku morning market beside JR Otaru. Ordered salmon sashimi and steamed King crab for breakfast. You get much better prices at these markets compared to the ones in restaurants. Spent a total of less than 80 SGD on salmon sashimi and steamed King Crab that would have cost us easily 100 SGD
( mainly because of the crab ) So big you cannot finish alone.

#55

Some flowers lining the perimetry of Sankaku

#56

 

[giantcanopy]

The steam clock of Otaru. We took the train to JR Minami Otaru, a stop from JR Otaru and walked a short down slope to the steam clock. The walking route will take you through the glass museums and music box shops back to the otaru canal in less than an hour.

We could only check into our hotel at 3pm, so we took the time to walk the place and shop around after a good ( or too good ) breakfast

#57

Downhill to the steam clock

#58

And everyone is queuing to take a picture of the clock, the largest steam clock installed in 1994
Steam comes out of the clock every hour.

* The clock is better taken at night, with all the surrounding lightings.

 

[giantcanopy]

A dedicated hello kitty shop in Otaru. Managed to stand long enough to have the counter lady look straight at me

#59

 

[giantcanopy]

#60

Still very much in vogue