Riverview and its abstract theme

riverview, originally uploaded by hooying.

riverview abstract, originally uploaded by hooying.

The abstract one was NOT done by Paint! The trick is to set the exposure time long enough so the light sources will actually trace your hand motion on top of the dark background. In this case, I rotated my wrist slowly in a swril fashion. You can only do this at night because the extra-slow shutter speed lends the danger of over-exposure.

Downtown night shots

glares on Brisbane river, originally uploaded by hooying.

steps, originally uploaded by hooying.

treasury house, originally uploaded by hooying.

Story bridge at night, originally uploaded by hooying.

These are night shots at downtown Brisbane. Hope you enjoy!

Me on Griffith campus

me on Griffith campus, originally uploaded by hooying.

Finally made myself into the picture...

People on the South Bank

Streets Beach on South Bank, originally uploaded by hooying.

girl on scooter at the South Bank, originally uploaded by hooying.

skating girl, originally uploaded by hooying.

South Bank is the culture center of Brisbane. Built along the Brisbane River, the area is a beautiful combination of both unperturbed nature sceneries and a cultural platform with spectacular museums, theme parks, play stages and ground, coffee bars etc.

Stretched two miles along the river, the Kangaroo Cliff is a nature rock cliff about 300 feet high that attracts many climbers. The Streets Beach is a man-made sand area with surrounding playing pools. The Botanic Garden abuts the Queensland University of Technology, which is across the river from Griffith University... Here are some of the people shots on the bank, hope you can feel the lively, warm and cozy culture at this Brisneyland as well ;)

Street boys

Street boys, originally uploaded by hooying.

on Queen Street

Physics Department and my office

phys dept, originally uploaded by hooying.

my office, originally uploaded by hooying.

Pix on UQ campus

redsantalum lanceolatum, originally uploaded by hooying.

lake3, originally uploaded by hooying.

dining bar, originally uploaded by hooying.

I took some photos on campus today. UQ has several really nice lakes and gardens, so are some of the architectures. The dining places (staff club, tennis club, tea house) are more of an outdoor style.

Gold Coast

GB2, originally uploaded by hooying.

GB3, originally uploaded by hooying.

GB1, originally uploaded by hooying.

bird line up, originally uploaded by hooying.

I heard about the Gold Coast before coming to Australia so I have to check it out, not to mention its adjacency to Brisbane (2:30hr trip). Being in the mid-winter only has a minimal effect on the mild water temperature. People enjoy all sorts of water sports here as you will see in the next post.

The birds on the beach reminded me of the sea gulls in "Finding Nemo". I was really impressed on how truthfully the animation had captured these greedy birds as you can see they line up in front of a woman holding some bread in the picture above. What I didn't show here is the fierce fighting afterwards...mine, mine, mine...

Fly a big kite

For the surfing...

Landing Bird

bird2, originally uploaded by hooying.

Look at the details at its feet and the texture on the table side. I used a very rapid shutter speed to capture this moment.

Ying's Cell # in OZ

0432 916 682 (the country code is +61)

In case you need to contact me. BTW, Australian cell phones only charge on outgoing calls...

St Lucia - the University of Queensland

The main UQ campus is located in St Lucia. I now ride my bike to school every day. It's tricky at first because not all routes were created equal. You may start with some nice areas where you basically ride through parks and heavily wooded lands. Then the roads may get a bit hilly so you need to switch for lower gear ratios. And then, you come across a monster slope that seems almost impossible to climb, but wait, you know you will go for it because a sweet downhill slide is awaiting you, right? --Be careful, it can be FRIGHTENING! I am not kidding... I am talking about looking down at your toes from the peak! Then again looking forward, you see a million ups and downs in distance, smiling and waiting for you, what do you do next? So... choosing the right (flat) route is crucial!

Also the college (junior/high school) uniforms here are pretty. I like to leave my office early in the afternoon and I hit the school time quite often. Here young girls wear nice blouse with a jumper, dark skirt and tights, and a big round sun hat -- quite like what you see in Harry Potter. I was also wondering why I haven't seen any neat boys yet...

UQ is the biggest and oldest university in Queensland established in 1909. So not surprisingly it has almost every department you could possibly imagine. Because Australia is big on environmental sustainability, studies on marine science, mining, biology (basically native plants and animals) are well established. People here are really nice and the research environment is rather superb!

Walter Taylor Bridge and the Brisbane River

Bridge and River, originally uploaded by hooying.

The bridge is about 5 min walk from my lodge. The fuzzy water detail is again created by using small apertures. The grainy texture is due to the color noise of the CCD sensor. It was made on purpose by setting the camera to its highest ISO speed.

I was trying to capture a dark and mysterious mood here.

Magic of PhotoShop

Rosa PS, originally uploaded by hooying.

I discovered a new feature in PhotoShop that corrects the lens blur. It was so cool that if you've ever taken some fuzzy shot PS will sharpen the subject for you. Try to see if you can tell the difference between the picture above and the one below. Bear with me if you've already known this since I am not a big post-processing person.

Rosa Org, originally uploaded by hooying.

Indooroopilly

Indooroopilly, originally uploaded by hooying.

I took some night shots around Indooroopilly, a suburb area of Brisbane. I was trying to use small apertures to create sparkling effect from the lights. As you've probably already imagined, shooting in such conditions at night without a tripod is very challenging.

More about Brisbane

Brisbane River runs through the city and directly goes in to the ocean. I took a morning run in a suburb area and I love the bridge on the river. This bridge has rails in the middle and walking lanes on the sides. The moment the train runs through the bridge is simply sexy! Looking downwards you see decks and boats and you will be surprised how well the natural environment is preserved in Australia. Common plants and birds found here are eucalyptus and magpies. Though I do have a strong wish to see Koala bears, given they sleep 22 hours a day, I would not be surprised they are not very visible due to their minimal social activities.

Another cool feature is the entire city seems to be specially designed for the biking people, as you can see almost everywhere a separate biking lane aside from the pedestrians.

Hours of trade

Just as weird as the name sounds, all shops here close at 5:30p -- including groceries. Among seven days of the week, Thursday will be your lucky day because the trading hours are extended to 9p...

Brisbane

From my first impression, Brisbane is just like an American city with additional features. The train system is very similar to the BART in San Francisco bay area. I live on a small street right by the Indooroopilly shopping center. It looks just like any shopping mall in the States, with the food court, Tagert, Payless Shoe etc. Surprisingly, KMart is doing a great business here. The train station is about 150m from the shopping center. Roads are a bit hilly. People walk on the left side and the pedestrian lights have the accordingly clicking sound for the vision impaired, very much like what I saw in Hong Kong. You can find American brands here, like GAP, as well as big Asian names, like ESPRIT. The weather in Brisbane now is absolutely lovely -- similar to the early spring in Houston. Clear sky with high in the 70's and low in the 50's.

Mind flash

Have you ever had a feeling that sometimes you are in a temporarily chaotic situation that you don't know which city are you in any more?

We went to a Thai restaurant at night. I was sitting by the table listening to the chat by other American fellows. Jetlags, kangaroo meat, Australian wild fire and graduate schools were some of the hot topics. I noticed another four or five Chinese people sitting near by us, talking in Chinese, reminded me of the time in China. The moment they walked out, I was caught by a familiar Thai melody I heard not too long ago. I had a glimpse outside the window. The street was getting cold and dark with very few people on it, shops with neons still flashing, I was wondering for a second or two, where the heck am I?

BTW, the picture was taken tonight when we sneaked to the War Memorial Museum in Canberra. We heard the rumor about kangaroos gathering there at night, and it is true!

CSIRO - science question for you

CSIRO, originally uploaded by hooying.

This picture was taken in one of the CSIRO branches: the Australian Commonwealth and Scientific Research Organization. It is the leading independant research institute in Australia. Speaking of science, here is a question of the day for you:

There are three types of kangaroos: Bettong, Tammer and the Red Kangaroo, ranging from small to large according to their size. So an interesting project studied the energy consumption of these 'roos. The researchers put them on different treadmills and monitored their breath rate as the speed varied. Scientists found that before the speed reached 10 km/h, the kangaroos walked and their breath rate changed linearly with the speed. But after 10 km/h, the kangaroos started to hop and they breathed at a relatively constant rate until the belt ran too fast that the 'roos hit back to the wall. Why don't they consume more energy when the belt runs faster?

Scene on Parliament roof

parliament 2, originally uploaded by hooying.

Parliament square

parliament square, originally uploaded by hooying.

The Parliament is the Congress of Australia. This picture was taken right in front of the big columns. You can see the mosaic in the middle of the square.

lotus

lotus, originally uploaded by hooying.

My most satisfied picture so far... taken during the trip to Bangkok... click on the picure for the complete view.

6-13-07 Sydney - Canberra

You thought Sydney was the capital city in Australia? Nope, it is Canberra – a very tiny city designed by a Chicago architect. I will meet the other 19 fellows for three days there beore heading off to Brisbane. From the propeller to Canberra, I saw the bluest ocean ever in my life~

Although the weather is gorgeous in the day, it can get absolutely FREEZING at night. We have to turn on the heater as the outside temperature goes below 33F. Local students are busy preparing for the final exams and they will have a short winter break afterwards.

I heard rumors about getting an electronic adaptor before coming to Australia, but since all my adaptors are universal, they shouldn’t have any problems, right? NO, I was wrong, because the shape of the plugs here are different too!

Image from another camera

This is how these pictures were made possible ;)

Thai Trip 6: Last Chapter

We stopped by Kowloon briefly on the last day of this trip. These pictures capture the night scene of the Victoria Bay during our short stay.

Meeting with Chatrpol

Chatrpol graduated from the EM group with a Ph.D. last year. He accepted a professorship position in Thailand. Right now his focus is in electronics. He is busy mentoring students with their senior designs. Thanks to him we were able to visit the Walking Street on Pattaya Beach.

How often would you meet a friend of the great old time in an exciting foreign country!

Random pix 2

These pictures were taken before/after the performance Siam Niramit in Bangkok. I would say it’s a must-see spectacular show about Thai history and culture. The staging is simply amazing. The show was presented in a 2000-seat theater with hand cushions on each seat. You have to check in the camera before entering, so sorry, no pictures during the show. The thing that impressed me the most is that, in the middle of the play, half of the front stage became a river, yes, with real water running across the stage. Then the water pouring off the roof formed a gigantic waterfall right in front of the front row!

Random pix

Taken in the Pattaya hotel.

Thai Trip 5: Pattaya Beach and Monkey Island

Pattaya is about 2-3 hour drive down from Bangkok. Pattaya beach attracts many tourists for its night clubs.

Thai Trip 4: The Grand Palace

These pictures were taken in and around the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The King is about to celebrate his 80th birthday this December and his 60th year as the King of Thailand. “Long live the King”, many signs read.