Wet.Wet.Wet.

Seems like I always need to make the same mistake twice to learn. It was so for our Japan trip in April. Then the same for our Europe trip in November.


Lesson: NEVER go for trip during the change of seasons, especially Autumn to Winter and Winter to Spring.


What we end up with is cloudy/foggy/rainy weather more than half the time. This is especially evident during our Osaka leg. Lucky for us, malls like Shinsaibashi is sheltered for the whole stretch. We ended up strolling the malls. But to my surprise, it is really quite interesting, the shops there.


Here are some wet weather pictures from Shinsaibashi.

Back to Japan

2 of my favourite travel countries are devastated by earthquakes: Japan and New Zealand. What is even more coincidental is that just 1 week before the Tsunami hit Japan, my wife commented that she would like to visit Sendai as it is less packed with tourists compared to Tokyo or Kansai area.


Anyhow, my story stopped at my first stopover in Hakone. To wrap it up, here are 3 more pictures that I have re-processed (yes, with Lightroom).


1) I have had this image for over a year, but only recently developed it to the image that I had in mind when I first took it. It is for reasons like these that makes me enjoy re-visiting some of my older works.

2) This is nothing spectacular, just this van is very 80s.

3) this is the last morning before we left Hakone for Osaka. Foggy morning. Unfortunately, I was still rather inexperienced to make use of it suitably.

New Brighton Beach, Christchurch New Zealand

Probably my last post on New Zealand, in a while at least. This is another beach that I really enjoyed. Fine sands, long stretch of coast and wide. The gradient of the beach is really low and the waves takes forever to reach the shore. My only regret is that I did not do any long exposures, and my attempt to stitch failed.


Here are 3 shots that made it out. 2 are in the morning and the 3rd is at sunset.

Birds of New Zealand

Ok, I admit this title is way too ambitious and oversell, but it was not until my visit to New Zealand that I started photographing birds. Actually, I still hardly photograph animals, so these are probably the only shots I am ever going to have of animals.

A Taste of Autumn

1 of the things that left a deep impression in me about New Zealand is the deep yellow leave against the clear blue sky during autumn. Having had no experience in the seasons, this was 1 thing I looked forward to during my trip.


And my, it did not disappoint.