HK Independent Traveller Blog

Sun shone again though thunder and rain roared in the night.  Another nice day began.  Only I forgot my camera.  So, pictures of the day were from my trip mate. We took a boat to Lokrum , the nearest island to Dubrovnik , from a little port.  Since it was not yet high season, boat frequency was on hourly basis.  The 15-minute journey took us to a little haven of tranquility.  Sightseeing points include botanical garden, monastery, a fort on the island's top with fabulous view of the surrounding and a little salty lagoon for a relaxing swim after a summer walk. Peacocks wandered around. You heard and saw them walking with pride everywhere, even next to swimmers at the jetty.  We first walked to the sea with cliffs.  Soon we arrived at the lagoon with beautiful crystal green colour.  It seemed like an invitation, 'come into the nice cool water'.  We could not decline the invitation.  Like other tourists...

A friend nicknamed me ' Mango smuggler' because I bring Mangoes to Europe every every time because my trip partner loves it.  We enjoyed it during our breakfast in the garden.  It attracted the cat and dog of the owner.  A surprise!  Dubrovnik was full of tourists during the day.  Tonnes of tourists arrived by big vessels .  Crowds were everywhere.   The folks left in the late afternoon, leaving the city quite barren in the night. Dubrovnik is a pearl of the Dalmatian Coast , a favourite city of many people. The compact town is surrounded by hills and sea. Beautiful squares, buildings, monasteries reflect its richness. It's comparable to any rich little towns in western Europe. Mightily city wall protects it. People can climb up the wall to have a gorgeous panoramic view of the town and the surrounding. Walking on the wall is very enjoyable. We walked 1.5 round trips to reinforce the memory of the impressive walk.   Dubrovnik...

I met my trip partner at the boarding gate in  Munich Airport .  It was a pleasant flight.  We had a fairly good view of the coast prior to the landing. Temperatures in Munich and Dubrovnik were of two extremes.  It's cold in Germany but nicely warm in Croatia .  We managed to change some money at the airport at a much higher rate and headed towards our accommodation.  The bus journey was enjoyable with a fabulous view of Dubrovnik. See the picture and you will agree. Our bus stopped at the bus terminal at Gruz . It's only a 10-minute ride to Dubrovnik. The owner was very nice. He gave us an apartment instead of a double room without a private shower. He also showed us ways for restaurants and supermarket. The apartment is enclosed by a lovely rose garden. We enjoyed our evening tea, breakfast at a table outside our apartment right next to the garden. It's a blessing! We did not go to Dubrovnik the same day.  I was just too tired to do ...

Over the years I used Nikon SLR cameras to shoot photos. Nikon cameras are good for taking fine colours and texture. Once one has got it, it is difficult to switch brands. Switching brands necessitates buying new camera and lens. Investment on good lens can be higher than the camera. Canon's edge is speed. It's the choice of most sports reporters. Details, texture and colours are shown optimally with Nikon D70 Camera, Nikon 24-70mm and Tokina 80-200mm lens. The best handy lens fitting most occasions is 28-70mm. It's good for taking landscape photos. I moved into digital photography in 2004. With the smaller framing constraint, 18 - 55mmis a better choice of wide angle lens. With the advance of technology, a lot of automatic digital cameras can achieve very good photo quality. I owned two. Samung L700 and Fujifilm F70 EXR acquired in 2006 and 2009. F70 EXR comes with 10x Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD. It can take quality pictures in extreme s...

Shutter Speed Shutter is a small plastic sheet that opens and closes to allow light onto the film/sensor or prevent light from reaching the film/sensor. Shutter speed controls the amount of time that your film/sensor, is exposed to light. It is measured in fractions or units of seconds. The lighter the environment, the shorter the time the shutter is needed to open for the light to reach the film or sensor, e.g. 1/250, 1/1000. When it gloomy, a slower shutter speed is required to maximise the time for the light to reach the film/sensor, e.g. 1/30, 1 second. Focal Length / Lens The focal length of a lens determines how much the subject will be magnified or distant. Lens are categorised as standard, wide-angle and tele. Standard lens is 50mm. It does not magnify or distant a subject. Wide-angle lens allows to take lots of things into the framing of a photo. It stretches the perspective and make the object closer to the len look bigger. Wide angel lens start from 10 and...

Vigevano is famous for its beautiful cathedral façade lying at the end of the Ducal Piazza. It is just a 27-minute train journey from Milan’s Porta Genova station. The city dates back to the middle ages. It was a thriving trading centre of textile but gave away to shoe manufacturing industry.  Our first sight visit is a building formerly used as a stable. It is enormous and part of the Sforzesco Castle . Slowly we arrived at the Ducal square . It was designed by Bramante and it is one of the most beautiful squares in Italy. The square is an elongated rectangle and enclosed with arched porticos supported by 84 columns. Cafe and shops are on the two sides. The floor is tiled.  The central pathe path leads to the cathedral facade. Sight seeing points were closed at lunch time. We and other tourists had been waiting for a long time (the staff came 15 minutes late) to climb the Bramante tower so as to have a panoramic view of the town. One roof has many chimney...

Basics of Photography: Light / Exposure - the subject should face the light source - exposure compensation / ISO to adjust the strength of light Click the image to magnify it. Composition Metering Centre-weighted and Multi-zone are the common metering methods.  The previous assigns the greatest weight of metering to the centre of the frame.  The latter measures the light density of various zones, combines the results to find the best metering.  Normally, I take multi-zone.  When contrast of light is emphasised, I will switch to the centre-weighted mode. Aperture Aperture controls the amount of light entering into the camera.  One can adjust the aperture if aperture-mode is available or at manual exposure mode.  It ranges from 1.4 to 32.  The lower the numeric the bigger amount of light can be taken for shooting.  References: Kindle version with big savings is available! No theory, jargon or complicated concep...