Wavelet Blog » Photo

Tulips in Beijing Botanic Garden (北京植物园)

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:05:39 +0000

Photoshop CS5 Content-Aware Fill – Super Cool!

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:49:38 +0000

The following video shows off some amazing features in new Photoshop CS5. Adobe does listen to what users need the most. Retouching photos becomes so easy. “Your imagination is the only limit”, that seems more real than before.

Here is one Youtube user said about the feature,

What the crap?!?!? That is just amazing… I’m sure by CS10, you won’t even have to take pictures or download them… all you have to do is type ‘beach’ and a beach will appear in 3D…

Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L

admin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 06:45:50 +0000

I have been using Canon 10D as my primary camera for the past 7 years. It’s like stone age old in digital camera era. Although it is true that an expensive camera body won’t guarantee you better pictures, compared with the newer versions DSLR, two major limitations sometimes do prevent me from doing what I want. The first limitation is 10D, as the very first generation of pro-mateur DSLR, is not full-frame camera. The 24mm lens becomes 35mm automatically, and this is often the crucial range in some landscape shoots. The second limitation is its poor performance with high ISO. The new camera can produce very good smooth photos even at ISO 3200.

As we are planning the trip to Japan, I finally decided to upgrade the camera as well as the primary lens once for all. I will still keep my 10D as backup – in the field, sometimes it’s really cumbersome to switch between normal and telephoto lens. Not far from my home, there is an area that stores a lot of deserted industrial stuff, machines, trucks. It is a good subject and perfect chance to try out the new camera and lens.

Spring Comes to Lake Elizabeth

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:27:59 +0000

The following pictures are taken by iPhone, at Lake Elizabeth, one of the most beautiful scenery in the Bay Area. It was still winter in most of the country, but spring has sprung in California.

[[Show as slideshow]]

Zenfolio’s Updates on Theme Design, Slideshow and SEO

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:09:58 +0000

Zenfolio‘s latest mega update sets it apart from its competitors. Zenfolio has been good at well-organized configuration pages, but some complained that it is not that customizable compared with Smugmug, especially at advanced account level. With this update, the theme customization feature is hugely improved . The best thing is that you can inherit an existing theme and start tweaking the look-and-feel for all components and save it as your own theme. It is a great feature by itself, and Zenfolio’s engineers made it so easy to use, so beautify to look at and it is available even for basic account level.

Another big improvement is that user’s home page can be customized with new layouts and new slideshow. It gives users great flexibility to create elegant, professional and gorgeously looking site. I am really thinking of upgrading to Premium level.

Please also read my earlier review and visit my gallery site.

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival – Zenfolio Slideshow

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:05:30 +0000

There pictures were take 3 years ago when we visited Seattle. Zenfolio‘s embedded slideshow is pretty cool.

Export Google Maps’ Route to KML

admin — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:41:59 +0000

I have been thinking of displaying the photos I took at the places I traveled on Google Maps. I think it is a great way to present two of my hobbies, photography and travel. Many geotagging software can map the GPS coordinates and synchronize the timestamps of GPS and EXIF tags embedded in the photos, so they can put the pictures at exactly where they were taken. However, carrying a GPS device and keeping it on throughout the travel is cumbersome, (a camera with GPS would be nice); in fact, often that kind of accuracy is not needed. If you travel with cars most of time, there is a way to translate Google Maps’ multi-destination route to a KML file using GPS Visualizer‘s services. After that, you can either overlay the KML on Google Maps, or upload it to services like everytrail or locr with your pictures. My travel page is created with this approach.

Draw your trip on Google Maps. You can have multiple destinations and you can even drag the route to change it. The final result will contain the all the routes as you see on the Google Maps.
Click ‘link’ on the top right corner of the map. Copy the link URL.
Go to http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/, click Google Earth KML option.
Paste the URL to the box marked by the red rectangle and click “Create KML file”

GPS Visualizer website provides many tools to translate KML, GPX and Google Maps into each other. Occasionally, the service is not reliable and complains the input is invalid, but most of time, it works great and fills the gaps of different formats of geographic data.

Knowing Autumn from a Single Leaf (一叶知秋)

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:59:27 +0000

HP’s site at Ellis St. in Mountain View is one of the most beautiful office sites in Bay Area, especially in Autumn. Poplar trees along the entire road stand straight up to 50 feet high. In November, they all turn into golden yellow color. The view is picture perfect.

But, just around the corner, where no one cares to notice, some withering leaves against the solid building foundations are also picturesque. In the Autumn, the green leaves start turning into red and eventually falling off the cane. A couple of leaves that are left are among the most saturated color. When the warm afternoon sun light them up, that maybe the last ray of sunshine they will see.

21 Great Shots [And How They Were Taken]

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:34:21 +0000

This is a post I found in Digital Photography School blog. It shows some eye-popping pictures and explains how they are taken. Great post!

21 Great Shots [And How They Were Taken]

Wonders of the World

admin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:17:27 +0000

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Stunning pictures. A good reference for travel ideas.