new toy
by Walter on Oct.26, 2011, under photography, technology, travel
We “lost” our compact camera; not sure what happened but we were in Fremantle for dinner with friends when we last took pictures with it, and the next day we went looking for it and could not find it. We searched the whole house, and also went back to Fremantle to ask at the restaurants but could not find it..
I am travelling to India for work and wanted to only take the compact camera; last time I took the DSLR and I found it too bulky to carry around. Taking the DSLR means you have to take a bag, and I really wanted to avoid that this time. So, we needed a new camera..
At it turns out, I had a 7.5 hour layover in Singapore on the way to India so I took the opportunity to look for a new camera. Some quick research (using the free internet at Singapore Changi airport) and discussion with Elena (again using the free internet!) we decided on the Canon PowerShot SX230 HS.
This camera is not super-compact, but it feels good in your hands (some of the super-compacts are too small to be operated easily). It has a build-in GPS which would be great as we often take a photo with the compact camera to identify where the picture was taken.
It has a 12.1 Megapixel sensor which is more than enough for taking simple travel-shots, and a 14x optical zoom. This is great as the 5x zoom of the “old” camera was often quite limited. Also there is Image Stabilisation which is a must with that amount of zoom..
It has manual functions (P, Av, Tv and M settings) and can do HD video as well.. I think a good feature set for the price, and when I got it the sales person gave me a free 8 GB SD-card and camera-bag as well!
Through the viewfinder
by Walter on Jun.16, 2011, under Australia, photography
Through the viewfinder is a photography technique where the photo is taken through the viewfinder of another camera; offcourse with the digital age we can “fake” this effect easily in software.
1) First you need a suitable photo with a “retro” feel to it.. and it needs to be square (because viewfinders generally are!).
2) Edit the image as much as you like, but to get the vintage feel check out the “Seventies” or “Soft & Faded” Photoshop actions at Pioneer Woman. I like the “Seventies” filter, but you can do whatever you like.
3) Overlay a viewfinder template (complete with noise and dust) over the image – there are lots more to choose from in this Flickr group. Size to fit, blend the layer with the original image (multiply, opacity=80%).
Some images done with this technique:
WordPress updated (again)
by Walter on Jun.16, 2011, under technology
blog.lefty.nl has been updated to the latest releases of the excellent WordPress blogging software; let us know if you find any issues..
New toy..
by Walter on May.20, 2011, under Australia, technology
Decided I wanted a new phone because the old HTC Touch HD was getting old; Windows Mobile 6.5 (updated from the standard 6.1) was getting old too, and everything was taking sooooo long 
My eye fell on the Samsung Galaxy S2 with Android… It arrived last week after ordering it in the UK (not released in Aus until …. ?) and I love it! Thw AMOLED screen is fantastic very bright and beautiful colors! The dualcore processor is faaaast; ni noticable lag doing anything! I can keep on telling you what I like about it; but maybe I should stop boring you 
Posted with the Android Wordpad app from my Samsung Galaxy S2…. obviously…
U2 360 tour – live at Suncorp Stadium
by Walter on Dec.09, 2010, under Australia
U2 is touring Australia and has 2 shows in Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, we had tickets for the second night.
The stage is amazing “the claw” looks very impressive, and this structure can only fit in big stadiums. The speakers are build in the base stage, with high-range speakers in the legs of the structure, here are also spots for camera-men and a lot of lights. In the centre (at the top of the legs) is a screen that goes round 360 degrees and is extendible downwards. Everything is used during the show, very impressive.
NB: there is a documentary on the tour which includes the design of the stage, interesting to watch.
The pre-show concert was Jay-Z which at may look like it doesn’t fit well with the rock/pop of U2, but the Jay-Z concert was great! Empire state of mind was a highlight, with the whole stadium singing the chorus “New York…”
U2 was amazing, everyone knew most of their songs and sang along. The show was out-of-this-world, definitely worth the price of a ticket. “Sunday bloody Sunday” still gives me the chills, but its hard to say what the highlights were, because the whole concert was great!
Singapore
by Walter on Dec.08, 2010, under technology, travel
EMC invited a colleague and I for a workshop on VBlock cloud computing in Singapore. EMC has a few demo-centres across the world, and Singapore is the closest to Australia. Because the colleague is from Melbourne and the EMC people flew from Sydney I was travelling alone.
We all arrived at roughly the same time, and after freshen up met in the hotel-bar. Next we went to the New Asia bar, claimed to be the highest bar in Singapore with amazing views! Then there is the Equinox restaurant, with the same amazing views, and also with great food.
The workshop was the whole day next day, arranged very well by EMC and the sessions were interesting.
After a successful day we went to a seafood restaurant to close off the workshops. At this place you choose your own seafood from the aquarium and they take it to the kitchen to prepare. We ordered a couple of different dishes and shared them all, this is a great way to try different foods.
Unfortunately I had to leave the dinner early to catch a flight back to Australia since we had concert tickets for the next day. The rest of the team would fly back the next day.
Unfortunately after a day or so I started getting a rash, which the doctor thinks may be because of the seafood. This is not because the restaurant is bad quality, but the seafood (especially lobster) may contain some materials that you react to (quite possibly zinc).. The doctor gave me some pills and a crème with which the rash soon disappeared..
Multiplicity
by Walter on Nov.28, 2010, under Australia, photography, travel
During our trip to Fraser Island I tried a new photography technique; multiplicity. Multiplicity photography is a technique where the same person is placed in a photograph multiple times.
I took a few photos of Sander jumping over a stream in burst mode, these photos were later combined into one with Photoshop. The result is below.
Visit Sander & Jennifer
by Walter on Nov.25, 2010, under Australia, travel
Sander and Jennifer made a trip to Australia for the 2nd time! After exploring Western Australia, they came to visit us in Brisbane.
We rented a big four-wheel drive to explore Fraser Island. We left early morning, drove to Inskip Point to take the ferry across and started with lunch at Lake Birrabeen.
We camped at Central Station that night, arriving there in the afternoon so it would still be light when we made camp. We rented a tent that technically could fit 4 people, but it would have been very cosy (read: cramped) so Sander and Jennifer used the rented tent, and we brought our own.
The next day we packed up the tent and continued to Lake MacKenzie, enjoying some of the local wild-life along the way. This monitor was laying on a branch and didn’t mind having its photo taken!
The weather was not great all the time, we’ve had our share of rain.. luckily, most of this was while we were in the car but sometimes we had to risk getting wet to get a good picture or see some of the natural beauty of Fraser Island.
We went to MacKenzies Jetty, and then went to the other side of the island where the more well-known attractions are; Eli Creek and SS Maheno wreck. On the way back inland we saw a dingo, so we could tick off all the attractions on the list 
The second night we had planned on beach camping, but there was too much wind. The previous night we met a tour-group that drove back to Central Station in the dark, because they thought beach camping would not be safe, and this night the weather was even worse.. Central Station is in the forest, so much more protected against the elements. Especially wind, if it rains you will still get wet.. so we played a game in the car instead
Unfortunately the next morning it was time to go back home, so we drove back to Hook Point to take the ferry across. We were greeted by very nice weather, would have been nice to see the sun a few days earlier!
The last evening we had a nice steak at the Norman Hotel; the steaks lived up to the reputation as “Brisbane’s worst vegetarian restaurant”. This was the finale to a great couple of days with excellent company 
Netherlands trip
by Walter on Nov.09, 2010, under Netherlands, travel
After Elena went to Italy in August I was a little restless, I wanted to go back home too! Also because there were some new arrivals in this world, and I wanted to meet the babies.. Unfortunately Elena couldn’t come along so I had to take the long flights to Singapore and through to Amsterdam alone..
When I arrived straight to Steven & Femke’s house to see how my nephews Daan and Julian are doing. Although it seemed they were more interested in watching some tv at the time, who can blame them if Go Diego is on??
The next day went to Leiden with mum, dad and Judith. There was an exposition on Egypt at the museum of natural history we all wanted to go to, so we made a day trip out of it. To finish a great day we went to our “stam-chinees” Tong Ah in Noordwijk (Elena and I used to go here when we lived in Holland).
Offcourse I went to see Daan and Julian as much as I could, one day Daan and I build this huuuuuuuggggeeeeeeeeeeee tower of duplo blocks! I was pretty happy with the big tower, but Daan was trying to blow it over and destroy it.. Also I think Julian doesn’t like sitting “normal” on a chair, he was always climbing all over it (and everyone on it).. nothing happened luckily! boys will be boys I guess
Judith and I went on a day-trip in her cute new car! and I got to drive 
We went to Valkenburg, only it was a bit unfortunate that the weather was not so nice and because of the season there wasn’t really much to do.
We started off with some breakfast/brunch, I had an “uitsmijter”, typical Dutch! Then we visited “Kasteelruïne Valkenburg” which is the Netherlands only “hoogteburgt”; this means it is on a hill above the town and you get great views from the old castle! One strange thing, there was a sign at the castle with a citizen-incentive to make Valkenburg the centre of Europe. To achieve this, a part of Eastern Europe (including parts of Finland, Poland, Romenia, Greece, Portugal, Spain and other countries) would have to be “given away” and parts of Iceland, Norway and Suriname would have to added to Europe, and some land off the coast of the Netherlands would have to be reclaimed. There is some information about this crazy idea here; http://bivme.eu/nl/3,0.html It seems not many people are supporting this incentive..
The “fluweelengrot” was closed because of preparations for the Christmas markets, but the “gemeentegrot” (municipal caves) was still open. We could only do the tour by train, so we jumped on and rode through the caves. These “caves” are man-made, work has started around 2000 years ago when the romans began mining the ground for marl.
I knew a little about the marl mining history in these parts, but what I didn’t know is that the caves were also used as emergency shelters. Actually, as recent as 1979 there were facilities installed and beds and supplies brought down here “just in case”, they were never used..
There are a lot of other sights down there, including a Champagne commercial, a big crocodile and turtle, and portraits of the Dutch royals (de Oranjes), most are quite old, but some are as recent as this year..
Next, time to visit Chris and Roos and their new born Stan. It was nice to meet Stan, he is very exploring and has an interest in everything around him. Unfortunately I could not spent a lot of time with him because young babies have to go to bed early, but at least Chris and I had some time to catch up! We went to a cafe in Veenendaal (the place to be ) for some drinks and talked until deep in the night.
Also visited Niels, Lobke, Jasper en Thomas. Niels and I stole away to take some photos in the area around their house. It was a beautiful Autumn day and I got to play with the excellent Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Unfortunately there wasn’t too much time because they had to go to a party, but nice to catch up with you guys!
I met up with Esther and Werner and we went for a nice dinner in Hilversum. Esther is pregnant but seeing their bub will have to wait until next time! After dinner Esther was tired and went to sleep while Werner and I had some more catching-up to do.. Until Werner said he was tired and we noticed it was past 2 am!!!
Finally I got to meet Tobias when I visited him with Dad Duncan and Mum Sylvia in Breda. It has been too long since I have seen you guys, and great to see Tobias! Tobias is such a cute kid (just look at the photo below lol). Sylvia made a nice Indian dinner (said she doesn’t want to cook Italian for us anymore??)
It was great to see everyone again, and especially to meet Tobias and Stan It has been too short, but it was time to fly back to Australia again..
Amamoor
by Walter on Oct.27, 2010, under Australia, photography, travel
We spoiled ourselves with a weekend get-away at Amamoor Homestead Bed & Breakfast. Amamoor is about 2 hours North of Brisbane, just South of Gympie.
Amamoor Homestead Bed & Breakfast is a very relaxing place, set on a huge property with its own dam, you can go fishing using the little boat, or just enjoy the gardens and the abundance of birds. Just after we arrived we immediately noticed the birds and took lots of photographs
The homestead has a few guestrooms, all with direct access to the veranda overlooking the property. This is really an excellent place to relax with a good book and enjoy nature’s sounds.
At the back of the property there is a large hill, which we climbed in the afternoon to enjoy the gorgeous views over the Mary Valley. The picture below is a panorama made out of 12 HDR panels. I have done some editing of the sun because it was (still) too bright in the original images.
This picture won the "BLUEDOG PHOTOGRAPHY- PHOTO PLANET weekly Facebook challenge" – week 40 – Landscape
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Judge’s Comment…
A superb panoramic landscape. A nicely done HDR using 12 panels is impressive. The warmth of being captured in the late afternoon enhances the story of a beautiful valley. Well done! .
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