Inflatable sharks

From the web article

“A treasure trove of hundreds of new species may have been discovered in the Philippines, including a bizarre sea star that feeds exclusively on sunken driftwood and a deep-sea, shrimp-eating shark that swells up to scare off other predators.

Scientists braved leeches and a host of venomous creatures from the mountains to the sea to uncover more than 300 species that are likely new to science. These findings include dozens of new insects and spiders, more than 50 colorful new sea slugs and a number of deep-sea armored corals “which protect themselves against predatory nibbles from fish by growing large, spiky plates,” said researcher Terrence Gosliner, dean of science and research collections at the California Academy of Sciences and leader of the 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition.

Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences and their colleagues from the University of the Philippines and the National Museum of the Philippines conducted a 42-day expedition this past spring to survey Luzon Island, the largest island in the Philippine archipelago, as well as its surrounding waters. [Image Gallery: Colorful Creatures of the Philippines]”

 

I thought it would be interesting to share

full article here: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/inflatable-shark-among-300-species-discovered-philippines-135007930.html

The Digital Immigrant

I am of an age and from a place that when this internet thing happened I had enough in me to understand it, but also old enough not to understand it.

Where I am now, I sort of get the net. Somehow I really don’t. But really who really understands the net? How can you understand the internet when, as of March 2009, there is an estimated 1 trillion unique URLs.

It is amazing, again… 1,000,000,000,000 unique URLs.

What is even more amazing is that no one is in charge. The internet is this living, growing, moving thing that is seemingly moving on its own without anyone really standing up to the plate and is saying I am in charge.

Who is the President of the Internet? Who is the CEO of the internet?

There’s got to be someone at the steering wheel or is it like what Jeff Goldblum’s character (Dr. Ian Malcom) in Jurassic Park said “life will find a way” it always does. Is the internet finding its way on its own?

Anyway, another Jurassic Park quote…”just because we can does not mean we should” but let’s do it anyway…

Here is a the top 5 most visited websites in the world according to http://www.alexa.com :

1. http://www.google.com – Do I even need to explain what they do? USA, India, China, Germany and Brazil are the top 5 coutnries that visit google. They apparently use GMAIL a lot.

2. http://www.facebook.com – Facebook who? Just ask your mom who they are…. Again, the USA and India top the list of users of this website. The French, Italian and the Brits are the most frequent visitors

3. http://www.youtube.com – Another google franchise. The Americans again lead the way, followed by the Japanese, Indian, Germans and then the English. Yes you know who you are. I am amazed how many of you guys visit the site on a regular basis just to get your dose of watching cats on skateboards. Yes you know who you are… : )

4. http://www.yahoo.com – I actually love yahoo! This is the only site on the top 5 where the top 5 users are from Asia. 1. USA; 2. India, 3. Taiwan, 4. UK, 5. China

5. http://www.live.com – Finally from Microsoft. Again it’s the Americans, Mexicans, Brazilians, French and the English are the driving force for live.com. Great URL! Just love it I must say, I have never used Live.com before. Amazing they beat Wikipedia!

Again just because we can…

In Asia, here are the top 5:

1. http://www.baidu.com – China baby!

2. http://www.Qq.com – Sorry, can’t read the website. 100% China

3. http://www.taobao.com – another Chinese site?

4. http://www.sina.com.cn – Chinese… still

5. http://www.yandex.ru – Яндекс From Russia with love! (Russia is strictly not Asia… but hey I would like to think they are practically Asians : p )

What’s the stats on our blog!? Nothing… we got nothing… : )

Anyway…. That’s it for now!

back on the saddle

I have not been a victim of the current economic turmoil.  I am however in a situation and I expect will be in this situation for at least another month or so…

This move is a lot more difficult than I expected.

I moved countries yet again… from Bangkok now in Singapore…

I will be back with regular updates…  but bye bye for now!

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the Generic Asian

Photographers I respect

Last night, I masqueraded as a press photographer in a for trade only show.  I signed up armed with 70 – 200 mm L 2.8, a monopod, a Canon 550 EX, a couple of extra batteries, 3 extra CF cards, my trusty Canon 30D and and extra 28-70 2.8 L lens.

All of the above attached to me while wearing the customary photographers vest.. a bit cliche i know.. for whatever its worth.. I felt a bit strange.

Armed with photographic equipment that will rival a typical Swiss knife in function, I head off and registered.  I was quickly pointed to the press photographers reception where I got my very own press photographers badge complete with a cool clip on button with a cute drawing of a camera.

I had become official!  or at least it felt like that for two minutes.

Fortunately there was a fashion show scheduled.. (I really already knew that)…  and I proceeded to the venue.  Quickly jostled my place and in 3 minutes, the show started…

shot it at iso 1600 by mistake! well a good mistake...

The show was about 30 minutes.. but it felt like 5 minutes…   it was terrible.  To me, it felt like I was shooting the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt in the 100 meter dash in the Olympics.  It was fast and furious.

The lights kept on changing, the models kept on moving, the guy beside you kept on bumping onto you…. it was just frenzy and mayhem.  It felt similar to being ambushed by 10 guys in paintball except less painful.

Before I knew it, I had taken 148, mostly crappy, photos of the event.I felt tired, my wrist was numb and I had a funny feeling in my belly.   I have never, ever shot this much in such a short time.  In fact I can do a photo walk for 4 hours and only be able to shoot 36 shots.  This was new to me.

After the show, I finally had a chance to sit down and think about the experience and the only thing ringing in my head over and over was…  thank goodness I am not doing this for a living!

Photographing events for editorial purposes is not easy.   But it was fun.. You learn to think fast, you do not have time to think about the shot… you just need to nail it… it surely helped make my heart to beat faster.

I have so much more respect for photographers who do this type of work…

It was a great experience and I will do it again…  and I do like the idea of getting another official press badge.

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the Generic Asian

Stuck in Changi Airport

This is a first for me…  I have been travelling business for quite a while now now, if memory serves me well, my first business trip was in May of 1992.  I remember that clearly because I almost missed my flight. Being a novice business traveller, I underestimated the length of time I would need.

Fast forward to today.  I estimate, and I must say it is a very feel based estimate rather than one based on fact, I must have traveled at least 1 day a month of every month for the last 4 years. Just to get a feel of how much this is, my peak traveling clocked at around 150,000 Krisflyer airmiles for a 12 month period of traveling.  This may not be a lot for the more seasoned traveler, but it is not a push over either.

Since I moved to Bangkok, I do not travel much anymore. In the beginning I actually missed flying.  Gradually as time moved on (about nine months), I gradually did not miss it. In fact I liked it quite a lot. Being more at home that is.

I thought about this and said hey, I can have more time for my photography.  And then there is the other group of people I live with.. (wife and kid)

I also thought and said to myself, at some point though I will need to travel and travel I did.  Being in an airport always gives me a funny-nice feeling.

The concept of flying was not new to me. I can’t explain it, but during this trip it felt a bit awkward.  But I guess its like riding a bike.  You never lose the “skill”.

So, there I was in Changi airport.  It felt good, it felt right.  I was on my way home after a good meeting with a customer.  I was tired, lacked sleep, a bit hung over, but hey I was going home and so I thought.

I checked in, did the usual stuff and then I went through the usual look-see of the duty free items and BLAM… I totally lost track of time and the plane had left without me.

I began to melt like ice in this global warming stricken world.

It was a sense of panic, then calm then acceptance and then I felt really really really stupid.  Then I thought to myself, how the hell did I miss this flight.

Was it because I did not have my regular travel “workout”.   Maybe I was just too hung over…

Whatever it was it made me again try to think of this experience and relate it to photography.  Afterall, this blog is about me and my photography.

This also happens a lot in my world of photography, it maybe plausible that I can apply the same train of thought.  Is it possible that I can lose my head in photography with inactivity.  My sense tells me yes.

I cannot control the amount of business or leisure travelling that I will do, but I can sure find a way to ensure it does not happen to me in my photography.

So I am here after 12 hours still in Changi and its 6:00 in the morning, still in the lounge of Transfer F, waiting for confirmation that I can get booked on the next flight.  Stuck in Changi Aiport…

See you home soon..

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the Generic Asian