Cleland Wildlife Park... again?!

What can I say. Unless there is a wolf conservation park somewhere in SA, Cleland is the nearest I can visit with Canis Lupus Dingo :) Went alone this time, and it was a superb photo op since I could just stay at a location as long as I like.


Weather was pretty warm; being summer in SA. However, as expected, all the creatures were hiding in the shade. The light is seeming to actually get better though. Not as harsh as when I was at the Adelaide zoo.

Anyways, I got most of the photo dump up on facebook. Just a few here to show, as well as some 720p 1:1 pixel crops!


Australian Darter



Little Black Cormorant



My dinner.



I'm seriously considering a flash (and extender), as well as a longish macro lens after todays trip. Hmm.... Gah. One day maybe.

Fangire!

Today I saw a bunch of people who were being illuminated by the evening glow through a series of stained glass windows. My first though was.... OMG! FANGIRE!

Passion. Does it work?

Had an awesome work week; got my brand new shader looked at by my FX Lead, and he's got so many awesome ideas and improvements that we implemented into it. I'm going to release the source for the shader soon once I clean it up a little. (note: that's for the code I did before I brought it to work, of course). In other news, working on houdini at work and at home does get a little stale, so I'm now switching over to python programming for kicks.

I've been going through pygame.org in order to get in a real python project. I find that I never learn something for real unless I put it into a project of sorts. Also got a side python project for houdini for generating cg env maps using isixpack and hython. Already tested some of the ground work, HDA is already setup. Just left the python side which I'll work on after I dabble a bit more of pygame :)

In any case, was reading through some AI related stuff, and on a paged linked by an A* related page, I found this little nugget about games, whiners, winners and passion. Here's a few lines that make me sit straight up.

Your passions are your own personal Yellow Brick Road. Following your passions will lead you to your own personal Emerald City.
This line is something I think I have been doing right (and wrong) my entire life. I always have loved doing cg related stuff, since my 2d CAD days on my 512k XT. Wrong because I took so damn long to say, screw this. I'm going to chase my "passions". At the very least. I'm on my way. I think :)

If you study topics that interest you, then you are starting down an interesting path. And it will lead you to interesting places (places that are interesting for you).

More related to choosing which field of studies to pick on for the game industry, but it does remind me back in the day, that most of us were probably studying what our parents wanted, or what our peers decided to study. It's especially tough to choose what you like, when you don't know WHAT you like!

In ending. Whoa. This is turning out into a real "blog" kind of post not my usual "heres my photos of touristy place xyz" or "check out this cool houdini schtuff". Well, in ending, I'd just like to say is if there is something you really really want. There has to be some way to achieve it. Sacrifices must be made, and it is something only oneself can decide...

So, do I sound emo enough to be a script writer? Huh?

GW

Power Noise + Houdini FX Tools

Based off the Houdini FX Tools: Heavy Smoke digital asset's shader. I re-wrote the entire thing in VEX, and implemented the so called "power noise" that my fx lead uncovered.

Here's a XSI implementation by my CG Supervisor @ rsp: http://blog.ioxu.com/?p=19
And my fx lead, well he's got fractal stuff cooking @ http://www.incubism.com/dan/

It's amazing how easy it is to do stuff like that in houdini. (And XSI of course!)

Staying home the weekend

VOP AA Noise vs my custom noise


Parts of Australia have been enduring a severe heatwave this last week, and I kinda cancelled all weekend trail exploration plans, but found Sunday's weather to be quite tolerable. Perhaps next Sunday will be just as good?

Anyways, I'm writing a volume shader in VEX (mainly because I'm horrible at manipulating vops when loops are involved...) and wanted a VOP style AA Noise, so I implemented the code for fBm and MultiFractals, but was not pleased with the final look of the noise. I'm pretty certain its just me being too n00b.

I then decided I just wanted as close as possible the look of the noise generated by AA Noise, so this is what I came up with:

sop
gwMyNoise(float frequency=1, offset=0, freqMult = 2, roughness = 0.6, octaves = 4, amplitude = 1;)
{
float gwFreq = frequency;
float gwOffset = offset;
int i = 0;
float value = 0;

for (i=0; (float)i < octaves; i++)
{
if (i==0)
{
value += noise(P * gwFreq + gwOffset)-0.5;
}
else
{
value += (noise(P * gwFreq + gwOffset)-0.5 ) * pow(roughness, (float)i);
}
gwFreq = gwFreq * freqMult;
gwOffset = gwOffset * freqMult;
}

P.y = P.y + value*amplitude;

}


Basically, for the first generation of noise, i == 0, I will just take the base noise values. I subtract 0,5 because houdini's vex noise runs from 0-1. Once that is done, I will multiply the frequency and offset by freqMult, which is by default set to 2. Which means, multiply the noise for every generation by two. Thus for the 2nd generation, noise at twice the frequency is added to the previously generated noise.

However, the roughness parameter is included to modulate the noise every generation; the more generations the noise generated is, the lower its contribution. Of course, if roughness is set to 1, then pow(1, 9999) is still 1, adding the full noise value each generation. Not pretty....

Oh well, now that this test is done, I'm going to transform it into a vector version (ala for 3D space usage), and then proceed to use it in my volume shaders. The above code is for the SOPs context i.e. only for usage in Geometry, which I used to test it on similar geometry against the AA Noise VOP. The frequency multiplier is something I added in. Power to custom code =)

Alvin

Lens Diffraction tests... oooo

So I bought the "Perfect Composition" DVD from Photoshop Cafe, and finally found time to go through it. (It's Australia Day today! No work! Kinda!) There was one section about depth of field and close ups, and it got me thinking about diffraction for macro lenses. And diffraction of my lens. Several online DOF calculators recommended for a 1.5x crop dslr like my D200 to use F8, any more and diffraction steps in to soften the image. How is that in reality? So being uber not wanting to leave my room I did a quick test at iso 100. I've got the 100% crop included once you click on this image:

This was with the 16-85 at 16mm, ISO 100. I'd say while at F22 it does get a little softer, there is no reason not to use it. A little wavelet sharpening in gimp should fix that right up, and seriously, I doubt for the print sizes I work at, it'd make much of a difference. It does indicate though, that the optically best to shoot at is probably the region of F8-11. F16 shows a little softness, but it only shows up in crappy side by side tests like these. F22 again is softer, but it really isn't like "OMG someone ran a blur filter on my image" kind of soft.

At the long end of this lens, it shows the same results. But the lens is able to stop down to F32 at 85mm, and there you can see it's really getting soft, but I think in real life. I wouldn't stop down that much.

Bottom line, I found out what is my probably optimum for my handheld panos, and it reassures me that should I need to stop down for DOF, F22 is not a serious issue.

Oh, just to add. The images are converted raws from Bibble Pro; it is running a colormetric tone curve, which gives the image an extremely low contrast. I usually beging from that point for tweaking.

EDIT: Blogger seems to have scaled down my image :( But it's still good enough to see which one is softer etc. The originals were 1k+ in width! GAH!

Tour Down Under: Last Day!

70-300VR tracking perfectly as this racer carves the corner.

16-85VR bringing you right into the action!

Yesterday marked the last day of the Tour Down Under stages in South Australia, and I managed to pull myself out of sweet sweet coolness into the heat outside for some shooting practice. I got to the race about 40 minutes before it started, and man, was I late! It was jammed packed with people, and I had to move to a real far area to shoot. Oh well. Tried some shots with my 70-300, it actually seemed quite decent for tracking the fast moving riders in the corner. But most of the time I was with my 16-85, and for certain vantage points, I was actually wishing I had a wider angle lens as I was so close to the riders! Don't think I got any good shots, but here's a few to share above.

Belair National Park | South Australia

Blue Tongued Lizard (Skink)

Er... random berries?

Belair National park is about a half hour train ride from Adelaide. A bunch of us decided to take the longer 6km Waterfall Hike around the park to check out the Echo Tunnel, Lower and Upper falls. Being summer, it was not unexpected to see the lack of water in the falls. The hike itself only presented 1 moderately difficult section. The rest of it was generally easy going. Compared to the Waterfall Gully, this is considered a cakewalk!

There is a really nice lake with several types of water fowl hanging around the edge, I assuming hoping for feed from people. There was a high section of the trail that presented tons of koalas. We counted twelve koalas, and probably even more hidden in the trees. Spectacular!

It was a good walk, and I look forward to doing the Mount Lofty botanic gardens soon.

Houdini | Curvature Shader

A curvature shader found in the Odforce forums, courtesy of Mario Marengo. Something that came up at work.

The shader on the forum won't compile directly in H9 because it uses the F variable, which in H9 is used for the BSDF (well one of those BS???? functions...). A simple search and replace of the F keyword with something else immediately gets this shader going.

Omg my Z and X keys are killing me... must get new toy soon..

Weeeee!

Woooo!

Cancer Council Classic | Tour Down Under 09

Highlight on Sunday is the Tour Down Under 09, Cancer Council Classic race around Rymill square, just off Rundle Street. Was actually "trapped" inside the square for an hour whilst the race went on around the square. Had my longer 70-300 with me, but due to the only place I could find on the trackside (was very lucky to find a place someone was actually vacating...), it was practically useless. I relied on my trusty old 16-85 and it proved to be a perfect range. There's a reason why this bugger is always on my camera 99% of the time when I'm doing non-wildlife stuff :)

I took nearly 800 shots, and managed to get only about 40 keepers but I'll only print the few good ones, like the two shots above. Near almost every shot was panned, and some low speed shots turned out nice, and some high shutter shots were blurred out. Gah.

Saw a few white Ls in the crowd, and was quite surprised to see a large number of huge Sigmas and Nikkors in use. I seriously think I saw a few guys carrying 400/2.8 Nikkors in the crowd....

Glenelg over the weekend

Was at Glenelg this weekend to check out the beach scene in the summer. It's so different, and I totally enjoyed my time there. There were also a beach volley ball tournament going on. Took some shots, but I'm waiting for permission to post 'em. I've a new respect for sport photographers; nearly all my "keepers" had to be cropped into. It's near impossible to get framing perfect with so much action going on. In any case I've got to get them printed and distributed to the team :)

Oh, I also took some panos as usual, and the one posted in the blog is the floodgates beside the marina. It's awesome to see the Temptation sail into the harbour again. I'm definitely going on another dolphin cruise :)

Adelaide Zoo | Jan 09

I'm resolving to work on a few photos every few days to clear away my huge raw photo backlog. Those pictures from my September trip are still not 100% organized :( Plus, last night my keyboard on my lappy had a stuck key, now two are problematic. So I'm gonna keep it short. Kinda.

OMG. CAN U FEEL THE CUTENESS?! Two joeys in a makeshift pouch. Awww........


Here I am attemping to put the little furballs more in context with their environment. But keep the environment away (hate... fences... mumble...)

The rest of the more blah photos are up on facebook. Surprisingly, I have only 5 selects in a day's worth of shooting, and only 2 are mammals. And small, cuddly mammals at that. The rest of the bigger furballs were *not* co-operative that day. I'm certain its to do with the higher heat levels in Summer. The Red Pandas were actually very active and running all over the place though.

Hot hot hot in Adelaide!!!

Temperatures are high today! 41 degrees Celcius during lunchtime, according to my Weather Report applet. At the time of this post, it's about 11pm, and it's maintaining a nice 32 degrees outside :) Actually I'm quite ok with the heat. Its humidity that kills, I always say :) But I'm sure some of my cold weathered friends are going to be melting :)

Japanese Gardens Re-visited

First time enjoying summer here in Adelaide! I'm really enjoying the weather, it's nice and warm with cool breezes and *really low* humidity. The quality of light here is rather harsh though, quite different from when I was here in winter last year for HP6. It reminds me of the light back home. At least, my skies aren't a patch of white :) Here're some shots from the Himeji Japanese Gardens along the South Terrace in Adelaide.

Back in Adelaide!

Back in Adelaide for a bit, not sure why but I was really happy not to be surrounded by tons of people and tall buildings :)

Checked into my room, then went out for a walk on Sunday..... which is a *really* quiet day. Alot of shops weren't even open till at least 11. Having caught a cold on the flight over, I just bought my groceries, then slept. I can't wait for tomorrow - zoo time =)

Last day in Singapore!

Well till the end of my work contract anyways :)

Here's me going around for a quick tour of the world famous awe-inspiring merlion.



Sad to say, I've done photos of the new merlion using digital cameras to rangefinders, and now, panoramic photography with a slr. I can't say I'm uber impressed as I've been here waaay too often.

Blackrapid RS-1 camera strap

About a month ago, I attended one of Cathay Photo's organized talks, called "Larry Frank's Wild World Of People, Landscape & Travel Photography" Evidently I was blinded by the word "Wild" to represent Wildlife, so I was quite sad to see next to no wildlife pics presented :P But he did present a few very good tips, and the one that I kept in mind and used the most was how he carried his camera - with a camera strap of course, but carried reversed to what most people on the street carry them. Hence, he'd have his camera and lens pointing in towards the small of his back. This worked a real treat for my usual camera strap (Mine is Paksafe's Carrysafe 100). It was so much easier for walking around crowded areas, and in general, people wouldn't even know I'm carrying a bulky slr since it's hidden behind my back.

Now the problem with that is rapid shooting. Due to the way I prefer to carry it, slung across my body, the camera straps really get in the way when I want to take a quick snap shot. More often than not, I'd just take it off when I find interesting subjects to shoot. So when I saw the R Strap a few days back for sale in Singapore, I thought I'd be nice to pick something up like that for instant shooting. Now I've used it for 2 days, here are the pros and cons:

Pros:
Works as advertised. As the connection between strap and camera is now made at the tripod socket, when you lift it up to your eye level, the straps dangle loose at your chin, nothing getting in the way.
It also feels more comfortable than my old strap. Doh!

Cons:
Oddly enough, I'm not very happy with it for use on buses, trains and general walking in crowded areas. Because the connection point features a 360 joint, the camera does tend to swing in all sort of odd directions when adjusted to hang directly behind in the small of my back. If I adjust it to hang by my side, it does tend to stay in position better, but that allows it to be seen by people.
Again, because my connection point is now at the tripod mount of the body, it is not possible to put the camera flat on a table. A tad annoying here.

I'll be using it for the next few weeks and see how it pans out. I'm quite certain that I'll be keeping it, but further use in the field will be the ultimate judge. They've got a few other models with pockets and what not. But I like to keep things light... if only they had a D200 in a D40x form factor :)

Update: Skin 75 Pop down

Ok, I've spent two days in the field shooting with this new belt bag, and I like it alot. It fits my 70-300VR with loads of space to spare; I actually use the included divider. I'm sure I could stuff like a snack bar or two to accompany the lens.

As far as sitting down with it, it depends on what you wear. My first day out, my jeans had differently space belt loops compared to the travel cargo pants I wore today. And the jeans worked better :) Perhaps when I'm really bored I'd look into the Think Tank belt.

Overall: I love the fact that it allows me to carry my tele zoom out, and with just my camera slung over one arm. No darned annoying camera bags!

Verdict: Not bad. But probably not for a heavier lens like the 80-400. The 70-300VR was already pushing it.

Carry less? Think Tank Skin 75 Pop Down

My first Think Tank product was the Urban Disguise 50. The UD 50 has been an excellent bag for carrying around my laptop + camera gear during flights, or when I'm on a trip, I use the laptop compartment for holding my soft shell. It has served me very well during my 2 weeks touring around Australia, getting on and off buses and what not.

If I'm not shooting wildlife, it's easy; me and my 16-85 for general purpose shooting. I've kinda given up on the 10-20 for now. Actually sold it.

But if I do bring my longer zooms out, I tend to put it in a sling bag. Whilst looking for a more waterproof solution, I came across the TTP Skin 75 pop down. It's designed for 70-200mm pro lenses, which for my dinky consumer 70-300VR is much more than sufficient. The lovely thing is it is big enough to stick in the lens with the hood on, and has a compartment for the lens cap.

Other really nice features include the weather cover, and a velcro sound protection. If you need to use the bag in quiet areas, the velcro area can be covered up. I really, really dislike the sound of velcro going off in quiet areas, guys and gals with Crumplers should know what I mean :)

I don't use a harness system (YET!), so I just slip it onto my regular belts. I've only run it today with my 28mm lens (duh), it actually gets in the way when sitting down, so I'll need to figure out a way of working with this new toy. Overall, I'm loving it. Will fit that 80-400 I'm drooling for at the moment :)

Other brands I've checked out include Saffroto which I really nearly bought as I love the soft feel of their material, and Lowepro's competiting range.