Tag Archives: gopro

Hong Kong Through My GoPro

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On our way from France to Australia earlier this year, we did a one-week stopover in Hong Kong — a great way to make the huge time difference more tolerable for kids.

My weather app had optimistic news and predicted 4 sunny days that week. Check out below how that turned out…

I couldn’t be bothered though. I admit I was impressed by what I saw. Growing up in European cities with architectural height restrictions, Hong Kong was both overwhelming and a brand new photo playground for me. Due to the tall buildings I admittedly couldn’t let go off my GoPro and I took most photos during this one-week trip with it.

So did my 2.5 year old daughter (see second gallery in this article). For some reason she loved getting into photography in Hong Kong and I gave her my GoPro with a lanyard around her neck to secure my precious tool 📷.

Bubble explosion in the streets of Tung Chung, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
High, higher, Hong Kong Central
Hong Kong Island souvenir stalls
I could spend hours in the narrow alleys of Sheung Wan with heaps of art stores trying to bridge traditional and modern tastes
Of dragons and dogs, Hong Kong Island
…
A kitschy but modern idea at the same time: the digital wishing well in the Hong Kong IFC Mall
Hong Kong graffitti art in Sheung Wan
Man Mo Temple: A beautiful little temple in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island
The Hong Kong Observation Wheel, Hong Kong Island
Overlooking Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong Island
An impressive location: Tian Tan Buddha
“The Offering of the Six Devas”: Well, two of them at least, praising the Tian Tan Buddha
The entrance to Po Lin Monastery, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
Offerings made in Po Lin Monastery, Hong Kong
Po Lin Monastery is a photographer’s dream, but sadly the holy places are off limit for cameras. These statues are just at the entrance
A beautiful pagoda at Po Lin Monastery, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
The Wisdom Path in the Ngong Ping hills features 38 timber columns that have the Chinese word for the Heart Sutra inscribed on it

And here are my daughter’s takes on Hong Kong:

Let’s get out and explore the streets of Hong Kong
Voila, mum in Hong Kong
Et voila, dad in Hong Kong

While I clearly enjoyed photographing Hong Kong with my GoPro Hero 6, I came across a few situations when I preferred using my regular DSLR, especially for views over vast landscapes, night shots and close-ups. Who would have guessed?

Here are some of my favorite Canon 60D photos to complete the Hong Kong gallery above.

The impressive skyline of Hong Kong Island and Tsim Sha Tsui on a sunny day ;)
Welcome to Hong Kong Real Estate
Probably the most classic view over Hong Kong, taken from The Peak (Hong Kong Victoria Peak)
Can’t say that Hong Kong isn’t very green after having taken this photo on top of The Peak
The first time I saw a bamboo construction area was in the movie Rush Hour and I remember that I thought it was a joke. I learnt in the meantime that it isn’t and actually has quite some advantages, but I was still impressed to see this live. I wouldn’t want to climb up there…
The AIA Great European Carnival as seen from the Hong Kong Observation Wheel
Hong Kong Observation Wheel by night
Panoramic vistas of Lantau Island in the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car connecting Ngong Ping with the town of Tung Chung and Tian Tan Buddha
Po Lin Monastery close-up of the richly decorated walls
Incense sticks, making the atmosphere at Po Lin Monastery even more special

If you like this post you might also like Photo Essay: Vivid Singapore…

C’est La Vie !

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eiffel tower paris

As some of you already know, or guessed, we moved back to France after 3.5 aMaZiNg years in New Zealand. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it had to be taken! I adjusted my blog’s “About” section accordingly.

Right now, we are enjoying French food as well as Paris’ flair and history. And that’s the reason why my coming blog posts will focus more on Europe again. Moving on. C’est la vie!

You have been warned ;)

Snapseed 2.0: Does Google Plan To Pit The App Against Instagram?

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I have been using Snapseed, Google’s free mobile photo editing App, exclusively over the past months before sharing my photos on Instagram. So when I read this morning that my favorite App has been completely revamped, I wasn’t even aware that it was a “much-needed overhaul”. Admittedly, it lacked some professional “Photoshop features”, but guess what, some of us like when things are kept simple (though not as simple as the Instagram editing tools).

Of course I still tapped the update button in my App Store. Curiosity 1, Anja 0. To my relief, not THAT many things had changed. Sure, the interface looks completely different; I’m not certain though if the term “modern” really nails it. I noticed that I need one more tap than before to get to my wanted settings and filters. Oh well… But behind the new packaging, not everything had changed radically.

Added features:

  • A slider for highlights in the “Tune Image” section (neat addition to the shadow slider)
  • A feature to transform the image perspective (horizontally and vertically)
  • A brush to add a different exposure, saturation, color temperature or dodge & burn effect to specific parts of the photo
  • A spot repair feature, which sadly neither offers to choose the exact pixels you want to repair, nor the pixels you want to interpolate
  • A few new filter sets (Noir, Glamour Glow and Tonal Contrast)
  • An image stack feature to re-edit the same image lateron
  • A copy feature, allowing you to copy edits from one image to another

Deleted features:

  • The Grunge filter set (not that I am going to miss them)
  • All style presets under “Vignette”, which is truly a shame as they often helped me to see at a glance how much outer and inner brightness I was looking for

I am glad that not more features have been erased, and the new ones have been added in a way that won’t disturb my current workflow, which gives me time to actually go through all new features in the coming days to test them more on various photos.

On a first side note though, the new transform and brush tools look pretty neat and could soon become part of my image editing routine. Here is a first before and after comparison, after playing with “Transform” and “Brush” for around 10 minutes.

Louvre Paris GoPro

Original GoPro photo without any edit. This one looks a bit dull and could need some straight lines.

Louvre Paris with Snapseed

Edited with Snapseed 2.0: The new “Transform” tool interpolated pixels from the Louvre building and the fountain in the foreground (that’s a terrific job!). No need to crop, and the photo looks even more fish-eye than the GoPro original, which I personally love. I changed the saturation and color temperature of single image parts with the new “Brush” tool to make them look more like taken during sunset (which actually was the case).

I certainly think today’s changes put Google a big step ahead of Instagram (with regards to photo editing), and I am glad to see that the App stayed free, without paid “pro options”.

Are you a Snapseed fan too? What are your thoughts?
Which other mobile editing App appears on your primary smartphone or tablet screen?

If you like this post, you might also like Do Photo Filters Have An Impact On You?

Photo Essay: Queensland, Australia

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As we travelled from Cairns to Brisbane (North to South) we discovered that Queensland is much more than sunny beaches, surfers and adventure parks. There are also endless stretches of straight boring roads, millions of acres of sugar cane and in between — these treasures…

Mossman Gorge, not far from the Daintree National Park
On hot summer days, bathing tourists at Mossman Gorge often become victims of peculiar thiefs
After a short ferry ride, Daintree National Park and its mangrove forests lie ahead
Cape Tribulation
Huge carpets of sand balls created by millions of crabs
These crabs have a different technique
Tall fan palms are a great rain protection on gray days
Ants are green in Daintree NP
And then there is also this: The Cassowary is a big flightless bird native to north eastern Australia and New Guinea. It’s rare and you need to be really lucky to see one. This one decided to cross the street in front of our campervan :)
A fig tree skeleton
Typical for Daintree: Trees with enormous roots. You see me standing behind it?
Teaching a whining wallaby
Mereeba is a beautiful location to get in touch with these cuties
There are 2 of them!
Cairns is clearly the “Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef”
We took the boat till the Outer Reef…
…and discoverd a different universe
Heaps of fish
Big fish (it doesn’t look like on the photo, but this one was at least 1,5 m)
Tourists
Curious spectators under the boat
Hervey Bay thunderstorm
Hervey Bay
This is the perfect spot for some serious whale watching
Humpback Whales reside in Hervey Bay
This one enjoys the fresh rain water as a change to the salty water he lives in
Whale waves rainbow
Fraser Island Beach
Fraser Island is a sand island which can only be crossed with 4WD, or special tourist buses
Funnily enough, a tropic rain forest is growing on the sandy soil of Fraser Island
Fresh water lake on Fraser Island (Lake McKenzie)
Maheno shipwreck on Fraser Island
The coastal walk at Noosa is spectecular (and popular)
“Wild Horse Mountain Lookout” over the Glashouse Mountains
And suddenly: Brisbane after all this nature
It seems nature followed us though ;)
Waterdragon in Brisbane’s Roma Street Parklands
Bamboo forest in Brisbane’s Botanical Gardens
Sunset at Nudgee Beach

If you like this post you might also like Photo Essay: Northern Territory, Australia…

Exploring A Tiny Part Of The Great Barrier Reef With The GoPro

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Snorkeling the Outer Reef of Cairns gave us a tiny glimpse into an uncomparable underwater universe. Our goal that day was to see a sea turtle; we were lucky enough to swim with one. We hope to be back one day!

Please excuse the camera shake. We actually went out several kilometres to get to the Outer Reef. Big waves were rolling in right behind the corals, making quiet snorkeling almost impossible ;)

If you like this post you might also like Exploring Rarotonga’s Lagoon With The GoPro…

Hermit Crab Shell Change

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Hermit crabs are usually extremely shy and patient creatures, not performing any big acts in front of an audience.

However, the crab in my video below was changing from a very perforated shell into a less draughty home. Urgent matters can’t wait I guess!

I filmed this short “crab-changes-shell” movie while stumbling out of Rarotonga’s lagoon with my GoPro. I was actually quite close, but the camera’s fisheye lens makes it look like I’m far away. Just watch the video twice in case of doubt ;)

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Exploring Rarotonga’s Lagoon With The GoPro

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[Please click on the Play buttons to view the videos]
1: In the middle of a shoal; literally surrounded by hundreds of goldband fusiliers.

2: Scissor-tail sergeants and butterflyfish circling around me while I was standing in the lagoon, water till the belly button.

3. Curious damselfish attacking my GoPro. The video is a bit shaky because this really made me laugh :)

4: Enjoying the wide frame of the fisheye lens for GoPro selfies during our island roundtrip on the scooter, and while exploring the lagoon by kayak, paddleboard or while snorkeling.

5: This is a slightly longer version of the three videos above including some additional footage of a parrotfish, a pipefish and an impression of how it looks like under water when the sun hits the surface.

If you like this post you might also like Photo Essay: Rarotonga, Cook Islands…