Photo travel log (11/15 - Roadtrip Across America + NEW ZEALAND)

TrollFreak said:
Great shots, makes me miss NYC even more. What camera did you end up getting?
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The Nikon D600. It's a lot newer than my old D700 but as far as I can tell, a step down from "pro-grade." The body is a bit flimsier but still sturdy. The only thing is that they changed around the locations of some of the buttons (some of them are exactly flip-flopped), which is really frustrating when you've associated one brand with a certain button layout.

other than that, the resolution is crazy and high ISO is noticeably better :D
 
Actual photo update this time. The best thing I ever did was to decide to save every single one of my photos on an external HD, even the shitty ones. Powered through some of them today and re-edited them. It's pretty amazing what some time away from a photo can do for your perspective

Also! If anyone want to help me out on 500px you can literally sign in with your twitter account and upvote photos. It takes like 2 seconds and doesn't post any obnoxious shit to your twitter. You can also sign in with facebook but it might post stuff to your wall unless you disable it :x just click the like and heart buttons on my most recent photo if you're willing

bear with me here. I found a bunch of photos that fit together perfectly so I'm assuming I meant to stitch them into a panorama...except all of them were underexposed by 2 stops. Not sure why I deleted the properly exposed ones but I shot them in RAW thankfully, so the result isn't too bad. It was super smoggy on this day though so I took some liberties in playing with the sky...let's just called it an "artistic experience"...

Yangshuo in Watercolor by justindong, on Flickr

the next 3 are the terrace farms. I think my processing on them this time fnally does justice to their atmosphere in the winter. it's beautiful in the spring I'm sure, but winter was smoggy and really uninviting :/

Smoggy China by justindong, on Flickr


Terraces by justindong, on Flickr


Smoggy China II by justindong, on Flickr


some shots from kyoto. I admit I cross-processed these and I'm kind of fond of the result even though it's really obvious something funky is going on with them

This Way? by justindong, on Flickr


Germs by justindong, on Flickr


next four are shots from the tokyo tower. I had to take these shots through a window so it was hard to get the long exposures without a tripod.

this first one was seriously a pain in the ass to process because the lights above this window were red and blue, so the result has a shit ton of purple and red hues. I don't really like the dominance of the greens and purples here but I think it's better than having the entire thing red:

Purple Tokyo by justindong, on Flickr


From the Tokyo Tower by justindong, on Flickr


From the Tokyo Tower II by justindong, on Flickr


The Vortex by justindong, on Flickr


I went home for thanksgiving break and basically my house was uninhabitable for 1.5 months with no power, heat, and lots of mold. My parents were cleaning out destroyed photo albums from the basement and I found these:

Forgotten Memories II by justindong, on Flickr


Forgotten Memories by justindong, on Flickr
 
thanks guys!

I started a SmugMug account recently. It's another photo-sharing site but to me it seems that the emphasis is actually on photo-SHARING rather than networking and popularity. I'm loving it so far. Much more organized than Flickr or 500px with the added plus that they have embedded links and they don't break if you change a tiny little detail like the photo description.

SmugMug account here

Anyways, as I mentioned previously I've just been going through old photos now and seeing what I can do with them. I was a little pissed that I deleted most of my shots of the HK skyline but turns out I did save them after all. I'm terrible at organizing my stuff so all of it was hidden in really obscure directories with even weirder names. Anyway, here are some that I'm pretty proud of:

(from now on I'll put all my photos in hide tags except for the most current photo post)

blue hour right after sundown:

I shot this with a fisheye. Exposure was 2 seconds without a tripod! Basically, I braced it on a guardrail along the walking path and it worked out pretty well. The quality is a bit shitting if you view it in the original size but oh well, just glad to have gotten the shot



Rectilinear view zoomed in. If I'm not mistaken, this was taken with my very first DSLR and the $100 lens it came with:


Wider angle. I manual focused this shit too since my old camera didn't have a focus motor and the wide angle lens I had at the time wouldn't autofocus without a motor in the camera.


with the moon overhead:
 
The last two are breathtaking. The beautiful colours of the lights are mesmerising in all of them, but I really like the perspective on the clouds, because they look so pearly and shiny. The moon one looks amazing because of all the angles and the glowy clowds. aaa @_@ I love your stuff so much; please keep posting it!
 
Home for winter break so here's another photo update. Visited some friends in manhattan the other day. Cheesiest pictures ever they were hilarious to take, so whatever

Just a warning that these photos are more "snapshot-ish" than usual since I didn't really head in wanting to get any particular shot. just visiting some friends and brought my camera long as an afterthought

finally got to see a couple of my friends that I haven't seen for almost 4 months now. some shenanigans on the east river.






this is actually a crappy shot of me. I mostly prefer to be the one taking the photos and am not to keen on having photos taken of me unless it's in a group :x handed my friend the camera and she snapped this one. the original version had my entire face but the composition was a bit weird so I thought it might work better as a b+w half-face shot.



i've done this before but green eyes are definitely the coolest in terms of iris patterns. i also have a short video that shows how the pupil and iris reacts when you shine a light on it if anyone's interested



a bunch of my friends go to the lincoln center fordham campus, which is really close to columbus circle and central park. we had some time to kill before meeting up with some others for dinner. my friend actually had a fucking crystal ball and we saw some photos online and decided to try it out for ourselves. some of the results:

looks a bit like a little ecosystem. it was VERY hard to manage depth-of-field here. couldn't really use a flash outdoors (or at least, I don't know how to...) so even in broad daylight, I was pushing it to ISO 1600++ at f/2.8 (if anyone of you speak camera). f/11 would've been nearly impossible


through the looking glass:


the crystal ball works a little bit like a small fisheye lens. it also inverts the image like any camera lens does. I flipped this shot 180 degrees -- originally it was the other way around. If you look closely at the background, you can make out my friend throwing the leaves upside down


after whipping out the crystal ball we decided to head to times square. i absolutely hate this place -- it's basically a human cesspool of tourists. but it's incredible to photograph.





this is probably my favorite one of the night




winding down the night. i'm kind of a lightweight but cheap wine definitely gives the absolute worst hangovers
 
hi so...I woke up at the ass crack of dawn to catch a sunrise. was not disappointed. the colors are definitely much more subdued than during sunset, but there's honestly something about seeing the first rays of light break the horizon that just gets to me.

we did some extremely corny silhouettes we might have been a little tipsy

these are in chronological order. we found a nice spot to take some shots just before the sun broke over the horizon so we got some nice colors beforehand.

trying to figure out how to do this:


cheesing


some shenanigans


cheesing again


cheesing harder


cheesing hardest of all.


spotlight on us...


some action shots




and that's all folks. i'll just leave you with a holiday shot
 
Really quick, I tried out some astrophotography for the first time. I fucking hate how much light pollution there is on the east coast -- even at the most remote location near me, light pollution drowns out the Milky Way.

Anyway, it was like 10 degrees (F) out with wind chill at the empty beach we shot at. The skies were relatively clear and the moon didn't rise till very late, but it was PITCH BLACK. I bought this really pricey Xenon Streamlight flashlight and man, it's incredible. Also convinced that there might be some law against pointing them in the night sky because I'm pretty sure any plane flying overhead could see it and be easily confused.

The location was REALLY eerie...we were convinced someone was watching us the entire time, but we stayed for a fairly long while. Also, the way the landscape is, the beach is way down hill so we had to park at the top of the slope...my car alarm went off multiple times for no reason and scared the complete shit out of us. Maybe I'll elaborate on the other creepy stuff later. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy!

I'll update the previous posts with hide tags later

this is my favorite of the night. also slightly dangerous with 35mph wind gusts...


some fun with star trails:


 
So some exciting news -- I'm most likely going to be going to Switzerland for two months this summer to do research. I'm really keen to work with this professor there since he's really well known in the field I'm looking to go into and seems like a really nice guy. I talked to someof the faculty at my school and when they heard his name they basically told me I'd be silly not to do this.

The professor has formally accepted me to his lab, provided that I can fund myself since I don't think they have much flexibility when funding international students. Anyway, I have a big research stipend from doing research at my school this semester, and my parents have agreed to support me thankfully.

Anyway, I'm having some issues figuring out if I'm supposed to apply for a visa or not. I would be there less than 90 days, I'm a U.S. citizen, and I wouldn't be getting paid nor would I be paying any sort of tuition since I'm not taking classes there. I'd basically be provided office space and access to the facilities at the university in question. My gut instinct is yes I do need a visa, but the swiss embassy is extreely unhelpful and never picks up their phones so I have to email them tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm just a bit nervous I might get rejected for the visa since I've heard they're a bit strict. I have an official letter of acceptance from the professor, my bank has a branch in Switzerland so I can just dump a ton of money into my account to show I can pay for my stay there, I can submit my parents tax returns etc. I've also written out a letter basically explaining why I'd like to go to Switzerland in particular (i.e. why couldn't I just do research with someone in the same field at home?) and that I won't overstay my visit and will in fact be leaving after the program is over. Is this enough? I mean, the embassy website has a list of all the requirements but I want to absolutely do this right the first time so that there's no chance I get rejected. Anyone done something like this before? Tips?
 
aaa, i haven't applied for a visa before, but i think if you're not applicable for a work visa, you can get a student version?

i really wanted to post to say that i am astonished by the beauty in "Smoggy China II"

it is exceptionally breathtaking that such sights like these exists in the world

i hope you get your visa sorted out and take more fantastic photos in switzerland! and, congrats on such an exciting opportunity :)
 
Fishy said:
aaa, i haven't applied for a visa before, but i think if you're not applicable for a work visa, you can get a student version?

i really wanted to post to say that i am astonished by the beauty in "Smoggy China II"

it is exceptionally breathtaking that such sights like these exists in the world

i hope you get your visa sorted out and take more fantastic photos in switzerland! and, congrats on such an exciting opportunity :)
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Thanks, I actually spoke to the professor a few days ago and it's all sorted out. The school is actually going to apply for the visa on my behalf so it's way way easier. Also, the professor said he'd cover my registration fees for me, which was pretty nice since it was like 500 USD haha

Beyond excited for this. Never been to Europe but have quite a few friends in various countries that don't seem like they'd be that hard to get to
 
Well, this is it everyone. In two days I'll be heading to Zürich for three months. I ended up getting two scholarships so all of my living and housing expenses are covered. Anyway, I'm incredibly excited. I'll be living with a kid I met while studying abroad in Hong Kong actually...small world. He's a Swiss native though so it'll be fun.

Life is moving a bit too quickly for me right now. Finished up an academic paper for submission last week and have been home in New York for 4 days. I stupidly signed up to take the GRE today. After 3 days of studying, I think I did pretty well: 163/170 on verbal and 165/170 on quantitative. I'll probably retake eventually since I'm applying to Stanford, Brown and the likes for grad school

Suppose I'll just leave a selfie here since I never really post pictures of myself. p.s. I need a haircut since long hair on me just flops down and starts to look like an awful bowl cut
 
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Okay well I'm finally in Zürich and I'm really loving it so far. It's definitely more relaxed than any other city I've been too. The main railway station is hectic during rush hour but otherwise Zürich has a small town feel to it.

So I'm enjoying my research immensely. All of my peers here are PhD students or postdocs and I'm definitely the youngest by a significant margin. It's definitely a bit intimidating but all of them are so friendly and I really feel welcomed. It surprises me since my department at my home uni is not like this at all. I think I've gotten to know almost everyone in the dept. so far since a bunch of us get lunch together every day

I'm living with three other local students. I know one of em from study abroad .... having connections is nice. It's only been a few days but they're pretty cool and I've learned quite a bit about Switzerland from them, far more than I would have by living with other exchange students.

So I don't really have many pictures to show yet. It's not a big deal for me since I've still got the better part of two months to do that. I have some cheap instagram photos though that I'll post (don't kill me...). Also, heading to Zermatt this weekend and will hopefully have lots of pics to show for it. I met up with a local friend that I studied with in Hong Kong and so he showed me around a bit. I dunno, I like exploring new locations with other foreigners (i,e, there's a couple of other U.S. students here that I've met) but knowing locals to show me around makes me feel awesome haha

Also, Switzerland is EXPENSIVE. well, rent is actually significantly cheaper than in NY but everything else is a bit insane. I've been told that this is because 1. the Swiss tend to make a lot more on average than citizens of other countries, so the prices are relatively comfortable for them 2. there's little competition between companies since most people make enough the the high prices aren't a big deal. There are basically only two main grocery stores here and they literally sell the same things at almost exactly the same prices

Anyway, here's a collage of shots. Upper left - the main hall of the school I'm working at (ETH) upper right - sunset over lake Zürich, bottom left - overlook from my university, bottom right - a really shitty shot from a cafe/lounge overlooking the tracks. I paid fucking $8 for a cup of not-that-great Earl Grey haha



lol i'm looking at these pictures again and I seriously promise i'll actually have some decent quality stuff next time...
 
At long last, I have a shit ton of pictures to share.

This weekend I went to Zermatt -- where the Matterhorn is --in southern Switzerland. We took a train out early Saturday morning and the views/scenery were fantastic. I only spent a day there since I was exhausted and I just recently bought a train pass that let's me ride for free after 7pm.

We hiked one of the easier trails and holy shit, I don't think I've ever seen anything more breathtaking and fresh. Then we tried to hike up a pretty steep cliff that was partially snowed over...not the best idea. I'm pretty sure I could've gotten seriously injured if I'd slipped or stepped on a loose rock. But anyway, most of us stopped halfway up the steeper peak when it became clear we'd practically have to scale a cliff wall.

Pics below:
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so we had to transfer trains in a small town called Visp. The trains came every half-hour or so so we figured we'd walk around and explore a little. we totally didn't pay attention to the time and, despite practically sprinting a mile, we missed two trains -_- the views from the town were alo really boring, so...


yeah, so I brought my small crystal ball to see if there was anything cool I could do with it. the guy sitting across from us on the train starts telling my friend (in French) that he had one of those once and he accidentally burnt a patch of grass when the sun rays were refracted through it. funny enough, I accidentally burned hand by trying to take a picture with said crystal ball. more on this later...


okay now onto the nice pictures

this is where I burned my hand...

Friends...through the looking glass by justindong, on Flickr


DSC_3185 by justindong, on Flickr

break time...

DSC_3188 by justindong, on Flickr


semi-success...

The Mountain Globe by justindong, on Flickr

we ran into this group of three old Swiss ladies who were hiking. They were honestly probably more in shape than I am...

On top of the world by justindong, on Flickr


DSC_3242 by justindong, on Flickr


DSC_3246 by justindong, on Flickr

this time with me in the photo. obviously I didn't take this one but that's okay bc the composition is kind of meh :x

DSC_3248 by justindong, on Flickr


Truly Humbled by justindong, on Flickr

the end of the day was much more cloudy and the tones a bit warmer.

A Long Way Home by justindong, on Flickr
 
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Okay not much to show for this time but I took an impromptu trip to Interlaken. I figured I have these rail passes and might as well use them.

The weather was just shit but I managed to get a really good shot in before the rain started, if I do say so myself. I hiked to what I think was the top of Harder Kulm. The hike was moderate but the really cool part was that since it was so cloudy, the last part of the hike had me literally just walking through clouds. I was a bit pissed though since I'm sure the view at the top would have been incredible if I could actually see.

Anyway I promise I have some really amazing trips planned for the next few weeks so stay tuned. I may go back to Interlaken some other day when the weather is nicer too.

Here's the panoramic from the observation deck. I guess you can see why it's called Interlaken now

Up in the clouds by justindong, on Flickr

then the clouds got even lower...

Up in the clouds (II) by justindong, on Flickr
 
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I really like your photos! makes me pretty jealous. I was just in the Interlaken area for three nights in mid-may so if you decide to go back I'd be happy to share some tips!
 
Glad to see smogon is back up but jesus christ, the old HIDE tags no longer work and none of the permalinks to my old posts in the OP work anymore. Will work on fixing that soon but maybe a kind mod can help? wink wink?

Anyways, I made a website/blog. If anyone knows php, let me know since I need a bit of help with the website.

Check it out: http://daswanderlust.com

Anyways, I have a shit ton of photos to share but I actually haven't even gone through and sorted many of them yet so it'll have to wait until next time. I'll work on cleaning this thread up first as well. Here's a preview for what's to come:


Oschinensee (II) by justindong, on Flickr


The Winding Way by justindong, on Flickr
 
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edit: seriously though, how do I get hide tags now?

So, this thread requires a shit ton of clean up but I don't really have the time right now. This post contains a big update though.

Regarding my time in Zürich -- I'm enjoying it immensely. I've met a fair amount of people but I've never really been someone who chooses quantity over quality. I'd rather meet a few people who I know I'll keep in contact with for the rest of my life, but I won't be obnoxious about it and generally try to meet people with an open mind. Anyway, as I think I mentioned earlier, one of my flatmates studied with me two years ago in Hong Kong. We didn't really know each other too well then, but I think we're pretty good friends now. We went on a hike this past weekend in the Schwyz region. It wasn't very difficult but the view was really breathtaking since it took us along the ridge of the mountain and you could see all of the lakes in the surrounding area.

Also, I've started running about every other day and I'm enjoying it far more than I thought I would. I'm also proud that I did this hike (about 5 hours, 2000 ft in elevation and 5 miles in length) without breaking too much of a sweat. I wasn't even sore the next day :eek: so I guess this working out business is really helping.

I chose to post the photos from this trip now since I have them on hand already. But I also have pictures from another hike as well as from a 3-day visit to Prague (!!) to share soon.

This was a truly glorious hike

Fronalpstock --> Klingenstock (III) by justindong, on Flickr

Wider view:

Fronalpstock --> Klingenstock (II) by justindong, on Flickr

The only "bad" part was that since the hike wasn't so difficult, there were A LOT of people on the trail (well, a lot by Swiss standards). Was still enjoyable though

Fronalpstock --> Klingenstock (III) by justindong, on Flickr


Fronalpstock --> Klingenstock (I) by justindong, on Flickr

some paragliders

DSC_4161 by justindong, on Flickr

my flatmate and I

DSC_4182 by justindong, on Flickr
 
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okay so I'm jumping forward a little since I was in Budapest this past weekend and basically got some incredible pictures.

not so much description this time but I was only there for 2 days (one full day and two half days). It was a really charming city imo. A bit grungy, but way less touristy than Prague -- basically a nice city thatjust happens to have some tourists in it as opposed to a city that caters completely to tourists. The locals were also really friendly in my experience.

I woke up early to photograph a sunrise over the Danube. Some shots (btw the last one made it to the front page of Flickr :)):

Budapest Dawn (II) by justindong, on Flickr


Inception by justindong, on Flickr


Budapest Sunrise by justindong, on Flickr
 
Eagle4 said:
Absolutely beautiful. What camera do you use?
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Thanks, it's the Nikon D600.

Went on my final hike in Switzerland this past weekend and it was beautiful. I'm not really sure why I hadn't heard of it before, but it's the Grosser Mythen hike in the kanton of Schwyz. I think it was maybe 600m in elevation and it wasn't all that difficult, but the view from the top was fucking fantastic. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves:

Only the way up:

Hiking up the Grosser Mythen by justindong, on Flickr

Once you get to the top, you have a clear view of most of Schwyz as well as Lake Luzern

Grosser Mythen (I) by justindong, on Flickr


Grosser Mythen (II) by justindong, on Flickr

and at the top, there's of course a restaurant with exorbitant prices (7 USD bottles of water):

The Mythenhaus by justindong, on Flickr

and plenty of elevated platforms to sit on and just stare in awe

On Top of the World by justindong, on Flickr
 
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