It is unusual for me to talk about something not related to lenses, cameras and what I have learned in photography. If you are the regular visitors who look for another blog post of camera equipment, you have to bear with me for some minor changes. I am not an environmentalist but as a photographer, I visit Wild Life Refuge and Park with regular tours for visitors like me to get closer to our natural environment. I am extremely thankful to volunteers who spend their valuable time in educating the current and next generation on the importance of conservation of our environment. Be it in conservation of our natural resources and learning to save our environment with use of renewable energy and fuel's alternatives, and urgenct with global climate changes, I am supportive of measures that preserve our natural environment as well as our natural resources.I am as naive as I can be as I am somewhat confused as to who to listen to and trust for advice, what is true behind the scientific data numbers and what are really at stakes in our environment. What are the simple things that we all as citizens of the earth can do today that we won't regret in the future? What are the odds that if we don't react responsibly today and that our future generation can still enjoy the parks the same way that we enjoy them today with great pictures and videos? I am taking an unusual initiative and step to study and learn as much as I can on environment and include my findings as part of my blogging articles. I want to be informed and make conscious choices in voting on particular environmental issues in California and educate myself and my family to go green in living and pick up our duties in conserving energy usage and find affordable means of transportation and renewable energy. I don't own a Hybrid car such as the Toyota Prius as I find them not as economical as I thought they would be. Is there other alternative that are both safe and cost effective to consider?
Every time that I see a mallard pair, I become the duck-aholic photographer. I shot all these green shots last weekend with Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD Macro and I can't imagine someday that our environment become hostile to many animals that we can hardly find them in their natural habitats or the trees are no longer as green as they should be
I am studying home simple remedies that are energy efficient and start to find places that I can recycle batteries properly. Some of the studies that I plan to look up
- Solar power panel, is it cost effective? I talked to Sun Solar Power in a presentation in San Mateo, it is not if I plan to live in the residence in less than 5 year time frame, it has to be at least 7 years.
- About energy efficient light bulbs, which are the best. I am dumb founded to find many of my energy light bulbs to fail shorter than the claimed hours, darn it.
- How come an average Japanese person is using 1/2 of energy as compared to average person in US. I am learning about this in http://californiareport.org/ and http://www.kqed.org/news/climatewatch/ with this wonderful article Keeping up with the Sakakis in Japan
- There is so much that we can learn from the Japanese who stay focused in reduction on energy consumption. However, with the onslaught of electronic devices, what are the guidelines to watch for consumer electronics? Do our industry set guidelines for electronic devices.
- How truthful is the inconvenient truth documentary that I watched in awe and got aspired from our previous vice president with Al Gore. Youtube clip in next paragraph.
I always like to shoot green tree leaves in back-lit scene and the brilliant light shining through the leaves vividly gives me comfort and inspiration for a green initiative that has come alive in my blog. Please join me in paying close attention to our natural environment and make it our daily efforts to think, plan and preserve our environments that we have no regrets in leaving our footprints for the future generations to come.
6 comments:
Those are really nice. Did you have any problems hand holding this lens because of it's length? It seems like a real steal price wise for the 300mm 1:2 macro.
Thanks for posting the enviromental info. It something I feel very passionate about.
Stanley, thanks for the visit. I used many cheapo manual lens with manual focusing which are all more difficult and heavier than the Tamron zoom lens with AF. It is actually a blessings in disguise when I go for the difficult route with MF lens to save cost that I force myself to improve on hand-holding and manual focusing skill with heavier lens. It is very odd but quite true.
Yes, it is long at 180mm to 300mm where I can set the lens in Macro mode to get in closer distance with 1:10 to 1:2 close up ratio.
I hold my lens with my left palm while tucking in my left elbow in to my stomach and chest area for firm support so that my left arm is like a V shape with my left palm holding the lens in steady form. Once I zoom in to the tele or macro setting, I make sure that my palm is further out in the lens so as to get a good balance in gripping the lens to a secure firm balance.
The best lens in that focal range is the Pentax DA 55-300mm but I love my Tamron zoom and I think the Sigma equivalent will do just as well without the PF/CA issues.
Hin, This was a most enjoyable read....I got to say that your line ''
Every time that I see a mallard pair, I become the duck-aholic photographer.'' had me laughing. So true and so funny..
First of all I would like to say that I just love to take photograph. Even I know good photography also. I must say that What a lovely photographs it is. Very good work. Thank you very much for sharing a beautiful work with us.
Nice theme in this write up, and esp. the green color in all the photos.
I too am on the fence about the cfl light bulbs; our plan is to phase them in our house as the other lights burn out.
I too don't believe the hybird hype, I think just smaller more efficient engines are the way to go. Now if hybirds come down in price, sure...
I need to look into this Japanese effort on energy reduction as well...
A nice change up in your tech-corner blog, I hope to see more like it!
Excellent write-up. I don't know exactly how the Japanese got so much more energy efficient than folks in the U.S. -- I suspect a lot of it has to do with small houses (cheaper to heat / cool / light) and high housing density (easier to get to work by train vs. car).
Meanwhile, I think it helps to just do what you can when you can. Over time we've replaced almost every bulb in the house with a CFL -- just a couple incandescents are left over the dining room table, but the fixture takes small base ("candelabra") bulbs, CFLs still aren't too great for that use, and LED bulbs are exorbitantly expensive. Our washer & dryer just gave out, so we replaced them with energy efficient models -- at this point, I think we've about done what we can.
As for hybrids (or not), I think it really comes down to gas mileage. If you want to help the environment, get the vehicle that gets the best mileage that you can afford -- regardless of the technology under the hood.
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