Chinatown.
Today was the 113th Annual Golden Dragon Parade & Chinese New Year Festival. It was held in Chinatown Los Angeles. I took over 1,500 pictures, but I’m able to upload only 10 here because tumblr will not allow me to put anymore. I will resolve this by getting an external site to host my images.
The festival went as expected. Since this year is the year of the dragon, there were many Dragon and Qulin mascots, if I could call it that. I could recall them really well; because I remember it scare the heck out of me when I was a little kid. How did the encounter happen? Well it is very common for a family and businesses to hire a crew or crews of people who does the Dragon and Qulin mascot dance. I have asked my mother what was the point of it. She said it was for good luck. Thinking back now I laugh. Because I spent the entire day, today, to get close to them for photos.
I will give you a rundown list of what I did today.
First, my friend Christian and I arrived in Chinatown at around 9am. He was hungry so we went go to get something to eat. He got some chicken buns and some Har-gow. Both are traditional Chinese dim sum. I didn’t get anything because I ate before I left home. Since the parade starts at 12pm, we didn’t know what to do with the giant amount of time in our hand. So we just walk around Chinatown until it was close to 10:30am, then we found a stage where people where practicing martial arts. We sat and waited for the free entertainment, but the crew left. Then later we found a sign stated that the performance would begin at 12pm. So we walk around some more. After a short walk Christian stopped by at a boba shop, he bought some drinks and some fried chicken and I, again, didn’t order anything. About 5 minutes later we heard a lot noise on the street. So I ran to check it out, while Christian sat and getting his stuff together. It turns out to be a crew of Qulin dancer performing in a nearby restaurant. I was bored so I chased up to them and began snatching (photographing), Christian shortly followed. After that ended we went back to the stage where we previously were. Again we just sit and chat about things, mostly about cameras, and try to plan for the parade. Finally the stage was occupied and the performance began, shortly after it began we learned that the parade would not start until 1pm. I got my camera out, so did Christian, and we just snatch away. Shortly after the performance ended, the line for the parade started to form. And after half an hour of waiting the parade started. And my shutter just goes CLACK CLACK CLACK *repeat* *repeat*. I was snatching photons into my sensor.
The images above are the highlights of the festival.
These photographs were taken yesterday (1-25-2012) in the temple located in China town Los Angeles. Although I have visited the temple many times, this was the second time I have taken a camera with me. On this trip, I packed light. I brought only my D7000 without the grip and my Nikkor 50mm F1.8G. I do apologize for not having a shot of the place, so you can see how it looks, but with 50mm on an APS-C sensor the focal length is about 75mm. Given that the temple is very tight in space. With 75mm range it is nearly impossible to take a snatch (shot). Anyways enough with what I didn’t get. Now on to the things I did get. The first picture is the golden statue of the guard that is in front of the door. I take it that he is guard that was descended from heaven. The second picture is a mythical creature in a form of a lion. The mythical creature was put there to guard evilness and bad luck. Lastly it is a picture of the giant door of the temple. The red cylinder is to represent the firecrackers. These pictures were the highlights of my trip. It was fun. Although I have been to that place numerous of times, it still has not fail to interest me. If you live in Los Angeles and have not visit Chinatown, the temple may be a good place to start. I know that Chinatown in Los Angeles is not as big as the ones in San Francisco or New York. If you ask me if which Chinatown is the best I would have to say the one in San Francisco is better. I could not say the same for the one in New York, because I have never been there in person. But given that you are in Los Angeles, there is nothing to lose to give it a shot. Plus it is fairly close to Little Tokyo and it is just minutes away from downtown.
The Temple’s address is: 1305 N Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90012
Shutter: 30 sec
Aperture: F4.2
ISO: 400
Camera used: Nikon D7000
Lens used: Nikkor 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 (Kit Lens)
This is my third attemp on Infrared photography.
The sky was super clear and sunny. Because D7000 have such a strong built-in infrared blocking element in front of the sensor, a longer exposure time is needed. Also my infrared filter is rated at 850nm. The image quality is not as good as i thought i would be. I believe this is due to the cheap eBay filter i used.
What are your opinion on it? Anything I should improve on? All good or bad comments are accepted.
I took this picture a couple of weeks ago. Downtown is just 15 minutes away from where I live. The original picture was quite noisy, so i turned it into black and white. But then it looks too bland for my taste, so i crushed the blacks and make it very contrasty.
