Trying out the new camera - Photo heavy post
Sunday, 1 October 2023 20:10![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elusivekAh, so my Panasonic LUMIX G died. hm... if I want to be really technical about it, the display monitor's dead. I can still switch the camera on. I can still take photos on it. I just couldn't see the photos or click on the menu and change the settings from the screen. I'd have to take the SD card out, connect it to the phone or computer then read the photos there. So... if I really had the patience, I could probably still use that camera. But in preparation of my upcoming trips, and seeing my Hong Kong Dollars account having some extra "fun hobby money", I decided to get myself a new camera. Nikon Zfc. Ugh. But the size of it is double that of my old one. And it's got a kazillion functions. The display and UI on the Nikon is vastly different and it's getting a little tough to get used to. The easiest UI I find on these cameras is on the Canon. Let's see if I can get used to the Nikon in these few weeks.
So far I've been mainly only using the automatic [A] setting and maybe the program [P] if there's a little more stuff I'd like to change. I still couldn't figure out where the control for the aperture and shutter speed are. I've found te exposure dial and after today's trip out I've gotten used to it.
Ah, don't preach to me that I can just read the user manual LOL. Who really reads the user manual? At least until there really is something to troubleshoot. I'm just gonna muck around the controls and see what is what and then get used to them.
Two nights ago, on the actual night of the "Mid Autumn Festival", people went out to light lanterns, have some kind of nighttime out door picnic and all that. I went up to the rooftop for some photo taking. I had a paper lantern too but it was too windy to take a good shot, and I hadn't figured out the best night time settings yet.
My previous cameras (both the Panasonic and the Canon) had some easy controls and quick "night mode" preset settings. I still couldn't find where the hell that function is on the Nikon. I'm actually worried I got a camera above my skill and knowledge level. But everywhere I read said that the Z fc is good for beginners.
Today is actually my Mom's birthday. Yeah. My family's really patriotic. My Mom was born on the same day, same month, same year, as the PRC. So you can never forget my Mom's birthday. And her age. Coz. China. Yeah. After the big family lunch, I got home and instead of just laying down (because it's a holiday and what better than to just lay down and do nothing?), I decided to go out again to play around with the camera.
I'll try to sequence the photos according to my walk this afternoon. The internet gods know why when I upload to Flickr the sequence gets all messed up.
Saint Lawrence Church
Saint Joseph Seminary
There was something going on on this street "Rua de Felicidade". A long time ago, the windows on the buildings of this street was green (as they are here), but then later on got all painted red, so this street also has a Chinese alias as "紅窗門" (it has a proper Chinese name as well, but nothing interesting), and it was the red-light district in town. Probably because of that, so the street name "Rua de Felicidade" (Street of happiness). Maybe the government or tourism bureau wanted to clean up the image so had the windows painted green again? Anyway, there was some bazaar or flea market thing going on, probably for the holidays.
I then crossed "新馬路 San Ma Lou" ("New Street") actual name "Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro" (probably a name from some Portuguese general or governor or president). This building is one of those pawnshops that got turned into a museum or something.
Next was a walk through another small street/alleyway (forgot the name and too lazy to look it up as I'm writing here) and the tourism department as decided to close the street up and make it pedestrian only as well. Also, with some bazaar or flea market deal going on.
They also decided to put up a screen thing to make it like the... is it Harajuku cat? Lots of people standing waiting for the next cat show. And I may be saying this as if I'm sneering at the tourists, but did you notice, I was standing there and waiting to take a couple shots as well? LOL.
Walked past a Chinese temple... or alter... or whatever.
Then it was the walk up to the Ruins of St Paul. Have you heard of the term "人山人海 People Mountain People Sea"? This is it. Have I ever told the story about the Ruins? How I was taught as kid that this was a Miracle of God? That it got burnt twice but the facade always stood? Load of BS. The church was built of wood and the facade of stone. So go figure the miracle.
This is Father Matteo Ricci. I need re-wiki the guy to refresh my memory, but I think he's the one that wrote some kind of compedium or dictionary of Chinese and Latin or Portuguese or something. There's a school named after him here in town too.
I was up at the Fortress but decided again going in there because it's just gonna be another tourist trap. I'll go again some day that's not some big holiday, and avoid the crown. On the way down though, pigeons flying around this tree.
I also like to look for these Portuguese emblems on historical buildings as the "new" government has taken down a lot of these Portuguese insignias all around town. I'm not sure if they left some of these because of historical monument reasons, or they just didn't notice (yet).
I never noticed this building was only half-side restored. Usually when I walk past this street I'm just focused on going my way I don't take the time to look around. Thanks to my plan to try out the camera I'm looking around town with fresh new eyes. And this other is a run down dilapidated building, it's in a prime location so probably the private ownership is still in force so nobody can do nothing about it, or the world heritage thing dictats that no one can touch it.
This probably would be amazing at night with all these lanterns. This place used to be a old people's home. Chinese name "婆仔屋" "Granny home" so probably a home for old grannies. Now it's some sort of courtyard with a restaurant, a cafe, a portuguese goods shop, and two art galleries.
Some random buildings in the area.
Saint Lazarus Church.
I could have made my way to the Tap Seac Square as well, but, my age is catching up and I was starting to get tired, so, I made my way back, but of course, a different way, so there's still more to see. First, I got a passion fruit and mango juice with aloe vera. I could have gone up a hill to see the Cathedral... but I was just so tired... so... instead, I kept on flat land and this on the right is the Saint Dominic's Church.
This Senado Square as well, would be amazing at night, I suppose!
The local tourism bureau would probably hate me for saying this, but hey, I think my retelling of certain histories make them a little more interesting! It's more candid this way! THIS is the Leal Senado "The Loyal Senate". This banner here says "Cidade do Nome de Deus, não ha outra mais leal" (City of the name of God, there is none other more loyal), Macau was also given the name "Leal" (Loyal) because... well... during that time when Spain had invaded and taken over Portugal, not once had Macau raised the Spanish Flag, remaining loyal to the Portuguese!
THAT is supposedly the "official" story (or feel free to read the "proper" account). My interpretation is... Come on, it was the 1500s/1600s. There was no internet. News travelled slow. Macau probably didn't know about the takeover at all as the news hadn't reached town ever, LOL.
Anyway, this building used to serve as a prison as well. There's also a fancy old style library but it's so fragile, you can't touch or read any of the books. You're also not supposed to sit or use the ready-to-collapse tables and chairs. The door was closed so it wasn't open for visits today. Instead I have this... tile painting of the Senate building in 3 different time periods and 2 Portuguese poets/writers. I know of Camões (one-blind-eye guy), and I dunno the other. And don't harp me about not knowing much of Portuguese history, I haven't studied any Portuguese history at all, it was not in my English-school curriculum.
Very nice courtyard that I keep forgetting about.
Love the door agains the Portuguese tiles.
This is the General Post Office. I don't recall exactly what my History of Macau teacher (I remember she was a German lady - interesting!) said this is one of the very few classical style buildings with the entrance in the corner, and that she hated it very much. Do you see that weird lighter colored circle near the top? It used to have that Portuguese insignia or emblem thing, they covered it up and put the logo for the Post Office LOL. That's what I meant about the government taking down all these Portuguese emblems.
Final stretch. This on the left is the BNU (Bank of No Use Banco Nacional Ultramarino). I jest with the nickname LOL. This is a subsidiary to the Portuguese CGD so any remittance to European banks better go through this bank. Even though with my current job this bank is not my salary bank, I still keep my account here. Hey, I may act all chill and gung-ho but I'm also not going to rely just on red-flag banks. I think this is also one of the first few buildings that in order to "preserve the architecture", they kept the facade and built a new tower behind it. On the right is the view up San Ma Lou and you see at least 3 casinos in the far end, no wait, that's 4, even I missed one LOL.
And I'm almost home. I live in this area, more quiet than directly downtown, but near enough it's a short 10 minute walk away. That's the Government Headquarters on the right side photo.
Soooooooo. The camera was fun. I still haven't totally figured out the camera. I should take it out a couple more times in the coming days. But here's this bonus tour around downtown Macau. Hope you enjoyed!
So far I've been mainly only using the automatic [A] setting and maybe the program [P] if there's a little more stuff I'd like to change. I still couldn't figure out where the control for the aperture and shutter speed are. I've found te exposure dial and after today's trip out I've gotten used to it.
Ah, don't preach to me that I can just read the user manual LOL. Who really reads the user manual? At least until there really is something to troubleshoot. I'm just gonna muck around the controls and see what is what and then get used to them.
Two nights ago, on the actual night of the "Mid Autumn Festival", people went out to light lanterns, have some kind of nighttime out door picnic and all that. I went up to the rooftop for some photo taking. I had a paper lantern too but it was too windy to take a good shot, and I hadn't figured out the best night time settings yet.
My previous cameras (both the Panasonic and the Canon) had some easy controls and quick "night mode" preset settings. I still couldn't find where the hell that function is on the Nikon. I'm actually worried I got a camera above my skill and knowledge level. But everywhere I read said that the Z fc is good for beginners.
Today is actually my Mom's birthday. Yeah. My family's really patriotic. My Mom was born on the same day, same month, same year, as the PRC. So you can never forget my Mom's birthday. And her age. Coz. China. Yeah. After the big family lunch, I got home and instead of just laying down (because it's a holiday and what better than to just lay down and do nothing?), I decided to go out again to play around with the camera.
I'll try to sequence the photos according to my walk this afternoon. The internet gods know why when I upload to Flickr the sequence gets all messed up.
Saint Lawrence Church
Saint Joseph Seminary
There was something going on on this street "Rua de Felicidade". A long time ago, the windows on the buildings of this street was green (as they are here), but then later on got all painted red, so this street also has a Chinese alias as "紅窗門" (it has a proper Chinese name as well, but nothing interesting), and it was the red-light district in town. Probably because of that, so the street name "Rua de Felicidade" (Street of happiness). Maybe the government or tourism bureau wanted to clean up the image so had the windows painted green again? Anyway, there was some bazaar or flea market thing going on, probably for the holidays.
I then crossed "新馬路 San Ma Lou" ("New Street") actual name "Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro" (probably a name from some Portuguese general or governor or president). This building is one of those pawnshops that got turned into a museum or something.
Next was a walk through another small street/alleyway (forgot the name and too lazy to look it up as I'm writing here) and the tourism department as decided to close the street up and make it pedestrian only as well. Also, with some bazaar or flea market deal going on.
They also decided to put up a screen thing to make it like the... is it Harajuku cat? Lots of people standing waiting for the next cat show. And I may be saying this as if I'm sneering at the tourists, but did you notice, I was standing there and waiting to take a couple shots as well? LOL.
Walked past a Chinese temple... or alter... or whatever.
Then it was the walk up to the Ruins of St Paul. Have you heard of the term "人山人海 People Mountain People Sea"? This is it. Have I ever told the story about the Ruins? How I was taught as kid that this was a Miracle of God? That it got burnt twice but the facade always stood? Load of BS. The church was built of wood and the facade of stone. So go figure the miracle.
This is Father Matteo Ricci. I need re-wiki the guy to refresh my memory, but I think he's the one that wrote some kind of compedium or dictionary of Chinese and Latin or Portuguese or something. There's a school named after him here in town too.
I was up at the Fortress but decided again going in there because it's just gonna be another tourist trap. I'll go again some day that's not some big holiday, and avoid the crown. On the way down though, pigeons flying around this tree.
I also like to look for these Portuguese emblems on historical buildings as the "new" government has taken down a lot of these Portuguese insignias all around town. I'm not sure if they left some of these because of historical monument reasons, or they just didn't notice (yet).
This street name amuses me to no end. In a bilingual country/place, I would assume that street names are translated and refer to each language, would you agree? So say, in Hong Kong, "Garden Street" is "花園街" (literal translation of "Garden" and "Street"). In Macau, some streets do that. Some streets, such as "Avenida de Sacadura Cabral" is "沙嘉都喇賈罷麗街", in Chinese it wouldn't mean anything. It's just a transliteration of "Sacadura Cabral". Think of it like a street name in China being transliterated to English, "民主路" "Minzhu Lu" ("Minzhu Road" "Democracy Road"). But I think it's only in Macau (can't confirm, but I think so) that there are certain streets that the two languages do not match. Here, "Rua do Pato" means like "Duck Street", but in Chinese "醫院後街" means "Back street of Hospital". This building that is currently the Portuguese consulate, indeed was a hospital ages ago, and this street indeed was the street behind the hospital, so I get it. I'm just not sure if they used to sell ducks or not, for it to have that Portuguese name, LOL.
I never noticed this building was only half-side restored. Usually when I walk past this street I'm just focused on going my way I don't take the time to look around. Thanks to my plan to try out the camera I'm looking around town with fresh new eyes. And this other is a run down dilapidated building, it's in a prime location so probably the private ownership is still in force so nobody can do nothing about it, or the world heritage thing dictats that no one can touch it.
This probably would be amazing at night with all these lanterns. This place used to be a old people's home. Chinese name "婆仔屋" "Granny home" so probably a home for old grannies. Now it's some sort of courtyard with a restaurant, a cafe, a portuguese goods shop, and two art galleries.
Some random buildings in the area.
Saint Lazarus Church.
I could have made my way to the Tap Seac Square as well, but, my age is catching up and I was starting to get tired, so, I made my way back, but of course, a different way, so there's still more to see. First, I got a passion fruit and mango juice with aloe vera. I could have gone up a hill to see the Cathedral... but I was just so tired... so... instead, I kept on flat land and this on the right is the Saint Dominic's Church.
This Senado Square as well, would be amazing at night, I suppose!
The local tourism bureau would probably hate me for saying this, but hey, I think my retelling of certain histories make them a little more interesting! It's more candid this way! THIS is the Leal Senado "The Loyal Senate". This banner here says "Cidade do Nome de Deus, não ha outra mais leal" (City of the name of God, there is none other more loyal), Macau was also given the name "Leal" (Loyal) because... well... during that time when Spain had invaded and taken over Portugal, not once had Macau raised the Spanish Flag, remaining loyal to the Portuguese!
THAT is supposedly the "official" story (or feel free to read the "proper" account). My interpretation is... Come on, it was the 1500s/1600s. There was no internet. News travelled slow. Macau probably didn't know about the takeover at all as the news hadn't reached town ever, LOL.
Anyway, this building used to serve as a prison as well. There's also a fancy old style library but it's so fragile, you can't touch or read any of the books. You're also not supposed to sit or use the ready-to-collapse tables and chairs. The door was closed so it wasn't open for visits today. Instead I have this... tile painting of the Senate building in 3 different time periods and 2 Portuguese poets/writers. I know of Camões (one-blind-eye guy), and I dunno the other. And don't harp me about not knowing much of Portuguese history, I haven't studied any Portuguese history at all, it was not in my English-school curriculum.
Very nice courtyard that I keep forgetting about.
Love the door agains the Portuguese tiles.
This is the General Post Office. I don't recall exactly what my History of Macau teacher (I remember she was a German lady - interesting!) said this is one of the very few classical style buildings with the entrance in the corner, and that she hated it very much. Do you see that weird lighter colored circle near the top? It used to have that Portuguese insignia or emblem thing, they covered it up and put the logo for the Post Office LOL. That's what I meant about the government taking down all these Portuguese emblems.
Final stretch. This on the left is the BNU (
And I'm almost home. I live in this area, more quiet than directly downtown, but near enough it's a short 10 minute walk away. That's the Government Headquarters on the right side photo.
Soooooooo. The camera was fun. I still haven't totally figured out the camera. I should take it out a couple more times in the coming days. But here's this bonus tour around downtown Macau. Hope you enjoyed!
