God of this city - a song for China

5 days ago I came back from my China family holiday. We went to Yun Nan province with other church families, visiting Kun Ming, Da Li, Li Jiang and Shangrila. The trip was awesome... the scenery, food, experiences... but more than that, it opened my spiritual eyes to realise that the chinese there need Christ. Many of them engage in nature worship; they bow to the mountains, water, earth etc. Throughout the land I see the need for salvation and for the truth to set them free, and I believe this is THE song that God gave me for Yun Nan.

God of this City, by Chris Tomlin:


You're the God of this city
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this city
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in here...

Indeed, it is my pray that our generation of Christians will do greater things in this land, through our almighty God.

10 ways Panasonic can improve the LX3

The Panasonic Lumix LX3 is an incredible compact camera. Having used it for about two months, I think I have roughly understood this high-end P&S. I brought it with me on my China holiday in beautiful Yun Nan this month, and the LX3 performed well beyond my expectations. In fact, because of its size and ease of use, I find myself shooting more with the LX3 than my 400D in China.

Despite how good it is, there is always room for improvement. Here are my top 10 improvements I would like to see in the next version of this series.

1) Longer zoom (more than 3X)
The current 2.5 times zoom is fine for landscape, but for things like portraits a longer focal length is greatly appreciated.

2) Built-in lens cap
The current SLR-like lens cap is annoying to take on and off when shooting, and increases the size of the already huge lens. Without attaching the cap to the camera body, it can be lost easily. But when attached with the provided string, it dangles about dangerously and may hit against the body. A built-in cap is more convenient and practical.

3) Wrist strap
This is a minor problem. The LX3 does not come with a wrist strap; it only has an SLR-like neck strap, which is long and cumbersome. To solve this, use a wrist strap from your old compact cam.

4) Better high ISO performance
As it is, the LX3 is one of the better low light compact cams I've seen. However, it is still incomparable to high ISO performance even on the entry-level dSLRs, such as the Canon 1000D. On the LX3, anything above ISO 800 is unusable because the noise reduction obliterates any details. If you're printing large prints, ISO 400 is about the limit for retaining image quality. Nonetheless, I must say that at ISO 80/100, image quality is astoundingly good, producing noiseless photographs.

5) Better WB performance
In daylight conditions the white balance is generally fine. However, in tricky or low light situations, white balance tends to go horrendously off without flash, as with compact cams generally. Shooting in RAW definitely helps to counter this problem.

6) Stiffer mode dial
This is really me being anal-retentive... but I would like the mode dial to be stiffer so I don't accidentally turn it.

7) Scratch-proof screen
I passed the LX3 to my sis for 2 days and it came back with many surface scratches on the large 3 inch screen. Would really appreciate a scratch-resistant screen (like the iPod touch).

8) Better video recording format
Video on the LX3 is recorded in the old Quicktime motion JPEG format (.mov), which produces very huge files (though quality is good). Would appreciate a more compatible file extension such as .mpeg4 and smaller file sizes.

9) More powerful flash
I noticed that the flash could be more powerful, especially when taking wide angle group shots in low light. However, for fill flash in backlit conditions, the flash suffices.

10) Sturdier battery/SD card door
This is another small issue that only anal people like me bother about. The rectangular door housing the battery and SD card is a bit flimsy. I would appreciate a stiffer and sturdier door.

Having listed my 10 ten improvements, I hope the next revision of the LX series will get better and these complaints (some very minor) will be addressed. Do bear in mind that this list does not in any way suggest that the LX3 is inferior, for indeed this is one heck of a camera that really impresses.

Scott Bourne's stunning crane image

Scott Bourne, host of the podcast This Week in Photography, recently made an image that he wanted to make for 12 years!

He titled this absolutely STUNNING image "Cranes in the Fire Mist". 

Photo from twipphoto.com

Taken at Bosque del Apache, this captivating wildlife shot is now one of my top 10 favourite wildlife images. When I first saw this on his flickr stream, it was so beautiful that I let out a "wow" and stared at my screen frozen for a few minutes.

As Scott has written, this is a very emotional image for him, and (I think) probably one of his best works. He details the entire story behind this shot at the TWiP blog, and you definitely should check it out. He writes about how lucky he was to have all the elements of the shot come together... the light, fog, golden sunlight, weather, birds... and how he waited patiently for 12 freakin years to get these conditions!!! But in the end, it's all worth the wait.

This is a very inspiring shot to me, one that leaves me amazed, awe-struck and at a loss for words. But more than the aesthetic beauty, this shot has reminded me of the importance of pre-visualisation and patience in photography.