Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur at sunset, photo taken from KL Tower (through glass) during one of the moody storms

 
This post is dedicated to Robin Wong, a Malaysian photographer whom I first knew about from Kirk Tuck's post about the BERISH 3.0 Malaysian Protests.
 
You see, I have traveled to Kuala Lumpur once and enjoyed my trip there immensely, and I really wish to go back there. I am also quite interested in Olympus M4/3 system, so when I saw Robin's blog, I enjoyed looking at his photos (especially the sharpness and the B&W treatment) and started back reading lots of his older posts that I missed, I have since been subscribed to his blog, and I enjoy reading everyone of his posts. More after the break.

Several of Robin's posts featured the Westin hotel (where I stayed), the KL Bird Park and Bukit Bintang, it all felt very nostalgic, especially that Malaysia is the only East Asian country that I ever visited, so I decided to post about my trip to Malaysia.
 

Downtown KL, shot from the KL Tower

 
I traveled to Kuala Lumpur (I'll call it KL for the rest of the post) on a business trip for 4 days, I arrived at noon one day before my conference started, and stayed for one more day afterwards, this gave me two opportunities to see KL in daylight.
 
Malaysia has tropical weather, during my stay there it was hot and very humid. The sky can be clear and shiny one second, and then suddenly there's a heavy rain shower which suddenly stops again, one of the essential things that I brought with me was an umbrella (we never use those in Egypt, but I had bought one during my trip to Sweden).
 
GEAR TALK:
 
One day before leaving for Malaysia, I sold my Canon 550D and kit lens, I had called a camera store in Malaysia and had them book a Canon 60D for me to pick it up upon my arrival, and I only took my lenses with me. This was a bit risky because if I didn't get/find the camera I would miss shooting everything during my trip. Little did I know, KL turned out to be a camera/DSLR heaven, and I bought way more things than I originally planned from there. I picked up my 60D on my first day of arrival just after I unpacked my bags at the hotel, you can read my initial impressions here.
 
Before I start talking about my trip, I would like to talk about the lenses I chose to take with me, I wanted to travel light, so initially I planned to take the Canon EF-S 15-85mm zoom for all-round shooting, and the Canon EF 35mm f/2 for night shooting, but I knew I'd be visiting the famous KL Bird Park, so I took the Canon EF-S 55-250mm along just for that reason, and actually I didn't use it anywhere else. I had my Lowepro Top Loader Zoom 55AW with me (it has a rain cover that I actually used).
 
I bought the following things during my trip: Canon 60D, Canon 580EX II speedlite, BlackRapid RS-5 strap, Lowepro Top Loader Zoom 45AW and a few small accessories.
 
THE TRIP:
 
I didn't get to shoot a lot on my first day, I arrived at noon, unpacked my bags and went to buy the 60D, the weather was great when I arrived, and a few minutes before I left the hotel, a rainy storm suddenly started, oh well, an umbrella and a Taxi it is. I was staying at the Westin hotel, where we also had our 2-day conference, below are some photos taken at the hotel, and the parking lot outside.
 

Candles at the hotel entrance

 

Desk lamp in my room, I like the pattern it makes on the wall

 

A very cozy dining area

 

Strange ceiling decor

 

Lamborghini Murceilago, lots of nice cars in KL

 
After we finished our first conference day, we were invited to a Thai restaurant for dinner, outside of KL. We took a couple of buses and went there, I took my 60D and 35mm f/2, light inside the restaurant was too dim, I had to shoot wide-open at f/2, ISO 3200 and even then shutter speed was around 1/10th and 1/15th risking motion-blur, it was the first time for me to use ISO 3200 and like the results, I limited myself to ISO 1600 with the 550D.
 

Rain and heavy traffic, KL traffic is incredibly jammed almost all time

Rain bokeh blobs

 

Restaurant entrance, dim, red lights everywhere

 

I don't know half of the things I ate there

 

Guava juice, in Egypt the juice is usually white and thick, not greenish and translucent

 

Japanese friend, see the phone light on his face?

 

The bus driver that took us back to the hotel

 

My Swedish friend Mats, took this photo when we returned to the hotel

 
Next day after the conference I went shooting & shopping until night around Bukit Bintang and the Pavilion mall, I usually don't do any street shooting in Egypt, culturally this is not a normal practice, even carrying a camera in the street will get you lots of hard stares, however, in KL I was very relieved to see 90% of the people carrying cameras and shooting every thing.
 

Pavilion Mall from inside

 

Saw this sign on one of Robin's picture, that's why it's here

 

McDonald's

 

On my way to one of the camera malls

 
Next day was my final day in KL, conference was over and I decided to go to the KL Bird Park, I was up and ready from 7 am, I finished my breakfast quickly and asked the hotel on the best way to go to the park, only to discover that the park didn't open until 10 am, drat, I had to wait for tw hours in my room since nothing else opened earlier.
 
I took the 60D with the 55-250 and my black rapid strap, I also took my Lowepro bag (in case it rained) and the 35mm f/2. I am very fond of the quality the 55-250 exhibited for such a budget lens, sharpness was great, bokeh was round and nice, and actually I dig the look a telephoto lens has, the background compression just looks creamy to me.
 

This bird usually stayed at high places, it looked like a park guardian

 

Colorful beak and eye ring, look how smooth the color transitions are

 

Luxurious duck, if it were a person, it would be a rich man wearing expensive suits

 

Colorful duck, although more humble than the one above

 

Eagles, they look scary, especially that close, all eagle shots were taken through the cage

 

Same eagle, the telephoto lens makes the cage magically disappear

 

Intimidating, here you can see traces of the cage on the right part of the picture

 

Solemn

 

This bird was everywhere in the park

 

It was their mating season and I was fortunate to see this view

 

Artificial frogs, I like how the moulds look

 

Slippery stairs

 

Green everywhere, see that net on the left side? The whole park is covered with it!

 

Red parrot

 

Colorful parrot

 

School trip to the park

 

Despite enjoying the park, I had to leave to catch a view of KL from the top

 
I went back to the hotel around 3 pm, and only had a couple of hours before sunset, and it hasn't rained once since morning, so I decided to ditch my camera bag, and only left with the 60D and the 15-85 hanging at my side with the black rapid strap, no weather protection at all.
 
I wanted to see KL from above, and there were two options, either the famous skywalk on the KLCC twin towers, or the KL TV tower, I wanted to go to the former, but I learned there are long queues and lots of waiting. One of the Malaysian participants in the conference advised me to go to the TV tower instead as it has a better view, so that's where I went, and he was correct, the skywalk on the KLCC was a path connecting between two buildings with a limited view to the sides only, the KL tower has a 360 degrees view and much higher (~280 meters).
 

This is the view from my hotel room, and it shows the KL Tower in the middle

 
I assumed that I'd find an open air observation deck or something, but it was all covered with glass that is not clean and has lots of reflections and glare that reduced the contrast, however I was able to get some good photos.
 

High in the sky

 

One of the benefits of the 360 view, I can see everywhere

 

Pool on the roof

 

Zoom was quite decent with the 15-85

 
I decided to leave and do a bit of shopping before my plane was set to leave, but a funny thing happened, a sudden thunder storm, and a strong one at that, I saw lightning strike buildings around us, and I was worried at the beginning, but the attitude of the others around me told me that there is nothing to worrying about, however, there was another problem, rain and cameras are not friends, I didn't have my umbrella or my Lowepro camera bag, so I was stuck at the tower until rain stopped, but I'm glad I waited because of this picture you see below taken after sunset, one of my favorites.
 

KL from the top

 
Rain didn't stop and I had to leave, so I asked about a way to get a taxi and ride it without having to walk in the rain, turned out there was a covered place below the tower where taxis took passengers, now I was back to the hotel with my camera safe and sound.
 
I finished the remaining of my shopping, exchanged the remaining Malaysian money to USD and went back to the hotel to pack my bags. My plane was set to leave at dawn, and I was quite surprised at how empty the airport was from inside at that time, it was as if I will be the only passenger.
 

Ghost airport

 
I hope you've enjoyed this post, and if you're interested in traveling to Malaysia, I urge you to go, it's a great tourist destination with lots of things to see, and I wish I had enough time to visit all the different places outside of KL.
 

See that plane? There was another one at the right side as well, is this normal?

 

Posted with Blogsy

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GGS LCD Screen Protector III Review

After deciding that my Nikon D90 was a keeper, I ordered a GGS screen protector for it.  I've used it before and found it far clearer than the BM-8 LCD plastic cover included with most Nikon DSLRs (a few such as the D3 and D5100 don't have one).  Recently I also found out first hand about its protective capabilities.

There is now a new 3rd generation version of the GGS available for some cameras.  The biggest difference is that instead of the screen protector being affixed to your LCD screen with an adhesive, the screen protector clips on just like the BM-8.  The 3rd generation GGS is also supposed to have a film to prevent shattering, thus reducing the risk of damage to the camera in case the GGS breaks.  Another difference is that the 3rd gen GGS includes an anti-fog protective cover for the eyepiece.  Like the top LCD and main LCD covers, the viewfinder cover is also made of glass. Remarkably, the price is about the same as the classic GGS.

Both the viewfinder cover and top LCD cover attach via stickers around their edges.

With the viewfinder cover attached, I could not fit my generic rubber eyecup over the viewfinder.  However, an original Nikon DK-21 rubber eyecup can fit over the viewfinder with GGS cover.

The viewfinder looks just as clear as it does without the viewfinder cover.  I could not tell any difference.  As for its anti-fog properties, I put my camera briefly in the refrigerator and did not see any fog develop inside the cover or viewfinder.

The main LCD protector clips on the LCD just like the BM-8 plastic cover.  However, unlike the BM-8, the GGS protector includes a black frame around it that fits the camera snugly.  The fit is tight enough that I could not slide a piece of paper in between the cover and the LCD unless I used the very thin kind of thermal paper used for receipts.  Even then I could only get it through one of the corners.

On Amazon, there is a review that criticized how easily the main LCD cover falls off.  However, with my D90, the protector stays on firmly.  It's certainly not more easily detached than the BM-8 cover.

EDIT: Pls. see comment below from reader Opt.

The frame matches the camera's body pretty closely, so that it's not easy to spot it at a casual glance.

There is a small hole on the bottom left corner of the main LCD cover.  I believe it's there to prevent fog. It might allow dust to enter between the LCD cover but at least the cover is easily removable.

The new protector appears to be about as clear as the old one, although there is a very slight ghosting that I didn't see in the old protector.  This is probably due to the larger gap between the protector and the LCD.

So far, I am satisfied with the new 3rd generation GGS protector, and I would probably buy it again instead of the old protector because of the viewfinder cover.  The main LCD cover might allow dust to get in between the cover but that's outweighed by the decreased risk to the LCD because of the new film and because of the larger gap between the cover and the LCD.  In addition, if the cover is damaged, removing the cover presents absolutely no risk to the LCD.

I will update this review if I find that it's unduly susceptible to dust or being dislodged.

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Yongnuo YN-560EX (EX600) Preliminary Tests

UPDATE: See the more comprehensive review here.

I just received the Yongnuo YN-560EX last night and did some tests.  FYI the YN-560EX (formerly EX600) is a manual flash with wireless TTL via Canon or Nikon's wireless flash commanders.  I was excited about this model because it's only $109.99, less than the YN-565EX (which has wireless TTL as well as on-camera TTL and costs around $160 for the Nikon version).  I believe it is currently the cheapest wireless TTL flash available.

I will post a more comprehensive review later but for now here are the results of my quick tests:

• Build quality: seems about the same as the YN-560, but the LCD screen makes it look more polished.  The buttons are also different from the YN-560 and are hard plastic instead of squishy rubber, another improvement.  The hotshoe is mostly metal (the middle is plastic - perhaps to allow the flash to break away instead of tearing out your camera's hotshoe) and has a locking pin.  Doesn't look cheap at all.
• Includes a flash stand and a nice-looking ballistic nylon case (similar to the case for an SB-900 or SB-800, though with slightly thinner padding) with a compartment for the stand.
• Recycling: very fast.  At full power, seems to recycle in about 2 seconds with eneloop NiMH batteries.  I have to test whether it's really fully recycled or it's just indicating that it has recycled when it hasn't yet.
• Power: advertised as having a guide number of 58 meters.  However when I tested it briefly against my SB-800 at 105mm zoom, the 560EX's output was noticeably lower, perhaps by as much as 1/2 stop.  My flashmeter is out for repair but it's one of the things I will test when I get my flashmeter back.
• Interface: I liked the simple interface of the YN-560.  I was wondering with the new LCD interface of the YN-560EX whether the interface would become more complicated.  I found the interface very easy to use.  The only time I needed to look at the manual was to activate advanced options (sleep settings, manual power level increments, LCD brightness, quick startup)
• Head rotates 180 degrees in both directions.
• The front of the flash, where other flashes have an AF assist indicator, has brightly flashing LED lights when the 560EX is used as a slave to indicate that the flash is ready.
• Has a 2.5mm jack instead of PC connector.  Could make it easier to connect it to accessories such as radio triggers.
• Wireless mode: just like the YN-565EX you can select either wireless Nikon slave or wireless Canon slave.  In addition, there is the usual S1 (optical slave) and S2 (optical slave with delay for TTL).

With both the Canon and the Nikon wireless modes, you can select any of 4 channels and any of 3 groups (A, B, C).

I tested the Nikon wireless slave mode with the Nikon D90's popup commander and an SB-800 as master flash.  With the popup commander I was able to control the 560EX in channel 1, group A either in manual or TTL.  I was able to adjust the power manually and was able to adjust the flash exposure compensation.  I briefly tested channels 2, 3 and 4 and they also seemed to work.  However, when the 560EX is set to Group B, it seldom worked (perhaps 1 out of 10 shots), no matter which channel I used.  What's unusual is that I can see the flash firing but the flash is not in sync with the shot.

UPDATE: With my Fuji S5, it works in both Group A and B.  Will try to test with other cameras.

Using the SB-800 as commander, I was able to control the 560EX in group A, B or C, either in manual or TTL, apparently in all channels.

Some of the other tests I'd like to run:

• TTL accuracy / similarity to SB-800
• wireless mode sensitivity compared to SB-800
• Does the wireless mode still work even when I am using other flashes in other groups?
• I will try to meetup with a friend who has a Canon to see if he can control the flash.
• testing whether the recycle at 2 secs. is really to full power.
• flashmeter measurement

If there's anything else you'd like me to test, just post it in the comments or email me at info AT betterfamilyphotos.com.

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High-Key Passport Photos

My wife needed new passport photos.  It's much more convenient and economical to have passport photos taken at a store somewhere like Costco.  On the other hand, by taking the shots myself, my wife could get as many shots as she wants to her satisfaction.

I have posted about DIY Passport Photos previously.  On this occasion, instead of a quick two-light setup like I did last time, I tried a slightly more elaborate setup just for fun (and practice).

TRIGGER

If I had several wireless flashes, I could have controlled all my flashes remotely with the popup flash using Nikon Advanced Wireless Lighting.  However, I only have two such flashes at the moment, therefore I decided to trigger the flashes using a combination of the Radiopopper JrX Studio and optical triggering.

LIGHTING SETUP

For my background, I used the Fotodiox 5 ft x 7 ft popup background, the same one I used in my recent portrait session. I illuminated the background with two speedlights aimed diagonally at the background.  Having two speedlights instead of one has a couple of benefits.  First of all, each speedlight individually will use less power, allowing quicker recycling.  Second, if aimed properly, each speedlight can fill in any shadows produced by the other speedlight, making the light on the backgound as even as possible.  I aimed the lights diagonally (similar to an "x" pattern) so that the light on the background would be more even instead of having a gradient due to the inverse square law.

The speedlights for the background were a Nikon SB-26 and a Nikon SB-24.  The SB-24 was controlled and triggered by a Radiopopper JrX.  The SB-26 was triggered optically with its built-in slave.

I also added a hair light (visible in the shot above).  For my hair light, I used an SB-80 controlled and triggered by a Radiopopper JrX with a honeycomb grid (to avoid flare).  The flash was mounted using the CowboyStudio boom.  However, instead of attaching the boom to its included stand, I attached it to a Linco 8408 8 foot-lightstand.  I noticed that the weight of the boom and flash was enough to cause the sturdy light stand to bend slightly (it's not barrel distortion).

For my key light, I used two umbrellas, one umbrella on each side of the subject, aimed at around 45 degrees.  This was the setup my co-author mshafik suggested, and is actually the setup that is also suggested on the Department of State website.  Shadows from the left umbrella would be cast on the right but would be filled in by the right umbrella, and vice-versa, thus producing a very evenly-lit photo.

I used a Nikon SB-800 with a 60-inch shoot-through umbrella, and a Nikon SB-800 with the 42-inch Lastolite Trifold shoot-through umbrella.  I chose shoot-through umbrellas because their light is less directional than a beauty dish, softbox or reflective umbrella, plus I would get some bounce off the ceiling, walls and floor, making the light as soft and as even as possible.  For absolutley minimal shadows I would have placed the umbrellas at camera height.  However, I placed it higher than that just for the slightest bit of modeling.

Both flashes were mounted on Linco 8310 lightstands with a Frio coldshoe on the cowboystudio D adapter for the 60-inch umbrella, and my old umbrella adapter (also with a Frio coldshoe) for the trifold umbrella (because the 8mm trifold shaft is too wide for the D adapter).  Both flashes were triggered optically with the Nikon SB-800s on SU-4 mode.  It would have been nice to have more Radiopopper JrX Studios to control the SB-800s but I only have two JrX Studio receivers, which I already used for the hair light and one of the background lights.  I didn't use the JrX for the key lights because I was going to be shooting near the key lights anyway, so it wouldn't be difficult to adjust their power by pressing the buttons.

Here's how the whole setup looked:

EXPOSURE

Because the subjects were stationary in a fairly controlled environment, I chose to use manual flash exposure instead of TTL.  Using manual flash in these circumstances would give more consistent results than using TTL.

First, I decided on the balance of flash and ambient.  In this case, for maximum control and sharpness, I decided all the light would be from the flash.  Using only flash as my light source allows me to have full control over the intensity, quality and direction of the light.  In addition, the effective shutter speed would be the flash duration, which is very brief (even at maximum power, it never gets slower than 1/800).  The high effective shutter speed would help increase image sharpness (by minimizing blur from camera shake and subject movement).

To use flash as my only light source I had to minimize the ambient by setting the shutter speed to the sync speed (1/200 for the Nikon D90).  For maximum image quality, I set the ISO to the base ISO (for the Nikon D90, 200).  For adequate depth of field, I initially selected an aperture of f/4.0.  At these settings, the ambient was underexposed by around 3 stops (though not completely gone).

To set the flash exposure, I would have liked to use the CyberCommander's flashmeter.  However, I need to have the CyberCommander sent to Paul Buff for a minor repair.  To help set my exposure, I used the Fotodiox Tri-Fold Reflector, a multipurpose reflector.  The Tri-Fold Reflector can be used to set focus or white balance, or be used as a gray card, or to set a white point and/or a black point.  On the reverse is a silver reflector which can be used as fill for portraits.

I asked my son to help me hold the gray card side of the reflector.  I then took a shot with the gray card filling up most of the frame.  By doing so, I could see where the gray of the gray card was showing up on the histogram.

Originally I had the aperture at f/4.0.  With the flash power settings I had chosen, the histogram of the gray card was showing that the gray was to the right of the midpoint, implying overexposure.  To reduce exposure, I could either power down the flashes, move the flashes further away, decrease the ISO or narrow the aperture.  Moving the flashes further away was not a good option for me because of lack of space.  Plus, although the falloff would be more even due to the inverse square law, the farther the umbrellas, the smaller their apparent size would be, and the harder the light would be.  Decreasing the ISO was not a good idea because I was already using base ISO (further decreasing the ISO would be similar to overexposing the image).  Between powering down the flashes or narrowing the aperture, I decided to narrow the aperture so I could increase the depth of field and get into the sharper aperture of the lens.  It would also further reduce the ambient.  I adjusted the aperture until the histogram of the gray card shot was showing most of the pixels to be in the middle of the histogram, which was f/5.6.

To make sure the exposure would be correct, I had to maintain the flash-to-subject distance, so I asked my subjects to stand exactly where my son had stood for the gray card shots (next to the sofa).

COMPOSITION

Because the intended result was a headshot (i.e., I was not trying to capture the background), I needed a long lens and chose the Sigma 50-150.

I started about 8 feet or so from the subject, and my focal length was initially about 70mm.  I changed this throughout the shooting session.

Pop quiz: let's say upon taking a shot, I found that the subject's nose looked too big or the face looks too narrow.  Do I: a) use a shorter focal length; b) use a longer focal length; or c) none of the above.  The answer is 'c'.  Perspective distortion is controlled by the distance from the camera to the subject, not the focal length.  If the subject's nose looks too big or the face looks too narrow, I am standing too close and need to move backward.  This is why the Department of State's website suggests standing at least 4 feet away from the subject.  Standing too far might not be good either -- it can make the subject's face look wider (which may or may not be better, depending on the subject's face).

You probably know about the rule of thirds.  It's just a guideline not a law but I shoot more or less according to that most of the time.  But when shooting passport photos, I have to remember instead to put the subject close to the center because passport photos (in the US) have specific requirements about the amount of space above and below the head, and rules about the permissible size of the head.

In this first shot (of my father-in-law), I incorrectly took the shot with the head too high in the frame.  I later found that there was not enough space above his head, so I had to create that space in post-processing.

wrong framing for passports

This was a better way to frame the subject:

better framing for passports

In fact I could have put the face even closer to the middle.

BTW, in the US, the required photo is square therefore it doesn't matter if you take the shot in landscape or portrait orientation.  However, if I use portrait orientation it's easier for me to estimate if I have enough space around the head.  As a rule of thumb, I frame the shot so that I capture a small area beyond the shoulders.  You'll see later on that for the US passport requirements, that's about right.

Just for fun, my wife also wanted to take an impromptu shot with our daughter.  The flat lighting for a passport photo is not what I would use for a portrait like this, but it was just a casual shot anyway.

POST PROCESSING

When postprocessing for passport photos, you have to be a bit careful.  The exposure, brightness (gamma) and contrast all have to be neutral.

To confirm the exposure, I looked at the shot of the gray card (which is supposed to be middle gray).  To my surprise, the pixels were to the left of middle in Lightroom (this taught me not to trust the D90's histogram).  To fix this, I hit the 'auto' exposure adjustment in Lightroom.  Normally I don't trust auto exposure but in this case, the auto exposure would adjust the image so that it would be approximately middle gray, which is exactly what I wanted.  Turned out that this required a +0.85 ev adjustment (so the original f/4.0 aperture would have been close to correct).

I also adjusted white balance, which was easy.  All I had to do was use the white balance dropper on the gray card.  I then applied that exposure and white balance settings of the gray card shot to the rest of the shots in the session by syncing the shots, and just for good measure, using the 'match total exposures' command.  Because I shot in manual mode and was using manual flash, the adjustments that work for the gray card shot would also work for all the other shots in the session.

After the white balance and exposure adjustments, I edited the catchlights.  I don't like how there are two white dots on the iris (makes it seem like the subject has two pupils or something).  I also corrected skin blemishes.

I then exported the image as a JPEG to use an online cropping tool to get the correct size.  Previously I used epassportphoto.com.  Now the Department of State has its own cropping tool, and it's free (though somewhat unfortunately named).

To use the tool, you just hit a button to upload your shot, then you position the image, dragging the image and zooming in and out so that the crown of the head to the bottom of the chin fits within the permissible range.  Then you click the crop button and save the image.

The resulting image will be a 600x600 jpeg.

Unfortunately it's not easy to print this out as such (photo labs probably won't print 2 inch x 2 inch photos).  (That's one advantage of ePassportPhoto.com - the resulting cropped image is ready to print at 4x6.)

Instead, what I had to do was to make a collage so that it could be printed on the more standard 4 x 6 inches.  First, I opened the cropped photo in Photoshop Elements.  I selected all of the image, then added a border by clicking on the Edit menu and selecting Stroke (Outline) Selection... I chose an outline size of 1 pixel (choose "inside" instead of center or outside).  This added a very thin border around the photo.

I then resized the canvas to 1800 pixels x 1200 pixels.  Then I selected the photo and pasted copies side by side 3 photos wide and 2 photos tall.

I then ordered a print of the photos on 4x6.

As I said, it's a lot of trouble for passport photos.  But at least the subjects will hopefully be happier with their photo. :)

RELATED POSTS:
DIY Passport Photos
Sigma 50-150 is TIGHT
What's the point of having different lenses?

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Preview of New LAX Terminal

Los Angeles International Airport is in the process of renovating its international terminal, partly to accommodate larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380.  If you'd like to get a preview of what the new terminal will look like, check out the fly-through video (warning: 230+ MB) which uses the same autoCAD files that are used for the construction.

I had a chance to join a tour of the construction site.  If you watched the fly-through video you might recognize some of the structures.

BTW for these shots I used the Nikon D90 and Tokina 11-16.

About the last shot - it was taken about 10 feet above the platform where we were standing.  There were no ladders or other surfaces to climb on.  Instead, I took it with the aid of a gadget that I will be reviewing next week.  ;)

Have a great weekend!

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