I love Adobe Lightroom.  Well, as much as it’s possible to love a bunch of digital bits.  I know I still have a lot to learn about using the program and at some point I’ll have to get serious about learning Photoshop.  Lightroom does most of what I’m looking to do and  even though I’d rate my skill level with it at intermediate, I can still do a hell of a lot.

For example, last night’s pictures.  When I first looked at them, I was pretty tired.  And quite disappointed with the way they looked straight out of the camera.  Later I found some energy and went to work on them and I’m pretty happy with the results.   So I thought that some might find it useful for me to post an example here of what I’m talking about.

Here’s a shot straight out of the camera (click on the image to see it full size):

And now the same image after “developing” it in Lightroom:

In no particular order, I straightened out the photo, cropped it very slightly, cut back on the overall exposure level, boosted up the blacks, used the noise reduction tools, brought up clarity and vibrance, backed off on saturation on blue and orange, sharpened things up a bit.  Of course I’m working with a RAW image.  Did I over-do or under-do some bits?  Maybe. That’s one of the things with tools like Lightroom – there’s no one “right” solution, you work at it until it looks good to you.  And I’m pretty happy with the end result.

For those who are interested in this sort of thing, this was shot with my Nikon D700 camera and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.  For this shot, I was all the way out at 24mm and wide open at f/2.8, ISO 3200, 1/20th of a second, handheld.  And here’s where I was standing when I took the shot.  (Actually, it’s slightly off.  Zoom in and it looks as if I was on the roof of the next building over.)

I know the lens is not at its sharpest at 24mm and f/2.8.  Normally I would have stood out there and taken a dozen variations on this shot at different settings.  I might have boosted the ISO up to 6400, closed down the aperture a bit and perhaps experimented with some different focal lengths.  But I was too fricking cold!  I think I’m going to revisit this spot on a clear night when the temperature is back to normal again.

Anyway, I know some of my readers are more expert at photography than I am, some aren’t, but your comments, tips, advice are always appreciated.

Too lazy to click?  Okay, here’s what it says:

Twestival is an event when the Twitter community across the globe made up 100% of volunteers gets together to raise money for charity.  Twestival Global which will take place on March 25 will be a day where over 200 cities will coordinate efforts around one cause.

What will we DO at Twestival??

Twestival is meant to be a night of social networking and fun among the Twitter community and beyond.  Drinking, food, music and fun.  We will have an auction and lucky draw with lots of great prizes raising money for CONCERN WORLDWIDE.  Since this is the center of the digerati community of Hong Kong you can expect some cool Tech features like a TweetWall, Ustreaming with other Asian Cities and some other cool things.

Why come to Twestival??

The Social Media Community has been growing rapidly over the past few months with new people and new businesses signing up to Twitter daily.  If giving to a good cause isn’t a good cause isn’t a good enough reason for you, well, it is the day before Rugby 7s weekend, we are going to be taking over STAUNTON’s & SCIRROCCO! on the corner of Staunton Street on the Escaltor & everyone is going to be there!  It is a networking event NOT TO BE MISSED!

As you’ll see if you click over to here, there are still 98 tickets available at an “early bird” price of HK$150.  Once these are sold, regular price will be $200.

And hey, let’s face it, we’re all gonna do a lot of stuff we’re gonna regret the next day, when the HK Rugby 7’s kick off.  So why not atone for your sins a day in advance?  Go out, get hammered, do something (or many things) foolish and feel good knowing that you’ve already done a good deed the night before!

This fabulous old building is at the corner of Johnston & Wanchai Roads.  Given our government’s almost psychotic bent towards redevelopment, I wonder how many years this building has left?

Speaking of real estate, since there are almost no exclusive listings for vacant properties, anyone with a license can stick up a sign.  This is one of the more extreme examples I’ve encountered recently.

My understanding is that the government no longer issues permits to erect new scaffolding for neon signs.  But you can put new signs on old scaffolding, and this is a relatively new one.  If memory serves, this used to hold a sign advertising two rather grotty night clubs.   I like the neon rose here.

This got me sad.  I used to be on Mallory Street every week when Rock Gallery was in the Emperor Group Centre.  And I used to love looking across the street at this row of houses, kickin’ it old skool, filled with life.  And now they’re coming down.  It’s not too hard to guess what will replace them.

How many excellent hotels do you know in Hong Kong?  Here’s one!

A nice night time view looking down Johnston Road.

And we close “part 1″ with two views of The Hennessy – in true Hong Kong fashion, the entrance to this building is not on Hennessy Road, it’s on Johnston Road.  I suppose Hennessy Road sounds like a better address for this self-described A-List Shopping Destination (which features a home furnishings shop and several restaurants).

Dinner was at Wooloomooloo, the branch at The Hennessy.  They have the 31st floor and rooftop, which was why I brought the camera along.  And even though it was a fricking cold night (especially on the roof, where the winds were really whipping around), I had to go up and take a few photos.  I had both my 24-70 and 70-300 lenses along.  The 70-300, zoomed all the way in, has a maximum aperture of only f/5.6 – and with the cold, my hands were shaking so much that I had trouble getting decent photos handheld.  The last couple of shots, ISO is bumped all the way up to 8000 – and still quite okay I think.

We Needed to Pay Someone to Tell Us This?:  The Harbour Business Forum hired a team of students from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the US to study HK harbor facilities; these students have conducted similar surveys in other cities around the world.  The study found that waterfront facilities for the public are few and far between.

Despite large increases in the number of pleasure vessels and tourists in and around the harbour, the study found the waterfront is not very user-friendly. It said people could be seen climbing over obstacles to get aboard vessels because no steps were available or their way was otherwise blocked. Public piers were crudely built, the study said. Boat operators had built their own shelters to protect passengers from the weather but such structures lacked lighting, making getting on and off vessels at night difficult.  Poor signage and a lack of washrooms and general-use kiosks in landing areas were also cited. Fake life buoys were welded onto railings at Sam Ka Tsuen Typhoon Shelter in Lei Yue Mun. A small sign said the metal buoys were for decoration only. The real buoys are in a sitting-out area on the other side of the shelter.

The Shoes Are Mightier Than the Word:  At a “Youth Summit” organized by two government agencies to try to reach out to the “post-80s generation,” one attendee threw a pair of sneakers at Henry Tang.  He wants the government to support a minimum wage for workers.  “The former computer repairman added he chose to act in this manner because he believed using foul language in public was inappropriate.”

Monty Python comes to Hong Kong courts:  A man accused of setting off a home made rocket in an alley in Mong Kok defended himself on trial by saying he had served time as a member of the French military.  When asked to say some specific things in French, apparently he responded by speaking in English with a French accent.

Yuen then said to him: “You go to tell your colleague: ‘I’m hungry. I want to have beef, potato and apple pie. You go to find someone to get a yellow jacket and a pair of green pants’.” But the only French words Chan managed to say were “Je veux” ["I want"] and he managed to say the English words “hungry” and “beef”, but with a French accent.

A Thai tourist was killed in Revenue Tower in 2005.  In the trial, the defense attorney says it was an accident.

“We know when a robber uses a knife, accidents happen,” said Nicholas Adams, barrister for So Kam-tong, who has denied murdering Charitar Kamolnoranath.  Adams said that the killing was just an accident that could happen in robbery cases. He pointed out that So had no intention to kill, as there was only one stab wound on the victim’s body.  “He did not repeatedly stab her,” the lawyer said, asking the jury to return a verdict of manslaughter.

That’s right, he didn’t repeatedly stab her – after stabbing her once in the chest, he used a plastic bag to suffocate her.

Both of them are on Facebook and both use aliases there – they’ve told me it’s because they don’t want their ex-husbands finding them there.  My helper goes a step further and has no pictures of herself on her profile and if she gets tagged in a photo on someone else’s profile, she deletes the tag.  While the sisters are relatively young and attractive, they are not among that fractional percentage of Filipino maids in Hong Kong who run to Wanchai discos on their days off.   They find plenty of other ways to keep busy and rarely if ever do any socializing outside of their own tight-knit community.

On Sunday M took part in a local beauty pageant.  I was invited but it was a Sunday afternoon and in Sheung Wan;  I try to stay close to home on Sundays.  I guess they decided that it would finally be “safe” to invite me to something like this and, judging from the fact that I don’t see any Caucasians in the audience in the pictures they posted, I suppose I should take it as a compliment of sorts. I suppose they decided that my life has reached this point where I wouldn’t have tried to hit on every woman there.

Actually, I’m a little surprised this morning to see many pictures from that pageant posted on Facebook (even though none of the pictures are tagged).  Produced by the Bontoc Migrant Workers Association, I see there were two main competitions – Ms. Cover Girl and Ms. Migrant Worker.  I’m not surprised that M took home the Ms. Cover Girl crown.  Honestly, looking at the other women in the competition, it wasn’t even close.  She also took home the title of “Best in Jeans.”   It seems that they had enough categories there to ensure that everyone who entered went home with a trophy.  Other prizes awarded included “Best in Truth” and my mind reels thinking about what process might have been used to select the winner of that one.

In the printed program that was distributed, M listed her hobbies as “dancing and sight seeing.”  Actually it seems as if every contestant included dancing or singing as one of their hobbies – other hobbies listed included making friends, cooking, reading.   Sadly, there was no bikini competition.  The “pageant” (on-stage banner read “Be Daring, Be the Best of Whatever U Are”) featured the contestants in a series of costumes ranging from evening gown to something from their home towns to “international” – M made a costume that I guess was supposed to represent native Americans or “Indians” as we used to call them.  (Others chose costumes with more Asian themes – representing Japan and Thailand; one girl was dressed as a Singapore airlines stewardess – sort of lazy, no?) There were choreographed musical numbers featuring all of the contestants and individual talent showcases.

I was intrigued by this little window into a subculture that most of us aren’t even aware exists.  I’m sorry I didn’t go to this; looks like it would have been a great opportunity for some interesting photos.

I only had about 4 hours sleep last night and then today was a relatively busy day.   By the time we reached Megabox for the 7:30 showing, I was dead tired.  I made it through the first 10 or 15 minutes of the movie and then slept for perhaps the next 45 minutes.    What does that say for the first 15 minutes?

So I woke up for the final 45 minutes or so.  Naturally it took me some time to figure out what was going on.  And from what I can figure out, I didn’t get it.  First of all, it’s not another take on the classic story.  It’s a sequel.  Alice went to Wonderland as a child, remembered it as a dream, and returns back there at the age of 20.  And, oh, by the way, it’s not Wonderland, it’s Under Land, she got it wrong the first time.

And the movie ends with Alice wearing a full suit of armor, wielding a sword, battling a dragon, while two armies face off on a battlefield, Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter engaged in a sword fight with Crispin Glover.  Oy vey ismir.   And so, the first question that I asked myself is, “Why?”  It all seemed so unnecessary and so violent.

The characters looked great and the photo-realistic animation of the animal characters was superb.  Yet this was the first time I’d been to a 3D IMAX film where I found the entire 3D thing a distraction, really.  I’ve read that it was shot in 2D and later converted to 3D and while the 3D “works” okay, it wasn’t adding an extra dimension to the film for me.

I’m left puzzling over the story, and since I didn’t see the entire thing, I’m not sure how to react or how to rate this.  The look of the film is great and some will also see it as a big plus that it’s a tale of female empowerment and liberation.  Alice doesn’t need a Prince Charming to ride in on a horse and rescue her; she’s more than capable on her own.

So my best advice is to tell you, approach with caution.  I can neither recommend this nor attempt to steer you away.  I’ll probably want to watch it again, all the way through, but from what I saw, I’m content to wait for the home video release.

Incidentally, the film opened freaking huge.  Its opening weekend in the US grossed US$116 million, a record for a March opening and a record for an IMAX opening.  And internationally, it pulled in another $200 million.   And yet, for a 7:30 PM screening, 4 days after it opened, on an IMAX 3D screen, it was not sold out – I’d say the theater was about 1/4 to 1/3 empty.   We had seats dead center in the theater and two seats next to us were open and so were many around us.

But given these huge numbers, I would guess that Disney may look to make another franchise out of this.  Believe it or not, the ending points the way towards Hong Kong so who knows what form a sequel might take.  Alice in Wanchai Land?  You never know …

Here are the winners:

Picture Hurt Locker check

Director Kathryn Bigelow check (shouldn’t she also get an award for being 58 and still looking so damn good?)

Actor Jeff Bridges check

Actress Sandra Bullock check

Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz check

Supporting Actress Mo’Nique check

Animated Feature – Up check

Art Direction -Avatar oops

Cinematography – Avatar oops

Costume -Young Victoria (didn’t make a prediction here)

Documentary Feature – The Cove (didn’t make a prediction here)

Documentary Short -Music by Prudence (didn’t make a prediction here)

Film Editing – Hurt Locker check

Foreign Language film- Secret in Their Eyes (didn’t make a prediction here)

Make Up – Star Trek check

Score – Up check

Song – Crazy Heart check

Animated short – Logorama (didn’t make a prediction here)

Live action short – The New Tenants (no prediction here)

Sound editing – Hurt Locker check

Sound mixing – Hurt Locker oops

Visual Effects – Avatar check

Adapted Screenplay – Precious oops

Original Screenplay – Hurt Locker oops

Oscars are awarded more often than not due to political reasons and as the result of multi-million dollar industry marketing campaigns.  It’s said that many people place their votes based on what they think will make the industry look good versus their actual favorites.  At any rate, here’s what I think will win.

Best Picture

Why did they move this from 5 nominees to 10?  This year, I’ve seen 8 of the 10 nominated films.  Awards given out earlier this year would seem to favor Hurt Locker and I loved that film.  But there’s been a bit of a backlash and one producer has been banned from the awards show due to some “mis-behavior.”  I don’t think this will go to Avatar; I don’t think Cameron is that well-liked in Hollywood despite making so much money.  I think Hurt Locker has a lock on this.

Best Actor

I’ve seen 4 of the 5 nominated performances.  Jeff Bridges is well liked in Hollywood and his terrific performances lifts an otherwise run of the mill film into the area of “must see.”  If that doesn’t merit an award, nothing does.

Supporting Actor

I’ve seen just 2 of the 5 nominated performances.   But it seems that there is no question that this is the year for Christoph Waltz.

Best Actress

I’ve seen just 2 of the 5 nominated performances.  I think Meryl Streep really brings Julia Child to life in an otherwise not very remarkable film.   And relative newcomer Carey Mulligan holds An Education together.  Everyone says that this is the year for Sandra Bullock – and I guess one could say that Hollywood would like to reward her for being a consistent box office draw despite being in one godawful film after another.

Supporting Actress

I’ve seen 3 out of 5 and I didn’t think any of the 3 were strong enough.  Everyone says Mo’Nique, I haven’t seen Precious but assuming they’re right on this.

Animated Feature Film

I’ve seen 3 of the 5.  Pixar seems to own this category and while I had some problems with parts of Up, I’ve got no problem if it wins.

Art Direction

I’ve seen just two of the five (Avatar and Sherlock Holmes) and I don’t think either of those two will win.  Hollywood hates Terry Gilliam and almost anything he touches.  Nine won’t win because the Weinsteins are in a downward spiral and Hollywood doesn’t want to see them rescued with even a minor award and will feel they did enough by voting for Christoph Waltz.  So Young Victoria is my guess.

Cinematography

One of the categories that is closest to my heart.  I’ve seen 4 out of 5.  I don’t think Avatar will win because I don’t think DPs see CGI as photography.  I think it’s between Hurt Locker and Inglourious and if it’s a Hurt Locker night, it’ll win here too.

Costume Design

I haven’t seen any of these so no guess!

Directing

This is Kathryn Bigelow’s year.  The winner of the DGA award almost always takes this home and this year should be no exception.

Documentary Feature

I’ve only seen Food Inc and thought it should have been much better.  Something else will win here.

Documentary Short

Haven’t seen any of these.

Film Editing

The pacing and tension in Hurt Locker? Editing.

Foreign Language Film

Haven’t seen any.

Make-Up

Only 3 nominees and I’ve only seen one – Star Trek, which coincidentally is the only American film nominated here.  The voters tend to vote American.

Original Score

Everyone loves the soundtrack for Up.

Original Song

2 more nominations for Randy Newman and he won’t win either.  The Academy loves T Bone Burnett and his songs are the other strong element in Crazy Heart.  While there has been a small kerfuffle over the late Stephen Bruton’s contributions, I think Burnett adds another trophy to his shelf.

Short Film (Animated)

Short Film (Live Action)

Haven’t seen any!

Sound Editing

Again, if everything is swinging Hurt Locker’s way, it could take this one.  Everyone else is picking Avatar and they could be right but I like Hurt Locker here too.

Sound Mixing

Avatar should have a lock on this one.

Visual Effects

Well, there’s Avatar and then there’s everything else.  Even people who hated the film admire the technical achievements.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

I’ve seen 4 of the 5.  The WGA liked Up in the Air and so do I.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

I’ve seen 4 of the 5.  I think A Serious Man is brilliant but I seem to be in a minority here – no worries, over time this will be seen as a classic.  Right now, people like Inglourious Basterds here and that will probably be the winner.

So there you have it.  By lunchtime Monday we’ll know how close I came or how many miles I missed by.

Friday afternoon I went to Wing On in Sheung Wan in search of de-humidifiers.  I settled on one particular model, only to be told that it was out of stock, that I could buy it and get it delivered within 4 or 5 days.  I decided that I didn’t want to spend my life searching for this, buy it and get it done with, even if I had to wait a bit.  While I was standing on line, a guy rolled in a trolley of stuff that had just been delivered, including a stack of the de-humidifiers I’d just ordered.  “Do you want to take them with you now?”   Why, yes, indeed I do!  The box was quite heavy, I’d bought two of them and I asked them if they could help me get them to my car (which was parked in the Wing On car park).  “Of course!  No problem!”  And a minute later there was a young guy with a trolley to help me out.   Point being that good service is not a rare commodity in Hong Kong in my experience; it is the rule and not the exception.

Standing outside of Amazonia on Friday night, I got to talking with this guy.  Exchanging the usual info, he told me that he was born and grew up in Hong Kong, moved to the States and hated it (he was living in L.A.), happy to return here.   What were the things about Hong Kong that he appreciates?  The usual – the convenience, how it’s so easy to get everywhere, how places stay open late and you have a thousand choices for a good meal after midnight – the kinds of things that we often take for granted.   But I knew what he meant, having moved from HK to San Francisco and then very happy to return to HK again.

Saturday morning, I realized that the Oscars would be broadcast Monday morning local time and that I don’t get broadcast TV at home.  In years past, I’d just watch it in the office (not a problem, after all I was working for a movie company).  So I went down to Patsy House in town and asked, “Do you know anyone who can fix a TV antenna in a village house?”  And one woman behind the counter raised her hand, like an eager schoolgirl who knows the answer to the question.  “I do!  I know someone!”  And it turns out she had two people listed in her contact book who do this.  “Tuesday or Wednesday okay?”  “Well, I was hoping to get it done before Monday.”  She said she’d try her best.   Now here’s the extra mile that she went for me – the guy she found called me at 6 PM and asked if he could come over right away and I said sure and then, two minutes later, the lady from Patsy House called me just to make sure that the guy she found had called me and that I was being taken care of.  By 7:30, it was all fixed and I can now receive our four wonderful broadcast channels.  With my luck, I’ll probably forget to set the alarm clock and wake up after the whole thing’s over.

I know, I know, this is all really simple shit.  But sometimes I take pleasure in the simple shit and don’t want to get jaded to the point where I take peoples’ kind actions for granted.

After getting that taken care of, I thought this might be the day that I finally try the food at Camden Town for lunch.  But they’re gone and already replaced by something else.  Oh well.  I turned the corner and said, “Okay, this is the day we finally try Fiesta Fiesta.”  It’s a comfortable looking small place on one of the back streets in the old part of town.  They’ve got a lot of western food on the menu but I thought it might be better to go with something Filipino.

So I ordered the pork adobo, which was listed on the menu at $68.  A couple of minutes later the waiter came by with a bowl of soup.  “I put you down for the lunch set, same thing plus soup, drink and dessert, and it’s just $58.”  The soup was cream of chicken with noodle with a small bit of garlic bread on the side.  The pork adobo came with a heap of rice and some broccoli and wasn’t bad at all (though not as good as my gf’s).  The dessert was some kind of Filipino jelly thing with a bit of strawberry sauce.  My gf ordered their Lumpiang Shanghai, spring rolls with pork, served with a salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, yellow pepper and we both thought it was quite okay (though not as good as her mother’s).   We got to sit outside for a relaxing hour watching people strolling by – lots of people with dogs, lots of people with cameras, as always. This wasn’t gourmet stuff by any means, but comfortably in the cheap ‘n cheerful category.  The place right next door, Pan Da Cafe, also seems popular and I’ll have to give them a try one of these days too.

The dehumidifiers are working great.  I’m shocked at how quickly they’re filling up with water (I got the 21 liter models) and just kicking myself that I didn’t get these years ago.  Tonight I sold off my Nikon D300 to someone via DCFever.  Dinner at home and a relaxing evening.

So it’s been a relatively productive couple of days.  Nothing at all planned for Sunday and I’m quite okay with that.

I have a MacBook. When I first got it, I installed Windows 7 Professional Edition (legal version) on it using the dual-boot method. It worked fine. But I got tired of having to reboot and having to maintain two up-to-date copies of the same software that I use on my MacBook (iTunes, Firefox, Picasa, etc.).

So I went out and got Parallels Desktop (again, legal version). Re-installed Windows under Parallels and guess what? Windows tells me my copy of Windows isn’t genuine! I’ve tried re-entering the product key twice but no dice.

Now, to add insult to injury, attempting to use Microsoft’s online help to send a message to customer service, they tell me that I need to pay HK$450 for support for this problem!

There is no way I am going to pay Microsoft $450 to provide support for this.  I’ll sooner junk Parallels Desktop and go back to dual-booting.  And the next time I decide to replace my desktop PC, I’ll go iMac and go 100% Mac and kiss Microsoft goodbye.

Actually, the more I think about it, there aren’t that many reasons I can come up with for needing Windows on my MacBook.  There are just a handful of programs I run that are Windows-only, but there’s one in particular (Newsbin) where I have yet to find a Mac app that works as well as this PC-only app.

Anyway, anyone encounter a similar problem?  How did you solve it?

Oh Microsoft, how do I hate thee?  Let me count the ways …