Technical Information

Photography

• 35mm Cameras

Nowadays lugging a 35mm film camera is like a old man lugging a Leica M3 in the mid-1990s. I am not toying with any new cameras lately. But here is my old arsenal, which include the following line of archaic machines: Nikon AF N90, which I had been using since it first came out in the early 1990s; the mechanical Nikon FM2n, which I used mainly as a backup; the Contax G1, which I used whenever I cannot use the Nikon; the small Pentax ME with its slim 40mm/2.8 lense, which I used often in conjunction with the G1; the Minox GT-E, which I carried like a belt knife when I travel; and the now very ancient digital Nikon D100, which was my entry camera in the early digital age. Today (2007), with all the digital infrastructures in place, the digital capture process is quick and efficent, which is perfect for commercial work. Although for large format work out in the field this does not mean much. I like the rawness and,sometimes, grain in film so I continue to use film. But it is getting more and more compact and versatile using digital; I will soon be seeing myself with a laptop and batteries, cords, adapters, flash cards, portable harddrives ...

Update (September, 2009): I now have a Nikon D700, a 100 gigabite Wolverine portable backup drive, and several 8 and 16 gigabite CF cards. This was what I used on my most recent trip from 9/24-10/26/09. Attach my old 80-200mm f2.8D AF lense to the D700 and its a tank.

Nikon Lenses:
• 20mm f2.8 AF:   A very sharp and close-focusing lense. This lense is very useful when space is tight and when I need to cover everything. It is the widest lense without linear distortions.
• 28mm f2.8 AIS:   A manual lense with a very close focusing distance. It is the sharpest wide-angle lense I know of.
• 50mm f1.8D AF:   The perfect lense when I can use it.
• 85mm f1.8D AF:   High quality lense for people shots.
• 105mm f2.8D AF macro:   I bring this lense If I give up the 80-200.
• 24-50mm f3.3-4.5 AF:   A good general purpose lense.
• 80-200mm f2.8D AF:   This is the heavy early push-pull version. The quality of this lense is exceptional. When I feel that I cannot fulfill my image requirements without this lense I will drag it.

Other Format

My medium format camera is the Hasselblad 500C. Lenses include a 80mm f2.8 Planar C and a 120mm f4 Makro-Planar CF. My 2 backs are loaded with color chromes in one and black and white in the other.

Other cameras that I have but do not take on trips to China include a 4 X 5 Busch Pressman and a 8 X 10 C-1. Both are aluminum with the C-1 weighting close to 20 lbs. I don't bring this camera anywhere far. Lenses for both large format cameras include the following:

• Schneider Angular 90mm/f6.8:   A wide angle lense with a small image circle, made for press cameras (4x5).
• Rodenstock Sironar-N 135mm/f5.6:   I don't like wide angle lense too much, so this is good compromise (4x5).
• Caltar II-E 150mm/f6.3:   A light normal lense. A Rodenstock lense (4x5).
• Goerz Gold Ring Dagor 210mm/f6.8:   It was orginally a barrel lense. The glass elements were separated, cleaned, and recemented to fit into a new Copal shutter. This is my favorite lense (4x5).
• Caltar 375mm f/6.3:   A decent lense with a large Ilex shutter (8x10).
• 19" red dot Artar:   A sharp lense with a flat field (8x10).
• 24" red dot Artar:   A barrel lense that I fitted into a Packard Shutter that I modified (8x10).
• Film
• Color:   My color films included Fuji chromes Astia 100F, Provia 100, Velvia 50 and Velvia 100. I used mostly Velvia for my commercial work. For my own work I used mainly Fuji NPS 160 color negatives.
• Black and White:   I have used Kodak PlusX 125,, T-Max 100 + 400, and TriX 400, Fuji Neopane and Acros.
• Accesssores
• Tripods:   I have the large Gitzo G-1548 carbon fiber tripod with the Bogen 3039 3-way head that I use for my 8x10 view camera. My other carbon fiber tripod is the Gitzo G-1228mk2 fitted with the Gitzo G-1276 ball head. I used this for alll other cameras. While in Beijing(2004) I bought the aluminum Manfrotto/Bogen 3021Pro Tripod with a Midi ballhead. It is almost as light as the Gitzo G-1228mk2, very quick to operate and very stable.
• Bags:   I have large, medium, and small Tamrac shoulder bags. I also have several pouches for smaller cameras that I slip through my belt. Usually I travel with smaller bags instead of one large bag. In China, my main mode of transportation is buses. Buses are always packed, so large bags must be thrown into the compartment on the bottom of the bus where all the heat accumulates. I would take away my main cameras and film, which are all prepared and separated in small bags up onto the bus.
• Filters:   Other that a skylight filter, my only other filter that I use often is a circular polarizer.
• Meters:   I have a Minolta Spot F and a Minolta Auto Meter IV F. I don't carry the latter on my trips.
• Scanners   I have 3 scanners: the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 for scanning 35mm film, the Nikon Super Coolscan 9000, which I purchase afterwards for scanning medium format film; and the Epson V750 Pro flatbed, which I use for scanning full sheets of film for copyrighting, and for scanning large format films for web display -- its quality is decent but still not sufficient for large fine prints.
• Travel Accessories   These include a very small Steiner monocular, a multi-tool leatherman, 2 compasses, a small lock and a wire loop, 30 feet quarter-inch nylon rope, a lighter, a Coast Tac Torch LED flashlight ( Now I also have the Fenix L1D LED flashlight ), another small LED flashlight on my keychain, and a pair of strong bamboo chopsticks (sometimes I can't find it when I needed one).
• Other Equipments
• Darkroom:   I still have the darkroom equipments. I had used them to print both color and b/w prints. In the darkroom is my Omega D5500 with a 4 X 5 color head, a close loop system where filtration, timer and calibration is controlled by a cabled keyboard pad. I am trying to get rid of it now, so if anyone needs one let me know. The enlarger has a turret with three Schneider lenses:50mm,80mm and 150mm. Its mixing chamber lights are very even. I also have a D5500 8 X 10 color head that I used to build a horizontal enlarger for my 8 X 10 negatives. My wall easel is capable of handling a 30 x 40 print, but I never once made a print of this size. Nowadays, I only use the darkroom for b/w processing, and for occasional prints (Update: I haven't make a print for ages, and I don't plan to). With state of the art digital printers, such as the lightjets, and the ease of manipulation with computer softwares, it is impractical to do darkroom color works.

Video

I have the Sony 109 miniDV video camera with a Sony ECM-S930C microphone always inserted on the machine for better sound quality. The Sony camcorder is small and flat on both sides, and even with the microphone, it easily slip into the small pouch on my belt. I usually carry 20 miniDVs on a trip. In another year or two, I will have some up (Update: I have a few up already).

Art

Besides my camera and video equipments I also carry art materials on my travels, so I can do some artworks when I feel like it. In my past trips, I collected a load of fine art materials: inkstones and inksticks from Shexian county, Anhui; xuan paper from Jingxian county, also in Anhui; brushes from various places, mostly from Huzhou city, Yangzhou city and Beijing City; and seal carving materials in various places -- Suzhou, Lanzhou, and Beijing city. I carried my paper and painting mat rolled inside an adjustable tube.

Writing

I don't have a photographic memory, so I keep a detailed log of everything when I travel.   Although writing (not fine or specialize writing, just writing notes or more commonly emails today) is a very common and universal activity, it takes discipline and persistence to maintain it as a habitual activity.   In my view, to travel seriously and not keep a journal is a critical lack.   And unforgivable since the materials for writing can be gotten almost anywhere and they can be more compact than your Blackberry.   I like ink, so I carry a few fountain pens.   China likes ink too, so getting it there poses no problem.

Website

Unless I have a wife who has nothing better to do but to help me with the website, it would be impractical not to do it myself. Websites like mine need more than casual maintenance, and having to bother someone too often just won't do. So I decided that I ought to know the nuts and bolts of a website and its development. Developing and maintaining a website is a creative process and getting involved in these sort of things is sometimes an innate urge. So I spent a year planning, designing, and coding this site; and since the launch of the site on September 18, 2005, the site had gone through several major phases. The majority of the pages are static and are written using XHTML and PHP, with a few Javascripts here and there. My webserver runs on Apache inside Linux(Red Hat). My database is MySQL. For Chinese inputs, I use NJStar on my Windows and CXTerm on Linux (I used Linux in the early days but now everything is done on Windows and uploaded to the Linux server).

The majority of this site's webpages are static with the exception of a few dynamic pages such as the in-site search engine page, the large thumbnails page, the lightbox and the shopping cart page; these are self-generated through the very common combination of PHP and MySQL. The screen resolution chosen for this site is 1024 x 768 pixel, which seems to be the most common for now. I do my web development on Windows and upload my files through cable connection. I also have a Mac labtop that I use mainly for browser testing (I no longer use the Mac). My web pages are all hand-coded using Macromedia's Homesite editor. Images are edited using Photoshop on a 21" LCD monitor that I calibrate with GretagMabeth's EyeOne Display. I have backups on harddrives. I backup three times - one set remains with me, the second in a safe depost box, and the third in outter space.

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