Como Beach might not be suitable to be categorized as a “beach”, but it is just a simple riverside with a bit of sand and a long jetty.  It might not be famous, but I like this place, because it is one of the good places to watch the sunset near the city of Perth.

When the sky is cloudless, the sunset looks simple on this simple “beach”.

Let me show you how the sun set down under the horizon at Como Beach.

The sun disk was touching the horizon.

A sailing boat passed by and appeared exactly in between the sun and my camera while the sun was in half-disk shape.

Now, the sun was almost setting down into the horizon.

The street lights were switched on automatically, and we saw more people here walking on the jetty and watching the sunset.

Before we left and went back for our dinner, I took the last photo when the sky was still visible.

We visited the Como Beach again in a hot summer evening.  It is the “beach” which was nearest to the place we stayed.

SiewPeng took my photo, while I was taking the photo of the sunset.

This time, we saw different things.  We found a lot of sailing boats on the Swan River, and an adorable pelican near the Como Jetty.

SiewPeng took photos with her new smart phone while I was looking at the sailing boats.

The sun was going to set soon.  We did not miss the valuable moments by kept on pressing the shutter release button on our cameras.

This jetty at Como Beach was quite long.

These nice photos were taken by Siew Peng.

Coming up next, I will show you the photos of sunset at Como Beach, the pelican and the sailing boats.

Colin and SiewPeng wish you a Happy Chinese New Year, Xin Nian Kuai Le, Wan Shi Ru Yi, Da Ji Da Li, Gong Xi Fa Cai.  :D

This year the Chinese horoscope  (for the year) is Rabbit.

The big white cat statue at Padungan, Kuching is decorated in the most beautiful way.  If you are in Kuching, Malaysia NOW, do not forget to take a shot with the cat.

I believe this time the city council has put in a lot of effort to decorate it.

The cat is wearing Chinese traditional cloth, and a Chinese style cap.

It is also holding a row of firecracker, and the words - “ZhaoCaiJinBao” which means “attracting prosperity“.

Next to the cat, there is a big bunch of “MeiHua” or plum blossom (similar to but not Sakura) telling people that the cold of the winter is going to the end and the spring is coming soon.

In China or Taiwan, Chinese New Year is also called “ChunJie” which means the Festival of Spring.

This year, the size of the decoration is larger.

While we were taking photos here, we saw someone who looked like a reporter stepped a fews step back until he stood in the middle of the road in order to take photos of the cat.  Later, he even checked his photo on his camera while he was standing in a busy flowing traffic.  He did not even notice a car pass by just a few inches from him.  Luckily nothing happen.

Everything is perfectly done, except the lighting problem.  Some bulb are burned out and have not replaced.  The spot light in front of the cat is dimmer than usual.

While I was busy setting up tripod in front of the cat, the MBKS (city council) Mayor -  Mr. James Chan was also there but quite a distance away.  I thought he would come near by and check on the cat, then I would like to take a photo with him.  But he just stood across the road and started pointing his finger.  I guess he was directing his staffs to correct something around that area.

Before I had a chance to tell him that MBKS has done a good job except the lighting, he has left.

Tiny Lanterns.

We found a new decoration on the lamppost.  This is the “CaiShen” the The God of prosperity.  Other Chinese New Year lamppost decoration can be found here.

Let’s compare the previous year decoration on this cat. - 2009, 2010.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The above is a scheduled post, because I set it to be publish at 12am sharp on Chinese New Year, when firecracker can be seen everywhere, and its sound can be hear in the middle of the night.

By the time this post appear, we will be at a quieter place - Perth.  Yes, we are not in Kuching again during Chinese New Year.  I will update this blog if I have Internet access there.

Happy Chinese New Year.  :)

Two weeks ago, they were still baby flowers, now they are blooming right before the Chinese New Year.

Since the flower is in 3D ball-shape, it is challenging to control the depth of field to take a good picture. (Part of the flower are not sharp and the background is not blur enough. )  I did not use my semi-pro camera to take this photo but I used my mobile phone.  It is heavily edited with adjusted contrast, saturation, brightness and sharpness.  However, I made it as natural as possible.

1.  Increase Contrast - To darken the background, and lighten the flower.

2.  Increase Saturation - To make it more “colourful”.  The green looks more green instead of grayish mood.

3.  Reduce Brightness - To Emphasis on the flower and make the background more unnoticeable.

4.  Increase Sharpness - To correct the unfocused part of the flower.

5.  Cropping.

With these steps, I turned a bad photo into an “acceptable” photo.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The flowers can sense that the spring is coming (although there is no 4-seasons here), and they celebrate Chinese New Year as well.  :D