Google hits = goat testicles

Google allows me to track non-feed-readers who visit my blogs. Visitors include friends and friends of friends, as well as an increasing amount of search engine traffic. A lot of people come here looking for images of oceans and continents [sorry to disappoint - try my images across the earth photoblog or just use more specific search terms], as well as traffic relating to specific experiences/destinations. What amuses me is that recently we have received visitors looking for goat testicles. Really!

Just to be sure I googled goat testicles and sure enough Peter's culinary story shows up as hit number nine on the first page of results.

What I want to know is... why are these people googling goat testicles??

New Blog

Rather than cluttering up this blog with talk about technology, I've started another - Testing Testing - http://baobabtech.blogspot.com/ - where I can indulge my inner geek and post away to my heart's content about technology and photographic technique (or lack thereof!). I've been playing with the new Nikkor 18 - 200 mm lens, so there's already material for the photo-geeks in the audience.

Though we haven't been posting much about our travels since China, there are subsequent pictures from Cambridge and elsewhere on Images Across The Earth - http://baobabgallery.blogspot.com/. We are off to Prague soon, and I'll ask Peter to provide his usual witty reports.

New (Web 2.0) Toys

As part of my continuing fascination with maps - and justified by my professional 'need' to be on the bleeding edge of mashups and all things Web 2.0 - I've created a Platial mapkit, which is now visible in the blog's sidebar. The sidebar is a bit squishy, and some people may not like the pop-up widget, so here's the link to the original (larger) map at Platial.

I've started out by adding places we've been to recently / that are relatively nearby. Over time I'll try to dredge my memory for locations that are further away / in the distant past. One cool feature is the ability to embed images and url links, so the map and the photo blog are mutually referential. Platial also offers the ubiquitous Web 2.0 ability to add tags and comments. Since the images and stories were from specific times as well as places (duh - this is a travel blog), it would be great if Platial added a date field. For now I've put dates in the comments.

Click-drag the map to move around, hover over the pins to see where they are and a corresponding image. Clicking on a pin will open up a window with more info, where you can add comments too.

Back on the topic of user feedback (I told you I was using 'work' to justify this), unfortunately I find the Platial widget a little... ugly. Orange, while popular among the web crowd, is arguably my least favourite colour, and it clashes with the style of these blogs. Hopefully over time Platial will allow the user to tune the mapkit's colour scheme.

And props to Blogger, which allows one to hack around with things. It seems daft that Typepad charges hundreds of dollars per year to provide the same level of flexibility. Blogger is FREE!

August update

We haven't been travelling much recently, though April brought a wedding in South Carolina, and July a short jaunt to Montreal for the Jazz Festival.

Peter went to Kentucky overnight for work, and I made a trip to New York for visa purposes - both were all work and no photos. Otherwise I've been puttering around taking photos close to home, often of the earth in bloom. Yesterday we went to a local farm for a glorious if windy day outside. We returned with loads of fruit, and lots of photos of bumblebees busily pollinating sunflowers - quite a feat (for bees and photographer) considering that the sunflowers were waving wildly in the wind. Good to have a fast lens!

As noted before, I've been very pleased with the images from the 18 - 70 AF-S DX Nikkor lens. The Quantaray zoom left a lot to be desired and quite frankly wasn't worth carting around China. So I am very excited (though until it arrives a little apprehensive) that I've just ordered the reputedly wonderful 18 - 200 mm AF-S DX VR Nikkor lens. Apparently Ritz Camera has them in stock right now, though they sell above list and sell out really quickly from all reputable vendors. For Nikon enthusiasts interested in more on the lens and where to buy it, see Ken Rockwell's site.

Photography notes and wishlist

Taking photographs on this trip was not always straightforward.

In the places where we had a formal guide the guide was often focused on charging ahead through the day's checklist. If you're fortunate enough to have your own guide you can ask them to slow down and give you time. Some are more patient than others.

On boat cruises and long drives controlling the angle, timing and framing can be a challenge. The vehicle moves, the angle is enforced, and on large boats or at tourist attractions there are other sight-seers who also want the best angle. Patience, a rapid shutter finger, and a generous frame (which may be cropped) help. Shooting from a moving car can be surprisingly successful.

The best shots are of evanescent moments. Sometimes they simply can't be captured. These be memories.

Most photos were taken with a Nikon D70, mostly with an 18 - 70 Nikon lens. Some were taken using a Quantaray 100 - 300 zoom. Settings varied from fully manual (including ISO) to fully automatic. We also took some snaps with a Canon Ixus/Elph - see the to-be-posted airport series.

Camera wishlist for future trips:

• A high-quality wide angle to telephoto zoom. Our current 100 - 300 lens isn't great and switching lenses is a pain. As well as the obvious distance shots, the zoom enables candid pictures of people without interfering with the subject.
  
• A lightweight but sturdy monopod. I decided not to take the tripod but wished for it on several occasions. Peter's shoulder worked in a pinch.
  
• A Nikon D2Xs. Maybe someday ;-)

O yes - and a tiny light-weight laptop. We'd decided against taking one of our workhorses because of the weight, but it would have been handy for editing photos, blogging, email, checking on weather/flights, and providing entertainment while ill in a hotel.

Ideograms

Hmm. Finally made it to an Internet cafe in Beijing after many adventures, and the Blogger tools are showing up with Chinese characters instead of English words. That's a little challenging since the only characters I recognize are those for Beijing and China. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to let Google know I need English instructions and/or I'll make lucky guesses about which links to click when ready to post my thoughts for posterity.

Gadgets, Gizmos and Photos

We tend to use big trips as an excuse to get additional bits of camera paraphernalia. This expedition is no exception, though the new gizmo is very 21st century... an iPod. Yes, that's right - an iPod in the camera bag. It turns out that with a nifty connector one can pull photos from most digital cameras to the iPod. No need to lug a computer or invest in huge quantities of expensive photo memory (i.e. microdrives/flash cards).

The data transfer will probably take time and a toll on the camera's battery, but we have chunky memory and backup batteries, so should be able to plan around that. One annoying feature that I haven't yet been able to figure a hack for is that the connector seems to offer the option of only pulling *all* the pictures off the camera, rather than selecting and transferring/deleting user-defined subsets. If the big card's full it could take a while to shift 4GB of images.

To reduce our katundu we're not taking a laptop - hopefully we won't have any trouble finding internet cafes, where we will then hook up said iPod as an external drive and post pictures to Pixamo / the blogosphere.

Though we're not in China yet I've posted some photos from previous trips to an accompanying gallery (also reached via the Images Across The Earth link at the upper right of this blog).

Time Zones

China is in the GMT +8:00 time zone.

This is equivalent to a thirteen hour time change between China and the US east coast, eleven and a half hours between Newfoundland and China, an eight hour time change from Britain to China, seven hours from continental Europe, six hours between Africa and China, and a whopping sixteen hours from the north american west coast to China.
For China time, unless you're in Japan or somewhere else to the east of China and west of the international date line, just think "later today (or perhaps tomorrow)". If in doubt the sun clock will give you a sense of where it's day or night.