Operation Blanket Party

9 Jan 2010 - D-Day of Operation Blanket Party, that's what Jet calls it.

Date: 9th-10th Jan 2010
Theatre of Operation: Omachi, Nagano
Total Strength: 58
Ops Code: D190SAK
Location: Sun Alpina Kashimayari Ski Resort

I only had my 70-300mm with me, so I could not shoot the overview of the place. But this is roughly how it looked

Lifts

The advance slope

Riding the lift

It was a 2-day 2-night trip. We left on the night of 8 Jan, reached the place at 7am on 9 Jan. The moment we reached the place, we changed, rented our equipments and the battle began! It's been close to 8 months since I last snowboarded and I kept falling on my first few runs, like a total beginner. Slowly, I picked up the pace and got back the form I had last season but it didn't last long. Muscles worn out and soon I lost my strength to maneuver the board. All thanks to fatty Singapore food I cooked during new year and the lack of exercise.

After dinner, there was a fireworks display - short one but pretty good. Then I continued with a few night runs. Finally, I decided to end the day after falling at a high speed on my head.

I woke up the next morning with my whole body aching and feeling strengthless. So I decided to give up snowboarding but instead, picked up my camera and went shooting...

The Skiers

Here's Ansley

Jet doing the starfish

Jacelyn moving so slowly that she appears stationary


We lost the Olympics (sigh)

The Snowboarders

Wang Chun (correct me if I got the name wrong) practicing his toe side.

Ma Sibo posing for camera (but this chick came by)

Aldred in action

Rully did it in style

The NGs

Ouch!

Wouwoo...

Aaaahhh!!!!

The Experts
are the KIDS!!




and some other random shots...


Man on scooter

Michael trying some stunts

Resting

That's not all.. More photos at my flickr
You can also view all the photos from the following slideshow.


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Tobu Zoo

3 Jan 2010 - My first photography trip in 2010 was at Tobu Zoo. I bought my 2nd-hand 70-300mm 2 months back but always had no chance to try it. Found out that Tobu Zoo still had Christmas illuminations going on so I decided to go there for 300mm debut.

Set 1 - Animals

Lunchtime

Thirsty Flamingo

Lion the Thinker

Squirrel Monkey feeding on leaves

Llama making funny faces

Moody American Bison

As usual, Lesser Pandas always try to act cute (bleahh!)

Japanese Macaque always look fierce

Baby Sitatunga licking his nose

I want food!!

I'm cold here, let me out!

Some more animal actions

Seal and his precise jumping skill

Perfect balancing skill

What a sleeping pose for a "king of the jungle"...

Testing result of my 70-300mm: Great and I love it! The lens is very sharp and focusing is fast and precise. Absolutely satisfied with it. Except one problem.. the barrel extends out after auto-focusing and I had to change to MF, push the lens in before I can keep it into my bag. It's minor problem and the lens definitely worth 42000 yen.

Lens is good but sigh...I miss Singapore Zoo. Animals in Tobu Zoo are all kept in cages or thick glass tanks like this!!...

That made it very difficult for me to get nice photos out of the animals. But it made me realize the need for a circular polarizer to block off reflections of the glasses.

Set 2 - Evening sky
I was disappointed with the animals but the beautiful sky compensated for it.








By the way, Tobu Zoo is also an amusement park.


Set 3 - Christmas Illumination
The evening sky came as a pleasant surprise and I almost forgot to save memory space for the illumination.

This is the time to switch to my fave 10-22mm!








Thank you!

More photos at Flickr