Hello everyone! Just wanted to share my holiday pictures of Macau. Please feel free to comment. Personally, I made quite a lot of mistakes here. For example, I should have gone with F/2 and zoom for the bokeh effect in portraits, etc. Okay, here we go.. We arrived in Macau in the middle of the night on a weekend. Bad timing. Had to wait until the next morning before we managed to get a bus into town. Took a dumpy room for MOP 230 (RM 109.50, USD 28.80) in Hotel Ko Wah on Rue da Felicidade. It was the weekend, so it was very expensive and there was little choice. Coincidentally, it was directly in front of a Pastelaria Koi Kei branch. Pastelaria Koi Kei is one of bigger, if not biggest, Macanese bakeries dealing in smoked sweet meats, Macanese peanut cookies and pancakes. Picture 1 - PKK bakers making cookies. They half-fill the moulds with the flour mixture, put in a piece of peach (if I'm not mistaken) before filling up with more flour. They pack the moulds full and then knock the moulds to remove the cookies. The cookies are later baked. Picture 2 - From another angle. Picture 3 - Sweet meats on sale. These are freshly smoked, no preservatives. Tend to be a little salty as a result. But they sure have a LARGE selection of flavours and types, ranging from garlic pork, chicken and beef to top piglet meat, etc. Superb! Picture 4 - A puppy getting up from his perch next to a small altar. Picture 5 - The same puppy.
Picture 6 - Sigh... My life is so boring.. Picture 7 - 5 minutes away is Senado Square (Senate Square), directly opposite the Leal Senado (Loyal Senate) administrative building. It was REALLY cold that day. Even with three layers of clothes, we could feel the cold. Picture 8 - This is a shot across the Senado Square fountain (under maintenance) into a side street. Picture 9 - Jenny with the video camera. Note the interesting floor pattern. That's the square's distinguishing feature. Picture 10 - A shot past Jenny into that side street in Picture 8. Nice wavy zebra pattern.
Picture 11 - Close look at the floor pattern. Should I have used a smaller aperture? I used F/2 here. Picture 12 - This is interesting.. How they roast chestnuts in Macau. Picture 13 - He pours in a load of chestnuts and... Picture 14 - Lights up the fire! Picture 15 - A clock tower in Senado Square. We heard the bells ringing but I'm not sure if it does that every hour on the hour or only at noon. The buildings behind really marred this picture, I think.
Kool! Good set of pics! Er...they used a mini 'concrete mixer' (pic 12 to 14) to roast chestnuts? Something different...
Yeah, nice pics Boss! Not really sure if the buildings behind marred the photo (Picture 15), to me it seems like a representation of urbanisation dwarfing historical culture! Btw, what's a "bokeh" effect?
google is your best friend http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/bokeh.htm we talked about this earlier... Hmmm I think our photo gurus should start compiling a comprehensive list of terms and terminology...or maybe add on to the current one that we have...
Exactly. Hehe.. Not something I see too often! Here's more! Picture 16 - A shot down Senado Square. Man, I seem to be spending a lot of time here. Picture 17 - One of the quaint side streets off Senado Square. Picture 18 - Further down Senado Square is a line of rocking balls. No idea what they are for but a couple of kids were standing on them and rocking back and forth... Picture 19 - So, we did the same! Picture 20 - Yeah, the rocking balls are just in front of São Domingos (St. Dominic's Church).
Picture 21 - Here's a shot of the São Domingos' facade. I used F/8 for this shot. Picture 22 - Inside the São Domingos is this chapel. Picture 23 - Close up of what should be the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. Picture 24 - Umm.. Virgin Mary and St. Dominic, I suppose? I used F/2.3 for this shot (the largest aperture I could manage at that point). Picture 25 - Chandelier in the chapel. I don't think I got the effect at all though.
Picture 28 - Side corridor next to the chapel, going out to Senado Square. Picture 29 - Oval window out the first floor. Picture 30 - Out a window on the first floor. Picture 31 - One of the church bells. Picture 32 - Ladder leading out a trapdoor. Didn't try it though. They had cameras.
LOL! I should have practiced a LOT more before I left for the trip but I was just so busy. Regret it, of course.. but oh well, it's too late. Let's continue! Picture 34 - Side entrance to the church. I think this shot would be a lot better if Jenny stood a lot closer... Picture 35 - After that, we got pretty hungry. Headed to a nearby eatery and had this Curry Beef Rice. Basically, it's just curry beef with onions poured over a substantial amount of rice, that's it. Nothing special, except the price. It cost MOP 23 (RM 10.95, USD 2.88) Picture 36 - This plate of dry beef noodles with wan ton cost MOP 23 as well. Man, such food, it's ridiculously expensive. The wan ton is very good though. Picture 37 - Next, we headed a little further away from Senado Square to St. Augustine's Plaza. Here is where the St. Augustine Church is located. As it happened, there was a wedding going on at that time. But when people started poking their heads in to peek, they closed the doors. What, can't we celebrate with them? Picture 38 - Took the opportunity to take this shot of a girl standing by the doorway of the building directly opposite the church.
Picture 39 - Nearby the girl in the doorway is this group of students. I assume they were discussing something educational. Picture 40 - The plaza opposite the church. The fountain was not working though. Picture 41 - Here's a shot from the plaza. The small road for vehicles is paved. Quite a nice place. Picture 42 - It was getting late, so we decided to head for the Ruins of St. Paul's Church before it got dark. On the way, we saw this stall, selling what I presume is the Macanese version of take-away steamboat, dip-dip or lok-lok as we call them here. Picture 43 - You choose what you want. She throws them into boiling water. And when they are cooked, she takes them out and put them in a styrofoam bowl. Then she pours a kind of curry into it. The curry's hot but rather tasteless.
Hehe.. Yeah, the wan tons are really nice. Full of prawns! If you do go, mahakanjus, make sure you take loads of pics! Okay, let's continue with some more pics. Picture 44 - A better shot of the Macanese steamboat. Picture 45 - A street vendor on the same street. Picture 46 - Later, we saw a Starbucks outlet in Senado Square! Finally! Unfortunately, this is the biggest size they had - Grande. And it cost me MOP 30 (RM 14.29, USD 3.76). Worse, Starbucks in Macau do not have any WiFi access. When I asked them about Internet there, they looked at me as if they have never heard of it. Picture 47 - Okay, 5-10 minutes away from Senado Square is the famous ruins of St. Paul's Church. It burned down, leaving only the front facade. Picture 48 - A closer shot. The buildings on both sides do detract from the picture, I'll admit. But I think I have better photos of it coming up.
