I’m almost embarrassed to post pictures here, but here we go anyway. Also went to Hualien recently (November 2008). This is the best I could come up with with an old Olympus u300.
Also with an Olympus u300 from the cable car at the Ocean Park. Somehow it always seems to be cloudy when I go there… 
Some quick snaps with the Sony Ericsson K800 camera phone. I should probably post these in the random mobile phone thread, but I figure they fit in with my previous posts and I think in a way they’re actually better than the Olympus shots. So, here they are…
At the Ocean Park aquarium.
Taroko Gorge
From the hotel window.
On the train.
I like the last one best, because it kind of makes me think, “Are you in or outside the train??”
Nice shots Bismarck. Pity about the weather.
Nice shots Bismarck and I had about the same weather except for the day in the ocean park.
Some more animal shots from Hualien, nothing special.
The land where milk and honey flows… Just in case anybody ever wondered where the milk for your breakfast comes…
and the honey…
another flower shot…
and some butterflies, still without macro lens so tried to make the best out of it…
Thanks mate. The diffused lighting, at the right angle, is what helps bring out that level of detail. Children’s skin just soaks up diffused lighting and glows beautifully, so if you hit it right it’s amazing what you can see. By the way, whatever is this horrifying thing? Some kind of monster eel? 
mingsha, you have money shots here and here. Maybe a little curve balancing and slight sharpening could be used to strengthen the tones and increase the contrast of your edges.
Was about to eat an apple and decided to take a few quick photos first.
camera - 5D mk II with 50mm @f11, 1/125 ISO 400
lighting - 540ez @ 1/8 into shoot-thru umbrella camera left. Snooted 550ex @ 1/16 with CTO gel camera right.
Oooh, very appetizing.
Thanks. FWIW that’s straight from the camera, all I did was convert it to jpg. No adjustments to color or exposure etc.
Thanks guys… 
But it really is odd. Everytime I go anywhere and take pictures it always seems cloudy. Even all my Kenting pictures are overcast!! People back home who look at my blog must think I’m secretly living in England…
Thanks mate. The diffused lighting, at the right angle, is what helps bring out that level of detail. Children’s skin just soaks up diffused lighting and glows beautifully, so if you hit it right it’s amazing what you can see. By the way, whatever is this horrifying thing? Some kind of monster eel?
mingsha, you have money shots here and here. Maybe a little curve balancing and slight sharpening could be used to strengthen the tones and increase the contrast of your edges.[/quote]
It is indeed an eel. But it’s in a tank that has bubbles that magnify them so they look a lot bigger than they really are. If you go there again you can also go under the tank and have another look which shows them at their normal size.
Thanks, well both of them were actually experiments, shot through a cage so tried to test how the 70-200 works for that with getting the shots sharp and clear despite the bars going through. They are ok, but really will need a bit of fine tuning.
cfimages: Impressive shots with the 5D, seems it’s worth getting one as soon one knows how to use it. Great shot. How was the apple?
few more animals from the trip to not wasting a posting… 
Keep in mind that going full frame means you’ll lose quite a bit of the telephoto reach of your new lenses and won’t be able to zoom in as much as you can with your 400D. The 5D is, like the D700 or M8 or any other camera, just another tool you use or don’t according to your needs and not a magical automatic “make all my pictures better” wand. Cfimages’ shots are as good as they are because of what he knows about photography. As are yours. As is everyone’s.
I know that and that’s what I was trying to say some how. It’s a good thing to get this additional factor for the tele zoom. The 5D is great for the wider angle shots (providing real 17mm or what ever you use) and for some conditions like where you need higher ISO but don’t want the noise, etc.
Also the resolution and the technical qaulity is better which is just a point for things like stock photography pages, where I have to upsize my shots with the 400D at the moment to get to the required size while with the 5D I would actually have even space to crop down quite a bit. I need “perfect shots” with the 400D with now croping to get them on some sites.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see the 5D as my only way to get better shots or anything. It’s just a nice good tool providing some aspects I simply don’t have with the 400D now. I wount have a 5D for still quite some while I guess unless the stock sites start actually to provide some income and/or I get more product shots which aren’t much at the moment.
It would just be one tool which makes things there a bit easier and the workflow faster (less corrections/adjustments compared to the 400D) but I will just go for it when it makes sense for me. Or I win in the lottery or something. 
Last one from Hualien I promise…
I went down to the Danshui river after the last photographers club meeting, took that shots there towards Sanzhong:
Keep in mind that going full frame means you’ll lose quite a bit of the telephoto reach of your new lenses and won’t be able to zoom in as much as you can with your 400D. The 5D is, like the D700 or M8 or any other camera, just another tool you use or don’t according to your needs and not a magical automatic “make all my pictures better” wand. Cfimages’ shots are as good as they are because of what he knows about photography. As are yours. As is everyone’s.[/quote]
Very good point. My apple shot (tasted good BTW) works because of the lighting set up I used. I could have got the same results out of any camera (as long as it allowed external lighting).
Freakin’ incredible.[/quote]
I love this one.
Ok, I just took these Yangmingshan pics with a digital camera, but I still thought they came out nice. 
