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During my annual trip to Austin, my uncle and aunt brought me to see Art Outside , an Art Exposition in a forest during the night. Of course when I went there was the only day on this two weeks trip that I didn't have either my camera and my mono-pod, so I had to go there a second time the next evening.

Those photos were taken using the Ricoh Digital GR referenced in the previous post and a mono-pod. I was impressed by the overall image quality in such a low light, of course, not all pictures came out great compared to using a DSLR and an heavy tripod but for one tenth of the weight and the space it's not such a bad deal.

I went in NYC for a week before going to see relatives in Texas, I haven't been in New York for around fifteen years. Needless to say, I didn't have a lot of memories of that last time ( one exception being the Met ).

Also, what made it special was that I decided to travel light, no laptop ( sold my iBook G4), no DSLR ( the nikon D2H is too bulky and heavy ). I bought a Ricoh Digital GR as a Christmas gift for my father, I did try it out a little bit and I was really impressed ( review: here ). As we were both leaving for trips at the same time ( but in opposite directions around the world ) and he brought a DSLR with him, I borrowed his Digital GR for my trip.

The nice thing about having a small camera like that is that street shooting is much more discreet, it is also quite fast for a small digital camera, you can leave it in your pocket and get it out and power it on in a few seconds. The build quality and the feature set really impressed me, it's like having a miniature DSLR in your pocket. It is all magnesium body, the "photographic" features are very easily accessible with a button and the same adjustment wheel present in DSLR. A nice touch is the optional optical viewfinder which is very bright and give you 100% of the camera field of view ( very rare for small digicam ). Also to note is the fixed 28mm focal length of the lens ( 35mm equiv) , something that doesn't bother me at all as I almost do only wide angle.

In conclusion, this camera is a pleasure to work with and is a really nice alternative or complement to a DSLR.

There were a few occasions where I would have preferred to have my DSLR with me, but most of the time I was enjoying the lightness of just having a small digicam.

Just after the week I spent in Hong Kong I took a flight to Tokyo as it was a long time goal for me to get there. Overall it was more pleasant than Hong Kong, being more calmer and relaxed. This time I managed to get some lodgings before arriving and I stayed at the Andon Ryokan, an inn opened by a designer, very stylish and confortable despite the very small rooms. It was the "hotel" where I sleept the best of all hotels I stayed this year. Once I had a place to sleep in, it was the usual freestyle wandering the get to know the city better; the metro system is efficient if a tad confusing for a foreigner like me.

On my first day, I was lucky enough to stumble upon a taiko drums demonstration in Shinjuku.

Tokyo misc. pictures

I also enjoyed a lot visiting the temples there, and apparently it was weddings season as almost anytime I went in a temple there was one or multiple weddings happening. The temples are gorgeous even as in Hong Kong they are not that old and most have been rebuilt after the war.

Senso-Ji A big temple, extremely beautiful at night.

Hie Jinga The Torii ( tunnel of gates) is particulary nice.

Of course it wasn't all temple diving, as I wanted to experience some of the quirckiness Tokyo is know for, and I did get that and then some at Harajuku during Sunday.

Cosplay at Harajuku It was an isane display of cosplay, strange characters and also a lot of fun.

You can see some others gallery at the main Tokyo Photo Index.

I also met a friend there at Shibuya who is teaching english in an high school in Tokyo. Of course, I did some shopping too, I brought back as much stuff I was able to cram in my luggage.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this week I spent there as I'm looking forward of going back there for a much longer stay.