Taiwan: A last blast on Star Alliance through US Airways featuring Air China+Thai F
Oct 3, 2014, 10:34 pm
#17
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 396
Hi everyone!
I use an Olympus OM-D E-M5. Some of the photos are with the 12-50 mm kit lens (especially the ones from flights), but the vast majority off the airplane are with the Olympus f-1.8, 25 mm prime lens. Before shooting with one, I'd always rolled my eyes at photographers prattling on about prime lens, but now I am one of those prime obsessed photographers. To begin with, I never noticed the lack of sharpness at the corners of images; when composition is altered so that the focus points are out of the center of the photos, this really starts to come into play. Obviously, being able to open the lens wide up (f-1.8) and extremely pleasing bokeh are icing on the cake. Overall, in my photography, I've found that the improved optical qualities of the prime more than make up for having to do more work in composing photos (instead of zoom, I have to walk back or forward or crop after shooting). If I had a wider prime, I'm sure I'd use it for the flights too, but for now it's too pricey and I'm still using mostly the 12-50 kit for flights.
There's some minimal if any adjustment of levels on about half of the photos, usually just a fast tug on the "highlights" or "shadows" slider in Picassa. For photos where I really think I under or over exposed it, usually I just toss it out, but if I absolutely must save it for some reason (composition, subject interest, etc.), I'll go ahead and fire up Photoshop starting with Adobe's RAW editor and go at it with exposure, clarity, vibrancy, curves, and even feathered selection of certain elements to have different curves for different parts if I want to do some tonal flattening.
Hah, I thought about that, but I double checked dates and Ms. SFO777's appearance from the recent thread and I cannot confirm the sighting. 
Hmm, I think they're honestly relatively comparable. I'll give Air China the edge on food quality by a significant degree (except for the caviar which Air China didn't offer at all) but Thai for the ground services and "little touches" including the Rimowa ammenity kit as well as the orchids everywhere.
So, I noticed the Madone username; how often do you ride while travelling? Do you ever take your bike with you or do you rent bikes when you get there? Any favorite rides while travelling?
I use an Olympus OM-D E-M5. Some of the photos are with the 12-50 mm kit lens (especially the ones from flights), but the vast majority off the airplane are with the Olympus f-1.8, 25 mm prime lens. Before shooting with one, I'd always rolled my eyes at photographers prattling on about prime lens, but now I am one of those prime obsessed photographers. To begin with, I never noticed the lack of sharpness at the corners of images; when composition is altered so that the focus points are out of the center of the photos, this really starts to come into play. Obviously, being able to open the lens wide up (f-1.8) and extremely pleasing bokeh are icing on the cake. Overall, in my photography, I've found that the improved optical qualities of the prime more than make up for having to do more work in composing photos (instead of zoom, I have to walk back or forward or crop after shooting). If I had a wider prime, I'm sure I'd use it for the flights too, but for now it's too pricey and I'm still using mostly the 12-50 kit for flights.
Hmm, I think they're honestly relatively comparable. I'll give Air China the edge on food quality by a significant degree (except for the caviar which Air China didn't offer at all) but Thai for the ground services and "little touches" including the Rimowa ammenity kit as well as the orchids everywhere.
So, I noticed the Madone username; how often do you ride while travelling? Do you ever take your bike with you or do you rent bikes when you get there? Any favorite rides while travelling?
Oct 4, 2014, 7:55 pm
#21
Suspended
Join Date: May 2009
Location: DFW
Programs: AAdvantage Platinum, Hilton HHonors Gold
Posts: 2,863
I like Air China hard product a lot. But their first class soft product is merely business class. If they can up the game there, we'll have another great trans-Pacific first class product. Their biz class is already top notch.
Oct 4, 2014, 10:34 pm
#22
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: DCA/IAD
Programs: most of them
Posts: 3,283
Great report!
Since I visited a couple of times I think Taiwan is a really under-rated destination.
And Bangkok is one of my favorite places so it's nice to see it as well. I love the chaos of the city. This is the way most Thai coups go. Things stay under wraps for a while. The whole situation is very complicated. Once the King dies I expect all hell will break loose.
Big thumbs up for the E-M5.
Since I visited a couple of times I think Taiwan is a really under-rated destination.
And Bangkok is one of my favorite places so it's nice to see it as well. I love the chaos of the city. This is the way most Thai coups go. Things stay under wraps for a while. The whole situation is very complicated. Once the King dies I expect all hell will break loose.
Big thumbs up for the E-M5.