Pussy Bear

When I visited Sichuan of China in 2005, I had a chance to visit the Chengdu Panda Rehabilitation and Research Centre (成都大熊猫繁育研究基地) and see the pandas with my own eyes. The direct translation of panda in mandarin is bear-cat. I was told that it was actually cat-bear, but the Chinese characters of 'cat (猫)' and 'bear (熊)' were traditionally written from right to left and then mistakenly read from left to right in the modern world, it has become bear-cat since.

The Sichuan Provincial Government has sent 10 pandas to Shanghai lately for the World Exposition. This has reminded me of my visit to the pandas and therefore sharing these photos here with you. They are very adorable, aren't they?

Parliament Houses and the Big Ben

I waited for the sky to get dark to shoot images of the Parliament Houses and the Big Ben. These type of images are always more pleasing to the eyes than the photos taken during day time.

When I merged three photos of the above composition into a high-dynamic-range (HDR) image, more details of the buildings can be seen.

I waited again for the sky to get darker so that I could get an image with sapphire-blue sky.

I did an HDR with three images of different exposure of the above composition and this is what I have got.

This is another image taken at wider angle of view.

When I combined six images into an HDR image, this is the end result.

Here are the other normal shots with different composition.

Location: Parliament Houses, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain
Date taken: 12^th June 2009
Camera equipment: Nikon D300 + Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D