Trip to Sawarna Beach Banten

Overlooking the vast open Indian Ocean, featuring crystal clear blue water and stretches of white sandy beach, shaded bybeautiful rows of sheltering trees, the Sawarna Beach is without a doubt one of the most beautiful beaches in the province of Banten.

Located by a peaceful little village on the south coast of Java Island,  Sawarna Beach offers a host of natural wonders such asits rushing river, lush forest, rocky hills, caves, and more. The beautiful landscape is also shrouded in the myth of “Nyi Roro Kidul”, the mythical Queen of the South Seas, besides being replete with the history of coal exploitation in the nearby areas of Bayah and Lebak .

The beach is about 150km from the town of Rangkasbitung, center of Banten Province.

The beauty of Sawarna beach is truly captivating. Those who enjoy surfing will also find the waves at Sawarna quitechallenging. Its barreling waves have managed to attract surfers from all over the globe including those from USA, Australia, Japan, and Korea.

Beneath the surface, the underwater beauty of Sawarna also makes it a perfect place for snorkeling. Here, you can find most colorful coral reefs and various species of tropical fish. Some of the best spots for snorkeling are at Ciantir Beach, Tanjung Layar Beach, Karang Bokor Beach, Karang Seupang Beach, Karang Traraje Beach, and Legon Pari Bay.

Aside from its stunning beaches, Sawarna also offers fascinating adventure opportunities in some of its spectacular caves, such as the Lalay Cave, the Sikadir Cave, Cimaul Cave, Singalong Cave, and Pasir Tangkil Cave. The caves at Sawarna are Karst caves that were formed during the early Miocene period.

Source: Wonderful Indonesia

So I was there medio March 2015 with some friends, traveling  about 8 hours from Jakarta, and yes it was so beautiful. We managed to take some good pictures along the trip and here they are.

Images are copyrighted, use with permission.

Legon Pari Bay

Legon Pari Bay

Karang Taraje

Cibobos

Cibobos

Cibobos

Cibobos

Cibobos

Tanjung Layar

Tanjung Layar

Karang Taraje

Tanjung Layar

Tanjung Layar

The mango flower in colour

Hanging around my garden and suddenly realized that my two years old mango tree has started to grow some flowers in it... this means in a couple months time I can start to enjoy mango fruit from my own garden.. yipeee....

Took my 50D and 100mm F/2.8L and snap couple of pics....

What's left from Manado

We went to Manado, North Sulawesi last June to give my wife a visit. She's doing her obstetric and gynecology school there.  There are a lots of picture taken from there but I think I'm just going to post some here....

Here are the pics...

City full of public transport (angkot), I've created this miniature effect using Photoshop

Bunaken.. again I'm creating a miniature effect using PS

Bunaken

Tondano Lake

Me.. fish feeding :-)

Carl Zeiss MC Biometar 80mm F/2.8 Lens (Amateur) Review

Well guys... here I am trying to put my self as a reviewer for a beautiful lens. As an amateur user I've had some opinion with this lens... and here's the story behind it....:

I've acquired this lens couple weeks ago from Kaskus one of the largest Indonesian community website. The price for this lens is around US $225. there was couple of mixed up during the process of acquiring this lens. At first place after place my bid and get the nod from the seller for the agreed price, I've transferred the money and hopeful the lens will be sent straight after the transfer.... turned out that the seller didn't HAVE the lens with him at the time. He asked his best friend to keep it and also sell it for him, and his friend was out of town for a couple days. So after waiting couple of days, finally the lens was sent to me. Before sending the package, the seller asked me whether I wanted the M42 adapter. For my understanding, I thought he offered M42-EOS adapter, and I have that already at home, so I said No Thanks.... actually... what he meant was Pentacon 6 - M42 adapter.... jeeeez.....

So when the lens arrived at my place, there's nothing I can do with it because I don't have the right adapter for it. And I have to purchase the adapter for around US $20. OK the adapter arrived, can't wait to test it....

Beautiful medium format lens.....

But when I check the diaphragm, Ive noticed that the blade got stuck open wide, I've tried to play around with the ring turn it forward and backward but no luck so far..... So I've returned the lens to the seller and he promised to fix that for me.

 

Carl Zeiss Biometar 80mm F/28 with Pentacon 6-M42 and M42-EOS adapter

After a week or so.. the finally I've got this lens with me in a perfect working order... yayy.....

So I've attached it to my Canon 50D and it looked like this:

From some of the reviews I've read, this lens can produce a beautiful chained bokeh and good color render. I've played around the house with this lens and here are some samples of it....

 Beautiful rounded bokeh (Shot with 50D)

 Beautiful rounded bokeh (Shot with 50D)

 Chained bokeh... very sharp open wide

 Shot with 7D very beautiful bokeh...

I took this picture using my Lumix GF-2 with M42-micro 4/3 adapter, I think I need time to adjust myself using live view with manual lens.... so the picture a little bit out of focus....

So far my opinion of this lens is worth to have and collect as the lens can produce amazing picture, right now I'm looking for a tilt shift adapter for this lens so I can play around with it and create a miniature effect with it.....

It's worth the wait and every cent that I've spent for this lens.....

Sorry for my english and sorry for the very amateur review...... :-)

The World of Black and White

Beberapa foto jepretan hari ini in BW diolah memakai Adobe Lightoom

Gear Used: Canon 50D + Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm F/1.4