Stuttgart Month of Election - 斯图加特选举月

On May 25th 2014, there will be three elections in Stuttgart: The regional and municipal election and the Europe Parliament election. In the streets, for weeks people have been fed with posters from all parties and certainly amusement is never absent. It is also a good chance to get a feel about what do the people from the Stuttgart region care about. So today I'm going to document some posters I saw in the streets, be the topic serious or funny.

First of all, for those who don't quite know about Stuttgart yet: 

• according to the Wikipedia article, economically it has the highest general standard of prosperity of any city in Germany, and 
• according to a Spiegel article, it is also the culturally richest city in Germany.

Here we go. The photos are hosted on Flickr. If you would like to see bigger photos, you can click the photos to enlarge, but remember to click the Backward button on your browser to come back to this entry from Flickr:

1.

S21 Objectors vs FDP

On the left is a small stand for collecting signatures for a petition for a referendum. What will be the referendum about? The text on the upper left tells:

• No 339 millions of Euro from our civil budget. Deutsche Bahn should, like others (railway companies), pay for her own station;
• The saved resources can be used for facilities such as kindergartens and schools.

Background: For many years, some people in Stuttgart are persistently against Deutsche Bahn's project Stuttgart 21 (S21). Several referendums have been done in the past years and the results favoured this project. So now the objectors are trying to approach their goal in another way. Without municipal and state financial support, the project S21 will not be possible. I guess they are trying to stop the S21 project by trying to retract the public financial support.

On the right are two candidates from the Free Democratic Party (FDP) for the local election. The liberal FDP is for investment and economic growth.

My Chinese Translation of Three Eurovsion Song Contest Songs

So, it's Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) week again! Here I post my Chinese translation of three ESC Songs. All translated from their English text

Title 1:  Rändajad (ESC 2009 Estonia entry, originally in Estonian. Lyrics author: Sven Lõhmus )

English translation:

The Nomads

In the desert heat, the sand
blows like ice-cold snow
The night soon spreads its wings
Nothing but the wind to escort the nomads

That is the way they wander from one day to the next
That is the way they wander from one life to the next
That is the way it weaves an invisible path
on them, it waits until you are ready to take the risk

It carries only frozen souls
The moonlight makes their shadows
Warmth in a ray of sunlight
is what the morning brings once again

That is the way they wander from one day to the next
That is the way they wander from one life to the next
That is the way it weaves an invisible path
on them, it waits until you are ready to take the risk

They wander from one day to the next
They wander from one life to the next
It weaves an invisible path
It waits until you are ready to take the risk

A voice echoes across the mountains up to the heavens

That is the way they wander from one day to the next
That is the way they wander from one life to the next
That is the way it weaves an invisible path
on them, it waits until you are ready to take the risk
That is the way

My Chinese translation:

行者

 

大漠炙热而荒芜，沙石
动地而来　如漫天暴雪
夜　在天际展开无边黑翼
护送旅人的，是凛凛的风

这条路　他们从日出奔向日出
这条路　他们从生跋涉到生
这条路　隐秘的崎岖绵延暗涌
万象之上，它只等你启程，义无反顾

它只承载结晶的灵魂
月光勾勒出他们的身影
一束晨曦中的微暖
是周而复始的召唤

这条路　他们从日出奔向日出
这条路　他们从生跋涉到生
这条路　隐秘的崎岖绵延暗涌
万象之上，它只等你启程，义无反顾

一个声音带着凌厉的回声穿越群山，响彻云霄

这条路　他们从日出奔向日出
这条路　他们从生跋涉到生
这条路　隐秘的崎岖绵延暗涌
万象之上，它只等你启程，义无反顾

生命奔涌，有迹可寻，无从顾及

Turning the Sony Alpha 7 Body into a Nikon Dxxx / Dx Body

Recently I bought a Sony Alpha 7 for its smaller size, lighter weight, tilt monitor and full frame sensor, which makes it a good tool for my favourite photograph subject street candid. Prior to this body, I had been using a Nikon D300 for years and am so used to its control interface. Especially I am spoiled by D300's AE-L and AF-On buttons. So spoilt that I do not quite know how to shoot fast moving objects without these two buttons placed close to each other, easily accessible with the thumb finger of my right hand.

Sony A7 body does offer AE-L and AF-On functions, but by default they are assigned to the same button and a lever must be flipped to distinguish the functions. Worse yet, that very button is further messed up with "Manual Focus" function. No no no, I do not like it.

Good news is, there are enough buttons that can be customized on the Sony A7 body, including that messed-up one. After trying with different settings on different buttons, I've found the most comfortable positions to place the functions I use most of the time. Now the control buttons are nicely laid out on the A7 body, with AE-L and AF-On functions at the right place, the rest functions even better organized and more ergonomic than my Nikon D300 body.

Note to Myself: How I Use My Camera

When it comes to photography, I am interested in a wide range of subjects. The ones I'm most passionate about are:

• Children / Action
• Street Candid
• Architecture / Buildings

For the first two type of subjects, conceptually, good shots require a lot of off-site studying of compositional skill and reading of other photograhpers' great images. When out and about, high degree of concentration of the things happening around, almost prompt, sometimes even predictive reaction to interesting subjects/moments are essential. This blog entry notes my most comfortable way for shooting fast moving objects.

Psychology, Philosophy and Practice for Advancing One's Photography

This entry is my book review for  Michael Freeman: The Photograher's Mind.

As all kinds of cameras becoming ubiquitous, sheer volume of pictures explode, there is more and more democracy in the appreciation of good photography. What makes a good photography? Is there really any standard nowadays? And, if yes, how to achieve the quality? Mr. Michael Freeman has tried to answer these questions in a series of books.

Revealing the Logic in China's History

The following is my book review for Ray Huang: 1587, A Year of No Significance. Originally written on January 3rd,  2007. Wording slightly revised. 

The history of China is long and it is very difficult to get a clear idea about the logic behind the countless events happened during the last several thousand years in China. I've read many books on China’s history, both Chinese ones and English ones. This book has been the most inspiring one among those I've read.

Systematic Approach to Solid Composition

The following is my book review for Michael Freeman: The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos. This review was originally written on February 14th, 2009. Wording slightly revised here.

To maximize the quality and visual impact of a photograph, solid composition is essential. The figure I uploaded, "composition triangle", illustrates my understanding to major aspects of a solid photo composition after reading Michael Freeman's book The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos. Three vertexes are tool, skill, and intent. To maximize the area of the composition triangle, all three vertexes need to be well positioned.

Carsharing in Germany

It's a great honour to have been invited as an author for the quality blog Asif Khan. This entry is an English translation of an entry that I wrote a while ago, about a niche of the car industry and my vision of its future.

Mr. Asif Khan was my classmate and teammate during our Finance course work at Stanford Venture Lab (now Stanford Online), 2012/2013. Asif was a great team player during the course and contributed with his knowledge, diligence and warm support to me (I was the team leader at that time). The performance of our team ranked 18th out of 800+ teams from all over the world. Thank you very much Asif, I'll always dearly recall the time when our team worked together, and I'm very glad that you offered me a chance to share my thoughts and vision at your highly active and quality blog!

 Here we go.

(More information about the finance professional Mr. Asif Kahn is available at his website)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many are familiar with the car renting business. Car renting companies such as Sixt, Avis, Hertz are operating all around the world. In recent years, in Europe, especially Germany, a more flexible and efficient business model of car renting, namely carsharing, has emerged and flourished.