Now is your turn Florence! I’m finally updating the travel photos of my previous travel to Florence, Italy. Following the introduction of this beautiful city of Tuscany last post, here is another snapshot that I took in Florence.

Some EXIF info: Photo taken with my Nikon D60 and my old Tamron SP10-24mm  Ultra Wide Angle lens. Shutter speed 1/320s and Aperture F9.0. Focus distance was set to 10mm (with both sides being cropped). ISO 100. Auto White Balance. No flash fired and no exposure being compensated with Matrix metering.

What captured in the photo was the main entrance door arch of the Duomo, the highest structure being constructed in Florence, which shows the height of the entrance. It also demonstrates the brilliant craftsmanship of ancient Roman civilisation during the Renaissance era.

For more exciting photos of Florence tourists sights, subscribe to my RSS feed or keep watching this space for more updates! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Europe

Chinese New Year (CNY) or Lunar New Year 2012, Year of Dragon, falls on the 23rd of January this year. I will be taking a week leave to celebrate the festival in Malaysia. Before the festival which is 2 days away, this is another set of Chinese New Year decorations in Mid Valley, one of the largest shopping mega mall in Kuala Lumpur. Decorations in Mid Valley this year are not as good as last year version, and simpler if compared to other shopping malls like Sunway Pyramid, but they still attracted huge crowd flocking in to snap photos while they were shopping for CNY clothing and foods in the mall.

Main stage of decorations was set at the Centre Court of the mall.

Kiosks selling CNY merchandise are set up at the lobby.

Stage is set up for various performance in conjunction with the Chinew New Year of Dragon.

Another set of giant lanterns is hung and displayed at the East Court of the mall.

Nothing to shout about on the deco, but it could at least stimulate our Chinese New Year mood to do some last minute shopping for the new year. Until I come back from my break next week, Travel Feeder would like to wish those who celebrate the festival:

HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS LUNAR NEW YEAR OF DRAGON 2012!

There are certainly more Chinese New Year decorations can be seen elsewhere in Malaysia than those posted here, but Sunway Pyramid in Subang area has the best that I’ve seen so far this year. Sunway Pyramid is an infamous mega shopping mall found in the Klang Valley of Malaysia which is well known for its giant Sphinx statue entrance and Pyramids roofing and architecture resembling those of the Egyptian Pyramids.

Each year during the Chinese New Year festival, they always put together some nice decorations in and around the mall to celebrate the event, and they have done it exceptionally well this year. Here are some of the photos taken with my Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 10-24mm UWA lens.

The overview of the centre court lobby decorated with a mock of the ancient Chinese fairyland.

A giant pendant lighting featuring red lanterns, a symbolic fitting for Chinese New Year.

Artificial Chinese cherry blossom are ‘planted’ around the lobby, as real Cherry Blossom can’t grow in the tropical climate of Malaysia. I love cherry blossoms so I will fly to Japan this Spring to witness its full bloom! If you wish to see a giant cherry blossom tree mock, head over to the Time Square of KL instead.

Stood at the centre stage is a giant Chinese dragon statue rising up high from the water pond (they really put up a temporary but real pond with water!)

If you look up higher, you will notice that the dragon is actually flying up towards to red lantern balls hanging down from the ceiling. Great idea!

A pagoda is even built at the fairyland.

This is one of my favourite shots of the day.

Walking out of the mall, various festive decorations are put up to attract patrons and tourists.

There is a fountain in the compound that served as a roundabout to the incoming traffics and is now decorated for some attractive lighting show at night. I didn’t stay until night so had to take a rain check for that.

That’s it for now for a brief report on Chinese New Year countdown decorations around town in Malaysia. More attractive photos will be posted in upcoming reports here in Travel Feeder. Watch this space and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Malaysia

For those of you shutterbugs who haven’t submitted your best travel photos to Airasia, Airasia is hosting a photo contest for its Travel 3Sixty onboard magazine from 3rd January to 14th February 2012. If you haven’t sold enough travel photos for your next travel, this is another chance for you to at least win a free trip to Hong Kong! The contest is open for everyone from any countries!

The photo contest will run for 3 months from January to March 2012, with one different theme for each month. 3 winners each month will win a totally free 4-Day-s3-Nights Return flight + Accommodation package to Hong Kong. For January category, travelers needs to submit photos of those awesome foods or fashion they found and captured on their travel in one of the Airasia flight destinations for the last 2 years.

The contest already started since 3rd January 2012 last week. If you haven’t submitted your best photos and wish to grab this opportunity for free travel, hurry up! The dateline for photo submission for January session is on 31st January 2012. After which, a handful of shortlisted entries will be posted for public voting to choose the winners! Even better if you captured the photos on your trip with either Airasia or Airasia X, you will get additional 20 votes!

Before submitting travel photos to win the ultimate Travel Photographer Of The Year contest later this year, why not joining this simple yet rewarding contest as a warm up? As what I said before, don’t waste your talent and creativity in travel photography! Share with th world out there, you might be one of the lucky winner to win prizes for your next photo trip! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog

At the centre of stage this year, London is the hot cake in tourism this year as the 30th Summer Olympic Games is going to be hosted there from 27 July to 12th August 2012. I went to London last year and I could see all Londoners are working very hard to prepare the event. For those of you lucky travelers who could fly there during the games, this snapshot show you what you must see in London, the Isis, the sculpture created by Simon Gudgeon that symbolizing the Goddess of Motherhood in Hyde Park, the largest park in central London.

Some EXIF info: Photo taken with my Nikon D7000 and my new Nikkor 10-24mm Ultra Wide Angle lens. Shutter speed 1/250s and Aperture F8. Focus distance was set to 21mm (with both sides being cropped). ISO 100. Auto White Balance. No flash fired and no exposure being compensated with Matrix metering.

There are many parks you can visit in London. Hyde Park, Green Park, Regent Park and St. James Park, to name a few. I’ve been to the St. James Park, which is next to the Buckingham Palace, and the Hyde Park, which house the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial. Strolling down these large parks with lots of greenery and water is a ‘must’ in your travel itinerary to London. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Europe