Monday, July 30, 2007

Getting your DSLR off auto



Most beginners who buy maybe a Canon Rebel __ or Nikon D__ DSLR have their cameras on Auto and never really stray from it. Or some people use the pre-set settings (those little pictures). Now those work fine, but to really unlock the features of your camera, you really need to venture to the other "letter modes" - For Nikons (since I have the pic): M (full manual), A (aperture priority), S (shutter priority), P (semi-full auto). I'm gonna give you a rundown of 2 of the modes I use the most: A, and S.

A: What is it? [controls how big the circle opens up on the lens]
When to use it? [When you want control the focus blur of your backgrounds or dark situations when you don't want to use flash]
* indoors without flash
* natural light portraits
* pictures of stuff where the background is blurred or fades to a blur.

S: What is it? [controls how fast the camera takes a picture, the faster the less light but less motion blur]
When to use it? [The slower the speed, the more light gets recorded but it becomes very sensitive to even the slightest movement, which is why you have blurry pictures]
* fast paced sport events
* teacup ride in Disneyland where you want to motion blur the background
* smooth water effect in rivers, waterfalls, etc.

Here's the great part: you choose the A (commonly known as F-stop) or S and the camera takes care of the rest. You just pick what your priority is depending on what the situation you're in calls for. The shutter speed is camera dependent, while the aperture is lens dependent - the lower the F, number better (and more expensive). More later with examples.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

A Preview of Sienna


I love this look.


Being cool.





Here's a little preview of Sienna's upcoming photo book. The rest of the pics have not been shot yet and we'll go to the beach in a couple of weeks to finish them with mom and dad. The nice blur effects are thanks to my new lens with a big aperture (how big the circle opens) shot wide open. More later.




Since it's summertime and you can't take your lappy for a dip it in the pool or feed it a piece of cold watermelon, I just got this great laptop cooling stand made by Belkin. It has a fan underneath and curved design for better heat dissipation, especially important in this summertime hot weather. It actually works very well and the bottom of my laptop is fairly cool to the touch. It also angles it up nicely and keeps the heat away from your lap and other important body parts. It's USB powered, fairly quiet, and very light and portable. Best of all, it was only $25 at Newegg.

Also some updates to the blog: The tags list was getting too long so it's now the trendy cloud layout. Also, I've added a live webcam stream. I'll usually be on at nights.


Saturday, July 21, 2007

Cool Pic of Downtown LA


This picture was taken from inside a car earlier this evening with my little Canon point and shoot camera. It's surprising how nice pictures come out with just a little pocket camera with the right lighting. It's all about timing and lighting. It came out quite nicely so I thought I'd share. Too bad for the power lines.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Me as a Simpsons Character!



I uploaded this image of me (a recent headshot for a book) to Simpsonize-Me and it produced this image. I didn't get to tweak it because it was crashing from the hits so I quickly screen captured it. It doesn't really look like me (Though I do have big eyes) so hopefully the site will stop crashing for me to adjust this guy to look more 'Asian' (although the Asian characters on the Simpsons are NOT good lookin! - Cookie Kwan anyone?) Is this cool or what?! Try it out for yourself and feel free to share the results with me!

On the photography front, I haven't shot anything lately but I did get a new lens that I'm excited to use, so I will have some new stuff shortly.



Update: Ok I swore I would keep this blog strictly photography and never "contaminate" it by putting random crap on here but I just couldn't resist. This video is from a prison in the Philippines. These are all actual inmates practicing for Michael Jackson's Thriller! I highly doubt the state prisons here in California are going to do anything similar anytime soon, although I do suggest Beat It to solve the Bloods vs. Crips rivalry.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Jeff is a Dad 2.0

My friend Jeff AKA Agent 619 in Chula Vista just had his 2nd baby boy! You can see pregnant Rosalie pics from Howard's wedding pictures.

Here are pictures of Joshua - Click HERE. Now I'm no baby expert, but Joshua has outstanding skin and looks a little too tranquil in pic #2 - basically, he's suspiciously way too good lookin for not even having left the hospital - not like the usual wrinkly, discolored, smoosh-faced babies.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Sandy & Howard's Wedding Pics

Here are the professional pictures from the wedding photographer Henry Wang. He was a really cool guy. To give you an example, a lot of professional photographers get insecure when guests bring fancy pants cameras to the wedding, such as AC, who brought his Canon 30d and fancy L-lens. Henry not only was really cool about taking a group shot with AC's camera, but offered to lend him a flash for the day. When he couldn't find an extra one, he took the one off his own camera and used it for the shot. How cool is that?

There are a TON of pictures - enyoy - Thank you come again! Click HERE.

Monday, July 09, 2007

The iPhone



My fellow gadget-loving geek Khiemy (See Friends link) stopped by today with a new toy, you might have heard of it - it's by Apple. Anyway, we hooked it up to my wifi and that thing is sweet. Email, web surfing, photo viewing, music, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Yes, I have gadget envy but I'd rather not part with $600 right now.

Mini review: The first thing that strikes you is the screen. It's so clear and sharp that it almost looks fake, like one of those back-lit pre-printed film pictures. Then you start playing with it and it's very intuitive, taking just seconds to navigate everything. Yes, the keyboard was driving me nuts but apparently it's something that you get used to and it gets better. I was impressed by the email features and outlook sync. It even does google calendar, which I use. My one big gripe was the screen gets dirty really quickly but you can wipe it. That and it hangs up a little when you're doing too much too fast - kinda like my old lappy. Anyway, enough gadget envy.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Monday, July 02, 2007

Cool Pics





I went pier fishing with the boys the other day in Santa Monica. Even though we didn't catch anything, this guy caught a sting ray. I felt bad for the little guy but the good news is he was let go. Here's a couple of cool shots off the reflection of my sunglasses.