San Francisco

Fisherman's Wharf

The resizing program didn't do a good job with this one

I'm back in California this week - first a little visit to the bay area for a little break, now I'm back home in SoCal. Also, I went to watch Avatar in 3D - the 3D part was awesome...the movie itself was pretty good but way over hyped. I think my favorite movie I watched in 2009 was District 9. I'll catch Up in the Air soon. Can you believe the first decade of the 2000s is almost over??!! Insane! Coming soon, Sienna and a big surprise! I also uploaded a few more Gabey baby pics below.

More Gabey Baby!

I thought I'd squeeze this post in before I take off to Cali. Next up are some more Sienna and doggies pictures. Oh, and San Francisco too!

I finally get to take a few days off. The last few months have been a marathon for me - just physically and mentally draining. I've been on a diet and doing more exercises but I haven't been sleeping as much as I should. Probably because I'm up late doing this haha.

Finally, I have been sold on shooting in RAW format. I'm not sure if I'm going to shoot a whole wedding with it, but I'm getting some razor sharp pictures right out of the camera. It takes longer to process and convert them but for small jobs I think it's the way to go...for now. I learn something new about photos every time I shoot. Much more soon - Merry Christmas everyone!

World, Meet Gabe!

Mom, Dad, and Brother Ben

Move over Silas and Sienna, here comes the newest cute sensation to hit this blog, Gabe! He's only 7 weeks old and learning to smile. I wasn't going to post any pictures because I've been swamped lately but I couldn't help taking some time off for this. I'll be posting more pictures soon.

Also, this is the first time I've shot RAW (NEF) format and so far I really like it. I do notice the pictures are coming out crisp if I've done everything right. The bad news is that I don't think this lappy can hang with the 10MB pictures. I'll eventually need to get a more powerful machine with giant monitor. But that's later. Anyway, back to cute overload.

Some Christmas Family Photos

Paige and Cody

Black and white version

Here's Pam (in the red) with her family plus Cody (next to her) and Maggie (the dog). This was the fastest, most freezing, photo shoot. Lasted about 5 minutes. I didn't do a good job with this shoot with the focusing and settings. A lot of pictures were blurry but it was getting pretty dark out there.

Christmas Tree Lighting @ TCU

Frog fountain

This past week I fought the chilly weather and checked out the annual Christmas tree lighting at TCU. It was a big production, complete with Santa Clause coming in a carriage, reindeer, carolers, etc. This year they had it inside the courtyard area in front of the new student center. Also, our new building is nearly complete - behind the picture of the fountain. We get to move in in a few weeks, which means my trailer days are numbered.

Nat Geo Interional photo contest winners

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/national_geographics_internati.html

I haven't blogged in a while but I stumbled upon these amazing pictures. I think there are probably two things that are important: being at the right place at the right time and having an "eye" or interesting perspective. Well I don't have anything new to update other than I have been very busy with my non-photo related work. I am thinking about writing something more in depth about moving from an amateur camera and lenses to pro gear and what that's like.

Thanksgiving is coming up, which means some good eating but for the life of an academic, it also means a good time for work. I'm going to catch the movie Ninja Assassin. Assassin is a funny word...anyway, enough rambling. I'll try to take some pictures of something or someone soon.

"This cake is freakin good!!!"

The dance floor was bumpin to the sound of live music

Here are the reception pictures. Probably the hardest part to take pictures of because it's usually dark and you don't want to be flashing a bulb in people's faces all night long, especially when they're eating. The trick is to get the subjects well lit using your flash while not blacking out the ambient lighting. It's really cool when people use colored lights in the background. Here's where the little point and shoot cameras and cell phone cameras start to struggle. No worries though, I'm here to save the day.

On to more random stuff. I have discovered nature's crack cocaine - the highly addictive honeycrisp apple. No joke, these things are delicious. Unfortunately, I think I ate one that I might not have washed thoroughly so yesterday my upper lip was FAT from some allergic reaction. I have like 8 more, so I'm going to wash them a little better and eat them. I take that back about them being from nature, because they were actually created at the University of Minnesota using some cross mojo-nation. Anyway, they're in season so try some, seriously. Also, Halloween is almost upon us and I think I have the right costume. It will be a surprise of course (no, it is not halo or xbox related). It's more cool than funny - well I guess it could be funny if I'm wearing it. Anyway, more later.

This Picture Rules!

For some reason I think this picture is one of the coolest pics I've ever taken. The retouching just worked by accident and I was like...wooahh coool! That guitar is just so cool. What's sad is as of now, the band is broken up because people are moving to different states and have other obligations etc. This was their second to last performance together. I'll post some pictures soon of the reception which includes the band.

Jeannine + Blake: Ceremony

The special moment






One outside

I'm trying different Photoshop effects these days - hopefully they don't look TOO processed. I don't like it when people overdo the retouching. At the same time, when you don't do anything to the pictures, they look a bit plain. Anyway, I screwed up on one part of the wedding: I accidentally turned off the image stabilization (VR) on my lens and a lot of important pictures, like walking to the front, were blurry :( The image stabilization makes a HUGE difference. Fortunately, I blasted away a ton of shots so a few of them were in focus. I guess that's my tip - take as many pictures as you can since they're free. That's the beauty of digital photography.

Also, it looks like my camera, after 2 years of service, is no longer the top dog camera as it is being replaced by a slight upgrade, the 3Ds. It has an insane ISO of over 100,000. A lot of people are whining that the video is only 720p. Here are my thoughts on video on a DSLR: it is a good feature to have on the side. The key is, it's on the side. Personally, when I take pictures, I'm not thinking about video or anything like that. I wouldn't imagine fussing over trying to take both pictures and video. Maybe if I were the second shooter, I might. But to me, it's really not a big deal at all just because I'm not a huge fan of wedding videos. To me, the camera has to take the best pictures possible and everything else is just bonus as long as it does affect picture taking. But that's just me. Anyway, I'll probably post a couple more then find something else to post on.

The ladies of the wedding

My next post are the actual ceremony, then followed by the reception.

Earlier tonight I went to a this meetup group called "the photographer's edge". It was pretty interesting. I have never been to a photography thing so it was cool chatting up photo stuff. They were talking about extension tubes and tripods - two things I never use. I just don't do that type of photography to find them useful. They brought some pretty fancy stuff there - like $700 tripods!

Also, in some super exciting news, Polaroid is bringing back their film!! One of my favorite cameras I own is a Polaroid that does instant prints. They discontinued the film - you know, the type where you shake it like a Polaroid picture - but they're bringing it back. Here's the news story

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?&entry_id=49511

More soon :)

More getting ready shots

Carrot cake

Ben getting some instructions

Jeannine's handsome dad and one of my favorite pictures from the wedding

Another one of my favorites

Awesome shoes

I've learned that it's pretty impossible for the bride to get dressed on her own. Blake didn't have a problem though.

Here are a few more shots I fixed up. More to come soon of the actual ceremony. Here are a few thoughts on wedding photography that I've learned through the last few weddings I shot:

It's easy and hard. It's easy in that you just point a camera and press some buttons. It's hard in that you can easily forget a setting and leave it on the wrong setting, which may ruin many pictures. I accidentally knocked the image stabilization (VR) off my rental lens (70-200) and my walkway shots were half ruined :(

Travel light. The less stuff you lug around, the better. I've narrowed it down to 3 lenses and one flash, although a macro lens would've come in handy for the rings.

You don't need a lot of fancy lighting. One flash on top of the camera with a fresh set of batteries and a diffuser card, that's it. No need for power packs, cords, umbrellas and other stuff. Also, store bought disposable batteries are way better than the rechargeable ones.

I tend to hold the camera vertically like 80% of the time. I find that if you're holding it horizontally for one or two people, you're probably standing too far away. The trick to most of my photography (which is 99% uncropped) is just getting a little closer.

Anyway, more soon.

Jeannine + Blake = Married!

Fall colors was the theme

Open bar all night, featuring the delicious "Blannine"

Other than a minor broccoli incident, Jeannine was all smiles




Blake hanging out with the band before getting ready

Looking good, Blake

I shot Jeannine and Blake's wedding last night at the awesome Fort Worth Community Arts Center. I have a ton of pics but here are just a few I've touched up. It's pretty awesome getting married inside a museum - my cousin had hers in the courtyard of one also. They're always so classy and not over-the-top cheesy. Last night was no exception - but it was fun also. The band was great and I was really impressed by the string musicians playing as they walked down the aisle, who were pretty much all former students of Blake's.

I haven't even scratched the surface in terms of pictures - I think there are over 2,000. I haven't even gotten them all off the memory cards yet. Check back often as the pictures trickle on to the blog. I hope they're good, I'm a little rusty taking pictures.