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.

I love this shot.

The Science Library @ UCI









Barb sent me an email saying I'm too much of a tease with the photos. Yes, it's true, I've been purposely holding back posting all the photos I've retouched. Well, I hate to keep her in suspense, so as of this minute, these are all the photos I've done so far. More soon, but probably not tomorrow. (You aint from Russia, so why you Rushin?! :D I got that line from a cheesy someone - these take time people!)

B&M Engagement

UCI

Engagement Part 3

These 4 photos came out awesome. Mike threw in some attitude but ultimately gave in.


Mike wanted to make sure I did some black and white shots...happy to oblige - although this is more of a sepia/blue split tone.

Here's part 3 of B and M. My goal was to get a wide variety of shots in different locations and keep things from getting boring. We found a lot of great places around the UCI campus and Balboa island. The obvious places are just flowers and plants at UCI and the water and boats at Balboa - but all the good spots are hidden away. The trick is to look for these little places and spot something interesting. I'll post that tomorrow. :) Check in daily for fresh shots.

Preview of Barb and Mike's Engagement

Just a sneak peak at Barb and Mike's e-session. They're UCI alumni so we shot there for the first half of the evening and Balboa Island the second half. I'll have more in the next few days.

Before | After

I was talking to Shari today about photos and retouching so I gave her a quick demo. The first pic is straight out of the camera and the second shot is retouched. As you can see, it makes a big difference. My philisophy on this is just to do enough to enhance the picture a little bit - don't go nuts. The trick is a good shot to begin with. Some people can perform miracles with Photoshop but I can't. I love the lighting in this shot, giving her the famous "glow."

What I've done is enhance the color saturation and contrast and boosted the light a little. Some people might not like the color or that you can't see the beach but I like the warm tones on this one - the effect I was going for, it's all a matter of taste. Also notice she's not facing the sun. But you do it I bet either the flash goes off or the person is too dark. How did I do this?

1. You need a DSLR (you can get one for pretty cheap these days, don't anything fancy)
2. Spot meter on the face (make sure your camera has this)
3. Adjust your camera settings to it and make some adjustments. (I use manual mode)

How did I learn this? Reading photography sites with tips like this one and practicing ;) I'm just passing along the info.

Feel free to leave questions in the comments or share your photo tips.

Shari @ Santa Monica

Earlier this week Shari and I met up in Santa Monica for some food and hanging out. I had my camera with me so we snapped a few photos. She spotted a great location on the pier and the lighting was perfect.

So what's the best way to light a person with sunlight? There are a couple of ways to go about this. A lot of people face the sun, but all you get are squints and it looks harsh. Some people will have the sun to the back but it'll come out dark or you'll have to use a flash, which isn't flattering. My favorite is to have the sun at an angle - notice the nice glow :) This can only be done during specific times.

So what's the best time to shoot? Ideally, I like to shoot during dusk, about 30 minutes before the sun sets. The worst time is probably high noon, when the sun is bright which casts harsh shadows. It can be easily fixed by just going in the shade - but if you do make sure you have a good fast lens.

That's my way of shooting, there is really no right or wrong way but this way produces the more flattering pictures in my opinion and it's just my style of lighting. Some people love it and some might hate it.

Saturday I'll get a chance to shoot with AC so hopefully I'll have some nice pictures to show.

A Birthday with Crawdads

I had a tasty cholesterol-filled treat this past weekend at Anisa's birthday crawdad extravaganza. This is the second year I've done this so I'm a pro at this now - the trick is not to eat the meat and suck the head but you gotta peal the head back to scrape the head fat (the best part). Yes, it sounds gross but true crawdad fans know what I'm talkin about. The next birthday coming up in my good friend "Prince" Howard's this weekend (see the post where I was a groomsman at his wedding).

Anyway, here are a couple of my portraits shot with awesome sunset lighting and my favorite 1.4 lens. I'm going to post another golden sunset lighting picture soon that I shot at Santa Monica.

Also, looks like I'm going to be assisting AC this weekend to shoot a wedding so that should be fun. A lot more pictures soon.

Sienna The Slideshow

Ok this is the last Sienna post for a long while, as I am only documenting the first year of her life. It's a good thing Kris has a nice camera so he can take over from here. It's amazing to see someone grow up so fast. She's developing quite the personality as you can tell by the pictures. She's got a split personality, so goes back and forth between all-business like dad and silly/funny like mom with her own goofy style added in. My regular blog readers have shared this experience with me. If you like the pics you can see most of them in the archives. Enjoy :)

A couple of shots from my recent adventures across country. The first one is the snow in a small town in Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh - kinda like Scranton, PA in The Office. It was beautiful and I was completely messmerized by the postcard-like Winter. The second is a beautiful Atlantic sunrise outside of my hotel window in Florida. It was weird seeing the sun rise over the Ocean but very cool...and cold. This was shot with a camera phone so the quality wasn't all that great. Too bad I didn't bring a real camera, but pretty cool nevertheless.

2008 and Beyond

For some strange reason, things tend to occur in cycles. 2007 will always be remembered by me as a not-so-great year with my grandpa passing away and some major health issues with someone in my family - heck I even went to the ER recently (don't worry, I'm fine). There were some other personal issues as well but I made it through with a better perspective on things and appreciation for life. 2008 will be a great year, I can just feel it.

Looking ahead, here's what's in store for January:

- Lynn and Donovan's wedding where I will be the photographer dude. (Pic above)
- Traveling to Texas, Florida, New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania. (brrr)

Here are some photography new years resolutions:

- Shoot a wedding (soon)
- Upgrade my camera, get a 70-200 lens, and a couple of pocket wizards (poor wallet)
- Use my Polaroid camera (I'm saving this for a special couple)
- Take pictures with my Canon film SLR (yay for film)
- Shoot a scenic place, blow up the picture and hang it on my wall (any suggestions?)
- Take a photo trip with photo friends
- Shoot with friends and a real model (Anyone want to trash their wedding dress?)
- Finally make a picture book for Sienna

That's about it. Thanks for checking in and supporting this little blog. I've managed to keep this going for a whole year with over 100 posts and I hope to post many more exciting pictures and slideshows. I think I'll start doing a few photography product reviews when I get some new stuff and finally show my bag and what I shoot with - maybe - I like to focus on pictures first :) Happy 2008 everybody!!!!

Picture of Me Taking a Picture

Jeff took this pic as the sun was setting - I brightened it a bit.

A Few More from Saturday

B and I love Lilia's look and lighting in this pic. Voted 2 thumbs up :)

This concludes my blog shots from last Saturday with Bryana, Lilia, and Ailyn - oh, and of course Jeff, in beautiful San Diego. Looking forward, this Saturday is the big quincinera for Jazmine. I'll be able to get some real nice candid shots as I shadow her all day and I'll be trying out some new remote lighting equipment which will come in very handy for January's wedding. Stay tuned.

Ailyn @ San Diego

Photo by Jeff Luzadas

I was back in San Diego yesterday for another shoot. This time it's Lilia's aspiring model sister Ailyn. She seriously worked the camera and made it a little TOO easy for me. The lighting was great (thanks to better timing and weather) and Jeff, who's planning on getting a nice camera, came out for some pointers and got some pretty awesome pictures. Check out the picture on the bottom - unretouched out of the camera! He recommended some railroad tracks which turned out nicely.

Bryana and Lilia were there too so the 5 of us just had a great time going around and snapping pics. Then B and I had a nice dinner at Panda Inn in Horton Plaza, which was shockingly good for a Panda Express-owned upscale Americanized Chinese food place. More to come when I get a chance to fix up a few more pictures.

More Jaz

I love the yellow background. This house was painted bright yellow there and the painter was cool enough to let us go inside the gate and take a few snaps.

Here are some more pictures of Jazmine. I seriously can't wait for her big 1-5. She's got over 100 guests, which is considered "small." Can you believe that? They know how to party! I'll be running around for sure that day.

We made due with the harsh lighting by taking lot of pictures in the shade - big photo tip there used by many pros. Speaking of which, we saw a pro photographer there with the same idea shooting a couple using a big ol flash. Personally, I don't like using flash at all and only do so sparingly and only when necessary. A lot of people suggest using fill flash so you don't blow out the background while keeping the person lit. Me, I don't really care for the background too much. But this was some seriously harsh lighting to take pictures in but I think we pulled it off nicely. What do you think? Note: I usually don't show these many pics to keep things a surprise but I couldn't help myself!