Some Pics from Cinco de Mayo by Rita

It's like the asparagus evergreens.

My good friend Rita AKA Ms. Williams came through with these cool frame-worthy shots from Cinco de Mayo document your day for Flickr taken at the Farmer's Market in Irvine. They weren't even shot with a dSLR or touched up with Photoshop. Very cool, dude!

My day in pictures

I had a crazy day yesterday at Howard's bachelor party. I didn't even make home until 10 this morning. I'm feeling fine but I can't say the same for some of the people there who over-did it. The groom had a great time (he better, it killed all our collective wallets).

It was harder than I thought to bring a camera around and take pictures throughout the day. Apparently you can't take pictures inside a supermarket. And as expected, no pictures during our entertainment. I'm not even going to try to fix any of the pictures since they weren't anything too special, (although the water fountain might warrant a cool shot of the week post.) Anyone else want to share your photos of that day? I can make a video or post the pics here :)

Some new Sienna pics

That's how I like to sleep too, with one arm up!


Hey Dad, it's mini-me!

It's just amazing how babies change from week to week. Sienna is now 11lbs and drinking lots of milk, pooping, burping, sleeping, and doing all the other things healthy babies do. She had her first restaurant experience today when we went to The Hat to eat a greasy dinner. Here she is with dad, who gave her 99% of her looks it seems.

Join me in a photo event!

This Saturday, Cinco de Mayo, I'll be participating in documenting my day and posting it on here and Flickr's group. On my agenda that day is Howard's bachelor party so I'll only be able to take pictures at the appropriate times. I'm hoping to snap pictures throughout my entire day - of myself, people I see, things I do etc. Anyone else interested in doing the same, just let me know and I'll post them on this lil ol blog. I'm hoping to create several slideshows; it'll be fun :) For more details on the official Flickr event, click here. (Miss Williams, you game?)

Nick and Cassidy

I gave my cousins Nick and Cassidy some temporary Yakuza game tattoos today that I got at E3 last year. It's amazing how tough people can look with some ink - the transformation was immediate. Notice the smug looks and attitude to match with both of them. To offset the intimidation, the bottom shot is a cuter picture I took a month ago with my big camera.

Think Blue

I sound like a girl but man, this angle makes me look so fat!!

The guys and I attended the Dodgers ('doyers' if you're from L.A.)/Giants game today thanks to Ty (glasses) and his free tickets from his work. We got awesome deck level seats and of course some dodger dogs and nachos along with $11 beers! (sheesh) Huge difference sitting behind the plate than in the pavilion level seats where fights constantly break out and extreme heckling, especially with BAAARRRYYYY playing. Unfortunately the boys in blue lost but it was fun hanging out and we all got Nomar Garciaparra bobbleheads!

Also, I took another step in upgrading to current technology. Today I got HD digital cable and the picture looks great except for the fact that half the channels don't work. A tech is coming out tomorrow to take a look at it. Next up, a new lappy but I'm still debating on going the Mac route or wait for the Santa Rosa chipset to come out. Hmm...maybe new camera equipment...*scratches chin*

Some Photo(shop) Magic

Some people don't believe in "photoshopping" pictures, saying that it's a sign of a bad photographer who has to "fix" or compensate for mediocre shots. Some guy on a forum wrote he wanted to be known for his photography skills and not his photoshop skills. I don't believe this.

The top is the original out-of-camera image. The bottom is after a little photoshop retouching - cross processing (contrast/brightness adjustments), teeth whitening, vignetting, sharpening, and border treatment. Of course Seungyeon is already beautiful (I didn't have to remove any blemishes!), but a little digital makeup doesn't hurt. This is the part that takes the longest time that makes the photo "pop." I don't consider this cheating or compensating for a bad shot, but enhancing the photo. In fact, my camera by default underexposes/undersharpens for this purpose. This doesn't take away from the way a photo is framed, posed, or the timing of the capture, which is the creative element unique to each photographer.

Don't be afraid to play around with photoshop curves and levels to flavor to your own taste. Other programs I like are Nikon Capture NX, Photoshop Lightroom and even Microsoft Digital Image Studio.

Speaking of Seungyeon, I FINALLY received all the photos, including the 11x14" print. They look great and the paper is nice (Kodak) but it took sooooo long. I can't wait to deliver them.

Photo tip: background blur

How come some people take pictures that look "professional" while other people with the same camera take shots that look like any other picture? Well one of the tricks is to isolate the object or person by bluring the background. I'm not going to get too much into the technical photography jargon, but here's what you need for the simplest and most effective way:

- SLR camera

- Lens that has a big apeture (how big the lens opens). You'll see a number like 70-200mm 2.8. Or 18-70mm 3.5-4.5. To measure lens aperture, the 2.8 and the 3.4-4.5 is what you focus on. The lower the number, the more blur you're going to get (and usually more expensive the lens generally).

Here's what you do on a dSLR camera such as the Canon Digital Rebel XTi or Nikon d80:

- Set to aperture priority (A on Nikon dials, Av on Canon dials)

- Set to lowest number (e.g. 1.8, 2.8 etc.)

- Leave the flash off (assuming you're shooting in daylight - best in the shade)

- focus on the spot you want to shoot and fire away! Try getting close, standing far, different angles etc. The amount and quality of blur will depend on the distance and lens.

There you have it. Not only does shooting in aperture mode allow more natural light but it blurs the backgrounds. The above shot was shot with a 50mm 1.8 lens standing about a foot away. This lens doesn't zoom but it's only around $100...totally worth it! I shoot most my portraits this way. Pretty much all manufacturers make this standard lens.

The winning picture is...

Ta da! Seungyeon and her hubby selected this pic for its natural look and I agree, great choice. Unfortunately, the vendor I chose, photomax, REALLY sucks. I like their paper (kodak) and I've had good service with them in the past but they have botched our order despite numerous complaints. Anyway, I hope to be getting the order to them this week. In the meantime, I'm going to give them some lower quality prints from Target for the time being but avoid that place at all cost.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone for supporting me through this tough time for me and my family with the recent passing away of my grandpa and my dad's stroke, not to mention me being heartbroken on top of that. I don't usually talk about personal issues on this photo blog but it makes me happy to see so many happy faces from the pictures I take and fans of this blog being supportive. I'll be in a better mood once I take some more cool pics!

On a happier note, in the next few months, I have a baby birthday party coming up, starring my favorite child star, Silas and a wedding in January in the works. Plus Sienna! Stay tuned :)

More pics from Tuesday's shoot

Now the hard part, choosing the right pic for an 11x14" print. Feel free to leave suggestions (it has to be the both of them in the pic). I've narrowed it down to #2, 4, 6 in this post.

Wedding Anniversary @ UCIrvine

Kim and Seungyeon didn't let the crazy OC weather today (we almost cancelled because of the super strong winds and scattered rain) ruin their 2nd wedding anniversary photo shoot at the UCI campus (ZOT!) and Waters restaurant in Irvine. Seungyeon was absolutely glowing and I suspect that her husband Kim is the long lost brother of Hiro Nakamura from one of my favorite shows Heroes. It was a fun shoot despite the harrowing winds and me feeling a little under the weather (no pun intended). Thanks to Silas' mom Lindsay for the referral. More shots soon!

Some Sienna Pics

I swung by today to meet Sienna and of course she's adorable. She was a lot smaller than I expected - having only seen those pictures that Kris took. I took a few pictures but since she's only a week old, I figured it'd be a lot better to take them when she's a couple of months old. She had the longest curly eyelashes.

Cool pic of the week

There was some weird weather in the OC today. The rain clouds rolled in but the sun was shining on these trees. I took this at a parking lot.

Random photos

AC got his new toy today, the 24-70 2.8L pro-grade lens which was big heavy niceness. We went to the park to play around with it and get some pictures. We really needed a model to shoot because shooting ducks, while nice to look at, got boring in 30 seconds. We ended up just taking pics of random stuff around my room. Here's his lens next to a 360 controller to give you a sense of the size of that thing.

Howard and Sandy engagement

One of my best friends is having his wedding in June. They just got back from Taiwan to visit relatives and took an engagement session there (I didn't take these pics obviously, they were by Hung) - I yanked these off his photo album to share. Yours truly will be one of the groomsmen, which I've never done before.

Welcome to the world, Sienna!!

:: Press Release ::

March 13, 2007--Newport Beach, CA
Sienna Isabelle was welcomed to the world at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach on March 13, 2007 at 4:51 a.m. Under the skillful guidance of Dr William Somers, Dr. Laurance, Dr. Holcomb, the daytime help of Nurse Mary and Danielle, and night help of Nurse Tien along with husband and coach Kris, Susy won the battle and evicted her tenant after well over 41 weeks...

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Read the rest of the story HERE

(photos courtesy of Kris, brightened a little by me)

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Check out the big-belly shots in the blog archives I shot at the Ritz in Dana Point.

Carrie's 31st Birthday Party @ Hollywood & Highland

Here's a picture from Carrie's (right) 31st Birthday party at this shabu shabu place in Hollywood from last weekend. I'm waiting for AC to finish touching up and uploading more pictures so I can yank them and put them on this blog. Carrie is an aspiring photographer and you can check out her work HERE. Both her and AC are buying camera gear like there's no tomorrow (which makes me jealous). This was shot by AC with his 30D and his new flash (580ex) with a cheapy lens I lent him (white border = not shot with my main camera). His new pro lens is on order and should arrive this week.

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As for my new photos, I have a shoot coming up in a little more than a week for a two-year wedding anniversary so get ready for some affection :) Depending on the mood, I have a couple of new tricks I want to try including a new toy I've been waiting to use, hint: rhymes with solaroid. ;-)