Tahoe Day 3: Johnny Vegas Reno

The perfect cup for drinking milk.


Leave it up to AC to find the only Pho place in Reno AND recommend eating there.


Here's me standing next to Siena...Casino that is.


Reno has Little-Man Syndrome.


I thought this place would be lucky due to the name.


This was my only luck - I won a radioactive homer on the claw machine.


Look AC, infinity!!




Giant Poker Chips

We spent our last day at Reno, the red-headed bastard stepchild of Las Vegas. The city was small and the casinos were also small. If you're used to Indian reservation gambling or B.O. smelling local places around Southern California like Commerce Casino or Bicycle Club, then this place is great, but if you've been to Vegas, this place is craptacular. Regardless, AC (who won $40!) and I did manage to get some gambling in and some buffet action. Tomorrow, we head back to reliable high-speed Internet and smog. Nature, you were great but I have to leave...it's better if we just stay friends and just see each other once in a while. We're just too different...I'm from the city...you're just too country for me. You'll find someone else who will understand you. I'll call you sometime but don't come looking for me.

Tahoe Day 2

Can you spot me?





Moss


That's supposed to be me fishing in the distance.

Upon closer inspection, I was just eating sunflower seeds for about an hour after being discouraged by the fish.

Me in action. Great photos by AC (White border)

We spent the day today on another hike since the bikes weren't available :( But this time we sucked it up and made it to the top - well there's a lot more to go but to us that was the top. We saw this cool stream of icy water. We went fishing again ... Fish 2, Us 0.

Well, we're pretty natured-out so tomorrow we're going to Reno tomorrow for some gambling and buffet action.

Tahoe Day 1

Fish 1, Me 0






Moss growing on a rock.

On the agenda today was hiking and fishing. While the view was breathtaking, so was the hike: we were winded pretty quickly (well AC a little more than me). There were a lot of trees - I'll post these pics tomorrow hopefully. I'm not very good at these scenic shots and I actually got bored of taking pictures for a while.

Next was fishing, which we ended up with zero. My highlight was when a fish tried to snatch my bait while I was reeling it in a couple feet away from me. It caught me by surprise but that was it, the next few hours I kept casting and re-casting ...then I ended up just sitting on the dock eating sunflower seeds for the last hour. Overall it's pretty relaxing.

...except I thought I saw a ghost or some weird thing last night. Maybe I was hallucinating. There was this figure in a white shirt that walked around my bed and ended up at the foot of my bed just staring at me. Or at least I thought it was. When my eyes finally focused it was the mirror and a monitor but I thought I felt someone and heard footsteps and saw someone walk around with a white shirt on. It wasn't AC...creepy.

Tahoe Day Zero

It was a loooong ride to get to Lake Tahoe.


Cows a major cause of air pollution? I didn't believe it until today.






His and His robes? I know what you're thinking...it's not that type of trip.

I have more shots but the Internet is soooo slow and unreliable. It took longer than expected to get here (around 9 hours including several stops) but tomorrow hopefully I'll post some REAL pictures when AC and I get out. We ended up getting a minivan instead of an SUV, but it worked out great cuz it was very roomy and surprisingly great to drive (Hyundai Entourage). The elevation makes me pretty wimpy - I got winded walking from here to there. The room we're staying in luckily has TWO BEDS, one in the room and one in the living room. Stay tuned for some scenic shots.

Two UCI Brainy Babes

I took a few quick shots of two stunning blonds last week who just happen to have brains too. Both are law school-bound seniors at UCI and both are working with me. Megan (top 2 pics) is a Campuswide Honors Program student who's also doing research in computer crime, so I'm helping her with that, and Alex, below, is my research assistant (and fellow gamer and computer nerd - sorry put xbox gamertag here, she's married). Enyoi the eye candy.

For my photographer friend Carrie (see her site on the link to the right) below is an unretouched 'before' photo. I was talking about how I like to shoot underexposed/flat and bring out the light and color later - kinda like those Claritin D commercials where they peel away the dull look - versus overexposing and toning it down later.

Adobe Photoshop CS

+ Curves/Levels

+ Saturation

+ Teeth/Eyes

+ Sharpen

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 :)