More on Adobe Lightroom

As I was saying, this program does some sweet things instantly. Check out how it made this photo I shot yesterday 'pop.' You can apply your changes to all photos in your folder in just a few clicks. I like to shoot my photos a bit flat and slightly underexposed then spruce it up later. The buttons on the left are preset effects which you can tweak on the right with the levels and curves. So far I'm diggin "direct positive" and the medium tone curve with a slight bump in brightness. While I'll still be using Photoshop for my more important pictures, this is nice for some quick fun pictures like for blogging. I haven't figured out the healing tool yet.

Cool Artsy Photo of the Week

Cool artsy picture of a wall in Laguna Beach. It was this reflective tile that caught my eye.

Update: Even cooler image :)

Laguna Beach & Adobe Lightroom

As mentioned, I'm staying in Laguna Beach this week, a very popular spot for photographers. I spotted this photographers class/workshop shooting a model today. The guy who owned this Ferrari allowed them to shoot their model with it.

Also, I got a chance to play around with Adobe Lightroom and it's fantastic. It speeds up post processing by a ton. You basically work on one photo then copy and paste to the rest of the photos, it literally takes seconds. It's even faster than running actions. I love a side-by-side with the original while you're working - very sweet. Apparently, it's pretty great for a RAW workflow, but since I shoot jpegs I don't know. I'll be getting a new computer soon to put it to the test. These photos weren't done entirely on it though, I also used MS Digital Image Pro for the border. Overall pretty nice so far.

Happy Lunar New Year!

This is the year of the "Golden Pig" - oink oink. Some of you (like me) will get some red envelopes filled with everyone's favorite present (money!) for luck. Also, I'll be staying in Laguna Beach this week so those of you interested or know someone who's interested in taking some pictures at a popular photo location, contact me (johnnyfuzzy@hotmail.com). Hopefully the weather will be nice.

Cool Pic of the Week

I usually don't take artsy shots but this one is pretty cool. This was a door at the HathKwan studio (in 1024x768 wallpaper size).

Hatha Kwan Yoga:Martial Arts open house

Today was the grand opening open house of Hathakwan martial arts/yoga/kickboxing studio in Long Beach co-owned by Kris. Everything ran really smoothly except for the printer that didn't like Macs, which said if you're using OS X, call tech support (closed on the weekends, doh!) . I got some shots of the lessons taught by Master Lee and some of the students that should be used in the website some time in the future.

Mmmmm slideshow (of Silas)

Beef's 30th Birthday

We celebrated my friend Beef's (center) 30th birthday last night at Houston's (yummmm). Here are a couple of pics. (That's me on the left) Those gift certificates were their Christmas gifts from me :) Obviously it didn't pay for the whole meal but it helped.

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Huntington Library Children's Garden

I went to the Huntington Library Children's Garden today to shoot some landscape architecture but things didn't turn out as planned. Those pictures aren't a cool sepia effect but dead vegetation. Sadly, the unusually cold temperatures in SoCal caused all the plants to freeze and die. I originally wanted to get some shots of kids playing there but there weren't really any thanks to the overcast day and eventual rain. I took a few shots just to document the damage and just left.

A few portraits from the baby shower

Just a few portraits I took at the baby shower this past weekend.

Susy's Baby Shower

I attended Susy's baby shower yesterday (see post below for her 30th birthday). She's expecting late February. For her gift I'm giving her a photo book so unfortunately there's no gift until I actually get some shots of Sienna. It was a fun day with a ton of people. I'll post more pictures later. Check out the cool remote flash system - although it was a little overexposed.

Heidi & Greg

I attended Heidi & Greg's wedding yesterday at Thanksgiving Church with Tareeda. Heidi is her classmate in Long Beach in their graphic design program, so the details were pretty artsy. It was an American/Korean wedding - something that was given away when I saw the programs in the ramen box :) I didn't want to be an "Uncle Bob" so I only brought my little P&S. My little SD500 didn't fare too well in low light situations, especially zoomed in without flash. Overall it was pretty fun and interesting meeting a bunch of art students (some of who are outrageous). The wedding itself was VERY organized and planned out - they even had the kissy "clanking" cued up coming out of the speakers! Check out the 300 limo with the Lambo doors!

Doggies!

No photoshoots scheduled so I'm posting some other stuff. That's my sister's dog Mochi (who has a severe case of ADHD) on top. Kris and Susy's dog Opus (who loves to eat chocolate and trash) is on the bottom.

** Update ** AC stopped by today (12/23) with his baby (the 30D). I caught him in action taking pics of Mochi.

Lily @ Disneyland

I was at Disneyland yesterday shooting at Bennitt landscape architecture firm's annual company holiday outting. I get a lot of compliments for my Silas pictures but to tell you the truth, it's easy to shoot cute kids. Here's another to add to my collection. Meet Lily, who was teasing me all day by refusing to smile and being shy but I caught some nice shots and at the end of the day, we were playing a great game of tag.

Photo of the Week

Sunset over the Pacific @ Laguna Beach taken during Lynn and Donovan's shoot last weekend. A hi-res version has been included for print (4 x 6) or wallpaper. Enyoy! :)

Lynn and Donovan @ Laguna Beach

I spent the lovely day shooting my friend and fellow grad student Lynn (looks and brains!) and her boyfriend Eagles QB Donovan. This was his Christmas gift from her so no surprise I guess. We weren't the only ones with this idea since I saw a ton of other photographers out there with some serious gear. None of which matched my small ladder and Lynn's 2 phone books that she brought just in case Donovan dwarfed her. Luckily we ended up not using them. To think, she was afraid she wouldn't look good in pictures!