Fort Worth Zoo + Photoshop

Miniature lioness?


Toy mandrill baboon??

Nope, these are all real using a fake tilt-shift effect on photoshop I found out how to do on youtube.  It's just a little lens blur effect.  Anyway, these pics were taken at the Fort Worth Zoo about a month ago using my old trusty D70s.  The FW Zoo by the way is awesome.  I would say quality-wise, it's better than the San Diego wild animal park.  I know, that's a pretty bold statement but it's a very well funded and maintained zoo.  My favorite part is this aviary full of parakeets - you go in there and buy a stick with some seeds attached.  The birds just flock to you and start eating the seeds standing on the stick.  Just really awesome.

I Switched to Canon!

Behold! I've ditched the D3 for the Canon 5d Mark II. 21 Megapixels and HD video goodness.

Just kidding! This is AC's new baby sitting in my Optima hard case and Nikon gear. No, I'm keeping my D3 for it's sheer awesomeness. He brought this over when I was in SoCal so I got a chance to play with it. My first impression is that it is incredible. The picture quality is crisp and the amount of details surpasses my D3. He got a nice vertical grip with it, along with the 16-35mm L lens and the 85 1.8 (he went shopping!).  

Anyway, I haven't bought any gear yet but I did finally clean my D3 sensor and got rid of a speck of dust that was bugging me.  I'm still in the lookout for a nice small camera.  In the meantime, taking pictures with my ooold Canon Sd500 with a broken screen is a bummer.  I don't know how I can drop thousands of dollars in professional gear but am too cheap to get a cheapy point and shoot.  

Also, there is this awesome kids choir called PS22.  Check them out! 

Any

Holy Crap! An Update!

A little blue tone for ya

*blows dust off the blog* Hi again to the one or two people who check this photo blog. Here are a couple of pictures of Anisa's brother Nason and his lady friend Emmy. This was during their annual craw-fest.  My lappy was out for service (again) so I didn't have access to photoshop.  I got a new HP netbook but that thing doesn't have the horsepower to do any photo editing.  So now I'm back.  I'll post some family pictures in a few days when I get a chance to shop em.  

Update:  The last picture is new :) 

Boston

The famous Harvard Law School.

Really awesome architecture at MIT - it was like toon town or something.

Cool reflection

This picture sums up Boston:  A modern city with a lot of history

We went to see the USS Constitution and another ship next to it that was more modern.

Cool reflections 

I took a little trip to Boston for work last weekend and took my busted up SD500 with me.  I'm in desperate need of a little camera these days.  I'll probably get either another Canon or a Casio.  Anyway, I really enjoyed the city, which has a little bit of everything - history, good food, public transportation (something CA & TX needs badly), great bars etc.  I'd love to go back and experience more East-coast charm.  Also, I've been neglecting my blog lately but I am in CA this weekon Spring break which means I'll take a little time to shoot some stuff with my big camera.  

Rate My Space!

Pretty exciting day for me.  After 6 long months of living in a virtually empty apartment, I have finally (semi) furnished the place.  Today, Room and Board delivered my super comfy Dublin couch (my criteria was a couch I can nap on) and two chairs all the way from Minnesota.  I have been trying to assemble a “classic contemporary” look with big comfy furniture and combination dark earthy colors (You can tell I’ve been watching HGTV).  What you see in the picture is a leaning desk from Room and Board, a coffee table and desk chair from West Elm…and I think that’s it.  Plus my bike in the living room. 

What I still need is a TV of course, TV stand, bed frame, a small side table, some leaning shelves, and some accent pillows and that’s pretty much it.  I don’t want to over-furnish the place to keep things nice and simple.  Apparently this place will serve as the new low budget happy hour and “man cave” for some friends around here who need to escape the wife and kids. 

Test Post Using Windows Live Writer

I’m trying out Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer that can edit and format an the major blogs including blogger.  So far I have to say that I’m impressed at the ease.  I don’t need to do a 2 stage process of first uploading a pic to flickr and then embedding it using html editor on blogger.  This is just a one step process that even has some cool special effects like this reflection…even a watermark.  How cool is that?  Thank Khiemy for the recommendation.

This picture is of Lily, my friend Chip’s daughter I took on Halloween.  It’s not the most technically the best photo due to the wrong focus area.  It was done on my old pal the D70s.  Speaking of which, that’s the same camera Jeff got.  So yup, that was really easy…so easy I almost want to post another picture.  You know what, I think I will actually!Me @ the Modern Art Museum | Ft. Worth, TX Summer, 2008

*Presses the Easy button.  Bam!  How you like that?!  Very cool.  I can even crop, resize, and add some effects like sepia ton.  If I didn’t have so many archived pics on Flickr I’d cancel it.  But oh well… This thing can even embed video too but only low res.  I’m still looking a WMV to MP4 or other HD res file compatible with Youtube’s High Quality mode.  Doh!  Where are the Blogger tags?  I guess you can’t do it all here.  Oh well still impressed….OH WAIT…they show it right before you publish.  Ok this thing rules.

UPdate:  ok the first picture is pixelated and I can't get it to be not pixelated.  So much for being cool.  Boooo!!!

This picture of me and Khiemy cracks me up - we were in goofy moods.  It was taken when I was back home after our group ate at Lucille's in Brea.  Come to think of it...we shared the dinner...then this picture.  What is going on here?!!

Just to mention photos - I've noticed that more and more people are buying some nice DSLR cameras, which is great.  They usually ask me which one to buy and my answer is:

1.  Stick with Canon or Nikon because there are a huge selection of lenses and accessories that are easily available, ranging from beginner's stuff to high end fancy stuff.

2.  If your budget is under $1000, get a Canon Rebel __.  It has great picture quality and is compatible with all the new Canon lenses.  The Nikons D40/60 can't use older mechanical lenses.

3.  If your budget is between $1000-$2000, get a Nikon.  Big high resolution screens and manual controls built for serious photographers will allow you to learn your camera, making the next step up very easy.  I was very comfortable with the D3 after the D70s.  

4.  $2000 and up - either brand is great.  At this point, it's really your own skill rather than the camera that's limiting you.  

Finally, I will say that the camera only matters so much and having a nice one makes your life a little easier.  Unfortunately, having the best camera without the knowledge or artistic sense will lead to boring pictures, even if they are sharp.  The best pictures technically don't necessarily mean good pictures.  Some of my favorite pics are grainy, a little out of focus...it's ok as long as people find it interesting.  Anyway, that's my 2 cents!   More soon.

Retouching

Someone's mom was asking where her picture was so I had to throw one in there. But to make things interesting, this is a little before and after action. What I did was a little cross processing, added a border, and sharpened a little. I was going for a cooler look. There are many ways to make a picture have that special look. Images coming out of Nikon cameras tend to underexpose a little bit and under-sharpen. This allows me to tweak these things and bring out the detail. For variety, I like to do some photos in black and white, with a bluish tint, sepia etc. Lots of photo purists don't appreciate the photoshop work but I definitely support it as long as it's not overdone.  

Anyway, I'm back at the ranch and I noticed that I'm constantly missing being at the other place.  When I was back in Socal I missed Texas believe it or not and vice versa.  I really need to make some time to get the photo stuff started here...that'll be my project for the next month.

A Trip to the P-A-R-K with Sienna

Someone has been taking a lot of pictures while I was away.  

Sienna has grown quite a bit since I last took some pics of her.  This time she's running around, jibba jabba'in away, climbing on stuff and just being all around hyper.  We took a quick trip to the park to play and she was workin the camera by smiling on que.  Looks like back to Texas in a couple days which shows a freezing rain advisory right now :(  But I do miss the folks over there so it'll be nice to get back.

Happy 2009 Everybody!

My friend Neha was pregnant!  She's due in 6 weeks.

AC, me, and Jenny (AC's official girlfriend)

Me hanging out with the Pinoys Phil and Jeff.

Me, Mochi, 3 months without a haircut, and a week without shaving.


Anisa visiting the stockyards - that's a real longhorn. 

I've been gone for a while and judging from the number of posts I posted in 2007 versus 2008, I'm down around 50% - which is not good. Anyway, last night I attended Elisa's wedding (Yes, I'm back in California) and it was very strange seeing all the people I've lost touch with in college. Everyone was looking great - but it reinforced a couple of things: I am getting old and I have a fat face and double chin. As the cliche goes, it's back to the gym for this year's resolution.  Also, these were taken with my good ol broken screen Canon SD500.  People don't realize how important the LCD screen is - one time I went a whole day taking pictures to only realize afterward that I didn't put a memory card in there :(.  Plus it's a guessing game on how much battery you have left and frankly, it's quite embarassing handing it off to people to take pictures because they can only aim it in the general direction.  So definitately a new camera in 2009 - I'm looking at the black SD990 but I need to save up first.

A little look back on 2008

The Good:  I had an excellent year rebounding from 2007, which was the worst year ever. Finally graduating, getting a job and moving to Texas, getting the D3 and shooting a wedding, gaining new friends, my friends are all doing well, no one that I know is sick, getting a great deal on a washer/dryer....probably more.

The Bad:  Moving to Texas and missing home and all my people, fewer blog posts...hmmm nothing major, so yea...2008 ftw!

The Ugly:  Stepping on my glasses and continuing to wear them with tape nerd style for a couple of months. (See pic above)

I'm heading over to Sienna's house later today so definitely more pictures soon.

Merry Christmas and Barb Extravaggannzzzaaa!!!!

This is an old timey effect.

Getting the vows ready.

I really love this relaxed pic.

Merry Christmas everybody! I'm back in So Cal for a couple weeks after a whirlwind of last minute work...which is still ongoing, a lot of it. Like Vanilla Ice so eloquently asked: Will it ever stop? Yo, I don't know.   During the plane ride back I finished some work early so I spent a little time fixing up some pics, so far I have around 75 retouched.  Anyway, here are some more pictures of Barb - I hope she's not sick of seeing herself.  I must apologize to Mike, Barb got most of the attention that day :)

I missed being back .. I brought my big camera back so I'll be making my rounds while I'm back and if I'm not too busy.  Also exciting news - I have some fast Internet again thanks to AT&T DSL back at my apartment.  Shhh...I'm supposed to have crappy DirecPath cable which is sloooooow.  I mean 56k modem slow.  Also, I'm finally buying furniture while I'm back and having it shipped to the ranch - a couch, couple of chairs, couple of shelves maybe.  After I get that paid off, then it's TV time :)  I'm hoping to have the "man cave" completed before I post some pictures of it.  Well that's my life for now without going into detail.

More pics (that's not of Barb+Mike) soon.

Today was the lighting of the Christmas tree here at TCU - which is a HUGE deal. A few hundred people showed up in the cold (it drops into the upper 30s at night this week) and were treated a cool lighting complete with music and light show.  TCU loves celebrating being TCU.  Anyway, just a couple of quick snaps.  It was way too crowded and cold to get anything that great or to tweak camera settings.  I can't believe this year is almost over!!

Ray Bradbury's All Summer in a Day

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

I stumbled across this Ray Bradbury short story "All Summer in a Day" short film that I watched in grade school.   I've been looking for it for a long time.  These are the 3 parts that are incredible and definitely something you should add to your cultural literacy.  

Anyway, I hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving - I was stuffed.  I went over to my chair's house for some turkey dinner with all the fixins.  I fixed up a few more shots of the wedding and I should be posting that very shortly.  Also, it is beautiful here in Texas - believe it or not - there are a lot of fall colors and nice leaves.  I might have to take my camera out this week.

Awesome decor.  Very classy.

Lake Arrowhead was absolutely beautiful that day.

A few more shots trickling in.  I've been super busy and out of town last week but I'm looking forward to thanksgiving.  I shoot all my reception shots using just one lens:  The 16-35mm 2.8 which gives me a great wide angle when used on the D3.  What I really want to get are some pocket wizards to do some remote lighting shots.  Nikon's Creative Lighting System simply does not have the range to do what I want so I end up hauling my light stand setup for unreliable shots.  

Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm going to take some new shots soon - there are a few cute little girls here I have to shoot.

Wedding Weekend Edition

Lake Arrowhead Spa and Resort all decked out

Mike waiting for his new wife

A little black and white artsy action

Christine, Barb and Dana all dolled up.

Beatrice, Barb's sister getting ready.

I hope Barb doesn't mind me posting of pic of her in rollers.

Trick or treat!!??!!  Anyway, more pictures as I spend a little time each day fixing up a few.  These are just in random order.   I just pick out whatever catches my eye.  I'll post some before and after shots soon so you can see what a big difference some digital retouching can make, especially with the colors and that "wow" factor that I strive for.  It's going to be a few days for the next update because I got a lot of stuff to do this weekend that's non-photo related.  More then.