Published on
January 23, 2010 at
9:11 pm
so remember yesterday when i got all dressed up in my junior-photographer-snow-gear and drove up to the SoCal mountains? and then it started to rain and I got frustrated? and all i took a photo of was that one yellow fire hydrant?
well, this morning the skies were blue after a week’s worth of storms dissipated. i took advantage of 50F temperatures and sunny skies to inspect the storm’s fallout.
this time i had more luck but all i found were these snow-covered mountains. here’s the best of a few hours of shooting and the rest can be found in this flickr set.
more and more i’m finding that getting away from everything for a few hours and snapping a few photos is very therapeutic.
Published on
November 20, 2009 at
12:25 pm
so I brought Buster the Dog home a new toy today. it survived about 10mins which equals out to about a dollar per minute. it was totally worth it though b/c he got to have some fun and I got to play around some more with the 70-200mm lens in “action mode”.
you’re welcome.
Published on
November 18, 2009 at
6:32 pm
after being very underwhelmed with the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, I decided to exchange it for the mother of all Canon lenses…the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS.
The good news for Buster was that I needed something/someone to shoot…and well, you know where I’m going with this:
Here’s buster peeking out the back door and being captured sharply at 200mm.
…and here’s Buster acting more bored than I’ve ever seen him.
also, I find these photos funny b/c Buster is unaware of what life is like without having a camera firing at him ad nauseum.
Published on
November 16, 2009 at
5:50 pm
When I stuck the camera in buster’s face this afternoon, I was met with this look which can be interpretted as: “Seriously? Again with the camera?”
You would think after literally 1000s of photos, he’d be used to it. he-is-not.
Published on
November 9, 2009 at
11:38 am
Buster was kind enough to help me test out a lens I rented for my New Orleans’ trip—the Canon 35mm L f/1.4 prime lens. Got to love that shallow depth of field action.
Published on
August 24, 2009 at
6:03 pm
more times than not I find myself shooting photos in the harsh incandescent light of my living room. even with my fastest lens (a 50mm f/1.4), I often find myself needing some help from a flash. on my Canon 50D, I use the Canon 430 EX II and an Stofen Omni-Bounce diffuser to help soften the light.
Last week, I ordered a Gary Fong Lightsphere II
from Amazon and put it through a few tests this weekend. Once I accepted the fact that my flash unit looked like it was adorned with a piece of tupperware, I was pretty happy with the results. The Lightsphere (I bought the “cloud” variety vs. the translucent type) does what it claims, it spreads out otherwise harsh strobe light and gives the appearance of what you would expect from a small lightbox.
Per the usual, Buster agreed to be photographed ONLY if he were allowed to do so with a mouth-full-of-bed.
[flickr]3850114801[/flickr]
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…and the rest of the Flickr set:
[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157622124767418"]
Published on
August 3, 2009 at
9:26 pm
so last weekend, misty, laine and I made the trek from SoCal to Gilroy, Ca for the world-famous Gilroy Garlic Festival. While the girls were seasoned-garlic-festival-veterans, I was a garlic-fest-virgin.
[flickr]3786687875[/flickr]
so something like 100,000+ people spent the weekend at the festival, and I’d like to think that of those 100k we were among the sexiest. I say this with confidence, because each of us was sporting our respective sombreros like some band of garlic-loving-vaqueros.
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I’m also proud to report that I ate no less than 8 garlic-soft-serve-cones. God, that stuff was awesome. Granted, the next day I was suffering from a garlic-induced-hangover and probably stuck the entire week.
here are the photos you’re going to love…click on the little ones to make them all super-sized.
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[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157621939528088"]
Published on
July 23, 2009 at
6:30 pm
Buster the Dog is very keen to his surroundings and pays close attention to little queues from Misty and I. This evening, we pulled out our luggage for the weekend trip and Buster got the panic-look on his face. Granted, giant-rolling-black-bags are not the most subtle of clues, but Buster knows this means that shit’s about to go down.
I couldn’t resist snapping a shot of his “oh dammit” look.
Canon EOS 50D | EF 50mm f/1.4 | ISO 200 | Lexar Digital Media
have I even told you where we’re going yet?
Published on
July 23, 2009 at
1:57 pm
So even though I’ve been busy today working on actual work, my attention is divided between what’s in front of me and the anticipation of the FedEX guy arriving with the lenses I rented for the weekend.
You see, when it comes to my little photography hobby, I have a rather short attention span. I plan out what I want to photograph, take the shots, play with them in post and am ready to move on to the next excuse to shoot. That being said, I never post as many photos to Flickr+Facebook+the blog as I plan. With this in mind, I’m going to start posting photos from the honeymoon so that when I get back from this weekend’s trip, I’ll be free to show off shots with L-series glass.
Here are two shots from the honeymoon week: The first was taken from the bridge that spans the Twin Lakes looking towards the aptly named Twin Falls. The day after this was taken, we hiked up to the top of the falls and looked back on the bridge from above. It was amazing and highly recommended if you ever find yourself in Mammoth.
Canon EOS 50D | 50mm f/1.8 | ISO 100 | Lexar Digital Media
This shot was taken from the balcony of our honeymoon suite at the Westin hotel (yes, there’s a Westin in Mammoth Lakes). Misty managed to drag me out of bed at 5am and I managed to shoot the sunrise through one blood-shot-eye. The fact that any of the shots were in focus is a small miracle and a real testament to lens stabilization technology.
Canon EOS 50D | Tamron 17-35mm AF Di f/2.8 | ISO 100 | Lexar Digital Media
Published on
July 19, 2009 at
7:02 pm
so it’s been 3 weeks since the pretty girl and I tied the knot and I’ve been in a honeymoon/wedding daze ever since. we are slowly getting our new lives put together both physically and digitally.
tomorrow the blog officially relaunches with all sorts of new content and some fresh-squeezed-awesome.
Captured with a Canon EOS 50D using a 17-35mm 2.8/f lens on Lexar Digital Media
for now, here’s a photo I took from the balcony of our honeymoon suite…it was roughly 40F cooler there than it was here today in bako. need I say more?
Published on
May 28, 2009 at
9:55 pm
on monday, misty and i commemorated memorial day by taking a trip into pasadena to visit the mountain view mausoleum. remembering those you’ve loved and lost seems so much easier when you’re blessed to be in a place filled with so much beauty.
Published on
May 21, 2009 at
9:37 am
this past saturday, my baby sister graduated from law school and once again continues to find ways to make me proud. she’s amazing that way.
welcome WSU…find your seats through B Door:
“stage dark, go lights in 5…4…3…2…”
draped in velvet, the class of 2009…
addressing the crowd from 35 rows back…embrace what the shot gives you and exploit it!
the grove in anaheim has that new-classic-look that Silver Efex Pro loves to play with…
more to come…
Published on
May 12, 2009 at
10:58 am
Buster makes photography wildly simple.
and the obligatory Silver Efex Pro version
Published on
January 5, 2009 at
10:56 pm
the pretty girl lives in the historic part of town and in a 100 lifetimes i wouldnt be able to capture all that surrounds our waking life.
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hiding behind the lens feels safe and this is my most recent attempt at being still…
Canon 50D :: f4.5 :: 28mm :: ISO 100 :: Lexar Digital Media
Published on
December 12, 2008 at
10:35 pm
whenever buster visits his best friend, chloe-the-dog, he literally plays her into exhaustive submission. below is photographic proof:
i definitely know how chloe-the-dog feels.
Published on
November 13, 2008 at
8:26 pm
as you may recall from previous posts, my good friend Josh Bradley is an amazing photographer. over the past couple of years, he’s been lending his talents to the rest of us mere mortals teaching numerous photography classes all over the world.
recently, his work caught the eye of the people over at Nik Software and they asked him to author “The Official Nik Software Image Enhancement Guide“.
a few weekends back, i had a chance to sit down with josh and have him show me what Nik’s software could do with a “barely-average” photo I had taken on a recent trip to Mammoth Lakes.
In roughly 5mins, josh had taught me how to take my “eh” photo into something presentable.
here’s the before photo:
using Silver Efex, josh created this:
and using Color Efex Pro 3.0 and a few layering tricks in Photoshop, we got this cool HDR-effect:
pretty cool, eh?
the best part is that these techniques and about 75 more are all in the book, step-by-step lesson-style. you can buy it over at Amazon and should definitely check it out if you’re interested in taking your photography up a few notches.
Published on
April 3, 2008 at
10:08 am
here are a few more shots from the weekend trip…
there’s 200 more where these came from…lucky.
Published on
April 1, 2008 at
11:44 am
this weekend i had a chance to take the camera out for a drive and shoot a couple of shots of snow-capped mountains and ridiculously blue skies.
the full set is here.
Published on
March 15, 2008 at
6:12 pm
so i finished up w/ some lab stuff and decided to waste the rest of my saturday afternoon writing up photoshop actions. here’s one i’m kind of liking…basically, it takes a photo and adds the gallery matte and title, etc.
hmmm.
Published on
March 13, 2008 at
11:16 am
one of buster’s favorite activities is to hop up on my lap and keep watch of the neighborhood through the living room window.
needless to say, no one dares trespass or loiter around my building.
