tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54111495572333428332024-03-06T01:01:48.007-08:00Pinging PingMy personal photo journey as I search for the perfect shot...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-38077516825456885032009-09-01T00:10:00.000-07:002009-09-01T00:27:37.019-07:00Canon's new line up!So Canon today just announced some new and pretty exciting things!<br /><br />First the 7D, which sits somewhere in between 50D (which sucks) and 5D2 (which is awesome). It has 18 mp crop sensor with 8 fps. Perhaps what is most exciting about the camera is that Canon built a brand new AF and metering system - 19 cross type points! Oh and as an added bonus it has built in wireless flash control (so you can do off camera lighting without buying a master flash or expensive remote triggers!). Finally Canon is doing some really cool stuff to catch up to Nikon (this really competes well with Nikon D300 in my opinion). Check out the hands on from DP review: <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090104canoneos7dpreview.asp">http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090104canoneos7dpreview.asp</a><br /><br />Canon also announced 2 new EF-S lenses, one is a potentially awesome replacement for the less-than-stella 17-85: EF-S 15-85 f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. It also announced an EF-S 18-135 IS as well: <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090103canon15mm28mm18mm135mm.asp">http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090103canon15mm28mm18mm135mm.asp</a><br /><br />While I can't use either of the lenses, I am very interested in the third lens they announced, a new 100mm macro (an L at that). But this one... with IS! It's the first lens with their new hybrid image stablization system that offers up to 4 stops of stablization for normal shots and 2 stops for macros. Suppose to be priced just over $1K which is about 400-500 more than the non-L 100mm macro makes it a very tempting choice. One of my biggest problems with the macro is that I always need to bring out a tripod to hand hold it since the slightest movement is magnified when doing macro work. This lens could turn out to be very interesting indeed :). So anyone want to buy my old macro lens ;)?<br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090102canon100mmmacro.asp">http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090102canon100mmmacro.asp</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-6103862855703679942009-06-16T22:22:00.000-07:002009-06-16T22:54:24.516-07:00HOMEI just watched a film called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/homeproject">HOME</a> by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (famous for his <i>Earth from Above</i> series). The film combines a series of breath-taking aerial footage taken around the globe with an equally breath-taking soundtrack. With narration by Glenn Close, the movie tells a story about... us, not just "us" as in nations or ethnicity, not even about us as a species, but about all of "us" on this planet. It is about how we are different, how we are alike... and most importantly, how we are all linked (really how humans have impacted all life on Earth, negatively of course). Whether you believe in the message or not (I for one, definitely believe), it is definitely a film worth watching and listening. Just stop for a moment and think about the resources we are <del>using</del> wasting each day.<div><br /></div><div>Just watching the footage makes me wonder... will beautiful sights I've captured this past year still be there next year for people to experience for themselves? How about 5 years? 10? 30 years from now? Will my kids be able to experience New Zealand the same way I did? See the glaciers? Auroras? Crystal clear lakes perfectly reflecting the snow capped mountains? Will I be able to continue to travel, see some of the sights captured in the movie for myself? Nothing is more amazing than Earth's natural beauty. I hope we can all continue to capture its magnificence as well as its beauty for generations to come.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the YouTube channel for the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/homeproject">HOME http://www.youtube.com/homeproject</a></div><div>Definitely worth checking it out, at the very least, enjoy the spectacular footage gathered here.<br /><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-60055841287852301052009-05-08T22:46:00.000-07:002009-05-08T22:47:33.685-07:00Schmap's Guide?Not sure if anyone heard of Schmap Guide... but apparently one of my photos got selected to be published there. It was a photo taken at Christchurch's cathedral square... <div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.schmap.com/christchurch/tours_tour1/#r=none&mapview=Map&tab=Text&p=170101&topleft=-43.58039,-138.16406&bottomright=-43.58039,123.04688&i=170101_48.jpg">http://www.schmap.com/christchurch/tours_tour1/#r=none&mapview=Map&tab=Text&p=170101&topleft=-43.58039,-138.16406&bottomright=-43.58039,123.04688&i=170101_48.jpg</a><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-13498081086901887562009-04-24T21:34:00.001-07:002009-04-24T21:41:47.494-07:00About time...Sorry for the lack of posts... I've still been uploading photos... but been busy as heck lately. Work has gotten hectic, and life has taken a dramatic change...<br /><br />Some quick updates on photos:<br /><br />Finally uploaded my photo shoot with my friend <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/BettyPhotoShoot?feat=directlink">Betty</a>. This was my first "studio" attempt and basically used 2 flashes with umbrella (sometimes using 'clam' method with one above and one below, other times using more standard 45 degree angle, etc)<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fpingc315%2Falbumid%2F5316080850676126417%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /><br />Big thanks to Betty for being such a great model!<br /><br />I'm currently working on a wedding I did back in March... hope to post that soonish... but here are some more photos from my life...<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fpingc315%2Falbumid%2F5324048120714657265%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /><br />And since it's spring... I gotta post a quick flower picture right?<br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9doPBlShHfpBwnYPFZvS7A?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/Seba4rnt4gI/AAAAAAABBsM/GRwr4FTO8Kk/s400/IMG_3206.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/SomeRandomShots?feat=embedwebsite">Some random shots</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Ok... other than all the photo update... what I really wanted to post about is a feature that Picasaweb recently launched: <a href="http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2009/04/instant-comment-notification.html">instant comment notifications</a>. Now photo owners will get notified immediately when someone leaves a comment (enabled by default) and what is even better is that when you respond, all the other commenters will know about it! So now when someone asks a question about one of your photos (or if you want to ask a question), don't be afraid to respond because now they will hear your answer! Hopefully this will really help drive conversations within Picasaweb and help you guys make friends.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-5343372583495684852009-02-28T22:43:00.000-08:002009-02-28T23:35:58.791-08:00Hong Kong...Just finished going through my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">HK</span> photos... now I'm all done with my New Zealand + <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">HK</span> trip... all done with 2008. As I mentioned in my <a href="http://pingingping.blogspot.com/2008/10/back-home-thoughts-from-new-zealand.html">initial post</a> about the trip, I was not particularly happy with the photos from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Hong</span> Kong. I really felt like I did not capture the feel of the city. I know <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Hong</span> Kong can be both so beautiful (both in nature and in the architecture) and interesting (bustling streets etc)... I felt like I didn't capture either aspects. To make up for it, I was much more heavy handed in my post processing... I guess that is how people make up for flawed photos... heavy post... <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">lots</span> of saturation, etc. Except I went with lower saturation, I ended up trying to create a more consistent faded/old grungy feel to most of the photos, under exposed, desaturated etc. Also did a lot of high contrast black and white (mainly because the weather was terrible....). Oh and since it was <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">HK</span>, I had to take a lot of food photos, I took a photo of just about everything I ate :D.<div><br /></div><div>Here are the photos from my 2 days in <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/HongKong?feat=directlink"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Hong</span> Kong</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="600" height="400" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fpingc315%2Falbumid%2F5308084317181104369%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-59272544181818511882009-02-24T22:45:00.000-08:002009-02-24T23:53:43.676-08:00End of a journey (New Zealand Day 7)Nearly 5 months have passed since I came back home from New Zealand... finally this week I can officially say the journey has ended. I've just uploaded Day 7 of photos from my New Zealand trip (available here: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay7RotoruaAndAuckland?feat=directlink">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay7RotoruaAndAuckland?feat=directlink</a>). The trip itself was quite an eye opening experience for me, going to New Zealand, seeing all the beautiful sights there. But it was also quite an eye opening journey from a photography perspective as well, and not just because of the scenery. I took a lot of inspiration from fellow photographers like Joe and Alex, keeping their ideas, framing, and even post processing tricks in mind as I took and then processed my own set of photos. Granted I probably took far too long to go through the thousands of photos I took, I really learned a lot and found I took some of my best photos of my short photographic journey on this brief New Zealand trip.<br /><br />Day 7 was an interesting day, my initial impression of the day was that there was nothing interesting, just lots of tourist and animal shots. But as I got to process through some of the photos, I discovered a few gems I enjoyed. Maybe they are still touristy, and while they aren't quite as grand or beautiful as some of the earlier photos they still capture fun precious moments.<br /><br />A quick side note before the photos... remember how my flight had mechanical problems and had to be routed to Auckland instead of Rotorua directly? That ended up having a huge impact on the photos. We were suppose to visit Te Puia the Moari cultural center with the geothermal geysers during day 6 (afternoon) and take a boat cruise late morning of day 7. Well that all got turned upside down so we basically had to wake up extra early to catch a sunrise breakfast cruise...<br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-UvoXRbdB25gPYZ6h9EOBw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGxwuQk6nI/AAAAAAAA_Ws/QFMz2XST7FU/s400/IMG_6595.jpg" /></a><br /><br />While most of my sunrise shots weren't that great, I kind of liked the simplicity of this one (that and I'm a sucker for airplanes).<br /><br />After the cruise, we drove over to Te Puia. When we first got there the geyser was pretty quiet, but that quickly changed as the geyser started spewing water maybe 20 or 30 feet tall. Thanks to the change in schedule, we arrived at the geyser at just the right time with the morning sun shining in the perfect direction creating a beautiful double rainbow for us.<br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QXM7Bs6_QOgvyCT5nncQMw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGx_FivHcI/AAAAAAAA_ZI/hpvhjml891Q/s400/IMG_4050.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/odoUVrc205E2I1rOhSxapw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGyCk7QlxI/AAAAAAAA_Z4/dJ8DEjctJBU/s400/IMG_4075.jpg" /></a><br /><br />After Te Puia, we drove on over to Agrodome for lunch and sheep shearing show (and farm tour). Got a few fun/cute animal shots that I was quite happy with.<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_Q9FcCvXiDgJa9z_ogQ5tg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGyWGDLcYI/AAAAAAAA_dk/0HInuFcvSQg/s400/IMG_4202.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/K6B-BhgXUj2Kob_PmfIpIA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGyZWjLDNI/AAAAAAAA_eQ/-dLEjyUq2pQ/s400/IMG_4227.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SA-1RtRCKXUKxyqSgDVLjg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGybCSTEzI/AAAAAAAA_eg/UfDT__jYBMY/s400/IMG_4242.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Htb69Q3GU-CUHxnYpEUEuA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGygqIh53I/AAAAAAAA_fY/4Gu2RsDRiGQ/s400/IMG_4265.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/YzlOMevwqXZAKO2L9nOk4Q?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGyn_BotoI/AAAAAAAA_gc/-SSh37bErms/s400/IMG_4279.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3vEb9WVrP9Xc-2JKdTPVGA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGyyYpI7eI/AAAAAAAA_ho/mthQpHWsCi4/s400/IMG_4307.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This last photo was used as my May calendar photo titled "New born Curiosity". I rather liked using a super wide angle lens and get in close to the animals to create fun effects. This particular shot I was maybe 2 or 3 feet away... close enough that I was worried he'd lick my lens thinking it was food :p. I basically wasn't looking through the view finder for these shots and instead just held the camera out in front of the sheep and clicked away hoping it would focus and expose correctly. In this particular shot, the focus is a bit off but overall I thought it was still ok and ended up as one of my favorite shots from the day.<br /><br />Finally on the way back to Auckland, the sun broke through the clouds for some dramatic "god ray" displays (in case you don't know, I'm a sucker for god rays as well ;))<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8pYhapThAsz4nCHQPgkM8w?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGzE8IBG-I/AAAAAAAA_j8/gUoWdqveCCs/s400/IMG_6927.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/onMIITg2hMcepOolvtV_Hw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGzFYVBaZI/AAAAAAAA_kE/lg4Z6TCpBIY/s400/IMG_6935.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/JZonJtcFkeFhgJWdq5K6OQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SaGzF6NeaSI/AAAAAAAA_kM/qcCdW3hYvU0/s400/IMG_6944.jpg" /></a><br /><br />I guess all in all, day 7 was a great ending to an already wonderful trip. Now that I'm all done, I can move on to my next destination... Hong Kong. :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-11710868987891936632009-02-18T01:20:00.001-08:002009-02-18T02:25:48.378-08:00Photographing Norther LightsSo I just got back from Alaska today, had a quick look over my aurora borealis photos and picked 2 quick ones to upload (some adjustments in Lightroom to increase contrast and bring out the green):<br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Z2pnK5ngfyzE01Q4CX8ilA?authkey=bk9WF2y0D2M&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SZuTd3JciOI/AAAAAAAA-50/s7tUdlqD4sI/s400/IMG_0175.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/Aurora?authkey=bk9WF2y0D2M&feat=embedwebsite">aurora</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/TzdCAG1R_LsBCtWJTl-dgw?authkey=bk9WF2y0D2M&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SZuTeAV_noI/AAAAAAAA-58/JMjQF6TKhE4/s400/IMG_0189.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/Aurora?authkey=bk9WF2y0D2M&feat=embedwebsite">aurora</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />This was my first time photographing auroras... so it was an interesting experience. We signed up for this aurora tour ($90 bucks a person, includes a quick dinner) so they pick you up and take you out to their little ranch just outside of Fairbanks with a clear view of the skies all around you. Cool little place really, and having a nice warm room to wait is certainly appreciated :). Unfortunately it was cloudy all night but by around 12 or so, we started noticing parts of the sky was brighter, sort of this patch of light behind the clouds. This got all the Japanese tourist around us all excited (aurora borealis watching is big deal in Japan, so there are quite a few Japanese tours in the area everyday) and they started taking photos. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I figured I should just get a test shot to see what I can get (more of a test than anything else). To my surprise, the entire sky in the photo turned out green. I felt as if I've discovered gold and quickly sprang into action, readjusting my camera trying my best to compose the frame properly (more on this later). Keep in mind that with the naked eye you could barely see the light and there certainly wasn't any color... just a light patch of clouds. The colors are only revealed with a longer shutter speed (15-30 seconds). For the next 2 hours or so, I just kept shooting, I shot anything and everything... any part of the sky that was remotely brighter than others... it seriously was like digging for treasure and just not quite sure what you'd get when the shutter closes again. Sometimes you get nothing, sometimes you get a beautiful streak of green. Auroras can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours... we were extremely lucky that on this particular night it lasted close to 4 hours total. However, we were also extremely unlucky with the weather, with the heavy clouds you really can't see any colors. You just see patches of light, some faint, some strong... every once in awhile you'll see a long ribbon of light over your head, moving, dancing (but still no color). The real kicker is that the clouds cleared at around 2:30 and then the colors really came through... BUT I was in the car on the way back to the hotel already :( (no real place to stop along the highway... not that the driver would anyways). You could clearly see the strands of light dancing in the sky, you could even see the shifts in color as well (which is rare), the locals say it is one of the best displays they've seen in years... I guess at least I got to see it.<br /><br />The second photo posted here should give some idea of what it looked like with the clouds clearing. This was the last photo I took that night, and this one was totally by luck too. The driver already came to get us and I was pretty much done taking photos anyways, they all looked the same, green blob in the sky. So as I turned around to head back in, my uncle mentioned that this will be a cool aurora, he assured me I had time for 1 more photo "always time for another photo" he said, the driver will wait. It is only because of him that I turned and took this last shot which is one of the better shots and one of the only shots I have that shows some form (to the naked eye, it was still just a colorless blob in the sky). I have the best uncle in the world and glad he told me to stay for another shot :).<br /><br />Overall I'm happy about how it all turned out, I guess I'm the luckiest unlucky person that night... able to experience one of the best (and longest) aurora displays but not able to capture it due to weather. Hehe, sometimes you get the shots, sometimes you don't. You just can't plan for these kinds of things I guess.<br /><br />Some techie details and lessons learned...<br /><ul><li>Due to the thick cloud, framing and auto-focusing was basically impossible. I couldn't see anything through the view finder and had to use the lights from the school (see that orange lights in the trees) as a reference point and pray for the best.</li><li>Manual focus is tough without live view, keep in mind that your infinity focus point actually shifts in cold weather so just using the default infinity mark is not sufficient. This basically turned out to be a guess and check exercise for me... and using a super wide lens helps to cover up any mistakes you have (I just shifted the focus to a tad beyond infinity and locked it in manual focus mode the entire night). </li><li>Again, with the clouds, it was very difficult to pick up the lights so I pretty much had to shoot wide open at 30 secs and bump up my ISO to an unacceptable 1600 most of the time. It sucked, but noisy image better than no image...</li><li>For longer exposures, I was able to use a flash light to do some "light painting" on the foreground. For example, I was able to use the flash light to light up the cabin (basically just sweep over the cabin with the light as if you are painting with a brush) in the foreground so it will be properly exposed against the aurora.</li><li>Batteries die fast out there in below 0 degrees weather. Make sure you carry a spare (best if you can keep it in the warm room or at least in your pants pocket to keep it warm with your body heat).</li></ul><div>So next time...</div><div><ul><li>I need a better camera so I can shoot comfortably at ISO 800 if not ISO 1600. 5D Mk II anyone? :)</li><li>Rent out a faster lens. I was using EF-S 10-22 which shooting wide open gives me f/3.5. I should consider renting out EF 16-35 f/2.8 which would give me almost a full stop of light (meaning my 30 sec exposure just went down to 15) or perhaps even EF 24mm f/1.4 lens which would give me almost 2 full stops (now I can get down to around 7 sec for my exposure time).</li></ul><div>Some other information can be found on the web (such as <a href="http://www.alaskaphotographics.com/how_to_photograph_northern_lights.shtml">http://www.alaskaphotographics.com/how_to_photograph_northern_lights.shtml</a>). Perhaps with better weather, I'd be able to compose and focus much easier (as well as use a lower ISO setting). Either way, aurora borealis is truly a thing of beauty and I'm now addicted to photographing it... I'm already planning another trip back to Fairbanks, who wants to come with me? (I'm serious, if anyone wants to come, drop me a line).</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-72836773074286740402009-02-14T19:29:00.001-08:002009-02-14T19:32:09.212-08:00Freezing in AlaskaSo I haven't posted in awhile, been kind of demotivated about processing photos (just 1 more day of New Zealand and Hong Kong left, I'll post those shortly) and been busy with work. For Presidents day my mom and I decided to take a quick vacation out to Alaska... yes, freezing cold Alaska... to visit my aunt and uncle and hopefully get some photos of the northern lights. Right now I'm in a cabin outside Fairbanks waiting... things don't look so good since it is mostly cloudy tonight :(. Sigh, oh well. We'll see what happens. Haven't got too many good photos so far mostly because of the weather (cold, snowing, cloudy...). I guess we'll see what happens.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-13666472025934627702009-01-30T01:17:00.000-08:002009-01-30T02:12:34.897-08:00New Zealand, Day 6...Day 6 was even more bland of a day for photos, we basically spent the day traveling (partly due to airplane malfunction... boy I'm just having the greatest luck with airplanes... first typhoon delays then malfunction...). I did get a few shots that I liked at the Christchurch Botanical Gardens and a few shots in Rotorua (north island where we spent the night) that I liked. As usual, the full album is available here: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay6Rotorua?feat=directlink">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay6Rotorua?feat=directlink</a><br /><br />On a side note, earlier this year I was in a huge slump in terms of photography, I didn't like any of the shots I took and just felt uninspired. Two fellow photogs that I met through Picasa (who says Picasaweb is not social!) really kind of helped me get out of that slump and gave me a lot of great inspirations. I've come to really respect their comments/critiques and enjoy learning from them. The first is Joe, especially his <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/joekuo/ReturnToNature#">back to nature album</a>.<br /><br />I really liked his album quite a bit, his eye for catching beautiful patterns in nature... his play of light vs shadow... the simpleness of his photos, etc. So during my walk through the botanical gardens, I couldn't help but remember his photos, how simple often equals beautiful. Feeling particularly inspired by his branch silhouette shots (those shots shooting upwards creating a shadow effect of the branches), I tried to try it myself...<br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8u7M-EWgdQqidmb_H9RZcw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SYF83S0F97I/AAAAAAAA-R0/81t-XJ_wMJE/s400/IMG_6306.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8xK9vGq-iqT5SiINUzgM4w?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SYF9YLWNWSI/AAAAAAAA-XU/tndt3fWygdw/s400/IMG_3967.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vj8wEA0XBnVyHNfAr2oT4Q?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SYF8nWLMgDI/AAAAAAAA-P8/r-tTXJdmzyI/s400/IMG_6284.jpg" /></a><br /><br />While no where near as good as Joe's photos were, I rather liked the results. Just need to keep my eyes open for those simple beautiful patterns that occur naturally... This also requires me to remember to simplify my photos, cut away unnecessary elements and just focus in on the core. Thanks Joe!<br /><br />The second photog is of course Alex, I was really impressed by his <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/antermoia/GeometricGraphicalExperimental#">patterns album</a> at first, but what really stayed with me months after first viewing it was his "<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/antermoia/HaveASeat#">have a seat</a>" album. I just love the feels he creates with a simple photo of an empty bench. Sometimes it is loneliness, sometimes it is grandeur, sometimes it is just fun. As a result, when I saw this bench in the garden, I knew I just had to get a photo of it...<br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/LruHKwAnqYXWsqNpyJgllA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SYF8uDL4F7I/AAAAAAAA-Qw/eujNXZraXcE/s400/IMG_6295.jpg" /></a><br /><br />I really like the "nice Sunday afternoon in the park" feeling to it, where the bench is particularly inviting, welcoming you to come sit down for a moment, relax, forget about the world and all its troubles. Just, stop, sit back, and relax... close your eyes and breath in all that fresh air. My only regret is I didn't accept the invitation, but instead I hurried past the bench moving on in search of my next shot. Next time, I will have a seat.<br /><br />Oh also notice the photo is B&W, it happens that this seemed to work well with the subject, but there is another reason why it is B&W.... The day was extremely overcast which meant no real contrast in the scene, no shadows, no depth, the green grass and tree leaves were all just muted. Instead of trying to play with saturation and brightness to try to get some "pop" back, I decided to make the photo B&W. Instead of just plain and simple B&W, I essentially made it a filtered B&W to bring out particular colors (I actually adjusted the color filter individually under Lightroom's grayscale option). In this case, the green / yellow was made much brighter to create nice contrast against the dark bench and tree trunk. So keep this in mind, the next time you end up with a bland image from an overcast day (or one with over exposed sky), consider making it B&W to conceal some of these faults and let you accentuate some other aspects of the photo.<br /><br />Here is another B&W photo from the day that I really liked. The original color version really wasn't very special, everything was just brown and white (with some light green) but once I made it B&W I could really bring out the trees much better and separate it from everything.<br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8bMWrse5USoahMXAXW6Vcg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SYF9hkl1lAI/AAAAAAAA-YE/ObRDJNbjRDI/s400/IMG_3985.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Here is another processed version of the same scene, this time modifying Lightroom's "cold tone" present slightly:<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/u8BxYX9GVNbkWntMlcL2vA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SYF9juDQFnI/AAAAAAAA-YQ/ZCpEIeG7Op0/s400/IMG_3989.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Finally, another HDR (man... I really went nuts with HDR on this trip...)<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9P0EQFi9_P25xTStwDx21A?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SYF9G7qQLyI/AAAAAAAA-Uo/DCsyG3d6Gco/s400/IMG_3948_6_7.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This is a photo of the Hagglund which is a pretty cool Antarctic vehicle. With the skies just clearing and the sun just over the building... I knew I wanted to capture the typical dramatic vehicle shot with lens flare and all. So I got down low, and aimed up at the sun hoping for some interesting lens flares. The angle just makes the Hagglund look that much more powerful (shooting up at subject always conveys more respect/power, just be careful when using that technique with people as it can make their chin look wide...). The main reason I decided to make it an HDR was because I was still shooting into the sun so I didn't want to completely blow out the sky while keeping the parts of the vehicle that is in the shadow relatively well exposed.<br /><br />Sorry if my day 6 photos weren't quite as exciting or beautiful as previous days. Unfortunately I think this is about it for "scenic" shots... only 1 more day of photos left for New Zealand. Now it's like a journey 4 months in the making :p but I guess it'll all be over soon. Just 1 more days worth of photos :(.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-90898119031431875262009-01-22T01:25:00.000-08:002009-01-22T01:27:10.259-08:00Inauguration photos from The Big PictureSome great shots of the historical moment yesterday (ok 2 days ago now) from The Big Picture:<br /><div><a href="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.html">http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.html </a></div><div><br /></div><div>Definitely worth checking out (and subscribing to their RSS feed if you haven't already!)</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-35529940983083780152009-01-21T00:14:00.001-08:002009-01-21T00:29:07.355-08:00Year in reviewAs some of you know, I am making it a habit of mine to make a calendar at the end of each year to sort of summarize my year, my experiences, and the beauty that I was blessed enough to witness. Here is a slideshow of the photos for my photo calendar this year (perhaps it is no surprise that many of the photos came from New Zealand :D):<div><br /></div><div><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="800" height="533" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fpingc315%2Falbumid%2F5275372082969495121%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss%26authkey%3DukJ2uAdn5Po" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /></div><br /><br />There is of course a story behind each of these images and each caption/title. If anyone is curious, I'd be more than happy to share the story. Picking the photos was probably the easy part, coming up with a title I liked that meant something was the hard part >.<. I don't know know how many photos I ended up taking this year (file name numbering suggest maybe around 17 thousand). I really feel like I've grown a lot this year, from learning to crop and simplify my photos to HDR to reading up on strobist and using flash much more effectively... It has been a busy year and I really want to thank all those who helped me in my journey, sharing ideas, sharing photos, providing valuable critique or was just patient with me while I took my sweet time on a trip somewhere :). Special thanks to those who I pestered for helping me pick the calendar photos and write the captions :D Here are a few more photos that I really liked but wasn't quite fitting for a calendar: <table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gY2OAekY49XH8_xtuGOY1A?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnnHz4p6I/AAAAAAAA3ts/C3nl6ml7Ahs/s400/IMG_7881.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/PhotoShootAtWoodbridge?feat=embedwebsite">Photo Shoot at Woodbridge</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zlbPapXrveCcVhjdl__FJg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVydnI9P7zI/AAAAAAAA8F0/p4FSYPqpIdM/s400/IMG_8694.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/HappyNewYears?feat=embedwebsite">Happy New Years</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1sbMWABOdObaLETfGlVeyQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/R8qD9BvclbI/AAAAAAAAeqM/MG4t7HzK6jI/s400/IMG_3614.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/AnzaBorregoDesertStatePark?feat=embedwebsite">Anza-Borrego Desert State Park</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/CJkbztCyXWgtlAI_zzJDkg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SO4yGSxwU5I/AAAAAAAA1no/2jdaVbHeDZ8/s400/IMG_7343.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/TaipeiSnapshots2007?feat=embedwebsite">Taipei snapshots (台北隨意拍) 2007</a></td></tr></tbody></table>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-30724646003445817462009-01-20T01:48:00.001-08:002009-01-20T02:15:49.909-08:00Long Beach AquariumA few years ago I saw a coworker post some pictures he took at Monterey Aquarium of these beautiful jellyfishes set against a a nice blue background. I was really blown away by how beautiful it was (I think the photo was this one: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewmitchell1975/MontereyTripJune2006#4940152518086295570">http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewmitchell1975/MontereyTripJune2006#4940152518086295570</a>). Since then, I've been dreaming of capturing similar images myself but never had a chance... that is until last weekend when I finally stopped by Long Beach Aquarium for a quick afternoon photo shoot. While I never quite got that shot I wanted, I got a few other shots that I liked. Full album available here: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/LongBeachAquarium?feat=directlink">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/LongBeachAquarium?feat=directlink</a>).<br /><br />The day started off on a pretty good beat as I got this shot:<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Jll1iFeSIKhuOG-fmqg6dg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SXL2kv0nrmI/AAAAAAAA9U0/AXE9RT5ivXs/s400/IMG_8876.JPG" /></a><br /><br />I'm really a sucker for kid silhouette against the glass staring at fish type shots. This particular shot was done in manual mode as metering became difficult but I really love how mesmerized kids are by fishes. I think I first fell in love with this type shots when I visited Sea World last June... it would have been better if the water was deeper blue but I thought this shot worked fairly well either way.<br /><br />As for Jellyfish, my favorite shot might have been<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/AvJtIKuOVxpFaap9asvLDQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SXL2snmVQ4I/AAAAAAAA9XA/3g5x4eoyRAM/s400/IMG_8957.JPG" /></a><br /><br />I just like how it is zig-zagging through the water and how it looks like it is glowing. But perhaps the other lines are a bit distracting... It seems as if everyone's favorite jellyfish shot ended up this one:<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FClJ6nlAFLo13H1PbkChCA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SXL2vAKtLkI/AAAAAAAA9Xo/DXNqCyKIC08/s400/IMG_8975.JPG" /></a><br /><br />As <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/joekuo">Joe</a> puts it "white and clear jellys owns yellow ones". Well, I guess I can't quite argue with that logic there. But overall I found photographing these things a bit of a challenge. The jellyfish themselves were rather small and really cramped together in a small tank which made composition more difficult. On top of that the water wasn't very clean in a few of the tanks so it didn't make for attractive background... I ended up zooming in all the way to focus in on smallest clean area and pressed the lens up against the glass to reduce reflection and what not... Lucky for me, these things move slow which made it easier to track and photograph :).<br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/kRzisTQ12JLpu_7GTX_YaQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SXL20VDMLuI/AAAAAAAA9gQ/KHqu3PV_uP8/s400/IMG_9044.JPG" /></a><br />This might be my favorite from the day... I was surprised at how colorful the world is under water. Unfortunately here I used my 10mm lens shooting through a curved glass so the distortions in the corners are really terrible.<br /><br />I also got a few lucky shots of sea horses and sea dragons:<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/cRAKDi06OmjLAwTq1O-GNQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SXL27MsGlUI/AAAAAAAA9fk/Q0nneI2y_lg/s400/IMG_9114-2.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/IKpEr9suf1yb3tp-xiYBbw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SXL28a9uNwI/AAAAAAAA9fQ/FMDZa_C8prA/s400/IMG_9129.JPG" /></a><br /><br />For the sea horses it was a bit trickier as these things moves quite fast. I had to sacrifice noise and use ISO 1600 (basically the entire day) to have a chance of keeping up with them. Shooting through glass and water also plays havoc on auto focus... just kept snapping away until I got lucky with a sharp photo here ;).<br /><br />On a side note, I also updated photos from San Diego Wild Animal Park from Christmas vacation. Here the main thing I kept in mind the whole day was a lesson I learned from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shaws-Nature-Photography-Field-Guide/dp/0817440593">John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide</a>, and that is to keep your shots eye level with the animals as much as possible. It makes the image feel more intimate and more dramatic effect compared to photographing them standing up (so you will be looking down at them).<br /><br />Keeping that in mind (and also wanting to practice isolating details), here are a few photos from that day:<br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PJm-p-zlXwXwSLLMzUZJiA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWx1woLj7SI/AAAAAAAA87s/0m7YEwIBZ88/s400/IMG_8586.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/SanDiegoWildAnimalPark?feat=embedwebsite">San Diego Wild Animal Park</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-HiuTnet1b9Oixk3SpPSYA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWx1qpJF1gI/AAAAAAAA86g/ybl2lkLBmaA/s400/IMG_8550.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0vCjh8SlNVmgVJdwiEtmpA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWx1pQKX4JI/AAAAAAAA86I/zE-YyXB_Djs/s400/IMG_8539.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9un12RfNoLz1eNB5usJGyw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWx12k0uMEI/AAAAAAAA88s/O6jDnhJUBJQ/s400/IMG_8604.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/KR60vybQqtLRh62jy6xb3g?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWx2LGdU_FI/AAAAAAAA8_s/R-kqFtSCO0w/s400/IMG_8676.jpg" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-66431473699978272232009-01-13T23:50:00.000-08:002009-01-14T01:32:52.490-08:00Back to ChristchurchSorry I haven't posted anything in awhile, but I finally got through Day 5. We spent most of day 5 on the road, the cross country/island drive from Lake Wanaka to the east back to Christchurch. We only made a few stops along the way, but we drove through some amazing landscapes in New Zealand from the barren wasteland (as seen in the final battle for Gondor in Return of the King) to the grassy plains perfect for sheep farming. But overall, Milford sound was definitely the climax of the entire trip and everything since then is just going down hill. I still felt I got a few good shots in, but mostly thanks to HDR and post processing... less thanks to the natural beauty of New Zealand like previous days.<br /><br />The morning started off early for me as I got up extra early to catch sun rise but it was still pretty cloudy. After breakfast we got some time to walk around the shores of Lake Wanaka and I finally got to explore the vineyards next to where I took the star photos during the previous night. When I got to the vineyard, I was really intrigued by the numbers identifying the rows so I snapped this photo.<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[day5]" title="Vineyard along the shore" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpi1durr5I/AAAAAAAA8cs/2UiL7ra9x1Q/s1024/IMG_3732_0_1.jpg"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpi1durr5I/AAAAAAAA8cs/2UiL7ra9x1Q/s400/IMG_3732_0_1.jpg" /></a><br /><br />It was originally an HDR but I didn't like the fake look of it so I decided to desaturate the image and add a lot more warmth (yellow) to create the almost monotone image. Some minor touch up on the pole to accentuate the 43. I think I just like the perspective of it, the repeating pattern of the poles getting smaller as well as each row leading away from you leading into the background.<br /><br />The next image was taken at Lake Pukaki. The weather was pretty terrible with gray bland overcast sky not giving me anything to work with. But the lake had really beautiful rocky shores along with this amazing blue water (thanks to the glaciers). In order to bring out the details in the rocks and not blow out the sky, I had to use HDR... I played a bit with the effect this time creating a more storybook fantasy feel (actually it really reminds me of those motivational posters...). I hope you don't mind me taking some liberty with the effects.<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[day5]" title="Motivation" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjHi0Pa0I/AAAAAAAA8fo/jstRDn2okE8/s1024/IMG_3770_68_69.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjHi0Pa0I/AAAAAAAA8fo/jstRDn2okE8/s400/IMG_3770_68_69.jpg" /></a><br /><br />The next image is probably one of my favorites from the trip, a photo of The Church of Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo (one of the most photographed landmarks in all of New Zealand). Again, I had to use HDR to really bring out the details as the sky was just a boring gray.<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[day5]" title="Shelter of Hope" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjMULQBTI/AAAAAAAA83I/7BFwTAGs5Xs/s1024/IMG_3791_89_90.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjMULQBTI/AAAAAAAA83I/7BFwTAGs5Xs/s400/IMG_3791_89_90.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This was the exact image I wanted when I first saw the church... for some reason I just had this image in my mind, a low super wide angle shot of the church, exaggerating it a bit against the background a plain small church look even more amazing set against the cloudy/dark sky. I actually waited for close to 10 mins for all the visitors to clear the area (it is a heavily visited site, so tour bus after tour bus would drop people off). I was really fortunate that there was this small pause in people visiting the church for me to snap a few quick photos of the church, un-disturbed (needless to say people in my tour were less than happy with me as they all sat waiting in the tour bus way off in the distance there). I used this photo as the October photo in my calendar, titled "Shelter of Hope". The name was partly inspired by the local artist (Esther Hope) whose sketches were the basis for the actual church, but it is also about how this image made me feel. In many ways churches, more specifically religion/faith, provides a shelter for us against the storms and turmoil we face in life. They not only give us shelter, but strength and hope to face each day, knowing that the storm will pass and a the skies will be clear one day. This is how the image made me feel.<br /><br />As usual, the full album can be found on my picasa web gallery or here: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay5LakeWanakaToChristchurch?feat=directlink">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay5LakeWanakaToChristchurch?feat=directlink</a><br /><br />A couple more interesting photos below:<br />From Lindis Pass, near where the battle for Gondor was filmed.<br /><a rel="lightbox[day5]" title="Lindis Pass" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpi6_hsVcI/AAAAAAAA8ds/YXAkENiGIBw/s1024/IMG_6095.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpi6_hsVcI/AAAAAAAA8ds/YXAkENiGIBw/s400/IMG_6095.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[day5]" title="Barren Plains" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpi9GsTsdI/AAAAAAAA8d8/9icw-HzMmMA/s1024/IMG_3756.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpi9GsTsdI/AAAAAAAA8d8/9icw-HzMmMA/s400/IMG_3756.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Of course you can't have NZ album without sheep and alpacas. SO cute!<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[day5]" title="Sheep!" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjWCTSWnI/AAAAAAAA8iE/L3ocBMvWO_8/s1024/IMG_3811.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjWCTSWnI/AAAAAAAA8iE/L3ocBMvWO_8/s400/IMG_3811.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[day5]" title="Alpaca" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjhDuMlOI/AAAAAAAA8kA/Efd4s4uKLDg/s1024/IMG_6237.jpg"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjhDuMlOI/AAAAAAAA8kA/Efd4s4uKLDg/s400/IMG_6237.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Finally image of Christchurch Cathedral in Christchurch<br /><a rel="lightbox[day5]" title="All lines leads to the church" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjw7ECH6I/AAAAAAAA8mM/Ol4WCNDo_Cw/s1024/IMG_3850.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SWpjw7ECH6I/AAAAAAAA8mM/Ol4WCNDo_Cw/s400/IMG_3850.jpg" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-37581184266624697972009-01-03T02:22:00.000-08:002009-01-03T13:07:42.922-08:00Milford Sound (New Zealand Day 4)So after a short break from processing photos, I finally uploaded the photos from day 4 of my New Zealand trip a couple days ago. We got up pretty early that day (at about 5 AM) and headed out to Milford Sound for a 2 hour boat tour. This was probably the highlight of the whole New Zealand trip and offered some of the most spectacular views of the whole trip... needless to say, this makes keeping this blog post short very difficult as there are a lot of photos I really liked from that day. The full set of photos is available at: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay4MilfordSoundAndLakeWanaka?feat=directlink">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay4MilfordSoundAndLakeWanaka?feat=directlink</a>.<br /><br />As mentioned in earlier posts, a storm swept through the area days before we arrived, so the weather was always questionable. In addition, the only road leading up to Milford Sound had a mudslide just the day before... our tour lead had hoped it would clear up by the time we got there... Luckily for us, the weather stayed clear for most of that day and the road was cleared 30 mins prior to our arrival... I really think someone upstairs was watching over us this entire trip. Other than the poor weather on the first few days, this entire trip have been really blessed.<br /><br />On our way to Milford Sound, we made a quick 10 min stop Mirror Lake (well... they say 10 mins but I stretched it to like 15 ^^;... kept everyone waiting). The weather was so beautiful that the lake was really like a mirror, perfectly reflecting the beauty in front of us. Unfortunately it was rather difficult to capture the full experience on camera due to the extreme dynamic range (the reflection and lake was in the shadows where as the actual snow capped mountains were in bright sunlight). I doubled stacked filters (2 stop graduated ND to darken the top half of the photo and a polarizer to bring out the reflection and colors) and then in post I added another graduated filter at the bottom to bump up the brightness of the shadows to create this final image.<br /><a rel="lightbox[milford]" title="Mirror Lake" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtgyMOmFI/AAAAAAAA7eo/hwEcSfhfuXc/s1024/IMG_3495.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtgyMOmFI/AAAAAAAA7eo/hwEcSfhfuXc/s400/IMG_3495.jpg" /></a><br /><br />When we got to Milford Sound, the weather was still mostly clear but there was enough clouds in the sky to make it even more interesting. It was on this boat tour that I took most of my HDRs (high dynamic range, where 3 photos of the same scene are then combined in post processing to form a single image), in fact I think I ended up with 30+ HDR shots so in total I took close to 100 images just for HDR. I tried to keep the HDR fantasy like feel down and stick to what felt natural.<br /><br />Here are two shots of Milford Sound with Mitre Peak (doesn't this feel like something out of LOTR? You know the part with Frodo on the boat passing the giant statues?).<br /><a rel="lightbox[milford]" title="Mitre Peak" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtmvzqGVI/AAAAAAAA7f8/rLZQ9HuBG6M/s1024/IMG_3515.JPG"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtmvzqGVI/AAAAAAAA7f8/rLZQ9HuBG6M/s400/IMG_3515.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[milford]" title="Mitre Peak" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtnNjIggI/AAAAAAAA7gE/-bAUaJ49108/s1024/IMG_3520_18_19.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtnNjIggI/AAAAAAAA7gE/-bAUaJ49108/s400/IMG_3520_18_19.jpg" /></a><br /><br />The first shot was shot in RAW and then post processed in Lightroom. I really had to brighten up the green on the mountain but it gets a tad bit noisy. The second image is an HDR with -2, 0 and +2 stops. It's not too different from the RAW shot but I get so much more detail in the clouds and the green just pops better making for a more dramatic image (in my opinion at least :)).<br /><br />There are so many photos that I really liked from Milford, but this is perhaps one of my favorite from the entire trip. I used it as the August photo in my calendar, titled "Heaven's Blessings" mainly because it looks like the water is pouring down from the heavens. Additionally, this is actually not a permanent waterfall (it's called Fairy Falls), it will dry up in a few days without rainfall so in many ways, we were blessed to have the storm pass through revealing this hidden beauty within Milford Sound.<br /><a rel="lightbox[milford]" title="Heaven's Blessing" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtp0dvyEI/AAAAAAAA7gs/uexosg5Pfgs/s1024/IMG_3545_3_4.jpg"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtp0dvyEI/AAAAAAAA7gs/uexosg5Pfgs/s400/IMG_3545_3_4.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Here is another photo from Milford Sound. I really like how the cloud just wraps around the mountains... It also shows the entrance to the sound being mostly hidden, this is why the early explorers did not discover Milford Sound as no one expected it to lead to anywhere.<br /><a rel="lightbox[milford]" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtr-uQj8I/AAAAAAAA7hI/UpTJ3hv0rRE/s1024/IMG_5785_3_4.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwtr-uQj8I/AAAAAAAA7hI/UpTJ3hv0rRE/s400/IMG_5785_3_4.jpg" /></a><br /><br />One final shot of Milford Sound as the boat was returning to dock.<br /><a rel="lightbox[milford]" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwt6RWSx_I/AAAAAAAA7kI/rqJOvLpmeOU/s1024/IMG_3633_4_5.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwt6RWSx_I/AAAAAAAA7kI/rqJOvLpmeOU/s400/IMG_3633_4_5.jpg" /></a><br /><br />After the boat tour, we drove straight to Lake Wananaka where we stayed for the night. Just before dinner I saw these two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Shelduck">Paradise Ducks</a> near by. These ducks usually live in pairs and mate for life.<br /><a rel="lightbox[milford]" title="Paradise Ducks" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwuAKkVjII/AAAAAAAA7lQ/CKsqRw80y00/s1024/IMG_5962.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwuAKkVjII/AAAAAAAA7lQ/CKsqRw80y00/s400/IMG_5962.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Since we spent the night right along the lake shores, there was very little light pollution allowing me to get a few nice shots of the Milky Way and stars. I had to use my 50mm 1.4 wide open and a 1600 ISO to get the shutter speed fast enough to capture all this without star trails.<br /><a rel="lightbox[milford]" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwuHAp7IkI/AAAAAAAA7m4/7s1Xe0Jxo0E/s1024/IMG_6002.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwuHAp7IkI/AAAAAAAA7m4/7s1Xe0Jxo0E/s400/IMG_6002.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[milford]" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwuJDTALTI/AAAAAAAA7nQ/vkA3LTsptj4/s1024/IMG_6008.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVwuJDTALTI/AAAAAAAA7nQ/vkA3LTsptj4/s400/IMG_6008.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Only 3 days left of New Zealand photos, hopefully I'll be able to get through them quicker now :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-859290989846312832009-01-02T01:53:00.000-08:002009-01-02T01:55:58.589-08:00My favorite movie of all time...One of my new year resolutions was to take some time off and rewatch all the Miyazaki Hayao movies. I decided to get a jump start on this with my favorite movie of all time: Sen to Chihiro no Kamekakushi or Spirited Away as it is known in the west. It is just such a beautifully made movie with one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever to go along with it. I've actually forgotten how much I love this movie until I watched it again, noticing all the cute little details (the scene with the mouse imitating Sen is still the cutest...), breath taking scenery (the train ride is still my favorite scene of the entire movie) and of course the deeper messages involved. I was actually fortunate enough to attend the US premier of the movie at El Capitan in Hollywood where Miyazaki-san made an appearance himself. I remember how excited I was when I found out he was coming, I think I heard it driving to work (intern at AOL that summer) and I immediately called up all the friends I knew to buy tickets ASAP... <br /><br /><br />It is simply a must see movie, for all ages regardless if you like anime or not. Of course the ending song still gets me everytime... Itsumo nando demo (Always with me). Yumi Kimura's voice is so beautiful...<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2b50tThvbyA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2b50tThvbyA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Of course the movie wouldn't be what it is without Joe Hisaishi's memorable pieces like this one:<br /><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d1ni1sVCgEk&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d1ni1sVCgEk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /> <br />I almost feel like I can watch this movie again right now and still enjoy ever second of it. Anyways, on to the next Ghibli movie... I'm debating between Kiki and Laputa... maybe Kiki first since I haven't seen that in forever :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-16123233021618732752009-01-01T15:14:00.000-08:002009-01-01T15:41:35.237-08:00Happy New Year!Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a good (and safe) new years eve. Looking back at 2008, it has certainly been an interesting year... buying a house, traveling to New Zealand, growing as a photographer... thanks to all who have helped me along this long (but young) journey. I really look forward to 2009 and all the new opportunities it will bring. My number 1 new year resolution is probably to continue traveling, visit at least one new country this year. Perhaps visit a few more national parks in the US (all those national parks out in Utah and Zion etc) and maybe Alaska. Perhaps another east coast trip?<br /><br />Here are my last photos taken in 2008...<br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a rel="lightbox[newyears]" title="Destination Unknown" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVydmhOrz8I/AAAAAAAA7oE/8n4ptSw4Woc/s800/IMG_8692.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVydmhOrz8I/AAAAAAAA7oE/8n4ptSw4Woc/s400/IMG_8692.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/HappyNewYears?feat=embedwebsite">Happy New Years</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a rel="lightbox[newyears]" title="Emptiness" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVydnI9P7zI/AAAAAAAA7oM/wWl-mu6u_KU/s800/IMG_8694.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVydnI9P7zI/AAAAAAAA7oM/wWl-mu6u_KU/s400/IMG_8694.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/HappyNewYears?feat=embedwebsite">Happy New Years</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Instead of partying and doing count down like normal people, I went out for a quick photo shoot as a thick fog rolled in. Visibility was probably less than 30 ft at times (maybe even 20). Perhaps a somewhat fitting end to 2008, with the future of many shrouded in doubt and uncertainty. Hopefully this fog will clear up soon and we can see a more defined (and brighter) path to the future. I wish everyone an happy and healthy 2009.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-57994543097897968352008-12-28T03:22:00.000-08:002008-12-28T16:47:40.706-08:00Happy HolidaysAs usual, my wishes arrive a few days late :). But I guess better late than never! Happy Holidays everyone, hope you had a safe and wonderful holiday season with your friends and loved ones.<br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVchyWbLtYI/AAAAAAAA7VI/_nphV99dG7g/s800/IMG_8333.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVchyWbLtYI/AAAAAAAA7VI/_nphV99dG7g/s400/IMG_8333.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/HappyHolidays?feat=embedwebsite">Happy Holidays</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />As 2008 comes to a close, I am just beginning to realize what an eventful year it has been for the world and for me personally (that probably deserves a post on its own). I've spent the past few days on a break from all things related to photos and just relaxed, doing different things - ok ok, mainly just going back to video games for a little bit :). Finally got to finish <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0-PK6l6ohk">Eternal Sonata</a> - a Japanese RPG about Chopin and this fantastic dream world he enters while on his deathbed. The game had some of the best video game music ever (not to mention a few pieces from Chopin), amazing visuals and some of the most creative character designs I've seen in awhile (oh and a very interesting battle mechanism). At first I mistook this game as something for kids with the art style, characters, and premise but I decided to give it a try based on some very positive reviews. While it's not a perfect game I loved just about every second of it... I mean just the music and visuals alone was worth the 40 some odd hours I spent on the game. I'm also starting back on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPzy0-jMv2g">Ys Origin</a>, another Japanese RPG (one of the more recent Ys games which also has amazing music ;)).<br /><br />Anyways, I did get to go out for a quick photo shoot the day after Christmas. With recent storm in Southern California, there has been a lot of snow up in the nearby mountains so my family decided to take a quick day trip out to Lake Arrowhead. After all, we wanted to experience a white Christmas too :). We got there kind of late in the afternoon and wanted to leave before nightfall since we didn't have snow chains or anything so I only got a few shots in. Here are some of my favorites from the day (full album here: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/LakeArrowhead?feat=directlink">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/LakeArrowhead?feat=directlink</a>)<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[arrowhead]" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVdPudtZ8WI/AAAAAAAA7WY/kwb3_oX5X8M/s800/IMG_8490.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVdPudtZ8WI/AAAAAAAA7WY/kwb3_oX5X8M/s400/IMG_8490.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[arrowhead]" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVdPxs3eqfI/AAAAAAAA7W8/dS_r5oucjoE/s800/IMG_8506_4_5.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVdPxs3eqfI/AAAAAAAA7W8/dS_r5oucjoE/s400/IMG_8506_4_5.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[arrowhead]" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVdPzCZwy_I/AAAAAAAA7XM/5yjH0VQtrvY/s800/IMG_8510.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVdPzCZwy_I/AAAAAAAA7XM/5yjH0VQtrvY/s400/IMG_8510.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[arrowhead]" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVdP1GdvEkI/AAAAAAAA7Xk/mRmL-BPfbK8/s800/IMG_8519_7_8.jp"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SVdP1GdvEkI/AAAAAAAA7Xk/mRmL-BPfbK8/s400/IMG_8519_7_8.jpg" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div><br />Happy New Years everyone, hope 2009 will bring happiness and many new experiences (as well as many wonderful photos) for you!<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-1201651098869441902008-12-17T02:27:00.000-08:002009-01-03T12:46:50.335-08:00New Zealand Day 3Sorry the long delay in between posts, a lot of stuff has been happening both at work (you know, like the launch) and outside of work. Personally I've been trying to take a short break from photography (and processing photos) so I can attend to other areas of interest and hopefully come back to photos with a lot more passion and creativity. I actually had day 3 photos almost fully processed 2 weeks ago but I got side tracked by a personal photo calendar project I was doing... Thanks to everyone who helped with that and provided valuable input.<div><br /></div><div>Day 3 in New Zealand to me was one of those turning point type day where the number of potentially interesting photos grew sharply from the previous day. It was also a major turning point for the weather as the day started out completely overcast (and even slight drizzle to light rain) which completely dashed any hopes of taking a helicopter flight up to the glaciers. I was actually really looking forward to taking that helicopter, getting some aerial photos and being able to walk on the glaciers... but I guess I'll have to just setting for the view from the base. After the short visit to Fox Glacier, we drove along the west coast of the South Island before heading in land towards Queenstown (our destination for the day). Along the drive, we passed by two gorgeous lakes (Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea) and this was right about when the weather started clearing up revealing some of the "classic" New Zealand landscapes... The full album can be viewed here: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay3GlacierAndQueenstown#">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay3GlacierAndQueenstown#</a> </div><div><br /></div><div>Here is a photo taken at the base of Fox Glacier... The original photo (left) was really kind of boring with the featureless overcast sky which also made the colors feel really muted. My friend Alex happened to send me a post of a technique he recently learned in Lightroom to make foggy landscapes look even more interesting (post here: <a href="http://blog.alex-kunz.de/2008/12/glow-effect-in-lightroom.html">http://blog.alex-kunz.de/2008/12/glow-effect-in-lightroom.html</a>). What better way to learn a new technique than to try it out on a photo immediately? So I basically lowered the clarity of the photo overall to about -70, bumped up recovery to about 90 to try to bring back some of the blown details. This made the whole image kind of glowy bright feel which was cool, but really killed the detail on the glacier so I took the brush tool to bring back the details in the foreground (graduated filter would work just as well I think): +100 clarity, 22 sharpness, 35 saturation, 20 contrast). Finally I fiddled with the settings on the image over all by increasing the contrast and saturation a bit more but really bumped up the saturation of the blue (with a small hue shift) to emphasize the clean blue color of the glacier. While still not a great photo, it is certainly better than the original I think :).</div><div><br /><br /><table><tbody><tr><td><br /><a rel="lightbox[glacier]" title="Fox Glacier, original" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogq7hJo3NvgNldF-bwR5qkpTZXJEMCrkz54gYbgAbmWEy1WA4wpC8oAtt9JuPpOLb6vPzLZfB7ecN3QgbQZBaOeGMMwGRB7I4q-O1hyphenhypheniHLISNoAyPDgJam39MuIH4YNgck03OYk6P_Po/s800/IMG_5162.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogq7hJo3NvgNldF-bwR5qkpTZXJEMCrkz54gYbgAbmWEy1WA4wpC8oAtt9JuPpOLb6vPzLZfB7ecN3QgbQZBaOeGMMwGRB7I4q-O1hyphenhypheniHLISNoAyPDgJam39MuIH4YNgck03OYk6P_Po/s288/IMG_5162.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280711003380179858" /></a><br /></td><td><br /><a rel="lightbox[glacier]" title="Fox Glacier, edited in Lightroom 2" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYczDLe3EI/AAAAAAAA6eE/WIpC5yV1A00/s800/IMG_5162.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYczDLe3EI/AAAAAAAA6eE/WIpC5yV1A00/s288/IMG_5162.jpg" /></a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><br />Here is a photo from Lake Hawea, to me this really feels like "New Zealand"... the expansive blue lakes set against snow-capped mountains with a thin string of clouds. In fact, the native Maori's name for New Zealand is '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aotearoa">Aotearoa</a>' which translates to 'the land of the long white cloud'. While this photo is an HDR composite of 3 images, the actual vista wasn't too different. In fact the main difference between the HDR and the non-HDR version of the image is that you see a bit more detail in the sky (and has more gray) and the lake water is a bight brighter more like turquoise rather than a darker emerald color.<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[day3]" title="Lake Hawea" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdP8uIYEI/AAAAAAAA6h4/ZYUR-ShsugA/s800/IMG_3401_399_400.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdP8uIYEI/AAAAAAAA6h4/ZYUR-ShsugA/s400/IMG_3401_399_400.jpg" /></a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>After our brief stop at Lake Hawea, we stopped by the town of Cromwell to buy some fresh fruits... of course my mom and I completely ignored the fruit stand and instead started taking pictures... The places just had the largest field of Sakura (Cherry blossom) trees I've ever seen and almost made me feel like I was in Japan... BTW, in case you don't know, I'm totally obsessed about sakuras but have always struggled to take good photos of them...<br /><a rel="lightbox[day3]" title="Sakura trees near Cromwell" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdbfEzFvI/AAAAAAAA6jU/mR6IGSTuajQ/s800/IMG_3438.jpg"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdbfEzFvI/AAAAAAAA6jU/mR6IGSTuajQ/s400/IMG_3438.jpg" /></a><br /><br />I think the reason why I really like this photo is because it feels like a post card, you know one of those photos looking down a long path under the blossoming sakura trees. Just like one of those images you would find in the random "inspirational" PowerPoint you'd get in the mail.<br /><a rel="lightbox[day3]" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdeZqeDRI/AAAAAAAA6jw/6bkXQ6n7kuc/s800/IMG_5481.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdeZqeDRI/AAAAAAAA6jw/6bkXQ6n7kuc/s400/IMG_5481.jpg" /></a><br /><br />While I didn't really need to use HDR (there is a similar non-HDR shot in the album) on this shot, I thought having the darker angrier looking cloud made the image feel a bit more dramatic. In the end, I think I just really liked the sun shining through creating the long shadows on the ground.<br /><a rel="lightbox[day3]" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdajGNcrI/AAAAAAAA6jM/4krYwEwaa7c/s800/IMG_3432_3_4-2.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdajGNcrI/AAAAAAAA6jM/4krYwEwaa7c/s400/IMG_3432_3_4-2.jpg" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><br />We arrived at Queenstown just before sunset and took the gondola up the nearby mountain for a great buffet dinner overlooking Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. I managed to be one of the first ones up the gondola to get myself a bit more time shooting the sunset. While the sunset itself wasn't that great, the view from the top overlooking Lake Wakatipu was just amazing, offering a nice reflection of the nearby mountains basked in the warm light.<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox[day3]" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdrxvqAWI/AAAAAAAA6lg/kJEnVoRZPOE/s800/IMG_3459.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYdrxvqAWI/AAAAAAAA6lg/kJEnVoRZPOE/s400/IMG_3459.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This is one of my favorite shots from the day... I just love sweeping vista... I mean you can see all of Queenstown, the mountains nearby, Lake Wakatipu and just see it extend all the way out to the horizon.<br /><a rel="lightbox[day3]" title="Lake Wakatipu" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYduj9nhhI/AAAAAAAA6l8/NyjDdehwlPQ/s800/IMG_3469_7_8.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYduj9nhhI/AAAAAAAA6l8/NyjDdehwlPQ/s400/IMG_3469_7_8.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This is by far my favorite photo from the day... but there is a reason for this. In my home in Taiwan, my step mom has a laminated aerial photo of Hokkaido (at least that's what I think it is...) during twilight... I mean this image had it all, huge city with bustling city lights, large bodies of water... and this deep blue sky. For some reason that image just connected with me and I really liked the royal blue color of the image (white balance trick I believe) and the city lights against the darker water surrounding the city which really made it stand out. So when I saw this scene earlier in the day, I knew I just had to come back during twilight just after the sun has set but leaving enough ambient light for me to get some detail out of the mountains in the distance. Well, the sun set just half way through dinner so I had to just stuff myself with as much food as I could (only had time for 1 plate at the buffet and gave up on seconds or the wonderful desserts they had... I mean they had some amazing desserts) and just grabbed my tripod and ran outside. I think for this image, it was well worth giving up dinner and dessert... I ended up eating cup noodles back in the hotel room. OH well, such is the life of a photographer :).<br /><a rel="lightbox[day3]" title="Royal Twilight" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYd4fyLIjI/AAAAAAAA6nE/6WyONqPNOec/s800/IMG_5620.jpg"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYd4fyLIjI/AAAAAAAA6nE/6WyONqPNOec/s400/IMG_5620.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Before getting to New Zealand, I knew I wanted to try taking more star trail shots and also try to capture the Milky Way. Day two actually was the perfect opportunity given the low light pollution of the area, but rain killed any chances of seeing stars. While Queenstown sill is a pretty large town with decent amount of light pollution, I was able to find a quiet corner along the coast of Lake Wakatipu during the walk back from dinner. I quickly set up my tripod and took a few test shots. This particular shot was taken at f/5.6 over an 8 minute exposure. I was actually really surprised you can capture that much of the star trails that clearly...<br /><a rel="lightbox[day3]" title="Star trails" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYd7W6Q0oI/AAAAAAAA6ns/ezIUFtuMRfQ/s800/IMG_3488.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SUYd7W6Q0oI/AAAAAAAA6ns/ezIUFtuMRfQ/s400/IMG_3488.jpg" /></a><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-26518384291371310182008-12-05T02:08:00.000-08:002008-12-05T02:47:34.330-08:00Improved Sharing, new album mode for picasawebSo on Wednesday Picasaweb launched another set of new features to the public (full post: <a href="http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2008/12/improved-sharing-international-name.html">http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2008/12/improved-sharing-international-name.html)</a>. The most noticeable was probably the new gallery layout and icons. Personally I think this new layout is much more slick instead of the old dated 90's look to the gallery page. Another major enhancement is the integration with <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate_t#">Google Translate</a> for all the comments. Ever since we launched the <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/explore#">Explore </a>page, I've noticed that picasaweb actually has a fairly large (and very international) active user base! All the people started leaving comments in their native languages and I've personally made a few friends in Europe and other parts of the world. I started to get very curious as to what some of these comments were saying. For example: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/antonione67/Paesaggi#5268845901768672626">http://picasaweb.google.com/antonione67/Paesaggi#5268845901768672626</a> has a comment: "bellissima foto...simile alla toscana , ma profondamente diversa. Ottimo inquadratura. Brava" And now thanks to Google Translate... I now know that means "beautiful picture ... similar to Tuscany, but profoundly different. Excellent shot. Brava". While the translation is rarely perfect, it does help to get the point across, not to mention some of the failed attempts are pretty darn funny :) (case in point: "可惜好像故意照他掉頭髮的樣子" => "It is a pity as he seemed to intentionally look like the hair" when I really was trying to say that it was pity that it seemed as if I was intentionally taking picture the fact that he was balding - from <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay2WestCoast#5272120541813486914">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay2WestCoast#5272120541813486914</a>). Either way, I love this feature and I hope it'll spur more comment activity and help people overcome the language barrier.<br /><br />We've also just launched the new album privacy mode called "sign in required" which will really locked down the album to the people you've shared with via the "Share" button on the page. Personally I find unlisted just fine, but I guess it's perfect for those wild bachelor party pics.... er I mean photos of your sweet kids to share with the grandparents... If you share the album with a friend who does not have a Google account to login with, we'll generate a special invite for him to create an account with (or he can log into any existing account to tie the invite to him). Keep in mind that you can also add non-gmail address to your Google account on the my account page so you can add your yahoo, hotmail or whatever address all to your Google account so when people share with you, it will all just work regardless of the email they use. One extra benefit of using the share button is for us to be able to track who you've shared with but also to create customized gallery views. This means that when you go to <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315</a> you will simply see ALL the albums you can view including unlisted and sign in required albums if the owner has invited you. This way if you don't have to worry if you deleted or lost the original share email... we'll remember all this for you to make it easier. Just make sure you share things with people using the "share" button or else we won't know about it... Hope you all enjoy these new features and start sharing all those photos during the holidays!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-27408682143037284852008-12-01T02:11:00.000-08:002008-12-01T03:09:02.997-08:00Happy ThanksgivingSo here is a late "Happy Thanksgiving" post... I've been fairly busy the past couple days stuffing myself full of great food (there goes that diet I was working on...) and working through all the HDRs I took in NZ (after 80 some HDRs, I can't even tell what looks real or fake anymore). But given the economic uncertainties (by uncertainty I mean the hell hole that we are in...) and suffering in the world (think Iraq, Mumbai, China... the list goes on), I had to stop for a moment and really count my blessings. I am really thankful of so many things in my life... For one, I have my health (I mean, I've sleep-driven myself to Santa Monica on numerous occasion and survived - please don't tell my van poolers that... But really, thank you God for watching over me. This point hit even closer to home with Joe McNally's recent <a href="http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/2008/11/30/things-to-be-thankful-for/">post</a>.), the world's best mom that constantly watches out for me (even though I'd probably prefer she didn't), great group of friends that I can count on for support (no matter how stupid I am), a beautiful house to come back to every night, and a great job that I enjoy (yes, even on the days that I want to pull my hair out), what more can I ask for? Heck, even the Lakers are at 14 and 1... <div><br /></div><div>A few weeks ago at my brother's fellowship, he asked everyone to take a moment and think of things they would complain to God about (it's ok to complain, but one should try to think positive). I thought long and hard but really could not come up with anything, sure I could complain about how busy work is, how exhausted I am coming back from Santa Monica every night, or how I'd love to meet the "right one" sometime soon (these seems to be the most common complaints people had)... but honestly, I have no right (and no reason) to complain. All these things are so minor in the grand scheme of things. I really don't know what I did to deserve the life I have. Whether you believe in Buddhist view of reincarnation (and karma) or not, I can't help but feel as if I'm wasting away the good karma that I must have built up in previous life times... that I'm not doing enough to give back to the people around me, to the world. I could be doing so much more, like my cousin and actually going out to third world countries and helping out, making a difference.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyways, I digress, I just want to take a moment and thank all the people that have touched my life, supported me through tough times, put up with me when I'm being unreasonable, and watched over me. And especially thank God for giving me everything that I have in life, even though I deserve none of it. Thank you all. Hope you have a great and most importantly, safe, holiday season. Happy Holidays.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a rel="lightbox" title="Festival of Lights, Riverside, CA" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/STO3vVg25MI/AAAAAAAA54s/XT5HPDpUfB4/s1024/IMG_8135.JPG"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/STO3vVg25MI/AAAAAAAA54s/XT5HPDpUfB4/s400/IMG_8135.JPG" /></a><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-2934379573261513742008-11-24T23:38:00.001-08:002009-01-03T12:47:54.331-08:00New Zealand, Day 2Day two proved to be an even more interesting (and at the same time, disappointing) day than day one. Day one was spent all in Auckland (well, and the plane... and Hong Kong airport...) but to be honest, there was nothing special about Auckland... think of it like say... Irvine or San Francisco, except with lots of grass... So arguably day two was the real start of our New Zealand trip.<br /><br />We got up real early... at some ungodly hour (even tho we checked into the hotel at like 1 AM the night before) just to catch the 8 AM Tranz Scenic (TranzAlpine line) train to go from the east coast (Christchurch) to the west coast of the south island. The train takes you through the beautiful country sides all the way to the gorgeous alpines of the south island. In fact, it takes you right through one of the places where they filmed Chronicles of Narnia, though I don't think I got a photo of it.... oh well. I spent most of the time on the observation car (just a shell of a car with a few railings, and a ceiling... and... really strong winds. Wind strong enough to knock you silly). By the time I got off the train, I probably looked like I've been working in the engine room shuffling coal all day and being the photo geek that I am... the first thing that I thought was NOT "oh my face.... gotta go wash all this off :(" but instead "oh my poor lens.... how am I gonna clean it!". Yeah, it's like that. Anyways, some photos from the <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay2WestCoast#">day two album</a> below...<br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SSpVKAMKRzI/AAAAAAAA5Cg/iApzurLPNWA/s1024/IMG_4893.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SSpVKAMKRzI/AAAAAAAA5Cg/iApzurLPNWA/s400/IMG_4893.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay2WestCoast">NZ Trip Day 2 - West Coast</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />This photo is NOT one of the photos I got from the observation car, unfortunately none of those photos really turned out all that well. This was instead taken from inside the nice, comfortable, air conditioned passenger cars.. with champagne and pâté. I really like two things in this shot, the power pole (yes I'm crazy) and the blurred sheep. I guess I like the motion blur caused by the train. And the power pole just serves as a nice anchoring point. The beautiful green grass set against the even more beautiful blue sky doesn't hurt of course. Oh, here is a bit of trivia, you see the sheet metal wrapped around the power pole? That is to prevent small animals from climbing up the pole and damaging it (specifically, possums I believe).<br /><br />And the next two photos are taken at Shantytown, a old gold rush mining town that's now just a tourist destination (this is where we had lunch)...<br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SSpVdgOoMJI/AAAAAAAA5GU/nibur0T1-CI/s1024/IMG_5023.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SSpVdgOoMJI/AAAAAAAA5GU/nibur0T1-CI/s400/IMG_5023.jpg" /></a><br /><br />When I saw the old antique steam train getting ready to move, I knew I had my shot. I mean, seriously, how often do you get to see steam trains this close any more (ok, it's not that uncommon, but set against this nice green grass and that perfect blue sky with clouds? It's once in a life time!). Most things are NOT meant to be photographed at eye level so I got down on my knees next to the train track and pointed my camera up. It made the small train look more impressive and helped bring in lots of that nice sky. The post processing was pretty simple. Bumped up the saturation a bit, and shifted hue towards more green (yellow -> green, and a bit more on the green hue itself). Increased contrast and lowered the luminosity on the blue to darken the sky a bit. But overall, pretty simple stuff.<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SSpVejc3-9I/AAAAAAAA5Gc/3O4p1UTsQws/s1024/IMG_5024.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SSpVejc3-9I/AAAAAAAA5Gc/3O4p1UTsQws/s400/IMG_5024.jpg" /></a><br /><br />When you have an antique train, in an old mining town... it is natural to take photos that have the old faded nostalgic look right :). Post processed in LR2, bumped the saturation down (I mean way down), warmed up the temperature (+59 and +27 tint). Adjusted the brightness, exposure, contrast and the like until I got enough contrast, really bright steam coming out of the train with really dark shadows everywhere else. Added a bit of vignetting for kicks. This probably is my favorite image from the day and pretty high up there on my list of favorites from the trip.<br /><br />I'll start working on the photos from Day 3 soon. This is just the beginning... I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-28442350738155413242008-11-15T23:10:00.000-08:002009-01-03T12:47:48.504-08:00New Zealand... Day 1So I've finally gotten around to processing my NZ photos... starting with the crappiest set of NZ photos - day in Auckland. As nice of a city as Auckland is, it's just not very photogenic, at least I didn't find it very interesting. We got to Auckland in the morning after a long flight from HK/TPE. Our flight to Hong Kong was delayed by about 1 hour + another 1.5 hours of circling in the air due to typhoon passing through which meant that we completely missed our connecting flight to Auckland. We basically spent the better part of the day at Hong Kong airport. Not a great start to our trip, but at least we got to see everything we were suppose to and it all worked out in the end. Anyways, some photos from Auckland (album: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay1Auckland#">http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay1Auckland#</a>):<br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SR-51aFqM-I/AAAAAAAA4dY/TgkECNI5id8/s1024/IMG_4719.jp"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SR-51aFqM-I/AAAAAAAA4dY/TgkECNI5id8/s400/IMG_4719.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay1Auckland">NZ Trip Day 1 - Auckland</a></td></tr></table><br />This was taken at the Mt. Eden volcano crater. Mt. Eden is the highest point in Auckland (natural one at least) which offers great view of the city. The crater was huge so I decided to swap over to using my 10-22 super wide lens. While I'm not thrilled about the tourist walking, I like having the path there to kind of make it more interesting (I do have a version without the path and tourists).<br /><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SR-6RIJsGgI/AAAAAAAA4gU/NbGenKnEGQs/s1024/IMG_4782.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SR-6RIJsGgI/AAAAAAAA4gU/NbGenKnEGQs/s400/IMG_4782.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/NZTripDay1Auckland">NZ Trip Day 1 - Auckland</a></td></tr></table><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SR-6ELfHM4I/AAAAAAAA4fU/PAbz8mo1g28/s1024/IMG_4763.jpg"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SR-6ELfHM4I/AAAAAAAA4fU/PAbz8mo1g28/s400/IMG_4763.jpg" /></a><br /><br />After Mt. Eden, we stopped by Auckland war memorial museum and the botanical garden next to it. These 2 photos were really bland originally, no colors in the sky (cloudy) and just lacked anything interesting (no colors to really jump out at you, etc). I decided to desaturated it a bit, made the over all photo warmer/reddish to give it the old sepia feel (but not actually sepia). I rather like the result, much more than the original anyways (another example of how lightroom saved my photo). Hope you like it too.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-7526800924955352822008-11-13T20:06:00.000-08:002008-11-13T22:12:38.433-08:00Mt. Rainier, a place of endless wonders (and dramatically different weather patterns)Sorry for the incredibly late post (or not if you don't know when I went to Mt. Rainier). But I've finally finished process all my Seattle trip photos, this includes the final batch of photos taken at Mt. Rainier (which is the first time I shot more RAW than JPEG). This is also marks the second time I've used Lightroom to process photos almost exclusively. While my poor laptop definitely cannot keep up with Lightroom, I am finally able to get through 200 photos in a reasonable amount of time (roughly half a week) which is much faster than the amount of time I spent on the portraits. This is partly because landscapes are easier to batch process, and also there are less things I can do, it's pretty standard... I mean I do want my landscape photos to still look like photos... so I kept most processing light. The biggest advantage Lightroom has over Picasa is the ability to adjust each color channels independently. For example, if I find a forest photo too "yellow", I can easily shift the yellow hue towards the green. Or if I find the sky too bright, I can easily darken just the blues in the photo. This fine-grained control allows me to have far more control over what "pops" and get rid of the distractions in a photo... I'm finally able to bring out key elements that I want in a way that Picasa could never let me do.<div><br /></div><div>Anyways, back to the trip. Our second day at Mt. Rainier was dramatically different from the first day, the difference was night and day... Our first day there was mostly raining, overcast, and even snowing. But the second day the sun really came out for a beautiful sunrise and kept clear for at least the most important parts of the day (when my camera was out).</div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/MtRainierNationalParkDay1#">Day One</a>:</b><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SOh9Ao1nxGI/AAAAAAAA2vw/oKWMYFKa-bo/s1024/IMG_3105-3.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SOh9Ao1nxGI/AAAAAAAA2vw/oKWMYFKa-bo/s400/IMG_3105-3.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/MtRainierNationalParkDay1">Mt. Rainier National Park Day 1</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />This is now the Not-quite-1000-dollar photo :). It was for this photo that I swapped out my 24-105 lens (for a wider 10-22 so I can get more of the stream) and then immediately after this photo... proceeded to drop said lens. The original photo is gray, colorless and dull. At the time I didn't have Lightroom so I asked for Joe's help in post processing it. He added some graduated tint, brought up the green saturation and some hue shifts to make the greens come to life. While it's not $1000 (cost of the 24-105 lens) in my mind it is certainly worth $158 (the cost of repair) :).<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SOh8tSBEETI/AAAAAAAA2vE/yyCpsHjD8Pk/s1024/IMG_3066.JPG"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SOh8tSBEETI/AAAAAAAA2vE/yyCpsHjD8Pk/s400/IMG_3066.JPG" /></a><br />I like the moodiness of the photo, and the natural frame created by the trees on either side. You see the valley in the middle? Yep, that's where I dropped my lens :).<br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SOh-KZapnwI/AAAAAAAA2xg/8TA2uBilCwg/s1024/IMG_3226.JPG"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SOh-KZapnwI/AAAAAAAA2xg/8TA2uBilCwg/s400/IMG_3226.JPG" /></a><br />One of the few highlights of the first day... gorgeous field of wild flowers. I'm a sucker for these kinds of prairie shots, just too bad the sun didn't come out otherwise it'd look amazing :).<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/MtRainierNationalParkDay2#">Day Two</a> (sorry for the number of photos...):</span><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqoVtgjioI/AAAAAAAA4VE/KX0w9iLuGKM/s1024/IMG_3345.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqoVtgjioI/AAAAAAAA4VE/KX0w9iLuGKM/s400/IMG_3345.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/MtRainierNationalParkDay2">Mt. Rainier National Park day 2</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />First Light. We got up around 5 AM and raced towards Sunrise Camp to catch first light on Mt. Rainier. The clouds started rolling in just as we reached it but I was lucky to get off a few snaps. Unfortunately I didn't really have time to explore and find a better position so I have to live with the trees in the foreground. This shot actually reminds of me post cards from Mt. Rainier, the beautiful pink/purple morning light hitting the fresh snow on Mt. Rainier, set against a deep dark blue sky...<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqoYirVSBI/AAAAAAAA4GU/LHtpp_kMZ-g/s1024/IMG_3372.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqoYirVSBI/AAAAAAAA4GU/LHtpp_kMZ-g/s400/IMG_3372.jpg" /></a><br />This is now one of my favorite pictures from the day (one of many :p). It reminds me so much of traditional Chinese brush paintings (國畫). I love how the ridges just peak above the clouds, especially that line of mist in the foreground.<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqohK6py_I/AAAAAAAA4H8/o1lpVXopB08/s1024/IMG_3489.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqohK6py_I/AAAAAAAA4H8/o1lpVXopB08/s400/IMG_3489.jpg" /></a><br />This was taken along an easy hike next to Sunrise Camp. It's only about 10-15 mins away from the parking lot where I took the first light photo. If only I had know, I would have ran up here as fast as I could... Oh well (it was icy, I probably would have slipped and broke my camera or something).<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqoj5tvtUI/AAAAAAAA4Ig/X8HkaQUxeuE/s1024/IMG_3526.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqoj5tvtUI/AAAAAAAA4Ig/X8HkaQUxeuE/s400/IMG_3526.jpg" /></a><br />One of the stories from Joe McNally's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321544080/ref=nosim/coffeeresearch68892-20">The Moment It Clicks</a> is "Don't pack up your camera until you've left the location". This is certainly true for this shot... I was already heading back to the car (after about 30 mins photographing Mt. Rainier in the cold -- I lost feeling in my hands about 15 mins ago at this point and was basically freezing to death). About half way down, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds lighting the entire scene, the grassy field and Mt. Rainier evenly. Luckily I still had my camera out and got 4 or 5 snaps in before the sun ducked back behind thick clouds and the shot was gone. This is now my favorite shot from the entire trip. Don't pack up until you are in the car, you'll have plenty of time anyways (and much much <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">warmer</span>).<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqonCj-bqI/AAAAAAAA4JI/kyJccUpORrw/s1024/IMG_3551.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqonCj-bqI/AAAAAAAA4JI/kyJccUpORrw/s400/IMG_3551.jpg" /></a><br />Growing up in Southern California certainly has it's benefits. Getting beautiful morning dew plant shots is not one of them. This was shot in a very overcast day, I popped the flash to give it more light and "pop". In post I shifted the originally yellow hue over to the green and brought out the reds to make this photo feel more peaceful and tranquil.<br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqoyZaKGoI/AAAAAAAA4Ks/ffVjVFlfHFY/s1024/IMG_3638.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqoyZaKGoI/AAAAAAAA4Ks/ffVjVFlfHFY/s400/IMG_3638.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqo7enZWeI/AAAAAAAA4Ls/xDIPMhAzKFY/s1024/IMG_3712.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqo7enZWeI/AAAAAAAA4Ls/xDIPMhAzKFY/s400/IMG_3712.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqo-JckXiI/AAAAAAAA4L8/j9faa7rwESk/s1024/IMG_3713.jpg"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqo-JckXiI/AAAAAAAA4L8/j9faa7rwESk/s400/IMG_3713.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a rel="lightbox" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqpGOSfgEI/AAAAAAAA4M4/98MAUEaQhXk/s1024/IMG_3741.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SRqpGOSfgEI/AAAAAAAA4M4/98MAUEaQhXk/s400/IMG_3741.jpg" /></a><br />The above series of photos was taken at Snow Lake. Ironically we were originally going to skip Snow Lake due to limited time (and bad weather, it has been overcast the whole day since sunrise). About half way to Snow Lake is Bench Lake so the plan was to simply stop at Bench Lake and head back. Because JC and I were too busy taking photos along the way, his family and my mom walked ahead and for some reason went on to Snow Lake without waiting for us at Bench Lake (disappointing sight really). A bit confused, JC and I decided to keep going hoping to catch up to them. Another 20 mins or so later we bumped into my mom who has been to Snow lake and decided to walk back saying "Snow lake is so so, not very pretty" but JC's family is still there so we decided to continue on. As fate would have it, as soon as JC and I reached Snow Lake, the skies cleared up (really. like within 2 minutes) and it really felt like discovering paradise that is hidden in some remote location... That sense of wonder, amazement, joy... Since snow lake is hidden away in a valley, there was very little winds creating stunning reflections on its beautiful emerald surface. As if possessed, JC and I immediately picked up our camera and didn't dare take our eyes off the view finder. Click click click, shot after shot, we just couldn't take our fingers off the shutter, afraid the magic would disappear if we stopped (ok ok, we did hike around to see the different angles). I double stacked 2 filters, 1 graduated ND (to darken the sky a bit) and 1 CPL (to add more saturation to the sky and lake or to increase the strength of the reflections). Within 30 mins, the clouds rolled back in, the sun disappeared along with the emerald color... the moment has passed. Thinking back, if we had walked any faster, we would be like my mom, missing this magical moment... the beauty, the peacefulness, the tranquility at Snow Lake was the most memorable thing for me. As we were leaving, I knew I got the shot, I got what I wanted out of this entire trip, but most importantly, I was <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">happy</span></span>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-24838800485483746802008-11-09T23:48:00.000-08:002008-11-10T00:28:03.242-08:00Portraits and LightroomSo recently a friend of mine finally convinced me to try out <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Lightroom</span> 2.0 to post process my photos. I usually don't like to heavily process my photos just to keep things fast and simple (and real), so I used Picasa 100%. But after doing the wedding photography album and watching my friend's wedding album, I decided to give <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Lightroom</span> a try. It's not so much about making your photos look fake/unrealistic as it is more about enhancing the elements that are already present in the photos and using post to draw attention to those elements. Recently I had a quick portrait session with a friend from my brother's church, so I figured I'd experiment a bit with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Lightroom</span> on those photos. Some photos I went wild with the post, some I was more conservative. Overall I just wanted to explore what I can do with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Lightroom</span>, what I like, what looks good, etc. Hope people don't mind :).<div><br /></div><div>The portrait session itself was interesting as well... I haven't done portraits in a very long time, not since my previous victim (I mean model) got married and I did their engagement photo session. So I tried to get comfortable with portraits again, trying out different poses, different angles, etc it certainly helped that the model's sister was also there as an assistant holding the reflector and just helping out (she wanted to learn photography so I've been teaching her what little I know). The session started a bit late in the afternoon which meant I got a few good hours of nice light, then came golden hour which has always been a challenge for me doing portraits (i.e. making sure the skin tone looks flattering instead of really orange). I first started off with the easy shots, tight close ups using the long telephoto lens. Usually this is the easiest thing to start with as you don't have to worry about posing and background nearly as much since you just focus on the face. You just have to make sure your timing is good and she has a good smile on... then just click away! As I got a bit more comfortable, I swapped out to a 10-22 super wide for some environmental portraits which is much much more difficult as I not only have to worry about her pose, exposing for the environment, and controlling the distortion caused by the 10-22. In the end, I got a few shots that I liked, but overall I didn't think it was a great session for me, poor posing and poor interaction with the model, not enough to get her engaged and relaxed. Anyways, a big thanks to both the model and her sister. Here are some shots from the session.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Odz4HMYDKnQEJvNL6nv7Wg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnHYWtVSI/AAAAAAAA3pM/Pdi6u6SXij0/s400/IMG_7771-2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pingc315/PhotoShootAtWoodbridge">Photo Shoot at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Woodbridge</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/I-t8OiU8qRc4Bvqn4Zwq0g"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnI233NKI/AAAAAAAA3pc/xMys_w6QNrM/s400/IMG_7776-2.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/TUAgIOsQ6FC3cW0u3VJZsA"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnNqP5BdI/AAAAAAAA3qM/F8DhfsvuWW8/s400/IMG_7797.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/uWtZ5ytYCsXULaJBxkGYUw"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnQ0XBr7I/AAAAAAAA3q0/sxkA4CcOHX4/s400/IMG_7813.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/BRMRj1wjs_0ZxutoWN88cA"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnR1oPOiI/AAAAAAAA3q8/uMgSy24VdVo/s400/IMG_7815.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/v7ouMrYWlxGwcpFK0eWweA"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnTSukpMI/AAAAAAAA3rM/6Xq456AgPZ0/s400/IMG_7834.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/pEJv-9hnUXw7Aq8YDLQXoQ"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnUq4ZQkI/AAAAAAAA3rc/gFDSfjZDwVE/s400/IMG_7840.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/h6SxvhvZiJ0leAbI6sBgug"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnf1YtFII/AAAAAAAA3ss/rKAPGmc_-tE/s400/IMG_7862.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/HjvTWcYtNIKUq7mOo_ZdXA"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnl-LXwoI/AAAAAAAA3tc/oT9vDI_TP6w/s400/IMG_7878.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Kt80f7GVO3TCPg2lmAJW-A"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnmr-SENI/AAAAAAAA3tk/MzggcNBmRaQ/s400/IMG_7882.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/cgRF4G0M56w0KEavq4FRDw"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREno9IRKzI/AAAAAAAA3uE/V6tRMzArhes/s400/IMG_7897.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/nvJAgKy76qE_stYt5OizHA"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WW8gsdKXVXI/SREnqrXm_OI/AAAAAAAA3uU/iU_iBwfo1tM/s400/IMG_7908.jpg" /></a><br /><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5411149557233342833.post-40649874714109523852008-11-06T01:45:00.000-08:002008-11-06T03:03:44.355-08:00Change is here.I'm sure many people were glued to the television last night, watching closely as the election results came in. Some were ecstatic, others were probably furious and disappointed. Regardless of which side you are on, no one can deny the fact that history has been made.<br /><br />During the whole time of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Obama's</span> speech, I couldn't help but wonder the types of photos people were getting, both everyday people taking snapshots their participation, and the professional journalists hired to document history. Have you noticed how the two candidates have been photographed? Or paid attention to the lighting, angle used, etc in the photos published in the news paper? Maybe I'm biased (or just don't understand how to interpret photos)... I often find McCain's photos taken from a low perspective, giving an impression of power and authority; makes him look fearsome. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Obama's</span> photos on the other hand seems to be more eye-level, more intimate/personal and emotional. Anyways, the whole time, I wondered what The Big Picture would show for this historic event... and here are their photos: <a href="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/the_next_president_of_the_unit.html">http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/the_next_president_of_the_unit.html</a>. It is interesting to look at each photo, and try to figure out what the photographer is trying to convey, is it a message of hope? Is it a personal side of Obama, making him feel more like one of us? I wonder what images would have shown up of McCain won. Would it be in the same style? Same types of message?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03179200269923293190noreply@blogger.com0