Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Fun in the garage
I had the bug to shoot so while I was taking the trash out today, I thought about my garage and all the things in it that helped describe me. Needless to say it is cluttered with lots of tools and sports equipment. Here are two shots from my findings. As you can see, I like to fill my garage as I do in Tetris.
Nervous but excited
It's been hard not geting too ahead of ourselves when planning the direction we want to take this photography venture. Several times we've been caught thinking months to years down the line, only to step back and realize we don't even have some of the simple things down yet. But in the meantime, we're definitely getting the right people on-board and also been receiving a lot of support from our friends who have been gracious enough to volunteer their time to model for us!
Derek and I are planning to pick up our T2is hopefully within the next week or two so we could start playing around with DSLR videos! Brent ordered the Hague MMC steadycam system, but it's being shipped from the UK so we'll have to see how long that takes to get here. Website discussions have been held and it seems like we have a direction and identity now. We have our first shoot next weekend, and our first REAL wedding shoot coming up in June!!!
It's amazing since everything has been happening a lot faster than we initially imagined, but we're definitely excited to have these opportunities. Stay tuned for several more updates and changes to come~!
Derek and I are planning to pick up our T2is hopefully within the next week or two so we could start playing around with DSLR videos! Brent ordered the Hague MMC steadycam system, but it's being shipped from the UK so we'll have to see how long that takes to get here. Website discussions have been held and it seems like we have a direction and identity now. We have our first shoot next weekend, and our first REAL wedding shoot coming up in June!!!
It's amazing since everything has been happening a lot faster than we initially imagined, but we're definitely excited to have these opportunities. Stay tuned for several more updates and changes to come~!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
People picture time....
When I first started out with photography, I shot a lot of inanimate objects. I was attracted towards these because partially because it was easy and there wasn't a lot of pressure behind it to get the shot right the first time. As I gradually progressed though, I started to take an interest in people photography. Initially this was very intimating, as most people are shy when they have a camera pointed directly at them. I wanted to capture people in their most natural states, taking away the pressures of forcing a smile in front of the lens. One of the things I've quickly learned over time is to always have the camera ready and don't be afraid to just shoot shoot shoot. When I come back from outings, it's a little disappointing to find half the shots come out bad, but there's always that one gem in the bunch which I could be proud of. The following are a sample of some of the shots I've done throughout the past few years:
Monday, April 12, 2010
Layout updates!
Coming from a computer science background, you would think editing html/css would be easy stuff, but NOPE! This stuff is as foreign to me as the internet is to my grandma. Needless to say, the time it takes me to tweak one component of a page, the entire layout could've been written from scratch......by a monkey.
After hours (days?) of tweaking, I finally got the blog customized to a point where I'm somewhat happy with it.
I really wanted to get away from the cookie-cutter blog templates that most people used and instill some character to reflect our future vision.
Our new banner was taken by Brent over looking the bay trail loop at Alviso. I feel like it was the missing piece on the blog, replacing the standard header with something more personalized and at the same time, showcasing some of our work. I've also enlarged the blog size so pictures/videos show up bigger; being a photography/vidoegraphy blog it allows our readers to actually see our pictures, instead of a wall of text.
Hope you guys like the updates, and let me know if you have any suggestions!!!
After hours (days?) of tweaking, I finally got the blog customized to a point where I'm somewhat happy with it.
I really wanted to get away from the cookie-cutter blog templates that most people used and instill some character to reflect our future vision.
Our new banner was taken by Brent over looking the bay trail loop at Alviso. I feel like it was the missing piece on the blog, replacing the standard header with something more personalized and at the same time, showcasing some of our work. I've also enlarged the blog size so pictures/videos show up bigger; being a photography/vidoegraphy blog it allows our readers to actually see our pictures, instead of a wall of text.
Hope you guys like the updates, and let me know if you have any suggestions!!!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Cliff House 1.1.2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Me new lil' toy to take em pics...
For the last six years I've been relying on my faithful Canon G6 Prosumer (not point and shoot, I ain't no rookie!) camera for my photography endeavors. It has served me well but with the advancement in technology, I simply couldn't resist what the newer high-end compact camera had to offer to help the lame-men take better pics.
It wasn't easy finding a replacement for the G6 but on the other hand spending money and being able to logically justify it was one of my talents. Therefore the search was simple, go and find the camera with the most extensive list of features humanly possible and everything would just fall in place. GPS, Compas, HD, AVCHD, IS, 10FPS shooting, Anti Blur, Voyeur Mode (maybe it was called Nightime actually...), CMOS Exmor, 10x Optical Zoom, blah blah blah blah.... HOLY SMACKEROO GO GRAB YOURSELF AN EXTRA SPICY ENCHILADA that's a lot of features. Only a fool would overlook such a marvelous piece of equipment...Sony DSC HX5V!
First impression of the camera was great! Sony never disappoints in the department of looks and design. The button ergonomics and OSD are very easy to follow and well laid out. Capture quality wise I'm still getting used to the camera but overall satisfied with it, though I must say that I am disappointed with its low light performance especially since this area was hyped quite a bit by them.
Anyways, here's a little preview of the photo quality. These are some pics taken at my desk of some figurine from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Yes, thank you very much, I know I'm an Otaku (Anime Geek).
San Jose to Fresno to Santa Ana to Burbank to San Jose
After leaving Fresno to travel the second leg to Santa Ana, Gabe (driver) and I made a precautionary pull over one exit from Fresno after we heard a large thump coming from the undercarriage of the car. We pulled over to check out any damage or missing parts but did not see anything major. The journey continued and we made it successfully to Santa Ana, and then back to Burbank.
Quick photo shoot- the man behind the camera!
We found a pretty nice spot to take a few shots and Tim got in on the modeling action!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Brent and Diana Wedding Music Video Bloopers
This video was done with a Sanyo Xacti, Canon T1i, and post production with Final Cut Express on a Macbook.
Past trip pictures
Continuing on with looking through my past collections, I've found some pictures that I've taken on my past trips to China which I wanted to touch up and showcase.
This one was on a trip to Guangzhou a few years back, although I don't remember the name of the mountain for the life of me. I just remember the hike up to the top was quite treacherous, and probably should've had more warnings. But that's typical of China...
The series of shots below were from my brief trip to Suzhou. It's a quick 2 hour drive out of Shanghai, but offers a quick get away from the busy citylife, which could be overwhelming sometimes, especially when you're not used to all the people. Suzhou is known mainly for it's beautiful gardens which is the main focus of my shots.
For most who know me, I LOVE traveling to foreign countries. But I often find carrying around a SLR to be overly bulky, especially on trips where we end up doing a lot of exploring. I'm often at a dilemma where I want to take the SLR, but end up getting tired of holding it by the end of the day so half-way into the trip, I give up on it all together.
How do you guys cope with packing for these trips? Do you just tough it out and strap it around your neck the entire day? Or will it inevitably end up being left at home for the portable point and shoot?
This one was on a trip to Guangzhou a few years back, although I don't remember the name of the mountain for the life of me. I just remember the hike up to the top was quite treacherous, and probably should've had more warnings. But that's typical of China...
The series of shots below were from my brief trip to Suzhou. It's a quick 2 hour drive out of Shanghai, but offers a quick get away from the busy citylife, which could be overwhelming sometimes, especially when you're not used to all the people. Suzhou is known mainly for it's beautiful gardens which is the main focus of my shots.
For most who know me, I LOVE traveling to foreign countries. But I often find carrying around a SLR to be overly bulky, especially on trips where we end up doing a lot of exploring. I'm often at a dilemma where I want to take the SLR, but end up getting tired of holding it by the end of the day so half-way into the trip, I give up on it all together.
How do you guys cope with packing for these trips? Do you just tough it out and strap it around your neck the entire day? Or will it inevitably end up being left at home for the portable point and shoot?
Friday, March 19, 2010
Portrait
This is one of our earlier shoots of a model we found on Craigslist who requested payment to be made in cookies. This was done with the point and shoot Canon s410 as well with no photo editing - I mean how could you??
New blogger onboard!
After many endless requests from Brent and Tim, I have finally succumbed to the pressure. From this day forth, I shall contribute and share to the world the visions that I see with the help of my eyes bestowed to me by none other than the goddess Aphrodite herself.
Picture captured with MSFT Paint, no editing, no nothing. Raw vision, pure talent.
Exhibit 1. Day on the farm
Picture captured with MSFT Paint, no editing, no nothing. Raw vision, pure talent.
Exhibit 1. Day on the farm
Suzhou November 2008
Shot with a point and shoot Canon S410 without any editing. I really liked the yellow of the boats in this shot. It is sorta unfortunate that the surrounding objects weren't a bit duller in color.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Compilation of older pictures
For my first installment of pictures, I've decided to dust off a few random ones from my older sets, and re-do them with some digital touch-ups using Adobe Lightroom. I'm still relatively new to the whole post-processing scene, but I found Lightroom easy enough to do the effects I wanted to achieve. Hopefully one day I'll be able to venture into the whole Photoshop realm and learn to achieve more advanced effects, but until now, Lightroom will have to do.
This is one of my oldest pictures from my now defunct Canon S70. I wanted to bring this one back since it was my first foray into artistic photography. It's amazing what could be captured with a point and shoot, and this should be a good reminder for all those out there that it's not always about the equipment that makes a good photo.
The next series of shots was done on a trip to New York a few years back using my Canon Xti. New York is such a beautiful place any time of the year, and you could just wander around aimlessly in the city finding different things to shoot.
What do you guys think? Where are your favorite places and things to shoot?
This is one of my oldest pictures from my now defunct Canon S70. I wanted to bring this one back since it was my first foray into artistic photography. It's amazing what could be captured with a point and shoot, and this should be a good reminder for all those out there that it's not always about the equipment that makes a good photo.
What do you guys think? Where are your favorite places and things to shoot?
Monday, March 15, 2010
New year new start...
Hey everyone... this is the 'other' contributor on this site, the one who's been MIA since it's been created. Yes, I'm still taking pictures and yes, I will contribute to this blog on a consistent basis.... just not this post.
Excuse my absence but I've been pretty busy lately with some trips this past year (stay tuned for pictures in upcoming blogs), finishing up my applications for business school, and last but not least, Mr. Hoo's wedding!!!
The wedding was this past Saturday at the beautiful Casa Real vineyard over in Pleasanton. We've all been looking forward to celebrating this day with the lovely couple since they announced their engagement last year, and it was no let down. The decor was absolutely amazing, the new Mrs. Hoo and her bridesmaids were all beautiful as always, and the overall wedding will be unforgettable.
To avoid turning this into a personal blog, I just wanted to note some key take-aways (photography related) from the weekend.
1) Mr. Hoo received a fancy new 24-105 F4 L lens from his wife, and I had the opportunity to play around with it a bit. It's the first time I've had some real hands-on experience with a L lens, but I could instantly tell the difference in quality between this and all the lenses I've been using. The zoom is just so much smoother, the quality of the pictures coming out is sharper, and I feel like I have so much more control of what I want to do with my shot. If there was any doubt about moving up to the L range, they're all but extinguished.
2) It's amazing the amount of equipment the professional wedding photography crew carried around. Each crew carried around at least 2 cameras, with multiple attachments, and separate people to do remote flashes. It's a bit intimidating to see how far we have to go to become serious wedding photographers.
3) This website was originally intended to be a photography site, but incorporating video might be coming up soon. The video aspect of documenting seems to intriguing and a very easy compliment to still pictures. Admittedly, I lack the creative vision to put together a compelling and moving video, but I've seen some of the work from Brent and I know he has the stuff. Now that we both have more time, we'll be engaged more in this art and have some exciting stuff to present in the near future.
Hopefully you guys subscribe and become frequent visitors. We appreciate the comments and feedback, be it positive or negative, so we could constantly keep improving ourselves and the site. It'll be interesting to see how we evolve this blog in the coming year, and I hope you all join us in the journey. I'm excited!!
*EUTS EUTS EUTS*
Excuse my absence but I've been pretty busy lately with some trips this past year (stay tuned for pictures in upcoming blogs), finishing up my applications for business school, and last but not least, Mr. Hoo's wedding!!!
The wedding was this past Saturday at the beautiful Casa Real vineyard over in Pleasanton. We've all been looking forward to celebrating this day with the lovely couple since they announced their engagement last year, and it was no let down. The decor was absolutely amazing, the new Mrs. Hoo and her bridesmaids were all beautiful as always, and the overall wedding will be unforgettable.
To avoid turning this into a personal blog, I just wanted to note some key take-aways (photography related) from the weekend.
1) Mr. Hoo received a fancy new 24-105 F4 L lens from his wife, and I had the opportunity to play around with it a bit. It's the first time I've had some real hands-on experience with a L lens, but I could instantly tell the difference in quality between this and all the lenses I've been using. The zoom is just so much smoother, the quality of the pictures coming out is sharper, and I feel like I have so much more control of what I want to do with my shot. If there was any doubt about moving up to the L range, they're all but extinguished.
2) It's amazing the amount of equipment the professional wedding photography crew carried around. Each crew carried around at least 2 cameras, with multiple attachments, and separate people to do remote flashes. It's a bit intimidating to see how far we have to go to become serious wedding photographers.
3) This website was originally intended to be a photography site, but incorporating video might be coming up soon. The video aspect of documenting seems to intriguing and a very easy compliment to still pictures. Admittedly, I lack the creative vision to put together a compelling and moving video, but I've seen some of the work from Brent and I know he has the stuff. Now that we both have more time, we'll be engaged more in this art and have some exciting stuff to present in the near future.
Hopefully you guys subscribe and become frequent visitors. We appreciate the comments and feedback, be it positive or negative, so we could constantly keep improving ourselves and the site. It'll be interesting to see how we evolve this blog in the coming year, and I hope you all join us in the journey. I'm excited!!
*EUTS EUTS EUTS*
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