Visia Productions in Action!

Here Tim, Derek, and Gabe are working on the tripod mounted camera with the 55-300mm lens attached.

Here is Tim checking the video abilities of the newly acquired T2i and zoom lens.

Mounting the T2i to the steadycam.

 

Some steady cam practice in the streets of Palo Alto.

My Dad's Goldfish - update

It is with a sad heart to report that the lazy goldfish has now passed away.  My parents came back one day and noticed it wasn't moving much, even after putting food in (eating was his favorite activity).  A few hours later, he stopped breathing all together.  May he join the rest of my pets in goldfish heaven... rip un-named fish.

Photoshoot: Mei+Ian

A few weeks ago Brent, myself, and our assistant for the day, Esther, had the opportunity to go around Palo Alto to do a photoshoot for Mei and Ian.  We started out around 4pm, so the sun wouldn't be directly over-head but we wanted to be able to end the day with some nice dusk shots as well.  We only had time to stop at two locations in Palo Alto (a small grass-land spot freeway and in the iconic Stanford campus), but one of the faults that I quickly learned when reviewing the pictures was that even though Mei+Ian went through several poses, one of the things we did wrong was not asking them to move to a new spot each time.  In the end, I felt like there wasn't enough variations in the background, but we'll have to just chalk this up to 'lessons learned'. 

Overall, Mei+Ian made up for our shortcomings and modeled beautifully.  Their natural love for each other shows through in all of their pictures, as evidenced in their radiant smiles and body language.  We had a wonderful outing with this couple and wish them the best of luck in their preparations for the wedding!

 

Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM ELD SLD Aspherical Super Wide Angle Lens

I just ordered a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens along with a 16gb SDHC C6 card from Amazon.  I was looking at this lens or the Tokina 11-16 but decided on this due to its range that would fill more "gap" up to my 24-105.  Here is how the items were packed:

One step inside the box:

One more step without the wrapper.  I like that it came with a case (though bulky) and a petal lens hood.

And here is a pic of the "friendly packed 16gb card" that is pre-opened for you so you do not need a razor blade to slice open the package.

I linked up my new lens to my T1i body and began shooting.  I like the effect that it provides and the speed at which it does it.  I do need more practice with it, but it does a great job getting everything in the picture with minimal pin cushion.  One thing to note is that when I was shooting on aperture priority, it would auto select it a higher ISO leaving dark pics quite noisy.  It does great in good day light.

Unboxing the new toy!

Video has always been one of those outlets that has intrigued me and something I wanted to play with for a while.  When canon came out with the T1i, it initially intrigued me, but when I read that the follow-up T2i had similar specs as the 7d, and started seeing the videos that came from this camera, I was sold. So I started my research,  but realized it was back ordered everywhere.  (Apparently a very popular camera).  But luckily, last week my cousin checked Amazon and realized they finally had it in stock.  Placed my order, added 2 day free shipping thanks to Esther's Amazon Prime account, and in it came today.

First off, the T2i box looks nearly identical to my XTi, and has the same size.  (For the remainder of this post, the T2i is on left, and XTi on right.)

The normal set of manuals/warranty info/software:

The camera definitely has a better feel to it.  The rubber grip and thumb pad makes it feel more professional.  The size of the grip is also a little bigger than the XTi, but that extra amount does help a lot especially if you have bigger hands.  The mode dial on top is raised more, making it easier to adjust as well.

The LCD is only .5" bigger, bit it makes a huge difference when reviewing pictures.  As you could see, the button placement looks similar, with some minor differences.  The iso button is moved to the top, but otherwise everything else is there but in different places.

The T2i lens does come with image stabilizer which is always a plus, especially since the kit lens is great for those just starting out.  I spent 10 minutes playing around with the lens and was very impressed with the optics of the lens.  Compared with the old 18-55 which came with the XTi, this one definitely gave sharper results and had great depth of field (great for those who like playing with the bokeh effect). 

It's a little to early to give an accurate review of the camera, but I do like the overall feel.  The battery is a bit heavier and it feel like the general build quality has gone up, giving the camera more heft than my XTi.  The functions are pretty easy to learn, but I do wish there was a dedicated movie mode button instead of having to dial the knob (maybe there's something about this in the manual).  I'm excited to get out in the field and start shooting with this thing.  I'll probably end up carrying around both cameras,  one with a wide-angle, and a standard 35mm on the other, enabling me to get a variety of shots without having to stop and switch lenses.

My dad's goldfish

My dad owns a small fish tank in the living room with two goldfishes in it.  But one day, we woke up to find this:  

To many of you guys who have owned fishes, you know that a fish upside down floating on top usually means a dead fish.  (Regardless of what the waiter at the Chinese restaurant tells you, the fishes on their backs either dying or already dead.)  But to our surprise, when we gathered the net and prepared to 'fish' him out (excuse the pun), he started swimming around like nothing was wrong.  We later sprinkled food in there, and he ate like normal as well.

Fast forward 2 months, and this is him now:

We realized he only moves when he sees moving people near him, obviously equating movement with food, making him either very smart or extremely lazy.  Probably both....

Hague MMC has arrived! First Impressions

With the convincing of Tim, I purchased two Hague Mini-Motion Camera stabilizers for our upcoming gig.  I purchased it directly from www.b-hague.co.uk and to my surprise I received it in less than 4 business days from the UK.  I paid about $120 each MMC and it came well packaged and secured.

 This is how the MMC was packed:

One more step in the unpacking:

Here is the Hague MMC up close.  It is actually a lot simpler than I thought.  I'll admit I'm a bit disappointed in what it is made of and the price they charge..

Here is where the magic happens - the swivel and camera mount that is opposite the counter balances - washers...

***First thoughts***

After unpacking the Hague MMC, I was unimpressed with what I paid $120 each for.  I shouldn't knock it too much as shipping alone was $60 for both units.  After quickly getting past the initial thoughts, I decided to try it out.  Putting the unit together was basically self explanatory - screw stuff in once mounted.  The instruction sheet was basic enough, basically being general to accommodate all camera types in that it said to just guess and check until you get it balanced right.  It took me about 30 minutes to balance everything out until I was happy (enough) with it's stability but really think that this stabilizer is for lighter cameras vs. a DSLR Canon T1i that I used for my test.  I suppose I can add more washers to counter balance the weight which won't be expensive to add.

The joint in which all is balanced is very loose.  When I say loose, I mean the swivel motion - it is super fluid, which makes sense due to the nature of balancing.  There were a few times were the handle ball actually popped out of the swivel.  It does "pop" back in with slight pressure but at extreme angles it will fall off.  This should definitely be taken into consideration with your expensive cameras only being help on by a small joint.

I don't have much to compare it to other than handheld filming and a DIY steadycam.  This MMC is much easier to manage than the DIY steadycam due to its light weight making it very maneuverable for longer periods of time.  Because of its compact design, you can closer to objects as well as lower as it doesn't get in its own way.

I did get a chance to use the MMC and also did a few video tests comparing three options:

1. Handheld
2. DIY Steadycam
3. Hague MMC

Overall opinions - with a bit of practice and a quick read through the instructions, the Hague MMC worked very well.  You will have to guide it with the second hand to ensure it won't rock too much and of course to guide the direction in which you want the camera to point.  Other than that, I made sharp turns, stepped over cables, and climbed and descended stairs and felt like I had great results!

It is not the sexiest piece of equipment in the world, but it does make a big difference.

Videos will be added shortly...

1. Handheld

Test - Handheld from shookatash on Vimeo.


2. DIY Steadycam

Test - DIY from shookatash on Vimeo.


3. Hague MMC Stabilizer

Test - Hague MMC from shookatash on Vimeo.

Post your desktop!

My desktop at work.

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.

New URL

Update your bookmarks, we're now "visiaproductions.blogspot.com".  

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~!

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:

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!!!

Cliff House 1.1.2010

Originally shot at ISO1600 18mm F5.6 1/3200 at Diana's and my 1st Engagement anniversary.  We went back to where it all started at Cliff House and I wanted to get a pic of the restaurant sign.  I saw this simple pic in which the bike was nicely framed with the trees.

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.

Happy Easter Everyone!

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!