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Category “Photography”

Outside the Office

I eat out for lunch with my coworkers nearly everyday. I see this courtyard everyday as we exit for lunch. Today, I saw a really beautiful sight with the white blossoms on the trees set against the overcast sky. I used my iPhone 5 to take this picture, since I haven’t been carrying around my Fujifilm X-Pro1 with me for several months (it’s just too much effort to carry around for an hour lunch).

I’m surprised with how well suited the iPhone 5 is as a portable camera. It’s relatively fast and takes high quality photos.

Above, you can see the Instagram version of the photo. Below, the original taken on the iPhone 5 (resized to fit).

Some photographers will hate on Instagram and those that use it because of the filters and the hipster thing, but it’s all in good fun. What’s so bad about that?

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Photography 101: How to Take Portraits With One Flash

For the portrait photo shoot I did for my friend Lorraine and her family earlier in the month, I did my first attempt at taking portraits with one flash. Needless to say, since it was my first time at doing so, most of the photos were over exposed or had incorrect lighting. Luckily there were still some good photos that she could use for her Christmas card.

What I should have done was review DigitalRev’s video about portraits with one flash and play around with the techniques so I would have had a good idea of what to do. (I instead attempted to remember what I saw in the video almost a year ago.) Videos like these are good for learning new things about photography, but it’s always best (like with everything else in life) to practice over and over again to really learn new techniques.

Enjoy the video, do some research (either in print or video) and go out and practice!

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Lorraine and Ethan
Red Leaves
Holidays

LEGO Avengers Assemble!

I recently bought a Fujifilm X-Pro1. It was a spur of the moment kind of purchase – you know, those purchases that you say you won’t buy, only to hem and haw about it for a couple weeks/months, only to wind up selling your Fujifilm X100, that you love, to a friend so you can buy the newest toy? Yeah, it was one of those purchases. Needless to say, I’m enjoying shooting with it.

I won’t bother reviewing the X-Pro1 here, as there are plenty others better suited to do so. All I’ll say is that I love the image quality that comes right out of the camera. The sensor captures colors beautifully. The X-Pro1′s UI is much better than the X100′s, but still has its quirks. The X-Pro1′s autofocus tends to back focus from time to time, as well as be hit or miss in low light situations. Oh, and it’s just a tad pricey.

It’s not a camera for everyone, but I think it’s awesome. I love it. (The Fujifilm X100 is still an awesome camera too. I miss having one. Might have to buy another.)

Oh, and you know what else I love? LEGO minifigures. Each one is pure awesomeness.

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Updates

It’s been a long time since I last updated the website. I wish I could say I spent all that time taking lots of photos, but alas, I’ve been mainly focusing on work and video games. There’s a backlog of photos that I do want to post, however, and I hope to post those in the coming weeks.

As for site maintenance, I’ve finally gotten around to removing the ugly right nav from most of the site, other than on the blog, as well as removing the AdSense Ad in the footer. I’ve also implemented a new light box called FancyBox for image viewing. FancyBox2 is more flexible and easier to use than the light box I was previously using. There’s still some tweaks to be made to the plugin so images on my site can be displayed in their full resolutions.

In other news, Instagram recently released an Android app which I’m having a lot of fun with. I’ve added a feed of the Instagram photos I post to my Gallery. Speaking of the Gallery, with the right nav now gone there’s more room to place larger thumbnails. These will be rolled out soonish (I hope).

Hope you enjoy the updates! Thanks for visiting!

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Thank You Steve Jobs

There’s not much to say that I haven’t already said, other than without Steve Jobs pushing for mobile phones to have better cameras built in them we perhaps wouldn’t have the ability to have a decent camera with us at all times. The iPhone, more or less alone, has turned every single person with a mobile phone into a photographer. We all have the ability to capture our lives as we please, for better or worse.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. – Steve Jobs


For photographers old and new, thank you Steve Jobs. You will be missed.

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UpRadio.co Photo Shoot: Sonoma, CA

Michelle

Last month, my friends over at UpRadio.co invited me to be one of their photographers for their wedding/fashion photo shoot at Cornerstone Gardens in Sonoma, CA. The venue itself is beautiful and has a wide assortment of varied locations for taking photos. If you’re ever looking for a nice place to take photos, you might want to give Cornerstone a try.

Attending this photo shoot gave me a chance to get to meet several other photographers in the Bay Area and learn from them, not to mention a chance to get some more experience with fashion photography as well as working with models. I was able to walk away from the event with a handful of photos I’m very happy with. I hope you enjoy them too. Check them out in the Portraits section of my Gallery!

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Easy Chinese Recipes by Bee Yinn Low

Easy Chinese Recipes by Bee Yinn Low

My friend’s first cookbook has finally arrived in the U.S.! Bee spent roughly a year developing the recipes and taking thousands of photos for her first book. If you love Chinese food and would like to learn how to cook your favorite dishes at home, look no further than Easy Chinese Recipes! Bee’s style of writing is very inviting and engaging, making the recipes easy to follow. It also doesn’t hurt that every step of the way, there are gorgeous photos to help the reader.

So show Bee some support and buy her book at your local book store or at Amazon.com. Thanks!

On a side note, I’d like to point out that one of the photos I took of Bee and her then 5-week old son made it into the book. I’m honored that Bee liked the photo enough to put it in her first book. Thanks Bee!

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