April 2009
28 posts
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Nail the shot. Rob a bank.
When you nail the shot, it feels like you got away with robbing a bank.
I went to a small pub yesterday with my brother and his friends. They were shooting a music video for the release of his newest song. I went to go check it out.
At the end of their shoot, I wanted to take a few pictures of MIchelle who was already in makeup and wardrobe for the shoot. This was about 5:50PM and they had only...
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The Last Couple Days
I’ve been sick, in Taiwan.
But since coming back to Taiwan on Tuesday night, I’ve done the following:
gone to an engagement/wedding
post-processed 2 photoshoots
done 1 photoshoot
gone out to eat like everyday
created my photo gallery at www.lucima.com
scheduled 3 shoots in LA for late May/early June
gone to the temple (twice)
got a facial
went to the gym for 1.5 hours
KTVing...
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Contrast and Punch = Breakthrough
Good and evil.
Love and hate.
Light and dark.
Each set of words describes the same thing; just various levels it. Each extreme does not exist without the other. In fact, each extreme is defined by the existence of its counterpart.
For example, without darkness, you can not tell where there is light (because everything would be bright). There would be no comparison. No frame of reference....
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Whack-A-Mouse
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Frustrated and unimpressed
I guess I’m still growing. Frustration marks stumbling blocks to the path of growth and represents those challenges I’m facing as a photographer. I’m constantly evaluating and reevaluating my shots to create more stark contrast. I need to be able to create more vivd shots with better lighting.
I’ll save you the details. I should have some results soon.
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Zoe and the Lemonade
First off, there was no lemonade.
But there were many lemons.
Let me clarify, I shot 200 frames and MANY turned out to be lemons. I could not foresee the challenges that a toddler would pose to my photography sets. I spent lots of time setting my light only to be thwarted by a little girl who just wanted to have fun.
So we made lots of lemonade.
With 3 lights, I switched 2 of the strobes...
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Susan Boyle - Britains Got Talent 2009 →
(via schitmi)
Watching this brought tears to my eyes… wow.
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Lulu and Toffee shoot
Yup I shot a girl and a dog. We shot close to 300 frames over 3.5 hours (over 1.5 just waiting for the sun to set). I learned that dogs do great with hard light because it brings out the contrast in their hair. I also learned that you can create sets on the spots with just a few simple props and ideas. Finally this was perhaps the first shoot where everything was dynamic. The lighting was not set...
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Palm PRE - Finally an iPhone me-too
It’s weird. I expected every other cell phone company to come out with an iPhone me-too product immediately after launch. Now, almost 3 years after iPhone, we finally have something comparable. It’s the Palm PRE.
I’ve watched the CES introduction videos and here are the highlights:
Multi-touch (like zooming)
full slideout QWERTY keyboard
multi-tasking (multiple...
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Photography by Strobist. Body by Milk.
Setup: 30-45 minutes. Really I take my sweet time when I setup. It’s all in the details, the angles, power, plus I’m a newb so getting it right isn’t easy. I guess it also doesn’t help when all the equipment is stashed away neatly in the original boxes etc.
Shoot: 1:15 minutes. The milk in the hand and the yogurt on the lips were the last touches. I didn’t want to do...
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Heather River's DYNAMIC tumblr tag cloud
Heather River’s has updated the tumblr tag cloud that generates the tags on the right of my blog. It used to be that I had to periodically update the tag cloud so that it would reflect the tags of the new posts.
But no more!
Heather has redesigned the script so that it dynamically pulls tags from your tumblr site each time it’s loaded so it’s dynamic!
Sweet.
Here’s the...
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Cactus V4, Outdoor Shoots, SU-4
This is a continuation of the SU-800 review and my discontent with the IR system that Nikon uses for remote triggering.
Let me get to the point. I know that David Hobby is big on buying SB-24’s in order to capitalize on the built in slave-mode (also known as SU-4 the “super-slave mode” for SB-800’s and SB-900’s) but in reality, it doesn’t work outdoors.
...
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Connected in New York
“We are not separated so much by our differences as we are connected by our similarities.” - I’m sure someone has said this before
I used to think New York was a melting pot of strangers. Random people walking around with only one similarity, the city in which they lived. Today I realized that this is not the case.
We’re all human beings and we share more in common than...
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Great 2nd Day in New York
Billy Madison, Times Square, Mercer’s and finally some good Strobist pictures!
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Testing a NEW flickr flash photo gallery
I’m trying to put together a new flash photo gallery. So much has changed since I was last introduced to (or seen) flash.
Here’s the latest adaptation of my photo gallery. The only photos that show up are those in the strobist folder (for now).
Check it out here.
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New York is crazy
New York is simply another world. The crowds, the people, the tourism, the traffic, the mass transit system, it’s all different.
It’s cold. Can’t survive here unless you keep warm during the winter.
Got here this morning on a red-eye flight arriving at 7AM. It was a horrible flight on which it was impossible to get any real sleep. My energy levels died around 11AM here EST...
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Nikon SU-800 Review
It’s unfair to review this after 2 disappointing shoots outdoors.
For what it’s worth, it’s not the unit’s fault but the inherent problem with using infrared light as a trigger. Triggers that use radio frequencies to trigger remote flashes simply have a much higher success rate outdoors where there is lots of (light) noise.
During 2 shoots, I have had trouble triggering...
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Strong Core
I’m working out 2-3 times a week. Eating regularly trying to gain muscle but truthfully not putting enough effort into it. Pound for pound I’m the strongest I’ve ever been. I would say I’m 90-95% as strong as when I was 175 lbs. I only weigh 146 lbs. now. For a 30 lbs. difference I’ve shattered the notion that I need to weigh a lot to be strong.
Lately, I’ve...
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Recycle junk mail at your post office
You can now recycle e-waste, paper, and other stuff at your local post office!
More information here!
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Stupid tumblr search
I can’t remember when my tumblr search last worked and I got fed up and finally decided to fix it. Well it took me an hour of searching and trying scripts but I finally found one that worked. It’s the integrated tumblr (read: official) search.
It’s not as good as the old one. The old one would return results in link form I think. Even if it didn’t, this one sucks because...
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McLaren F1
How do you make a 1/18th scale McLaren F1 appear like it’s moving as fast as “the fastest production car” on Earth? It’s got no power of it’s own and if I push it, my hand will appear in the frame.
How about a little bit of black string tied to the rear wheel and drag it backwards?
That’s exactly what I did. I exposed the car for about 10 seconds stationary...
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Ball Dog
There’s nothing this dog likes more than her new “Mr. Head” squeaky dog toy that I got at Target. She might just do anything for this ball…
More pictures here.
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Taylor Cole guest stars on Heroes...
Hotness.
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Philosophy behind Photography
This is I suppose part 3 of the segment, “What makes me different as a photographer?”
Here are segments 1 and 2 for reference.
Because any bum with a camera can call himself a “photographer”. What sets me apart is vision and personality.
Here’s an a “vision” with two otherwise random household objects
My philosophy behind photography is that you can...