Higher Ed.

From photo project 2010

I love summer hours - 2pm closing on Fridays if there are no crisis going on. Did a walkabout Princeton University this afternoon to photograph some architecture. I need some help in that department actually. 1 hour walk, and this was the only half-decent shot. ugh.

...He is like a tree planted by streams of water

From photo project 2010

Went for a walk with Sue after work today. Found a park 5 minutes from our house and walked the trail. It was a little discouraging at first since there was nothing noteworthy to photograph until we got to the end of the trail where the covering of the trees broke and this stream appeared with this tree looming over it. Reminds me of Psalms 1.

On another note, I was finally glad to be able to take some shots outdoors. I was getting tired of shooting everything in my house. It makes my life feel terribly uneventful.

Fun with Macro

From photo project 2010

From photo project 2010

From photo project 2010

Working from home today. During my lunch break, I decided to try some more macro work. Some of these are shot at f 11. Basically, I'm keeping the aperture wide open so I can see what I'm focusing in on, then, when I think I've got it focused, I turn the aperture ring up to F8 or F11, trying to keep the camera in place as much as possible. It works sometimes, not so much on others. None of these are shot w/ a tripod, but there were a few cases of different shots that could've benefited from the anti-hand shake that a tripod would've provided.

Macro on the Cheap

From photo project 2010

From photo project 2010

I've been wanting to shoot macro for a while now, but have always been held back by the price of a $300-$550 macro lens. I've been reading that you can achieve macro photography with a reversing ring for your fixed focal lens, so I decided to give it a try. Picked up a reversing ring today that reverses the way your lens mounts onto your camera. The wider the angle of your lens, the bigger zoom you can get. Only fixed focal lens I have is a 50mm so it'll have to do for now. I wrestled with the DOF on these shots. F stop set at 8 manually with the aperture ring on the lens (since you lose all control of the lens from the camera body, along with auto focus and metering), the DOF was still pretty shallow. I have bad eyes, so at 11 and 16, the aperture was so small that it was hard to see in my viewfinder what I was looking at, let alone trying to manually focus, so I was stuck at a maximum aperture of 8. Not too bad for a $30 reversing ring. Would I throw down $300 to $550 bones for a real macro lens? Definitely in the future. I want my auto focus and metering back!

Studded Turtle

From photo project 2010

Been trying to shoot at apertures of 1.8 to 2.5, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm shooting small objects that it's not working out. The subjects generally tend to be too soft, and even blurry. Maybe my hands are shaking too much? At first, I had Sue hold it up higher so I could focus in on the turtle and leave her out of focus, but for some reason, I couldn't get a sharp image on the turtle. Maybe both our hands were shaking too much? I didn't want the whole shoot to go to waste so I settled for this shot. meh.

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue...

From photo project 2010

So my wife complained that I wrote a poem for a guitar pedal on my previous post, but never wrote a poem for her in all our years together. Busted. So on the fly, I wrote her this:

Wife, embodiment of all that's fair
How I love running my hand through your hair
I remember how you bat your eyes to play coy
But the glimmer that shine from them bring me great joy

Wife, your happiness is my delight
And never would I wish that we would fight
If I can but forever hear your joyous laughter
I would not ever mind to be your clown and jester

-Fred Wong

Goodbye Love

From photo project 2010

Love, I never knew thee
Short was your stay with me
Your sweet song I thought would last
But a more magical sound from another was cast

Love, I must let thee go
A passion for tone is my wallet's woe
Had I more means and space to keep thee
Your song would continue to shine in any key.

-Fred Wong

Pagan Sunday, or God's Ordained Sabbath?

From photo project 2010

We didn't have church last Sunday because during the summer, we've been having services every other Sunday. On the off Sundays, we have a community outreach event where we serve our community and be the church out in the world. Sometimes, these events happen on a Saturday or during the week instead. I'll be the first to admit, not having church one Sunday where I don't have to worry about being responsible for leading worship, rushing out the door with all my equipment, lugging everything back and forth and such was nice. It was relaxing. I bet it was what God had in mind when He initiated "The Sabbath". We just tend to muck it up a little with complex programs and chores and tasks at church on Sundays just so we can hold a church service. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting we do away with church service on Sundays. Worshiping God together is a joy. But I wonder if sometimes we over complicate things with extensive Sunday Schools, church clean up, serving lunch, ministry meetings, etc., that we've lost the concept of the sabbath that God intended for us.

This last Sunday was nice. Weather was gorgeous, so I sat out on the patio reading and sipping coffee in the morning. I can't tell you how such a simple thing refreshes my spirit. By the way, those are not my flip flops. They're Sue's in case you're wondering why I have such small feet. And that book is The Hot Shoe Diary - a book about using flash on your DSLR creatively.

Golden Hours on the Beach

From photo project 2010

From photo project 2010

These were taken on July 4th at Ocean City during the "Golden Hours" of photography - the short span of time before and after sunrise or sunset. This happens to be about an hour before sunset. The light from the sun was a much warmer color and lower, giving subject more detail and shadows when hitting them at around a 70-90 degree angle. Heck, even little clumps of sand leave longer shadows around this time. The sun just basks it's subjects in such a rich color that it's hard to NOT take good pictures in these conditions.

Flashing Crabs

From photo project 2010

The Subject:
In-laws came over last night and brought a bounty of food to cook with. My mother in-law doesn't do anything small when it comes to meals. A dinner for four last night consisted of a huge platter of blue crabs, filet steak cubes, steamed fish, chinese vegetables, and an order of roast duck. I wasn't planning on taking anymore photos last night, but when the huge plate of blue crabs came out, I had to take a shot. I don't think we'll see that in my house for a while.

The Shot:
Prior to dinner, I was reading a book that talks all about using Flash. Flash is a frustrating device that frustrates novices like myself - wreaking havoc on the natural colors of any composition. But if used properly, it can produce amazing shots - but this isn't one of them. I read a little bit about using flash with the rear curtain, and how it won't impose it's cold harsh colors on a shot. It's used just as a fill flash, and will maintain the color of your natural light by adding the flash at the end of your exposure. So I figured this was a great opportunity to try out what I just learned, and here's the result. This shot actually came out really warm, and I had to dial in some color correction to the blue/green end of the spectrum a bit. The effects of the fill flash just fills in some of the detail underneath the crabs where it likely wouldn't been darker shadows had the flash not been on since the main light source was coming directly from the top of the crabs. Not the best example of what a fill flash can do I'm certain, but figured I'd give some introduction to it. Look for more experiments with flash in future posts. On a side note, I now find myself needing to get an Nikon SB600 flashgun. I guess macro lens will have to wait.

Acoustic by the Window

From photo project 2010

I first started off the shoot of our second bedroom by shooting the new drapes I hung last night. Since we had our new windows installed, I haven't had any motivation to install the bamboo blinds again until this week. The shoot of the drapes weren't too interesting so I decided to shoot my acoustic. The idea of hanging drapes along with blinds was Sue's idea - likely an inspiration from HGTV or Martha Stewart Living. It does ad an extra bit of tranquility to the vibe of the room and I thought a signle chair and an acoustic guitar leaned against it would make a decent shot.

This guitar is my second ever. A Lowden O10 made back in the late 1990's with a cedar top and mahogany back and sides. Handcrafted in Ireland, I first found this guitar in an enclosed glass case in Sam Ash. Sharing that case was the more expensive, but less loved 032 model. That day, I asked to play it - and in an instant, I was connected with it. The tone, the warm, rich, yet bright characteristic of the guitar took hold in my heart and never let go. I was still in school at the time so I had no means to pay for a guitar like this. I put it down and said, "This will be mine one day." It's hard to believe that this guitar sat in Sam Ash for two years, but I'm not entirely surprised. The majority our population shopping solely at big box music stores don't do enough research and run towards lesser made and lesser sounding Taylors and Martins at a premium of the cost. That's not to say that everyone who buys Taylors and Martins are suckers - I'm sure there's a good reason someone would spend $500-$1000 more for a guitar that doesn't have nearly as good of a tonal quality as these Lowdens. Anyway, after my first paycheck at my first full time job, I went in and bought it off the shelf. This guitar was meant to be for me! For less than the cost of a top of the line 15" Macbook Pro, this guitar has been with me for over 10 years. It's picked up some wear and tear along the way, but it still sounds amazing. Thank you George Lowden and your apprentices for your innovative design and craftsmanship.

Peeping Through the Frames

From photo project 2010

The Subject:
I'm lucky to have a nice view on my commute to and from work. The back roads that I take give me a lot of farm scenery, and is especially beautiful in the fall or when there's fresh snow resting on the smallest branches in the winter time. Often, I'm lucky to be able to ogle at an Aston Martin, Lamborgini, or even a Shelby Cobra driving around Princeton. One thing is constant though, and it's the tiny Lotus dealership in or just outside of Hopewell. This was a shot I've been wanting to take for quite some time, and on my way home from work, I finally got to take one. When the weather is nice, these garage doors are either half or fully opened. That would've been nice to get a better glimpes of the cars being worked on, but then much of the rich green doors would've been lost. Who knows what could've been, but you can expect to see another post on this dealership in the future. Here, we're peeking at a Lotus Elise. There are more parked out in front of the dealership, but I thought this was a more interesting shot.

The Shot:
Not much to talk about here. F stop at 9 or 10 on my 18-105mm lens and polarizing filter on. Histogram showed no clipping with curves on both the left and the right. Viewing it on my computer monitor showed that the brightness needed to be brought down a bit. Everywhere I've read, professionals say it's always better for you shot to be brighter (bell curve towards the right of the histogram) than darker (bell curve towards the left of the histogram). In fact, you should be looking for your bell curve to be on the right of the histogram because it's always easier to bring the image darker to match correct black levels than it is to make the darker parts lighter. You won't be losing any detail doing it the first way. Hence why when people ask me if I use post editing software, I always say yes. Your photos are often not complete without it.

Candid Portraiture with a Cute Kid

From photo project 2010

The Subject:
One last photo from this past weekend before we move on to something else. Madeline is the daughter of a dear friend of mine since our teen years. We were all having dinner together at a fantastic Korean restaurant; the guys were talking about smartphones, Starcraft, and DSLRs when I pulled out the camera to take these impromptu shots since we were talking on the subject of camera lens and aperture just to give examples to what we were discussing. I found the cutest subject I had access to and snapped away. Cute kids are awfully great to take photos of.

The Shot:
The restaurant was not as bright as you see it here, with some soft lighting coming from the ceiling, and stronger indirect light coming through the window. Camera was in aperture priority which was set at 2.5 on a 50mm prime lens, ISO at 250. Madeline was moving around a little bit so an F stop of 1.8 and 2.0 wasn't really an option. 2.5 was a safer bet. Believe me, I tried shooting in 1.8 when she was moving, and it did not work at all. I like shooting a human subject into the light where the primary light source is behind them. It gives great highlights to the hair and skin that shooting with the light in front of them wouldn't. The only thing to watch out for is that there would need to be sufficient lighting in front of them to give a proper exposure to your subject's face. At least that's what I've learned so far.

Leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what you think of this shot.

Cityscape at Night, and Pretending to do HDR

From photo project 2010

The Subject:
This shot was from Saturday, about an hour and a half after the shot of the GBW from my last post. My friend took me to a park with a clear view of NYC's financial district to take a few more photos before the night was over. I've been wanting to shoot night time cityscapes for a while now, and this was my first attempt. I set up my tripod, and snaaaaaaped (low shutter speeds) away before park security closed the park and practically dragged us out (okay, a bit exaggerated there). Shout out to Winfred and my wife who waited patiently while I took these photos.

The Shot:
This first shot up top was actually a bit of trickery. My title here said "Pretending to do HDR". High Dynamic Range shots combine three shots of the same subjects at different exposures to bring this really dynamic colors and lighting into the shot where colors contrasts are high. The image would practically jump out at you and grab your retinas by the hohos. This isn't anything close to HDR, but I did combine two shots here via Nikon's in-camera image overlay function. I'm not entirely certain that this trick added much, but there were certain shades of varying color that wasn't in either of the shots used for the image overlay. I am definitely going to try some real HDR work in the future once I get my hands on Adobe Lightroom.

For good measure, here's another shot that was zoomed in a bit, but done without the image overlay.

From photo project 2010

I'd love to hear feedback on these shots from other photographers whether you're experienced or a novice like me. Leave me a comment!

Landscape Photography and the GWB

From photo project 2010

From photo project 2010

The Subject:
We went up by the Hudson River to hang out with some friends on Saturday, and finally got a chance to eat at a Korean restaurant in Fort Lee - where Korean food is legendary around the Northeast part of the country. After dinner, we went to a park overlooking the George Washington Bridge as sunset rolled in. Unfortunately, I had lost a lot of the sun behind the hills, and much of the golden sunset couldn't be seen from this perspective. I did manage to snap off a couple shots before we headed out of the park to Mitsuwa for ice-cream.

The Shot(s):
Mounted to a tripod, the first shot was taken with an 18-105mm lens set at 18mm, F22, and ISO at 200 with a polarizing filter. I just had the filter on because I never took it off from shooting the Rockbox the previous day so it wasn't on there for a specific purpose; although I did like how the colors are more saturated. The second shot was with a 50mm prime lens mounted with just a UV filter that I had on after trying to capture some candid portraitures. The composition had to be a little different since it wasn't a wide angle lens. Gone are the rocks in the foreground and the building to the left of the bridge. It's a much more GBW-centric shot, but to me, I lost a lot in the second shot. The first shot, while the GBW just adds to the scenery, is not really a focal point like it is in the second shot. When shooting landscape photography, I've learned two things in my short time with photography. The first is by keeping something in the foreground of your composition, like the rocks in the first shot, you give the composition more depth. The second thing I've learned is to keep your ISO low because a high ISO combined with a small aperture (F22) decreases your image sharpness and increases grain (I read that somewhere). I learned this lesson the hard way when we were up in Arcadia National Park last month on an overcast day. I foolishly turned the ISO up to around 1000 to compensate for the small aperture and a fast enough shutter speed so that I wouldn't have to mount to a tripod. Many of those shots were fairly grainy and rather unpleasant to look at. So one thing I've gotten in the habit of doing now is to lug around a tripod whenever I think I'm going to have the opportunity to shoot landscape photography.

So here are the two shots - two different compositions. Which one do you guys like better? Leave a comment!