February 26th - A Celebration

Friday evening - Saturday morning has been ridiculous. To give our friend Jonny a blast before he gets shipped to Afghanistan, Tan, Hien, and Harvey decided to throw a house party for him. They decided to make the theme Black and Purple (I designed a flyer, and I'll post it here later). The colors worked very nicely with the photos, and I'm pleased with the results. The party itself was interesting; it was supposed to start at 11:00 PM, but we weren't even set up yet. Barely anyone came at first, and I thought it was going to bust. As it hit close to midnight, people were flooding through the entrance. That was great, except for one thing: my brother wasn't there yet. Since he had one of the speaker systems and 75% of the drinks, there wasn't much that can be done. He got here at around 12:40 and things really started kicking. Karen and I were the photographers of the party, so I got a handful of shots to keep this blog updated.

Week 8:

Clicking on this photo will direct you to my Flickr.

EXIF Data:
F-Stop: f/5.0
Exposure time: 1/60 sec.
ISO Speed - ISO 400
Focal length: 18mm
Exposure bias: 0.0

This was my favorite shot of the night. Everybody gave a toast to Jon after he gave his speech. The expressions are priceless. The photo was taken with the 18-55mm lens, with a flash unit attached on top of the camera, pointed at the ceiling.

Being a house party, there was alcohol (obviously, after seeing the picture above). I don't drink; I really dislike alcohol. So all Karen and I really did was take photos and watch the door the whole time. Maybe I'll tell more about that day some other time. I'm too tired now.

Good luck out there, Jon. We're all going to miss you. I hope you enjoyed the party! Oh yeah. Happy Birthday, buddy.

The Monstre! A Photomatix Attempt.

Since I haven't really posted much besides the weekly challenges, I decided to post up another version of the previous week's picture:

I started playing around with Photomatix. It's a very interesting program; it doesn't make any photo that runs through it automatically beautiful, but I really like the gritty, dark feel it gave. I would not call this an "HDR" image. I personally do not know too much about HDR photos, but they have a High Dynamic Range (hence, being called HDR), meaning they have a higher contrast than what cameras can provide. It's a large misconception that HDR photos look like the photo I have above, or unrealistic, tripped out photos of cars and whatnot.

I knew about this misconception before, but I didn't know much about High Dynamic Range at all. So of course did a little research. I found a very helpful article on what it really is, which helped me regurgitate the information above. You can check out the link here:

http://www.secondpicture.com/tutorials/photography/hdr_photography.html

This photo may be considered HDR, it may not. I'd rather just call this a piece of art that I really enjoyed working on.

Oh yeah, I'm also trying to think of a wittier title for this blog. So far, no luck. If you have any ideas, hit me up!

Double Whammy

So, I missed last week's post. I also missed this Saturday's. I technically failed the challenge. However..! I assure you that I actually had a photo for last week. To make it seem like I'm not just a lazy person (although there's some truth to that), here's a list of my excuses as to why I'm tardy:

• Valentine's Day was coming up.
• I have a ridiculous amount of homework. (Two long lab assignments, a Chemistry test to study for, and a Biology project to research.)
• Karen's birthday was on Friday (She's 19 now. Yaay!)
• Trying to get all of my homework out of the way ASAP to have a stress free day with Karen on her Birthday. I also didn't do homework on Valentine's day.
• I started playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3. This game is waay too addicting. If anyone wants to play with me, send me a message!

That last one's not a good excuse, but..  hey, I'm being honest!


I'm going post both last week's and this week's photo today.


Week 6:

Clicking on this photo will lead you to my Flickr.

EXIF Data:
F-Stop: f/3.5
Exposure time: 1/125 sec.
ISO Speed - ISO 400
Focal length: 50mm
Exposure bias: 0.0

This is a candid shot that I took at the Rec Center at the University. There was a lot of post processing, especially when it came to removing stray hairs.

Week 7:

Clicking on this photo will lead you to my Flickr.

EXIF Data:
F-Stop: f/8.0
Exposure time: 1/60 sec.
ISO Speed - ISO 400
Focal length: 50mm
Exposure bias: 0.0

Another shot taken at the University. You have to look at a larger version to do it justice (click on the photo). This is my favorite shot of that day. The stairs and the railing complement Dave and his air baby (that's what the freeze is called) very well.

Two flashes were used in this picture, both diffused by the shoot-through umbrellas.

Out of boredom, I decided to draw a diagram of how I set this up:

So for Karen's birthday, I took her to Fogo de Chão. The beef is delicious there! I'm not much of a beef guy, but the food was exceptional. We didn't take pictures of the main course, but we did take pictures of the desserts.

Flan

Creme Brulee

The waiter asked us if it was a special day, and I told him it was Karen's birthday. He decorated the Creme Brulee plate, and said it was on the house. Both the flan and creme brulee were the best I've eaten. Overall, it was a great experience. I'll definitely go there again.

I wasn't able to stay up through her whole birthday, and I knocked out at around 9:30. She even took a picture of me.

Me, taking up the whole bed.

Well, that's all I have. It's a big update this week. I'm also planning on recording my bboy sessions sometime. If I do, I'll probably post them here as well.

Bring the Ruckus!

Saturday was Bring the Ruckus; the craziest bboy jam I've ever been to. Looney Tunes Crew really knows how to thrown down a jam. The competition was intense! It was a 3 on 3 competition, and I couldn't even make it past preliminaries. It's a really good experience though. If you're interested in the jam, or the dance in general, search it up on youtube. Check out Strife.tv's channel, I believe videos are uploaded.  As crazy as the event was, I didn't even watch the actual competition. I think that Knuckleheads Cali won though. I spent around four hours cyphering (maybe more) instead.
For all those people who aren't bboys, you're probably asking "What's cyphering?". Well, here's my definition of a cypher.
Cypher: (sy-fer, noun) A cypher is a circle created by bboys. The dancers take turns dancing to the music, often mixed by a DJ, showing off what they got. Bboys might compete if challenged by another in the cypher, in which the oppositions take turns dancing uninteruppted until one decides to stop.

I tried to give a professional definition, although it's not the greatest, but it brings the point across. So it was that for hours, just grooving to the music. A guy called me out, I called out a guy (he was talking stuff on Facebook), and just more grooving. Overall, it's the most memorable event I've been to. Props to you, Looney Tunes.

Since we're on bboying, I might as well post a photo of the dance.
Week 5:

Clicking on this photo will lead you to my Flickr.

EXIF Data:
F-Stop: f/4.0
Exposure time: 1/25 sec.
ISO Speed - ISO 100
Focal length: 22mm
Exposure bias: +0.76

Yes, it's a shot of me. No, I didn't take the picture (it'd be amazing if I did). Karen helped me take a lot of shots when I was sessioning with Marcus and Jared (thanks, babyy!).  I love that Karen also takes photos. I usually don't get much pictures of myself because I'm usually the guy shooting photos. It's the first action shot I've posted, and hopefully there's more to come.


That's pretty much all I have to say now. But if you're a photographer or bboy (or both) from the Twin Cities, hit me up!

Nearly missed it.

Well, you can see that I'm terrible when it comes to coming up to date with things. I will try harder to actually post every Saturday, or at least not six days after. The first week of school has put me on edge, and I just haven't had much time to actually sit down and post. This also means that I haven't had much time to get out and take shots. However, I do have more shots of Xiah. So, here it is.

Week four:

Clicking on this photo will lead you to my Flickr.

EXIF Data
Dimensions: 3872 x 2592
F-Stop: f/6.3
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: ISO-200
Focal Length: 48mm

Another interesting expression of Xiah. It's a pretty cool shot. The nose is very defined, however the eyes aren't. It kinda bugs me, but it changes the perspective of him. I didn't do any editing for the picture. I shot it and put it straight up onto the blog.

Since there's another Bboy jam tomorrow, I'm probably going to post again Sunday. Just maybe. Haha.

I'm finally posting this week's photo. The trip to California's been crazy, especially the last couple days. Friday, we went to San Jose to see Karen's cousin (the newlywed), which is an hour drive. Came back, ate food, frozen yogurt, etc., and then a bboy session a Marcus'. We went to sleep at around midnight, to wake up at 8. We drove back to San Jose, spent the whole day there for the wedding, and left San Jose at 11:00 PM. We didn't sleep until 1 in the morning, only to wake up Sunday at 5:30 to catch our flight back to Minnesota.

I was able to get one small shoot in during our trip. It was still pretty cold for a shoot, so we cut it short (maybe 25 minutes?). So, I'll post that up. Hopefully further in the week, I'll be able to throw in some bboy shots that Karen helped me take. I've never had much pictures of me dancing, because I'm usually the one taking the pictures.

Week Three

Clicking on this photo will lead you to my Flickr.

This was taken at a park near where we were staying. It was small, but nice. There was a couple small ponds, one with a water fountain that is shown above. That's.. pretty much it! Maybe I'll add more about it later. I just want to get this down so I won't forget it later. So... until next time!

Xiah.

Unable to get a photography session in this week with Karen, I decided to have a mini shoot with my sister pet, Xiah. I haven't been able to post it until now, though. It's been a crazy day. My brother, Harvey, and my cousin Max and I went to a B-Boy jam, and our crew (Flo'riental Flava) went to the semi-finals. On our way back, one of my brother's tires blew out. In the process of replacing it with a spare tire, the good-for-nothing jack tipped, causing the car to drop. We're waiting for the tow company to call us about the status of the car this very minute. This is a great example of a good day gone bad. Anyways, here's week two.

Clicking on the picture redirects you to my Flickr.

EXIF Data
Dimensions: 3872x2592
Camera Model: Nikon D60
F-Stop: f/8
Exposure Time: 1/125 sec.
ISO Speed: ISO 400
Exposure Bias: 0 Step
Focal Length: 55 mm
Flash Mode: No Flash

He was a tough one; he's always jumping up at me and constantly running around the house. I had to use automatic focus because there wasn't enough time to do it manually. That's one reason why the eyes are not sharp. I really like his expression, however. It's definitely not something I can do again.

An update on the car:
It seems like the car's too low for the provider to jack it up. They have to call another provider with a low-profile jack. This means at least another hour of waiting. Karen has work at 9 in the morning, too. Fantastic. Well, California Monday.