Photography Blog

2011 in Photos

2012-01-01T14:01:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy year. Between school, work and everything else, I haven't shot nearly as much as I have in the past. Here are my favorite photos:

In May Mushna and I took a vacation to Moab.

In June I took some 2 year old photos of my Nephew Rylan for my sister. He wasn't having it at all, but I did manage to get a couple of good shots:

Soon after that, I ended up doing some photos for my cousin Blaise. He wasn't happy to get his photos taken either, but he did get a little more cooperative:

My friend Dave asked me to send him a few photos for him:

In August, Mushna and I visited San Francisco and did a Photowalk with one of my Flickr friends, Deborah:

We also saw Alcatraz:

The Golden Gate Bridge:

This fall we visited the Alpine Loop and Cascade Springs. I used this trip to practice some natural light portraiture:

On a very cold overcast morning, I shot the Christmas card photos for my sister's veterinary office, The Riverwoods Pet Hospital:

In September, my Grandpa was honored before the BYU vs Utah football game for his military service. He fired the cannon to start the game:

And finally, a few weeks ago I shot my sister's Christmas Card photos:

Probably the best photo this year was this one:

It was chosen as one of the top 5 photos in the Flickr group for Alien Skin and as a result, I won their photo bundle of software. Pretty exciting stuff.

I guess my new years resolution is to get out and shoot more next year. I have been so busy I didn't even realize how little I've shot this year. Mushna gave me a B+W 110 Neutral Density filter so I'm definitely looking at getting into more landscape photography. For some examples of what this filter is capable of, look through this Flickr group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nd110-filter-group/

BYU vs Utah Football Game

2011-10-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

My Grandpa was honored at the BYU vs Utah game this year. For anyone outside of Utah, this is a huge rivalry and one of, if not the, biggest game of the year. Before the game, they gave a brief overview of my Grandpa's military career and honors, then he fired the cannon to start the game. I tried to get them to let me down on the field so I could get some good pictures, but no one would work with me, so I did what I could from the seats. I found a good spot, threw my 70-200 f/2.8L IS in front of my 2x teleconverter and shot from where I was, which unfortunately turned out to be the other side of the stadium. Here are the pictures of my Grandpa on the field firing the cannon, and a few shots from the game itself.This is my Grandma and Grandpa down on the field during the opening festivities.

They were put up on the big jumbo screens in the stadium with my Grandpa's name and everything.

Here he is firing the cannon:

A few shots from the game:

You can view the set here.

Riverwoods Animal Hospital Christmas Card Photos

2011-10-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

My sister works at the Riverwoods Animal Hospital and contacted me about shooting photos for their Christmas card. We agreed to shoot the photos last Saturday morning. The weather was cold, overcast and it had been raining the entire night before. I wanted to warm the photos up and give some kind of indication of a magic hour light, so I set up the shot very similarly to what I did when I shot my sister's family pictures last year. One flash was off to camera right, gelled with a cut of full CTO gel, zoomed out to 105 mm and fired at full power. The other flash, I had sitting behind the umbrella for a fill light on the people's faces. It was camera left, angled so the most direct light from the umbrella would hit the opposite side of the group the strongest, and the fall off would light the group evenly as it moved from that strong side back to the left.

The fill from the umbrella really brought out the areas under the eyes and around the cheeks of the people in the group. It was pretty obvious in shots I took before my light had recycled how much of an improvement it was making.

Here are the shots.

Finally, the owner of the pet hospital wanted a quick portrait of her with her dogs. I pulled the light with the umbrella around to camera right and let the CTO's flash stay pointed at the background. I had to lower my umbrella light because the brim of her hat was causing a lot of shadow on her face. Here's the shot:

Moab, 2011

2011-06-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

We headed down to Moab for a three day weekend a little while ago. I posted the pictures recently, but haven't thought about blogging the trip until now.

We drove down early in the morning on Friday and got checked into our bed and breakfast. After stopping buy, we went straight into Arches where we spent the day hiking to the more accessible arches. All in all, I believe we hiked about four and a half miles in total Friday.

Our first hike took us to three different arches...

Turret Arch:

And the North/South Windows:

Sharing the same parking lot was the trailhead for Double Arch. Double Arch was cool because you were able to climb right up inside it. We spent a good 45 minutes or so just hanging out inside the arch.

Afterward, we went to Sand Dune Arch. This was probably my favorite hike of the trip because it takes you right through these giant fins:

The trail was as sandy as any beach. Tucked away inside was Sand Dune Arch:

Our next step was Skyline Arch. The arch sits pretty high on the rock, so I thought this might be an bit more interesting perspective:

Our final hike of the day was to Landscape Arch. To get there, you take the Devil's Garden Trail. There were two other arches on this trail, but the lighting didn't provide very good photos. Here are a couple views from the trail:

When we finally made it to Landscape Arch, the sun was directly behind it. Definitely not good shooting conditions. I took what I could get and wasn't really planning to keep any of them, but when I converted this shot to B&W, I think it actually turned out pretty interesting:

After that, we headed into Moab and ate at the famous Zax pizza where we got all you can eat pizza. It was pretty good.

The next morning we woke up and hit the trail to Delicate Arch. I had planned on hiking Delicate Arch late Friday night, but not really knowing the trail, I didn't want to be hiking out of there at night. They say evening is the best time to get photos of the arch, and they're right. The sun will be setting right behind you. We got up there fairly early in the afternoon, but I think the photo turned out okay.

I actually really liked how it converted to B&W, too:

Later that evening we did a sunset river cruise on the Colorado. We piled into a boat and a guide took us out and gave us a little tour of the area. I actually did learn quite a bit, like the location of another arch, some Petroglyphs and a bit about the area, too. The guide was really funny, too, so it was a very enjoyable experience.

Sunset+Red rock+Water=Amazing Photos:

On our last day, we just hung out at the park and took some pictures right off the side of the road of stuff we had ignored the previous days.

The Three Gossips:

Balanced Rock:

The Organ:

Finally, on our way home, we drove the hour or so out of our way to see Dead Horse Point:

In the end, it was a really great trip. Despite having been to Moab many times before, I definitely saw more of the park than I remember ever seeing before. Mushna is starting to get to the point that she really enjoys hiking, too, which made the trip much more enjoyable for both of us. We plan to make our trips to Moab an annual thing. Next time I go, I plan to try to plan some of these hikes for optimal lighting for photos.

I posted most of the photos here, but there are a few others you can view on my Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157626789781538/

Nightmare Fuel

2011-04-04T17:06:00.001-07:00

Caught a spider in the living room and got him in my light box.

5DmkII / Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro / Canon 430EX and 580 EX II flashes for light triggered by CyberSyncs.

2010 in Photos

2010-12-31T20:59:00.001-08:00

2010 has provided some interesting opportunities to shoot. Since it's the end of the year, I figure it's time to post my favorite photos from 2010. Most of these I've already posted in other blog posts, but I like looking back and hand picking some of my favorites.

In February I took my friend's bridals at the State Capitol Building. I had been to the Capitol Building in the past and seen photographers at work, so it was fun to be able to go and do some work on my own. This was also one of my first times ever really giving my off-camera flash stuff a good run for the money. In retrospect, there are things I wish I would have thought of trying or things I wish I had done differently, but I was and still am really proud of the results. I really like the photo below because of the leading lines in the stairs. I just really like the composition and how she's framed in the lower corner of the frame. I had tried a few different angles to get the best results, and I think this is my favorite of them all:

Mushna and I traveled to the Philippines at the end of February - first week of March. We spent three days in Hong Kong. Admittedly, a few of my favorite photos from this year came from this trip. It was such a different, unique experience, not much in Orem - Provo Utah can really compare. This shot was taken during the Symphony of Lights show that happens nightly. These shots came out much better than I imagined they would. I didn't have a tripod with me and I was shooting at f4, 1600 ISO. It was definitely a "something is better than nothing" mentality, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I got the pictures unloaded. I've always been fond of this photo because I thought the couple in the lower left hand corner gave the buildings a very majestic feel. It also gives a good scale of how big everything is.

We printed this photo on canvas and have it hanging in our hallway.

Another one of my favorite shots from Hong Kong came from the very last night we were there. We checked out of our hotel at around eleven or something the morning we left, but our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until after midnight that night. Despite our feet killing us, I had to get out to wander around a bit to see Hong Kong at night. Again, shooting at 1600 ISO, f/4 just trying to get something because I couldn't allow myself to leave without at least trying. I'm very happy with the results.

We saw the Pleasant Grove rodeo in June. I grabbed this shot of the steer roping and converted it to B&W using the Exposure program Mushna bought me for my Birthday. I submitted this photo to a Pioneer Woman photo contest. It was selected in one of the groups, but I didn't end up winning. I still really like this shot, though.

During the summer we went to the Deer Creek "resort" with some friends. Mushna bought some bubbles. She was waving the wand around so the kids could pop the bubbles. I caught one of the bubbles as it was popping. I shot this on my 5D and was not in continuous burst mode or anything, so it was a total luck shot, but I really like it:

We attended the 4th of July parade in Provo again this year and I took this shot of a bunch of hot, bored kids.

Not long ago I photographed my sister's family photos. I enjoyed setting this up because I used two lights to emulate a sunset type of color. For those who follow this kind of stuff, I had my 580 EX II in a shoot-through umbrella, camera left. I had my 430 EX with a full(?) cut of CTO camera right, back behind them. That's what's giving them the orange rim light type of glow.

I also took some family photos for my friend Angie. I decided to try to grab some natural light photos right before the sun disappeared behind the mountain we were near. I had Mushna kick just a tad bit of light back into their faces.

I recently visited San Francisco for work. I was actually able to get out to see the city a little bit after the conference ended. I had been sitting in a room listening to very academic presentations for two days straight. While I was out wandering the night the conference got out, there was a street band performing in Union Square. I hung out and watched them play for a long while. As people wandered by, they got into the act by dancing and having a good time. This lady was dancing to the music. I just really liked this shot and shooting that night. This wasn't the sharpest photo, it was noisy as hell and far from perfect, but I just think it works.

I took this photo on Fisherman's Warf. The fog really made for a very moody scene.

I've done a few children/baby shoots this year, too. This shot was taken of my cousin Blaise for his 18 month photos. The kid doesn't sit still for more than a couple seconds at a time, but it was enough to get some good shots. I like this shot because of the light and the candid feel.

I've also been shooting our friend Toni's baby photos every month until she turns one. This fall, just before Halloween, we headed up the canyon and I was able to get some of my favorite shots of her.

I really liked how this shot turned out. The bokeh of the leaves in the background, coupled with the light and the big smile really makes it for me.

Finally, Mushna bought me a backdrop support for Christmas. I bought a black backdrop so I could do more shots at home. This is a shot I took of one of our friend's daughters the first time I set the back drop up.

Going into 2011, I'm looking forward to doing more shoots for money and hopefully growing a side business out of this. As far as gear, I'm really interested in big lights. I've been eying some Alien Bee's for a while now. That and a big softbox are on the top of my priority list.

San Francisco Dec 9th-11th

2010-12-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

I visited San Francisco to attend a conference for work. I attended the same conference a few years ago, but we flew in early the day it started and flew skipped the last session to fly home the next day so I wasn't able to do much of anything.

This time, though, we flew in the night before it started (Dec 8th) and flew out late in the afternoon on the 11th so I had a lot of time to get out.

The morning before the conference started, and Friday after it finished we spent a little bit of time in Chinatown:

Friday, after visiting Chinatown, we decided to hop on the trolly cars and ride down to Fisherman's Warf. We also spent some time in that area Saturday morning before we flew out:

During which, I was fortunate enough to see the crazy bush guy. His gig is hiding behind a bunch of these branches and scaring people as they walk by.

We also visited Pier 39, but I didn't get many photos there because it was very touristy:

The halls in the hotel we stayed in had a very Shining type of feel to them.

Friday night, we started heading back to the hotel after hanging out in Fisherman's Warf, but I decided to wander around the Union Square area for a while instead of turning in so early. I'm so glad I did because I got some cool night shots and hung out watching these street musicians perform for about an hour. After two straight days of staring at graphs and hearing about methodology and sampling error, music and a good time was very much needed.

Some other random views from the city:

Finally here are my favorite shots.

This was down on Fisherman's Warf:

This is near the beach by Fisherman's Warf:

This girl was dancing to the street musicians I was watching in Union Square:

I tried to take a picture of this bird while it was sitting on this post, but it flew away right as I got there and snapped the photo. It became a completely different photo:

Finally, the Bay Bridge in heavy fog from Saturday morning. This was taken from behind the Ferry Building while we were at the Farmer's Market.

Toni Marie's Nine Month Photos

2010-10-23T21:16:00.001-07:00

If you've been following my Flickr, you know that I've been shooting our friend's baby, Toni Marie, every month. I plan to blog a full blog about the experience once it's all finished, but wanted to post a few shots I got from this previous shoot:

She is Snow White for her first Halloween:

I also took some family photos for their Christmas card:

And, as I mentioned before, I love B&W:

Family Photos for My Sister

2010-10-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

My Sister Erica asked me to shoot some family portraits for her Christmas cards a couple of weekends ago. We headed up South Fork in Provo Canyon and found a small field to shoot in. By the time we set up the sun had set behind the large hill next to us, so I improvised by setting my second flash up behind and a ways away from them gelled with a cut of full CTO.

My nephew Rylan is barely one year old, so obviously we were at his mercy...

Here are some of the results.

My Sister really likes the antique/sepia type of look. I'm a huge fan of Exposure 3 and its ability to age photos and replicate film. Here is the shot I decided to work on:

I'm also a big fan of Exposure 3's B&W abilities.

I really liked the photos that came from this shoot. Most of the shots look very close to how they came out of the camera, which makes me feel really good as a photographer (especially when it comes to lighting and stuff).

Blaise's 18 Month Photos

2010-08-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

Somehow I've ended up doing a lot more children's photos than I had ever anticipated before. My latest venture was my Cousin Blaise's 18 month photos. We tried to do a shoot in the park, but we had absolutely no natural light and trying to keep up with my flash just wasn't providing good results. Plus, there was a storm moving in FAST.

We ended up at my Grandma's house where I just set up my flash on a stand behind a shoot-through umbrella and shot away.

This first shot was one of the few decent shots we got in the park. Mushna was holding my reflector up and to the right while I fired my flash into it to provide some directional light.

The rest were taken inside:

4th of July

2010-07-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

We went down to Provo for the 4th of July parade. Here are some of my favorite shots:

You can view the set here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157624347968265/

Pleasant Grove Rodeo

2010-06-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

We went to the rodeo last weekend. I was excited to see what I could get since I was shooting with my 5DmkII. I shot the Lehi Round Up last year and ran into exposure issues toward the end of the evening because it just gets too dark. I was curious how the added ISO ability of the 5D would handle the lower light. I think it did rather well. Here's a link to the entire set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157624319961176/

I usually don't do much cross processing, but Exposure does such a good job, I couldn't resist on this shot... Plus, it's a clown.

Memorial Day Service, Provo Cemetary

2010-06-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

And video of the Bagpipes:

Bohol Philippines

2010-04-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

Our final big outing while we were overseas was to the island Bohol in the Philippines. Bohol is located about an hour away via another (not as glamorous) ferry ride. Bohol is famous for a few different things.

First is the Chocolate Hills. During most of the year, these hills aren't covered in green plants and look like big mounds of chocolate, hence the name.

Here are a couple other shots from the lookout:

Here's a shot of Mushna with our friends Lizzie (left) and Marilyn (middle):

Here I am with Mushna and her Dad:

These are Mushna's Classmates from college who came along on the trip with us:

One of my favorite things about the Philippines in general was some of the sings. I only got a couple pictures of the more interesting ones. I'm curious if people actually do deposit their firearms here:

The next stop was a butterfly sanctuary. Here's Mushna with a butterfly on her head.

Mushna took this shot of a butterfly on her Dad's face...

And this shot of me holding one:

This is a really bizarre flower I've never seen before. That's about all I know about it.

We made a quick stop for photos in this large, man-made forest:

For lunch, we hopped on these boats with tables and a full buffet on them. You float down the river as you eat:

These kids were diving into the water for us:

At one point you pull up to a dock and some local people put on a show for the tourists:

Once we got back to shore, we head down a bit further and visited the Tarsiers. Tarsiers are extremely endangered. These people obtain licenses to care for a designated number of the animals. While in the cage, you can't touch them or use flash photography. Since they're nocturnal a bright camera flash would probably put them in a coma it would hit them so hard.

Mushna got this shot of me right next to one:

After the Tarsiers, we visited Prony, the world's largest snake in captivity.

I'm not sure what this guy is, but I really liked this shot.

While there, I found my second favorite sign:

We stopped by this old church on the way back to the docks:

I got a couple good shots of the sunset on the boat ride home:

Bohol was fun, but it was very hot that day and we were outside a lot so I was feeling pretty beat up by the end of the trip.

Hong Kong - Day 3

2010-04-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

On our third day in Hong Kong, we checked out of our hotel and hopped on the MTR to go wander the city. Our first stop was the famous Ladies Market. This stretch of road is about three blocks long and is full of small shops selling random crap... From craft supplies to knock off watches, you can get just about anything. We were after a Mahjong board for Mushna's Dad. After wandering around for a little while, Mushna finally bought one... The big, heavy one. I gave in and bought a backpack to carry it around in, too. The funnest thing about the Ladies Market was haggling prices with the street venders. I've never really tried it before, so it was a lot of fun.

After the Ladies Market, we headed down to the Nan Lian Garden. This is a garden in the center of the city.

This is the Tea House:

Before leaving Hong Kong, I really wanted to get out to get some shots of the streets at night.

That ended our tour of Hong Kong and Macau. We really enjoyed our time there. I would love to go back at some point, but I also really want to visit some other Asian countries and cities, too, so we'll see.

To end, here are a few shots of the hotel lobby we stayed in:

Macau, China (Hong Kong Day 2)

2010-04-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

On our second day in Hong Kong, we rode the ferry to Macau. Macau was initially settled by the Portuguese and handed back to China in 1999. It's home to a very interesting blend of cultures and styles. There are areas of town full of small European type streets lined with shops and restaurants on either side. Macau is also one of the top gaming destinations in the world. It's the Vegas of Asia. The City of Dreams section of Macau is home to a Hard Rock casino and hotel and The Venetian. The Venetian in Macau is much, much larger than in Vegas and the casino floor is one of the largest in the world. In the older section of town, you will find a Wynn and MGM Grand as well.

Our first stop on our tour was The Church of Sao Francisco Xavier. He's the Portuguese missionary who brought Christianity to the island.

This is the outside of the church:

And a few shots from inside:

After vising the church, we headed down a few blocks to Lord Stow's Bakery to eat their famous Egg Tarts:

As I mentioned before, we saw a lot of European and Portuguese architecture throughout Macau:

Our next stop was the Macau Tower which is much like the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. Part of our tour took us to the top floors which offered great views of the island. They also have glass floors you can stand on and look down to the street 1000 feet below.

They offer activities on the top floor, one of which being bungee jumping. It's the world's tallest bungee jump and longest free fall. We got a few shots of guys jumping.

This is from the ground looking up. You'll probably need to click the photo and look at it at the original size. The guy's just a speck:

Our next stop was the A-Ma temple. This temple is located just off the shore of where Francis Xavier landed and is one of the oldest temples on the island. Just before you get to the temple, you walk past these shop keepers selling incense and other items to be used in prayer at the temple. The shop keepers were just yelling at us and the others in the tour group in Chinese. Our guide told us they were competing with each other to get us to buy from their shop.

They have a tradition where, if you pay the fee, they light and toss large firecrackers into a pot to ward off evil spirits. It's a form of prayer and it's extremely loud. I took some pictures, but it was just a big cloud of smoke, so nothing really exciting. Kind of one of those things you need to experience to appreciate.

We got there right after Chinese New Year, so there were decorations like this all over the place.

This was painted on a wall. I don't really know what's going on, but it was interesting.

Some traditional Chinese Architecture:

The next stop was the Macau Museum. We were very limited on time so I didn't get many photos. Here are a few:

This was on a cannon:

Our tour ended at the Ruins of St Paul. The rest of the church was built in the late 16th century and destroyed by fire in 1835 (yes, I had to get those dates from Wikipedia). The original facade is all that stands.

After the tour, we were given a tour of a casino and stuff before we could board the shuttle to head home. The tour guide was a member of the casino staff and she hardly spoke English. It was supposed to be a chance to see more historical artifacts, but in reality, most of them were recreations and it was a thinly veiled attempt to sell us on the casino and hotel.

The nice thing about Macau is the shuttle service. We were able to get a shuttle back to the ferry docs from the older section of town. We didn't want to head back to Hong Kong too early because I wanted to check out the Hard Rock while we were there. We caught another shuttle at the ferry terminal to the City of Dreams. Here we are representing at the Hard Rock:

Overall, we really, really liked Macau. It's very interesting to see the European and Chinese styles clash in such a way. The City of Dreams section of town was like Vegas, but it was much, much nicer. The whole presentation seemed a lot more classy and the streets were extremely clean (no pamphlets littered with naked women and phone numbers for escort services, for instance). I wish we had known they had a Cirque du Soleil show at the Venetian or we would have probably booked a night at the hotel and gone to see it. In any case, a trip to Macau is strongly recommended. Our tour was pretty cheap and it provided all the transportation we really needed (aside from the shuttle service to the City of Dreams).

Hong Kong - Day 1

2010-04-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

On our first day in Hong Kong, we took the 25 minute cable car ride up to Ngong Ping which is famous for the world's largest Buddha, Po Lin Monastery and the Wisdom Path. Unfortunately this time of year Hong Kong is under a pretty constant blanket of fog, but at least it was warm.

You can view the set here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157623629674532/

The cable car ride takes you across the bay:

Then up the mountain:

At the top is the small town of Ngong Ping. It's full of restaurants and souvenir shops. You can see the large Buddha a little in the fog above:

A long way from home:

After passing through the town, you reach this large circular area:

This large structure is next to it:

Glancing up from the circle to the steps leading to the large Buddha:

When you visit the temples, you're overcome with the scent of incense which are used in prayer:

Mushna in front of the monastery:

Inside the monastery:

After visiting the monastery we made our way to the giant Buddha. As I mentioned, it was incredibly foggy, but I was able to get a few shots. First, these statues appear in front of the Buddha, facing him, three on each side of the stairs:

These are the two best shots I was able to get through the fog:

And here's Mushna:

After the Buddha, we made our way to the Wisdom Path:

The Wisdom Path is a small trail with these large planks of wood. Each plank is engraved with lettering and it's formed in a figure eight symbolizing eternity. Again, lots of fog, but I kind of like what it did for the mood of these photos:

Further along, the path continues to the "Fun Walk", but we decided not to go that much further since the fog was getting heavier:

There is a small area at the Wisdom Path. There are these mangy stray dogs hanging out everywhere there. You can see a couple waiting for handouts in this photo:

When we came back from the Wisdom Path, the fog had rolled in pretty heavy, so we got in the cable car and rode back down.

That night we went into Hong Kong to see the famous Symphony of Lights. We lined up on the Avenue of the Stars, kind of like the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It's right on the edge of the bay. Here's Mushna on Chow Yun Fat's star:

At this point, you're looking over the bay to the Hong Kong Skyline:

Eventually, music is broadcast all along the Avenue of Stars and the buildings across the bay put on a light show, synchronized to it.

It was pretty crazy. You can see my entire set of the Symphony of Lights here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157623635614724/

Finally we made it back to our hotel and crashed:

Philippiens Trip - Butuan

2010-03-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

After the Shangri La, we took the 45 minute plane ride to Butuan City where Mushna grew up. I didn't bring my camera down there because I didn't want to worry about it while we were there. Butuan is in the Mindanao region of the Philippines. If you've followed the news at all recently, you know that this is the region known for terrorist activity (the decapitate foreigner white boys like me kind) and the massacre of a local politician and their family (over 50 people in total). I was a bit nervous.

As it turns out, Butuan City is actually a good distance away from the violence. It's a small, much calmer town in the northern region of the island. The airport is very small with only one runway that serves both take-offs and landings. You land on the runway and when the pilot reaches the end, he turns the aircraft around and drives back down to the terminal, which is just a small building. You exit the plane right on the tarmac and a representative from the airline greets you at the bottom of the stairs with an umbrella.

We checked into our hotel and Mushna's brother and cousin came to meet us. We then rented a multicab (not my video) to drive us out of town to pick up her Dad at a co-op farmer's meeting. There was a congressman there (it's election season in the Philippines), so he couldn't come. We rode on to his house to wait for him.

We turned off the main highway onto a dirt road. As we drove down the road, we passed the houses of lots of Mushna's relatives or people she grew up with. They all eventually made their way down to her Dad's house, about a mile or maybe two down the road.

When we arrived at her Dad's house, all the kids from the houses around came out to see, well... me. There isn't much reason for tourists or foreigners to visit her hometown, so as weird as it sounds, there's a good chance a lot of them have never seen a white guy before. Mushna said that even the adults were outside lurking.

As we sat in her Dad's house talking to her relatives, I was watching kids line up at the screen door to look in at us. Her Dad's screen door is the type where the screen is on the top half, and the bottom is like that siding material. There was a hole in the plastic and the whole time, I was watching kids' faces fill show up on the other side.

After hanging out for a few minutes, we went outside to look around. Mushna asked if I wanted coconut. Next thing I know, there's a dude running up a 75 foot + tree with a huge knife. He cut down four or five coconuts and we cut them open to drink the milk. We then got a spoon to scoop out the meat. It was pretty good, but a lot different than what I'm used to and expected coconut to taste like.

All of her relatives were very nice and accommodating. They were all doing their best to speak English (they had practiced questions to ask me). When they noticed I was sweating, they made sure to direct the electric fans at me.

Mushna's Dad finally got home. This is pretty much the second time I've ever directly spoken to him (the first was to ask his permission to marry Mushna). He sat down and the first words out of his mouth were, "So, when do I get a grandchild?" Yeah, I was pretty stumped. Mushna jumped in to help explain that we were going to wait a while and that having a child in the US is very expensive. Immediately her Aunts offered to come to America to help raise it. Her Dad then said we could leave the kid in her home town and they would raise it there for us... Just send them back when they're 18.

After a few minutes, we ate the dinner they had prepared for us. Mushna's home town is pretty much surrounded by rice fields, so the rice is absolutely delicious. They also had some other food, including raw tuna fish in a vinaigrette type sauce, which is really, good. Her family watched me eat and was really surprised I tried everything and really liked most of it. They were really surprised I liked the rice so much (I ate a lot of rice).

After a while, it was getting late, so Mushna's good family friend Uncle Eric offered to drive us back to our hotel.

Uncle Eric is a retired Police Lieutenant who drives this old, Volkswagen dune buggy type vehicle. Mushna and her cousin were in the back seat, and I was in the front with him. As we're driving along, through these long dark stretches of road, he's randomly flashing his lights and honking his horn. I was really confused, but didn't say anything (partly because I don't think anyone would be able to hear me over the noise of the vehicle). On top of this, this thing's brakes were pretty much gone. To stop, he'd start violently pumping the brake a good distance before he had to stop. Fortunately we managed to stop every time, but I was a bit nervous... haha. Later I asked Mushna why he was honking and flashing his lights. As it turns out, if you're driving through an area that is known to have spirits, or an evil presence, it's customary to make your presence known as you pass through it.

The next morning, we rented another multicab and cruised around Butuan City. We visited Mushna's mom's grave, then got lunch at a small buffet type restaurant. There were about eight dishes available. If you leave food on your plate, they will charge you double.

After that, we headed back to the hotel and waited for the van to come shuttle us back to the airport. Mushna's Dad and Brother would be coming out a bit later to visit Bohol with us.

Philippines Trip - Shangri La

2010-03-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

Instead of spending our day at the Plantation Bay resort, we went to the Shangri La. We bought a day pass which gave us access to everything on the grounds and lunch at their buffet. They have a large, white sand beach and a marine reserve. We spent the day swimming and snorkeling around the reserve. We saw a lot of very interesting fish. There was a guy in a boat watching over everything who gave us bread to feed the fish with. I wish I had an underwater camera because as soon as I held that bread under the water, every fish in sight went into attack mode. Mushna freaked out and dropped hers, but I held it while the fish ate right out of my hands. Of course they didn't always get bread in their bites, but their little nibbles felt cool.

The buffet was awesome. Fresh seafood, fruit and a lot of other choices. I ate a lot of food that afternoon, but it was totally worth it. Mushna's always told me about mangoes in the Philippines. This was my first time trying them and she was right, they're out of this world.

You can view my Shangri La set here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157623621595748/

This resort will definitely be on the list of things to do next time we head out.

Philippines Trip - Plantation Bay and Taoist Temple

2010-03-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

Mushna and I made the long flight out to the Phillpines recently. We left on February 22nd and returned on March 11th. We've been pretty busy since we've been home. I filled about four 4-gig CF cards while I was out there. Granted, I shoot in RAW format, so each card holds around 275 photos (depending on what ISO I shoot at) as opposed to the 1,000+ if I were to shoot in JPEG. Still, it was a lot of photos to get through.

We arrived at our hotel in the Philippines at around Noon on the 24th (losing a day due to the international date line). I thought I was feeling pretty good. We were planning to go to the store for groceries and to get some food, but as soon as I sat down on the bed to watch TV, I knew it was a lot cause. I crashed and ended up waking up at around 5 am the next morning.

That day was our first adventure out. Our friend Lizzie joined us for the afternoon. Our first stop was a tour of the Plantation Bay resort. We were thinking about spending the day there, but their bay was actually man made, so we decided to spend our time at another resort (more on that later).

After the Plantation Bay tour, we headed to Beverly Hills, Cebu City. This area is up int he mountains and is where the rich people live. In 1972, a large, Taoist Temple was constructed. It's large, but the grounds can easily be covered in an hour or so.

Here is the set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157623619729134/

After that, we spent the rest of our day at the malls and stuff doing the shopping we were planning on doing the day we got there.

Aileen's Bridals

2010-02-15T21:02:00.000-08:00

Our friend Aileen is back in the United States and will be getting married on March 27th. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to try shooting bridal portraits for the first time.

I primarily used my 24-105 f/4L IS USM on my 40D body. I also used a Canon 580EX II remotely triggered using Paul C Buff's CyberSyncs through a 45" Wescott umbrella.

Our original intention was to shoot at the Rock Canyon Amphitheater in Provo, but as Saturday got closer, the worse the weather forecast became, so Mushna made reservations at the State Capitol Building in Salt Lake City.

You can see the full set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157623311034913/

Here are a few I've selected:

A few things I learned from this experience:

- Never trust your LCD screen for sharpness. Shots that look like their in focus, will turn out blurry. I prepared for this inevitability by making sure I captured a lot of shots for each pose before moving on.

- Shoot a lot of shots. As mentioned above, if you're at least somewhat knowledgeable about what you're doing, then you should get at least one (or more) good shots from the bunch to work with.

- Don't delete anything on the camera. Wait until you can get a good look at the photos before you begin making deletions. If a pose or something wasn't perfect, you might still end up using it if it's the only one that's workable. To me, using something you may have disregarded on the LCD screen because it appeared to be not-quite-right is better than losing the entire set from that pose/location, etc...

- Have an assistant. Mushna was a big help during the shoot. I was focusing a lot on making sure shots turned out okay from a technical aspect while Mushna was making sure the dress and stuff was sitting just right for each shot. She was able to watch out for the little things I didn't notice. It also helps having a female assistant who's mindful of such things.

- Noise Ninja is an awesome product. My 40D handles noise pretty well, but Noise Ninja is a big help in smoothing out what is in there. The pro version is only $80, so having it as a Photoshop add-on for me is a no-brainer. If you're interested, here is a before and after photo using the 40D noise profile for 3200 ISO. I wanted to test the most extreme case my camera could produce, low light and the highest ISO possible. The JPEG was output from Adobe Camera RAW, and run through the Noise Ninja filter. No additional smoothing or edits were made besides loading and applying the filter. You can click on it to view the image in it's original size:

While this isn't the end-all, be-all test, I think it does a good job of showing what the product is capable of doing in a user-friendly format as well as a very small amount of time (this took about one minute to load and apply). I can edit/adjust further if needed by tweaking settings inside the program.

If I had it all over to do again, there are a few things I think I would have changed or done differently. Part of this was the fact that we only had an hour of time at the Capitol building reserved, so I didn't know how much we'd be able to shoot before we were intruding on another photographer's time and space. That left time for getting shots and little else.

- Pull out the second light and snoot it for a hair light. Aileen's hair is black and in a lot of cases, I didn't get as much detail. The shots still turned out well, but a hair light would have helped.

- More variety of the location of the flowers. There were only a couple shots where the flowers weren't in the same spot.

- More head shot type portraits with my 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM. Having my lights and such a good venue to shoot in could have provided some good portraits, but I was mainly focused on getting the dress.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and great experience. With experience comes knowledge and the ability to focus on more important things.

Mt Timpanogos

2010-02-08T21:15:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted anything in a long time... Partly because it's winter and the days are short, cold and very non-photogenic most of the time.

But, I bought the Canon 24-105 f/4L IS this weekend and have been trying it out as much as I can. Tonight we went up the canyon to a park and I took this shot of Mt Timpanogos. I really like the way it turned out and couldn't resist posting it.

Favorite Photos of 2009

2010-01-03T07:42:00.000-08:00

I know it's probably customary to pick 10 photos, but I couldn't. I don't think I took as many photos this year as I did last, but I think the overall quality of my shots has improved greatly.

This first shot was taken early this year on a cold, foggy morning down by Utah Lake. There is a horse pasture at the end of this road. I grabbed my 70-200 and headed over. While this shot was chosen for the picture of the day on the website for the British magazine, Digital Camera, the shot below was probably my favorite of the series:

This next shot was taken as my friend Dave and I were headed home from photographing the museum at Hill Airforce Base. As we drove by the refineries in the North end of Salt Lake City, the sun was setting right behind them. The shot below was taken as I was hanging out of Dave's passenger side window as we drove down the freeway.

In February, Dave worked out a chance for us to photograph the Peak Jazz Festival at Thanksgiving Point. They had a few big names there including John Faddis, Frank Catalano and drummer Jeff 'Tain' Watts. I took a lot of shots, but I didn't post very many because we were shooting for someone else, but I think this shot of John Faddis was my favorite.

In March, Dave and I wandered off to this abandoned property near Utah Lake where there's a lot of development going on for sub-divisions. I grabbed this landscape shot before we left with my Sigma 10-20.

Right before the other Filipinos left due to their Visas not getting renewed, they threw a party. It was incredibly dark in this living room and I was using my Canon 50 mm f/1.8 exclusively. This is probably one of my favorite shots of all time.

In April, the weather finally started warming up. My Cousin had recently been engaged and needed photos for the wedding invitations. They asked me if I could do it. This was my first engagement shoot, but I think it turned out pretty decently. I've definitely learned a lot more about lighting and photography in general since then, but for a first time, I think it worked out pretty well. This is my favorite from the set (although I was kind of partial to this shot, too):

In May, one of Mushna's favorite Filipino performers was singing in Las Vegas. Her name is Lea Salonga and she was the lead female role in Miss Saigon in its first ever production, the singing voice of Jasmine in Aladdin, the voice of Mulan in the Disney movies and a lot of other stuff. While in Vegas, I grabbed some cool shots, but I think this was my favorite (and no, it has nothing to do with the sleazy ad for an escort service on the truck).

For my birthday in June, Mushna bought me a 580 EX II Speedlite. This meant I could trigger my 430 EX wirelessly. I picked up a light stand and an umbrella. We headed up to Hobble Creek and took a few photos. I really like this one.

It was really rainy through the beginning of the summer. I got bored one weekend and made a softbox. This is a shot of our wedding rings taken using my softbox and 100 mm f/2.8 Macro lens.

Not long after getting the 580 EX, I decided I needed some wireless transmitters so I could get both flashes off camera. I ended up getting CyberSyncs from Paul C. Bluff, who makes Alienbee's lights. So far they've worked great. This is a shot I took of Mushna using off camera flash through the umbrella. I only used one flash for this.

Here is another macro shot I grabbed in the softbox. I think this is one of my favorite macro shots, ever.

In June, Mushna and I attended the Lehi Roundup rodeo. I had a good seat up in the stands. This shot was taking advantage of the second image stabilization option on my 70-200 which allows for panning. I dragged the shutter a bit and was able to keep the rider sharp. I like this shot the best out of all of them because you can see the second rider jumping off to tackle the steer. I grabbed a few others using this same method, but I really think the shot below is my personal favorite.

In July, my Dad was in Southern Utah for his wife's family reunion. He offered to put Mushna and I up in a hotel so we could visit, so we headed down. On the way down, we went to Bryce Canyon. I took a ton of photos, and really, most of these were among my favorites of the year. You can see the entire set here, but the shot below was probably my favorite.

We also headed north a bit to Kolob Canyon, which is part of Zions. We hiked up to the Hidden Alcove and it was amazing. The shots of the Alcove itself were great, but as far as composition, I think the shot below was my favorite.

While this next shot wasn't that exciting to begin with, I really like how it livened up with some post processing:

I took this shot of Bridal Veil Falls a while ago. Mushna bought a Canon 30D and I wanted to give her a chance to use neutral density filters.

This next shot was taken of a Golden Eagle and the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City. It was chosen for a blog on about.com about the Aviary being free during UEA weekend:

http://saltlakecity.about.com/b/2009/09/29/tracy-aviary-free-during-uea-break.htm

Mushna and I went back up to Hobble Creek in the fall to shoot while the leaves were still colorful. I really liked how a lot of the shots turned out, but this one's my favorite of the set:

Finally, on Christmas night, we got all bundled up and took the tripods out to shoot the Christmas lights around Center Street in Provo. I like this shot the best out of all of them because I was finally able to get the white balance correct in post processing.

I know it's customary to do a "Top 10 List", but I tried and couldn't. Hopefully 2010 will bring more great opportunities to photograph. Hope you enjoyed this set.

Christmas Weekend

2009-12-28T18:22:00.001-08:00

We had a busy weekend around Christmas. Thursday, the 24th, we went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for their Christmas Eve party.

This is my Cousin playing the violin.

My Grandma set up her little town under the tree this year:

Here's a shot of Mushna by the tree:

And another of my Grandma's spoiled dog:

After visiting the Grandparents, we attended a Filipino Christmas Party. Mushna said that it's traditional for Filipinos to stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve. We didn't make it that late. Mushna found a guy in Provo who could roast an entire pig for her.

Christmas Night, we decided to head down to Provo after dark to photograph the Christmas lights. It was really cold, but I wanted to get out there before the lights were taken down:

I was also able to get the flash out to get a few good shots of a very cold Mushna:

And another of my friend Dave:

Saturday morning, we woke up and drove to Heber. Mushna got tickets to ride the Heber Creeper (an antique train) from Heber down to Soldier Hollow (where the Cross Country Skiing events were held during the Olympics years ago).

Here are a few shots of the Heber Creeper and other train engines/cars around the yard:

This is the meanest snow plow I've ever seen.

This is the train we actually rode on:

Once at Soldier Hollow, we spent a few hours tubing down the mountain. I used my 2X teleconverter on my 70-200 to track her up the mountain, the took it off to get her coming down.

Here is he is being pulled up the hill:

It's hard to see but here is he is at the top, getting ready to come down:

And here's the descent:

It was a busy, cold weekend. I'm getting over a cold, so I probably should have spent more time resting, but it was fun.

You can see the sets here:
Christmas Eve
Christmas Night
Train ride and tubing

Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point

2009-11-29T21:12:00.000-08:00

The weather's getting colder and quite frankly, things outside aren't as photogenic as they were a month or so ago so we decided to hit The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. I had been there before, but I didn't have the lenses I have now, so it was fun to go back through and shoot with new glass. The museum is pretty dark, so my 50 mm f/1.4 got a lot of work. I also used my Sigma 10-20 where I could.

The whole set can be viewed here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157622903418530/

Christmas Tree, 2009

2009-11-26T20:24:00.000-08:00

Mushna's been excited to get the Christmas tree up this year. On the way home from Thanksgiving at Grandma's, she realized she could "legally" set it up tonight. Here are some shots of the set up. I'll post something once it's all finished.

New Lens November

2009-11-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

I was asked to shoot one of Mushna's friends' wedding here in a few weeks. I was concerned with my lenses at the shorter/wider end so I went to Pictureline to look at options.

Part of me really wanted to go full steam ahead with the 24-70 f/2.8L, but I ended up settling for a couple of primes instead, the Canon 50 mm f/1.4 and the Canon 35 mm f/2. While the L glass would have been nice, I think these two lenses will do just fine, plus this combination was about $500-$600 cheaper than the 24-70.

I headed out for some test shots the other night. These are pretty much straight out of the camera, some sharpening applied in Adobe Camera Raw because I shoot in Raw.

The Canon 35 mm f/2:

The 50 mm f/1.4:

Pixel peeping, I find the 35 mm might be slightly sharper than the 50, but overall, both lenses seem to perform really well.

The 35 mm suffers from some chromatic aberration and softness at the edges, but it seems to be very slight on my cropped sensor body.

I'm happy with both purchases.

Fall in Hobble Creek, 2009

2009-10-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks Mushna and I have visited Hobble Creek to take advantage of the fall colors. Things have been busy so I haven't found time to process photos until recently.

These are from the first visit:

These are from the second trip:

Hobble Creek has cattle freely roaming around the canyon. On our second trip, they were herding the cattle down to a corral located toward the bottom of the canyon. While we were driving down, we had to navigate our way through the two herds they had separated the cattle into. Here is the first herd behind Mushna:

While driving down, we were waiting for a break in the first herd, so I started talking to one of the kids. She and her "partner", Clayson were only eight years old and they were moving a lot of cows. Here are some shots of the action:

I didn't realize it until I started processing photos and was looking at creating a set on Flickr for them, but Mushna and I actually visited Hobble Creek on October, 18th 2008 when we were dating. Our second trip up was on October 18th, 2009. Pretty crazy.

Image Used

2009-09-29T06:18:00.001-07:00

I received an email the other day asking permission to use my shot of the Golden Eagle I took at Tracy Aviary a few weeks ago on a blog about Salt Lake City on about.com.

It was this shot:

Here is the link to the blog post:
http://saltlakecity.about.com/b/2009/09/29/tracy-aviary-free-during-uea-break.htm

India Fest, 2009

2009-09-18T20:23:00.001-07:00

Last year one of my favorite experiences with photography was shooting India Fest at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah. This was actually the night I realized I needed the 70-200 f/2.8L IS to get the shots I wanted because the 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS wasn't nearly fast enough. Most of the shots I actually got to turn out last year were taken as I was sitting right in front of the stage with my 50 mm f/1.8. You can find last year's photos here:

India Fest 2008

I didn't shoot as many photos as I did this year, but I'm happy with the shots I got. Here are a few of my favorites:

You can find the entire set by clicking here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157622407186840/

Utah Valley

2009-09-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

Things have been busy... Hopefully they're calming down.

I took this shot a while ago. It's overlooking Utah Valley from the parking lot of the Y trail.

The Lazy Photographer

2009-08-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty busy lately. I received my Audio Kontrol 1 last week and was working on remixing "In This Twilight" using the master tracks Trent Reznor provided in the "Year Zero: Remixed" DVD. I use headphones (Sony MDR-V700's) for all my writing. Unfortunately the Audio Kontrol 1's headphone jack was faulty, so I'm in the process of exchanging it with Sweetwater. I've also been balancing a bunch of maintenance issues on my car with work and everything else so I haven't been in the mood to put a lot of miles on it. I'm really hoping those are out of the way now so we can get out and enjoy a weekend again.

Tonight I decided to get my flashes out. I've decided that I simply do not have enough room to do what I've been wanting to in regards to using the flashes for portraiture, so I decided to go smaller. Tonight I brought both flashes out and shot something simple, my little Holga 120N on the kitchen table. Unfortunately my space is limited there, to so I was forced to focus almost directly down on the camera (at least more vertical than I would have liked) so I didn't get my wife's laptop and other stuff on the table on the shot, too. It loses detail in the smaller image. Click to view it larger.

This shot is straight out of the camera. I did the standard sharpening in Adobe Camera Raw, but other than that, this is how the camera saw it.

I think I'll work on getting a cool shot of my Audio Kontrol 1 at some point next.

Bridal Veil Falls, Utah

2009-08-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

Today we ran up to the scenic overlook and took a few photos of the falls.

Tracy Aviary, August 2009

2009-08-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

We went out last weekend... We were planning on going to the zoo, but there was no parking available anywhere and, quite frankly, it's not the most photogenic, so fighting for a parking stall hardly seemed worth it. Continuing on the animal theme, we drove to Liberty Park and visited Tracy Aviary for a few minutes. While this isn't the most photogenic location either, it's much cheaper and I usually get a couple of decent shots. Here are the four keepers from this trip:

This guy was probably my favorite.

Every time I see these Golden Eagles, I feel like I'm less of a man and more a meal.

Kolab Canyon, July 2009

2009-07-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

Our last hike on the vacation was in the Northern end of Zion. It's a smaller canyon called Kolob Canyon. If you were to drive up there to look at it, you probably wouldn't be as impressed as you were with Zion. There is a small five mile road which takes you to a view point where you can see the entire canyon. Along the way there are turnouts and parking spaces at the trail heads. We took the Middle Fork Taylor Creek trail up to the Double Arch Alcove. I think the actual arch is further up, but we stopped at the alcove and went back. The hike was around 5 miles round trip but worth it.

Here is the link to the album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157621900442248/

I think this is my favorite photo of the trip (actually two of them. I can't decide which I like more):

Here are some photos of the alcove.

The trail heading into the alcove was cool, too. It crossed the stream multiple times.

This is leading back out of the trail up to the parking area.

And finally, here's my Dad doing a victory dance to the Rocky theme after making it out of there alive.

Kolob Canyon was my second favorite trip of the vacation. The alcove was absolutely amazing. It was enormous. One of those situations where you really hope the pictures even remotely do it justice.

Also, big thanks to the rangers we ran into on the trail who hooked us up with some additional water. My Dad's little water bottle wasn't cutting it. Maybe I'll buy him a camelbak his next trip out here. I know I wouldn't have survived this weekend without mine.

Zion National Park, July 2009

2009-07-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

The day after visiting Bryce Canyon, we headed up to Zion. Unfortunately we weren't able to spend nearly as much time in Zion as I would have liked, but I did get a few pictures along the way. I'm not nearly as impressed with Zion as I was Bryce Canyon. Maybe if I was able to hike Zion more, I would have gained more appreciation for it, but based on my limited experience, Bryce has it beat in terms of shear awe.

My Zion photos can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157621888893306/

Here are a few of my favorites...

This is the fall that leads to the Emerald Pool. If you get there earlier in the year, there is much more water if you hit it earlier in the season when there is runoff coming down from the mountains above. The hike takes you back under that rock, behind the waterfall.

There was a little bit of water coming down, but not much:

At the very top of Zion you hit a point called Big Bend. From that point forward, you can hike into the narrows. I would like to go back to hike them at some point. Clouds were coming in at this point and I was able to catch this one blowing in over the back of this mountain here.

One of my favorite things about this area is the random places plants find to grow. This is a pretty common scene down there. A large chunk of rock falls off and creates a ledge. Plant life finds its way up there and is able to get enough moisture to grow.

That's all I really liked about my Zion trip. Next up is Kolob Canyon which is part of the Zion park, but much further north than the main canyon. I will be editing those photos and posting soon.

Bryce Canyon Utah, 2009

2009-07-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

Mushna and I visited Southern Utah last week. We left Wednesday morning the 22nd at around 9:00 am and decided to make a detour to Bryce Canyon on the way down. I'm glad we did because I think it was my favorite hike of the trip. We took the Queen's Garden trail down and connected to the Navajo Loop trail to get back up. All around it was about two and a half miles.

You can view the entire set of photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157621743222311/

Here are a few of my favorites (click for larger photos):

These are the switchbacks heading out of the canyon up to the rim. It was pretty steep.

The trail is named after a rock that resembles a queen (Queen Victoria) which can be seen in this photo. Clicking on the photo will take you to my flickr photo which includes a note as to where exactly this rock is. Since I was using my 10-20 exclusively down there, my reach was limited.

This is one of my favorites from the entire trip.

This is another of my favorites.

We also spent some time at Red Canyon which is near Bryce Canyon. Here's another one of my favorite shots, taken in Red Canyon.

Red Canyon is small, so we didn't spend too much time there. Here is the gallery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157621867621316/

We decided to take the scenic route down through Arizona then connect back up to Utah and finally land in Hurricane where our hotel was located. We made it there at around 10:00 that night exhausted, but excited.

I used Adobe Camera RAW to saturate the skies a bit, but the sun shining down on those big red rocks gave amazing exposures to begin with, so I didn't have to do much in order to get these to where they are now. I did bring my Cokin filters down, but forgot my adapter ring and holder, so I was pretty glad these came out as well as they did.

I will post Zion and Kolob photos when I get them finished. I was also volunteered to take family photos, so I will post a few highlights from that as well when I get there.

Lehi Round Up, 2009

2009-06-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

We attended the Lehi Round Up rodeo this weekend. The most exciting event was probably the bareback riding.

You can view the entire set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157620692051834/

Here are a few select photos:

This guy actually had the worst ride of the night (including the bulls). I'm posting the best shots from his ride because he got worked something awesome:

After that last shot the other guys in the arena jumped in to help him because his hand was caught in the rope. I didn't really get any other shots after that, but he didn't get up for a few minutes. A couple things I find amazing were how high that horse got off the ground and also how many times that guy was hanging off one side of the horse, then after a quick buck, on the opposite side.

I also practiced my panning technique. This is one of my favorite shots of the night:

Here are a couple others...

I have photos of the parade that morning I've yet to process. We also too the Holga out, so I'll be getting those shots developed tomorrow. Hopefully something worthwhile came from them. I was shooting with Ilford Delta 100 120 format film.

Spider Attack

2009-06-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

I caught this spider in my house Sunday night. I was busy reformatting my hard drive all day so I stuck him in a small glass and held him there until tonight. I corralled him in my light box and got about 20 shots off before releasing him outside. By the way, this spider was around an inch and a half small. Macro lenses rock.

Click to see it large:

Shot of Mushna

2009-06-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

I was bored and wanted to play with my flashes a bit. I bugged Mushna enough that she came and modeled for me. I played with a few different light set-ups. I wanted to get her skin to pop against a black background. I know I have a lot to learn with the off-camera flash stuff, but I liked how this turned out.

Stuff

2009-06-13T20:34:00.001-07:00

The weather here in Utah has been absolutely awful for the last few weeks... Pretty much straight. We drove about two hours out to a small town called Hanna for our family reunion in hopes there would be enough of a break that we could camp out there. Not only was it cold, there was no relief from the rain there, either. We drove back and made it home through the canyon in the middle of a nice, heavy rain storm and made it home at around 11:00 pm.

For my birthday, I decided to pick up some radio triggers. After much deliberation, I decided to get the CyberSync triggers made by Paul C Bluff / Alienbees. I decided on these because they're amazingly priced. I paid $220 for one trigger and two receivers. If I had settled on Pocket Wizards, I would have been looking at ~$200 for one trans-receiver. The only real difference I've read about so far is that the Pocket Wizards are rated to communicate at 1,600 feet. In other words, if I have a pocket wizard on my flash, and one on my camera, I can be 1,600 feet away, hit the trigger and my flash would pop. The CyberSyncs are only rated for 400, which is probably more than I'll ever use.

Here are the triggers (one CST and two CSB's):
http://www.alienbees.com/remotes.html

I plan on investing in Alienbee lighting when I have the money and feel it would be a worthy investment.

Here is my set-up (the trigger is unmounted in the middle because I don't have back up camera yet):

What you are seeing is a CyberSync receiver plugged into the PC port on my 580 EX II (the 580 EX II is the first Canon speedlight to offer a PC port) on the right. On the left is my 430 EX sitting in a hot shoe adapter. Because the 430 EX does not offer a PC port, I have the CyberSync running a cable into a hot shoe adapter. The receiver gets the signal from the transmitter, sends it through the cable, through the adapter and then my flash receives it and fires. The hot shoe adapter was $16.50 and I purchased it from Lon at www.flashzebra.com.

Finally, I picked up a set of gels so I can color balance/effect my flash output from www.photogels.com.

All of the companies I've worked with have been excellent. The hot shoe adapter I received from Lon at flash zebra didn't fit quite right, but he went above and beyond to resolve the situation (far beyond my expectations) and I am 100% satisfied.

I've also purchased a couple of Manfrotto light stands:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/612771-REG/Manfrotto_by_Bogen_Imaging_5001B_5001B_Nano_Black_Light.html

And a couple of Wescott 45" shoot-through/reflective umbrellas:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/63319-REG/Westcott_2016_Umbrella_White_Satin_.html#features

My purchases were heavily influenced by this article on www.strobist.com:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101-traveling-light.html

While my set up doesn't break down as compact as his, it's still very convenient. If you're interested in lighting and have no idea where to start, this is a big help. I was totally lost until I started reading the lighting 101 section of his blog/site.

So the weather is crappy and I'm sitting here with all this great gear not being able to get a good chance to use it. Yeah, this sucks.

Silver lining...

We had a pretty wicked storm front move across the valley today. It was over us in no time. The lowest clouds were moving so fast (the dark mass in the lower right of the first image), that I was almost worried we would be seeing tornadoes or something. The sky was so green and the wind was coming in so fast, I wasn't sure what was going to happen:

Also, a couple of days ago a pretty wicked storm moved through, but opened up toward the end of the evening. As it was leaving, it left a wide open sky for the sun to set in. This led to one of the largest rainbows I've ever seen.

Call me crazy, but I really like this shot:

Here are a couple with the rainbow and Mushna in full effect:

This also gave me the opportunity to snap one of my my favorite photos I've shot in a long time:

One last note on lighting... Based on a recommendation from the Strobist site, I found this photographer:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/polvero/

He makes excellent use out of a lot of the same types of gear I just purchased. I'm really anxious to get out to see if I can get some good results like this (eventually).

Here's to the hope of better weather...

Fake Tilt Shift Tutorial

2009-06-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

Here is my tilt shift tutorial. Hopefully I covered it okay. If you have questions, let me know.

Here is a link to the image I'm using so you can follow along if you want:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3661/3599850072_bca415dd52_o.jpg

First, you need to select the section of the image you want to be in focus:

If you need to change the orientation of your selection at all, use the "Transform Selection" option here:

Make sure your edges aren't ending before the edge of the photo. Otherwise, they'll be blurred and it will look weird. Apply your changes by hitting the check mark:

Next, invert the selection so you're selecting everything but the area you want in focus.

If your photo has walls or anything on the sides, you'll need to select that area, too because it won't really sell the effect to only have the ground in focus. This photo isn't the best option to show what I'm talking about, but hopefully you understand. In order to add to your selection, make sure you're on the "Rectangular Marquee Tool", hold shift and select the areas you would like to add to the selection area:

Here's a photo where I had to select the walls and stuff because just choosing the ground would have looked strange:

We need to refine the edge a bit. This adds a gradual change from the in focus area to the bokeh. Since we inverted the selection, this will apply to your foreground and background. Right click and choose "Refine Edge" (I forgot to inverse my selection the first time around so the selected area in my photo below is different than what you'll see. This is the only step that should have affected):

You're going to use the "Feather" slider to create the gradual shift from in focus to bokeh (this might look different, too because of the whole "forgetting to inverse my selection" issue I just spoke of. The white area might be opposite). How much you choose is up to you. You can also use the "Contract/Expand" slider to adjust your overall selection, too:

After you're done with that, the window will close and it will go back to your photo. It will look as though nothing happened, but you will see that it did in the next step.

Here we apply the blur. Go to Filter -> Blur -> Lens Blur:

Once in the lens blur tool, use the "Radius" to determine the amount of blur applied to the photo. I've found it's best to not go too overboard here. Once you hit "OK", this filter takes FOREVER to apply. Hang tight:

Now I want to add a bit more blur to the area behind my object to creat more depth up front (hopefully). Create a copy of your background layer (by right clicking and hitting the "Duplicate Layer" option. Once you're copied, go into the lens blur and use the radius slider to bump up a bit more blur than what you had previously. This should blur the entire photo. Don't worry, we'll fix that in the next couple of steps:

Now, click on the "Add Layer Mask" adjustment layer (in the bottom right hand corner) while having the background layer selected. You'll see a white area show up just to the right of the background copied layer. This is a layer mask. As long as it's white, that means that layer will show up:

Now choose the Gradient Tool in your tool bar. In the upper left hand corner, make sure you're using the "Black to White" gradient. You'll want to click right where the blur begins in the background and drag it up as far as you like. You're telling it where the background copy layer should begin and how quickly the transition to full background copy layer will take place:

In this photo, you can see that the background copy layer will be coming in 100% due to the layer mask being white just above the tree line toward the top:

To me, adding that second background copy layer with additional blur helps sell the effect. Up to you whether you want to use it, though.

Almost done. I like to merge my background copy layer down to my original layer here. You can do this by hitting ctrl+shift+E on a PC. I don't now what the combination is on a Mac (sorry).

Here we'll use a "Hue and Saturation" adjustment layer to boost the saturation. When you see models and stuff, it's not uncommon to see bright, unspoiled colors so we're not really going for a realistic amount of saturation, but you don't want to overdue it:

Now, I like to change the blend mode of that adjustment layer to "Color" so it will only affect the color and not the contrast:

You're done. There are some areas where the amount of blur or saturation is purely up to you. Play around to see what you like.

Here is the final product using this tutorial (in my photo in my last post I tweaked a few colors and stuff so things weren't as vibrant... That's all up to you from here):

Let me know if anything doesn't make sense or if you have questions.

Fake Tilt-Shift, Seven Peaks

2009-05-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

This is a Photoshop technique that (kind of) duplicates what a tilt-shift lens can do. A good tilt-shift lens runs $900+, so I'll settle for the Photoshop technique.

We went up to the "Y" mountain today and I thought looking down over Seen Peaks would be a good candidate for a tilt-shift. Essentially, the technique uses depth of field to trick you into thinking what you're seeing is miniaturized, when in reality, it's not. I got this trick out of a photography magazine a while ago, but I can't remember all the steps they used. This is a culmination of what I do remember, and what I know about Photoshop. If anyone is interested in the technique, let me know and I'll tell you how I did it:

My First Strobist (Off Camera Flash) Attempt

2009-05-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

Mushna bought me the Canon 580 EX II speedlite for my camera which can trigger my 430 EX wirelessly. Today I went to Pictureline and bought an umbrella and light stand so we went up to Hobble Creek to give it a try. I'm pretty impressed with my first attempt at using the flash off-camera. Everything was dialed in manually, including my camera and the power of the flash.

Here is the full set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157618945002473/

Here is a shot (taken by Mushna) of me:

Speaking of light, last weekend the weather was awful so I built my own lightbox roughly following the instructions here:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

Here is my version:

And here is my first (and only so far) shot taken inside the lightbox:

Ogden Midieval Festival

2009-05-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday we headed up to Ogden Utah to visit the Renaissance Festival. While this normally isn't my thing, the promise of full contact jousting definitely sounded interesting. Here are some photos.

The set on my Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157618011295404/

I felt really out of my element, but it was interesting...

Viva Las Vegas

2009-05-09T07:13:00.001-07:00

This week's been really busy. We went to Las Vegas last weekend and this Monday I came back to a project at work that was unlike anything I've seen before. The survey was on the verge of exceeding Advantage's (which is the table which the data in) limits. After outputting the data, I was looking at just under 45,000 columns. So much data. Our data program didn't know how to handle it so I had to set up well over 500 field types manually which took all of one day. Checking the data took three full days. I also had a second ugly project which wasn't as large, but much more intense logic-wise. I've been too tired to do much of anything when I get home besides watch movies/TV.

We bought a blu-ray player recently and have started accumulating a blu ray dvd collection. I was skeptical of the cost for a blu ray player at first, but we found a Samsung model that was relatively cheap (comparatively) which allows us to stream netflix to the TV. Oh, and blu ray is AMAZING. The first movie we watched was iRobot because we found it really cheap. I couldn't believe my eyes. Absolutely stunning. We bought Terminator 2 a few days later and while there are some scenes which didn't clean up as well, most of it looks pretty incredible.

I finally received my rebate gift card from the SanDisk memory cards I purchased at the beginning of the year so we went blu ray shopping again. I picked up Aviator and Casino. Aviator is one of my favorite movies of all time so I was excited to see it on blu ray. It does not disappoint. The picture is by far the best thing I've ever seen on a television and the sound is crystal clear.

Casino, despite being an older film, is also a great looking blu ray.

I've decided I'm going to own all of Scorsese's films in blu ray. I think it's a worthy endeavor.

Las Vegas was a lot of fun. Friday we drove down and pretty much just hung out at the hotel until the Leah Solanga show. While her music is the furthest thing from my taste, I do have to hand it to her musical director and the guitarist she had touring with her. Both were incredibly talented guys. The whole band was, but those two stood out the most. The musical director was not only directing the band, but the pianist. There were many instances of him directing with one hand and playing with the other. It was interesting to watch.

Saturday we did some wondering around the strip. Here are a few photos:

You can view the full set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157617718317231/

Unfortunately we were pretty busy most the trip so I wasn't able to view as many casinos as I would have liked. I was a bit self conscious about shooting inside the casinos, too. I've heard some get pretty upset, but surprisingly, I never heard anything from anyone.

Saturday evening we attended the Cirque du Soleil show, Ka in the MGM Grand. The show was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It really is unreal. One of those things you have to see to believe... And even then, there were times I felt like I was watching a dream. Here is the preview for Ka:

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/ka/home/intro.htm

If you ever have the opportunity to see a Cirque show, I recommend it. They're not cheap, but they are worth every penny.

70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM - Update

2009-04-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

I received my lens today. They shipped it Friday the 24th second day air and it arrived this morning. I played with it a bit this morning and it seems sharper at the 70 mm end but I really haven't had the opportunity to take it out and give it a good run yet because of the weather. They said that if I still see issues to send my lens and my camera body in for calibration. I don't think it will come to that.

Final word, Canon's Customer service was awesome. My lens was received and fixed on the 23rd, checked and shipped on the 24th. That kind of turnaround time deserves major kudos. I don't think the repair was anything too intense, but if I ever do need major repairs, at least I know they're on top of it.

Anyway, Friday Mushna and I are on our way to Vegas. We're going to see a vocalist named Leah Solanga perform and catch a Cirque show. Should be fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lea_Salonga

70-200 f/2.8L IS USM Lens Update

2009-04-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

So far my experience with Canon Customer Service has been excellent (Sigma should pay attention).

I received an email yesterday with the information that my lens has been received and work has begun. They gave my case a repair number where I can check the status online.

I called today expecting to get an automated system to see if anything unusual was found with the lens but was transferred to a customer care representative instead. I gave them all my information and they told me that the repairs have already been made and the lens was in the quality assurance department getting the work done checked. I checked the online status a short time after that and they said it's already completed and will be shipped soon.

The rep told me that there was adjustments made to the mechanics and the electronics in the lens to bring them back into factory spec.

To wrap up, I sent the lens UPS ground on Tuesday, April 21st. It arrived in Irvine, CA on Thursday the 23rd and was accepted by the service department. Today, April 24th the repairs are already made and the lens is being prepared to be shipped back. Amazing.

When I had sharpness issues with my Sigma 10-20, I had to send it in twice. My lens would disappear and magically show up on my door step three weeks earlier. The only time I ever got any detailed information was when I called and begged them for an update. I received an email a few days later telling me the lens had been shipped. They have no online monitoring and when you call, all you're told is that it's in for repairs. I will never purchase Sigma lenses again.

70-200 f/2.8L IS USM

2009-04-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

I suspect my lens may need a slight calibration. I sent it to Canon on Tuesday, April 21st. It arrived this morning, Thursday, April 23rd. I've heard amazing things about Canon's customer service and repair turn around time. I'll post when it's returned. Hopefully the rumors are true and I'll have it back next week (before Friday because we're on our way to Vegas that day).

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival

2009-04-18T21:38:00.001-07:00

Today we hit the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I mainly shot with my 70-200 f/2.8L IS but took a few photos with my 100 mm f/2.8 Macro and even one with my Sigma 10-20 that turned out pretty cool.

I had some concerns of softness on my 70-200 f/2.8 so I took it into a local camera shop (Kew's Camera) and he ran tests on it. He concurred that it is coming in a bit soft at f/2.8 but I shouldn't be concerned enough to send it in for warranty work. He suggested I stick to the f/4 or above range unless I need to dip into the f/2.8 range. I have read that this lens comes in soft at 2.8 so I'm assuming it's just acting as it should and am going to work on shooting at f/4 or above unless it's dark/a low light situation.

By the way. My wife used "bokeh" in a sentence tonight. I was so happy.

Here are a few selected shots. You can view the entire set here (these shots are straight out of the camera converted from RAW to jpg using Canon's Digital Photo Professional software. No adjustments in Photoshop except for one shot which I cropped a bit):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157617022358610/

Warm Weather!

2009-04-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

It's finally warming up which means more pictures. Last weekend I was asked to do my first engagement shoot for my cousin Trent and his Fiancee Karla. It was definitely a new experience, but it was fun and I've kind of dealt with my fear of photographing people.

Here are some of the better shots:

You can see the whole set here (I still have a lot to process so I will be adding more as I get to them):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157616318212215/

I finally bought into the Cokin filter set a couple of weekends ago. Unfortunately the weather hasn't allowed much opportunity for shooting so I'll get a post up about it as soon as I can get some test shots. I am going to purchase the gradient tobacco filter (hopefully) this weekend from Pixels so I'll have more to discuss.

Finally, here is the moon from tonight. It looks better if you click and view it full size. It's not the sharpest because I was on my back patio trying to maneuver my tripod to shoot straight up. I'll definitely be trying another shot once I get out away from the city and have a better angle at the moon. This was taken with the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS + EF 2x II teleconverter:

Holi (Colorfest), 2009

2009-03-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the annual Festival of Colors at the Krishna Temple. It's a celebration of spring and it's most famous for the participants throwing colored chalk at each other. At the end of the day, people are covered in it.

The festival started off at 4:00 pm with performers singing and dancing, followed by the ceremonious color being tossed at 5:40. We left my house at about 4:00 pm and hopped on the freeway. There were two accidents on the freeway which means between rubber neckers and the festival traffic once we hit Spanish Fork, we were stuck in stop and go traffic for well over two hours. As we were waiting in traffic, we started seeing people walking back covered in colored chalk. We missed the main event. When we got there, it was pretty much an anything goes concert. All the performers were on the stage singing, playing instruments and/or dancing. There was still the occasional color war, but for the most part, it was pretty much people dancing and crowd surfing. I got what I could. I've posted my favorites below, but you can see the whole set here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnoeyez99/sets/72157615966493195/

Marilyn Manson on Donahue

2009-03-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

In the 90's Marilyn Manson appeared on Donahue to provide input on the topic of "moshing". People generally take Manson at face value and don't anticipate him having a brain. This was less an issue with Donahue than other shows he's been on, but this is still pretty entertaining...

Best line, "I went to a nice private Christian school. Look how I turned out".

Also, this is classic Manson right before AntiChrist came out. I miss those days.

In the Beginning...

2009-03-24T19:53:00.001-07:00

I've never much on blogging and stuff like that. I've posted a few to my myspace account, but I never really pay attention to that any more so I figured I'd start a respectable site.

So, what's new? Mushna and I celebrated a month of marriage on march 19th. Our paperwork is off to the immigration attorney so he can start processing all the green card, travel and work authority documentation. That's been the only real point of stress (and finances) so far.

As for me, I picked up photography last year and have since purchased the much coveted Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM lens. Last year I was shooting with the 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 IS USM on the telephoto end and I was happy with the results. The 70-200 is a professional lens so I'm really excited to get it out this summer.

Right now, my main camera rig looks like this:
Canon 40D
Sigma 10-20 mm f/4-5.6
Canon 28-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8 L IS USM
Canon EF 2x II Teleconverter
Canon 430 EX Speedlite with a Sto-Fen diffuser

Eventually I want to replace my 28-135 with the excellent 24-70 mm f/2.8 L USM but it will probably be next year when I seriously look at it.

Anyway, here are the photos I consider my favorites from last year:

Top 10 Photos from 2008

The first big outing this year will be Holi or Color Fest which takes place on the grounds of the Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, Utah. I photographed an event last year called India Fest and my photos were featured on their site with a link to my flickr account. Here are those photos. That was shot with my 70-300 lens before the sun went completely down and my 50 mm f/1.8 when it got dark. I'm excited to use my 70-200 because I should be able to shoot with it and get amazing results through out the evening.

Getting near summer, this blog will pretty much be a photography blog with bits of other stuff mixed in, for instance, my favorite albums (so far this year they're Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave, Mastodon - Crack the Skye, Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague with a shout out to Lamb of God's -Wrath. By the way, Devin Townsend has new material coming out, too.).