Last Homework Assignment of My Flash Class

This is the last week of my online photo course and the assignment was to use flash to do a "blurred" shot. Once again I asked Chinchih to be the model. It's really hard to make the blur "just right". After numerous tries, this is the best I could get. Both of us were too tired to continue.

This was shot with the 14mm I borrowed from KT.

First Try of Nikon 14mm

I borrow my friend KT's 14mm lens to shoot for a realtor friend's house opening. Here is a test shot of the 14mm. The lens is actually wider but I had to crop the photo to remove some clutter (not much help though). Here is KT changing the tire of his bike.

Miti Enjoying Sunlight

OK, Miti is a bit overweight, but that bothers me more than that bothers her. She enjoys her life just as well. This is a photo of Miti enjoying the afternoon sunlight.

A Light Bulb Moment

Yesterday I was watching DVD "Creative Outdoor Photography" which I bought from my previous Frans Lanting Gallery trip. In the video, the late landscape photographer Galen Rowell was showing how he used a graduated ND filter with fill flash to lighten up the foreground. I had known Rowell's love of using graduated ND filters since the filters I used were designed by him, but it was the first time I saw someone use a fill flash in the field. And he used it A LOT!

It suddenly occurred to me that's the solution for a lot of the exposure difficulties I had faced. I used graduated ND to control the exposure on the sky, but so many times the foreground subject was just too dark. I always thought I might need to use stronger ND filters and wondered how come Rowell didn't design them. Looking at how Rowell used the fill flash I suddenly realized that was why. He didn't used a stronger ND; he used a flash!

I thumbed through my failed photos and suddenly could see them in a new light. A lot of them could be salvaged with the use of fill flash, no HDR post processing needed. Some, though might still require HDR, could have more creative result with flash. For example, I used HDR to combine the following two photos to get the exposure in range, but I was not happy with the result; something was missing. I realized if I use a flash on the ceiling of the cave while metering on the small rock I could have a feather effect and it might be more satisfying than a plain HDR.

To quote Shakespeare, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought (Sonnet 30). Fortunately there is still time. Now I just need to practice, practice, and practice.

New Rock Band in Town

Compared to a previous photo I took for the same sea anemones, it suddenly appeared to me they looked just like a rock band. Everyone, meet the new band in town - Sea Anemones. (That funny looking fish in the foreground is definitely a groupie.)

Nikon D90, 1st DSLR with Movie Feature

So no D3x announced, but D90 before Photokena. I have to admit at first I was a little bit disappointed (have been waiting for the 24MP D3x for a long long time). However, the movie feature is really exciting (the first in DSLR). You can shoot HD movies using it and the quality is better than a camcorder! It opens so many opportunities. Now I can shot Miti videos and even use it in YC's wedding.

I think Nikon really redefines the role of DSLR. Along with it comes new challenges to digital photographers, but I would say these challenges are very welcomed.

Blue Rhapsody

On my way to gym I noticed some patterns on the ground. With some contrast adjustment and sharpening, they turned out quite interesting.

Dale Chihuly Exhibition at Monterey Aquarium

This is the Dale Chihuly's art work at the Monterey Aquarium in the Jellyfish area. Currently there is a major Chihuly exhibition in the de Young museum (http://www.chihuly.com) and it's really wonderful. Highly recommended.

This photo, however, is not successful. There are reflections in the glass and the flash doesn't render a good skin tone. To get a good one, I will probably need a totally different set of lighting equipment. Anyway, one interesting aspect of photography is you can always learn new things from your own failure. There is a certain playfulness in it and the more you fail, the better you will be. So if you are not good enough, you probably haven't failed enough.

(OK, here is a successful one which shows the true power of fill flash.)

Chinchih the Cover Girl

For my homework assignment, I asked my best friend Chinchih to be my model and persuaded her to visit Monterey Aquarium with me. The photos I took inside the aquarium were not very good, but the ones outside turned out to be perfect for my fill flash homework. Without flash, the face was full of shadow. With flash, the shadow was gone and the face even looked a little bit glowing (though I should probably tune it down a little bit using a reflector). Chinchih looks just like an Olympic athlete! So I made this mock magazine cover. Chinchih, you are a cover girl now.

Another Day at Pascadero State Beach

For my online photo course homework assignment, I decided to use fill flash on a foreground object. The reason was to solve a technical difficulty I faced. I found when I took pictures at Pascadero State Beach, the foreground always became too dark; all those nice details on the rocks were lost. With fill flash I could easily solve this problem.

I found this rock with enough sea grasses on it which fit my description perfectly; I was also lucky enough to get a dramatic sunset. Though most of the time I was just worried about the coming tide, I managed to get a few shots. With some post processing (my exposure control is yet to be perfected), this one came out quite nicely.

$10 An Hour, Anyone?

Yesterday I was doing research on photography jobs and came across an ad on craiglist for a photographer position in SJ. The pay was $10 an hour (it also said "it is a great beginning for photography school graduate"). Even in my intern days (15 years ago) the pay was $15 an hour. I was shocked. I was so upset that I immediately drove to the beach and took pictures of those nasty looking rocks.

I am still recovering.

Rock Abstractions

These rocks are buried in sands and only appear in low tide. To me, they look like modern sculpture. In a sense they are; they are shaped by nature.

Here is another modern art rock pattern. Those tiny barnacles add some nice texture to it.

Alien Landscape

Just around the corner of the same Pebble Beach, the rocks here are shaped by a different force, wind. These sandstones look like they are from Dali's studio, or another planet.

The size of the pebbles

To give you an idea of how small those pebbles are, here is a photo of me sitting on the rock. Those small dots in the foreground are the pebbles. You can also see how small the "holes" in the rock are.

A Very Calm Day

Yesterday was a very calm day; looking at the sea from this highway lookout really reminded me why it was called "Pacific Ocean". You almost feel you can walk on the water.

What will today look like? I wonder.

A Stroll at Pebble Beach

The pebbles and the rock patterns on this small beach always fascinate me, but I am yet to make an image I am happy with. Sometimes striving for beauty can be so frustrating.

Money Cat

Miti likes to sit on the bay window to enjoy her daily sun bath. If you happen to pass by, she sometimes raises her paw to say hello. Make her look like the "Money Cat" you can see in those Japanese stores.

Someone told me I needed to clean up the window.

Another Trip to Monterey Aquarium

I finally found this famous jellyfish tank. Too bad the aquarium was closing when I found it so I didn't have enough time to take more pictures. This is the most amazing jellyfish exhibition in the world.

Also snap this shark photo. Man, it looks really evil.

NYIP Course Received

Today when I checked the mailbox I noticed I had a package. It was my NYIP course! Well, I guess that formally started my photography education. My cat, Miti celebrated it by attacking the the cardboard box. Both of us had so much fun.

Play Time

First try of using an off camera flash. Lens flare is visible. I have yet to master this technique.

A more successful experiment. My friend Sarah said I looked like a zen master.

Photos Taken Over the Weekend

Yesterday I took a few photos of this plant. There were so much dirt on the leaves it was so annoying. It took me half an hour to clean up the dirt today before I could take this photo. It's still not very clean, but much better than yesterday. Sometimes I wish I had an assistant.

Without white balance adjustment, the highly salted mud in the SF Bay can turn blue in the shadow. I noticed this unusual mound during my weekend photo scouting and decided to leverage on this effect to make it a little bit surreal. It worked. When I looked at the photo on my computer screen I suddenly realized there must be a tire buried under the mud.

Sleeping Cat

Sleeping Cat

Cats like to play hard to catch. However, they can also be incredibly sweet. It's in moment like this you forget all their shortcomings and just simply fall for them.

Flowing Water 101

It was not a sunny day so my original plan to shoot sunset with flash light to show foreground details had to be changed. Then I saw the waves hit those sea grasses (need to check what plant it is). I decided to catch the water flow. However, I forgot one important thing. The water speed was really fast so a shutter speed between 0.25 and 2 seconds should be used (I should use shutter priority instead of the aperture priority I usually used). Turned out I over-exposed the flowing water in most of the photos. Fortunately I still had a few underexposed shots I did for HDR so I could salvage it in Photoshop, but the texture of the flow was gone. Overall, I was not pleased.
I keep reminding myself there are good days and bad days. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and hope the good days will come soon.

Online Photo Class Starts Today

I signed up the online photo class "Take the Mystery Out of Flash Photography" after my unsuccessful attempts of using a flash at Monterey Aquarium (also for YC's civil ceremony). It's the first time I ever try a online course so the whole experience is kind of interesting.

There are about 10-15 people registered in this class from all over the world (most of them from Europe). How do I know? Because we can sign on to a forum area and "introduce" ourselves. I posted a "hello there" message last night and felt very excited about the coming class just like in the beginning of a new school year (even though there is no physical campus to go to this time). I also found most of my classmates had taken classes from the same online school before, a good sign that their previous experience with the school was positive and it is not a hoax.

Our class starts on Aug 6th, which means the class material is supposed to be posted on the web today. I checked it this morning. Lo and behold it was there. No class bell, no announcement, the course already started.

The material looks a bit slim but that's fine because the goal is to force myself to do the assignment. Once I finish my assignment, I can post it online then the teacher and my classmates can give me feedbacks. All the discussions and Q&A sessions are held online, forum style.

OK, now it's time to study the class material. I will report more after I submit my first assignment. See you later.

Mitty at Home

Mitty sometimes has this funny look. Makes her really look like the cat Dola-Amon in the popular Japanese comics. She's not the skinny little kitten any more (but more fun to play with). Cats are such nature born models (if they ever bother to pose at all).

Field Trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium

I saw an interesting jellyfish photo taken from the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the DPReview forum yesterday. It just occurred to me that I hadn't visited this world famous aquarium for a long time. (A few years ago, my brother lived in Monterey so I went there quite often.) In those years, the Monterey Aquarium had expanded and more interesting exhibitions were added (the beloved Jellyfish exhibition is a big hit). Now it seems a good time to visit it again.

On my way to the Aquarium, I noticed this old house. It looked out of place among those posh souvenir shops and renovated hotels in the Cannery Row. Is it the place? I asked myself. Yes, it is indeed Dr Ricketts's lab, #800 Cannery Row. (If you don't know who he is, it's time to pick up your Steinbeck.)

The Aquariums was unbelievably crowded. I guess summer is a good time for kids to take field trips. Because of that, those dark exhibition rooms could make one feel a little bit claustrophobic. To see the sea anemones or those beautiful jellyfishes I had to push myself through a crowd, not something I enjoyed. The low light condition required me to use high ISO settings (I used ISO 800 and ISO 1250) so I was really worried about the noise in the D200 images. It was, however, a perfect condition to use a Nikon D700 (which I don't have).

Enough said. Time to show a few shots. I hope soon I can bring my D700 to the Aquarium and make better photos.

Interesting Quote

I read the following lines in the NYIP brochure. I shall never forget it.

"The difference between the serious amateur and the successful pro is not the way they take pictures. It’s how they use them."

First Assignment

My friend YC is getting married and she invites me to take photos in the civil ceremony (the wedding will come later). I am all excited. No more excuse not to learn how to use a flash. (Or maybe a good excuse to buy D700.) I have about a month to get ready. I love this type of assignment, really push you to learn new things. Well, let's hope I won't screw up YC's civil ceremony.

Franz Lanting Gallery Visit

Franz Lanting is one of my photographic heroes. With his fellow National Geographic photographers, Lanting has inspired generations of people to pick up their cameras and go see the world. When I was in college every month I eagerly waited for the National Geographic on sale in the nearly bookstore (the subscribed NG was shipped by sea and took several months to arrive.) To a college kid who had never left Taiwan, the places in National Geographic were truly exotic. Through Lanting's lens I visited Botswana, Amazon, and (now not so exotic) the Islands of Hawaii. I remember there was a photo of Lanting taking pictures in Botswana. Lanting, who stood in murky water neck deep, camera raised over head, looked so determined to get the shot that nothing seemed to matter. That image had stuck with me and made Photography a symbol of adventure forever.

Years ago, I found that Lanting actually lived in Santa Cruz and had a gallery there. Ever since then, it's on my todo list to visit the gallery. The gallery is open Mon to Fri and closed on Holiday. Now that I don't have to work, I finally get time to visit it.

The gallery is on the outskirt of Santa Cruz, quite easy to find. It's not large, but spacious enough to exhibit about 20 full sized photos. I have seen most of the images in books or National Geographic. Printed large (some 48-60"), they look even more impressive. The "penguins on blue iceberg" mural looks like an abstract modern painting (the blue in the ice is hard to describe); the eye-to-eye jaguar image shines with a mythical dimension. I have sometimes wondered if 35mm photos can stand to be enlarged and if I really need a medium format. I would say seeing Lanting's work printed on such a scale really answered my own question.

When I left I bought the DVD "Creative Outdoor Photography" (seems to be from the seminars taught by Lanting and the late Galen Rowell). It will be our later topic. Stay tuned.

P.S. here is the link to the gallery:
http://www.lanting.com/gallery_location.html