Super Moon – June 2013.

Last July, I made an attempt to photograph the super moon.  And this is how it came out…

Nemuro Wine – 2009

A couple years back, I wrote about photographing the Nemuro wine bottle; which turned out to be a lot of fun because I was able to do it with only 2 lights.  I received the 2009 vintage a few days ago.   My first reaction after seeing the bottle was: “*%^$*!, black label on black bottle…”

Catch a Tiger by the… Tee?

A few months back Freddy Couples picked Tiger Woods for 2011’s President’s Cup in Australia under the condition that Tiger must play another tournament in the fall series.  The local golf nuts at the bay area had our fingers crossed, hoping Tiger will pick our humble Frys Open to polish up his game.  Well, things couldn’t turn out any better:  Tiger did pick Frys Open, I happened to be in town, and the teleconverter (TC-20E II) I’ve been waiting for finally arrived.  A perfect storm, sort of.

Krya Spa

I was fortunate to be given permission to photograph Krya Spa at Bali’s Grand Hyatt (thanks to Sanjay and Melani from Hyatt).  But the minute I was granted permission, I realize I didn’t have my top gears:

• Tripod.  I had my old (and flimsy) travel tripod with me.  It shakes for good 5 seconds every time I let go of the camera.  Not having a cable release didn’t help either.
• Lens.  I had my travel 28-120mm f/5.6.  Not sharp enough, not fast enough, not wide enough.

Well… too late to back off now that I got what I wished for.

DLWS Kauai – Surf’s Up!

Our assignment for 3rd day morning was to take portraits of each other with and without flash.  Now this is more in my alley.  Our group decided to pool together our Nikon speed lights; this way, we would be able to overpower the ambient light and cycle really fast if we needed to.

I Shoot People

I thought may be I should post something other than fabulous models for a change.  I had the chance to attend a Warriors game a few weeks ago against Cleveland Cavaliers.  I was told we had court side seats; so naturally I brought my new 70-200mm VR2 lens; excited that I may get some nice closeup action shots.  Wrong!  I was not aware that they have a 3″ rule (any lens longer than 3″ are not allowed).  This is the 2nd time I was rejected for the size of my equipment (no pun intended; first time was at the Formula One Paddock walk in Singapore).  Bummer.  As you can see, 28-70mm doesn’t get you much action even from court side seats.  Oh well… got to do with what you have at hand.  That was one of the three shots I took of the game.  Do I just seat there and pout?  NOOOOO… 

Side Lit

One of the new tricks I experimented when shooting Gabriella was rim lighting.  Adding light from the side, slightly behind creates a rim around the body and face.  It adds dimension to the portrait.  Not to mention that it separates the subject from the background.  This is specially important if your subject has dark hair.  I like what it does to the curves of the body.

Meeting Michael Schumacher

The most exciting event during Singapore GP for me was meeting Michael Schumacher at Mercedes GP’s VIP suite.  We were told Michael will come  up for 15 minutes; but he won’t be signing any autographs.  Makes sense; if he signs one, then he will have to stick around and make every “VIP” happy.  But I was determined not to go home empty handed.   Gosh, the statistics of me getting invited back to F1 VIP suite is probably less than the chance of me winning the lottery.  Let alone the chance of meeting the world champion!  So I had to come up with an plan. 

Fast Cars!

I don’t usually shoot cars.  But the minute I heard I was invited to Mercedes GP’s VIP suit, I booked the ticket and ordered 70-200mm VR II rental lens.  It’s not often you get to be Michael Schumacher’s guest: champagnes and caviar, uhmmm….. 

St. Augustine Church

It was our first night in Paris; it started to rain shortly after we checked into the hotel. We found this restaurant at the street corner that looks pretty good. Quickly, we learned that in France the waiters will come when they want; it’s useless calling them. While waiting for our waiter, I noticed that the rain eased and the sky was turning blue (sunset was around 8PM). So I decided to get a few quick shots across the street.