Suddenly I See

I've had my D3200 for a little over 7 months now. I've been "joking" that it's time for a new camera because I'm starting to outgrow it. I thought eventually I would like to upgrade my camera to a full frame one, but probably not for another two years. A couple of days ago, I was presented an offer I could not turn down. So now, I am an owner of a full frame D700.

If you don't know the difference between Full Frame vs. Cropped Frame DSLR Cameras, here is a little write-up explaining the differences. 

One photog friend told me, "You are now on a whole different level of photography." Another told me, "You will see a big difference because the photos will look so much better and you will never be able to go back (to a cropped frame camera)." 

I'm actually seeing a big difference after just shooting with it for a couple of days now. Here are some photos I took with the D700 that I don't think I could've gotten with the D3200.

Taken with Nikon 20mm f/2.8 lens

Taken with Nikon 60mm Micro f/2.8 lens
(Can you see the ants?)

Taken with Nikon 60mm Micro f/2.8 lens

Taken with Nikon 60mm Micro f/2.8 lens

Taken with Nikon 60mm Micro f/2.8 lens
(Look at the legs on that ant!)

Taken with Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens
(I have an extremely difficult time shooting with this lens on the D3200, but I didn't
have the same problems while using it on the D700.  It was so hard for me to use,
that I always dreaded using it. I'm hoping that will change now.)

Live in Living Color

For several months, I've been wanting to go to the Korean Buddhist Temple (Mu-Ryang-Sa) in Palolo. A friend of mine had posted pictures he had taken there and they looked so awesome! Reese suggested that I try doing some photos in HDR. HDR with any of his cameras is easy. He just sets it to do bracketing and it will take 3 photos in 3 different exposures once he hits the shutter. For me, since my camera doesn't do bracketing, I have to do it "manually". First, I have to take the photo in the correct exposure, then I take the same photo underexposed and then one overexposed. In order for HDR to "work", the frame has to be identical and the only way to do it is to put your camera on a tripod. 

Here are a few sets of photos showing the correct exposure and then the photo transformed into HDR. I think I might get hooked doing this to my photos!  :)

I'm Glad You Came

Yesterday, I took a trip to the east side of the island to capture the sunset and the moonrise. I was extremely unprepared! I didn't bring a tripod and the only lens I had with me was 40mm macro. But, making do with what I had, I am pretty satisfied with what I came up with.

Not having a tripod and having to hold steady for 1 second is really hard. For this last photo, you can see that the trees on the hill are slightly blurry, but I guess for this kind of shot, it isn't too noticeable.  :)

(R)Ice (R)Ice Baby

If I never mentioned it before, Reese and I have been on a carb-free diet for 6 months, which coincidentally, has been as long as I have been learning photography. We have lost a total of 30 pounds combined (yes, just by not eating starch)! Our diet isn't too strict...we can eat carbs if we want, like pasta and bread, but it is absolutely forbidden to eat rice. Every month is a competition to see who can lose the most weight. The person losing the most based on percentage is declared the winner and the loser must pay for the carbo-loaded lunch we reward ourselves with for our efforts. We had already used up our carb quota for November, but since it was Reese's birthday, an exception was made to celebrate his special day.  :)

Here are some photos from Sushi Bistro Shun on South King Street in Moiliili. The restaurant is dimly lit and the lens I had with me was a Nikon 40mm f/2.8 macro lens. To avoid using an ISO higher than 3200, I tried to use the biggest aperture possible. However, when you shoot with a big aperture, the depth of field is very shallow, which makes it challenging to get the entire subject in focus. But hey, I'm still learning and trying to figure it out.   

Special menu board...so cute, yeah?

ISO 3200, f/2,8, shutter 1/30

Pork Kakuni (shoyu pork)...oh so delicious!

ISO 3200, f/4, shutter 1/30

Beef Tataki...so yummy!

ISO 3200, f/3, shutter 1/60

Ikura (salmon roe) - I admit, I'm not a fan, but this one was the best I ever had!

ISO 3200, f/3.2, shutter 1/40

I LOVE avocado...I could eat it every day!

 The unagi sauce and wasabi with the rice made it suprisingly delicious!

ISO 3200, f/4, shutter 1/40

Ray of Light

Yesterday I attended my very first photography workshop sponsored by Professional Photographers of Hawaii (PPH) at Foster Botanical Garden. At this workshop, I met the amazing longtime Master Photographer Claude Ayakawa. He has an undeniable talent of finding any available natural light and using it to capture a superbly lit photograph. What he does is amazing! At this workshop, all Claude brought with him was a Nikon D90 camera and a Tamron lens...no fancy equipment. When I asked him why he didn't use a Nikon lens, he told me this lens is just as good as a name brand one and cheaper. I guess when you have really mastered something, it doesn't really matter what kind of equipment you use. He's a prime example of the photographer, not the equipment, that creates a masterpiece.

Here are some of the photos I took from the workshop.

ISO 200, f/4.8, shutter 1/60

ISO 400, f/5.3, shutter 1/80

ISO 800, f/4.5, shutter 1/100

ISO 400, f/4, shutter 1/125

Long As I Can See the Light

The other night, I wanted to do something that I thought would be fun for kids. So we got out some glow stick necklaces and a red LED key light and drew pictures in the dark. The kids were in awe at the first photo I showed them. "How did you do that?!?!?!" they asked me.  I was tempted to say "It's magic", but I ended up telling them that the camera was picking up the light in the dark and "remembering" it...sorta like recording a video. I hope that easy explanation made sense to them.  

The first picture was actually taken by one of the kids. I had the camera set to bulb and told the 9-year old when to start and stop "filming". She was pretty stoked about actually being the photographer. When I did the eyes, I held the LED light on for a little longer to get the those "eyelashes". 

The second picture was something the 9-year old wanted to draw. I thought the spacing between words was pretty good.

The third photo was drawn by a 5-year old. The window from the house in the back actually took the place of one of the happy face's eyes.  It was totally unintentional, but ended up to be perfect placement.  LOL!

Hazy Shade of Winter (...well, more like Fall)

This week's lesson with Reese was a fun lesson on bokeh. The term bokeh comes from the Japanese word boke, which means "blur" or "haze". Bokeh is the blur or the aesthetic quality of the blur found in out-of-focus areas of an image. To achieve this effect, a shallow depth of field must be used to create these out-of-focus regions. The bigger the aperture (smaller the f/number), the more blur in the background.  The smaller the aperture (bigger the f/number), the less blur in the background. For the photos below, I used a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 prime lens. I started off with f/1.4 for maximum background blur, then increased each photo by 2 full stops until I got to this lens' smallest aperture of f/16. 

Reese had a really simple way of explaining how to calculate full stops. Hopefully I can explain it so you can understand too. 

Take the numbers 1 and 1.4. If 1.4 is the first stop, to figure out the next stop, you double the number before 1.4, which is 1. So the second stop would be 2. 

To figure out the next stop after 2, you take the number before 2, which is 1.4 and double it. The third stop would be 2.8.  

To figure out the next stop after 2.8, you take the number before 2.8, which is 2 and double it. The fourth stop would be 4.  

To figure out the next stop after 4, you take the number before 4, which is 2.8 and double it. The fifth stop would be 5.6.

When you get to double digit f/number, the decimal number is dropped. So 11.2 is just 11 and so on.

For this particular lens, if you start from f/1.4, the full stops after that are f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11 and f/16. In my explanation above, I had stated that I increased each photo by 2 full stops. This is true only to f/11. The very last photo in each set is only 1 full stop, since the smallest aperture on my lens was f/16. Otherwise, it would've been f/22.

ISO 100, f/1.4, shutter 1/4000

ISO 100, f/1.4, shutter 1/4000

ISO 100, f/2.8, shutter 1/1250

ISO 100, f/2.8, shutter 1/1600

ISO 100, f/5.6, shutter 1/500

ISO 100, f/5.6, shutter 1/500

ISO 100, f/11, shutter 1/160

ISO 100, f/11, shutter 1/80

ISO 100, f/16, shutter 1/40

ISO 100, f/16, shutter 1/40

Doesn't the blurry background look cool? Experiment and see what your lens can do...I did!

I'm Like a Bird.

The weather during my trip to Seattle was beautiful! I was also fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take long exposure shots of the skyline from the boat docks near Alki Beach in West Seattle.  

ISO 100, f/8, shutter 25 seconds

The white "stick" on the left of the photo is a new giant ferris wheel that was erected on the waterfront. Completion was only a couple of months ago. I didn't get a chance to ride it, but I'm sure it would be pretty cool to try one of these days.

ISO 100, f/8, shutter 10 seconds

For this photo, I stitched together 6 long exposure shots to form this panoramic photograph. On the left is the Space Needle, then downtown Seattle in the middle and the blue arc on the right is CenturyLink Field, home to the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Sounders.

ISO 100, f/8, shutter 3 seconds

That same afternoon, I also got to attend the Seahawk's season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.  Look at how many people were in attendance! I think the announcer said over 67,000 fans!

ISO 400, f/14, shutter 1/250

Here is a shot of Tony Romo passing the football. He had a rough day...the final score was 27-7 in favor of the Seahawks.

ISO 400, f/8, shutter 1/640

This has got to be my favorite shot of the trip - Robert Turbin catching a pass from Russell Wilson. I've titled this photo "Seahawk in Flight".  LOL!

ISO 400, f/8, shutter 1/640

I'm Too Sexy

Last weekend, Ala Moana Center played host to a fall fashion workshop.  Ala Moana transformed Centerstage into a mini-runway where beautiful models strutted their stuff in clothing from the various shops found in the mall.  At this workshop, I got to learn about the current fall fashion trends as well as practice using my speedlight on moving subjects. 

The lighting situation was a bit challenging that evening.  The workshop started at 7pm and the sun had already gone down.  There were spotlights from above used to illuminate the people on stage.  But the most challenging thing was the huge projection screen that gave off tons of “weird” light.  The lighting on a lot of the photos that I took when the models were standing close to the screen came out weird.  The light from the screen reflected off the glossy runway and caused strange streaks of light on the bottom half of my photos.

At this outing, I also tried to focus on taking photographs so my subjects didn’t look all “flashed out”. Using flash is tricky...you have be able to be able to gauge how much flash you need and make adjustments quickly. Too much and the people look washed out. Too little and you won't be able to see the people's faces.  I definitely need to practice more!

ISO 800, f/5.6, shutter 1/60

ISO 800, f/5.6, shutter 1/200

ISO 400, f/5.6, shutter 1/60

ISO 800, f/5.6, shutter 1/200

ISO 800, f/5.6, shutter 1/200