Random Brain Dump

A few weeks ago, my dad & I took an early morning hike at Rancho San Antonio. After a good hour of hike, we got up to an open meadow with a great vast view of the entire bay area. We saw buildings from downtown San Francisco, the bay, the east bay hills. I managed to take some panoramic shots of the valley. I didn’t do a good job of keeping the metering constant across the photos so the stitching wasn’t as smooth as I wanted, but it’s still pretty cool. I’ll try again next time.

There were many signs from nature that spring is coming– greenery was everywhere and flower buds ready to bloom. I’m looking forward to do more hikes and take more photos.

By the way, when viewing individual photos, you should see “View Panorama” command link for each panaramic photo. Clicking it will launch an applet for viewing panorama, which allows for panning left & right– simple but pretty cool.

I spent several weeks reviewing my photo collection and put together a gallery of the best 25 photos of the past year. These photo represent the best of my “work” as an amateur photographer. These represent best in terms of sentimental, artistic & technical values to me. With almost 3000 photos to chose from, the process wasn’t easy– too many I wanted to include…

During the review process, I took notice of my progress as a photographer. I became more comfortable with my Canon 350XT. I can’t say I have mastered it, but I’ve learned to use most of the functions it has to offer. I started out the year relying less on the fully automatic modes. By spring, a good number of my pictures were shot in aperture-priority mode, which remains my favorite shooting mode. By summer, I began to experiment with longer shutter times. I outgrew the kit lens that came with the camera and recently added a Tamron 28-75mm lens to my collection after months-long research. I yet to put it through its paces, but it is currently my favorite lens.

The highlight of the year in terms of photo opportunity has to be my trip to Yosemite. While I really enjoyed the excursion, I regret that I didn’t have better lenses then– could’ve used a wide angle lens. I was surprised I didn’t get more “high quality” shots with the trips to Hawaii and Tahoe. Then I was reminded that traveling with kids doesn’t leave you with alot of time to shoot these type of shots. On the flip side, I did get lots of sentimental shots of our family, just as well. 🙂

For the new year, I hope to find more time exploring photography. I am planning to add a wide angle lens soon since I’m highly anticipating spring. Hopefully, I will find time for short photo excursions when the weather gets warmer.

Stats:
1st shot of the year: 1/16/05 – 1:41pm (family trip to Monterey Aquarium)
Last shot of the year: 12/31/05 – 7:23pm (Festival of Lights @ Vasona Park)
Total shots for the year: 2973 photos (not counting hundreds deleted unwanted ones)
25 Best Photos: 0.84% of total number of photos shot in 2005

Note that you’ll need a Flash player installed in your browser to view the gallery.

If you frequent this blog, you know that I am a shutterbug. I know, I know… You’re thinking: "gee whiz, what gives that away." My main subjects are my two daughters. (Again, I’m stating the obvious.) If you view their pictures here, it’s really easy to spot how different my 2 models really are in front of the camera.

Katelyn loves to be in front of the camera–always flashing a smile, even when she was a little toddler. She’s a willing subject, posing for her shutterbug dad without asking. She is easily excitable. And she’s photogenic (well, her dad likes to think so), most of her shots come out great. It’s very easy to shoot Katelyn. She’s a pure joy to shoot.  

Now that’s not to say Allison isn’t photogenic or a joy to shoot for me. But she’s different. She’s more shy of the two, the serious one. She’s still a bit uncomfortable in front of the camera. She’d pose or smile if I ask her to, but she does it in the most uncomfortable fashion. She’d always lean her head to one side and say "cheese"; and breaking a half-smile once in a while. That’s her pose and it’s her only pose. It’s become a habit too. Now everytime she sees a camera, she breaks into her ackward pose. It’s rather funny. A perfect example is pictured here. Note the contrast of the two poses, the smile on Katelyn and Allison’s signature head tilt?

So I learned to shoot Allison differently. Most of the good shots I got out of her when she isn’t posing. I try to shoot her when she isn’t aware of the camera. Natural shots suit her more. I call these "private shots" because I feel like I’m stealing her private moments with these kind of shots. Now if only she’d smile more frequently, because she usually looks serious in some of these "private" shots. Allison is also a joy to shoot, abeit in a different way.

 My daughters provide me the motivation to learn photography. They’ll be my excuses for buying expensive equipments in the future when I become a better photographer. Now, if I can only coax my wife into a willing subject as well. 🙂

We spent this past Christmas in Lake Tahoe with our parents, my sister’s and my uncle’s family. The 3+ families crammed into a nice cozy cabin we rented for a few days– crowded but fortunately all relatives got along. If you’re ever looking to rent a cabin in south Lake Tahoe, I highly recommend the place we rented from this lady; conveniently located, clean, roomy and rental is very reasonable. Had I not with kids, I would normally prefer a more rustic place though :). Good thing, I bought one of those cargo boxes that go on the roof on my Dad’s van. By head count, we had 14 and we even lugged most of the kids’ presents with us. Luckily everybody & everything fit into the 2 mini vans.

It didn’t snow at the lake basin when we got there, so I was disappointed for the kids. But we all woke up to a snowfall the morning after xmas with the kids (and the adults) jumped for joy in excitement. A white after-xmas! Everyday, we hit the snow parks. The older kids were hitting the slopes non-stop. Even the toddlers and one grandma braved the snow and snow-tubed with the rest of us. The grandmas, my uncle & my niece had not seen snow before, so it was especially exciting for them.

I bought a new camera lens in preparation for the trip, figuring there’d be photo opportunity aplenty in Tahoe. But with so much things going on, I didn’t get to take as many photographs as I had hoped for. A few photos I did get with the new Tamron lens, I was impressed. The new lens performed well in low light condition and was sharp overall; it’s extremely sharp at aperture of F/8!

Our last morning there, I got up before dawn, packed my equipment and head out to Emerald Bay, figuring it would my last opportunity for some nice pictures of the lake at sunrise. I hiked through the woods in the dark, with gusty winds and heavy rain/snow. Good thing my new camera back pack is water-repellent. Last time I hiked in the dark was at Bryce Canons in Utah with Suzanne. More than once I thought: “man, I hope these pictures will be worth it!” Well, they weren’t. The rain, snow and wind mitigated my efforts– I could only get in a few shots (most of them not very usable). I did got one that Suzanne really liked.

Our drive home by was interesting, through a heavy snow storm. With chains on, we were crawling about 15 MPH through the mountains. The kids didn’t mind that we were driving slowly, getting a kick out of the snow storm. It was sure pretty!

Here’s the photo gallery from the trip:/trips/tahoexmas05

I was testing my new lens the other night by taking random shots with low light conditions. I took this quick shot of Allison without flashing. The only light source was our table lamp. Considering that I had to bump the ISO up till 1600, the noise level is remarkably low. This random shot turned out to be one of my favorite shots of Allison. I just love her composure and in general how this shot turned out.

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This past Friday, the preschoolers put on a holiday show by singing a slew of christmas songs. Well, I may be biased but it has got to be the cutest show I ever seen. Katelyn loves singing, but we were afraid that an audience might make her shy so Suzanne encouraged Katelyn to sing the songs out loud. Turns out that wouldn’t be a problem.

When we arrived at the classroom, the children were sitting and preparing for the program. We waved at Katelyn and she excitedly waved back at us. She wore her Santa’s Helper dress Suzanne recently got for her. I was relieved to see Katelyn seemed happy, knowing that at least she wasn’t too uncomfortable to perform. The parents filled in with each ready with a camera or camcorder. The cameras flashed the children almost non-stop— the parents turned paparazzi! I have to admit that I probably was the one who took the most shots but I minimized the flashes as not to startle them during their performance. (checkout the December monthly gallery for some of pics).

The program began and Katelyn started singing on top of her lungs. Actually, she yelled out the lyrics. Very quickly, the entire thing became a shouting match between the kids trying to outdo each other. Suzanne & I just looked at each other surprised & amused. Not exactly the type of renditition we encouraged her, but it was so funny the way the Katelyn strains her neck and screams out each song. We didn’t mean to ask her to yell out the songs. But Katelyn sang/yelled every word of very songs, not missing a single beat. She was so cute, all of the kids were.

The singing lasted a good 20 minutes. My favorite was when they sang It Must Be Santa. After the singing, Santa came for a visit and all the kids got to sit in his lap. When Santa asked what she wants for Christmas, Katelyn blurted out: “I want walkie-talkies!” Well, that was a different wish for sure. 🙂 I had no idea where she got the idea of wanting a pair of walkie-talkies.

Well, we certainly enjoyed Katelyn’s first ever performance. She was wonderful, demonstrated that she can follow instructions, memorize lyrics, work as part of a group and perform in front of a crowd. She definitely made me a very proud Daddy that day. And I’m already looking forward to her performances in her coming school years. Chalk this up as one of those pleasures of being a dad!

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Weather getting colder, malls getting crowdier, workplace getting quieter, my spending increasing… must be that time of the year. Merry xmas everybody! 🙂

We promised the kids photos with Santa, so Katelyn was very excited all weekend long. The line was rather long, but we managed to get to the mall early so we didn’t have to wait very long. I tried to coax Allison into it by giving her a view of Santa and told her of the goodies she’s going get from Santa. This santa looks pretty authentic, real white beard & everything. When it was our turn, Katelyn ran straight up to Santa’s lap. On the other hand, Allison just bursted into tears and screamed when I tried to put her in Santa’s lap. Oh well, next year for Allison I guess…

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I been using my camera for about a year now and now I shopping for new lenses. There are just so many lens on the market, each is designed with compromises based on laws of optical physics. It’s not an easy task shopping for the best buy. I discovered the forums on dpreview.com make me even less decisive; these opinionated folks just go back and forth endlessly.

I found this a Canon EOS FAQ to be extremely helpful. It’s just non-nonsense, comprehensive and up-to-date. It’s a beginer’s FAQ so it’s easy read too.

This site showcases photos taken by tossing your cameras into the air. A novel way to take photographs, that’s for sure. One would expect randomness, but the motion generated some pretty intricate patterns. I wonder how many photos you get on average though before that inevitable day when the camera gets splattered on the ground. 🙂

I am starting the process of back posting of previous galleries including the monthly galleries and travels/trips.

One of the trips posted is the rafting trip with the Tieu’s and a small group of friends at the South Fork of the American River this past summer. We took the trip the day after I left Vitria. It’s sort of a celebration of a job switch for me. We went with All-Outdoors and were generally happy with their service. I went with them years ago. Our guide was a bit inexperienced and the rapids were class 3 so I find them a bit tame. But all in all, it was a lot of fun. I finally got around to post the pics here: trips/rafting_2005