actually it's 40d yang now

charlegne wedding

2011-08-21T01:23:00.001-04:00

went to nyc again

2009-07-04T14:58:00.004-04:00

the empire state building is totally worth it. get the audio tour, it's really cool. you get to see where all the neighborhoods are and learn lots of stuff about the city. plus you get these spectacular views.

fence

2009-06-17T01:24:00.002-04:00

more street

2009-06-09T02:03:00.002-04:00

messing around with the print module

2009-05-02T21:26:00.012-04:00

still waiting on tax monies to pick up a 40d. i think this summer and next year will present some fun shooting opportunities.

so, some notes to self: i did the color balance by white balancing for incandescent, which gave the background that blue color cast since daylight is much cooler (or hotter). then i knocked back the red channel hue to get the skin tone i wanted. attempted some eye retouching, but i couldn't get it to look good (just looked like alien eyes.. think goa'uld infestation eye glow). need to figure out how to work neat image noise reduction (or even just lightroom noise reduction). print module tutorial is on dps -- look up 'triptych'. it's fairly limiting though, so i need to figure out how to do it in ps.

and yes i think the identity plate looks cool. you can make fun of me if you like.. all two of you who read this blog

edit: alright fine the identity plate is ridiculous. i just wanted to pretend i was a pro for a second.. it'll never happen again, i swear

spring (means obligatory photo of ephemeral blooming flowers )

2009-04-21T18:40:00.010-04:00

this camera is growing on me.

on another note.. had this on my laptop and 17" monitor while editing, and the difference is astounding.. so i'll just say i liked the way it looked on _my_ monitor.. probably looks like crap on yours. =(

(click for fullsize)

edit: i think i've taken this down and re-uploaded at least 20 times now

cute kid i saw on broadway

2009-04-20T02:58:00.010-04:00

just a little something i threw together in mspaint (click for fullsize)

i've never appreciated autofocus more

2009-04-15T02:09:00.004-04:00

so ed has an 80-200mm f/4 that has absolutely no electronics whatsoever.. you put the camera on manual mode and attach this thing, all while the camera complains there's no lens actually attached. and because it doesn't think a lens is attached, it doesn't display a light meter (i think i mentioned this in the last post) so you have to take test shots and check your histograms until you have a good grasp of the exposure settings you'll need. while it was a lot of extra work, i have to say i enjoyed the shots that were decently focused because it took that much more effort to get them. i guess it certainly helps me develop as a photographer when all the fancy pants auto stuff is unavailable and i have to actually (gasp) think about the proper settings and stuff..

the sensor is the only redeeming quality about this camera

2009-04-06T02:16:00.004-04:00

so ed has graciously loaned me his d40 so i can continue feeding my photography addiction despite my stupidity.. which we won't get into because it pains me to think about it. anyways, it takes great pictures.. and that's about it. this camera is so absurdly tiny and cramped. it needs a grip (nikon doesn't even make one.. you have to get the one targus makes) and a decent midrange zoom (i'd go with the 24-70) to flesh it out. the shutter release sounds papery and.. unsatisfying. and in manual mode, if you have a manual focus lens attached (like the one pictured) it doesn't show the light meter. the settings display in the viewfinder doesn't show you iso, and if you don't half-press the shutter, the main display is annoyingly on all the time (unless you turn it off.. in which case you have to press a button to see your settings.) you have to go into menus to get to a lot of the settings. and AF only works with certain lenses.

but.. and this is a big but.. it does have a great sensor.. which pretty much makes it all okay. kind of.

want a dog

2009-04-05T03:11:00.007-04:00

there was this guy who was like "yo, can i borrow him? girls love dogs!" which was funny b/c the dog was surrounded by guys and a girl was the owner

in chinatown, outside of a shop. really affectionate :)

ridiculous ball of poof that was all over the place

CUTEST. NOSE. EVAR. (i think it's a labradoodle?)

adorable.

my life would be so much better with a dog

edit: found this one while sorting through old shots

those sunglasses are so deliciously 80's

2009-04-01T00:29:00.002-04:00

he just oozes cool

from the corner of 33rd and 7th

2009-03-29T01:18:00.003-04:00

jason bourne paranoid face

look ma, no 'wtf is this creep doing' looks!

these were taken with the 50mm 1.4, prefocused on the ground.

shoes

2009-03-25T03:00:00.004-04:00

some cropping, some black clipping.. just messing around, really. the first was taken by a certain mollie van gordon. i think it's the better of the two.

salad

2009-03-24T00:41:00.003-04:00

this is me and claire on the train to new jersey! i am, not surprsingly, much more possessive of my bags now.

claire is all sorts of awesome. you can talk to her about all sorts of stuff for hours and have no clue that she's just a sophomore (nothing against sophomores). she just has a maturity that is way beyond her years. i learned a lot from her. i don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. well, learning is always good, right? right. her last name sounds like "salad", no joke.

i met chase jarvis!

2009-03-19T02:54:00.001-04:00

i can't believe i actually met him. through twitter, no less. i love the internet.

more street

2009-03-16T13:46:00.002-04:00

i'm in nyc!! i love the city. one of my goals for this trip is to do things that make me step out of my comfort zone, and street photography is definitely one of those things. one thing i've been doing that's been working fairly well is to park myself on a busy street corner and prefocus on a spot on the ground. then i can take a few shots of people as they walk by and then quickly look at something else. i haven't gotten yelled at yet! it's pretty thrilling to get good shots. this one isn't super sharp but i like the composition and her expression and the colors.

lighting workshop, and i rented a 40d

2009-03-11T21:17:00.006-04:00

initial 40d impressions: as predicted, this camera is pure sex. the grip is delicious. the shutter release is tactile, firm, and very pleasant. 17 shot raw buffer is very usable. the noise at 1600 is very subtle. also, THREE CUSTOM PRESETS.

[minor annoyance: i'm not used to looking at the top display for settings. i want the main screen to display settings all the time.. it does this if you press 'info' several times but then it goes away after you go into image review and never comes back. :( ]

anyways there were cool lights and a backdrop to play with at photo club. the lights were triggered by a photosensor on the apparatus itself, so you could fire them with your builtin (turned all the way down, of course.) also, note to self-check out spotlighting effect by firing a strobe into not-fully-extended umbrella. i believe it was called short-side lighting.

wtf

2009-03-06T00:20:00.002-05:00

i just don't get it..

she had a megaphone

2009-03-01T23:39:00.002-05:00

floridita is a resteraunt that faces the wrath of columbia university's eminent domain.. thing. i don't understand it fully, but i get the distinct impression that their (columbia's) board of regents is dominated by heartless morons. then again i haven't heard what they have to say about the issue. and i'm also not that interested in it.. so my understanding remains incomplete. i do think it would be harder for the board to make that sort of decision if they could see the faces of the people they are uprooting.

this was taken at f/11

2009-02-28T02:39:00.003-05:00

i liked their jackets so i took a picture. i also liked the way they were standing.. there was plenty of light, so i stopped down to f/11 to get the dof with the intent of blurring stuff out in post.

another on the train

2009-02-27T18:13:00.003-05:00

i thought the man and his lamp were a funny sight. taken on nyc subway, again with live view.

(color version taken down b/c i like the b/w better)

breaking into street photography

2009-02-25T23:34:00.003-05:00

shot from the hip using live view (okay i guess not really "shot from the hip" then, is it..) live view is good for this. haven't yet worked up the guts to not try and hide the fact that i'm taking pictures of people. i like that she's sitting in a blue seat.

flash is AWESOME

2009-02-03T00:20:00.008-05:00

my 430ex ii came. check it. friggin 0.3", iso friggin 1600, f/2.8, and IS results in this..

bounced flash from the same direction the ambient light was coming from.. 1/60, f/2.8, iso 400, no IS. baby. they don't call it a speedlite for nothin'..

AWESOME OMG WTF BBQ MUST LEARN TO SHOOT IN MANUAL

color temperature

2009-01-22T22:35:00.008-05:00

there's a tungsten light on my nightstand that's illuminating my face. i have the camera white balance set to tungsten (about 3900K) which makes daylight (5200K) look very cold. anyways, i like the effect; excuse the subject matter. (as an aside.. you can probably tell that the stupid 'extra straight' shampoo/conditioner isn't working. i will soon be forced to resort to a straightening iron..)

edit: 5200K is actually very hot. (color temperature is the temperature (in kelvin) that a blackbody must be heated to so that it matches the desired color) we just tend to associate blue with cold.

it's going to take a billion years

2009-01-14T18:18:00.003-05:00

in keeping with my ongoing efforts to obtain aston kutcher hair, i have purchased these hair products:

TAMES FRIZZ. yay

edit: crap, i just realized i didn't buy conditioner

it's so beautiful

2009-01-12T16:04:00.005-05:00

yes, friends, the day has finally arrived. $800 of 17-55mm, constant f/2.8, image stabilized, ultrasonic-motor-focusing goodness. unfortunately i am cooped up indoors trying to study for the mcat, so this guy probably won't see much action until diem's wedding. however, i've taken a few shots for fun. here is how my face looks right now:

testing slideflickr

2009-01-11T00:13:00.005-05:00

it appears as though optimum size is 400 by 400.
in other news, my $800 baby will be arriving on the 12th..

free t shirts

2008-11-17T02:04:00.001-05:00

marylandshirt-2, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

i snapped this after i got out of stat class one day. they were giving out free tshirts to anyone who would stay to take a picture. naturally, i took a picture, and then i took a shirt. =D

white sky

2008-11-04T17:41:00.008-05:00

man i'm behind on work. also, the smudge you see is a raindrop on my lens.

i voted!

2008-11-01T00:05:00.001-04:00

i voted!, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

hooray!

for some reason they always call it a championship

2008-10-18T17:30:00.003-04:00

my fotd was 54.2 something. i was in the top 20.. out of 11 (ed is pictured here)

windshield

2008-10-12T01:14:00.001-04:00

windshield, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

it was cold that night

AF-servo

2008-10-06T00:41:00.002-04:00

hope-1, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

i pointed and shot. well, i mashed the shutter button. i also had to drive, so give me a break. i think it turned out okay.

i still take pictures of stuff

2008-10-01T22:15:00.001-04:00

dew-1, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

getting lazier

2008-09-23T00:27:00.005-04:00

and/or busier =P

tape

2008-09-20T13:17:00.003-04:00

i helped paint janice and keefe's new house on friday. it's really nice! once it's all cleaned up and stuff, it'll be beautiful. can't wait til i have my own house someday.

byrd

2008-09-19T00:23:00.003-04:00

byrd, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

so i cheated with the HSL curves to bring out the color in the sky. originally i had intended for this to be a wide angle shot, but after playing with the crop tool for a bit i decided i liked the detail i got from lowering the iso, and went for a bigger crop.

thirds

2008-09-18T00:48:00.008-04:00

thought this was more dramatic when placed smack in the middle of the frame

no shot tonight

2008-09-17T01:35:00.006-04:00

doing something _infinitely_ better.. [/sarcasm]

siberia

2008-09-16T23:04:00.000-04:00

barbed, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

i was thinking of a pow camp in siberia or something when i shot this, so naturally i made the color temp a little colder to reflect that.

don't always need smoke for a..

2008-09-15T00:17:00.002-04:00

kohls, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

i read something a while ago that said something to the effect of.. 'you don't have to travel for miles and miles to find good subject matter. just look (carefully) around you.' now, i'd feel conceited and arrogant if i said this were an example of that, but at least you can see that i'm trying. i thought it was an interesting angle, at least.

p.s: go to my flickr for pictures of my super ultra mega cute neice!!

thunder

2008-09-14T10:16:00.002-04:00

thunder, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

roger is awesome. can't wait to play.

also, i am lazy.

edit: you know, i don't really like the shot. seems pretty mediocre, really. i'll have to try and figure out a way to make it actually say something.

entanglement

2008-09-12T14:58:00.003-04:00

entanglement, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

discovered the remote shooting function in the eos utility supplied with the bundled software. this is gonna be fun.

edit: these canalphones were awesome. they're now gone forever.. =( donated to housekeeper evonne

best friends

2008-09-10T23:37:00.003-04:00

sigh.

i didn't have internet in new york

2008-09-09T23:12:00.022-04:00

in light of my complete failure to post for four days (in an hour, it'll be five), i figured i'd do one giant post for my whole ny trip. i probably owe ed enough food for a week.

saturday:
anyways, here we are on the bolt bus. due to my incompetence we had to forgo the metro (i got there late, the next train wasn't going to be there for another 20 minutes) and pedal like mad to the bus stop. this bus had AC outlets and wireless. it was awesome. the bus we took back even had leather seats. i think we're talking about the beauty pageant that kang went to.

i watched tengen toppa gurren lagaan instead of studying for the gre. =P

we arrive in NY and take the subway to lei's place in astoria. bad idea, we should've stayed with jamie. it was fun hanging out with lei though. the subway station was _hot_. it was like they had heaters going full blast.

arriving at lei's. if you look closely, you can see a happy face of sweat on eugene's shirt.

we decide to eat at congee village. they had some really good congee. the waiter was really rude though. he spit in my face (not intentionally) and was just generally very cold. while he was walking over to us, he noticed some guy's wallet on the floor and said 'you dropped your wallet' and kept on walking without missing a beat. we thought that was funny. later i dropped one of the soup spoons and the handle broke.. i think he nearly had an aneurysm when he saw that. we thought he might come over and say 'you dropped your spoon'.
(btw--didn't really like this shot; i thought there were too many competing focal points. that's why it's here and not on my flickr.)
there was a TV in the taxi! and credit card payment! amazing.

so afterwards we went to the guggenheim. it was full of penises. no joke. and herpes. they wouldn't let me take any pictures because it was so disgusting. just ask lei. eugene was like, 'it's funny cause at first you look at the thing and it's like, 'oh, ha ha, it looks like a penis.' but then you get closer and read the description and you realize it's actually a penis!'

one of the shots i managed to get off before they yelled at me. these are supposed to be people, apparently. whatever.

the cloning tool in photoshop totally rocks. there was a fat man standing behind eugene.. totally gone. can't even see that he was ever there. left to right: me, tracey, lei, kang, tommy, jamie, eugene. this really nice woman with L-glass took this shot.. i was half tempted to ask if we could swap lenses for a bit.

afterwards we went to eat at this cozy little noodle place. they had lots of tempura, whatever that was. and you sat at a bar and watched them cook your food. and if you wanted more food, you just asked the cook for more food, and he cooked it for you. it was brilliant.

yeah yeah, it's out of focus. bite me. the composition was good.

went to this nice little bubble tea place. hazelnut bubbletea.. pretty good.

we find another one for the good taste album. we got pretty excited when we saw this.

so then we walked around for another hour or so until we meeting up for kareoke. i have no shots of this b/c i was too busy singing (my heart out). kang has one though, so i'll steal it. i think this was 'say it ain't so'. other memorable tunes of the night.. yellow, by coldplay; take a bow, by madonna; ladies night (that was a solo performance by yours truly). i also tried to do sexual healing by marvin gaye. the girls just gave me dirty looks. lei is fun when she's drunk.

so that was saturday. definitely a day to remember. it rained like no other. i evantually bought a $15 umbrella out of frustration, and ended up giving it to lei b/c i couldn't carry it back. i need to learn how to pack lighter.

sunday:

we get back at 2am. we wake up at 4am. awesome.

here we are at the start. at 6:30am. there were a lot of people.

i didn't get any _fantastic_ shots b/c.. well, i was too busy taking it in. riding through manhattan was awesome. you haven't experienced times square until you've ridden through it on a bike.

brooklyn bridge.

i stopped taking pictures b/c i was too busy trying to not get owned. didn't get any til we got to queens.

my knee gave out around here. we finish up, take the bus back, and bike back to eugene's. along the way, i manage to get this shot before my battery also gave out.

ah yes. washington penis.

boh-kaaay.. again

2008-09-06T01:09:00.003-04:00

i'm tired and i thought this looked cool. apparently the number of vertices of the points of light are characteristic of each lens.

vicky

2008-09-04T00:57:00.000-04:00

you find graffiti in the strangest places. this was actually on some kind of.. metal stump, next to a lamppost. an odd place to profess one's love. i wonder if she ever found out.

tried to shoot the chapel today.. too much contrast. i need to figure out this HDR business. also i need a tripod.

f/1.8 is certainly unwieldy at times. i'll have to learn how to control its isolation powers. when it blurs.. it blurs. a lot. i thought it did a nice job of isolating the intended focal point here, though.

babies

2008-09-03T00:42:00.002-04:00

everyone loves babies. everyone takes good pictures with babies. esp girls.. they all have that motherly aura when they get near a baby. esp the ones that really want one. the next time you see one with a baby, look closely. you can see her uterus glowing.

and the night shots continue

2008-09-02T23:41:00.002-04:00

ah yes, jim henson. immortalized permenantly in conversation with kermit. night shots always seem surreal b/c the camera gathers all that light that your eyes.. don't.

anyways, cheated with HSL to bring out the green in the trees and deepen the color of the sky. also added a bit of fill light and recovery to lessen the glare of the highlights and bring out the underexposed regions. ah, raw.. you bring out the best in my shots.

i really, really want a tripod. or a monopod.

alumni center

2008-09-01T22:52:00.003-04:00

recently discovered HSL (hue, saturation, luminance).. and all i can say is, RAW is AWESOME. no other way i could get these colors to look so nice. (well, they look nice to me..) i like the angle of the shot. it leads my eyes up the staircase.. it's kind of suspensful, b/c it's like.. what's around the corner? you'll never know.

as always, shooting at night is very soothing. except for the occasional group of hooligans.

my neighbors think i'm crazy

2008-08-31T23:25:00.008-04:00

i implore you to look at a larger version of this shot. please. you can't appreciate how hard i worked to get this in focus until you do. also, you can see more stars.

i really love the look of night shots. they're hard as hell.. which makes them that much more rewarding. no AF, live view is worthless, and i have no tripod, so i have to improvise a stable base.. then i had to set the mirror lockup to eliminate any camera shake. took a freakin hour and a half.. but i got it. i like the look of the green and the purplish tint from the sky.

neighbors came out and asked what the hell i was doing on the top of my car with a computer and a giant stack of books and a camera. they must think i'm trying to shoot into their windows and hack into their internet connections or something. aside from them, though, it's real peaceful out here. i like.

hack job

2008-08-30T23:10:00.000-04:00

in an effort to prepare ourselves for the great automotive challenge that will be lemons, we decided to mount a rear sway bar from an integra ($30) using end links from a civic si (another $30, each) onto a civic ex. at least, that's what we told ourselves. ran into the requisite hitches--i think the linkage really all depends on how long the ball joints on the endlinks will last, since they're at a pretty large angle from the normal. also, the control arms were really far from the bar when we were linking them up.. i suspect this just means we just added a lot of spring rate to the rear. which is apparently where you need it in a fwd.

can't wait for that miata.

when you don't want to go home

2008-08-30T11:25:00.004-04:00

i think it was getting close to 3am when i took this. saw the lights and the glow from the fog and i thought, man.. that's gorgeous. i should've lowered the ISO, since i would be shooting long exposures anyway--you can clearly see the noise in the sky. tried a couple different angles to get this scene.. there are two more shots on my photostream. suffice to say, i really wish i had a tripod. i think i'd just keep it in my car. the white balance for this shot was also a little frustrating. i wanted to capture the warmth of the scene, but when i uploaded it, it looked too warm and too green. finally settled for using the neutral picker on the fringes of the lamp, and adjusting the tint a tiny bit towards the purple. i guess it's okay. i also realize i've been using grayscale as a crutch sometimes.. when i'm too lazy to try and make the colors cooperate. it's so easy.. one click, problem solved.

i love hunting for subject matter. especially at night. i love fiddling with the settings, sitting there alone with the crickets chirping. it was very serene there. i kinda felt like a sniper. don't judge me.

books

2008-08-28T11:41:00.000-04:00

can you believe she's read them all? also, finding interesting subject is hard. had to stop down to 5.6 to get the books.. and it's not that sharp. stupid light.

thought this shot was interesting b/c it's like a summary of everything jamie. except not. the urge to use fartsy grayscale was also resisted. but i don't think the colors really do anything special here.

date edited for thursday. i got an extension, gimme a break.

just to spite ed

2008-08-28T00:49:00.002-04:00

eat artsy fartsy!! neener back!!

to be honest, i am getting a little tired of the b/w bokeh artsy fartsy stuff. time to swing to the other end of the spectrum and take some stunning landscapes. sigh, if only.

seriously though, i need some better subject matter.

frisbee is too much fun

2008-08-26T23:56:00.002-04:00

..so i have to dig into old shots. i don't really understand why no one liked this shot very much. or this one, for that matter.

i thought they showed nice parallelism, with the guitars and jerseys. can anyone tell me how they would improve these shots?

note to self: dont' eat before frisbee.

words cannot prepare you for the awesomeness

2008-08-25T23:45:00.003-04:00

okay i'm gonna cheat and edit the date for monday.. but let it be known that i do indeed owe ed another lunch. sigh.
anyways, nothing special or technical today.. in fact, it's a little out of focus/shaky (was shooting with the kit) but the sheer awesomeness of an optimus prime potatohead makes up for it all.

so today was the first week of small groups. rode with keefe to dapooh's house in his scooby. at one point we got to talking about his turbo, and the torque band on his engine. i didn't believe him when he said peak torque was at 3k rpm, so he put his foot down (in THIRD)... i have never felt so much acceleration in my life. i expected it to push me back for like a second, and then he'd have to shift. but no. there was torque everywhere. it was ridiculous. from like 3k to 6.5 (i think that was the redline) i was eaten by the soft leather of his very nice seats. just thinking about it gives me goosepimples. uguugughghgogogoog.

i was expecting bible study (i think that's next week) and was surprised to find that we were going to be frying things in cake batter. CAKE BATTER. there was beef. and sausages. and green beans. and mushrooms. and pizza. fried in cake batter. at one point i ate a peanut-butter-and-ham sandwich.. fried in cake batter. my intestines are so mad at me.

FRISBEE TOMORROWWWW--i want to sit out part of the game so i can get some shots in but i'm not sure i'll want to once i start running around.

one day i'll get me a man's best friend

2008-08-24T21:08:00.006-04:00

that's holly, alan's wonderful obedient affectionate lovely dog. she was so cute.. we left some cheeseburgers on a low coffee table, and she didn't try to eat them at all (well.. with some prompting) and she was lying there all contented while we shouted at each other over starcraft units. it was a lot of fun; i really hope we get together again.

also, i made baby back ribs for everyone. i think they liked them, which is good. i'll have to experiment with different braising liquids and dry rubs.
here they are in their deep-mahogany-seared glory.

applying the dry rub.

ingredients for dry rub.. brown sugar, chili powder, onion powder, black pepper, salt, rubbed thyme.. in 8:3:1:1 ratio

rebel buddies

2008-08-23T02:47:00.005-04:00

went to YAM (young adult's ministry) and i discovered a wonderful thing. juno's into photography too! he's got a rebel XTi. (aka 400D) i love meeting people who are interested in the same stuff i am. you just connect instantly without the need to go through the motions or anything. it's on an entirely different level with juno though. those of you who know him will understand why..

i felt so liberated to get out my camera and start shooting everyone. it was cool cause we were both walking around, trying to get the best angles for shots. shooting the same thing, but from different angles. i really want to compare shots and see what he was thinking of the scene, and how he wanted to shoot it.

i'm really excited for terrapin photography club. hopefully the folks there will be cool and not pretentious.

(cookout tomorrow! w000000000t i'm bringing baby back ribs. should be great fun)

call me a narcissist

2008-08-22T03:15:00.006-04:00

the thing about being the only one with a decent camera in your group of friends (cough ed cough) is that you never get any shots of yourself. not to say that's horribly disappointing or anything, but hey, if you're taking flattering shots of everyone else, you start to think.. 'sure wish someone would take nice pictures of _me_..'

well, i got my wish (i think). clarence grabbed a hold of my camera and whirled around with the shutter depressed. he was too close to everyone, and since the only lens i brought was my 50mm telephoto, he got mostly blurry noses and stuff. but one of them came out pretty nicely focused.

the eyes are such an important and revealing part about anyone's face. i would go so far as to claim they're the _most_ important part. i mean, i think you can tell pretty easily that i'm smiling my cheeks off here. (it was a fun night =D) lei had on some mascara, and it really made her eyes look really nice. (don't have photo proof.) i think i'll try to take some more shots of eyes to further corroborate this.

no more shots of me, promise. also, note to self.. bring kit lens on group outings.

a new season

2008-08-21T03:33:00.005-04:00

well, didn't get to shoot anything interesting today. had to get up at friggin 7am to get my knee checked out (still no word) and didn't bring my camera with me. this is one of the shots from the night i went to teens group with bernard. actually it's the only shot that i took that night that turned out well. bernard took a whole host of other shots that were much better.. can't post them b/c they're not mine, but hopefully he will once i get them to him.

anyways i told myself i'd post a color shot, but i couldn't resist. this just works in grayscale. i honestly think i'm going to grayscale any shots that don't have outstanding color in them. i also keep telling myself to shoot with narrower apertures to get some of the background in focus, but the lighting was so poor i had to crank it wide open.

bernard's giving his resignation speech in that shot. i don't know how much he would be comfortable with me disclosing here.. but suffice to say, it's a new season for a lot of us. william's back, trying to finish school. bernard's trying to go to seminary; he's gonna have a kid. my mom and rex are talking about getting married. alyssa is moving to a new job; she's in a new place; her sister's off to college. janice and keefe are fricken married!!.. i'm trying to graduate and get into grad school (i really need to study for that stupid GRE).. i can't wait til i get on my own. thinking about living with jamie in NY.

i'm pretty freakin excited that ed got his d40. now he can finally live up to his blog's name, ha. we're gonna have a cookout soon, so we should both have some good shots of that. can't wait.

milling around

2008-08-19T23:00:00.011-04:00

i really like it when i can take a picture that was mediocre and turn it into something i would show other people. i wanted to capture the scene of everyone just milling around before the game started (folks from HOPE met to play frisbee), but the original shot had too many clashing colors, and it didn't really deliver the message i wanted.

what message was that? well, i always found the circle that people form to be quite amusing, especially among folks who don't really know each other all that well. i liked the variety of actions and expressions among the people.. the more introverted stand isolated, aimless, staring at.. something, or perhaps observing the interactions of others. arms crossed or swinging carelessly, feet awkwardly twisted.. fidgeting. that's another thing that i always found entertaining--how people will force themselves to stay in an awkward situation because of perhaps a desire to broaden their social horizons, but aren't able to muster the energy to go and make conversation, choosing instead to fiddle with their cell phone, tie their shoes, or pick the lint off their shirts.. all the while, trying take as_long_as_possible to avoid standing around idly. it's definitely a lot less worse when everyone's waiting for something.. perhaps a testament to the importance of purpose-driven actions.

there are one or two in here that i might say are more outgoing than the rest.

people-watching.. it's addictive, isn't it? i feel guilty for making unfounded generalizations (well.. not completely.. good thing i only have a few readers). it's a little disconcerting to realize my stalker tendancies. i think as long as i shoot in plain sight, i should be okay. i enjoy capturing candid moments.

i suppose there wasn't really a 'message', per se.. maybe just an idea, or a preservation of it anyways.

right--the shot. i thought black and white worked well here. it really helps to simplify things; to get extraneous information out of the way when you want your shot to say something that doesn't require color. aggressive cropping helped too. that's another compositional rule i'm trying my best to apply--fill the freakin frame. don't need to be shootin no trees when you're trying to shoot people. oh, and there's a lighting adjustment in lightroom--'blacks'--that i find to be particularly useful for creating contrasts. i _think_ it just makes the underexposed areas darker.. i'll have to look into it after i finish this stupid paper. anyways, with this shot i was playing around with that. i found it helps to intensify contrasts in the image, especially when it's in grayscale like this one.

PS- click on the picture to take a look at a larger size of the shot; it looks a lot better.

roland

2008-08-18T23:59:00.005-04:00

i've always wanted to play piano. more recently, a pretty nice keyboard has made its way into my living room. i need to get a good book and start learning me some music theory.

in this shot is my friend kevin kahn playing his $3000 roland. don't know anything about pianos, but that's got to be one high-end instrument. i've always been afraid of being a dilettante (dabbler)--if there's anything i want, it's to be super good at whatever i do. so i fear i'll have to give up something i'm interested in if i want to pursue piano. =(

we played this cool board game today called order of the stick. it's based on this webcomic: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html. the skills were really funny. i was playing the thief dude--he had some pretty funny ones, like 'verbal abuse', which is a ranged attack, and 'schadenfreude', which heals you when your partymates get hurt.

when did i take that?

2008-08-17T21:30:00.005-04:00

shooting with a 50mm lens is kind of annoying at times. it's a telephoto lens, so that means you're always zoomed in--and the 1.6x crop factor from the APS-C sensor size makes it actually an 80mm lens. i constantly have to back away from subjects.. or i'm always not close enough. it's a lot less convenient b/c you have to yourself move around if you want to change the "zoom" of the shot.

BUT--and this is a big one--it forces you to be 100% dedicated to the shot. the thing that i always disliked about zoom lenses was that it made certain shots too easy. subject matter too far? just zoom in. need a wide angle shot? just zoom out. i am in no way knocking zoom--i think it's just good for any photographer to get away from it for a while. work for your shots.

i think i need to be careful not to overdo it with the bokeh-heavy shots, lest i be categorized as an amateur playing with new equipment... but wait, isn't that what i am?

i can't say i even remember taking this shot... which means i didn't really put much effort into it. on one hand, i'm simply floored by the quality of this lens. on the other hand.. it's like.. where's the artist's inspiration? anyone who spends 80 bucks on this lens could have taken this shot. it's kind of like.. want to get round the nurburgring in under 10 minutes? just buy a gt-r.

of course it'll take time to develop my own style of photography. but at what point can you really call it your 'own' style? aren't we all just emulating the masters.. in anything? i think that's where the fun is.. i'm not trying to be pro or anything, i just want to take good pictures and remember my life.

speaking of fun--i cannot praise RAW enough. the things you can do in post processing.. full exposure stop increases, hue, saturation, white balance.. it's like you just magically put more light onto the sensor, exactly where you want it. i would contend that anyone who thinks that the postprocessing required of RAW shots is a _drawback_ can't really call him/herself (notice my agreement of pronouns there) a photographer, amateur or not.

in which we feast and settle

2008-08-16T23:58:00.002-04:00

crab feast-1, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

it's not obvious from the photo, but steven's cutting off william's road that he worked.. well, waited quite a long time for. steven won, of course... but not after some not-at-all-hidden collusion from the rest of the incredulous players (i think the most any of us had was 3 points and he had 9 when we decided to forgo fair play.)

outdoor shots in bright sunlight--a lot more challenging than i anticipated. i think 90% of my shots had a background blasted into overexposed oblivion, with the intended subject barely even visible. tried using flash and spot metering to compensate, but i think i got a few good ones from evaluative as well. stopping down the aperture also helps.

on another note, i've finally replaced my rear suspension. the ride is sweeeeet.

boh-KAAAY!

2008-08-15T19:34:00.000-04:00

hooray! ed and i have embarked on a daily photoblog challenge. head on over to http://bokehed.blogspot.com/.

this should be fun.

my sister at f/1.8

2008-08-15T17:17:00.001-04:00

elise-3, originally uploaded by sc_yang.

here's one of the first shots i took upon receipt of my new canon ef 50mm f/1.8 lens. it's a fantastic peice of glass, but man, they weren't kidding about the build quality. definitely feels like a product of sweatshop labor. but you get more than you pay for, in terms of image quality, anyways. f/1.8 is _gigantic_. i'm gonna have a lot of fun with this lens.

edit: i am aware that this is underexposed.

ikea

2008-08-15T12:51:00.000-04:00

i've decided to make a photo blog. every real photographer has to have a photo blog, right? i need some kind of outlet to express my frustations and record my growth as a photographer.

i recently broke up with my girlfriend of four years. i won't bore you with the details (this is supposed to be a photo blog) but i find photography very therapeutic. that, and the strokes' 'room on fire' album. when you're trying to compose the shot, find the right exposure, all that.. you just forget about everything. it's the only thing that i can do nowadays that reminds me the least of her. (cooking, drumming, biking... they've all been compromised.)

right, well, on with the photos. i figured i would just comment on a few of my favorite shots from a recent photo adventure i took to ikea after work one day.

this is my favorite shot of the whole set.. just b/c i love the subject matter. i hope one day my kitchen is as nice as this one. i like the splash of green from the plant on the table, and the speck of blue from the bowl on the stovetop. the only gripe i have is that i should've gotten lower--tabletop-height for this shot.
here's another shot that i thought the colors looked nice in. i intended for the main focal point to be that bucket of grass.. or green sticks, whatever. i liked the perpendicular lines of the wall tiles and the utensils.. and i think i'm getting better at keeping the horizon level. didn't have to do much post-processing for this shot.

speaking of focal points.. how are you supposed to select a focal point when you do landscape shots? seems as if everything in the shot would be competing with one another for attention.. and yet i see so many wonderful landscapes. does the whole 'fill your frame, select one major focal point' rule not apply for landscape shots?

this is the last shot i'd show to people expecting some praise. i had originally thought that some straightening was required to make the ceiling beams level, but my friend ed told me that the crookedness makes the shot more dramatic. i can kinda see that, but i'm not sure if i agree. in any case, i like the colors in this one again--it's almost monochromatic, except for the tinges of blue and the red exit sign.

hopefully i'll get some readers soon. i guess for now this will just serve as a record of my adventures. i've got to get out of maryland.