How to build a Christmas Tree

If we increase the ground clearance here, the potential of receiving more gifts from Santa also increases.

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The Bokeh Train

A little girl gazes into the night sky as she rides the North Pole express to meet good 'ol Saint Nick.

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Le 35

It's Thanksgiving and part of our family tradition is to goto Opportunity Village. I took this time to give the 35mm a spin. What can I say, I'm totally feeling this focal length.

It just gives that much more view than the 50mm. This can really be used as a nice street lens. Again just been impressed by the color/contrast as well as the low light performance.

In this photo I was in the next seat behind The Girl on the Christmas train. A 50 would have been too tight and would not be able to get the framing I wanted given the space provided.

The 35 was just right.

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New Lens

Picked up a 35mm lens the other day and wow this thing is just super sharp wide open compared to my 50mm. Stop this lens down and it's bound to hurt someone.

A few things that I found sort of off on this lens was the fact that the outer barrel was made out of engineered plastic, lack of proper weather sealing and oh gosh I don't like the AF/MF switch they used and prefer the flat switches on their other lenses.

Other than those few issues, which will most likely be addressed on the Mark II version this lens is just crazy fun.

Strobist info: 580EX II 1/64 softbox camera left | 430EX 1/64 softbox upper camera right | 550EX 1/4 pointed at wall | Triggered via 580EX II on camera
Camera info: Canon EOS 1D Mark III | EF 35mm ƒ/1.4L USM | 1/300 ƒ/8 ISO800

Setup shot here
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Southeast Asia

It's pretty neat finding out where your photos end up. The photo above is part of my stock collection at Getty Images and is currently being used at one of SE Asia largest media organization.

To think this photo came to be because I had some Marley playing while doing my morning commute. Off you go little photo, spread your wings and fly... LOLz

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Releases

Tip for today: Always carry a few copies of model and property releases with you when you shoot, especially if you're shooting for stock. Most if not all stock companies will not accept your work without an accompanying release.

If you need a copy hit me up in the comments and I'll send you what I use.

*make sure to leave your email address or have your blogger profile set to public so I can email you the releases :)
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Weddings

I won't lie, weddings are exhausting to shoot. It's a whole day of running through your playbook of different poses to shoot, keeping in mind where the light is coming from, the push and pull from everyone around and not to mention there are no retakes... that first kiss only happens once.

By the end of the night you're ready to pack it in and put the whole day behind you only to realize that you're now in front of a pile of photos to edit. But while it's hard work, one thing is for certain, your photos will bring much joy and rekindle fond memories of that special day to the family and friends that attended and for those that couldn't.

So big props to all my fellow wedding photographers out there in the intarwebs. Keep on shooting and making people smile!

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Pearl Bokeh

Aren't out of focus highlights great? Especially if the colors go with the main subject. In this case, the pearl neckless of the bride. This is one of the shots in the bridal dressing room, as the bride readied herself for her big day .

I gotta say the silent shutter mode really helps in intimate situations like these. If your camera has this feature make sure you enable it when you wanna stay all ninja like.

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The D30 Princess

"When's it my turn? Wouldn't I love, love to explore that world up above?" - Part of your World (From Disney's The Little Mermaid) : Jodi Benson

While waiting for the various batteries to charge for my gear, I'm going through my photo library and discovered this photo of The Girl. Here I'm thinking: ok I know what lens this was shot with (Canon EF 50mm ƒ/1.8) but what about the camera. I take a peep at the meta and bamm Canon EOS D30. D30!

Talk about blast from the past. This was a big deal when it came out in 2000. It was Canon's first true dSLR, yes they had the D2000/D6000 but those were joint ventures with Kodak, the D30 was all Canon.

I still have to pause when I hear people talk about Nikon cameras (D700/D3x) only because my reference to the D nomenclature is from Canon.

Anyways thought I'd just post this up.

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4th Chamber

"I'm overwhelmed as my mind roams the realm. My eye's the vision, memory is the film." - 4th Chamber : The Genius GZA

Lens flare, you either love it or hate it, for me I love it. I'll point my camera's lens right at a light source just to really force it. When I saw this SUV's frame out in the desert I had already racked my brain for an focal length and angle so that I could incorporate the sun and lens flare in the photo. All that was left was to look out of the SUV like a Lugz ads even though I prefer Vans. LOL

Strobist info: 550EX 1/1 power camera left | 580EX II 1/2 power on camera | 430EX 1/1 power inside vehicle | 580EX II 1/2 power camera left | Triggered via 580EX II on camera
Camera info: Canon EOS 1D Mark III | EF 16-35mm ƒ/2.8L USM | 1/300 ƒ/16 ISO100

Setup shot here

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New York or Bust!

"I be spiked out, I can trip a referee. Tell by my attitude that I am most definitely from..." - Empire State of Mind : Jay-Z feat Alicia Keys

Did some location scouting today for a client's holiday family portrait and found this frame just out in the middle of nowhere and thought... "now this works!"

I also took this opportunity to see just how well Canon's built in infrared triggering would work out in the desert sun. Took a quick shot of the sky and based on the max sync speed of the camera had to stop down the lens to ƒ/16 (I didn't bother doing HSS today). I'm happy to say that given the conditions, Canon's triggering performed very well and not a single error. Pretty neat!

Strobist info: 550EX 1/1 power camera left | 580EX II 1/2 power on camera | 430EX 1/1 power INSIDE the SUV/VAN BEHIND me | 580EX II 1/2 power camera left | Triggered via 580EX II on camera
Camera info: Canon EOS 1D Mark III | EF 16-35mm ƒ/2.8L USM | 1/300 ƒ/16 ISO100

Setup shot here

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The Girl's Birthday

[flickr video=4067825750 secret=1798b07158 w=500 h=281]

Went out to celebrate The Girl's birthday tonight. Instead of taking photos, I decided to move the dial over to video instead. You figure I shoot so many stills that it wouldn't hurt me to try motion video once in a while.

Yes we call her The Girl.

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Twenty Five Hundredths

"Talking 'bout I need a philly before I get loose. Poor excuse, money please, I get loose off of orange juice." - Phony Rappers : A Tribe Called Quest

This afternoon after making sure the girls were taking their nap I decided to experiment more with HSS shooting. Instead of ganging a bunch of speedlites together I decided to spread them out a bit further out.

I pointed the on camera flash forward and arranged the various speedlites around making sure that the receiver had line of sight of the main flash. Thing is I can't have the flash to far from me, not only because of triggering issues but because when shooting at HSS the output of the flash is severely reduced.

I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm really tempted in getting a set of RadioPopper Px.

Strobist info: 550EX 1/1 camera left, 580EX II 1/1 camera right, 430EX 1/1 far camera right. Triggered via 580EX II on camera.
Camera info: Canon EOS 1D Mark III | EF 16-35mm ƒ/2.8L USM | 1/2500 ƒ/2.8 ISO100

Setup shot here

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