I did my first beauty shoot yesterday on the beach. The model was Grace Chung, my friend's sister. While shooting on the beach, the sun was slow to drop, but I didn't anticipate the sun to go down that fast at the end (which brought up a problem as our model didn't know what poses I want). Note to self: always talk to models beforehand and let them know the style you are going for. I caught some close ups with my 50mm and switched to my 18-200mm for wide angle. This is one of those times when I wish I really have a super wide (ie. 14-24mmm). The sky, although it didn't live up to my expectation, wasn't all that bad. What's worse is the "pile" of ships (freight vessels, private sail boats, etc) on the ocean; once I arrived, I knew there would be lots of post-processing cloning to...

After two month of camera repair hiatus, I can finally shoot with my D200 again. This time, I decided to do another crime scene-delinquent theme oriented shoot. The model, like last time, is Kevin Lee. This time, however, I finally get the chance to test out two strobe set up as well as the SU-800 to eliminate the onboard preflash. We shot in a garage-like location. Everything was done on the go since I wanted to be creative on the spot. All three photos has a rim light using a snooted flash (no I don't use any fancy snoot - just few thick paper and a rubber band). The other flash is used as a fill on the left hand side. Again, I used the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 (you may recall my rave about this lens back in the first crime scene shoot). You gotta love the accidental dust particles (it's...

5:00AM - Woke up 6:00AM - Arrived at Edwin, my friend's place. Off to Burnaby Lake 7:00AM - Shoot! No sunrise, what a waste of time (not)! It was another assignment from my photo class. However, this time, it's in film. Of course, if I'm going, I would bring my dSLR with me. So off we go, thinking we could catch the sunrise... except there isn't any. Although Edwin and I were disappointed, it wasn't all that bad considering that the weather report says it will be raining. The day became even better when a couple came by to feed the geese/birds. Note to self for next time: bring bread crumbs for birds if shooting in the wilderness. Anyhow, it was more or less a casual shoot and it didn't last long before both of us were hungry. This was the first shot when I arrived on the deck. Pretty neat considering there was...

Rushing for the sunset to do a simple shoot for my friend, David (@devkim), for his online portfolio and social media avatar, I came back quickly from dinner. By the time we're out in the park, we almost had no light. I had to borrow my friend, Kevin, to do a little assistant work for me. I decided to drop a light stand in the middle of the field (screw shooting permits, it's too dark to see anyways). Simple 45 degree strobe shoot through umbrella, most-boring set up, made the shots below. It turned out to be quite mysterious. That and the sky and the not-able-to-pose, David, created something unique. Bonus: experimental shot, shot in complete darkness. The flash was fired through a bunch of stuff, mainly, a logo of our apartment. Who's idea was it to shoot in the park again? We were attacked by a bunch of mosquitos. So far, I've...