i cannot focus.

2010-03-08T15:26:00.003-05:00

photo, originally uploaded by chaupham photography.

2010-03-08T15:26:00.001-05:00

photo, originally uploaded by chaupham photography.

George Snell is drunk

2010-03-05T13:07:00.001-05:00

George Snell is drunk, originally uploaded by chaupham photography.

it's moving day ...

2010-01-23T02:58:00.003-05:00

yes, yes, yes ... blog has moved, decided to switch over to wordpress, a little more control, a little better design, and a little more flexibility.

you can find the new blog home at: http://www.icannotfocus.com/

Face-Detection Cameras: Users' Racism Charges Explained - TIME

2010-01-22T12:39:00.001-05:00

Joz Wang

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When Joz Wang and her brother bought their mom a Nikon Coolpix S630 digital camera for Mother's Day last year, they discovered what seemed to be a malfunction. Every time they took a portrait of each other smiling, a message flashed across the screen asking, "Did someone blink?" No one had. "I thought the camera was broken!" Wang, 33, recalls. But when her brother posed with his eyes open so wide that he looked "bug-eyed," the messages stopped.
Wang, a Taiwanese-American strategy consultant who goes by the Web handle "jozjozjoz," thought it was funny that the camera had difficulties figuring out when her family had their eyes open. So she posted a photo of the blink warning on her blog under the title, "Racist Camera! No, I did not blink... I'm just Asian!" The post was picked up by Gizmodo and Boing Boing, and prompted at least one commenter to note, "You would think that Nikon, being a Japanese company, would have designed this with Asian eyes in mind." (See Techland's top 10 gadgets of 2009.)
Nikon isn't the only big brand whose consumer cameras have displayed an occasional — though clearly unintentional — bias toward Caucasian faces. Face detection, which is one of the latest "intelligent" technologies to trickle down to consumer cameras, is supposed to make photography more convenient. Some cameras with face detection are designed to warn you when someone blinks; others are programmed to automatically take a picture when somebody smiles — a feature that, theoretically, makes the whole problem of timing your shot to catch the brief glimpse of a grin obsolete. Face detection has also found its way into computer webcams, where it can track a person's face during a video conference or enable face-recognition software to prevent unauthorized access.
The principle behind face detection is relatively simple, even if the math involved can be complex. Most people have two eyes, eyebrows, a nose and lips — and an algorithm can be trained to look for those common features, or more specifically, their shadows. (For instance, when you take a normal image and heighten the contrast, eye sockets can look like two dark circles.) But even if face detection seems pretty straightforward, the execution isn't always smooth.
Indeed, just last month, a white employee at an RV dealership in Texas posted a YouTube video showing a black co-worker trying to get the built-in webcam on an HP Pavilion laptop to detect his face and track his movements. The camera zoomed in on the white employee and panned to follow her, but whenever the black employee came into the frame, the webcam stopped dead in its tracks. "I think my blackness is interfering with the computer's ability to follow me," the black employee jokingly concludes in the video. "Hewlett-Packard computers are racist." (See the 50 best inventions of 2009.)
The "HP computers are racist" video went viral, with almost 2 million views, and HP, naturally, was quick to respond. "Everything we do is focused on ensuring that we provide a high-quality experience for all our customers, who are ethnically diverse and live and work around the world," HP's lead social-media strategist Tony Welch wrote on a company blog within a week of the video's posting. "We are working with our partners to learn more." The post linked to instructions on adjusting the camera settings, something both Consumer Reports and Laptop Magazine tested successfully in Web videos they put online.
Still, some engineers question how a webcam even made it onto the market with this seemingly glaring flaw. "It's surprising HP didn't get this right," says Bill Anderson, president of Oculis Labs in Hunt Valley, Md., a company that develops security software that uses face recognition to protect work computers from prying eyes. "These things are solvable." Case in point: Sensible Vision, which develops the face-recognition security software that comes with some Dell computers, said their software had no trouble picking up the black employee's face when they tested the YouTube video.
YouTube commenters expressed what was on a lot of people's minds. "Seems they rushed the product to market before testing thoroughly enough," wrote one. "I'm guessing it's because all the people who tested the software were white," wrote another. HP declined to comment on their methods for testing the webcam or how involved they were in designing the software, but they did say the software was based on "standard algorithms." Often, the manufacturers of the camera parts will also supply the software to well-known brands, which might explain why HP isn't the only company whose cameras have exhibited an accidental prejudice against minorities, since many brands could be using the same flawed code. TIME tested two of Sony's latest Cyber-shot models with face detection (the DSC-TX1 and DSC-WX1) and found they, too, had a tendency to ignore camera subjects with dark complexions.
But why? It's not necessarily the programmers' fault. It comes down to the fact that the software is only as good as its algorithms, or the mathematical rules used to determine what a face is. There are two ways to create them: by hard-coding a list of rules for the computer to follow when looking for a face, or by showing it a sample set of hundreds, if not thousands, of images and letting it figure out what the ones with faces have in common. In this way, a computer can create its own list of rules, and then programmers will tweak them. You might think the more images — and the more diverse the images — that a computer is fed, the better the system will get, but sometimes the opposite is true. The images can begin to generate rules that contradict each other. "If you have a set of 95 images and it recognizes 90 of those, and you feed it five more, you might gain five, but lose three," says Vincent Hubert, a software engineer at Montreal-based Simbioz, a tech company that is developing futuristic hand-gesture technology like the kind seen in Minority Report. It's the same kind of problem speech-recognition software faces in handling unusual accents.
And just as the software is only as good as its code and the hardware it lives in, it's also only as good as the light it's got to work with. As HP noted in its blog post, the lighting in the YouTube video was dim, and, the company said, there wasn't enough contrast to pick up the facial shadows the computer needed for seeing. (An overlit person with a fair complexion might have had the same problem.) A better camera wouldn't necessarily have guaranteed a better result, because there's another bottleneck: computing power. The constant flow of images is usually too much for the software to handle, so it downsamples them, or reduces the level of detail, before analyzing them. That's one reason why a person watching the YouTube video can easily make out the black employee's face, while the computer can't. "A racially inclusive training set won't help if the larger platform is not capable of seeing those details," says Steve Russell, founder and chairman of 3VR, which creates face recognition for security cameras.
The blink problem Wang complained about has less to do with lighting than the plain fact that her Nikon was incapable of distinguishing her narrow eye from a half-closed one. An eye might only be a few pixels wide, and a camera that's downsampling the images can't see the necessary level of detail. So a trade-off has to be made: either the blink warning would have a tendency to miss half blinks or a tendency to trigger for narrow eyes. Nikon did not respond to questions from TIME as to how the blink detection was designed to work.
Why these glitches weren't ironed out before the cameras hit Best Buy is not something that HP, Nikon or Sony, when contacted by TIME, were willing to answer. Perhaps in this market of rapidly developing technologies, consumers who fork over a few hundred dollars for the latest gadget are the test market. A few years ago, speech-recognition software was teeth-gnashingly unreliable. Today, it's up to 99% accurate. With the flurry of consumer complaints out there, most of the companies seem to be responding. HP has offered instructions on how to adjust its webcam's sensitivity to backlighting. Nikon says it's working to improve the accuracy of the blink-warning function on its Coolpix cameras. (Sony wouldn't comment on the performance of its Cyber-shot cameras and said only that it's "not possible to track the face accurately all the time.") Perhaps in a few years' time, the only faces cameras won't be able to pick up will be those of the blue-skinned humanoids from Avatar.

Read "Sony's Robot-Cam: Partying Without a Photographer."

See the best pictures of 2009.

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via time.com

... I've always been a Nikon-ian, until now that is ... kidding.

Posted via web from pchaupham's posterous

Global Internet Crash Would be 'Doomsday Scenario'

2010-01-22T00:12:00.001-05:00

(FOX25, myfoxboston) - In 1969, Nixon became President, the Beatles released “Abbey Road”, and the first transmission over the earliest version of the Internet was recorded. Things have changed a lot in 40 years, what began as a connection between two university computers, now rules the world. Just the thought of life offline is enough to send some off their rocker. Worldwide internet failure would mean faxes instead of emails, maps instead of GPS, cash instead of credit cards, and social networking would actually require face to face meetings.

E EXCERPT FROM TED'S BLOG:
"It's sounds like a plot for a sci-fi movie. It's a peaceful day all over the world. People are emailing, facebooking and watching youtube when all of a sudden (insert scream) the Internet stops working. People start walking around the streets in a daze as the world comes to a grinding halt."

Read more here

“Within three weeks we would be back to 1840,” says Boston-based computer security analyst, Robert Siciliano, of www.IDTheftSecurity.com , who paints a doomsday scenario about the potential crash of the web. “The internet controls electricity, it controls running water, it controls commerce, we have become to rely on the internet in a way. If it were to cease to function today, life as we know it would cease to function,” Siciliano says.

It has been more than 20 years since the last major overhaul of the internet, and the core architecture hasn’t really every changed. Nearly every day there are outages, some bigger than others. Last year an explosion and fire at a large data center in Houston shut down thousands of websites. Hundreds of thousands in the Middle East and India were knocked offline when several underwater telecom cables were damaged. Youtube.com was unavailable for 2 hours when a Turkish telecom company mistakenly claimed their IP address.

“A lot of people who don’t know how the internet is built under the hood will always have fear,” says David Berlind, the Chief Content Officer and Editor and Chief of TechWeb.com . He says complete internet failure is not just unlikely, it is nearly impossible.

The internet is a de-centralized system of routers and networks owned and operated by many governmental and private organizations. He says even if there’s an outage or problem in one area of the world, there are millions of other paths the information can travel. Berlind says the companies that provide internet service also have a vested interest in maintaining the infrastructure and the advances are being made to increase capacity every day. As the internet celebrates it’s 40th anniversary, we can remember localized problems will always occur, but a global failure of the internet doesn’t appear likely, at least anytime soon.

via myfoxboston.com

interesting scenario to consider, how would we react and survive?

Posted via web from pchaupham's posterous

middle of the day snack: gyoza

2010-01-04T00:35:00.003-05:00

i was bored and hankering for homemade potstickers/gyoza, here's the recipe from before except this time, i modified the recipe a bit as well as the cooking technique. i added very very finely chopped savoy cabbage as well as leeks and jalapeno's into the mixture. i also browned them on both sides and used less water to steam. gave the potsticker a chewier texture and much enjoyed. i also picked up a few store-bought gyoza's from the store to do a compare and contrast. those were tasty too, but homemade clearly hit the spot.

homemade vietnamese nem nuoung ...

2010-01-04T00:17:00.004-05:00

i love nem nuoung, and for those of you who don't know what it is, it's essentially a vietnamese sausage/meatloaf patty that's sliced and rolled up like a summer roll. contents include cucumber, cilantro, lettuce, sometimes a shrimp spring roll for crunch, chives and then the roll is dipped into a spicy peanut sauce (light on the peanut flavor though).

my mother usually makes me a large batch, it's put into the freezer and i slowly enjoy the fruits of her labor. well, a short while ago, i decided to make them myself, and during my two weeks off i re-stocked the fridge. i of course bastardized my version, my mother already shakes her head at my variation. in addition to the pork, garlic and spices, i add in chopped cilantro, chopped and sliced garlic, both granulated sugar and honey, and green onion directly into the mixture, definitely a big no-no in terms of authenticity. i enjoy it, i think it's a good addition.

the pork patty is put under a hot broiler, the outside becomes sticky, sweet and crisp, and when cut, snaps like the casing of a good hotdog. if you want the recipe, you'll have to ask, but i may not give it to you ... it does involve: pork, garlic, cilantro, garlic, fish sauce, garlic powder, sugar, honey, did i mention more garlic ...

here's the final product before being rolled up:

kitchen doorknobs: fudge

2010-01-04T00:13:00.002-05:00

visit kitchen doorknobs for this month's fudge challenge ... white chocolate peanut butter oreo fudge. sticks to the top of your mouth goodness:

a spot of pho ...

2010-01-03T00:53:00.005-05:00

a quick review: pho so 1, dorchester, ma ... at the corner of dorchester ave and adams street on the south side of boston. a couple of weeks ago, i took a quick road trip down to the dc area and when i'm in the area, i usually always hit up eden center in falls church va. it's the mecca in the dc area for all things vietnamese. thousands upon thousands of square feet of edible vietnamese goodness, it's like an amusement park of food. i usually always have a good time there, and leave with a very fully belly, but for some reason this time, something was quite lacking. i cam back to boston still hankering for vietnamese, and when that's the case, pho usually hits the spot. i went searching, and ended up on yelp. there are a number of pho/vietnamese places in boston - specifically in allston or chinatown, but there's also a large concentration in dorchester. i took a ride down to dorchester one monday during the week and found pho so 1, from a picking of about 5 different places on yelp. it was a cold bitter day, pho hit the spot, pho so 1 definitely hit the spot. the restaurant itself is pretty clean, tables are set, and my feet don't stick to the floor, nor the chairs, a good sign. the menu itself isn't as expansive as other vietnamese places i've been, worrisome? i think not, it may just mean they do the few things they serve well, at least i hope. the pho came out, and i had no complaints, broth was clear, aromatic, thinly sliced top round mixed with the right amount of beef balls. the obligatory plate of bean sprouts, asian basil were crisp not wilted ... i of course consumed this xlarge bowl of pho with reckless abandonment ... and subsequently came back a few more times for more. i've tried a few other things on the menu, worth trying but stick to the pho.

if you want another place for pho not in chinatown, head for pho so 1.

hdr tidbits in washington dc ...

2009-12-14T20:54:00.003-05:00

took a quick trip down to dc late last week/this past weekend and did the tourist thing with the little munch. took a bunch of pictures and two random shots in hdr ... here are the results ... 2/3 +/-ev on both images ... seemed to work out well enough.

sunset at the baltimore inner harbor:

inside the air & space museum from the top floor:

hdr versus non-hdr with d700

2009-11-17T20:36:00.005-05:00

while leisurely talking to george today at work, i noticed the sun quickly fading and the lights of the genzyme building lighting up, quick chance to grab camera and grab an experimental shot with d700. to hdr or not to hdr - that's what i was wondering and how the camera would process colors.

stock image straight out of the camera (iso200, f/7.1 1/6sec shutter, 0ev)

same image run through photoshop, +40% saturation, +2.5% contrast, +2.5% brightness, +10% gamma

now here's the same image, same settings, bracketed +2/3ev and -2/3ev into hdr:

i actually happen to like the non-hdr version better (processed, not sooc) ... might need to go a little lower iso, testing will continue, this was a 5-min test.

time lapse on longfellow bridge boston ...

2009-10-06T23:27:00.002-04:00

catching the sun, always catching the last rays of sun. setup camera on westbound side of the longfellow pointed at the zakim bridge just as the sun was setting ...

before, during, and after ...

headlight with last glimpses of light ...

2009-10-05T22:18:00.002-04:00

this was one of my most favorite photos of the weekend, it's a headlight off of a harley parked on the corner of arlington and newbury streets, sun was setting and caught bits of the chrome.

shot with d700 with f/2.8 70-200mm @ iso200, magical how well that sensor works with the fleeting light ...

two musicians playing at sunset ...

2009-10-05T20:41:00.002-04:00

playing within about 50 feet of each other, two musicians in the common as the sun was starting to set ...

mini protest in boston commons ...

2009-10-05T20:34:00.003-04:00

while trekking around boston yesterday with the gear, amidst the komen walk, abortion rally and other random happenings around boston, quietly near the part street t-station was the weekly gathering of chinese americans protesting the communist regime and humanity issues ... this woman just stood there quietly for quite a while, had to snap a photo ...

got some more ...

2009-10-04T20:27:00.003-04:00

decided late last week to get an additional body, ordered a d700 and thanks to adorama camera it literally was delivered the next day without overnight shipping. not much to say, hundreds of reviews out there ... i just need to say the shutter sound is just awesome and matted to my nikkor f/2.8 70-200, it's just perfect (aside from a bit heavy)

(shot with my d300)

first attempt @ time lapse photography video ...

2009-10-04T19:57:00.004-04:00

i've seen numerous videos on flickr etc and that are composites of multi-framed shots combined into a video. sure i can use a video camera or have bought a dslr with video capability, but frankly i'm not a huge fan and that seems - too straight forward/easy for my geeky-self?

went out in boston today, my first attempt at composite/elapse photography video, picked the corner of the copley plaza hotel pointing at boylston street and the boston library. this was 606 frames shot over a period of 30 mins at 3-second intervals.

all settings were maintained at iso200, f/12, with the d300 @ 18mm on a tripod. i shot in aperture mode, left the shutter speed to the camera as the light conditions slightly changed with passing clouds, etc

no post processing of the images themselves, they were sent into imovie to be combined at 1/10th of a second/frame, here's the result (original files were not re-sized, imovie imported them as-is 4300+ pixels each, quicktime movie file is much higher quality) ...

couple of lessons learned ... not touching the camera, I did a few times - be it with my foot touching the tripod, hand resting on the neck strap or whatever ... need to bring a stop-watch, was using my iphone that proceeded to get very hot ... going to try some night photography with this instead next time, but i'm content with my first pass results.

catch up blog post: caprese salad ...

2009-09-28T22:48:00.002-04:00

as part of the kitchen doorknobs end of summer challenge with tomatoes, i subsequently made a variety of things with the tomatoes pictures below. caprese salad was my favorite, because who doesn't love very fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, basil and a tangy balsamic vinaigrette on a muggy hot summer afternoon ... gratuitous close up makes you hungry picture ...

non-photog post, my thoughts on os3.1 for iphone ...

2009-09-28T22:26:00.005-04:00

it all started about 2 or so weeks ago, i downloaded the latest version of itunes 9.0 because with all apply hype, i liked the new interface, family sharing and the other bells and whistles the smoked in my face. yeah, that's when it all started. downloaded the package and started the install, all went fine (my iphone was plugged in at the time) when my iphone made some wonky noise. i looked at the screen and i can't remember what it said, but it clearly just had some icon, subsequently it had the "plug your iphone into your laptop to sync or you're fried" icon. i did that. nothing. i tried again, nothing. grumbling and a few hard re-starts, nothing. at this point i didn't really have a choice except to recover my iphone back to factory settings.

very annoyed, thinking i would be losing everything on my iphone, i was partially right.

itunes recovered and reverted my iphone back to its factory settings. there was no personal data on it. luckily i recovered from an iphone backup. still annoyed. it recovered my data, but had to re-install all my apps.

45 mins later. it's still installing. it finally finished about 25 mins later. finally have my phone back. slight bit of relief, but still quite annoyed. and now i've got itunes9 and iphone os3.1; i thought all was well aside from the minor inconvenience.

had to take a hop to the west coast, iphone starts to act wonky again, a bit sluggish, re-boot it twice, it seems ok - false hope. phone proceeds to freeze ... i.e. pushing the home button does nothing. did i mention nothing? pushing the home button repeatedly does nothing. pushing the top screen on/off button does nothing, absolutely nothing. after trying a few more times, i give up. 30 seconds later the screen lights up ... what's going on? swipe the slider and everything seems ok ... that is until i push the mail icon, screen freezes again, nothing. try to push the home button and the camera sound goes off, it's taking a picture, of what? nothing. do it again, camera sound goes off again, whiskey tango foxtrot. lather, rinse, repeat. come to find out i took 25 screen shots of my phone without using the home/top button combination. finally able to get out of it, so i shut it down and reboot it. all is well, for the time being. of course this happens again and again.

i'm not sure what is up. it hasn't happened for about a week - seriously what's up apple with os3.1, seriously. questioning whether or not to download the mms upgrade, i havent been this annoyed at this phone, but i am. rant over.

#1 animal style ...

2009-09-16T23:44:00.001-04:00

I can't really complain ... it's been odd that the last few trips to LA I haven't fed my In & Out addiction ... well I decided not to pass it up this round before the awful flight back ....

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Brilliant tip of the day ...

2009-09-04T20:08:00.001-04:00

Them Hooters folks are pretty smart ...

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Umm yeah bumper boats ...

2009-08-28T12:52:00.001-04:00

... equals bad idea, Patrick is soaked, attacked by a bunch of 7 year oldsters ....

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what to do with tomatoes ...

2009-08-22T22:54:00.003-04:00

summer is rolling to an end and unfortunately, this summer's increased amounts of rain is taken it's toll on tomatoes. haven't seen as much of a selection at farmer's market's until this week, the 3rd week in august. i won't complain too much though because i was able to get quite the selection - now i must figure out what delicious summer recipes to make with all of these.

Do people actually eat this stuff??

2009-08-09T16:01:00.001-04:00

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First of Carter weekend set ...

2009-08-03T22:04:00.001-04:00

He's such a munch, and camera friendly ...

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Great day for a round of golf ...

2009-08-01T13:44:00.001-04:00

.... mini golf that is challenged by the little munch!!!

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Finale, birthday cake ...

2009-07-25T22:22:00.001-04:00

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7th course, fried spicy squid

2009-07-25T22:01:00.001-04:00

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6th course, shrimp/pork fried rice

2009-07-25T21:53:00.001-04:00

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5th course, Peking duck with buns

2009-07-25T21:49:00.003-04:00

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4th course, Panko fish filet with chili sauce

2009-07-25T21:49:00.001-04:00

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3rd course, garlic shrimp

2009-07-25T21:42:00.001-04:00

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2nd course, hot spicy basil clams

2009-07-25T21:41:00.001-04:00

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1st course, asparagus crab soup

2009-07-25T21:36:00.001-04:00

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Banh mi so 1 / Westminster CA

2009-07-25T20:06:00.001-04:00

Vietnamese sammy shop, my brother had to pick some sammies up, they had a buffet, complete with caramel spicy clay pot catfish mmmmmmm looks tasty but I didn't get any ...

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Fried egg, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, & ricotta

2009-07-25T16:55:00.001-04:00

Yummmmmmmmmm

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At AXE in Venice

2009-07-25T16:47:00.001-04:00

What to have, what to have ...

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Chuck E Cheese isn't always insane ....

2009-07-18T10:33:00.001-04:00

As a parent, I usually dread going to this giant people trap with the "other" mouse ... but I will say, at 9am on a Saturday morning when they just open up, it's quite fun. Only one other child here, lots of running room and you can play whatever you want without elbowing others ...

Doesn't hurt that there are employes running around testing all the machines and there's an abundance of free tickets too ...

Carter loves Deal or No Deal

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It's lunch time!

2009-07-17T13:51:00.001-04:00

I guess I am still not accepting of this gorgeous warm weather yet after weeks of rain, glad it's here and I am not working today. Sitting down to enjoy lunch outside .... wondering why everyone who works at the Weathervane in Kittery has an accent and is from Eastern Europe, it's like a bus just pulled up and everyone got jobs!!

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blueberry peach tart ...

2009-07-05T19:47:00.003-04:00

tastes of summer, for this month's doorknob challenge, i made a blueberry peach tart. i just had a slice of it, absolutely delicious. brown-sugar, ginger, cinnamon syrup instead of regular sugar/cinnamon combo. thumbs up also for the silicon tart pan instead of metal, it doesn't stick, holds form and absolutely great cooking medium, crust browns perfectly.

to view the entire recipe (instead of having to re-write it here), follow over to the kitchen doorknob blog

Posterous test posting ...

2009-07-03T18:48:00.001-04:00

.... test posting to check out connections to other linked sites ... hooo-rah.

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heathrow terminal 5 perspective ...

2009-06-15T08:36:00.005-04:00

i had some time to kill recently while sitting at heathrow terminal 5 - the british airways terminal. it's got some great trusses, angles, structures, repeating architecture and of course with a ton of time on my hands and nothing better to do than to capture some of it. post processing consisted of color correction first, b&w conversion, contrast, and brightening.

chicago part 2 ...

2009-06-15T08:24:00.003-04:00

a few extra shots from chicago trip, ferris wheel almost looks photoshopped - i think if i test a few different crops on that picture it might be more interesting. post processed the trees to oversaturate, brightening up the greens as much as possible. and two perspectives on the last shot, i can't decide which i like better the color or b&w version...

chicago part 1 ...

2009-06-12T01:42:00.005-04:00

it's been quite a busy last month and change. i've spent a lot of time in an airplane, can't say i've been anywhere that exciting, normal jaunts to la, chicago, nyc and the like, that and the small hop through london to get to bahrain in a weekend. lots of pictures though during this time, just haven't had time to process and post them up as well as write about them. this is of course on top of work and photog-clients. here's a start from the chicago trip, this is a 3-frame rough stitch of the chicago skyline. post processing included color correction, saturation, contrast bump, warming polarizer. click for the full-large version which is 11,000+ pixels wide (and 20mb).

the underground rice paper market ...

2009-04-26T22:06:00.003-04:00

when i was younger, my aunt or granparents would get these stacks of special rice paper. my cousins and i used to make this concoction of lime juice, lots of very very hot thai chili peppers and soy sauce. recently i was craving these things, it's odd, i know, but i had to have them. my cousin lan didn't know where to get them either so we turn to my aunt, di em (pronounced yee-ahm). anyhow i guess it's not as simple as rolling up to a store or something, telling them how many sheets you'd like and being on your way. nope. it seems these things are only produced in the back alleys and secret basements of the southern california underground (kidding). she calls someone, tells them how much she wants and then picks them up from their house. beelan noted that once these people die or move, my connection is going to be a tad screwed.

unlike normal rice paper (probably the white kind everyone is aware of), this kind is a bit tougher, you have to really wet it with warm water. it's a tad sweet, maybe slight sour/salty. it pairs well with the spicy sauce that it gets dipped in. i honestly have never ever seen it used for anything else, outside of my grandpa making ginormous egg, sausage burritos in the morning once in a while. i can't imagine an eggroll or springroll made of this stuff, a bit too tough. it's a funky, tasty snack, although my concoction this time comprised of a lot too many habanero's, but it is quite tasty. so i was lucky lately, on a trip to the west coast for work, my aunt delivered me some. i guess i should stock up.

two month old abby ...

2009-04-20T23:13:00.003-04:00

i seem to love babies, here's 2months or so abby, such a little cutie and a great little subject ...

and some more ari ...

2009-04-20T21:24:00.002-04:00

it's clearly been insane lately, finally had time to sit back down and blog some tonight. here's a few more of ari from a few weeks ago, such a little character.

ari, preview ...

2009-03-30T23:47:00.003-04:00

annat had her baby (i.e. my first maternity shoot) about three months ago, went back to shoot little ari. here's a teaser, will be processing this weekend after travels.

the standard hotel, hollywood ...

2009-03-23T23:09:00.002-04:00

last week, will be back next week, but the standard was an interesting hotel to stay at. comfy bed, obscure furnishings, bright bold colors, it was great ...

manual stitch ...

most interesting of thermostat dials ...

what i ate today ...

2009-03-17T14:17:00.005-04:00

i flew into la on sunday and was fortunate enough to spend some time and meet up with some friends and family. first up was the vietnamese noodle bar in glendale. it's yet another one of these locales where there are no signs on the storefront, just a simple number, no other markings. weird la'ians.

ordered up the shrimp eggrolls, a shrimp crepe, and bun bo (almost dry noodle soup). food was fantastic! eggrolls were piping hot and delicious.

crepe was crispy and tasty although my mother would probably say they were not exactly flavorful therefore not authentic.

and the bun bo, well i was disappointed when they brought the bowl out, because in my younger years when my mother or grandmother made this dish, it always came out with this deep caramel golden/reddish brown color. this serving was pale, stark, grey-ish. aesthetics aside, it was absolutely delicious!!!

well, after lunch, i headed down to westminster to see my grandparents and cousins, of course to eat! this time it was at brodard restaurant. i ordered the usual vietnamese fare of: eggrolls, summer rolls:

a bowl of meatball (nem nuong) noodles:

as well as munching off many orders on the table of nem nuong spring rolls, which were absolutely delicious:

all in all, i pretty much spent the day eating, it was quite delicious and i would love to return back to both locations ...

andrew and michelle engaged ...

2009-02-23T17:08:00.003-05:00

here's the slideshow set of andrew and michelle's engagement session last weekend ... click here for the slideshow ...

noise or no noise ...

2009-02-17T23:19:00.001-05:00

while out in chicago this past weekend, shot andrew and michelle's engagement. two shots from it, cropped, processed in b&w, up'd contrast, darkened, vignetted. added noise to second picture, i love both shots, i cannot decide which one i like better, with or without the noise added. each has its own quality.

chicago self portrait ...

2009-02-14T20:21:00.003-05:00

another day, another hotel. intercontinental, chicago. great bits and pieces in the hotel room, particularly the mirror ...

i am addicted to dumplings ...

2009-02-02T15:35:00.003-05:00

i absolutely love chinese dumplings, the pork and chives ones. homemade ones though include a lot of bite in the habanero form.

pork dumplings/pot stickers
- 1lb ground pork
- scallions
- cilantro
- ginger
- 2 tbsp hot garlic chili paste
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1.5 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 3/4 cup very finely chopped savoy cabbage
- 2 habaneros very finely chopped
- chopped chives
- pepper
- wonton wrappers (or make your own, takes too long though)

i actually find that putting all the ingredients into a food processor works best (not the wonton wrappers though) and mix. combine in order though, i usually put scallions, cilantro, habanero, ginger, garlic, and cabbage in first to get a properly sized fine chop, then add in the remaining ingredients.

find a comfy seat, with a small bowl of water and some wet paper towels. put about 3/4 tbsp of the mixture into a wonton wrapper and crimp. repeat. repeat about 100 times. when complete, i usually place them all on a tray and put into the freezer to zap them right away, so i can store them (of course leaving some aside to enjoy right away).

to cook, place 6-8 into a small frying pan on high heat. put about 1tbsp of vegetable oil (i use cook spray and a non-stick pan). fry for about 2-3 mins on each side, or until a big brown. add in enough water to fill bottom of pan and cover 1/3 up the dumpling. cover with a tight lid and do not remove lid for 3-4 mins. plate and server with dipping sauce below.

dipping sauce:
- 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup black vinegar
- 1 very finely chopped habanero
- 1tbsp garlic chili paste
- 1/4 cup lite soy sauce
- finely chopped chives, cilantro, and mint too
- 1 tbsp hoisin sauce

combine. yeah, that's all, combine!

lone sailboat ...

2009-01-30T00:07:00.003-05:00

sunset shot (actually there are few variations i modified and posted two here, but the first one is most certainly an original, unmodified ...

a bit more of hawaii ...

2009-01-29T23:54:00.003-05:00

i was going to process through all my pictures and then post some, but i realized that will take forever, so why not just post a bit at a time. it'll probably be better for my sanity as i'm cooped up inside these winter months as it's freezing and continuously snowing outside. seriously, it's snowed almost every week now. there's nothing but dirty snow everywhere. this is the hdr set.

of course the obligatory this is what it looked like before i left ...

a small hint of summer ...

2009-01-29T23:18:00.005-05:00

somehow some tomatoes are available, as are avocados, perhaps from chili?

lump crab napoleon with pesto vinaigrette and herb goat cheese ...

- handful of grape tomatoes (or vine ripe/heirloom if you can find some)
- basil, lots of basil
- lump crab (maryland blue crab is best, again if you can find some)
- your favorite herb goat cheese
- 1/2 ripe avocado
- extra virgin olive oil
- white vinegar
- 1 tbsp maille mustard
- parmesan cheese
- salt & pepper
- honey

coarsely chop a handful of grape tomatoes with 3 basil leaves, add a bit of salt, put into a round form and pop into the fridge while preparing the rest. add about 20-25 basil leaves into a blender, add in olive oil, vinegar, honey, 1 tbsp parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, mustard and about 3 grape tomatoes. blend well. remove the tomato form from fridge, place onto a plate, top with lump crap and sliced avocado. add as much pesto vinaigrette surrounding the tomatoes as you prefer, crumble goat cheese.

it may be freezing outside, but it's a taste of summer!

stromboli is good ...

2009-01-29T23:14:00.002-05:00

quick and easy dinner, stromboli! just take some pizza dough, a small bit of your favorite tomato sauce (homemade) and a choice of meat - i use pepperoni ... assemble, roll and bake.

vacation preview ...

2009-01-19T23:34:00.001-05:00

back from vacation, here's a two shot preview. first one is me rocking my tan of two days (i think?). second is a random picture of a sail, wait, all the pictures from vacation are random! well over 700 pictures to process. back to reality now.

away message ...

2009-01-11T02:24:00.001-05:00

i'm currently away, yes, taking a break from life. a quick visit out to oahu/waikiki. hopefully will have a chance to grab some great photos.

be back next week!

katie is a cutie ...

2008-12-29T00:06:00.003-05:00

multiple family portrait sitting today, here's a candid from the shoot. cropped, and processed with tiffen filter in photoshop for b&w and vignette

f/2.8 @ 200mm, 1/60sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev

comquats at a distance ...

2008-12-27T21:08:00.003-05:00

recently in florida, outside my parents house they had a comquat tree in full bloom. cute little buggers aren't they ... standing about 30 feet away from the tree.

f/3.2 @ 200mm, 1/2500sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev

tired smiles ...

2008-12-16T11:47:00.004-05:00

arjot, another friend's 13month old baby, she was quite tired for her photoshoot, but held up for some great shots. need to improve background/hair lighting, otherwise the lighting setup was nicely exposed. two studio lights at +3.5 stops plus hot-shoe mounted flash with gary fong diffuser. no photoshop correction.

f/3.2 @ 90mm, 1/60sec-exposure, iso200 0/6ev

f/3.2 @ 70mm, 1/60sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev

she's such a beautiful baby ...

2008-12-15T13:38:00.004-05:00

katelyn, a close friend's daughter. very cute, very photogenic, a great subject to snap pictures of, although she did enjoy behind the screen as much as sitting in front of it. Very little processing, a bit of contrast, mild vignette if needed.

f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1/60sec-exposure, iso400, +4/3ev

f/2.8 @ 50mm, 1/60sec-exposure, iso400, +4/3ev

f/3.5 @ 40mm, 1/60sec-exposure, iso400, +4/3ev

nyc hotel view hdr's ...

2008-12-08T19:06:00.002-05:00

here are a few hdr's i processed from last week's trip to nyc. there's definitely some sharpness missing in each photo, need to shoot at a bit higher f-stop. colors are terrific, these are all straight out of the camera into photomattix, no post processing required.

f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1sec-exposure, iso200, -1/3 :: 0 :: +1/3ev

f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1sec-exposure, iso200, -1/3 :: 0 :: +1/3ev

f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1sec-exposure, iso200, -1/3 :: 0 :: +1/3ev; sharper than the previous but mildly de-saturated in the buildings

most people ask, are these images artificial or rendered? no. it's just the beauty of hdr.

hotel room ...

2008-12-04T20:42:00.003-05:00

had to go to nyc this week, have to process some hdr images, but here are two non-hdr's that i liked. second shot was in complete darkness at high iso's.

f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1/13sec-exposure, iso400, 0/6ev

f/2.8 @ 18mm 2/5sec-exposure, iso3200, 0/6ev

birthdays in the club ...

2008-11-30T15:05:00.003-05:00

club shoot this past weekend, difficult lighting, but a lot of fun, gary fong diffusers on both cameras seemed to work great, fair amount of post processing required due to lighting but also adding vignettes.

pie is good ...

2008-11-30T14:49:00.003-05:00

thanksgiving pie, apple cranberry, it's quite good ... not too sweet, not too tart, just the perfect mix.

- 6 granny smith apples
- 1 cup of sugar, split into four (1/4's)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 cup cranberries
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp apple jelly
- lemon zest
- 1 tbsp corn starch (and cold water)
- pie crust (make your own or buy some)

peel and cut apples, i prefer 8-slices per apple, lets apples hold their shape and not break down too much. place sliced apples into a mixing bowl, add in 1/4 cup sugar and mix. place apples into a colander and place colander over a bowl to let apples drain for 30 mins. do not discard the apple juices that drain.

while waiting for apples to drain, put cranberries, jelly, water, cinnamon (1 tsp), 1/4 cup sugar, and lemon zest into a saucepan. bring to a gentle bubble but do not let cranberries "pop" and break down, this should be no more than about 5 mins. turn off stove.

prepare a greased pie pan with pie crust. pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

once apples have drained for 30 mins, place back into mixing bowl, add in the other two parts of 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon (1/2 tbsp), corn starch/cold water mix, lemon juice and mix. add in cranberries using a slotted spoon, taking only the berries but not residual juices. combine. place apples into pie crust and top with other pie crust. cut slits into the top of the pie to let steam out.

take the drained apple juices and combine with the cranberry juices in the saucepan, set on medium high heat until mixture reduces down to a thin syrup, about 7-9 mins, do not let this overcook. remove from heat and brush this syrup onto the top of the pie.

place pie into oven, loosely covered with foil for 45 mins. remove foil from pie after 25 mins. watch pie to not burn crust.

melissa gibbs wedding ...

2008-11-30T14:42:00.003-05:00

shot a wedding about 2.5 weeks ago, hectic, but she was a very flexible bride and just had a good time, which is how it should be.

too busy ...

2008-11-30T14:41:00.000-05:00

... couple of catch up posts coming ...

tyler and andrew ...

2008-11-13T11:58:00.002-05:00

had a chance to shoot a friend's twins this past weekend, what great kids they were to snap.

get out and vote cake ...

2008-11-04T15:24:00.002-05:00

cake is good for voting.

f/1.8 @ 50mm, 1/250sec-exposure, iso400, 0/6ev, flash fired

label cloud ...

2008-11-04T08:36:00.001-05:00

... no picture, i just wanted to post that i made the label cloud work. w00t w00t. now i don't have to stare at that long long label list anymore, this is much easier to use and read through (as well as reference as i'm tagging words in future posts).

... werd.

... in case anyone else wanted the code snip-it, you can find it here...

prosciutto mozzarella salad ...

2008-11-03T22:51:00.002-05:00

threw a few things together for dinner tonight, one of which was this salad. fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, very thinly sliced prosciutto, romaine leaves, drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette.

f/1.8 @ 50mm, 1/60sec-exposure, iso400, 0/6ev

peas, bacon, onions, savory goodness ...

2008-11-02T01:03:00.006-04:00

i usually eat peas with just a bit of butter and i microwave them. saw this recently somewhere and thought it would be a great item to try. quite easy, fry up some bits of bacon, add in sliced onions and then a box of frozen or fresh peas.

f/2.8 @ 44m, 1/60sec-exposure, iso800, 0/6ev

roasted garlic tomatoes ...

2008-11-02T00:59:00.003-04:00

i absolutely love tomatoes, i typically eat them raw, or as salsa, occasionally adding it to a recipe or making a red-sauce. adding a bit more flavor, i roasted tomatoes with a bit of garlic, olive oil and salt & pepper. very simple, yet very delicious.

f/4 @ 46mm, 1/20sec-exposure, iso500, 0/6ev

crispy potato galette ...

2008-11-02T00:55:00.005-04:00

quite the simple recipe, can be used for breakfast, brunch, or dinner.

- 2 large yukon hold potatoes
- 1/2 cup light cream
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- salt & pepper

in a bake proof frying pan (or bake-ware you can skip the fry part), line the pan with one layer of the potatoes. sprinkle some salt, pepper and cheddar cheese. top with another layer of potatoes and repeat. complete with three layers. place on stove top and fry on medium heat for about 7-8 mins, this will set the galette. pour 1/3 cup light creme over top and add a bit more cheddar cheese. place into 375 oven for 15 mins.

f/2.8 @ 40mm, 1/80sec-exposure, iso800, 0/6ev

happy halloween ...

2008-10-31T12:01:00.002-04:00

happy halloween folks!

tuesday play of the day no 17 ...

2008-10-30T14:52:00.001-04:00

water color walking on the walls ...

- created (4) duplicate layers
- re-arranged/re-positioned layers
- applied water color filter
- stamped out the crack
- flattened

panda in a tin ...

2008-10-28T11:59:00.002-04:00

co-worker made rice-crispy treats, except formed it into the shape of a panda. it's head for some reason ended up in a tin.

f/3.2 @ 46mm, 1/50sec-exposure, iso400, 0/6ev, flash fired

who doesn't love cheesy goodness ...

2008-10-27T13:07:00.002-04:00

random post from recently. grilled cheese. perfect amount of cheese, bread, butter and a frying pan. who doesn't love grilled cheese?

f/3.2 @ 46mm, 1/50sec-exposure, iso800, 0/6ev

tuesday play of the day no 16 ...

2008-10-26T00:14:00.001-04:00

what would aliens see, or bugs while flying around the desert? :)

- sharpen
- difference clouds
- diffuse glow

a visit with the grandparents ...

2008-10-24T22:10:00.003-04:00

... i thought i'd post up a random picture i took of my grandpa on a recent trip out to san fran (earlier this week). it was a very very short trip - west coast in less than 24 hours. but i'm glad i got to see them.

f/1.8 @ 50mm, 1/60sec-exposure, iso400, 0/6ev, flash fired.

day at the track ...

2008-10-24T22:01:00.006-04:00

it's been insane lately, but i was at the track last friday, took a (very) few shots but was messing around with aperture and focus points. i love my coupe. (random statement there). two subsequent images changing the center focus. bokeh goes nuts. this is also the first in a set of me and my "red" theme.

shot of the track, while overlooking the hood of the coupe. third picture is of will turner's (of turner motorsports) new m3, he spanked me ... well all of us on the track.

f/3.2 @ 50mm, 1/3200sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev

f/3.2 @ 50mm, 1/2500sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev

f/3.2 @ 50mm, 1/3200sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev

a note on snapping daily ...

2008-10-16T22:06:00.005-04:00

i haven't posted in a few days, *really* it's been a tad busy, primarily just really tied up at work, unfortunately and i can only take so many pictures of the inside of my office. it got me thinking though, about how i want to shoot daily, but time (and subsequently energy) is just lacking. so as of the past week, i've been trying to pick a theme and just shoot the most random of things. my current theme is "red" as in shoot anything red, or you can twist that and possibly just shoot anything with a red-filter and see the results. it's good practice and you don't have to *think* too much about finding subjects, as i can pretty much find things that are red all over.

a couple of other possible themes to shoot:

shoot abc's. day one, find something, anything and many-things that start with the letter "a". day two, find things that start with the letter "b". so on and so forth.
pic a color. often times it's very interesting to see things based solely on color, regardless of subject.
shoot just clouds, all the time for a week. see the differences in clouds and cloud formations.
things that reflect. this could be anything from a bike reflector to the chrome on a wheel or faucet. plastic bottles reflect too.
contrast. snap only items with contrasting color, the exit sign leaving your office. painted parking spaces.
letters. start with a. end with z. find letters in your life and shoot them.

there are soo many possibilities, and although this post doesn't have pictures associated with them yet (haven't been able to process my red pictures yet), i hope this gives you some ideas.

tuesday play of the day no 14 ...

2008-10-13T14:40:00.002-04:00

ok, so i had to photoshop my own photo this week, had a few days of traveling so i had a few days to think about it. came up with nothing. i like the original photo a lot, but then the more i looked at it, the more i thought it looked half like spring and half like fall. i think it's due to the brightness of the green grass and the blue/semi-paleness of the sky. i wanted more of a fall look, here's my semi-best attempt.

- hue/saturation adjustment to remove some of the green and add red/brown flavors
- warming filter (no85)
- channel mixer to make the sky a little more evening grey/pink/blue

the original can be seen a few posts down labeled "fall weddings in new england ..."

perfectly out of focus ...

2008-10-06T11:39:00.004-04:00

this came out to be one of my favorite shots of this past weekend, apple picking with carter.

f/3.5 @ 26mm, 1/200sec-exposure, iso200, +2/3ev

tuesday play of the day no 13 ...

2008-09-30T22:10:00.004-04:00

i'm not sure what i was thinking but when i saw this picture, i went with this approach. don't ask, i just went with it plus i wanted to be bright and cheery since lan's was scccccccccaaaary ;)

- cropped the bottom off
- create new duplicate layer to set the planks to yellow (haha!)
- create new duplicate layer to get the trees a lot greener
- create new duplicate layer to make the hand rails golden instead of brown
- sharpen x2
- flattened

here's the straight out of the camera:

my take/comments on hdr photography ...

2008-09-29T22:35:00.015-04:00

... so recently, well, more than recently, people always ask what's up with my photography.

"it's hdr" i respond.
"i don't know what that is" i usually get back
"dot dutta wonka wonka dot dutta bakka lakka dot dutta blah blah" the story goes.

... so i am deciding to just blog about it, without pictures (the irony) to give all you readers an overview, express my own personal opinions on the subject matter and maybe, just maybe insight some knowledge without having to repeat myself ;)

to boil it down, hdr photography is just a simple technique that you can employ in the post-processing of your photography. you take (3) or sometimes (5) or (7) of the exact same image, over- and under- exposed, then in the post processing of those images, combining to show the true dynamic range of colors and intensities available.

i.e. take one perfectly exposed shot, one over exposed, one under exposed, combine the three and you get the brightest of the bright, darkest of the dark and an insanely colorful, sometimes cartoon-y picture that makes you warm and fuzzy inside (ok, sometimes). read wiki on hdr photography for more techno-history-garble

why take hdr photos? why not? it's your own personal preference, i just absolutely love the range of colors, shadows, and highlights that are produced from the processing.

here's my take on things. it's not that simple. you need to have a lot of patience and control. it's not that simple. did I mention, it's not that simple?

once you get the hang of things, it is, but it does take a lot more work than just a plain simple image and some photoshop post-processing. one can argue that it takes the same amount of time.

here's what i usually do when i take hdr photos:

mount camera to a good solid tripod (this is key, i mean seriously!)
frame a shot
check your iso, shutter, aperture settings
take the shot again, modify shutter and/or iso settings
repeat the above a few times, until you get a shot you actually think is almost perfectly exposed.
the above two steps usually takes me 6-7 frames
set your auto-exposure bracketing settings on your camera, i usually do (3) frames, +/- 1/3ev up and down, or sometimes +/- 2/3ev
do not move your camera do not shake your camera do not move your camera ... get a remote trigger release
take your (3) shots
turn off your bracketing
take a picture of the ground, your hand, something or anything to segregate the set you just took from the next set you're about to take

after this, I sometime tweak the iso or shutter a bit, and then re-shoot the hdr frames again. as you can see, it takes sometimes up to 10-frames to get a 3-shot hdr setup. is it worth it? you can make your own judgment as you try it yourself, it's not for everyone.

what if your camera doesn't have auto-exposure bracketing (aeb) settings/controls? get one that does. ok seriously ... try not to move your camera. learn the menus and how to configure aeb or change your exposure settings quickly and efficiently so you induce as little camera shake as possible. to get the most crisp, precise images possible, do not move the camera. another option is look into tethering your camera to your laptop and control your camera settings and snapping from the laptop. bibble labs makes great software for this for the major camera brands.

did i mention not moving your camera? yeah, don't do it. don't touch it, don't shake it, don't press the buttons, do not move it. this gets more and more important as the light gets less and less and the shutter times increase. you'll just get a bit of a mess. the concept of hdr is combining three identical images at different exposures. if you move or shake your camera even in the slightest, it'll show in the final hdr images. things will not line up, or simply you'll just get a lot of ghosting in the picture. sometimes, it's a neat result, say for example grass or water, because it adds the sense of rushing movement, but for most things, not so good. i got myself a phottix n8 remote trigger, it was cheap ($35) from ebay (they only sell on ebay) but it's got great reviews and i've had a lot of luck with it. no camera shake. that's the key.

so now that i've taken the pictures now what? well. the first 6-7 frames i've shot to test out settings, i look at see how i could have taken them better, see what works, what doesn't. the (3) frames that are set to be combined, i put them on my mac and into photomatix raw (no processing what so ever). photomatix combines the images and then i tweak the saturation levels a bit and output my hdr file. i've tried abobe photoshop cs2 with mixed results, photomatix always produces great mappings with my raw images. i rarely, and i do mean rarely ever have to process any of my hdr images after this and i am usually happy with the results

so long story short, i love shooting hdr. it's a bit of a challenge, but it's a lot of fun to see the results. i also find that hdr works best in low-light situations or shots that have a lot of contrast between shadow and light. then again, i enjoy the hdr's of random things sitting on my desk. i personally think it gives some pictures a lot more depth although some argue that the same result can be had with filters. you can make your own conclusions.

hdr won't make you take better pictures though. i still believe you need to be proficient at taking one good, properly framed and exposed picture. hdr is just setting your camera to take two more. you still need to practice and understand the basic principles of photography, otherwise you're going to be shooting a lot of throw-away shots because you'll just be tripling your badness.

fall weddings in new england ...

2008-09-29T12:00:00.006-04:00

one of the best things about new england and fall are the colors that spring up just as the air is getting brisk. it's a perfect time to shoot as well as practice some hdr photography also.

f/2.8 @ 24mm, 1/60sec-exposure, iso400, +1/3ev

f/4.5 @ 50mm, 1/80sec-exposure, iso400, 0ev

f/2.8 @ 24mm, 1/10sec-exposure, iso400, 0ev

i was also fortunate enough to catch a few random bits of hdr moments ... none were photoshopped, just straight out of the camera into photomattix to be combined. 3-frame +/-2/3ev.

f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1/10sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: +2/3ev

f/2.8 @ 35mm, 1/10sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: +2/3ev

some of my favorite dishes ...

2008-09-27T22:39:00.004-04:00

this month's entry for kitchen doorknobs ... mozzarella fritta and penne con pollo. see doorknob's link for recipes.

f/4.5 @ 50mm, 1/20sec-exposure, iso400, +1/3ev

f/2.8 @ 40mm, 1/30sec-exposure, iso400, +1/3ev

tuesday play of the day no 12 ...

2008-09-23T21:35:00.003-04:00

spooky spooky fall is coming, as is halloween and it's spooktacular evil possibilities.

- created new layer
- de-saturate to b&w photo
- boost brightness and contrast to deepen blacks & shadows
- rendered lens flare at 150%
- flattened

original:

catching the light ...

2008-09-16T21:37:00.009-04:00

i have my camera almost every day, but a lot of the times, the clouds aren't that interesting, or the lighting is off, or frankly i miss that block of time during sunset where the moment can be caught with just the right lighting as the sky teeters between early evening and night. i got lucky tonight and as i was leaving the building, i caught the last glimpses of light, a great orange, pink, then blue sky. very happy with the results as i composed eight, yes eight, actual usable hdr shots.

also note, none of these images were processed in photoshop. these images were shot directly from the camera raw, exported onto my mac and then run through photomatix hdr processing (to combine). no tweaking, no changes in ps. click on image for larger version.

first four shots were from the top floor of the parking garage of my building. the second four are from memorial drive looking across the charles river into boston.

f/22 @ 32mm, 1/80sec-exposure, iso200, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev

f/22 @ 32mm, 5/8sec-exposure, iso200, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev

f/22 @ 18mm, 5/8sec-exposure, iso200, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev

f/22 @ 18mm, 5/8sec-exposure, iso200, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev

f/22 @ 38mm, 2sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev

f/22 @ 38mm, 6sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev

f/22 @ 38mm, 6sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev

f/22 @ 18mm, 8sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev

tuesday play of the day no 11 ...

2008-09-16T10:06:00.004-04:00

i actually have a few thoughts for this week's what's your play, but this was the first that came to mind. just a simple de-saturation and then a hue layer mask to remove the b&w and bring up the pink in the shoes, very slight bit of blur to mute out a bit of stroller too. and of course i cropped it a bit.

here's the original shot of the week ...

nyc at night ...

2008-09-14T21:54:00.005-04:00

i've always loved being in nyc, regardless of what i say out loud, secretly it's a great place to be at night, during the day, there's always something to look at and it's amazing the diversity that can be seen from one block to the next. i can't say i was in the nyc for fun, as it was a terribly hectic weekend of which i spent a total of 22.5 hours behind the wheel hurling from boston to dc area back to nyc and then home back to boston. all for the sake of some digital data.

i was able to take about 20 mins to snap a few shots from my hotel room before completely passing out ...

two-frame stitch out the window (original is very very wide)... lighting dramatically changes as the camera is turned from one angle to the other side of the window ...

both shots of this composition were taken at f/8 @ 18mm, 30sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev

at the same time, i decided to also try a long exposure hdr shot ... i like the result, may be my new background for the week ...

f/8 @ 18mm, 30sec-exposure, iso200, +2/3ev :: 0/6 :: -2/3ev

tuesday play of the day no 10 ...

2008-09-10T13:53:00.006-04:00

tuesday play of the week ... mask layers ... (click on picture for 1024pix)

- color balance mask to bump up red rust colors
- selective color mask to add depth in green
- selective color mask to brighten the blue flowers
- layer mask to bump up contrast across the board, remove excess contrast from box
- layer mask to add snap to green grass
- layer mask to darken all the blacks
- sharpened

here's the original:

walk through the woods ...

2008-09-08T11:56:00.005-04:00

took a walk through minuteman national park yesterday, snapped a few un-interesting things ...

f/4.5 @ 50mm, 1/80sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev

can't decide whether i like the color or b&w version better ...

f/5 @ 50mm, 1/100sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev

stop on the ride home ...

2008-09-06T11:29:00.003-04:00

was riding home last night as the sun was setting. had to stop and snap two shots of the church steeple with the great cloud coloration in the background ...

here's the church ... f/3.2 @ 50mm, 1/40sec-exposure, iso200, 2/3ev

here's the steeple ... f/3.2 @ 50mm, 1/40sec-exposure, iso200, 2/3ev

view from the office ...

2008-09-06T11:24:00.003-04:00

a view out the window of the conference room across the charles river to boston/beacon hill ...

photoshopped slightly to add some contrast.

f/6.3 @ 50mm, 1/160sec-exposure, iso200, 2/3ev