Browse Month: October 2006

cheesy, but a learning experience

Brother and I got up early today to be volunteer photographers at Orange County’s Huntington’s Disease Walk for the Cure on the UCI campus. I’d say this was a small event where the volunteers outnumbered the participants. They had a few booths including one where you could pay a dollar for a wet puppy kiss. It was funny to watch the reactions on people’s faces as they were slobbered on by a young lab…suckers. Oh well, it’s all in the name of charity, right? After the race, there was entertainment. It included Hawaiian dancers and then Flamenco dancers. We also had Commander Chuck Street from KIIS-FM arrive in a helicopter and he participated as one of the MCs for the event. Overall, it was a cheesy event for a good cause and I got to practice my photog skills. Good deed for the day, check!

I have a lot to learn.

I went to my photography class tonight and it was quite a learning experience. I shared some of my photos and my instructor critiqued them and gave me some pointers. I love constructive feedback. It’s hard when I’m just taking photos and no one will tell me objectively what works and what doesn’t work. It’s also nice to hear feedback from someone who knows what makes a good photo. I also learned more about exposure and composition, which made me realize that some of my favorite photos can be much better. He also taught me how to use a gray card…sweet. I got one with one of my photography books but never knew how to use it properly.

The assignments have been really fun and helpful yet challenging. It’s harder when things are forced upon me. I’m finding myself to be sort of a selfish photographer…my best shots seem to be of people that are interesting and/or important to me. That’s why I’m wondering about how I’ll do on Saturday with the charity walk. I’ve volunteered to take photos of people I don’t know doing something not very interesting for a cause that I don’t know much about. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

If you’re interested in practicing some skills, here are the assignments given out so far…give it a try:

  • take a photo of something front-lit, side-lit, and back-lit
  • take a photo at the correct exposure, then over-expose 2 f-stops and under-expose 2 f-stops
  • take a photo of the color red (not a red shoe or red flower)…just the color
  • take a photo of motion
  • take a photo using the “Rule of Thirds”…basically, have the object off-center
  • take an entire roll of film of one subject (something interesting to you) and work on your composition/lighting to make the subject more interesting – my subject will be Koa. haha.
  • take an entire roll of one type of thing (walls, car parts, etc.), then rewind the roll and reload the same roll, take the entire roll again of something else (completely different from the first)

fire and snow

firstsnow002.jpg

I was in our weekly staff meeting today when a teacher came in and said, “Uh, guys, I think there’s a house on fire.” We all stuck our heads out the door and whaddayaknow, the house across the street was up in flames! People rushed to their cars to move it onto the playground but mine was safe in the back parking lot. It was just amazing how it was blazin’ and no one had called the Fire Department. One of the teachers called 911 just in case and the operator said, “No ma’am, we weren’t aware of this fire. We’ll be right there.” It was really sad to see a home up in flames. That has to be one of my worst fears. Luckily the owners weren’t home but some of the neighbors were home. I bet some didn’t even realize that the house next door was on fire. Well, the emergency crew came and put the fire out and my meeting continued. That was the exciting part of my day.

In other news, Mammoth got 4 inches of snow in the past two days. Wow, I hope it keeps up. I wish it would start raining here too. My plants need watering. The season opens on November 9th, baby!! It’s time to go to SkiDazzle for some new skis! Just kidding, Jes.

Oh yeah, thanks for lunch today, Mommy!

Sweet 100s

DSC_9662.jpgJimmy and Eleen made us breakfast on Sunday morning. Eleen made scrambled eggs with bacon, onions, and tomatoes…home-grown tomatoes. Well, in case you didn’t know, my friend Jimmy is a farmer. He has a garden in his backyard and he grows some pretty good tomatoes. I went outside to watch him in action. He selected only the very best of the crop and he hand-picked each one so delicately (see left). I was inspired. Eleen said they’re called Sweet 100s. I’m gonna have to go out to my local nursery to get my very own plant. Oh yeah, breakfast was yummy. Thanks for the breakfast!! I posted a couple more photos on my photoblog.

The Blue Angels came out today.

Bang and Vyl got married today at the James Leary Flood Mansion in the heart of San Francisco. After a dreary day on Friday, the sun came out and made the day perfect. To top it all off, it happens to be Fleet Week in SF and the Blue Angels flew over the city all afternoon. Vyl looked so elegant and just smokin’ HOT in her white mermaid-style gown and pink sash. Bang was glowing and wore a matching pink tie. The ceremony took place in the Grand Hall that overlooked the bay and rolling hills of SF. Their vows were very touching and the party was ragin’. By the end of the evening, everyone was nice and toasty and I took over 500 photos. Congratulations you two!! Have a great time in Asia!

Here are 190 of the photos. Enjoy.

He’s so proud and excited.


This is Bang, Jes, and Ryan pretending to be wedding guests.

On Friday, Jes and I drove Jimmy’s Subi into the city to take care of some pre-wedding stuff. Our first stop was the tux shop where the tux guy that Bang BOUGHT his tux from didn’t remember him. What an *ss. The guy was so obnoxious and kept checking out Jesse’s butt when he tried on the tux. Anyway, we ended up having to pay an arm and a leg for parking there for an hour, which didn’t make that errand any more pleasant.

Since Jes had a 12:30 conference call, we didn’t really have a chance to eat anything…except for the can of Chef Boyardee Ravioli that we found in Jimmy’s cupboard. That was yummy, by the way. So, we stopped for lunch on the way to rehearsal. We found a place called The Grove and the turkey, avocado, bacon sandwich on sourdough was so good. It really made me miss San Francisco or just living in a city where you can find quality food like that. The interesting part about that place was when we walked in, there were people seated along the wall on a long bench all with their laptops out on the tables. It felt like study hall and I had forgotten my textbooks.

Rehearsal was at the Flood Mansion on Broadway and Fillmore. It’s a hundred-year mansion that is now an all-girls private school. The wedding will take place on the main floor in the hallway. There’s an awesome view of the city and the bay since it’s at the top of the hill. We got to see Big Yao (Bang’s dad) and he was so happy that his only son was getting married. I gave him a big hug and said, “Congratulations!” and he said, “Oh, THANK YOU THANK YOU!” Big Yao’s so proud and excited.

Once that was done, we had dinner at PPQ Dungeness Island. It’s a Vietnamese seafood restaurant that gave us bibs and we grubbed on crab (of course), pork, beef, and garlic noodles. Afterwards, we decided to head back to Jimmy’s since I was tired, Huy and his sisters’ flights were delayed, and Jes wanted to go back and WoW-it-up.