Recently in Musings Category

As the title says. I've been working on a couple of photo-related things lately but exam week is around the corner so I won't be adding much in terms of photoshoots at that time... my apologies to all the related parties.

On another note, I received my Canon Digital Rebel XT a year ago yesterday. It was a beautiful day but I was tired and wasn't interested in shooting my campus, so I decided against taking photos. I did, however, have bubble tea instead :D

Also, 5D MkII? ! I actually got this link a while ago but haven't had the chance to look at it until recently. I want to get a second body in the next year or two, since switching lenses constantly gets frustrating ... but I was planning on buying a 5D assuming the price would drop more. Those specs however... drool.

Speaking of Mark II ... Iron Man movie was excellent. Go see it. (Yes, I realize this is a photography blog, but I can still be a nerd can't I?) Also, to update the previously posted list, I took a few photos from Taiwanese Night Market and shot a few "production stills" for a friend ... expect the latter photos after May 23rd (due to privacy reasons).

I realize I haven't posted anything lately. I have a set 98% done but I've been busy with things. I'll try to have that up tomorrow. Just want to write up about shooting breakdance competitions and whatnot.

I just got back from Circles 9 an hour or so ago. It's basically (as far as I know) the largest competition in the Maryland-Virginia region... although there are a number of people who come from Boston and New York as well. Lots and lots of talent. As a note though, shooting bboys is very, very tough in case anyone reading plans on shooting a competition.

The event was situated in the gym, so there was poor lighting. I ended up shooting with my 50mm f/1.4 on shutter priority between 1/640 to 1/1000, so I ended up being either f/1.4 and f/1.6. ISO was 1600. I also didn't use flash since... I don't have an external flash and I was unable to borrow one. Would be a little rough to do that anyway since I was shooting burst. Using the 50 prime was a little rough because my crop body essentially makes my lens 80mm (XT's have a 1.6 crop factor)... so I had to be as far as possible on the outer rim of the circle but on the inner most part so I wouldn't have anyone's heads in my shots. My focus mode was set to AI Servo ("Continuous Servo AF" in Nikons) so I could follow movement easily, since some people paced or moved around a lot. There are two problems with this. If someones doing a freeze, you can't focus lock and re-frame since it will refocus on wherever you move the camera. Also, it is very easy to miss and end up focusing on the background. Which is very, very irritating because I've missed a number of otherwise good shots because of that.

Essentially, it's like sports photography except tougher because you don't know what will happen next. Also, that moves change orientation a lot means you'll probably want to be actively rotating your camera as you shoot or else a lot of the body gets cut out. I would suggest spending some time watching clear videos of battles since sometimes you can guess what they'll do next so you can reorient the camera.

In any case, I shot 900+ photos at Circles 9. I will process them as soon as I can and post some photos in a few different posts, but I think I'll end up creating a flash gallery.

Click on photos for higher resolution.
Photos + commentary from Saturday of the con.
Sweet Poison as Anthy. Chiki as Amano Reina. Sydney as Amano Sylph.

Some more silly photos. Still fun. A couple of photos taken by Kevin (Stillvisions). I show up in a bunch of these as Utena.


I caught a sleeping Chiki. Ho ho ho.

Click on photos for higher resolution.
Photos + commentary from the reg line.
Sweet Poison as Jasmine. Chiki as Alice. Sydney as Belle. Henry from ACParadise.

Photos will be a little out of order. We were able to amuse ourselves for the 9 hour registration line wait. Some of the photos are a little wonky but I posted them cause I like them for one reason or another. :P


"I hear the wait past this point in line is only three hours now!"

Click on photo for higher resolution.



Was bored in the office post-interview on Monday so I made a cheap little gel holder out of a manila folder and tape. It worked out pretty well, holds gels and hasn't damaged any of the ones I've tested out. Easily transportable too.

Click on photos for higher resolution.
Photos here shot with Canon Digital Rebel XT using Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens.

Starting off first with a delicious, delicious photo. A few non-food photos beyond the cut.

I realize I haven't posted in a while. I blame that on the three exams I have on Wednesday. I've got a photoset almost ready for upload but I have to re-process a few. (Virtually no HD space on my laptop doesn't exactly help. Very, very excited for my external.) You can probably expect them Wednesday night, unless I'm too tired.

In any case, I've been procrastinating by watching War Photographer and reading up on other people. I'm really looking to improve so I've made a partial list of things I'm taking into consideration:

• Shoot more, expand to different types past portrait and cosplay
  
• More themed days (b&w, etc), shooting at more events
  
• Improve composition, lower "trash the shot because it sucks" ratio
• Decrease usage of editing software (though it's not that much already, I swear)
• Improve with hand holding camera for less blurry photos (in low light)
• Improve with flash photography, play around with gels more
• Buying an external flash might be a good idea
  
• Develop my own style. For real.
  

Also, I don't exactly follow too many photoblogs. I love them, but there are only two I'm particularly interested in at the moment. If anyone has any good suggestions, I'd love to see.

I've also got a link with Adorama, so if you use it, please use my link to buy things. And for those who use Amazon (small reminder, don't kill me), I'd love if you used my link for purchases.