alpharon's posterous

I'm thankful for a lot of things, mostly for having made it this far into Project 365.

[305/365] :: My Corner.

[306/365] :: Let me give you a hand.

[307/365] :: 10-22.

[308/365] :: 400.

[309/365] :: The New Do.

[310/365] :: Good Morning.

[311/365] :: Lamenting.

[312/365] :: Snowman.

[313/365] :: Intuit Sunset.

[314/365] :: Waiting for food.

[315/365] :: Clean your beach.

[316/365] :: House Guests.

[317/365] :: Kristen P.

[318/365] :: Apples to Apples.

[319/365] :: Watching Grass Grow.

[320/365] :: Take Control.

[321/365] :: The Juke.

[322/365] :: Bro Nap.

[323/365] :: Slow Motion.

[324/365] :: Ball Pit.

[325/365] :: MDR-V6.

[326/365] :: R.A.T.7.

[327/365] :: Eneloop.

[328/365] :: Thanksgiving.

[329/365] :: Cozy.

[330/365] :: Toms.

[331/365] :: "The Murph."

[332/365] :: Easy Stare.

[333/365] :: Blue Steel.

[334/365] :: Peanut Butter & Jellousy.

:: Project 365 - November Slideshow ::

Picture this.

[274/365] :: Hanging Loose.

[275/365] :: Bro. Brah.

[276/365] :: Goldie.

[277/365] :: Lantern.

[278/365] :: Slinky.

[279/365] :: STOP!

[280/365] :: Chopsticks.

[281/365] :: Gondola.

[282/365] :: Scripps Pier at night.

[283/365] :: Balboa Highway.

[284/365] :: Luna Light.

[285/365] :: Crispy Shrimp.

[286/365] :: Look at Me.

[287/365] :: ...Lost.

[288/365] :: Futbol.

[289/365] :: Mama Ester.

[290/365] :: Until Next Season.

[291/365] :: Sigma 30/1.4.

[292/365] :: Chicano Park.

[293/365] :: Heritage Pond.

[294/365] :: The Greenbrier.

[295/365] :: Doin' Nothin'.

[296/365] :: Pumpkin Patch.

[297/365] :: Stockpile.

[298/365] :: Water Dragons.

[299/365] :: Creaky Cranky.

[300/365] :: The Chef.

[301/365] :: NERDS!

[302/365] :: The Cowboy and The Fairy.

[303/365] :: Vintage.

[304/365] :: Jack.

:: Project 365 - October Slideshow ::

Pictures are worth a thousand words, right? Well, from here on out, I have no more words.  Just pictures.

[213/365] :: Bubble Wand.

[214/365] :: Baywatch.

[215/365] :: Cafe.

[216/365] :: H.

[217/365] :: Taste the Light.

[218/365] :: Milo's Nap.

[219/365] :: A Moment.

[220/365] :: Shaka-Shaka.

[221/365] :: Bright Son.

[222/365] :: Mommy's Boy.

[223/365] :: Hot Rod.

[224/365] :: Pouty Nap.

[225/365] :: Waterpark.

[226/365] :: iGameboy.

[227/365] :: Waiting for Ice Cream.

[228/365] :: Sleeping in the Car.

[229/365] :: The Atari.

[230/365] :: Smooth Baby Skin.

[231/365] :: The Nap Cave.

[232/365] :: Concentrated Effort.

[233/365] :: He Loves His Sleep.

[234/365] :: Trike Night.

[235/365] :: The iPad Light.

[236/365] :: Caught One.

[237/365] :: Coiled.

[238/365] :: Spicy Dragon.

[239/365] :: Someone's Finally Awake.

[240/365] :: His Emo Pose.

[241/365] :: Pose With My Brother!

[242/365] :: Grain.

[243/365] :: Study Session.

:: Project 365 - August Slideshow ::

Somehow, I forgot to send this out at the end of July...okay...I lied...I just finished this post now and am just posting it.  #ProcrastinationStation.

Another month in the books!  It's getting harder now to keep up with the blog since I've been so busy with...well...LIFE!  There has been so many changes in my life and I've been enjoying all of it.  Keeping up with the photos each day is easy, but I've been slow in getting the blog updated because it takes up a little bit of time to put a post together.  I like it though.  I like looking back through my pictures and reflecting on what each photo means to me and why I took that certain image.  Below are the remaining pictures for July.  Enjoy them and the short slideshow at the end!

[197/365] :: 24-105L. This is a lens I purchased to try out as an outdoor walkaround lens on my camera.  I like it a lot, but I really don't think it's a lens I'll be keeping.  Most of my shots with the lens are either at the wide end (24mm) or the long end (105mm).  I rarely use the zoom feature to shoot between those two focal lengths.  When I do shoot at a different focal length with the lens, I tend to zoom to 50mm or 85mm to help me with framing the photograph.  An interesting thing about this lens is the MACRO feature.  It's not a true macro, but it's good enough to get me curious about trading it in for a true macro lens from Canon.  I'm eyeing the 100/2.8L Macro for the next lens to add to my lineup.

[198/365] :: Auntie Jenny. Our good friends Jenny and Charles stopped by to visit Milo! Jenny's probably thinking of planning an arranged marriage to her future daughter in this picture.

[199/365] :: Grape Toes. It's been a super hot summer, and we're trying to enjoy it with some fun in the water.  We couldn't quite get to the beach today, so we pulled out Felix's kiddie pool and had him play in it in our back yard.  After spending some time in the water, his toes started getting a little wrinkled linke prunes (not grapes).  I guess a more appropriate name for this photo would be Prune Toes.

[200/365] :: Just the Tip. This is a photo of a vase and decorative reed in our home.  I used flash and very shallow depth of field to keep just the tip of the reed in focus as I shot the image from above.  It turned out pretty cool. 

[201/365] :: Comic-Con Bound. Taking my son on his first trip to the San Diego Comic Convention.  It's a a crazy atmosphere at the comic con every year and I had a little bit of anxiety about taking my 2-year-old son into the crazyness this year.  But I'm certainly glad I did it because both he and I had a blast this year!  He got to experience a lot of the cool things that go on at comic con.  We picked up these cool shades for him just before entering the convention center and I snapped a quick shot of him trying them on. 

[202/365] :: Thirst Quencher.  I was in an old hotel in downtown San Diego to see a small production of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  I found this interesting looking drinking fountain as I was wandering around the hallways of the hotel.  The fountain looks like an antique and it kind of shows how old this hotel could be. 

[203/365] :: Chun-Li. There are always some cool things to see at comic con.  This was a really cool statue of Chun-Li from the Street Fighter franchise.  The statue was a 3D representation of one of my favorite Chun-Li images.  They got pretty close to the original image.

[204/365] :: My Danny Santos Impersonation. Danny Santos II is one of my favorite street photographers.  I've been following his work ever since he started his 100Strangers Project.  I hope to take photographs as good as this guy someday.  He also does a lot of street photography capturing shadows and light on the faces of his subjects.  With the high amount of people in and around downtown San Diego for the comic con, I thought it would be a great opportunity to roam the streets and capture some Danny Santos styled shots.  There were a lot of shadows and interesting light falls on the faces of passers by.  I really like the composition of this image with the thoughtful look on both of the faces shown.  It may not be as shadowy as some of Danny's street photos, but it's a good start and I think I can get some good captures with more practice.

[205/365] :: Prime Conspiracy. Minty fresh out-of-the-box comic con spoils.  If you've been a serious fan of Transformers for any period of time, you'll know that Hot Rod inadvertantly got Optimus Prime killed in the original 1986 film, The Transformers: The Movie.  Some believe that he even fired the shot that killed Prime.  This shot reminds me of all the conspiracy theories and such that went on surrounding the film and it's heroes.  These were a couple of my favorite toys from this year's comic con and composing them together this way sets up their story from the movie very well.  I like how Optimus Prime's chest is open, revealing the Matrix of Leadership that will eventually be passed on to Hot Rod and transform him into Rodimus Prime to lead the Autobots out of their darkest hour. (I totally just geeked out on Transformers in this post...)

[206/365] :: Birthday Dessert. Changing gears from the previous post...Today was my sister's birthday!  Where else would we go eat as a family besides our local Chili's Grill & Bar Restaurant?!?  I don't know how this place became our family dinner spot.  I guess it's just convenient and easy to get to.  Plus it's not foreign to my foreign parents, haha!  Here she is about to enjoy her dessert.  Notice the other spoons layed out around the plate?  Best believe my family made sure that plate was clean before we left.

[207/365] :: Shades of Light. More comic con spoils!  My son and I were able to collect this set of shades from the vendors around the comic con.  I like them because they remind me of Ray Ban shades.  You might remember my son wearing the green ones on the first day of comic con in a photo above.  I hadn't shot with my ring flash in a while, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to break it out and get the bug-eye reflection off these shades.  The setup was really quick, but it took me longer to get the shot than I had anticipated.  I had to shoot a lot of different images to get the reflection perfectly centered in each of the shades and symetrical on both sides of each frame. I think a tripod would have helped me out a lot for a shot like this, but I had to take it hand held and hope I was perfectly aligned with each click of the shutter. I finally settled on one I could work with and chose the shot you see above. 

[208/365] :: Holding the Light.  Another cool little...thing...I came away with at this year's comic con was this tiny light bulb keychain.  I was watching my son play with it and decided to take this picture with him holding the bulb in his hands.  The room was very dark and I thought I would need more light for the shot, but I took the picture and saw that the light from the buld was all I needed to set the mood for the image.  I might have to revisit this bulb again to see what else I can come up with.

[209/365] :: Brotherly Love.  Two sons are better than one. My joys plotting mischief.  They already look like a pair of evil Sith lords hungry for more power.  Don't mind the lurker in the background trying to get in the shot.  I was too lazy to try and clone her out. 

[210/365] :: Well Fed.  A food coma at any age will take down even the greatest Jedi.  My little padawan loves getting his fill.

[211/365] :: Go Padres!  My wife and I took our eldest son out to a ball game for some quality time with just us and him.  We gotta spread the love and let him know he's just as important to us as any other member of the family.  I brought along the 24-105L to avoid having to switch prime lenses during the game.  I was able to capture some good action from the crowd everytime the team scored.  Unfortunately, the visiting team was able to rally back and take the win, but we left before my son could experience that loss.  To him, it was just a FUN day at the baseball game!  He would keep cheering "GO PADRES!" while waving the giveaway rally towels around the house for days.

[212/365] :: Bing's Birthday.  Remember that lurker?  She had a birthday today.  We celebrated it at Red Lobster.  They gave her ice cream for dessert.  It was good.

:: Project 365 - July Slideshow ::

See you next month!!!

July.  I've been anxiously awaiting this month for a long time now.  There are a lot of different events this month that I plan to document with my photos and share with the world.  Here's a taste of what's happened so far.

[182/365] :: Project Handplane. This is a project I've recently picked up again after many months of sitting on a shelf.  It's a hand plane build that I'm making for myself to add some variety to my surf sessions.  It's basically a planing board I'll be holding onto as I body surf a wave.  I've got a long way to go before I can call this completed, but it's taking shape now and I'm excited for the fun I'll be having with this board.

[183/365] :: Digital Fire. Cooking smores over a fire on a warm summer night.  This is a detail shot of the fire pit we used to hold the fire.  It's an old washing machine bin that was purchased off Craigslist.  Simple, effective, and visually pleasing when lit up.

[184/365] :: Summer Break. Long summer days just relaxing in the sun.

[185/365] :: Fireworks. I hadn't really shot fireworks before today.  I read all about it and understood how to do it, but I was missing one important ingredient in the process - a tripod.  I'm actually surprised that I don't have a proper tripod amongst all my photography gear.  I had to improvise and stabilize my camera on a pile of jackets placed on a foldable chair.  It worked out pretty good, but I think I would have had more keepers had I brought the proper equipment with me.  I'll have to order that tripod soon.

[186/365] :: Lotus. A lotus flower sitting on the water.  This was taken at the nearby mall.  My son was being too emo to pose for pictures, so I diverted my attention to this flower.  I ended up capturing this great shot of the flower and the dark water.  I'm glad I didn't get any reflection on the water of the surrounding trees and plants.  I like that the surface is clean and silky.  It's a really good contrast to the sharp lines of the flower.

[187/365] :: Imperial Beach. This is a really cool evening shot of the entrance to the pier at Imperial Beach.  I shot this from across the street handheld with no flash.  What drew me initially to the photo was the colors that were used for the arches to the left of the entry way.  But when I looked at the picture on the computer, I saw that the image contained too much noise.  it really drew my attention away from the scene.  So, I decided to make it a black and white photo and increased the noise reduction in post processing to bring the scene forward.  The black and white worked for this image because it helps keep the viewer's attention to the bright areas of the photo where all the action is taking place.

[188/365] :: Halo-Halo. These summer days have been hot!  Thankfully, we've got a Seafood City nearby where we can get some Halo-Halo drinks to cool us off.  Halo-Halo is a Filipino dessert made with shaved ice, ice cream, and a bunch of other sweet treats.  Halo-Halo literally means Mix-Mix.  And that's exactly how you're supposed to enjoy this dessert.  Everything in the cups is mixed together and eaten with a spoon.  So delicious.  My wife and I each had one to ourselves, but not before our son could pose for his picture.  He ended up having half of mine and half of my wife's dessert.

[189/365] :: Ben & Jerry's. Today was even hotter than the last, so I had to have some ice cream.  I just watched a documentary about Ben & Jerry's ice cream talking about how they started up and the challenges they faced to become the mega ice cream corporation they are today.  It was an interesting film and I learned a lot about the two men who's name is on the ice cream I'm about to enjoy.

[190/365] :: Blue Moon.  I really tried hard to make this photo look like it was an image of a blue moon.  I think I got pretty close, but the dirty marks on the ball didn't exactly resemble the markings you would see on the moon.  It looks more like a completely blue ocean planet.  Still cool though, IMO.

[191/365] :: Glassed. I've been making some progress on my hand plane project.  I was able to lay down some fiberglass and coat of UV resin to cover up the foam and get it ready for the water.  This was my first ever glassing job, and I think I was able to nail it on the first go.  It wasn't perfect, but there aren't any issues with the project that I couldn't fix.  I've gotten pretty far, but I still have a lot to do before I can call this complete.  It needs another hot coat, A LOT of sanding, and I need to find a suitable handle to hold on to while using it.  I'll get there soon enough.

[192/365] :: Maternal. My wife let me shoot a couple maternity shots of her at the park.  The baby is officially late at this point, so I was glad to get these shots before it was too late.  I really like this close up image because it really shows how pregnant she is.  All that green was a coincidence since we didn't decide that we were going to do any maternity shots until we were actually at the park.  It worked out for us as it shows a small connection with nature and the trees in the background.

[193/365] :: The Shifter. We were walking through the mall during the weekly farmer's market and ran across this tricked out police hot rod.  They were having a grand opening of the new police center at the mall where they were showing of some old memorabilia.  This hot rod was one of the main attractions.  I thought the shifter was really cool and must have been a gem to look at when it was brand new.  They kept it well maintained with the chrome on it still looking shiny and reflective.

[194/365] :: Skin-to-Skin. Milo Vader Pareja is finally born!  Yes - His name is pronounced 'MY-LOW'.  Yes - his middle name is VADER.  This was taken just minutes after he was born. The nurses brought him right up to his mommy to allow them to have skin-to-skin contact after birth.  Children are little miracles and experiencing Milo's birth was just as thrilling and amazing as our first son's.  I'm so blessed to have two healthy sons and an amazing wife to help raise them.  My wife is a superhero, by the way.  I don't know how any man could go through the emotional rollercoaster and physical pain that is child birth.  It's a beautiful thing, but definitely not for me.

[195/365] :: Hello Baby Brother!  Here is my eldest son welcoming he baby brother into the world.  My eldest kept saying how cute his baby brother was and would yell out, "Look! He's smiling at me!" whenever he got close to him.  I hope this brotherly love doesn't go away as they get older.  I've asked all my friends who have brothers and they've all gotten into fights with their while growing up.  I'm bracing for the inevitable, but I hope their bond together becomes strong enough to overcome anything that could come between them.

[196/365] :: Daydreaming.  We finally get to go home after a couple nights at the hospital.  We should have been home a day earlier, but the doctors took their time meeting with patients and we ended up delaying our discharge for an extra day.  Well, at least we're home now with a healthy baby and healthy mommy.  My eldest son is stoked that his baby brother gets to come home.  He's been a very chill baby so far.  Like most babies, he sleeps a lot and we have to wake him up to get him to eat on schedule.  He even falls asleep while eating, so he constantly have to try to keep him away.  At least both mom and dad are getting some rest.  Big brother is also being very cooperative and helpful around baby.  I'm BLESSED.  I didn't know how the family dynamic would change with a second child, but each day is looking better than the last and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

June is done!  I've spent the past six months clicking my camera's shutter with a photo for each passing day.  It's interesting to see a little bit of evolution in style with each photograph.  When I first started Project 365, I really wasn't sure if I would even make it this far.  But now that I'm here, I'm even more motivated for the next six months to see the project through to completion!  Despite my long procrastination in getting my photos uploaded and this blog updated on the regular, I'm pleasantly surprised with what I have accomplished thus far.  For the most part, I've been very happy with the way my photos have turned out, but I know there is always room for improvement.  I will need to explore more ways to push myself and my photography to new heights going forward.  For now, check out the rest of the photos for the month of June and check out the slideshow at the end of the blog for a video recap of all the shots.  Enjoy the photos!

[167/365] :: South Swell.  I've never really been interested in landscape photography because I think that landscapes tend to be too static and too easy to compose and shoot.  That all changes when I take my time to find all the dynamic elements of my landscape and work to incorporate those elements into my composition.  It's hard to imagine getting more dynamic than a moving body of water.  Every wave you see in the ocean is going to be different.  Getting the compositioin and timing of this shot took some careful planning and patience.  I first observed the environment to determine where the best waves were breaking and where I should best position myself to make sure I could capture the wave in my photo.  Then I looked around to see what would make a good composition and took some sample shots to see what looked best.  Once I decided on the composition I wanted, it was just a matter of waiting for a good sized set wave to come in and take my photo as the wave peaked.  I was able to get everything I needed in this shot.  I edited it in post to give it a vintage look and feel reminiscent of old school surf photos I've seen before.

[168/365] :: Cakes in Cups.  These are the most decorative looking cupcakes I've ever seen.  My sister made them herself.  They were for a party the next day.  I was really tempted to start eating them to see if they tasted as great as they looked, but I exhibited some self-control and allowed myself only a few photographs before leaving them alone...until the party started.

[169/365] :: Tarty Pecans.  Remember that party I mentioned above?  Well, cupcakes weren't the only thing on the menu.  My other sister made a batch of pecan tarts for the party, too!  My sisters somehow got away with the baking gene because I certainly can't bake anything to save my life.  At least I can take photos and document their creations!

[170/365] :: Purple Fuzzies.  This was taken during one of our family walks to the park.  There are these bushes along the trails with these purple flowers sticking out of what looked like a spiked ball.  A closer look after taking the photo showed how delicate the whole thing was.  This could have passed for a nice macro shot with a little more sharpening and a closer crop on the main subject.  I'm starting to develop an interest in Macro photography, so I may have to look into getting a new lens to play with for that type of work.

[171/365] :: Another Day at the Office.  Dawn patrol surf sessions have been part of my normal routine for the past few years now.  It's the best way to start off my day, and I know that I'm going to have a better day because of it.  I often see the usual group of guys out in the water at these sessions.  After the session, the parking lot is usually filled with talk about who got the best wave and what time guys plan to be back in the water later that day.  One topic that rarely comes up is work.  It's where most of us head to directly after the session.  We spend our days sitting at our desk.  Keeping track of the swell development.  And setting up a plan on where the best place to surf would be that afternoon.  That's probably what the subject in this photo is going to do as soon as he gets to work.

[172/365] :: Spirals.  This is a shot of a cupcake holder we used to display the cupcakes at the party a few days ago.  It was a very hit or miss shot.  I used live view on my camera and lifted it as high as I could above my head to take a top-down photo.  I had to reshoot it a few times before settling on a composition that I liked.  Then I manually focused the lens to make sure that my focus was in the right place when I took the photo.  I was able to get the effect I wanted with the top spiral in focus and each spiral step on the display blurring away slightly as it gets further away from the top.  It made for an interesting photo.

[173/365] :: UFO.  I took this shot of a light chandelier at a local indoor mall.  The mall was brightly lit, but I used a fast shutter speed, large aperture, and exposed for the light to keep the background dark and have the light pop out.  The texture and geometric design of the light was what drew me to it and I'm glad that I was able to capture that in the photo.  I edited it with a little sepia tone to make the texture stand out a little more.  The photo makes me think of a UFO hovering in the night sky.

[174/365] :: Port Hole.  I used a long focal length to capture this shot of my son at the park.  I caught him looking at me through the port hole in the playground and snapped this shot before his attention left me.  This is a good example of getting the shot that is not necessarily the best shot.  If I had a moment to compose it better, I would have used a shorter focal length to shape out the port hole and show off some of the surrounding environment.   But I didn't have that moment.  I would have missed this look from my son with just one second of hesitation.  So I got the shot. 

[175/365] :: Glisten.  It's Christmas in June!  This is actually a detail of one of our Christmas decorations in the garage.  I noticed the little light reflections on it while I was working on a project in my garage and thought I could get a good detail shot of the decoration.  I was pleased that the shot contained a good balance between sharpness and out of focus bokeh elements.  I was able to capture exactly what I saw when it first caught my attention.   

[176/365] :: Hot Wax.  I like to clean the wax off my surfboards every few weeks and reapply new wax before taking them out for the next session.  I had black wax on this board because it was the only thing I had at the time.  I hate using this wax because the black gets on everything that touches the board and even stains clothing.  I had to get it off and change it out.  I let it sit out in the sun for a few minutes so the wax would get soft enough for me to scrape it off and buff out.  When I came back to check on the board, I found the wax liquified and oozing off the board.  I guess it got a lot hotter than usual because of the dark color.  Instead of scraping the wax off the board like I usually do, I simply had to take an old rag from the garage and wiped the wax off the board.

[177/365] :: Peacock.  I scored some tickets to the world famous San Diego Zoo from a coworker and took this opportunity to spend the day there with the family.  The zoo is always a great place to go to for photographers.  I made sure to bring my 135L lens with me on this trip for some wildlife photography.  I thought about bringing the 400L lens, but that might have been a too long for some of my needs.  It turns out that I made the right decision and it shows with this shot.  This female peacock perched up on a tree and seemed to pose for me as I was taking its photo.  I would have completely missed this shot with the 400L, but nailed it with the 135L.  The colors in the shot just popped instantly and the background behind the tree blurred away in the distance. 

[178/365] :: Poker Face. It's the final pose for the Poker Face song in Dance Central for the XBox Kinect.  Don't you see it?!?

[179/365] :: Zero Gravity.  We took a family trip to the San Diego County Fair with my sister and her fiance.  I've been looking forward to going to the fair for all kinds of glutonous foods and to take a few photos of some attractions that I had in mind.  This was a photo on my list.  I wanted to capture some attractions showing movement.  I knew that a slow exposure shot was the way to go to capture this particular attraction.  I wanted to make sure I got the movement of the light trails to show how fast the ride was spinning.  Unfortunately, I did not bring a tripod with me, so I had to improvise while shooting it handheld.  One thing I had going for me was Image Stablization on the 24-105L lens I was using.  I turned down the shutter speed to 1/6sec and set the aperture the f/8.0.  I shot this shot in a series to ensure that at least one of those frames didn't contain any camera movement that could have been caused by handholding the shot.  This was the best frame in the series and I was able to capture the movement just as I had intended. 

[180/365] :: Fight the Power Nap.  This is what I've been coming home to from the past few days.  He must be going through a growth spurt because he's been taking longer naps.  I remember tossing a turning a lot in my sleep when I was a little boy.  I never woke up in the same position that I started with.  My son is the same way.  He's always moving around in his sleep and sometimes gets himself into funny positions.  The other night, I caught him asleep kneeling next to his bed with his head on the mattress.  I caught him in this shot with his fist raised.  His eyes are just slightly open in this shot as he was going through some RPM.  He must have have been dreaming.  He woke up shortly after taking this shot.

[181/365] :: Back That App Up.  For the past six months this little silver drive has contained all the photographs I've taken for Project 365.  It's a 1TB Western Digital drive that I got on a SlickDeal and it's been working perfectly from day one.  I've got back up solutions in place, but I'd like to get another one just so I have a 1-to-1 redundant copy of the data on this drive.  Hopefully, another SlickDeal pops up so I can get even more peace of mind.

:: Project 365 - June Slideshow ::

Getting to the middle.  It's June and I'm still shooting daily to get my shots for Project 365.  I haven't been very good at uploading the photos because I like to do a lot of my processing all at once and get everything done in one sitting.  I finally have a chance to catch up and I'll be posting a couple blog updates for my photos this month.  Here's a quick entry to show off some photos that were taken at the beginning of the month.

[152/365] :: Kicks.  My son really likes wearing shoes.  It's a huge contrast from my wife and me since we'd both rather be toes free in flip-flops.   When I first uploaded and viewed this shot on the computer, I really didn't think much of it.  I thought it was a little boring.  But I began to mess around with it a little in Adobe Lightroom and decided to try it out as a black and white.  I thought it helped the photo tremendously and instantly had more appeal to me.  With the color removed, all other aspects of the photo began to come out.  The perspective used was more meaningful and the position of my son's stance gave him a more mature, grown-up presence that I didn't see when it was a color photo.  The dirt and grittiness on his shoes told me that this was a kid that loved to have fun and didn't mind getting a little messy.  So, instead of taking away from the image, the addition of black and white actually added a whole lot more to it.

[153/365] :: Ultra Magnus.  I think I'm going to have to do one Transformers toy photo each month.  This shot was taken with my DIY Ring Flash with the toy against one of my favorite backgrounds - a suede dining room chair.  I really do have to get creative with my backgrounds since I don't own a soft box and I don't shoot in a proper studio for my portraits.  I always have to work with what I've got and I feel that this type of shooting can help me in future situations where I may not have everything I need to get a particular shot.  Working with what's given to me has worked out so far.  I just need to make sure I keep my mind open and stay creative when trying to find that shot. 

[154/365] :: Corvette Diner.  I'd been craving me some peanut butter/bacon burger for some time, so my wife and I decided to have a late night dinner date for some Rory Burgers at Corvette Diner.  We each had a burger and shared a milk shake.  I really like all the different lights and decorations in the restaurant to ensure that customers were treated to a great blast-from-the-past Rock n' Roll experience.  I definitely had to take a few shots of the ambiance during this visit.  These guys are serious about setting the mood.  The neon lights, vintage signs, gumball machines, and the Corvette in the middle of the restaurant really made you feel like you were transported back in time.  And the food was good, too!

[155/365] :: With Tita Chelle.  This is a simple snapshot of my sister and my son.  We were at a birthday party for my little nephew and the place where the party was held had this mini theater where kids could dress up and be on camera to act out scenes.  My son wasn't interested in getting dressed up, but he was very curious about seeing himself on the TV screen just above where I'm standing to take this picture.  They are waving at themselves on the monitor in this shot.  I used a bare flash on camera to light them in the middle of the frame and tried to keep the shadows at a minimum behind them. 

[156/365] :: Ethan-Bot.  Shot with my magic lens; the 135L.  I love shooting with this lens.  I don't take it out of the bag often, but when I do, all sorts of magic starts to happen.  Backgrounds just disappear and images appear on my camera perfectly exposed.  I don't ever have to do any type of post process on any of the pictures taken with this lens.  It just works and it captures everything I want without any trouble.  This little robot was the lucky subject of the photo for the day.  We were at a birthday party outdoors in a park.  It was the perfect place to bring out the lens and snap some pictures. 

[157/365] :: The All Seeing Eye.  I wanted to do another DIY Ring Flash shot today and decided to try shooting a lens using a different perspective than what people are used to seeing in lens pictures.  The lens in this photo is my 400L.  It's got a nice big 77mm front element that I wanted to showcase in this picture.  With the camera and ring flash positioned just above the subject, I snapped the shot and came out with this.  It came out pretty close to what I expected.  I was trying to get a reflection of the ring flash to come out on the glass element of the lens.  What I didn't expect to get was the different colors that made up the reflection of the flash.  The greens, oranges, and yellows really make this picture pop and keep the photo from being a boring image.

[158/365] :: It's a Llama.  Our family tries to visit this farmer's market every week.  They usually have these llamas around for the kids to take rides on.  This guy must have been sitting down for a rest between rides.  It was really hard to get him isolated and exposed properly with the backlighting.  I fixed some of the exposure in post processing and added a vignette to hide some of the distracting background in the photo.

[159/365] :: Hmm.  I wonder what kind of thought process he goes through whenever he stops to think about things.  This little boy is amazing.  He's growing up so fast and absorbing all kinds of knowledge like a sponge!  He looks to be in deep thought here, but I think he's trying to decide whether he wants frozen yogurt or a milk shake. 

[160/365] :: Mami Kanemitsu - We Are Heroes.  My good friend scored us a couple of tickets to E3 2011 this year, so we took advantage of it and spent the day at the expo.  I borrowed a 17-55/2.8 IS to take pictures during the event.  I actually didn't shoot too many pictures, but I still came away with some pretty good shots from the event.  This was shot during a performance of the We Are Heroes dance crew.  They are winners of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew Season 4.  I actually have never heard of them, but my friend was quite the expert (fanatic).  He thought this dancer looked best out of the whole crew, so I focused my shots on her.  Lucky for me, I ended up in the right spot and at the right time for this shot.  She was isolated in the routine and I was front row center for the performance.  I quickly shot a series of shots during her isolation performance and picked this one to showcase.  I love how it turned out and the post edit I did worked really well on the photo.  It has quickly become one of my favorite shots to date.

[161/365] :: His Sensitive Side.  My son attempting to show off his sensitive side while posing for me in a mini photo shoot.  This kid is gonna break some hearts in the future. 

[162/365] :: Let Me In.  We were at a house party this evening and my son noticed this cat looking in through the glass door.  I'm not sure if it was a stray or a pet.  The cat just sat there and held my son's attention for a few minutes before disappearing into the night.  I thought he had some cool looking eyes with the striking yellow irises around the dark pupils.  He looked like he could almost hypnotize you into sliding the door open and letting him in.

[163/365] :: Finding Nemo.  This was a shot taken at the Birch Aquarium.  I hope to start up a reef aquarium of my own soon, but visiting this aquarium and viewing their reef tanks will have to suffice for now.  These little guys were in a small tank containing just a few corals, this anemone host, and the two mated clownfish.  They shied away from me whenever I came near them with the camera.  I finally got this shot of them using the long end of my 24-105L to capture the shot.  Aquariums are difficult environments to shoot because I have a lot of factors to take into account.  The glass is a very hard element to shoot through and it's got to be very clean to get a good capture.  Usually lighting around aquariums is very dim and my exposure is constantly changing with the different environments.  Also, fish and other tank inhabitants can move very quickly, so the timing of the shot is crucial if I want to avoid any kind of motion blur.  I was able to put everything together for this shot and ended up with something I could use.

[164/365] :: The Point.  This is PB point viewed off of Tourmaline Beach Park.  It breaks out there on occasion with some fun sized surf.  Just out of frame to the right of the photo would be the current MTV's Real World San Diego (2011) house overlooking the beach.   This shot is just really peaceful and inviting.  It makes me want to drive out there right now to check for some waves. 

[165/365] :: Light Petals.  This was taken outdoors just before the sun was about to set.  The petals on the flowers make me think of a light shining through the darkness below it.  I was surprised this shot came out well because there was a very strong wind blowing the flower and leaves side to side while I was trying to get this shot.  I waited for it to die down a little bit, but it was still blowing when I snapped the shutter.  I guess my shutter speed at 1/125 was fast enough to stop the movement to get this image.

[166/365] :: Pattern.  I was just playing around with depth of field and angles in this simple pattern shot.  It was a pattern used for decoration at a party we were planning.  I shot this wide open at f/4.0 with the 24-105L.  I was surprised that I was able to get this sort of DOF blur from the lens being so close to the subject.  I think I was about 18 inches away.  Focus is spot on with this lens and the blurred bokeh is very pleasing to the eye. 

Here's an update coming at you for the second half of May!  Five months in on Project 365 and I feel like I'm rolling through this at a good pace.  Taking photos every day is easy.  I just shoot what I see and try to learn something about photography along the way.  Enjoy the rest of the photos this month and peep the end of this post to view the May photo slide show.  PLEASE - let me know what you think about the photos and shoot me some constructive criticism.  Thanks for looking!

[136/365] :: Really Right Stuff.  I haven’t really been buying any camera gear lately, so I decided to splurge a little and buy this RRS L-Bracket for my camera body.  It’s used to clamp a tripod head onto the camera and during shoots and allows me to quickly change the camera position from landscape to portrait mode.  It also provides a little bit of protection when attached to the camera.  I’ll have to purchase a new tripod and ball head to match this bracket.  That’s what I’ll be saving my money for in the coming months.

[137/365] :: Ring Lit Eyes.  DIYPhotography.com recently released a VERY affordable ring light to use with my current flash unit.  I’ve always been interested in ring lights and the cool catch lights they produce in the eyes of portrait subjects.  I quickly put the unit together after receiving it and asked my son to pose for some quick portraits for me.  I got exactly what I was looking for in this first shot with the ring light – soft, even light without any of the harsh shadows I would normally get using a bare flash.  I was also able to capture the ring-shaped catch lights in his eyes.  This was a good first shot and I will be experimenting more with this light in the immediate future.

[138/365] :: Digital Slim.  With my first ring light portrait session completed, I decided to try the light out in product photography.  I recently bought this new Dyson Digital Slim hand held vacuum for my wife (she loves it).  I like the unique look that Dyson products have and decided to try and capture that in this image.  Once again, the ring light performed like a champ and I was able to get the look I wanted.   This ring light was well worth the small price I paid to get this type of quality from my photos.

[139/365] :: Smashing.  My wife and I have had a little bit of a burger craving lately.  We decided to visit Smashburger to try and fulfill that craving.  I’m a big fan of simple, strong, bold fonts that grab your attention.  I liked the fonts that were used in the windows around the restaurant.  I thought this was a cool shot of my son sort of smashing himself into the window and the word “smash”.  My favorite part of the image is actually opposite of my son where the tree is located.  The soft bokeh affect I got from the tree leaves is a lot like the effects I get from distant light sources at night.

[140/365] :: Dusk.  Summer nights are basically here and now in San Diego.  This shot was taken at almost 8:30pm just as the last light was going down in the horizon.  I love it when the sun sets late in the day and I get to spend more time outside in this city.  I think I might have used a higher ISO than I needed for this shot.  I had to darken the silhouette on the city in the bottom of the image to take some of the focus away from it.  I left the lights from the cars cutting through the silhouette because I thought it added to the composition.

[141/365] :: Smile Mommy.  We took a family trip to Balboa Park on this beautiful San Diego day to take our son to the train museum.  I took this opportunity to get some impromptu maternity shots of my wife.  Balboa Park is a very popular venue to shoot at and there are always more than a handful of photographers there on any given day.  This was taken in a shaded area near the parking lot where we parked our car.  I had to use fill flash to light her up and made her pop a little bit from the background in post processing.  Some photographers would remove the light spots from her belly, but I chose to leave them there since it brought the viewer’s attention to what’s most important in the image.

[142/365] :: Last day being 1 year old.  I brought out the right light once again to take some portraits of my son.  He’s been really easy to shoot and really gets playful with the camera in front of him.  We had these shades lying around the house that fit only his head.  He decided to try them on and cheese it up while I took some shots.  I centered him perfectly in frame to get the ring light effect to reflect off those shades.  I got this really cool shot out of it and was able to capture his playfulness in the image even though most of his face is covered up by the shades.  Like the title says, this was also his last day being 1 year old, so I like how I was able to capture a more grown up image of him in this shot.  I already miss the little baby he once was…

[143/365] :: Today is my birthday and that is my cake.  He’s two years old!  TWO!!!  I can’t believe how fast he’s grown.  I’ve been blessed with such a wonderful son.  He’s so even keel and is so very mature for his age already.  I’ve loved every second of every minute that he’s been in my life.  I love this guy like a fat kid loves cake!  Speaking of cake, this was the first of many birthday cakes for him during his birthday week.  They were all very delicious and fabulously decorated with all kinds of things he’s currently in to. 

[144/365] :: The Cherry on Top.  Continuing his birthday week celebrations, we took our son out to dinner with my parents and my sisters.  He got a special ice cream sundae treat from our waitress.  After blowing the candle out on his treat, he quickly set to work on cleaning all the whipped cream off the cherry.  I think this was the first time he’d ever had a treat like this before.  I remember thinking about all the first experiences he’d have after bringing him home from the hospital for the first time.  He’s always so happy to be able to experience something new to him.  I’m glad I was there to capture this moment for him to look back on later.

[145/365] :: Thanks for serving our country Grandpa.  My dad served 20 years in the Navy to provide for our family and protect our country.  He sacrificed a lot of family time to do this job.  I hadn’t always been appreciative of it until I got older and started thinking about having a family of my own.  On this day, our neighborhood Chick-fil-A decided to have a military appreciation day for all the people that served our country and their families.  We got free meals and just had a good time hanging out together.  It was an opportunity for all of us to say thank you for everyone’s sacrifice and to let everyone know that we’re in this together – always – as a family.

[146/365] :: Daddy, stop. No pictures please.  We were in a parking lot waiting for his mom to get out of a store when a picture idea came to me.  It’s a good thing I always have my camera close by.  I wanted to try to capture my son in a paparazzi-type shot.  I rolled down his window and stood a few feet away from the vehicle to snap some pictures of him in the back seat.  He played the part perfectly and held his hand up to tell me to stop taking his picture.  All that’s missing in this picture is a Hollywood socialite sitting in the seat next to him.

[147/365] :: Grab Bags.  My wife planned our son’s 2^nd birthday party from start to finish.  We decided to have a Yo Gabba Gabba! Theme for the party since we are all big fans of the show.  Party supplies with YGG characters were hard to find at first, so we decided to make everything YGG related for the party ourselves.  These are the grab bags we had for the kids.  I printed out all the character faces and my wife took over and did the rest.  She cut out each character and glued them to the lunch bags.  She then filled the bags with all the goodies inside for the guests to enjoy.  She had just gotten them done the day before the party and set up this display by the front door.  They turned out awesome and we got a lot of compliments about all the handcrafted décor we had at the party.

[148/365] :: Boom Box Piñata.  This is another handcrafted creation from my wife.  She’s got amazing crafting skills that far exceeded my expectations.  I was skeptical at first when she said she would be making the piñata for the party.  I thought it would just be a simple box with cutouts glued to it.  It turned out to be much more than that.  She went to work on it and ended up with this masterpiece.  It was filled to the brim with candy and held up to the kids’ beatings pretty well.  It was ultimately destroyed to allow the kids to get access to the candy inside.  I’m just glad I was able to get a good picture of it before the beatings. 

[149/365] :: Resting.  With the kid’s second birthday bash behind us, we were finally able to take a quick breather before enjoying the rest of the holiday weekend with family from out of town.  I brought out the ring flash once again and took some shots of my son while he was resting on the couch.  He did some quick poses for the camera and ended up with this gem.  It reminds me of the host shots you see on Saturday Night Live when they return from commercial.  He’s a star.

[150/365] :: DJ Brobee Rock.  More ring light fun with my son’s toys.  The shades were an extra pair of the ones we included in the children’s grab bags.  I threw them on Brobee and set him on a chair to take some product shots with the ring light.  My last product shot with the ring light was a darker picture to show off my wife’s new vacuum.  I wanted this to be a brighter shot to show off more detail and showcase the toy as the main subject.  I got a little bit of glare on the toy’s lips and on the glasses frame I set on him, but I really like the final result I got.  My favorite part of the shot is the shadow of the three horns above his head.  They’re clearly defined, but they are still very soft and subdued so they don’t distract from the image at all.  I also like that the background around the chair was pitch black.  I thought about cropping the image at first to remove the sides, but I think keeping them in the picture really helps to frame the toy in the chair.

[151/365] :: White Hot.  This was an image that I did not expect to shoot at the end of the day.  I had another shot all set up and ready to upload, but I saw these flowers sitting on the table and thought about shooting them with my ring light.  I don’t normally like to shoot completely white subjects because I tend to blow out the highlights and loose some detail.  I was happy to see that the highlights on this image were perfectly exposed and the white flower was properly lit in the photo.  The soft shadows behind each petal add depth to the flower and make it look full and substantial.  The flash did a great job in lighting up the subject and keeping the rest of the background in darkness to help the flowers stand out from anything going on behind it.

:: Project 365 - May Slideshow ::