Here I am taking some production shots for my Cinematography class in school. My friend, Jeffrey J. Akau was shooting our final project for the class using his Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema camera that he recently bought. Jeff and I are both part of The Production League and released several short films these past few months. Be sure to look out for us, The Production League, our films to support us.

Jeff's final cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0aYmF8PGuU

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 50mm 1.4G

As you everyone could of guessed, I'm a fan for simple subjects. I was inspired by the anime Tamayura (たまゆら), a slice-of-life anime about a girl and photography. There's an image in that anime that resembles and inspired me to take this photograph.

I was leaving for class on time when I saw this stream. I rushed back in my house to grab my camera to shoot this. The stream started dissipating when I got my camera so I only had less than 2 minutes to shoot it. By the time I was done, I was running late for class. I made it to class on time and got a shot that I wanted for a while.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 70-200mm VR II f/2.8G
Accessories: B+W Multicoated Circular Polarize filter

I know a slacked off a bit these past few days but that was due from several complications and I just started my first week of the Fall quarter at school. I've been quite busy and now it's time to catch up on my work.

This shot was from the very first wedding I shot with my friend Sandra (www.oceanshorephotography.com) who hired me as a second shooter. Sandra was shooting all the guys before the ceremony outside the church and while she was posing them, I noticed the boy staring at one of the guys like that and thought this is a "Must Get" shot.  Out of everything I shot that day, this was the best. That was a good experience for my first time. I knew what to expect and to me it seems everything went well. This is why for my commercial work, I'm an event photographer.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 85mm f/1.4G

This is one of my friends and he goes by the name Corndog. Corndog likes to keep his private life separated from his work. I met him though his roommate, whom I worked with last year. His roommate, Jayme is the bassist for the band Friction Land who I made a music video for several month back. During the music video shoot with Friction Land, Corndog and I were talking about doing a photo shoot for him as he didn't have any professional pictures done. We got together one day at his house and we started shooting in his studio and in his kitchen. The shot in the kitchen was a complete fluke. I was drawn to the kitchen that day and thought of a scary movie with the antagonist in the kitchen. There was plenty of light coming though the skylight above but I needed a fill light. That's where I added 2 fill flash. As a photographer, I wasn't too happy about the shoot before we shot in the kitchen. After I took several shots, I knew this one was my shot of the day. Overall, after editing several images, I was quite happy with the entire shoot. We're planning another shoot soon and eventually a music video for him.

Find more about Corndog and his music on his website and Facebook
www.corndogmusic.com/
www.facebook.com/corndogmusic

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G
Lighting: Ambient light from skylight above, Two Nikon SB-900  with shoot-though umbrellas, one on the left and right side triggered by PocketWizards. 

I have never seen anyone photograph that I made with slide film looks as clear as this. This is the first time I used 35mm slide film since 2007ish and I'm quite astonished with the results. Back then I was using the first Nikon F100 I bought along with a cheap, $250 Nikon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D lens and looking at those images, those were pretty horrible. The images weren't sharp and it seemed the flaws of the lens magnified with the film. Over these past several years I finally made more money to buy better quality lenses and this shot I used a Nikon 50mm 1.4G lens, the cheapest of all my lenses and one of my favorites. The image quality of this film with these lenses nearly matches that of using digital. I was shocked when I first scanned this and saw the sharpness and clarity of it. I now see why this film is one of the professional photographer's choice of films.

For those that are wondering how I made a film shot into a digital image, this is how. I shoot the entire roll and when finish, if it's color slide, I send it to a processing lab near San Jose State University called Photo Express and if it's black and white film, I process it myself. After processing, I use a designated film scanner and scan at the highest resolution. And now I'm able to edit the images using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. It's pretty simple but very time consuming and expensive.

Camera: Nikon F100
Lens: Nikon 50mm f/1.4G
Film: Fujichrome Velvia 50

I tend to work like a photojournalist by always working on the go. Plus, I love the rush when I'm shooting an event or anything fast pace. I was doing a food shoot of pastrami one evening and needed my tripod in my car. When I walked out to pick it up, I noticed the deep blue sky and the street light with a broken cover on top of my car. If you haven't guessed already from my recent posts, I love simple subjects and creating negative space. Well, I ran back inside, grabbed my camera and rushed out to take this image. When it comes to using natural light, you're always in a rush especially during twilight because the sun sits fast. When I finished and happy with my results, I went back in to finish my shoot.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 50mm f/1.4G

I'm going to keep it simple today.  This was made near the Japanese Garden in central park of San Francisco, CA. My friend Tammy asked me if I wanted to go to San Francisco so she would reshoot her project and I went with her, her husband and Shane. We were walking around the Japanese Garden when I spotted the bamboo. While I was there, I thought this place was perfect for a samurai photo shoot. Nothing like cosplay but an actually shoot that looks authentic from the 1800's. After the sun went down, we drove down to the piers and Tammy got the picture she wanted and we headed back home.

That samurai shoot is on hold for a little bit.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 85mm f/1.4G

So I want to the last Giants game of the season with my friend Nick yesterday. It was a great game as The Giants won 6-7. This was actually my first Giants game and actually MLB game that I've been to so that was a great experience. That wasn't what surprised me though. What got me was Number 54 on the San Diego Padres turns out to be one of Nick's old friends. Nick and Tommy Medica grow up and played ball together and Tommy's dad couched Nick years ago. I don't even know Tommy but I'm excited for him since his MLB debut on the 11th of this month.

Camera: Nikon D7000
Lens: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

So I didn't notice one thing until I was looking at my past images. Yesterday, September 28th was my uncle's 2nd funeral anniversary. You're probably wondering why I'm bringing this up with a picture of a watch. This watch was my uncle's that was giving to me and since I received it, I always wanted to do a shoot with it.

My Uncle had a massive stroke in January 2011 and spent 4-5 months in the hospital. He was bed ridden the entire time and needed 24 hour care. I believe in May or late April he was discharged and my mom started taking care of him until his death.

Camera: Nikon F100
Lens: Nikon 60mm f/2.8G Macro
Film: Ilford Delta 100
Flashes: Bounce flash on 2 white boards using two Nikon SB-900s and one Nikon SB-800 w/ PocketWizards transceivers.

This was one fun shoot for sure. I went out with Shane down to Monterey, CA just to take pictures. We drove all around the city and surrounding cities just to find a good spot to shoot. Turns out, the last spot we decided on was at a beach resort that Shane's parents were staying at. Right when we go on location I noticed that giant log and wanted to use it for my foreground. The log was several feet around from where I wanted it to be so Shane and I moved it to that current location. This actually was the first image I took after I composed it. After about an hour of being down there, we decided to head back to his parent's room. We then went out to find something to do in the city and ultimately decided to go home. We left Monterey around 3am and I didn't get home until around 5am after taking Shane home. This was the only good shot of the day that either of us shot but

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G
Accessories: Nikon MC-36A Multifunction Remote  
Exposure: f/8 @ 241 seconds (4 minutes)