royce10

Captain Kirk signing out...

2009-10-12T22:55:39Z

Hey folks. I'm still alive and taking pictures. We have 3 kids now with the recent addition of Noah. You guys have no idea how crazy busy and exhausting it is to have 3 kids. I'll use that as an excuse as to why I have not been blogging. Hehe. Anyways, I've made a decision to leave behind my livejournal blog. *gasp*. Yup. Since I enjoy using the blog format to share my photos with friends, family and coworkers, I've decided to move my blog to a different site. My livejournal blog spans over 8 years of my personal life, things that I do not feel comfortable sharing with people I know in real life.

I've decided to set up shop at the following site.

http://hungtranphotography.blogspot.com/

I'm also working on a personal website that will serve more as a customized portfolio of my photography which will link to the blog. My cousin is building it and it looks awesome. Very professional looking. Can't wait to share it with you all.

For all of you who have read and commented on my blog over the past 8 years, I consider you guys more than just readers, you are part of my blogging family. We have shared our lives through our blogs and though we have never met each other, I do feel a deep connection with you all.

I will end this entry with a pic of a wedding I shot this past weekend. Head on over to my new blog site and check out the rest of the shots.

cheers

- Hung

hello folks

2008-12-07T06:02:23Z

it's that time of the year again. time to put together a xmas greeting card of the family. this year i wanted to do an outdoor photoshoot. we took the kids to the children's place to pick out some holiday outfits. i wanted alot of color so that the photos would pop. when it came to the actual shoot, it was so frustrating for sandy and i. getting 2 little kids to sit still and look at the camera has got to be one of the hardest things to do. we would get one of them into position and then the other would wander off. i photograph birds in flight with ease but when it comes to shooting my kids together, oh man it drove me nuts. anyways, here are some of the shots. i need some feedback on which of the following 4 would you pick for our holiday xmas greeting card.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5) here are some of the other random shots from the photoshoot. it was my idea to get this hat for ethan. what's this hat called btw? paperboy hat? that was another point of frustration, keeping that hat on ethan's head. he doesn't like hats and kept on taking it off.

6)i was trying to get megan to look over her shoulder and give me a pose. she is at an age where she is pretty good at following simple instructions (unlike ethan).

7) sandy had to sit down with them order to get them to sit still for the camera. too bad i'm not in the shot or else it would have been a pretty decent family shot.

8 ) ethan takes a break from the photoshoot for a snack.

9) here is a full body shot of megan's outfit.

10 ) as you can see, ethan's white shirt and sweater was a bit long on him. i originally wanted a sweater vest but we couldn't find one that went with his little hat. i had rolled up his sleaves at the beginning of the photoshoot but of course with all the running around, they came down.

11)

i got that annoying cough again

2008-11-12T19:00:26Z

i was watching the kids in the play room while sandy was taking her nightly shower. her face appeared at the doorway and she was pulling my suitcase behind her. i turned away from the tv and looked at her carefully. she looked upset and was crying. i got up and went to her to see what was the matter. sandy had a hard time speaking and her eyes were red from crying. she just stared at me for a moment and then spoke in a trembling voice, "you better pack your stuff and leave..."

i was in shock. i couldn't believe what i was hearing from her. it was just another typical weekday night at our house. we had finished dinner and i was watching the kids while she took her shower before bedtime. we didn't have any recent fights. i racked my brain trying to figure out what i had done that led up to this point. what did i do wrong? for the life of me, i couldn't think of a single thing that i could have done that would have upset her so much. she just watched me with her teary eyes as my brain worked furiously to figure out what had just happened.

i gave up and grabbed her shoulders with both of my hands. i looked into her eyes and asked, "what happened?" she continued to cry quietly as i waited for her response. she slowly looked up, pointed to her tears and said, "these are tears of joy. i'm pregnant..."

i let out a sigh of relief since i was expecting the worse. i grabbed her head with both of my hands and pulled her close. i planted a kiss on her forehead and wrapped my arms around her back.

i smiled and whispered, "happy birthday honey."

we now have a president of the people for the people

2008-11-05T22:52:16Z

here are some shots from last week's halloween. we took the kids to tanaka farms to check out their pumpkin patch. we went on a wagon ride around the farm and later the kids got to play in the petting zoo. ethan was quite amused by the goat's swishing tail.

on halloween night we took them over to their cousin's house to go trick or treating. megan dressed up as little red riding hood and ethan dressed up as a green dragon. they both loved their costumes and had fun running around in them. this was the first time that ethan got to go participate in the trick or treating. at one house, he saw a dog and ran into the house to chase after the dog. sandy was mortified and had to run into the house to retrieve the little wayward dragon. lol.

yesterday i woke up at 5am to get ready to vote. i had to drop off my kids at my parents and then head on over to the polling station. i wanted to get in line early so that i could get out of their quickly since i had to be at work by 8am. i got there at 6:30 and was the 5th person in line. the polling station staff appeared a bit disorganized and nervous. luckily once the station opened things went smoothly from what i could tell.

sandy and i were so happy that obama won. he truly embodies hope and inspiration for all of america. mccain on the other hand represents the fear that conservative americans still unfortunately hold onto. this country needs to move foward not backwards. now that the election is over, we can finally get past all the political masterbating and finally get to the tasks at hand of fixing this country.

it finally feels like autumn here. despite my last post, we were hit with another heat wave for the last couple of weeks. however, now the temps are finally falling and it feels quite nice. too bad i caught a cold so i can't get out and enjoy it as much as i would like. i bought a bird feeder and filled it with seed and placed it on my backyard patio. with winter approaching this should attract alot of birds to my backyard.

i rented a lens last week from the local camera store. i wanted to test out the canon 70-200 f4 IS. the canon fall rebates have started and i am shopping for a new lens. i considered getting an even longer focal length lens for my nature photography but the cost for lenses longer than 400mm were astronomical and way out of my budget. what i really need is a mid range telephoto zoom to shoot outdoor family shots. unfortunately the lens that i rented was not in good condition. the IS acted erratically and the lens made a strange high pitched noise. most of my trial shots came out out of focus and soft. i was quite dissappointed since this lens is very highly regarded.
maybe i should rent the canon 70-200 f2.8 IS. muhahahaha

The house is a mess but that's nothing new

2008-10-13T23:24:46Z

Yesterday we were invited to go to baby Lynn's 1st birthday. It was held at a local park and came complete with an inflatable bouncy house that the kids always enjoy. They had an amazing spread of food. The food theme was hawaiian which meant a mix of japanese, korean, chinese and american. It was soooo good. I would have had more but my 2 rugrats kept me busy as Sandy and I traded off watching them while the other wolfed down our plate.

They even had pinatta filled with candy. You give a kid a bat and the green light to smash away. Afterwards, their efforts are rewarded with candy and treats. Seriously, what more could a kid ask for?

I decided to forgo my usual canon 50mm f1.8 and tamron 17-55mm f2.8 lenses for events like this. I took my tamron 90mm f2.8 di lens instead. I wanted to take advantage of the longer focal length in an outdoor event like this. I usually use this lens mainly for macro photography of bugs and flowers. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it performed for portrait photography too. The lens focussed fast and accurately, even in backlit situations. It has always amazed me with its sharpness since it is a macro lens by design, but what impressed me even more were the colors. Another thing I tried was shooting back lit portraits. As a wildlife photographer, I have always been taught to shoot a front lit subject basically always having the sun over my shoulder. In bright midday light, this often creates a very harsh light and strong shadows which are not pleasing. Instead I shot my subjects with the sun behind them giving a nice highlight to their hair but more importantly, giving a nice even shade across their face. I was pleased with the results. At one point, I was considering getting the canon 85mm f1.8 lens for outdoor portraits, but since the tamron 90mm f2.8 lens worked so well, the 85mm would probably be redundant. My money would be better spent on the canon 70-200 f4 IS lens. Muhahahahah.

Last week, we had one final hurrah of summer with a short heat wave with temps close to 100. Suddenly towards the end of the week, the night time and morning temps dropped down into the low 60s. This morning I was greeted with the blustery santa ana winds and shaking trees. As I drove around town, I watched the new fallen leaves tumble across the rode and unusual white caps on the wind swept waves at the usually placid neighborhood lake. Fall is finally here and for that my spirit is happy.

Fall is my favorite time of the year. The smell of dried leaves and the crisp taste to the air announces the arrival of autumn as soon as you take a step outside. When I was going to medical school in NY, our campus was located about 45 minutes north of Manhattan. Despite its close proximity to the city, if you surveyed the landscape around the campus, you would have thought that you were in the wild hills of conneticut. We were surrounded by hills and forests. There was a forest behind my dorm and one morning I was greeted with a family of deer who were slowly passing by my window. When autumn arrived in NY, the surrounding hillsides around my campus burst into a rainbow of colors and shades.

Here in socal, the arrival of autumn is much more subtle and muted as compared to the symphony of colors from the autumn leaves of the east coast. I want to capture it with photography but I think it will take more creativity and thought here in socal. There is an urgency to this project because winter will be here shortly and the available daylight and shooting times will fade quickly. For now the hardest part will be just finding the time to go out and shoot.

I went for a bike ride with the kids yesterday. It was quite windy and cold which gave me a runny nose throughout the ride. Part of the cause is the drop in temperature and part of it are my allergies. I need to get good cycling jacket for the upcoming winter riding. I am determined to continue my cycling efforts that I have managed so well this past summer. I must not let the cold weather deter me. Yosh!!!

Here is a shot of the bday girl. 1st bday parties are always a big deal. There were lots of guests, lots of food and lots of kids running around everywhere you looked. The whole party went very well, at least from my perspective as a guest. I'm glad that we are done with Megan and Ethan's 1st bday parties. They were so much work and I am not even sure Sandy and I enjoyed it much since we were so busy hosting. It's much more enjoyable to just show up with a gift and eat other peoples' food. =P

Sandy's bday is coming up and I have no idea what to get her...

2008-10-07T03:31:35Z

As a kid, I used to go to El Toro air show with my cousin to watch the military aircraft and Blue Angels demonstrate their aerial acrobatics. That base was eventually decomissioned in 1999 and the skies overhead went quiet. Recently, we took the kids down to the San Diego Zoo. Along the 5 freeway, we noticed a big sign in regards to the Miramar Airshow. Sandy commented on how both Megan and Ethan are quite fascinated by airplanes. They would always stop what they were doing and point into the air when they heard or saw an airplane flying over. Driving past John Wayne Airport is always a fun adventure for the kids as the commercial airplanes fly low over the freeway. This weekend, we packed up the kids and headed down the to Miramar to check out the show.

It took us about an hour to drive down there. Right when we got off the freeway, we noticed this long line of cars in the far right lane. Since it was free admission and parking, it seemed like everybody and their mother were going to the airshow too. As we waited in line, we could hear and see the fighter planes zooming in the skies above. We all got excited with anticipation.

1 hour later...we finally got into the parking lot and broke out the double stroller and backpacks. We came prepared with folding camping chairs, attachable mini umbrellas for shade, and plenty of food and drinks. We even had a rolling cooler. For some reason, there was some confusion in regards to if the cooler was allowable on the base. I asked the first marine guard I saw and he said that it was not allowed depending upon the size of it. I then took out the cooler from the suv and showed it to the next passing marine guard. He said it was fine. Relieved we packed up the kids and marched into the base. There was a series of check points, where the marines had to search through all of our belongings (looking for Al-Qaeda terrorists I guess?) before allowing us to proceed. At the first check point, one of the marines explained to me that the cooler was too big and thus not allowed. I was annoyed that I had to schlepp back to the car and empty the cooler into the backpacks.

Having finally passed inspection, we proceeded on with our march and boy was it a march. I think it came out to be about a 1 mile march from our car to our eventual destination where we finally settled down. We joined the hordes of other civilians who were also schlepping along the sidewalks with their strollers and backpacks. At one intersection, Sandy asked me if we could just cut across the road before actually getting to the intersection. The marine guard must have heard her and immediately barked out, "STAY ON THE SIDEWALK!!!" I laughed at Sandy and joked, "You better listen to what he said or he may shoot you." Sandy gave a nervous giggle.

It was a beautiful day; clear blue skies with only a few clouds here and there. There was a fantastic breeze blowing in off the ocean and the temperature was in the low 70s. After we got the kids settled and the food and drinks dispersed, I got out my camera to take some shots. It was alot of fun and challenge to shoot actually. I had thought naively that since I have alot of experience shooting birds and dragonflies in flight, shooting a fighter plane flying in the air would not be anymore difficult. I was wrong. It's easy to track and shoot a plane flying far in the distance, but when they blast over the runway in very close proximity, I am constantly amazed at the speed that they fly past me. Sometimes I'll have trouble keeping them in my viewfinder as I am rotating my body to get the shot. Here are a couple of shots that would have been nice, but again since they were flying so close to me and at such high speeds, I just couldn't keep them centered in my viewfinder.

The other problem I discovered later was that my exposure was off. I was worried since I was shooting at pretty much high noon that the shots would come out over exposed so I dialed in a -1 exposure compensation when I first took out my camera. I later got so wrapped up in watching and shooting the fighter planes as they zipped around in the skies above, that I forgot to check my histograms. Turns out that the majority of my shots came out underexposed. Ah well, live and learn.

The second mistake I made was that I was just rippng through my memory card at too fast a rate. It is so fun to hold down the shutter release and let rip with the continous shooting mode as the fighter planes flew by. My canon 20D shoots at 5 frames per second. I only have one 2 gig memory card and I had already filled up about 75% of the card only 2 hours into the show. This came back to haunt me later when the Blue Angels finally came out. I ran out of memory on my card about 1/2 way into their performance. I missed some potentially great shots after that point. Darn it! I need to get another memory card.

The other challenging part of the day was the fact that Megan was scared of the loud fighter plane engines. She cried and begged to be hugged. I knew this was going to happen. She had the same reaction on the fourth of July to all the fireworks. Ethan on the other had a great time. I kept him busy in his stroller seat by placing chips for him to eat in front of him. With one hand he would munch on a chip and with his other hand, he would point at the fighter planes as they flew over us.

Here is a shot of some of the Blue Angels Fighter pilots. They rode out onto the tarmac on the top of a convertable waving to the crowds.

The Blue Angels are simply amazing to watch. There are 6 of them total. Usually 4 of them are together while the other 2 perform different tricks. Every once in a while the 4 of them will fly by in front of the crowds to distract us and then one of the other 2 will fly super fast over the crowds from a different direction. Since they fly faster than the speed of sound, you never hear him coming until he has already flown over. At which point, the crowd is usually caught "surprised" as the flight plane's engine booms overhead.

Here's a tight shot when one of them flew by really close. Since I was shooting with my 400mm lens and could not zoom out to get the entire plane, I chose to focus on the cockpit and pilot.

Alot of my shots didn't come out as well as I would have hoped.The planes mostly approached the crowds going West to East. Unfortunately for me, the sun was high in the west and would create these blacklit shots. I'm not sure how I could have done it different since I really could not change my position in regards to the planes and the sun.

Here is a shot of Fat Albert. It is the name of the C-130 Transport Plane that belongs to the support crew of the Blue Angels. It even got into the swing of things by performing some interesting maneuvers and flybys.

Alot of the planes have these condensation trails over their wings when they bank hard. This F-22 Raptor was flying overhead and so I got a nice silhoutte shot of the plane and the whispy condensation trial.

If it was later in the evening, these afterburner shots would have lit up even better!

Here is a shot of the C130 Transport plane on the ground.

Here is a Harrier demonstrating it's vertical take off capability.

Four Blue Angels flying in their classic diamond formation.

A little boy in a flight suite. They sure do recruite them young these days!

We have been taking the kids swimming lately. They quite enjoy splashing around in the pool.

2008-09-06T07:31:19Z

We took the kids down to The San Diego Zoo after Labor Day. This was our first time taking the kids to the zoo. Megan has been quite excited about seeing the elephants. I was a bit worried about how the kids would handle the long day or should I say how Sandy and I would handle the long day with the kids outdoors. Things actually went pretty well considering. The weather was sunny and pleasant. The zoo was actually not crowded at all because it was after Labor Day and most kids were back in school or preparing to go back. Sandy did an awesome job packing for this trip and we had plenty of snacks to keep the kids occupied. We ended up getting the Membership package so that we could return as much as we like for a full year. This way we can also visit The San Diego Wild Animal Park which is at a separate location from the zoo. Plus there was no traffic on the 5 freeway so we made good time coming and going. Next time what I would do differently is fill up the gas tank and pack everything the night before just so that we could get out the door earlier. We had plan on getting to the zoo when it opened at 8am but despite waking up at 6am we didn't actually get to the zoo until about 11am.

Even though it was offically a mini family vacation, I also got time to do some shooting. I brought my canon 400mm f5.6 telephoto lens which is the lens I normally use to shoot wildlife. I also brought my tamron 90mm f2.8 di lens as a second option. Shooting at a zoo was much more challenging actually. Often times, I was too close to the subject to get the entire subject in the frame. Since this was a prime lens, I could not zoom out. Also walking around the zoo with a big telephoto lens and dealing with 2 babies in a stroller made for a tiring day. Despite these challenges, I was quite happy with the results from the shots I took. I had to get creative in framing my shots since I did not have the luxury of zooming out. I am planning on getting the Canon 70-200 f4 IS lens in the near future as more of a walk around lens. It is smaller, lighter and it will allow me to zoom in and out which will be more flexible than shooting with prime lenses. I just need to wait for the canon fall rebates to start up.

Anyways, the trip ended up being quite a successful adventure. When we got home, everybody was tired but in very good spirits. The babies are tolerating more time away from home with less hassle so this expands our travel capabilities a bit. It will still be a couple of years before we attempt to fly to hawaii though. Enough with the chit chat. Here are some of the shots that I liked from our zoo trip.

This is a baby flamingo begging its parent for regurgitated yumminess.

Here is a Glossy Starling. Check out those demonic eyes! That's what it looks like in real life. I did not enhance anything about those eyes in post processing. Quite the look he's giving me.

"So are you gonna drop some bread crumbs or do I have to get rough with ya? What's it gonna be buddy?!"

Here we see a group of flamingos plotting their escape.
"Ok listen up fellahs. At 6pm, Fred is gonna slip the zoo keeper a mickey. That's when we are gonna bust out of here. Now spread the word."

Here is the elephant that Megan was so eager to see.

Egyptian Plover. One of the frustrating things about photographing at a zoo is trying to shoot subjects through a wire fence or glass. The results are usually terrible. This picture was actually shot through a wire fence. I'm not sure how but the results came out pretty good actually. This was one of the few shots through a fence that came out usable.

This is a Hyrax aka a plump sausage with feet.

Megan was also happy to see the giraffes.

And of course my rugrats.

i'm kinda smelly right now. how about you guys?

2008-08-27T20:40:43Z

this past weekend, i took the family out to the local park to shoot them. photographically speaking of course. i used my 400mm f5.6 lens which i normally use to shot wildlife. i guess my rugrats can be considered wildlife because they are always tearing up my house. anyways, the shots came out ok. i really should have waited longer to get more of the golden sunset lighting. this light was too harsh. we also found out that pretty much everybody in this family is allergic to grass. we were all itching our legs afterwards from sitting and rolling around in the grass. lol.

ethan is eating better now. the tips and techniques that we are learning from the feeding specialist is helping. it turns out that at his age, he likes control and independence. this is why he fights so much when we try to spoon feed him. he takes food better when we put small bits in front of him so that he can pick up and put in his mouth himself. he also is big on textures and some textures he does not like and some he does. go figure. i just hope that at his next check up his weight is over 20 lbs.

my suspicions about megans peanut allergy unfortunately was confirmed by her allergy testing. this scares me because peanut allergies can potentially be fatal. we bought 4 epipens in case of emergencies and are super vigilant about reading all labels. she will be retested once she is 4 years old. there is a chance that she might outgrow it. *keeps fingers crossed* on a funnier note, megan is developing a bit of a smart mouth. when she is having a tantrum i will often tell her to "relax!". now when i am strongly telling her to do something or not do something, she will respond by saying back to me, "daddy relax!" hahahaha. smartass!

i have next week off. woo hoo! it will be a much needed repreive from the madness that is my office. so far the only plans that we have is that we will spend 1 day at the san diego zoo. i'm quite looking foward to it. i'm hoping to get some good shots. megan is excited to see the elephants too. sandy probably will only be able to take 1 day off though. not sure what i am going to do for the rest of the week. i'll probably take a couple of days for myself and leave the kids at the parents to watch.

as you all know, i am an avid nature photographer. there is a website called Juza Nature Photography that i frequent. he is an italian professional nature photographer. his work is incredible and i sometimes post some of my pics in his forum to get critiqued. he has this thing where once a week, he will pick 1 photo for the photo of the week which is displayed on his main page. last week, i got an email stating that my dragonfly in flight pic was chosen. woo hoo. i was so honored. here is the link

Here is the link to the main page. It's the 4th pic down under Latest News.

i need to order Murakami's new book. What I talk about when I talk abou running. Thanks Vix-chan for the heads up. this should be perfect timing for me to read on my week off. =)

it was hot and muggy today

2008-08-14T06:25:45Z

Recent shots

gotta make this quick. i smell a poopy diaper that needs changing

2008-05-21T17:52:57Z

sandy and i both had the day off yesterday so we packed up the kids and went to the aquarium of the pacific. megan quite enjoyed looking at all the fish. ethan was really too young to appreciate the displays and got very cranky towards the end. the last time i took photos at an aquarium, i used my canon powershot point and shoot. it's interesting how much better my photos turned out this time with my dslr and 50mm f1.8 lens. we also visited the lorakeet feeding area. for $2, you get this small cup of sugar water. if you hold it out, the lorakeets will fly over and land on your hand to feed. megan was quite amuzed by the noisy birds. sandy wanted to try feeding one and ended up getting bit on her finger. ouch! i think the lorakeet was pissed because the cup was empty by that point. the last shot was of me being surprised when a lorakeet landed on my shoulder.

ethan can now sit in the bike carrier with megan

2008-03-25T00:17:30Z

i took the family to mariner's church for the easter egg hunt. i had to work that day
so we got there around sunset for the last session. the place was packed with people.
we do not belong to this church nor are we christian, but it was open to the public and
relatively close to our house.

megan was a bit overwhelmed by the crowds. everybody was lined up behind the roped off field watching the staff people spread easter eggs across the grass. we met up with sandy's brother and sister in law. it was a warm evening and it was very nice to be outdoors.

instead of a tradional easter egg basket, sandy got the kids easter egg bags. *shrug*

mariner's church uses this event for marketing purposes in order to "spread to word of god" and also to bring more people to this church. they passed out pamphlets and rubber bracelets.

here's a shot of the field that the easter eggs were spread across. i took this with my 50mm lens so it's not even my wide angle lens. the field continues to the right and left. it was a good sized soccer field.

ethan was all snuggly in the bjyorn. after awhile he started getting restless while waiting for the activity to begin.

they had a small area of the field roped off for the little kids. i'm guessing they thought that this wounld give the slower moving babies a chance. oh how wrong they were...

here's ethan with his easter egg bag. he was too small to let loose on his own so sandy would be doing the egg picking for him. that's gotta be tough on her back.

only in newport beach does the easter bunny arrive on a helicopter. seriously! it was quite a dramatic entrance. this little helicopter circled over and lowered itself over the field. it actually got quite low and starting blowing some of the plastic easter eggs away! then someone from inside the helicopter dumped a big sack of eggs down onto the field. now this was when chaos errupted. i thought that the dj would announce the start of the egg hunt. nope. as soon as the last easter egg fell onto the ground, everybody who was lined up along the grass ran through the tape barricades and charged the field. i was like, what the?! the dj even made an announcement prior that only the kids were allowed on the field, no parents. of course when mass chaos errupted, the parents charged the field too. so off megan and i ran into the field to grab us some easter eggs. megan was quite frightened with everybody running past her, so she grabbed on tight to my shorts and hid behind me. that made it difficult for me to advance further into the field. people would just swarm ahead of me and clear away all the eggs. it was like a swarm of locusts straight out of the bible! the whole freakin easter egg hunt was over in like 10 seconds. and you guys saw how big that field was and how many eggs where spread out. it was totally cleaned out in 10 seconds! i was like wtf?! what the hell just happened?! oh and that little section for the 0-2 year old kids, it was totally trampled by adults and older kids like a blitzkreig! so basically we stood around for about 1.5 hours for an even that was over in less than 10 seconds. sheeesh. ya know what, next year, i'm taking me kids to the local community park by my parents where there are less people and at least megan and ethan will have a chance at actually picking up some eggs!

this is a shot of the hordes of easter egg hungry people after the field was cleaned.
oh the savagery!

what's up with morning wood? come on now, i'm trying to sleep...

2008-03-18T05:06:13Z

here are some recent shots. spring is here, the weather has been getting warmer so we have been getting out more. thank goodness. one could seriously go insane being couped up all day with the kids.

we went to a baby shower this weekend. i took a few snap shots. i'm not really an event shooter.

ethan's first birthday is coming up next month. sandy is already getting ready which means that i gotta get the house ready. i spent this afternoon collecting all of the snails out of the front yard. i swear i had a bag of like 30 of them. they poop on all the walls of the front of the house. disgusting.

this is my friend dat. he's having a baby soon. he has no idea how his world is gonna get rocked.

sandy wants me to take more shots of ethan and develop them. i don't think i have any shots of him on our walls.

this is damita, dat's dog. during the baby shower, she stole food from megan not once but twice. poor little megan.

looks like this little guy is getting an earful from the wifey. nag nag nag nag!!!
i feel for you dude.

i came across this wild flower on one of my recent hikes. i later found out that it's called a lupine.

i recently took the family to irvine regional park for the easter egg extravaganza. we got there too late for the easter egg hunt but we did take a walk around the park. that's when we came across this peacock. i only had my 50mm lens. i need to go back there and take some shots with my 400mm.

i went for a bike ride yesterday and it was so nice.

2008-03-11T05:22:30Z

check out this dancing storm trooper! these videos totally made my day. =)

= (

2008-03-09T05:02:41Z

i got to work today and there was a note on my desk. "mr. r passed away yesterday." he was my stomach cancer patient. he never made it back for his 3 week follow up appointment...

you know you really stink when you can smell your own armpits

2008-02-26T05:02:12Z

i picked up the chart on the door. it said that the patient was here to establish and meet his new primary doctor. i opened the door and saw him sitting in the corner. he was wearing a hat and he had a scruffy beard. i immediately noticed the cane at his side. the chart said that he was in his early 40s, but his eyes and skin looked much more aged. sitting down on my stool, we talked.

he had stomach cancer. he was actually quite far along into it with metastasis to his bones and liver already. he recented moved to the area and had picked me out of a insurance book to be his primary physician. he already had a oncologist and a radiation oncologist who were leading the fight to save his life from the cancer. i was only need to submit the referrals so that he could follow up with them.

he told me that he recently finished a cycle of chemotherapy. during that ordeal, he lost his ability to taste food. he still struggles with nausea and vomiting on a daily basis. if he drinks too fast or takes too big a bite of food, it will all come back up shortly. as i watch him talk, i notice his teeth. they are worn and discolored and i get an idea of how much vomiting he has gone through. despite his daily struggle to eat, he continues to lose weight.

as we talk, he studiously takes down notes into his little journal. he constantly flips back and forth between pages filled with different colored ink much like a college student preparing for finals. he states that this is the only way he can keep track of his complicated medical care. when trying to recall a specific medication that he was given for his nausea, he flips through that little journal book and finds the exact page and entry that he had taken the note. most of the time when i am giving instructions to my patients, i have to repeat myself multiple times throughout the visit before it even sinks in. he on the other hand studiously notes everything i say and recommend on the first shot. under different circumstances, i would have labeled him a bit on obsessive compulsive side, but i guess when you are fighting for your life, every little detail takes on so much more signficance.

he carried a little lunch cooler at his side. i thought that he had packed some food, but instead were bottles and bottles of pills. they consisted of his nausea medications and his pain medications. he handled each carefully as he pulled them out one by one to show me. as we were wrapping this visit up, he told me that some of his sense of taste was finally coming back. he could taste oranges again. he had this wonderful expression on his face when he told me that fact. it was as if the simple act of tasting an orange was the most beautiful thing in the world. after what he has gone through so far and what he must still endure, i am sure tasting a simple orange is an experience few will appreciate as much as he did. as i walked him out, he turned to say goodbye. he smiled and vowed that he was going to continue fighting no matter what. i smiled back and gave him an appointment to follow up in 3 weeks.

Pretty in pink

2008-02-21T01:15:55Z

when i walked into the grocery store, there was a herd of young guys all around the selection of roses. these guys must have been in their early 20s, each pulling out wads of cash to pay for their special hand picked bouquet of long stem roses. buwhahahahaha. with age comes experience. i instead got sandy some pink tulips for valentines day. i find them much prettier and more romantic than the plain old cliche enfused, commercialized up the wazoo, long stem red roses. besides the local grocery store had the tulips on sale for $9.99 for half a dozen. score baby!

tulips are quite photogenic little flower actually. they have a very soft color and texture to their petals. i also like the simple stem. the lack of thorns is a nice bonus. the soft color lends itself well to shooting them wide open with my 50mm f1.8 lens. these were taken under natural window lighting.

sandy and i both had last wednesday off which was the day before valentines day. we ditched the rugrats at the grandparents and headed over to the movie theater to catch Juno. i had heard rave reviews from danny and my brother so i had very high expectations. my brother compared it to the hilarious movie, Superbad which i enjoyed immensely. Juno was a good movie but i think all the hype led me to expect too much, which is any movie's ultimate downfall. it was enjoyeable to watch and sentimental at times, but it fell short on the humor department. the character juno did have alot of witty quips much more than what i had when i was her age. afterwards, we headed over to mccormicks & schmicks seafood restaurant. the restaurant was hidden in a corporate plaza. the inside reminded me of old school boston. lots of wood stained mahogany, stain glass windows and coat hooks at each booth. sandy ordered the dover sole and i had the sea bass. honestly, i could not tell the difference between our two dishes besides the toppings and sauce. the meal was ok, but i doubt that we would ever return for a second tasting.

today is wednesday and i am home alone with the kids. it's tough watching them by myself. it's an endless series of feedings, diaper changes, getting them down for a nap, and consoling them when they wake up cranky. ethan can sit up now and enjoys playing around with megan. it's very cute to watch them interact. hopefully this closeness and playfullness that they have with each other will remain as they grow older together.

since i had the camera out, i decided to shoot the kids too. sticking with the pretty in pink theme, i had megan put on her pink wool beanie. it cracks me up when i see her wearing it. she will sometimes just put it on and dance around the house. for this shot however, she was not giving me much cooperation. when i asked her to smile, she thought it was amuzing to scrunch up >_< her face instead. quite the joker my megan.

i then put the beanie on little E. he didn't really care for it. i guess he's not really into pink as much as megan is. it was hard to keep it on his head because he kept on pulling it off.

its cold and rainy today again. i think it's suppose to rain for the next 4 days straight. i don't really mind though. it's not like i am free to go anywhere since i have my two rugrats to watch. i bought megan a little rainbow windmill to stick in the backyard. whenever a strong breeze blows through the backyard, it starts spinning around. watching the cold wind blow around outside, just makes me feel that more warm and cozy inside my house.

lately i've been feeling quite burnt out. it's been a tough winter at work actually. we have been seeing record number of patients due to all the cold and flu. i usually see about 25 patients on an average day during the summer months. for the past few months i have been routinely seeing somewhere in the 40's each shift. dealing with 40 people and their problems is exhausting. i get home late at night and i am spent. i really have nothing left over for the family. what is worse is that i have to stay late and come in earlier each day in order to catch up on all my charting and paperwork. i'm the only doctor in my group that did not take any vacation during the fall and winter months since we were so busy. i work every saturday. that leaves me with sunday to spend with sandy and the kids together. however that one sunday is usually spent going grocery shopping, running errands or just watching the kids. then monday comes around and i am home alone with the kids again.

sensing my discontent, sandy baked me this cake. she is actually taking a cake baking class at a local arts and crafts store. her blues clues cake inspired her to learn more. this is the first time she has done something not involving the family and kids. i think it is good for her to pick up a hobby since parenting is so all consuming. hopefully i will not get too fat because of her new hobby. lol.

it's been a long ass week and i'm plum tuckered out

2008-02-16T08:11:15Z

Check this out.

This guy named Ron made a website to give a little show case for each of the major lenses. He asked me to use my pics as examples for the canon 400mm f5.6. I also got to say a blurp about the lens as the opening slide. Pretty cool honor I think.

we need to fatten up ethan

2008-02-04T05:17:02Z

even though the surrounding hills are green with the arrival of spring, it has still been cold and wet outside.

today was another quiet sunday. it was a cold rainy day today so the family stayed put inside the house all day. i played with my camera gear, sandy colored her hair, and the kids played with each other and took naps.

while watching the superbowl, they showed this new artist during one the commercials. here name is kina grannis Clicky here. and she won some sort of contest hosted by dorritos. her voice is amazing. this is one of those songs that makes you want to get into your car, put it on repeat and just drive...

a quiet sunday

2008-01-28T02:03:12Z

the whole family has been getting a bit of cabin fever for the past month. the weatherman forcasted a big storm to hit us later today. after breakfast, i took a peek up at the sky and still saw some blue patches. seizing the moment, sandy and i grabbed up the kids, packed up the car and headed out to woodbridge lake for a stroll before things got too wet and cold. it was a nice day out. it was breezy but i could at least feel the sun on my face. i took along my tamron 90mm f2.8 di lens. not only does it do great macro, but it makes for a nice telephoto portrait lens too.

megan got restless in the stroller and wanted to stretch her little legs. she scampered all over the path, looking up at trees, picking up leaves, and pointing towards the duckies in the water. after awhile, sandy even took ethan out of the stroller and strapped him into the bjorn so that he could look around and feel the breeze.

towards the end of our stroll around the lake, the clouds turned darker and the breezy wind took on more of a bite. we packed into the car and headed home. just when we got into the house, the rain finally arrived just as predicted. we warmed up with a nice bowl of japanese instant ramen while listening to the rain drops pitter patter outside.

afterwards, sandy and the kids headed upstairs to take a nap. sprawling out on the couch, i called up an old friend to see how he and his wife were doing with their new baby. the rain continued to fall as we talked about life insurance and other sundries of parenting life...

give me cake!

2008-01-22T01:37:24Z

yesterday we celebrated megan's 2nd birthday. we kept the party small, only inviting direct family members and sandy's best friend. by keeping it small, sandy and i actually got to enjoy more of the party instead of trying to play host and make sure everyone is comfortabe and taken care of. megan had a good time too, but she wasn't too thrilled about the party hats. hehehe.

without having to attend to hosting duties, i was freed up to run around with my camera and take pics of the event. i initially was shooting with my wide angle zoom and external flash since we were indoors. later when the eating started, most of the guests were hanging out in family room and kitchen. there was very nice light coming in from the french doors, so i used this opportunity to switch to my beloved little 50mm f1.8 lens to shoot some natural light shots. i love shooting in natural light with my 50mm. the image quality that i get from that little $80 lens always puts a smile on my face. i grabbed this shot of my dad, while he was waiting to get some food.

this is my sister in law, carly and her daughter, emi. this is one of my favorite shots of the day. mom and daughter, in soft natural lighting. simply beautiful.

this is janet, sandy's best friend. she recently moved back to orange county from up north. janet has 2 kids, kayla and kevin. megan always has a good time running around with them.

this is kayla. i have a feeling that megan and kayla are gonna grow up to be very good friends, just like their moms.

everyone, say hello to my mom. =P

sandy actually made this cake from scratch. i was quite impressed. i didn't think she could pull off the design with the icing to look like blues clues. it came out quite nice don't ya think? never underestimate a mom with a mission.

this was one of the many gifts that megan got, a new tricycle. she can't really pedal yet because her legs are a bit short to reach the pedals. she enjoys sitting on it and pushing herself around the house nonetheless.

ethan pooped out pretty earlier into the party. watching all the kids running around tired that little fellah out.

megan finally took a break from running around the house to come sit on daddy's lap. maybe it had something to do with the fact that i had a big ole piece of cake and icecream sitting in front of me...

towards the evening, megan finally pooped out. all that running around and giggling was finally catching up to her. happy birthday little girl.

i gotta go to work in 20 minutes...thppt

2008-01-16T22:08:56Z

Trying out my new macro lens.

my butt itches when it gets cold. darn that pesky eczema.

2008-01-02T19:15:27Z

happy new years everybody. yesterday we spent the day at sandy's mom's house. there are certain traditional japanese foods that are eaten on the first day of the new year. this is new years mochi which is what you see above. it's basically overcooked rice that has a very sticky consistency. here it is served in a soup dish.

afterwards, we needed to walk off all the delicious food. we strolled over to the local park with her brother's family. it was a very grey and overcast day. i decided to test out the wide open abilities of this tamron lens. so far i've been mainly shooting indoors with the external flash and the apeture set at f4. i was very happy with the results at f2.8. i use to think that this lens was not sharp wide open, but i am going to revise my earlier conclusion. these shots wide open look pretty great to me. now i did apply a generous amount of unsharp mask (150-200%), but the image quality held up quite well. i think this was because i shot at a very low iso 200 and i didn't need to crop very much for these pics.

sandy got me a murakami book for christmas. it's blind willow, sleeping woman. it's a collection of his odd/eccentric little short stories. i'm reading it a little bit at a time inorder to savor it. his short story format is perfect for that, kind of like a piece of cake that you come back to nibble on every once in awhile to satisfy a very particular type of feeling or craving. it's hard to explain to another person what a murakami book is about. i was once at a party and got into a conversation about favorite books with a friend of sandy.

sandy's friend: so who is your favorite author?
me: haruki murakami
sandy's friend: hrm. never heard of that author. what types of books does he write?
me: *thinking for a bit and digging for a deeper more soulfull way to explain murakami*
um. he write fiction. they are usually about ordinary people whose lives have extraordinary events.
sandy's friend: oh? what book would you recommend.
me: norwegian wood is my favorite.
sandy's friend: so what's it about then?
me: *digging deep again* well, it's about a guy who falls in love with a girl who doesn't love him back...
sandy's friend: *gives me a weird look*
me: there's much more to it than just that, but it's kinda hard to explain.
sandy's friend: uh ok. ya i use to read romance novels too...blah blah blah
me: o_0*

that was the last time that i tried to explain a murakami book to someone who has never read him. some things are better left not explained and just experienced.

so anyways, i'm reading murakami again. =)

sometimes when i walk into an exam room, i often find that my patient is quietly reading a book. i make it a point to always ask what he or she is reading while i am making other small talking during the exam. i find it interesting to see what people are reading. perhaps not the material itself, but why they picked up this particular book and are investing their time to read it. last week i came in upon a lady who was intently reading a book. after my usual introduction, i settled down onto my stool and proceeded with the small talk.

me: what book are you reading?
lady: oh this? it's love in the time of cholera.
me: how is it?
lady: you know it's regarded as an amazing love story.
me: oh ya? having diarrhea doesn't strike me as very romantic...
lady: *laughs* ya it's a classic romance story, but honestly i think it's terrible.
me: hrm. so why then are you reading it?
lady: oh i don't know. the movie is coming out so i wanted to read the book before hand.
me: but won't that spoil the movie?
lady: *shrugs*

i was hoping for something more. a deeper reason why she was reading this particular book, but i guess not everyone has that same connection with their authors...

megan and ethan got a butt load of toys for xmas. they all seem to make some sort of noise or play a song. the creepy thing is that sometimes they will start playing out of the blue when nobody is even in the play room. perhaps it detects a change in light or sensed the motion as i walked by in the hall outside, i don't know. but what i do know is that it is hella freaky when i am walking around the house in the dark of night and one of their toys just starts playing its song and flashing its lights over in the dark play room by itself. enough with this poltergeist shit already.

did you know that albus dumbledore was gay?

2007-12-27T02:13:53Z

yup it's true. r.k. rowling did a question and answer session while at carnegie hall. she revealed that dumbledore was actually gay. evidently he had a thing for grimwald another powerful wizard long ago. they had a summer fling. grimwald then went to the dark side and dumbledore ended up killing him. go figure.

the kids left out some oatmeal raisin cookies (santa's favorite!) with a tall glass of lactaid to wash it down. santa didn't finish all of the cookies so megan eagerly cleaned up the rest.

so anyways, another xmas come and gone. this year didn't feel very xmasy despite all the crazy shopping and buying. we had an unwelcome visitor right before xmas. his name was the stomach flu and he left behind alot of diarrhea and stinky bathrooms in our house. i came down with it first, then megan, then sandy and ethan. megan seemed to have a tough time with it and has been cranky for the past week. so even though there were lots of presents and treats, we all have been a bit under the weather and slowly recovering.

check out megan's new animal farm set. you can't tell by the picture but megan is actually taking a dump. she gets this concentrating look in her eyes and her face gets flushed. if you try to get her attention or pick her up, she will push out her hand indicating, "don't touch me. can't you see i'm busy?!"

i got sandy a memory foam pillow. she has neck problems and has good relief with a prior memory foam pillow. unfortunately, ethan has taken a liking to sandy's old pillow, hence the need for a new one. i like this shot for some reason. very sharp, good contrast and color. it's also an interesting MTV-ish angle.

here sandy is letting megan open up one of her gifts. megan is still new to opening up presents and would just make a small tear and then leave it. this is only her second christmas, but she is getting the hang of it quick.

megan got a blue's clue book. she LOVES blues clues as well as baby einstein. we watch their videos all the time, over and over and over again.

megan got a toy medical kit. what do you expect coming from a dad who is a doctor and a mom who is a nurse. lol.

ethan got colored blocks and some clothes from us. this was his first christmas, so he was pretty clueless about everything. he wasn't sure what to do with the presents other then try to put them into his mouth. after awhile he got bored with the presents and went cruising across the living room floor.

i did manage to get the family to practice a song and dance routine to share with you guys.
Click here to check it out.

happy holidays from my family to yours.

ethan is so much fussier than megan was....

2007-12-11T04:32:54Z

i needed a pic to use for our holiday xmas card. sandy was getting ansy because we didn't have much time left to get them printed and mailed out. i had to get them done this sunday so i jetted over to baby's r us to get some xmasy looking outfits for the two rugrats. i then enlisted the help of dan who brought over his mini studio set up. he has 2 external flash units, 2 umbrellas and 2 stands. i couldn't think of an idea for the background since we had not bought our xmas tree yet, so i threw a white sheet over our couch. it took some trial and error to figure out the strobe lighting arrangements and to get the metering right. this was the first time that i had shot in full manual mode. i had no idea what i was doing but luckily dan did. he has been taking weekend studio photography workshops and he is getting alot of great experience. after we finally got things set up, it was time to bring out the kids.

i had originally planned just to shoot the 2 kids sitting on the cough. much easier said than done. ethan cannot sit up by himself yet. plus he was hungry so he kept on fidgeting and then he started crying. i finally just decided to include both sandy and i in the pic too so that we could hold the kids.

hey peter jackson! if you need another hobbit, i think we can help you out.

here is dan adjusting the settings on his external flash strobe unit.

i used him as my test subject while we worked on the strobe light placement and metering settings. i can't image being a portrait photographer working at baby's r us or at the mall. getting kids to smile and look at the camera is hard work! i think this particular shoot changed dan's mind about who he wants to work with in the future. he mentioned something about only shooting hot women models only from now on...

thanks for all your help dan!

i wonder if santa claus shops online

2007-12-07T02:53:37Z

i found this little fellah climbing up the outside of my house while i was hanging up my xmas lights today. i was on the ladder when i noticed something crawling up the wall next to me. when i turned to look, it was about 2 feet from my face. it's about 3 inches in length. i freaked out and almost fell off my ladder. i'm one of those types of people that find bugs fascinating but creepy at the same time. after i got over my initial heart attack, i quickly ran inside the house to get my camera gear. praying mantis are very rare here in southern california. i have only come across 2 other ones and that was over 20 years ago when my parents and i first moved to irvine.

so how are you guys doing with your holiday shopping? i have yet to start. i'm currently in my "brainstorming phase." i'm going to try to avoid shopping on the weekends to steer clear of the horders of seasonal shoppers. lucky i have some weekdays off to get my errands done. i'm also going to see what i can get online. i also need to shoot a pic of megan and ethan for our xmas card. i don't think last years set up is gonna work because ethan can't sit up yet. hrm...

yesterday, southern california's beaches got hit with some epic waves. while i was at work i was hearing reports of +15 foot waves. i don't surf, but i do like to photograph surfers. i had today off and i was eager to get out there. waking up early, i checked the online surf reports and it looked like the initial storm surge died down. most of the beaches were back to about 4-6 foot waves. looking out the window, all i saw were grey skies and dark clouds. terrible light to shoot in. i had missed it. hopefully with the approaching storm there might be more monster waves this weekend.

megan can now recognize santa claus. sandy and i are going to play it up and have her leave milk and cookies out for santa on xmas eve. i told megan that santa likes oatmeal raisin cookies and prefers lactaid milk because whole milk makes him gassy.