DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

This is the last shot of Katrina in the white shirt and no pants series.

This is actually one of the first shots we took when I couldn't figure out what the hell I was doing. I had this specific shot planned (looks nothing like this) and every time we tried it, the words "epic fail" come to mind. After that, I just went with my normal shooting style versus trying to mimic another shooter's and this is what I came up with.

What I like about this shot is that it seems natural... no heavy makeup, not some ridiculous pose... almost as if she just got up. Although that being said, most people look like a train wreck when they wake up (and I'm guessing she's no exception either... sorry Kat) so I guess its not that natural.

Katrina's an old high school friend that I ran into at a bar after not having seen her for 6 or 7 years. It's a long story and you can read about it on her other photos in my stream.

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

On Black

Kara is the model for Silk Tan which is this great little boutique spray tanning salon located in the Marina district of San Francisco. This photo was actually part of a product shoot where Kara’s skin was the product. I haven’t photographed that many models before and I found out that day that it’s pretty difficult to take pictures a girl who’s my height at 5’11. I basically had to stand up straight the entire time while on my tippy toes.

I’m well aware of the technical stupidity of this shot and I know what you’re thinking. Why would I process a photo black and white for a company that advertises tanning products? The truth is I just liked this photo a lot more in black and white. I delivered the color version of course but this photo has such a classic feel to it, I just really like it. It almost reminds me of a photo you’d find in an old magazine.

I’m pretty bad at black and white photography. I think this particular image looks nice but that’s probably 90% Kara looking really hot with a pretty face and an athletic body. My issue with b&w is that I never seem to capture the right mood or tones and contrast to make the image striking. Hopefully one day I’ll get better at this.

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

For those of you who’ve wondered what I look like…

I’m bad with wine. By that I mean, I’ll drink it, I can taste what I like and what I don’t like and if I get drunk then I will have concluded that the bottle was a success. But if you were to ask me to order a bottle, I’d simply ask the bartender “what’s good here?” and leave it at that.

The one thing I’ve never been able to understand is why people swirl the wine glass then smell it before taking the first sip. I can’t smell the difference between fine wine and the 2 buck chuck. I actually never drank wine until about 2 years ago when my old roommate moved in. She worked in a winery as a chemist and enlightened me on the joys of drinking wine. It’s a good thing I drink wine now because it’s all my bosses seem to drink. I can’t imagine being at work functions taking shots of Patron whilst holding my Corona and lime.

This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "What's that smell?".

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info: Nikon Speedlight SB800 Fired Through Umbrella, Right.

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

I don’t think I’ve posted a photo of me in ages, especially not one where I'm just looking at the camera. I have the sneaking suspicion that I’m not going to get as many hits, comments and favs as the girls in my photo stream, but I’ll learn to live with my low stats on this photo.

I’m trying out my new strobist umbrella kit for the first time. Forgive me if I’m doing this completely wrong but in my defense I have no idea what I’m doing. I didn’t have a model on hand so I pulled a Derek Zoolander and did my best Blue Steel.

This is how I dress almost every day… jeans, button down dress shirt and a North Face jacket. If you think you’ve run into me, and I’ve got this combo on it's probably me. That's what I love about San Francisco. It's jacket weather almost every day. I heavily increased the blacks on this photo so you can't see my patches of grey hair.

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 35mm f/1.8 Nikkor Lens
Strobist: Nikon Speedlight SB800 fired through umbrella on the left.

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

Read Remote

I finally got an umbrella kit. It’s been a long time coming. Until now I’ve been way too lazy to venture into that part of the game simply because I just didn’t feel that I’d ever need anything this complicated. But I see some pretty wicked shots on Flickr from people who have strobist setups so I wanted in on the fun.

Anyway hopefully I can get some good shots with my new setup. I’ve only got one speedlight right now so I need to pick up a 2nd. I was thinking about just going cheap with a Nikon SB600. I'm debating between the $500 SB9000 or the $225 SB600. Any suggestions?

I've got my SB800 as my primary and it's great so I'm leaning towards the 600.

** Update ** I had dinner with my uncle and he told me to buy the SB900 and send him the bill as an early Christmas present. w00t!

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 35mm f/1.8 Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

Prettier On White

This is actually a product shoot. This is probably the prettiest product I’ve shot so far.

www.silktansf.com

SilkTan is a spray on tanning salon in San Francisco located in the Marina district. They’re a great little boutique and aside from me having a challenging time finding parking, it was really fun shoot. Kate and Alla, founders of Silk Tan, are redesigning their website and I was called in for the Before and After product shoot.

We were making jokes about how in most before and after shoots, the “before” photo is dismal and unflattering while the “after” photo the model looks amazing and ecstatic. While we were taking this photo, I said something on the lines of “Kara, now that you’re tan, your life is going to be completely different and a thousand times better so give me a big smile.”

I actually have really pretty photos of Kara before they applied the spray tan but I’ll upload that to Flickr later.

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

On White

Each room in my house is a different color. When we were taking shots in the house, we simply referred to the rooms as the lime green room, the turquoise room, the yellow room, etc. There’s something sweet about this photograph and I don't mean the model. This shot just reminds me of candy or a sugar rush. Maybe it’s the yellow or the bright colors.

Back when I was in college, my professor was asked how long the assigned essay should be to which he responded with…

“Think of a girl’s skirt, long enough to cover the subject, short enough to keep it interesting.”

That’s one of the few things from college (outside of bonds and securities) that have stuck with me and I think that’s how I feel about the photo. I love the way the shirt falls off her shoulder, the subtle bra with the strap showing and her legs being slightly covered. I wouldn’t call this a revealing photo in an explicit sense but more so in an implicit.

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

View Large on Black

I don’t know about you but I can’t think of what’s not dreamy about this shot; gorgeous gal, tank top, underwear and a sweet guitar. My favorite thing about this shot is actually the way her hair falls on the ground, the subtle appearance of her tattoo and the guitar. I know it’s not a macro but I got close and I think that’s been acceptable within our group.

Pictured above is my friend Katrina. We went to high school together but after graduation I never saw her again until my friend’s birthday. My friends and I were at this fairly ghetto club called 330 Ritch in San Francisco with this “famous DJ” (he sucked big time) named DJ Premier. They had rappers on stage performing. I was very inebriated to say the least and long story short, I hated their act and I started to loudly cuss out the performers.

After a few broken bottles and a lot of angry stares in my direction, my friends said “shit we’re going to get shot if we stay here” so we left and that’s when I ran into Katrina.

You can read the full story of me and Kat here… [Comes with a nice photo]

Btw, she happily informed me that having her ass against the wall and legs in the air is really uncomfortable when you've got a guitar crushing you as well.

This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Dreamy".

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 35mm f/1.8 Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

View On Black

I haven't seen Katrina in years. I was at a club in San Francisco and while very inebriated this girl grabs my arm and turns out it's my high school friend Kat. I have to admit I didn’t recognize her at first, but in my defense I was really drunk, really angry at the DJ because he sucked and actually on my way out so I was caught off guard.

Anyway, I bought Kat a drink at the bar and we were chatting and catching up. The funny thing is I actually completely forgot about my friends who were outside waiting for me for half an hour. Needless to say when I finally left I got a ton of crap from my friends. It was worth it though; I got the chance to reconnect with an old friend and a few months later (today) we ended up hanging out for the night. What started off as catching up over a few beers lead to a photo shoot followed by 1am Thai food .

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

My girlfriend was an Eskimo for Halloween. It’s actually a really cute outfit but after many drinks at a warehouse party, apparently the costume gets really hot. I saw some guy dressed up as Elmo in the full body suit. All the half naked girls were flocking to him to take photos. I thought to myself, lucky bastard. A little while later, I saw him take off his mask and he was sweating buckets downing a huge thing of water!

Anyway we partied with Sangeeta’s college friends for Halloween. We all met up at Janet’s [Sexy Nurse, photo 2] apartment in the Marina District of San Francisco to pre party. There was a ridiculous markup for drinks that night so I’m glad we did. Then all of us headed to Fort Mason and had an awesome Halloween night!

Photo 1: I get really red when I drink a lot so I look pretty toasty. I’m Clark Kent.

Photo 2: Most of the girls in our group. We have a guy’s photo too, but we’re not cute.

Photo 3: Jackie (Dorothy, Wizzard of Oz) wearing Patin’s storm trooper helmet. I was laughing when I saw her; just had to take a photo with Dorothy the Storm Trooper.

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 35mm f/1.8 G Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

Check out my Halloween Photos! I was Clark Kent! [Cop out =P]

And now for cop out numero 2…

The Langoliers is one of the books in the Four Past Midnight series by Steven King. For those of you who have read the book or watched the TV miniseries with Balki from Perfect Strangers, you might buy this explanation more so than those who have not. The story talks about passengers that have been napping on a plane who wake up to find themselves alone. Everyone aboard that was awake has disappeared, leaving their clothes, dental fillings, pace makers and so on... ahem shoes.

The catch is the plane never landed. The big mystery is where did everybody go? And with that, I’ve got a photograph of a single footless shoe. Scary shit huh?

I know what you’re thinking… who wears $900 stilettos on a flight?

Sorry about the cop out photos this week and last. I’ve been extremely busy with work and fun stuff and I just haven’t found the time to shoot. The shot is actually a product photo for www.CarinaNewYork.com. I’m one the company’s product photographers. They’re a wonderful boutique store based in San Francisco and they do high end fashion items.

This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Stephen King".

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

U2 360 Tour in Pasadena, California.

Talk about an epic weekend! My friends and I drove to Los Angeles on Saturday morning and stayed with my friend Jenny in her apartment in West Hollywood. We had driven down to Los Angeles to attend the U2 concert but it also happened to be Candice's birthday as well. So that night started off with some amazing Korean BBQ in K-Town followed by Karaoke with a ton of drinks.

Sunday Morning we woke up and headed to Santa Monica to have lunch w/ Candice. Afterwards we hung out at Dave's house and just chilled before heading to the U2 360 Tour Concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Talk about an awesome concert...

Black Eyed Peas opened and they did an amazing job. That of course was eclipsed the second Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton took the stage. 90,000 people attending a concert being streamed live on YouTube across the world. The concert was amazing... truly epic.

Anyway after the concert half of our group had to be at work on Monday so we got in our car and drove 400 miles back to San Francisco. I got home 1.5 hours before I had to get to work so I quickly uploaded a few photos, took a shower and went to my office. Totally crazytown but completely worth it!

If you want to hear me sing with Bono...

Taken with a Casio EX-Z80

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

I know this is a total cop out for Macro Monday. This is a product shoot I was contracted to do.

Here’s the stretch. This week’s challenge is “That’s sick”. I’ve tied that with being actually sick, i.e. the flu (h1n1 and the normal stuff), common cold, etc. And what’s the best way to mitigate the risk of getting sick? Antiseptics also more commonly known as soap! And if you’re going to use soap, then you might as well use very awesome organic soap, like Baby Tate from www.pipertate.com who’s my biggest client! They sell great products, please check them out.

I’ve got something even better for “That’s SICK”. I was at the U2 Concert in Los Angeles yesterday!!! Oh my god was it amazing. I know it was a joke on SNL, but Bono really is the King or Ireland. That was probably one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. 90,000 people joined me at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and the concert was streamed live on YouTube. See below for some truly sick photos.

This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "That's SICK".

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

[View Large] I’m just THAT good at magic… No photoshop needed XD

I’m aware this photo is hopeless (no need to point that out). You can see my right hand’s thumb bending backwards. I’d like to consider this photo much like the TV program Fox Network aired several years back titled “Magic Secrets Revealed” with the bald guy from the X-Files. I know what you’re thinking… that's incredible and where’s my big lucrative television deal right? Better yet, where's my letter of acceptance to Hogwartz?!?

Harry Potter's got nothing on me. Little shit weasel. Voldemort FTW.

Let me just say that when both your hands are in use and you’re trying to do sort of a SP and your camera’s timer takes too long and you were too cheap to buy the remote, putting your camera on a tripod and using your big toe to hit the trigger is pretty challenging. I think a photo of me taking my photo would have been more interesting than this shot.

This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Magic".

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

I can’t tell you how dark it was when we took this photo. We were at Ocean Beach and the sun had already gone down and the only thing left in the sky was storm clouds. Thanks to Photoshop I was able to make this look brighter and change the coloring to show more of a sunset photo. I took close to 20 of the same shots but only a couple photos came in focus. I tried using my speedlight but after reviewing the photo, I liked this one better. I think it captures a better attitude and just overall mood.

Anyway this is another shot of Karen. As I was saying earlier, I love evil girls and I think she captures that essence perfectly. It’s too bad we can’t see her tattoos from this angle but they look seriously cool.

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

Prettier Large On White =)

Model shoot with Karen…

Let me prefaces by saying Karen is really nice and sweet. That being said, she looks incredibly bitchy and mean with tattoos on her wrist, neck and lower back. Needless to say, I really dig this model. I’m all about the evil girls.

We headed to the beach to do a quick shoot. It was tough because the rain storms were coming in and the sky was pretty much grey. The sun sets so early these days also and it didn’t help that she was running late. We only had 20 minutes to work with so I had to rush a lot of the shots. My f/1.4 pulled through and managed to hit a few nice shots in the dark. Anyway more photos to come this week.

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

Not that I’ve done this before... but I imagine biking while on psychedelic drugs would look something like this. I’m always happy to post some good old bike porn. The colors obviously don’t actually look like this but the theme did call for something unusual and well… this was the best I could find even though the grip on the handle bars is pretty common. I guess I didn’t do a very good job with this week’s challenge.

Anyway if you want to hear me rant and rave from this weekend and check out a cool photo of a fighter jet then click the photo below in the comments.

This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Unusual Patterns".

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

[Way Better] Large On Black

I see so many Blue Angel photos on Flickr, I always try to do something different, unique and artsy but I’m not so sure I achieved this. Why? Because the pilots ended the show just after 6 minutes. The fog was somewhat rolling in (still miles away) and they called it off. With just 3 fly bys, I only ended up with 30 shots to work with and this was the best of the lot. Ryan and I were a little angry that we had to sit in traffic and fight for parking and shooting spots from other photographers only to get turned around 6 minutes into the show.

What’s up with our Air Force? Aren’t these guys supposed to be the shit of the shit? Who knew fog would turn them off that quickly. I guess it’s a good thing that it’s so hot in Iraq and Afghanistan with minimal cloud cover or else our pilots would look outside and go “yeah, it’s too hectic out there; I don’t see it happening… let’s check the 5 day forecast is on NBC Iraq or CBS Afghanistan and we’ll circle back to our mission objectives.”

The sky was actually blue where we were.. the photo above is the subject of some pretty heavy Photoshop. Going to rant and rave on Twitter now.

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 70 - 300mm f/4.5 VRII Nikkor Lens

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

Don’t worry I’m not actually suicidal. Photo just fits the week's challenge.

My friends Mike and Kristine got married this weekend. Hands down the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding. It was a beautiful venue at a country club, awesome cocktails at the open bar, a photo booth where Sangeeta and I went back to 4 times making funny faces at the camera and just a fantastic place to have a reception. Mike and Kristine are friends of mine from college so I ran into a lot of old friends that I’ve lost touch with over the years. It was great catching up and just seeing everyone again.

I actually wore this shirt and tie combo (minus the knife) with my suit to the wedding. I was looking pretty good up until we were sitting down and Chris was in mid sip of his red wine when he choked, coughed into and around the cup causing a spray of wine in literally 360 degrees around him. Those of us unfortunate to be sitting next to him all got covered in little drops of wine. I was wearing a brand new Calvin Klein shirt and Armani tie. FML

This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Darkness - Evil".

Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800

www.marcuslam.com

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)

DodogoeSLR posted a photo:

I lasted 5 minutes this time on Explore's front page... LOLz. Maybe it was a mistake.

Thanks homies.

Attached Media: image/jpeg ( 0 ko)