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DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Large On Black. Can't see the grey thanks to Photoshop =)
I’d like to prefaces by saying I way prefer photographing models than myself. I suck as a model. I need to drop some weight (I’m eating as I type this btw), my smile is stupid, my eyes are fucked up, my girlfriend says I look like an asshole Anime character and literally the second I saw a decent shot on my camera I stripped down to boxers and a Superman t-shirt. I was so over my own photo shoot after just 5 minutes.
I decided on a SP because Elle has been bugging me to do one with her.
Anyway this shot is for Strobist Sunday’s theme of Poser. I own a few suits and a LOT of ties. I suit up three times a year. The first time is for my company holiday party. The second time is for Sangeeta’s company holiday party. And the third was for my friend Mike’s wedding. I work in the finance world (MBS) and you’d think I’d have to dress up but all my securities trades are done either online or through the phone. So I literally wear jeans and a button down shirt to work every day and nobody says anything.
Strobist Sunday Challenge: Poser
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
::Robots:: - Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Left (1/2)
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Right (1/10)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko)
DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
View On Black
See Comments For More Photos =)
Another photo from the weekend... Monterey and Carmel are just 10 minutes apart, 15 if you're driving a Toyota Prius that takes 2.3 songs to hit 60mph. You can see the other photo here. My friends and I met up for lunch then afterwards Sungee and I went for a walk along Cannery Row. This is the view from the Monterey Bay Acquarium. We were eating froyo and enjoying the nice weather.
Photos below: Obviously the Ferrari 599 GTB isn't mine. Some day I'd like it to be but for now I'm happy with my old beamer. The second photo is a candy apple from Carmel which is famous for it's Caramel. And the last shot is actually Sangeeta driving the 17 Mile Drive in Carmel. Her new Prius is wicked cool, solar panel roofs, 55mpg, loaded with more electronics than my iPhone and it was recently fixed for that braking issue.
Toyota: Moving Forward... whether you want to or not.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 16-85mm VRII f/3.5 Nikkor Lens
GND - Graduated 0.6 Black / Clear Neutral Density Filter
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Way Nicer Large On Black
See Comments For More Photos =)
My friends and I decided to take a trip to Carmel. It ended up being an incredibly relaxing day. We met up at this cute little breakfast place in the morning and enjoyed coffee and eggs. This photo was taken along Carmel's 17 Mile Drive. Basically you drive through all these ridiculously expensive homes, then along the coastline and finally through Pebble Beach and Spyglass.
You really should view it large. It’s pretty ugly on such a small format since it looks so cluttered. As you can see below, Sangeeta and I were goofing off with the SLR. I got lazy and left the graduated neutral density filter on and kept the camera in raw mode hence the weird color and light fade.
Anyway if you look in the lower corner of this photo, you can see sea lions just laying on the beach doing literally nothing. It reminds me a lot of Carmel. Don’t get me wrong, the city is cute and pretty but that’s really all it is. Four of my friends actually spent the weekend there and they said that the average age at the restaurant they ate at was probably in the 50s! As beautiful as Carmel can be, I feel like it’s a place to retire and … I guess tha'ts it.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 16-85mm VRII f/3.5 Nikkor Lens
GND - Graduated 0.6 Black / Clear Neutral Density Filter
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
The milk chocolate that melts in your mouth - not in your hand.
I took a different approach to this week’s challenge. It wasn’t difficult setting this up. I got a piece of binder paper, took out 4 m&m’s, smashed them with a Leatherman tool (only heavy object I could find nearby), grabbed my SB900 and blasted the crap out of it through an umbrella to get the white.
I love m&m’s. They’re the best to just munch on when I have a sweet tooth. Don’t get me wrong, peanut butter cups are amazing and so are full blown candy bars but it never lasts long enough and I always feel guilty about it afterwards (that’s what she said?!?). The beauty of m&m’s are that you can eat half a bag over a few hours and lie to yourself that you didn’t really consume all those calories and fat.
Anyway I had a pretty fun weekend. Friday night I had date night with my girlfriend. You can read about some of it here. Near the end of the night she was slightly drunk. On the drive home I almost had a head on collision with a bus on a blind corner. After being freaked out, she punched me and yelled “thanks for killing my buzz!” Saturday we puppy sat for a family friend and while cleaning up poop isn’t fun, the dog was super cute. My friend Jen hosted a house party on Saturday night which was very relaxing. And Sunday we drove down to Monterey then Carmel and met a few friends for lunch and shopping..
Macro Monday Challenge: Crack Me Up
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
::Robots:: - Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Above Left (1/2)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Okay maybe not the most impatient but possibly top 10. Sungee gave me 14 shots. I kid you not, there are only 14 files on my camera and that was it. In fact after the very first photo, she sat back down. I mean what the hell! Most shoots I do require at least 10 test shots just to get the lighting right.
To make matters worse, after she looked at the photos on the camera and wasn’t too happy with most of them, bitched me out then jumped on my sofa, grabbed the blanket and watched TV. And that was it.
I think her lack of motivation to model was a bit of anger from a comment I had made. Earlier in the night we drove to Delfina in the Mission District of San Francisco for dinner. We had posh pizza, cheese balls and wine. It wasn’t too bad; the damage for the two of us was just over $60. She’s been cooking for me this whole week and she said that she’d make me Italian food on Friday night. I blurted out “NO! No more of your cooking... please, please, let’s just go out to eat.”
Strobist Sunday Challenge: Rim Lighting
I don't think the lighting was dramatic enough. I really didn't get the effect I was after but I was only given 3 minutes so... argh.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
::Strobist Info::
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Left Rear (1/25)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
View Large
These headphones are nothing short of amazing. I’ve never tried headphones that are this comfortable, with sound bordering perfection and a noise cancellation ability that’s “holy shit” worthy. By that I mean, when I got on my flight back home from Los Angeles last weekend and I turned these things on for the first, I said “holy shit” out loud.
These Bose cans are totally worth the $350 and the best part is I didn’t even pay for them. My dad is flying to Hong Kong next week and he has a wretched time on flights. The primary issue is that the engine is too loud so he can’t sleep. It’s a 16 hour flight to Hong Kong so he gets pretty cranky pretty fast. A couple weeks ago, I met my parents for lunch. I guess my dad was complaining to my mom about how he was dreading the flight and how expensive these headphones are because by the time I showed up, my mom was spewing out a relentless amount of shit. She was giving my dad a hard time about cheap he is, how he’s doing it to himself and how he needs to stop complaining and just buy the f*cking headphones.
So we went to Best Buy and bought them. On the drive home he said “it’s not like I need these for anything other than my flight... keep it.” I told him before his trip, I’ll load up this extra Apple iTouch I have laying around with music for him. By the time he realizes it’s loaded up with ghetto rap music, he won’t be able to do anything about it! At least the audio will be crystal clear =P.
Doubled up for Strobist Sunday and Macro Monday…
Heading to Lake Tahoe tomorrow to go skiing, I don’t have time to shoot both!
Strobist Sunday Challenge: Toys
Macro Monday Challenge: Contact
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
::Robots:: - Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Left (1/25)
Nikon Speedlight SB800 Fired Through Umbrella, Right (1/40)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
San Francisco Love... [View Large].
Saturday afternoon getting coffee with Lisa at the Blue Bottle Coffee Co. We were both at home trying to find excuses not to hit the gym. The afternoon started off as an idea to go for a challenging hike at Muir Woods. After a brief conversation, we decided on getting coffee at the Ferry Building instead. I’m pretty happy with that decision actually. For the first time in weeks, the weather was nice in San Francisco.
Lisa came over, I grabbed my SLR and we drove to the Financial District. I was debating which lens to use and since I haven’t touched my 300mm in ages, I decided to clean off the dust and take it out for the day. While we were enjoying our coffee, we were people watching and we found out this lens is an awesome stalker lens. Anyway I snapped this shot as we were crossing the intersection after I parked. I find that this is a very typical scene in the city. One way road, construction, Muni busses, No Parking signs, gigantic hill in the background and a nice BMW looking for parking.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 70-300 f/4.5 VRII Nikkor Lens
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Sure Kat may look hot in her other photos, but a model’s true personality comes out when she’s not paying attention. Take this shot for example. I said “hang tight, I’m fine tuning the light” and on my first test shot, she was blowing her bangs away from her face and this is what came out.
Pretty geeky and dorky if you ask me... Behind that cool, calm and sexy exterior lays the heart of a true nerd.
Exhibit A… View It Large.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Right (1/10)
Nikon Speedlight SB800 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Left (1/20)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
See comments for more photos =)
My friend Candice moved from San Francisco back to Los Angeles and she asked me if I wanted to drive down with her and spend the weekend in LA. We had to be in LA by 2pm to meet the movers which meant we had to leave San Francisco by 6am. Stupidly enough, both of us decided to go out drinking with our respective friends and at 1:30am we were in my kitchen saying “shit tomorrow’s going to suck”.
After the move was complete, we hit Curry House for dinner and watched Shutter Island. We were early to the movies so we decided to sit back, check out hot girls, judge random people and play adlibs with couples talking nearby. Earlier I updated my Facebook status with “Eating dinner @ Curry House in LA”. My friend Melissa saw the status and proceeded to bitch me out for not calling her since she lives just 10 minutes away. Apparently it’s not okay to let friends know you’re in town via Facebook status.
On Sunday I had brunch with Jenny, Candice and after I went over to Melissa’s apartment. We watched the U.S. vs Canada Olympic Gold Medal hockey game, walked over to Diddy Riese for their famous ice cream sandwiches and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up and hanging out by UCLA. I ended my night with Korean food for dinner with Candice and Jenny followed by my flight back home.
It was nice just getting away from San Francisco. I had a really fun weekend.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60m f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB900
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Must View On White... Seriously
One of the simpler shots of Katrina… I find that sometimes the less you do, the better a photo just comes out. Take this shot for example, there’s no fancy pants lighting here. And yes I see the irony of that statement seeing as how she’s not wearing any pants. But as I was saying, there are just two strobes that run parallel to her body that are fired through umbrellas. One of my favorite things about this photo is how her hair seems to playfully run down her body and of course that sweet bokeh thanks to a large aperture.
If you’re wondering about the title, it’s from a song we both like by Daft Punk.
Rant and Rave:
So totally off subject. I’m watching the Vancouver Winter Olympics. First I catch the ski cross events and wow, what a competition. I’m decent on skis and just the thought of going down that course scares me. Then of course there was the United States’ Bode Miller’s epic win in the super combined and that was a gripping competition. But somewhere in the middle, they had ice dancing. I’m sorry but … what the F is ice dancing? Bob Costas hyped it up and here I’m thinking… triple salchow or sow cow whatever… crazy jumps, 5 flips in the air while on ice being held up by one guy. No, none of that. It’s literally two people, dancing skates in what has to be the worst outfits known to man. This is an Olympic sport? What… The… F?!? I'd rather watch curling.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Left Front (1/10)
Nikon Speedlight SB800 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Left Back (1/20)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Cheerio!
I’m sure everyone’s been here before. Finding the perfect balance between milk and cereal is an art; an art that I’ve yet to master. This is going to sound exactly like what I do for a living but instead of mortgage backed securities, its milk and cereal.
We start off with a bowl of cereal and we want a 65% milk coverage model. Pour the cereal, apply the milk. On the initial pour we’ve underestimated the amount of cereal and find that we’re only at 50% coverage putting us long to the model by half a cup. To compensate we pour extra milk which always ends up being too much and find that we’re now 80% covered putting us 15% short to the model.
The solution, add more cereal. This of course starts a vicious cycle of more milk then more cereal. Before you know it, you’ve eaten half a box of cereal and then you’re sad because now you’re almost out of cereal. To make matters worse, your friend will call asking you to grab lunch and you’re too full to go therefore adding to the solitude. If you haven’t figured this out already, it’s hard being me.
This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Solitude".
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct On Top (1/10)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Prettier On White
Strobist Sunday: Kat's wearing a flower ring =)
Kat, one of my favorite models, came over for a shoot. I’ve wanted to take some photos with her the last few weeks but I’ve had a brain fart in the creativity department and somewhat of a lack of motivation. I’ve known Kat for so many years now it’s relaxing and really easy taking her photo. We started the night off with a couple beers and floated some ideas around for poses and looked at some other shots we liked. But as usual the shot we had in mind didn’t come out and something else that worked much better just kind of presented itself. It helps that she’s really pretty.
We took this photo in the middle of the night in my downstairs guest room. I used my nifty light robots and blasted the rear background out of exposure and lit her up with a 2nd speed light through an umbrella. This image is just so soft and sweet =).
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Right (1/10)
Nikon Speedlight SB800 Fired Through Umbrella, Back Right (1/2)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Better Large on Black
I actually wanted a Blackberry but it was more expensive.
A few of my friends (especially Elle) are extremely passionate about Apple products. They’ve been making fun of my computer, mobile phone and laptop for years. If it’s PC then it’s un-cool and full of “problems”. I could give a shit less who makes it as long as it works. The truth is I buy my technology based on price and this time Apple just happened to be the cheapest. That being said, this phone is pretty slick, the 3GS data bypassed my company’s Firewall into Microsoft Exchange seamlessly and my girlfriend has managed to ruin my life by downloading games and turning it into a Gameboy.
I am a little worried though because you can’t buy insurance on this phone (at least I got the extended warranty by buying with my Amex ). This iPhone is my 19th phone. I have a seriously bad track record with cell phones and I have the suspicion this won’t last until the end of my contract. Between these three, the only one that I truly love is my iPod 120 Gig Classic which was a Christmas gift from Sangeeta =).
To all my Chinese homies… Happy Chinese New Year!
And to everyone else, I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day.
This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Heart's Desire".
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85m f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Better On Black
As I write my little blog about this photo, I’ve got a headache from drinking and eating all afternoon for Super Bowl Sunday! What a game, New Orleans Saints deserved the win. I guess it wasn’t Peyton Manning’s year after all. My friend Kirk threw a party at his house, I think I ate and drank 10,000 calories today. I’m feeling pretty gross.
With the amount of rain that’s been hitting the San Francisco Bay Area lately, I feel like I’ve been in a shower the past month and a half. My plumbing skills are totally useless. If you came to my bathroom you’d notice that the shower head is spewing water profusely from the nozzle, a big leak from the main water pipe and despite the “lifetime guarantee”, this POS Delta shower head is already somewhat busted after a year. I’d take it back but I can’t be bothered to deal with it. By the time I hit the shower, my day is coming to an end and the last thing I’m thinking about is fixing something.
Btw, I purposely added noise to this image. I wasn’t that thrilled with how crisp and clean the original black background looked.
This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Holes".
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60m f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Nikon Speedlight SB800
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
It's Friday night, I'm home alone and it's raining outside. Made myself an appletini =)
Better On Black
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Better On Black
I love the way the light hits Elle.
Best friends don't model for free. I paid her in Cheez-Its.
Strobist Sunday Theme: Ancient Treasure
I found it rather difficult being 26 and having anything remotely old that I treasure. Most of the things I treasure are relatively new and most of the things ancient were either tossed or boxed. I’m going to go for bit of a stretch here for this week’s challenge. One of my favorite bits of this photo is the way the Swarovski crystals shine on Elle’s face. You’ll have to view it large to really see it.
She was heading over to my house to hang out when she saw these sitting on the bottom of her drawer. Turns out they were a gift she received way back when we were in high school and she completely forgot about. It’s always nice to find cool stuff you completely forgot about. I guess it’s like putting on an old jacket, reaching into the pocket and pulling out twenty bucks. It’s just that moment of “oh niiice!”
This is for the group Strobist Sundays. Every Sunday a strobist photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Ancient Treasure".
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Left (1/16)
Nikon Speedlight SB800 Fired Through Umbrella, Right Back (1/32)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Sweeter On Black
Product shoot for the Villiage Cheese House in Palo Alto, California.
Sarah and Noah remodeled their store and decided to change their entire product line from european goods to local items. So they needed new photos for their website (not yet ready) and gave me a call. I think this was a pretty simple job, although I have to admit, cheese is really hard to photograph.
Anyway, the bottles of Lavender Sugar were bought from a local farmers market and I just thought it looked really cool on camera.
I hope they like the photos. No refunds, especailly since I already spent the money =P.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Back Left (1/16)
Nikon Speedlight SB800 Fired Through Umbrella, Front Left (1/16)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Better On Black
Managed one last photo shoot with Elle before she goes back to med school to finish her last few months. It's been nice having her back home, we've been hanging out and doing stupid stuff like going to Ikea for 5 hours only to end up with a mortar and pestle or a metal fruit bowl. Late night hot chocolate runs at local cafe's are nice too. Her outfit actually caught me off guard because per our conversation while I was at work, she said “I’m wearing something nerdy and possibly sweats.”As I drove home, I was trying to think of cute geeky… I’m a nerd style shots.
Anyway we spent the night listening to music and as a thank you for her modeling skills; I paid her in Cheez-It crackers.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Left (1/16)
Nikon Speedlight SB800 Fired Through Umbrella, Right Back (1/32)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Strobist Sunday: Game On
For those of you who follow MLB, I’m a San Francisco Giants fan. I’ve lived in SF my entire life, with the exception of my 4 years in college, so despite their recent winning record I’m still a pretty big Giants fan. I even put a girly SF Giants logo on the back of my BMW essentially giving my 3 a tramp stamp. Anyway I know going to baseball games can be boring but I think it’s great just sitting in the stands, cheering for my team, having a beer and hanging out with my girlfriend or a friends.
Macro Monday: Dirty Little Secret
When I was younger, i.e. middle school and parts of high school, I was a total kleptomaniac. I stole anything and everything just to see if I could get away with it. When we were in high school, we wanted to see who could throw the fastest on target pitch. The only way to do that was either get a radar gun or a mph baseball that measured time between throw and impact. So long story short, I went to Big 5 and stole one of these. Oh FYI, these baseballs are not accurate.. at all.
This is for the group Strobist Sundays. Every Sunday a strobist photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Game On".
This is for the group Macro Mondays. Every Monday a macro photograph is submitted for the week's challenge. This week's theme was "Dirty Little Secret".
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 60m f/2.8 Micro Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Left (1/25)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko) DodogoeSLR posted a photo:
Not exactly a technically challenging or artistic photo... Elle came over and while we were hanging out, we tried to think of a random funny photo to take. I grabbed a strobe and an umbrella and Elle reached for a Maxim magazine as a prop. It would have been a funnier photo if it was a Penthouse or a Playboy but whatever, Ashley Greene is really hot and I'll work with what I’ve got. We took 2 or 3 photos, got a good laugh on the display screen, uploaded onto the computer and here we are.
It’s Friday night and I’ve been going out a lot recently for parties or happy hours so I wanted to stay in for a change. I called up Lisa and the 3 of us watched G.I. Joe, which strangely resembled Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and paired that movie brilliantly with popcorn and vodka appletinis.
Taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 35mm f/1.8 Nikkor Lens
Strobist Info:
Nikon Speedlight SB900 Fired Through Umbrella, Direct Left (1/50)
image/jpeg ( 0 ko)