Yosemite - Horsetail Falls Baby!

I’m happy to report that I just made reservations for lodging in the Yosemite area. The purpose of my trip will be to photograph Horsetail Falls during the time of the year where the light hitting the waterfall is magical. I hope this trip nets me some print worthy photos. I want to scratch this one off of my bucket list. Hope hope, pray pray, wish wish. Done.

I’m also excited to put to the test one of my photography inspired purchases. I know that sounds a bit redundant, considering most of frivolous purchases these days are primarily for photographic purposes. Renowned for having pockets galore, I’m looking to field test my barely worn Scottevest Revolution Plus Jacket. This thing has more pockets that the Levi’s factory in some remote factory in China. I only hope, along with substantive under layer, that this bad boy will be warm enough for me as I sit there and wait for the sun to do it’s magic. I will also compliment my attire with gloves, a hat, and warm socks. (Is reminded of how close it was the first time I shot Zion in 17 degrees weather - burrrrr.)

The Scottevest jacket was purchased here. This photo was borrowed from the Scottvest website. The exact link to the jacket is here. Thank you Scottevest for making what seems to be an exceptional product.

I’m also looking to field test an even more significant purchase; my new heavy duty tripod and ballhead. I have the fortunate life to be able to own a Really Right Stuff TVC-33 tripod and a BH-55 ballhead. Given my current lifestyle, this was definitely a splurge purchase but as I have learned, buy it right the first time and I won’t have to revisit the need to buying it again for a second, third, or fourth time. Granted, (don’t tell anyone) this is my 5th tripod - eck. However, each tripod served a very specific need and I like to think I got my money’s worth with each successive tripod. I’m especially proud of the aluminum Induro tripod I bought for $50 bucks and served me so dutifully for the Zion Narrows hike. The Induro tripod was subjected a fair amount of water to net me some awesome photos and priceless experiences. Uber score there.


The Really Right Stuff tripod and ballhead where purchased here. This photo was borrowed from the Really Right Stuff website.


Anyhow, this leg and head combo is rated to handle at least 40 pounds of gear. I look forward to having a rock solid experience and my HDR photos taking skills will be further enhanced with this gear. I know I suffer from gear lust. Photography, for me is both an experience in gear and in creativity (wait, did I just mess up the sequencing in words there?).

I recall, during my most recent photography trip to Bishop/Inyo Valley, that a professional looking gent yanked out his meaty tripod and head combo and proudly showcased his Nikon D3(s/x) and 14-24 f/2.8 lens. *Wipes drool from face. Things have been very kind to me and I went out and bought myself a meaty tripod to showcase my Canon 5D2 with a 16-35 m1 f/2.8 lens. Note to me, have Curt photo me with this combo in hand. I would love a new profile photo for facebook.




Mood: Excited
Music: Zuco 103 - Outro Lado/ Putumayo Presents: Brasilian Groove
Location: Panera Bread - Pasadena

Video Cards for Me

This is a Galaxy GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 448. This is the final significant piece of hardware for my custom computer build. At roughly $220 bucks, I'm very tempted to buy a pair of these and call it a day. However, I'm not all that keen on Galaxy products. Granted, I don't have first hand experience with Galaxy products but the consumer reviews for Galaxy haven't been all that stellar. I am very tired of waiting for a good deal though. This is a pretty darn good deal though.


The photo from the left and the the right were borrowed from the Newegg website.


I did pick up this Video card yesterday from Fry's in City of Industry. This is a PNY GeForce GTX 560 Ti (sans the 448 - or as I call it, a GTX 570 on Slim Fast). There was a one per person limit on this card which made me think it was a good deal at 200 bucks after rebate. I picked up a pair for SLI purposes. I like PNY more than Galaxy but for an extra 20 bucks, I can get the additional Cuda cores. 


Decisions, decisions, decisions.

CPU and Motherboard

This is the brain, the crown jewel, the main operator. On this uber rainy Monday, there was a pretty awesome Microcenter/Facebook promotion which netted me this processor for $230 bucks (before taxes and transportation cost). It wasn't my intention to purchase an over-clockable processor but at this price, it doesn't matter. I can leverage my uber inner geek and learn to over-clock a processor.


The Asian guy who sold me the CPU was pretty friendly. His aura was of massive computer street cred; not unlike the massive gangsta street cred 50 Cents has with his aura. His understanding of PCs parallels my command of the English alphabet. 


I think there was yellow on yellow uber geek to aspiring geek respect. He metaphysically held my hand and delicately explained which motherboard to purchase and why this particular motherboard (MOBO) was a good choice.


This board has four Sata 6 ports. I'm so looking (think childishly giddy) forward to rocking Sata 6. Rocking a SDD will be pure joy (for like 3 to 10 whole days). I just hope that the fans within my tower, case, and whatever I decide to buy for the CPU will be adequate enough.


The photo from the left and the the right were borrowed from the Newegg website.



The cool thing about buying certain CPU's at Microcenter, you get 50 bucks off a MOBO. It was either this MOBO or a $270 (pre discount) MOBO. Given these assumptions, I went with the GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3. And yes I know, that was a mouthful. I wonder if the B3 suffix designates the fix for the Sata 6 controller. Happy me as I go geeking along.

Lowepro Photo Sport 200 AW

Here's the newest addition to my bag family. And yes, I'm addicted to bags. And this bag came in a pretty orange color. Score.


The photo from the left was borrowed from the Popular Photo website site. And here is the official Lowepro page.


I've been doing some moderate hiking lately. My current bag solutions do not account for a hydration system. I'm reminded of the near bad experience of my Subway hike and the lack of H2O. This bag has a compartment from a hydration system. Based on the videos I've seen, this bag seems to be pretty well designed for the outdoor enthusiast. There's even a place for trekking poles.


With an additional 15% discount, I couldn't resist.


This video on YouTube.com sold me on the bag.

Quasi Frankenstein-ing a new Photo PC

So, when I returned from my Bishop trip, I experienced some computer issues. BSOD - Blue screen of death computer issues (the not so good kind). Long story short, it turned out my ram modules went bad. However, for me to reach that final conclusion, I pretty much did a near complete tear down of my custom built PC. And in the course of tearing down the PC, I got to learn a lot about custom PC building. Wow. Obtaining all this knowledge was pretty fun but the process of trying to get the PC back in working order was pretty stressful. I had some deadlines and I need to push photos outs. But I don't all this information to go to waste/go moldy in my head.


What does that all entail. I'm going to build me a newish PC for myself. I'll take the existing hard drives and the Ram modules from my current PC and use them for the new build but I do want some new parts.


I want raid'ed SSDs as a boot drive, I want CrossFireX or SLI video cards (maybe - the cool factor is high but for CS5.5 - a Cuda video card might make more sense), and I might want a water cooled cooling system. And I'll probably switch off from an AMD chip and splurge on a Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge chip with a SATA-6 enabled motherboard or as the cool kids call them, a new mobo.


The Chinese-ness in me doesn't and won't allow me to go retail price on these goodies. So, seeing how I have a fully function PC to keep me occupied, I'll piece together a new piece as the there are specials for the respective parts.

Parts I've amassed so far.

I got a gaming tower.Rosewill GEAR X3 Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, Support up to 15.36" Video Card, with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 140mm Fan, 1x Top 120mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, Option Fan-1x Top 120mm Fan, 2x Side 120mm Fan.

And I got a power source. KINGWIN Lazer LZ-850 850W Modular 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC W/ 3-Way LED Switch and Universal Modular Connector Power Supply.


Don't be jealous of my geek-dome. I'm cecy like that.

Mood: Geek-cexy

Music: Stereo Love (Extend Version)/Edward Maya feat Alicia

Location: Home Studio

Night with Annie Leibovitz

Close friend PK invited me to a Central Library function featuring Annie Leibovitz as the guest speaker. Annie was highlighting her new book "Pilgrimage". Buy it here.

This was a fun night. She spoke inside Central Library Mark Taper Auditorium. Cozy spot for an intimate monologue with Annie.


Here are some shots from the night. And she signed my book. How sweet is that?

Mood: Happy

Music: Jazz Lounge (Something)

Location: Home Studio

Photo of Amanda Seyfried

Meet Amanda Seyfried. This photo came to me via an Esquire email/Equire blog. Please find the original posting here

Marcus Ohlsson originally shot this photo for Marie Claire. Find this the reference here.

Not a photo I would have personally shot...at least not yet. I'm not creative enough to instinctly blow out the face like this but I love this photo. Two light setup with one light really doing a fine job on the backdrop. Wait, I think there might be third light hitting her left thigh. I can't tell. The thigh seems the have the same EV as the neck area. Excellent use of a small but powerful lighting source. I will mentally note this setup for future shooting sessions. This photo is excellent. Perfect highlight of her left feeding apparatus. My compliments to the photog. Go Marcus.

Kingston 16 GB and Buy.com

Buy.com is offering a 16 gb Kingston ( ultra-fast transfer rates of 45MB/second read and 40MB/sec. write) compact flash card for $30 bucks minus a mail-in rebate of $10 bucks. Click here if you wanted one for yourself.


My biggest concern is, as with the concerns of most photographers who value their images, having a card corrupted or go bad with 10 or more gigs of photo is a major buzz killer. However, having the ability to hold 16 gigs is pretty awesome though.

My current arsenal of compact flash cards is made up primarily of two SanDisk 8 gb Extreme Ducati Edition CompactFlash Memory Card. Not a failure in three years with moderate amounts of shooting. These are also 45MB/second for reading and writing. I hope I won't miss the 5MB/second slower write speed on the Kingston. Anyhow, I paid mucho bucks for the SanDisk cards. The twice the size Kingston is probably 1/4-1/3 the price of the SanDisk (when I got them).

Happy Thursday all.

Route 66

I wanted to personally thank my close friends for keeping me in their thoughts as they connect me to wonderful opportunities from across the globe. Thank you CC and PL for making this happen for me.


CC was having lunch with one of the higher-ups at a magazine holding company. The higher-up confided to CC that one of her magazines was doing a story on Route 66 and the photographer selected to travel with the journalist(s) on the story had his U.S. visa denied. CC chimes in, I know a photog you can use and he’s based on out Los Angeles (which coincidentally is the ending point to Route 66 – implications of which means only a one-way ticket is required for me to participate.)


So, I was invited to be the photog for the car magazine AutoCar China and help document the findings of Route 66 from Illinois to California. Cadillac was the car sponsor for this story and they provided a top of the line SRX four wheel drive for our driving pleasure.


This trip is a bucket list dream come true. I've always thought that not having done a cross country trip has hindered some part of my creative learning process. I live in a wonderful country and my exposures have been so limited, so so limited. 


I'm also excited at the thought of being published in a real live, true to form, with nice paper magazine. Again, although not necessarily a bucket list item, being magazine published was a goal of mine before I check out of this world. Score!


Thanks again CC and PL for being such loving and wonderful friends.


I’ll have a day by day photo essay recounting my journeys from the trip.

Mood: Functional
Music: Seven Days/Chris Botti Feat. Sting; Dominic Miller
Location: Panera Bread - Pasadena

My Review of Think Tank Urban Disguise 35 V2.0 Shoulder Bag - Holds DSLR with 70-200 2.8 Attached + 10 to 13" Netbook/Laptop

Originally submitted at Adorama

Think Tank Urban Disguise 35 V2.0 Shoulder Bag - Holds DSLR with 70-200 2.8 Attached + 10 to 13" Netbook/Laptop

Think Tank Urban Disguise 35 V2.0 Shoulder Bag - Holds DSLR with 70-200 2.8 Attached + 10 to 13" Netbook/Laptop

Awesome 1-2 Lens/1 Body camera bag

By Bill G from Pasadena, CA on 9/21/2011

 

5out of 5

Pros: Lots Of Pockets And Features, Efficient, Rugged, Weatherproof

Best Uses: Commuting, Travel

Describe Yourself: Semi-Pro

Primary use: Business

Was this a gift?: No

This was my primary bag as I drove Route 66 from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA. It was important for me to be able to remove the camera from the bag rapidly and fire off a few exposures before returning the to car and covering more ground. The bag was awesome as an in and out carrier for a pro-sized camera. I loved having the compartment meant for computers as a location to store a full sized notepad for on the road note taking. As a Canon shooter, I kept in the bag a gripped 5DII and a 24-105 F4/IS lens with the lens hood attached. I also kept a blower and a 50mm F1.4. This bag performed marvelously. It was money well spent.

(legalese)

50 Times - Cloud Gate

50 Times

Canon 5D Mark II- Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 @ 16mm

7 Exposures (1/8 to 8 seconds in 1 stop increments) - F/18 - ISO 400

Shot With Tripod/Circular Polarizer

click on image to enlarge

This piece of modern art is a sight.
This thing is big, if not grand.
This thing is shiny.

This thing sits in the center of a plaza as if it were a shrine to Bean-ness, well, at least a distorted/in the spirit of Picasso, while Picasso was in a alternative creative state, bean-ness. Actually, this thing is not called the Bean but rather Cloud Gate (Okay, my bad, I was first introduced to this statue as the Bean by a Chinese nationalist). Generally first phrases/first introductory terms stick with me like bubble gum to the bottom on my overly priced Italian loafers, the loafers with the extra grooves in the soles so the gum has more space to accumulate.

I probably didn’t catch The Cloud at the time of day I normally wanted to but given my circumstances, it would have to do. I am a disappointed in myself for not prioritizing photography more during my extended stay in Chicago but I was/am rolling with the existing circumstances. *Grunts*

Mood: Anti-Lazy
Music: Lighters (Feat Bruno Mars)/Eminem
Location: Casa de Sydney/Northbrook, Illinois

Adobe Predictions

I have a feeling Adobe CS6 will be announced soon. (Please come, please come, please be announced.) Adorama is discounting Lightroom 3 at 50% off. Midwest Photo Exchange is discounting Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 for the Mac at 50% off. Clearing out inventory? I think so.

Shooting in Chicago

I def appreciate the loyal service my Compaq Presario F700 has given me in the past three years. However, my computing needs have grown and as they have grown my poor little battery has gotten really compromised. I'm getting what, 60 minutes of service on one full charge.


I'm currently doing a 7 photo Photomatix merge with Canon 5D Mark II raw files. Talk about mach slow. I could do interval weight training during each batch of seven photos. Actually, let's back up a bit. Downloading, having Lightroom 2.x convert the photos to DNG files, and creating 1:1 previews is Leo Tolstoy long. I'm not complaining though, this computer was never meant to be a photo computing device.


I do believe I'll be requiring a computer upgrade soon. I'm extremely interested in, or should I say, by default, I'm obligated to consider an Apple product. Proverbially speaking, us creatives should be rocking the, with character, with sole, with spirit, with an unparalleled ecosystem of complimentary products, Apple products. Yeah, hard to deny the impact Apple has on the retail market. In a down economy, Apple stores are packed. Ever heard of Apple providing discounts on current year products? Rarely and usually if you are a student.


Even though the secondary market for software is a bit limited, I can't deny the styling (all metal case - very cecy), the battery life (60 minutes currently versus 6 hours), and the moderate immunity to internet STDs (syberly transmitted diseases - bai bai slow my @ss down Norton Anti-Virus ). I do realize all these nicer things command a premium. At least 1.5 - 2x premium. I'm cheap but I'm willing to consider it, if it satisfies my needs. However, I'm not looking forward to learning a new OS. Heck, I'm just barely learning the finer aspects of Windows 7.


On a different note, I had a chance to photograph some areas of Chicago. I borrowed a car and drove from a suburb in Illinois and to downtown Chicago and photographed the lighthouse, the Bean, and the staircase at the Museum of Contemporary Art at a total cost of $210 plus admission to the museum. Yeah, I was completely zoned into being creative and completely lost all abilities to understand the posted street signs. Those darn parking violations are pricy but are a bit cheaper that those I have experienced in Los Angeles.



Mood: Constantly Tired
Music: Silence
Location: Casa De Sydney – Northbrook, Illinois

Observation For The Day - 08-29-11

The observations are:


1. Adorama doesn’t carry Singh-Ray Filters.
2. B&H Photo doesn’t carry Think Tank Photo bags.


Result of this happy observation, I paid double for express shipping. I can’t believe these two awesome photo geek heavens don’t carry both product lines. Oh well, being out an additional ten bucks didn’t sting too much.


So why the gear post?


I'm about to live a dream photo gig. I'm currently in Chicago, spending some time with some really great friends. And I'm happy report that Chicago will be the starting point for my photo essay on Americana on Route 66.


I humped all most of the camera gear to Chicago via a Think Tank Airport Security V1 rolling camera bag. Along with the suitcase that housed my clothing, I had a personal carry-on back that housed my PC and other random required items. What was missing in this whole logistical arrangement was smaller bag to house the camera(s) and lens(es) for daily use. Thank you Adorama for shipping the Urban Disguise 35 V2.0.


Anticipating my equipment needs besides the basic camera and lens combinations has been a mild challenge. Having not done an assignment like this before, I've been playing out all the potential shooting scenarios in my head. This best thing I came up with to cover my photographic needs was a high caliber neutral density filter - a ND filter that changes density as you rotate it. On top of that, it is a polarizer as well. So there. Thank you Singh-Ray for making quality expensive products that receive high ratings from photo geeks like us. Now, all I have to worry about is vignetting on my uber wide angle lenses. There's only so much Singh-Ray can do to keep this thing as thin as possible. I'll have to live with the profile thickness.


Mood: Mildly Jet Lagged-I’m weak
Music: Some easy listening Jazz
Location: Casa De Sydney – Northbrook, Illinois

Almost Official

I spent some of my Monday maneuvering around the County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office. Apparently there are profit opportunities for random people trying to guide uninitiated aspiring small businesses owners. It took me a while to figure this out. Apparently, people representing local publications such as the local news paper are loitering around the Registrar/Recorder’s office looking to solicit their free advice in exchange for the opportunity to publish the aspiring small business owner’s business advertisement. To file a DBA (doing business as), the business owner must file an advertisement in a local publication alerting the public that the owner is doing business as “XYZ.”

To the dismay of all those random people floating around trying to catch my attention and book my ad revenue needs, I personally walked my needs to the Pasadena Weekly office.

But before I visited the Pasadena Weekly office, I tried to file the paperwork needed for a local business license. I’m “happy” to report that the Pasadena websites are relatively out of date. The business license office is incorrectly listed on the website. However, I had an extremely pleasant experience trying to file the application. The person behind the counter suggested I file the application after 9/1. Doing so, saves me $40 bucks. Thank you guy with multiple eye-glasses. You were very friendly with the information.

I’m officially doing business as Café Soleil Images. I need to finish up that Pasadena business license application and I'll be completely official. Thank you very much for your future patronage. I now need to adjust my existing URL a bit.