Looking at a few family shoots that I did last year. Here are a couple of super loto ones.
Family Photo Shoot 2016
Category Archives: Digital
SF Zoo
A chance to shoot some birds and animals in the SF Zoo was a great opportunity to use my Canon 2x extender which is basically collecting dust. The setup is a simply a Canon 5dmiii + 70-200mm f2.8 + 2x extender ii.
Great weather and here are the photos shot that day.
Drinking on the streets of MK first night of CNY
Hitting the streets of Mongkok first night of Chinese New Year, we were looking forward to catch some Hong Kong local brews. Unfortunately a riot broke out shortly after that and here are some happier photos that night.
Shooting Fireworks Handheld
New years eve 2015, it was windy and cold by the waters near Houston. Family fireworks about to start and since I was traveling lightly, I didn’t have my tripod. Let’s see if I can shoot this handheld. Here are the result.
Basically cranking up the ISO to 12800, shooting with my Sigma 35mm f1.4 lens at f1.8 and 1/30s. The focus is set to manual and to infinity. Quite acceptable result had been achieve with this handheld setup. Even though noise is visible in the images but at ISO 12800, the noise level is quite good. Same level of noise is probably what we used to shoot five years ago at ISO 3200. I am not about to print 20×30 with these images but these are amazing consider the portability of the setup. I was able to run around without much issue and getting the fireworks at different angles.
Here are a couple of shots of my mom holding a sparkler, also shot with the Canon 5D3 at ISO12800. The focus is with spot focus on the face and I was impressed how it was able to nail the focus consider how dark the scene was.
Day 1 Self Portrait Challenge
I was nominated by Joyce Peng to do a 7-day self-portrait challenge: 7 days, 7 self-portraits, and 7 nominations to keep this going with other artists/photographers. I invite Cheung Billy Ka Ming to take the time to extend the fun.
I put a small twist to this challenge as well. I will be composing self-portraits through the viewfinders of different cameras.
Today, I am viewing through my 1921 Kodak 2D 8×10 camera with Goerz Dagor 300mm f6.8 lens. Yes, it’s upside down and reversed from left to right! Beside me is a Burke & James 8×10 Grover with a Fujinon 400mm f8 lens. The year of make of the camera is unknown but these cameras were made from the 1940s-60s.
Photo taken with Sony RX100II.
Pray for Paris.
In light to the tragic events happened last night, it really brings me back to Paris and reminisce the peaceful time I had there a year ago. Late at night, we went to an unmarked beer store on Rue André Gill in the 18th arrondissement. It’s a crowded beer store without any seating. Everyone just grabbed a beer and sat on the streets. There were locals, hanging around discussing current events. A handful of tourists were also there, discussing about their travels.
This is the Paris that I remembered.
Pray for Paris.
Basil the Westie
Basil the westie is a happy and friendly dog and always bring joy to me whenever I see him. After a recent dinner gathering with his owner Natasha Hsieh, we decided to head back to our home studio and take some portraits. Basil was a superb model and here are some highlights of that shoot.
I was trying to teach Basil how to operate the Kodak 2D and he got the hang of it quite quickly. Photo below entitled: “His master’s visage”.
Henry & Wendy Shoot
A few months ago, I did a shoot for Henry and Wendy for their anniversary in Hong Kong. Here are some photos from that shoot.
Le Moment in Soho
Casual dinner at Le Moment in Soho, Central, Hong Kong. Bob the owner is always on top of his wine collection. Through his introduction of his food and wine collection, you can feel his enthusiasm, passion and energy (which in my opinion is lacking in most restaurants in Hong Kong).
Here is a shot of the pencil sketch on the wall at Le Moment. Taken with Canon 5D3 + Sigma 35mm f1.4 lens. At 35mm wide open, you can see very noticeable vignetting at the corners.
Grandpa and grandson Zeiss in Hanoi
On a recent trip to Hanoi, I took along grandpa and grandson Zeiss on that trip.
Grandpa Zeiss is a pre-war Super Ikonta B 532/16, equipped with a Zeiss Opton T f2.8 lens which was top of the line at the time. Grandson zeiss is a newly acquired Sony RX100 II, equipped with a Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T f1.8 lens.
Let’s see how they perform. The 70 year-old grandpa that I acquired in a flea market in NYC years ago performed solidly with Ilford XP2 Super.
The Zeiss lens was super sharp as shown in the photos above. The first generation rangefinder is difficult to focus in low light conditions. For portraits, the dof at f2.8 is so narrow that a sharp eye is a must. Corner sharpness is not particularly good at f2.8 but for a classic portrait, the face or faces are usually in the center anyway. Down to f4 and above, the lens is sharp as a pin. The size of the camera is also quite small (for a medium format folder) and bringing it around was easy. The only complaint about this camera is the film advance system that limits only 11 shots per roll (rather than 12). This is fixed in the later version.
The newly acquired Sony RX100 II is a powerful little machine. Practically no noise at ISO3200 and a large aperture of f1.8, this little camera can handle most situations. This camera reminded me that taking photos should be easy (just like my 5d) and you can concentrate on composition rather than metering, focus etc. I particularly like the High Contrast Mono mode (HC BW) which I have taken the photos below with that.
