Huimin Zhang and Shawn Call Wedding

I flew into SeaTac Airport early this morning from Ontario Airport. I'm not usually a morning person, but today it was different. I was looking forward to photograph Huimin and Shawn for a number of weeks now. It was a beautiful day with blue sunny skies and warm comfortable temperature. Bascially, a recipe of a perfect day. And why not, it's Huimin and Shawn's wedding day. :-)

Here's a sneak peak of some of their wedding images.
And here's what the lovely couple have to say about me at the end of the day. Turn up the volume for this one. :-)


Huimin & Shawn Call Wedding by Terry Chan from Terry Chan on Vimeo.

BODA Dry Lens Bag Follow Up Review

Just a quick follow up with my review of BODA Dry Lens bag after a couple of months of use at weddings and engagement sessions.

All in all I like the system a lot because all my accessories and most use lenses are centralized to a single position on my waist. When I need something from the bag, I swing it forward and when I'm I'm done, I swing it behind my left buttock. This way, I don't walk around knock down things around me. The zipper and the ballistic nylon material is well constructed and not once, did the zipper caught onto anything and it was easy getting in and out of the bag.

However, the belt is not as rigid as the Think Tank belt or other belt system such as the Lowe Pro. Its lack of rigidity makes it uncomfortable to wear the bag on my waist throughout the entire wedding day. It slips and slide too much. To further add to the problem, the waist belt that I got was size medium. According to their website, medium fits 34"-47" waists. I'm 34 but I found the belt still a little loose and I couldn't tighten it any more. So, I've been looking to replace the belt with the small belt which is 26"-34" waist. This way, I can tighten a little bit more. The shipping for this $10.99 belt is $6 which didn't make sense to me because shipping is more than 50% of the cost of the belt. Finally, my business partner Allen decided to get the Boda bag as well after seeing me use it in action. So, I piggy back my order for the belt.

Much to my dismay, the belt is too short!! You say, how can it be? I say the same?? How can it be that my waist is in between 2 belt size? Impossible! Especially according to their website there's no gap between the 2 belts. How is it the longest length of the small belt is still shorter than the shortest length of the longer belt? I'm gonna contact Boda tomorrow to first complain and the inquire about their quality control of the belts. In the mean time, I still can't wear my Boda Dry Bag on my waist. My waist size falls right in the gap of the two belts!! :-(

San Marino High School's Production of "Cats" the musical

Tonight I went to San Marino High School to watch my niece, Tiffany, perform in the musical "Cats". Needless to say she was magnificent as she had many solo dances. She grew up so fast as I still remember holding her when she was just a baby. She showed maturity in her performance. Her pose and her lines were so perfect. I definitely noticed major improvement in dance expression from previous years' performances. I, being the proud uncle, was so proud of her that I was welled up with emotions... happy ones of course. Here's a slideshow of her performance.

BODA Dry Lens Bag

I first came across BODA at the WPPI Convention in March. I didn't pay much attention to this bag at first. In fact, I walked by it a couple of times without even stopping, just casually glancing. Anyway, today is the last day of the Photoshop World Trade Show in Orlando Florida. I walked by the Boda booth several times for the past 3 days. Once again I was not intrigued enough to stop until today. They had a tiny little booth with just 2 salespeople, one table, and a couple of samples for people to look at. You have to understand that every other company has elaborate setups for their booths.

Boda features 2 bags, the Boda Dry Bag and the Boda Dry Jr. bag. Why do they call it Dry Bag? Beats me. :-) No actually, it's suppose to be weather proof because the zippers and the tough ballistic nylon is to keep your equipment from getting wet during inclement weather or being splash by a big wave while at a beach shoot.

This nifty little bag carries a whole bunch of stuff with its tiny little foot print. Its design is to carry all your accessories and several of your essential lenses. It has a compartment for batteries, one flash, one long lens (70-200mm), a divided compartment to hold 2 shorter lenese ( 16-35mm and 50mm 1.2), business cards, 8 CF/SD card compartments, pens, cell phones, a lens cloth, etc. The Jr. bag is essentially the same except smaller. It can hold one long zoom lens or 2 shorter lenses. It's not intended to replace your camera bag. It's used when you just need to be on the run and need quick access to your accessories. That means you still have to carry your camera on your shoulder. The Boda Dry bag can be worn with a shoulder strap or a waist belt. The belt comes in 3 sizes. Make sure you purchase the right length otherwise it would be hard to run around with 15 lbs strap around your ankle. :-) I think it's a great design because I don't want to carry my entire rollaway bag to a wedding anymore. Althought the cost of the Boda Dry bag is about the same as medium size roll away bag. Incidentally, BODA is "wedding" or "marriage" in Spanish.

I've been looking for something like the Boda for quite some time. And in fact, not long ago, I wrote a review for the Think Tank bag back in November 17, 2007. I was and still am very satisfied with this bag system. It fits snugly against my waist and I'm able to carry my essential lenses and memory card storage system. In fact, I can run with the system around my waist. I'm gonna give this baby a try and will do a follow up review later in a month or so. In any case, I couldn't pass up a really a good deal because the show special is $175 which includes a waist belt, a lens divider, and most of all... no sales tax and shipping. So, if you attended WPPI or Photoshop World, be sure to mention the show special when ordering online or over the phone.

Screen Actors Guild New Website

Screen Actors Guild launched their "New and Improved" website today. It's definitely more user friendly and more intuitive so that visitors to the site can find things easily and not get lost among the many levels, not to mention many tiresome mouse clicks.

Best of all, the main page of the website featured many of my photos I took for the Guild through the years. :-) Yay Me! Please click here to view their website.

Corporate Portrait: Proudfoot & Quach LLP

Tonight I photographed Lan and her business partner Don Proudfoot for their corporate portrait session. Don has been a litigator for the past 40 years. He's a fantastic lawyer with many years of experience as a trial lawyer. Combined with Lan's tenacious style and detail oriented thoroughness, they make a fantastic team. They recently left their law firm to form Proudfoot and Quach LLP. They are located in Pasadena. Visit their website to contact them.

Think Tank Photo Modulus Belt System - The Verdict

Well, I spent a whole day photographing a wedding wearing my new Think Tank Belt System and I love it! I had a couple of belt system in the past... Tamrac and Lowe Pro. Neither served me well and I couldn't understand it since they are bother reputable companies. The only thing I can think of is my gut is too big which pushes the whole belt down and my butt is too small and it keep on slipping off. I usually spent a whole day lifting my belt back to my waist all the time. It gets tiring when I had to do that all the time.

The Think Tank was different. I believe the solution lies not with the accessory bags but with the belt. The Think Tank belt is more sturdy and rigid than the Tamrac belt and Lowe Pro belt. That's the reason why it was able to stay on my waist the whole day without having my lifting it back up to my waist.

I was a little skeptical at first because of my bad past experience with waist belt systems. Even when Ben Willmore demonstrated in his video blog (click here to view Ben's blog) testifying what a great system it is, I was still reluctant to try. It was until last weekend when I was in Photo Expo West where I finally succumb to the temptation to try yet another belt system (10% discount had something to do with it). I thought it looks too similar to Lowe Pro to really make a difference. It even has a builtin rain cover for the lens cases in case you're caught in the rain with your expensive equipment. And the reason why it looks like Lowe Pro??? The Co-Founder or Think Tank was the chief designer for Lowe Pro.

Unlike Lowe Pro, Think Tank belts is compatible with other brand accessories. I was going to purchase Think Tank Trim Changer as well for $40, but I had a similar accessory when I purchased my Lowe Pro system and it actually fits perfectly. So, I cheated and mixed accessory. Again, the Lowe Pro bag is not as rigid as the Think Tank, but I actually prefer it as it is worn on the side of my hip which is not has wide. The "Whip It Out" lens bag which carries my Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens without the tripod collar is an awesome and unique design. It employs a zipper to add/relieve pressure on the lens without the fear of dropping the lens out even with the lens hood sticking out. My other favorite item is the media wallet which has a builtin tether to attach to the accessory bag without the fear of losing my irreplaceable CF/SD cards fill with wedding images of the day.

Anyhoo, I really love it because I have all my lenses ready and available throughout the day. It's much better than carrying my camera, flash battery pak on my back pocket, and a shoulder bag. Usually, at the end of the wedding, my back is all messed up because I couldn't stand straight because I had to balance everything. My back was not hurting as much and I didn't feel as tired as usual. My total investment is only $100 not including the $25 purchase for my Lowe Pro accessory I purchased 8 years ago. It's a reasonable investment to save my poor back. :-)

Think Tank Photo Modulus Belt System

Well, here's what I purchased at the Photo Expo West, a Think Tank Photo Modulus belt system. I got the "Whip It Out" for my long telephoto lens, "Lens Changer 50" for my 24-70mm and 16-35mm f2.8 lens, and finally Think Tank belt. It's just under $110 with 10% discount at the Expo. This Saturday, I will put this belt system to the test. Stay tune for the verdict. ;-) By the way, the accessory pack in the above photo is not a Think Tank accessory bag. It's a Lowe Pro bag which I purchased 8 years ago. It fits perfectly, and it's much cheaper in price than the "Trim Changer" @ $40.

Photo Expo West

I got early and drove down to Photo Expo West which located in the Del Mar Fairground in San Diego. A good friend of mine and not so shabby photographer too, Don Gale, sent me an email informing me that he will be speaking several seminars there.

When I arrived, after a 2 hour arduos drive from San Gabriel Valley (actually, it would've been like 1.5 hours but the last 4 miles took 30 minutes!) I was disappointed that it's nothing like Photo Expo East in NYC's Jacob Javits Center. The exhibit hall is much smaller even though the big names were there such as Canon, Nikon, and a couple of local Camera Store. I guess, I can't complain since the entry to the Expo is free. I just had to pay an exhorbitant $9 for parking fee.

I was surprised to see that Hanson Fong was speaking in the Canon booth with a WiFi adapter to the projector... which kinda not work at first. But, my friend Michael Nadler, a Canon rep rapidly worked to get it up and running for him. Hanson is a great portrait, wedding photographer, but I can't say the same regarding his presentation skills. I'm not sure most people can understand him with his hard to hear voice and heavy Chinese accent. Even though when I asked him which dialect of Chinese he speaks, he denied he knew how. I went to his studio in San Francisco once. It's right in the heart of SF Chinatown on a hill. He has many beautiful portraits of family and wedding images. Several years back at WPPI, I actually bought one of his posing VHS video. What a rip-off... $50 for a 8 minute video instruction. He was one of my good friend's, Barbara and Robert Pon, wedding photographer back in 1993. At the end of his presentation, I have to admit that his images are beautiful and I did learn a thing or two regarding portrait lighting.

Now for the best portrait lighting instruction, I would still say it's Don Gale. He has a pleasant voice and he enunciates his syllables, and spoke in clear and concise diction and tone. Not to mention, he has a wealth of knowledge of portrait lighting. I was blown away by his instructions year ago when I first met him as a student, and later on became good friends. He teaches photography workshops throughout the year. Check out his workshop schedule here.

I was going to walk away from the expo without purchasing anything as I couldn't find any good deals for memory cards and such. B&H Photo was not there. :-( But as I was leaving, I stopped by the Delkin booth. What caught my eyes were their Pop-Up Shades which is very similar to the Hoodman shades, except Hoodman doesn't make one for the Canon Pro cameras such as the 1D family of cameras. They actually make one for my Canon 1D MarkIIn but they didn't have it in stock with them. I'm gonna to order one online next week for $40. I often like to show the bride and groom of a great photo I just took to reassure them that their day is going well and their wedding images is fabulous. However, most of the time, we're outside and the sunlight washes out the display. They can't really see it sometimes, but I always get a polie nod with an agreement that these are great images. :-) This shade should eliminate that problem.

Then as I was leaving, I saw a rep from Think Tank Photo on the Expo floor promoting their products. They were selling their products 10% off but sales tax must be added. So, essentially, it's getting Think Tank products without paying for sales tax and then some. :-) I recall Ben Willmore showcase a video on his blog regarding his love for his Think Tank belt pak.

Epson Fiber Base Photo Paper

I’m often asked by many of my clients and friends… whether digital images photographed with a digital SLR is as good as to an equivalent film camera. Should we switch? Should we hire film photographers only? I usually say…”In my humble opinion, I believe the images produced by the current digital SLRs and Digital backs for medium format cameras are as good it not better than film cameras; Perhaps, with the exception of Black & White Photography.”

Of course, I’m a traditionalist with a bias opinion toward the traditional black & white photography process… the zone system, mixing my own developer to control the output of my prints, and finally printing on fiber base photo papers to produce a fine art, archival, gallery prints. I'm a big fan of Ansel Adams.

With the recent emergent of Epson Photo printers such as Stylus 2400, 3800, 4800 (now 4880), 7600, employing UltraChrome K3 archival ink which includes three levels of black and sets a new standard in fine art photography and black and white prints. I thought it was a good effort on Epson’s part to move the digital image concept closer to the traditional photography concept. However, digital photo papers were still lacking in fine art gallery quality.

Well it is until today, Epson made a press release of their latest creation… fiber base digital photo papers. They call it “Signature Worthy” Exhibition Fiber Paper. These papers are phenomenal. Scott Kelby already talked about this on his blog. To read more, click here to access Epson’s press release.

So now, I can surely say that digital photography is every bit as good as film photography. I can't wait get my paws on these digital photo papers and tryout some of my own black & white images.

Famed Photojournalist: Joe McNally

I attended Joe McNally's location lighting class this morning. It was amazing to view his images and his stories behind these images. He's one of my inspiration to become a photojournalist when I was younger. I've been a long time admirer and I have applied his philosophy of lighting to my Wedding Photojournalism.

I particularly admire Joe's "Faces of Ground Zero" work of full size polaroids of friends and family of 9/11 victims. It toured around the country several years back. I saw it at the Skirball Center. I remember walking out of the exhibit with just one thought in mind... WOW! Go to his website and check out his compelling images.

Holiday Pictures and Holiday Greeting Cards

Now that Summer is almost over, it's time to prepare for the Winter Holidays! You might say that you still have plenty of time but it's really just around the corner. To have holiday greeting cards available to you by Thanksgiving weekend, we are currently scheduling family photo sessions starting September 15, 2007.

Please take advantage of our holiday photo session promotion and discounts. You'll save a bundle of $$ and at the same time capturing a special family portrait and preserving it forever. Kids grow up so fast. In a blink they're grown and off on their own to college, pursuing a career, starting their own family. Special moments like these only happen once in a life time. Wouldn't it be great to preserve these moments forever by having top quality photos framed and placed on your mantle, bookshelf, desk, etc.

Give us a call today! Our limited promotional photo packages are filling up very quickly.

Epson Stylus 3800 Printer! Yeah Baby!

Since, I forgot to enter in the PhotoshopUserTV weekly contest a couple of weeks ago, which Scott Kelby and his crew offered as a Photoshop Trivia contest prize... I had to purchase one myself. (Bummer! And for once, I knew the answer to the contest question.) I'll need it for my annual onsite photo printing event at Truckin' For Kids next month. (Stay tuned, I will write more about this event next week)

Our much anticipated Epson Stylus 3800 printer arrived today. I heard and read many great reviews for this printer since last December. At around $1200.00 (Street Price) it has all the goodies in the "big brother" Epson 4800 printer, (which we purchased a couple of years ago) wrapped up in a smaller package.

We considered purchasing the RIP software along with this printer from LexJet since we had such a great experience with our Epson 4800 printer. However, we wanted to test the capability of the 3800 printer by itself. Surprisingly, I was able to print a couple of 8x12 images with no user intervention (color correction and management). In fact, I didn't even bother to download the icc profile of the LexJet eSatin paper. The print came out of the printer @ 2880 dpi in less than 6 minutes, and I have to say the quality is awesome. There were details in the dark shadow area. The Epson UltraChrome K3 inks really "kicked-butt". I can't wait to do a couple of prints in Black & White, and Infrared Black & White. Stay tune, and I'll write more about this printer in the weeks to come.

Photoshop World 2007 - Las Vegas

I’m getting a little anxious right around this time of the year because it’s only 2 weeks away from Photoshop World in Las Vegas. I always have a great time at Photoshop World ever since March 2004 in San Francisco. I learned so much every time I leave Photoshop World and it had helped me tremendously with my photography business. I learned to streamline my workflow, faster post production and raw file conversion, and image enhancement.

Scott Kelby and his crew of knowledgeable instructors always put on a great event. Go to their website to get more details. Stay tuned and I will write more details regarding this event.

Red Eye Flight to Boston

I'm waiting at the terminal getting ready for my red eye flight to Boston. This year I decided to attend Photoshop World East / Boston because I am interested in the new Lightroom track which could increase my post production workflow.

Well, who would've thought that my Red-Eye flight is delayed for more than 2 hours. I got everything all planned. We were suppose to land around 7:30AM and I would check into the Admiral's Club to freshen up, shower, food etc. Since I can't check into the hotel this early, one day access of the Admiral's Club is the best way to clean up after a red-eye flight. And I will still have plenty of time to catch my flight to Washington DC with JetBlue at 10:30AM. This way, I'll have 6+ hours in DC to enjoy the Cherry Blossoms Festival, which something I wanted to see for quite some time (5 years in the making 2002).

Anyway, I arrived 15 minutes late for my JetBlue flight as I have to run out of one terminal from an AA flight and get into another terminal for JetBlue. It turned out that they took off without me. :-( Of course they wouldn't wait for me as they are different airlines. (I once missed a flight when it was the same airline...Continental. I had to stay overnight in Memphis) I was so angry because I thought I wasted my non-refundable flight money to Wash DC. I also lost my one day access to the Admiral's Club ($50) However, there is a later flight to Wash DC that I can take for an additional $50. I quickly took their offer and paid them immediately. The only drawback is that I won't land there until 1:30PM, and after I pickup the rental car, it would be around 2:30pm before I can get to the Potomac river. Oh well, it's better than nothing at all. I hope it's all worth it and I would get some awesome photo ops.

The drama didn't end here unfortunately. Now I have another 2 hours to kill so I decided to use my Admiral's Club access. However, I walked out of the AA terminal and security area. The Admiral's Club is back inside by the gate. Guess what, I no longer have a valid boarding pass to cross security! So, I went back to the AA ticket counter to explain my situation. the rude attendant bascially, I'm SOL because there's nothing she can do. I told her that there's always a way to get around "Nothing I Can Do's". Now, I'm really steaming because it was a malfunction of AA plane that delayed my flight. They caused my delay and forced me to pay an additional $50 for my JetBlue flight to DC. I'm not even faulting them on that and demand for the $50. They got the nerve to tell me that I'm SOL when it's all their fault! All I want is use the service that I paid for and the problem that they caused... it's worth $50!! It's non-refundable! So, I demand to speak to a supervisor and she said she can't get him for me. What!!! What is wrong with this woman. She said I couldn't produce proof that I paid for it. I showed her the email I got from AA Admiral's Club confirming my payment of $50 from my BB phone. She wouldn't even look at it. In the mean time, I was calling the Admiral's Club and ask them to speak to her. She wouldn't talk to them. Finally, the attendant next to her tried to help me and explain to her that I paid for this. She still didn't believe me because if I were in the Admiral's Club I would have a ID card. I told her that I don't get a card whe nit's only for one day, you stooopid @$%#^#!

Anyway, finally stormed off to get a supervisor and also the Admiral's Club also called the supervisor to get me a temporary boarding pass to get through security. In the mean time, I had to recheck my bags and everything else again. AArrrgh!!

Finally at the Admiral's Club, after a hot shower and cleaned myself up I was more calmed and relaxed. I have to say the Admiral's Club is worth every dime for travelers who traveled a long way and needed a place to clean up, relax and refresh. I definitely will use the Admiral's Club again next time I travel... minus the drama. :-)

I got a new lens today! Canon 50mm f1.2 L

I got a new lens today. My partner Allen picked it up for me. It's a Canon L lens, 50mm f1.2. This is such a sweet lens with L glass. At f1.2 the depth of field is phenomenal!! Can't wait to try it out. I'm so excited!

Harvest Moon

Tonight is what we call Harvest Moon. It's part of a long history of Chinese Culture. We celebrate this Moon Festival every year. The legend has it that tyrant Emperor wanted to live forever so that he can rule China forever. However, the Empress knows that he is not a good Emperor, and his people will just suffer for generations to come. So, the Empress stole the Emperor's longevity potion and drank it herself. While being chased and hunted by the Emperor's soldiers, the Empress ascended to the Moon for safety. That's why every year around this time, we eat Moon Cake and look at the moon wondering if the Empress still lives on the Moon.

During 1969, the landing on the surface of the Moon by Neil Armstrong reported that no one was on the moon other than him and Buzz Aldrin. Even though I was very young, I remember I was very disappointed that he didn't see the Empress.

Lan particularly like looking at full moon every month because she thinks it's so romantic. And tonight she thinks the Moon is rounder than usual. Initially, I thought that's silly. How can anything be rounder than usual. :-) After thinking it through, I think looking at the moon and the emotion that brought out tonight my Honey is correct. The moon is truly rounder when I have her in my arms. :-)

As for photographing the moon, you will need a tripod, the longest lens you have in your possession, and a spot meter. I used my trusty Gitzo Carbon Fiber tripod, and my Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L lens. I spot metered and bracketed my exposures. Sure enough, the slightly under-exposed photo produced the most detail of the moon. Many photography hobbiest, do not know to underexpose the image to gain details of the moon. Many of their photos is a black sky with a round white dot with no details. So, for next year, if you want to try photographing the moon, tryout some of my suggestions above.

Arizona Trip

This is one of my favorite images I took from my trip with Lan to Arizona. This is a panoramic image of the Grand Canyon. I photographed this with the Canon 24mm TSE (Tilt/Sift) lens. This lens was designed for architectural photography to straighten lines and reduce keystoning. However, it's also an ideal lens for panoramic photography as it shift the 24mm lens left and right without parallax effect. It's nice and flat so there's no distortion. The only draw back is that it's manual focus lens. It's really not that big of a deal as most of these panoramic images are focus set to infinity. This lens is so portable, I actually hand held these two images without a tripod. I photographed it in raw format and export it out to jpg. I then stitched these 2 jpg images in Photoshop's Photomerge. Photoshop did the rest. I like this photo so much, it's going to be the banner of this photo blog.

Here's another panoramic image of the Grand Canyon, a little bit further down the South Rim. you can actually see Indian Garden Campsite which is about halfway down to the Canyon floor. I camped there for a couple of nights back in 1997.

Here's a panoramic photo taken at the crack of dawn at the Monument Valley in Utah.

Phase One Road Show @ Renaissance Hotel

I attended that Phase One Road Show at 2 PM Renaissance Hotel today. It was a good show. Phase One showcased many of their products which includes digital backs for medium format cameras, and their famous raw conversion software Capture One. I learned a couple of new trick to enhance our images in Capture One.

It was strange to bump into Kamau Mubarik. We had a recent disagreement and it was awkward at first but we managed to be cordial to each other. I guess we're both bigger men and let by-gones be by-gones. Come to think of it, it was a silly disagreement which involves in flash photography with Canon vs. Nikon camera system. He couldn't win the argument so he had to insult me personally to save his face. Anyway, I'm cool with him now. I can't really hold a grudge against anyone. It's a choice because I don't want to live with the heavy burden of hating someone. In the end, it hurts no one except for myself. So why torture myself. I guess that's part of growing spiritually.

"Ashes and Snow" exhibit at Santa Monica Pier

This afternoon, I waited over 3 hours under the hot sun of the Santa Monica Pier to purchase tickets to Ashes and Snow exhibit. Thank goodness I have my brand new Video IPOD to keep me company. However, I forgot to bring sunscreen and a baseball cap. I was severely burned on my forehead. Today is the last day, and I must go see it before it moves on to another city. Needless to say, it was phenomenal!