Revealing Siggraph New Orleans

I will take pictures of this year's event in New Orleans and fill this blog with inside scoop. I don't know what to expect in terms of subject matter but I'll bring back the day's photos and update every night.
Another trip for me once again and once more encountering my old problem of deciding whether to bring my professional D2x or lightweight D70. I will bring my manfrotto pod and a pair of PWs.

Tune in to UTD Photo August 3rd through the 7th every late night for daily updates of what I find there.

update: from brochure
"Camera/Recording Policies
No cameras or recording deices are permitted at
SIGGRAPH 2009. Abuse of this policy will result in
revocation of the individual’s registration credentials."

What's a deices?

updates: Aug. 3nd, nothing to show yet. Captured some video of the area.

Aug. 4th, sitting by the Walt Disney Animation Studios booth. Don't know if I can sneak my camera out to use. Have ten cards left, started out with thirty, should have brought more.

Aug. 6th, I'll wrap up early. I'm out of contact cards. I saw excellent demo reels from dozens of animators. Talk with my traveling buddy, Ricardo, who got the film festival pass - he could fill you in on that subject.

Travel Photography

I recently went on a mission trip to Indonesia. I thought I might share a few of my photos from the trip with you guys.



ISO 200 18mm f/10 15 sec. sunset



ISO 100 18mm f/11 30 sec. dawn




ISO 100 31mm f/5.6 41 sec. night




ISO 1600 47mm f/4.5 1/60 sec.




ISO 200 18mm f/8.0 1/250




ISO 400 100mm f/10 1/250 sec




ISO 100 18mm f/3.5 1/2500 sec.

Mark Lauman.

Tips on acquiring gear

A guide to getting pro camera gear on a student budget here. Buy stuff used from Craigslist like I do, get features you only know you need.

Photo Dump

Thanks to everyone that has come out to see Photoworks at UTD! I hope you enjoyed our work in print form, up close and personal. I have been lacking up the updates so here is a photo dump:



Model: Ivy
Comments: I have worked with two small kids so far and have realized that it's fairly difficult to get them to pay attention! At least she pays attention to the bubbles. :) Pictures of baby's are almost always cute so that's why Ms. Waligore does not wanting you turning in pictures of babies, haha. This was done with natural light using Aperature priority mode. More of this set here.

Model: Johnny Chau
Edited by: Lan Nguyen
Comments: My photo was edited by Johnny's girlfriend, Lan. It's always good to know people with skills that can make your work better. The sun was so bright so this was difficult to shoot. I used two strobes at their highest power. More from this set here.


Model: Johnaton Nguyen
Comments: A shot at attempting to take photos at night with strobes. I only used two strobes. My 430ex is inside the hamster ball wrapped in paper at full power and I had a strobe to the left of the bowling pins at 1/32? I forget. It was pretty difficult, because my camera had a hard time focusing with little light. I tried to use a flash light as a modeling light but it wasn't bright enough. Lesson learned. :( More from this set here.


Model: Mimi Le
Makeup: Helsa Kim
Comments: I desaturated the colors a bit. This is an outtake from a fashion photo shoot I did at my housing using the dynalite kits from school. The background is a piece of wrapping paper I bought from Paper Source at North Park Mall. They have beautiful decorative paper that can be used for backgrounds. Too bad the paper is too small (as you can tell from the space between her arms and body). People even use shower curtains for backdrops! I'm not allowed to put the fashion photo pics up as of right now so I'll show them later.


Model: Crystal Chang
Comments: Fun with the graffiti backgrounds in denton, tx. Too bad the city of Dallas has cleaned up most of the graffiti in Deep Ellum. More can be seen here.


Model: Thai monks from the buddhist center in dallas
Comments: This is one of my photos from the photoworks exhibit. More can be seen here.


Model: Spencer Hight
Comments: Using one of the exhibits in the art barn as a prop. More from this set here.


Model: Mark Lauman
Comments: Many of you that have taken a photography course at UTD may know where this is. This was taken at the Rachofsky house w/ reflection from Don Graham's Argonne Pavillion II, 1998. Strobist: camera right in front of model, Canon 430ex at 1:1 Power w/ Lumiquest sotbox III. Camera right behind model, Canon 430ex at 1:1 Power bare


Model: Sikha Naik
Comments: Sometimes black and white looks better. More from this set here.

The scenic walkway between Founders building and the campus area map, one of my favorite environment backdrops on campus, got obliterated.

Object Shoot

Daniel, Nguyen, and I did a small shoot of glass bottles in the art barn after learning our model could not make it.

First of all, make sure your trigger is ON.
Second shot right after. Some light finding its way past the lens hood: flare. All backlit.I set the flash zoom level to its max. One at 85mm, the other at 105mm. This tightened the beam of light so there is less lens flare.
One vertical shot, in case clients do magazine covers or need text space. Gelled.

Gelled a different color this time. Moved the bottle so there is a little overlap for sense of space. This frame is number 28 of the 29 photos.

View the sequential order of all shots taken from start to finish here. EXIF also available.
I'll be building up my workspace at my new place. It will be a while before I get back into photography.

Know Perspective

Canceled: Shoot Saturday on campus

Canceled:
Shoot will be at 11AM and will last about an hour. Anyone can join.
214 718 2387
lpn071000@utdallas.edu

This could be your house.

New Logo

Nguyen provided UTD Photo with a new logo, still in the works. Send me your comments/critiques on the logo and I'll forward them to Nguyen.

I'll be on campus around 4PM. Will mostly be in Art Barn working on submitting prints to the lab but will ready for any photo shoot ideas, drop-ins.

Monday Quick Shoot

We tried to pack as many shoots of different subjects in one hour. Most of them photographed by Alex.
A couple below from my camera.
And Alex's here.

40 Free Business Cards

Staples this year has another giveaway for business cards, in-store.
Not as good as the 100 for $2 they had about two years ago, IMO, but its free.
I'll give this another whirl with my new, updated social calling card and then post a review of the process.
If you've been around our shoots, contact info comes in handy when letting the model(s) know where to look for the finished photos.

http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/cpc_career_stimulus/index.html?cm_mmc=email_corporate-_-chainwide_050109-_-consumer_customer-_-num&cm_lm=ex:

Onomatopoeia Stunts

What a group.


click to enlarge

I'll probably be on campus to shoot the pillow fight on Monday. Come join.

Tree Yoga shoot

From last Friday. There may be more shoots of this in the future. Hal, the director, is looking at publicizing tree yoga and may need our expertise in getting images published. There is also a choreographed video in the works. Let me know through my email if there are any videographers out there who want to know more.
TreeYoga.org



More from Joe.
More from Alex.

Does Canon 580ex II have built in optical slave?

I don't trust the web forums for reliable information, so a question for the photographers.
Does the Canon 580ex II have built in optical slave?
i.e. does the flash fire when it sees other flash firing?

Expired: Cheap Domain Registration for $1.19 @ GoDaddy

This is how I set up www.utdphoto.com last August. Now is the time to get one for yourself before it expires. You could make a domain for your portfolio, then link back to your blog, flickr, etc. (utdphoto just links back to blogspot)
Coupon information can be found frontpage of http://slickdeals.net/

I'll let everyone know when those business cards deals come out. You've seen me pass out cards every time on photoshoots.

Shoot from Tuesday, and our 100th post

1/30th f5.6 ISO 100
side lighting both @ 1/4
colored gel @ 1/4 from behind

Here are more pictures from the shoot below.
Pictures from Daniel
Pictures from Hubert

Photoworks and new pictures

Sorry, I have been neglecting this blog. We need a new flier! The one we have up now is an embarrassing photo of me. =( Also, if anyone else at UTD wants to write in this blog, then please tell us!

The UTD photography students have a show coming up and would like you to join us!

Photoworks 2009 Group Photography Exhibition
Visual Arts Building, May 22 - June 13, 2009

Opening reception: Friday, May 22, 6:30-0:00 pm

Please come out! =)

Okay, so here are a few pictures that I have taken since my last post.

Model: Melanie Yenchai
Comments: This was also taken at the St. Anthony hotel in San Antonio at their bar area using one 430ex flash with a softbox. I put together the background and Melanie on different layers to achieve this look.



Model: Patrick Su
Comments: This was around the time I was practicing head shots. I used the dynalites for this and had one of the strobes as a hair light.


Model: Gene Rios
Comments: Another headshot with the dynalites from school. Look ma, no reflections! :)


Model: Hai Yen Nguyen
Comments: This was on campus at UTD and I was trying a different lighting technique with using a faster shutter speed.

Model: Hai Yen Nguyen
Comments: This was also on campus at UTD. There was a random motorcycle near the library that she hopped on really quickly for this picture. =)


Model: Alice Nguyen
Comments: I made her jump often to get this picture. =P

Model: Alice Nguyen
Comments: This was taken at the shops of legacy.

Out of Ideas for your Portfolio?

Look at others people's work. Finals are coming up and if you need more ideas, check these guys out. Mostly people photography.