Next meetup on Wednesday

Another photo shoot on campus Wednesday starting at 1PM and ending at 2:30PM. Meet up at the visual arts building.
I'll be free on campus Tuesday too if you want to try out the lighting equipment or just chat. Give me a call between 1PM and 3PM Tuesday if you want to find me, we'll find a meeting place. 214 718 2387

As it has been, I welcome anyone to come at anytime during our shoot, or need to leave early. Just call or text me if you want to know where our photo shoot has moved to.

Thursday Lightning

Long was right I do love getting some weather shots and that storm was the perfect opportunity. Lots of lightning with no rain. For awhile anyway.

ISO 200 F/11 13 sec. 18mm

ISO 200 F/7.1 10 sec 18mm

ISO 200 f/9.0 13 sec 18mm

this is me running for cover because it suddenly started to pour. there were absolutely no warning drops or anything.

If anyone wants to go shoot any kind of weather or anything like that hit me up cause im always ready for it. find me on facebook.

I thought I give a chance at shooting lightning. You could see dust bunnies. Mark is interested in photographing this kind of stuff, search him up on facebook.

UTD Photo

Ryan did a pretty good overview of what we did today. here are the shots I took and the tech specs for each

50mm ISO 200 F/6.3 1/125

Three lights on this one. Two facing from sides and one behind, all naked. I'm not sure about the power though.

50mm ISO 200 F/9 1/125

Two lights, both naked I think.

50mm (ryan can tell you what that is on crop sensors) ISO 200 F/9 1/125

Same as above image. I do know we adjusted a few times to eliminate shadow as much as possible.

Our first Group photo

As a newest member in the club, I'm glad to be participate in a energetic group. Our future holds many opportunities, lets our passion of photography grows.


Nikon D5000 (35mm - ISO 400 - 1/200 - f-8) (Adobe PS cropped)

First Group Shoot of the Semester

Today's shoot was great! We had an excellent turnout and I think everyone learned something. Here's a brief timeline of events.

First we (Long mainly) was busy setting up all of his lights that we used for the day.

Then, we practiced a bit on Long to just get a feel for portraiture with off-camera lighting since almost all of us were new to this type of photography.

Next, we found our first subject who gave a couple different poses for Mark and I took a couple of Scott (see the top image and those at the end).

Then for our last shot for this location, we lined up on the bench and took a group photo using all three of our strobes (flashes).

We then went to the other side of the building to a shaded area for some different scenery where Mark hopped up into a tree for a few portraits. This proved to be pretty tricky to light as you can see.

Lastly, someone had this crazy idea to go down inside the culvert for a couple interesting shots. I can't wait to see how these turned out!

The above top shot is at 28mm (42mm equivalent in 35mm terms), 1/160 @ f/5.6, 100 ISO. It was lit by two bare strobes (1/8 I believe) and the sun. One was placed slightly to the left and above the camera, the other was to the right for some fill. I really liked how it turned out with all the nice punchy colors and contrast. The book and Scott's sunglasses also kinda work well together, almost like he's studying how to be a gang leader or something. (Best of luck to you Scott!) Here are some other shots, good and bad.

Until next time, happy shooting and invite your friends for the next meet!

What I Learned at Our First Meet

This was my first time to experiment with off-camera lighting triggered wirelessly with radio triggers (Long's set of Pocket Wizards and Alex's hotshoe adapter for Sony). I had previously done some experimentation with my own Sony flash in wireless mode (which works just like Nikon CLS technology), but I had never managed more than 1 flash and never anything mounted on a stand with an umbrella (both shoot through and reflected). I also had to juggle lighting position, camera metering, and setting the flashes manually to correctly balance the exposure. With Sony's wireless, I could just rely on TTL metering to do all the work.

One of the first things I quickly ran into, was the shutter sync speed. If it's set too high in this case 1/320, you see a shutter still in the frame. I found that I could use a maximum sync speed of about 1/120 of a second to avoid this problem.

Here is one where the exposure is more or less correctly balanced and I liked how it turned out. The first thing you will notice is that with a fast shutter speed, the background appears black. This is because the light only has time to hit the subject closest to the camera during the short exposure. Two lights were used for this shot. A speedlight on a stand with umbrella (shoot through I believe) was positioned to the camera right and a bare speedlight was triggered as optically behind the lego sculpture. It was conveniently hidden and out of sight to produce a cool glowing effect along the left edge.

The top image is putting it all together for portraiture. It was two speedlights. One, high camera right with a shoot through umbrella and one with a purple gel for some background fill light (not really noticeable).

Photo shoot Wednesday

We'll have a photo shoot Wednesday. We'll meet first at the Visual Arts Building and wait a while for everyone to show up then leave and go around campus for a guerrilla style photo shoot. Meet up at 1PM. Call me afterward 214 718 2387 if you want to meet up after the 1PM get together. I'll let you know where we are.

Preparations for this semester

I'm hosting a meeting this Thursday in the Art barn/ Visual Arts building starting at 2:30PM and ending 3:30PM. The time frame doesn't mean I'll use up an hour, come by anytime during that time frame and/or leave when you need to. I will mainly discuss plans for utdphoto and ask everyone for input and suggestions. Also, I'll bring some of my off camera flash gear for a lighting demo if anyone wants it.
We'll do some actual photo shoots, face to face with models, next week when temperatures are predicted to be low 90s.

Facebook is currently the best way to know of upcoming events, go ahead and link me and I'll periodically send status updates. Facebook allows me to ask individuals whether they have time on a certain date; once I find there are enough people interested on a particular shoot, I set a solid date and location on utdphoto.com

Its been a year since this group started. This site contains valuable information on photo shoot experiences, and have two on-location videos somewhere in our blog archive. Search for older posts at the bottom of the page.

Making UTD Photo officially recognized - is up to you

I'm planning on enrolling this get-together onto UTD's roster of organizations, but this will depend how on much interest you have in making this group official.
We need positions to make this possible. Send me an email or talk to me in person if you want the position. lpn071000@utdallas.edu

Current list. If blank, it is available

President: Long Nguyen
Vice President: Mark Lauman
Secretary: Ryan Cheung
Treasurer: Nguyen Le-Dang
Officer(s): Jennifer Min,
Primary Adviser:

UTD's application only accepts currently enrolled students and faculty. I'll accept anyone who has the time, does not need to own camera or have any experience.

A charter/constitution and by-laws will have to be drafted.
If these positions are not all filled, UTD Photo will continue to function as it has in the past.

update: positions filled up fast. Does anyone know an instructor willing to fulfill primary adviser?

discounts through BH Photo

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/eduAbout.jsp/mode/edu

Applicable for students or faculty only.

I got a confirmation email in my school inbox. "Congratulations! Your application to EDU Advantage has been approved..."
You get three things.
1) Student Buyer's Guide
2) Educational resources and tutorials
3) Discounts and Promotions

To register, I had to fill out an online information form, send a scanned jpg of my school ID, and send a screen shot of my Fall schedule on Orion. The last two can be sent through their upload feature, after form fill-out.

Some sample discounts:
PW Flex TT5 Transceiver for Canon Reg. $219.95 : After discount $179.00
PW Transceiver Plus II Reg. $169.00 : After discount $154.00
Impact Light stand, 6ft Reg. $19.99 : After discount $17.99
Manfrotto 190XB Tripod Legs Reg. $129.95 : After discount $108.84

prices as of observing Aug. 17th

Siggraph 2009 photos

above: Impromptu reviewing of Animation Mentor alumni demo reels, in the hallway.

above: Art Institute's Art Wars, lots of prizes

above: Princess and the Frog took 9 months of production.

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.