The Thailand Experience

I had the opportunity to travel to Thailand and what an amazing experience it was. You know how you’d go to a Thai restaurant and wonder how authentic the food there is? Well it doesn’t get anymore authentic than sitting on plastic stools on the side of the streets and eating pad thai with the locals. If I could sum up all of my Thailand experience in 5 minutes, it would be in this video. I do wish that I had done more local activities and less tourist attractions.

Why do pro grade cameras cost so much?

Besides reliability, fast auto focus, and many other features, do you ever wonder why pro grade cameras are so expensive? If you ever use your phone's camera, shooting into a bright background will result in your subject looking dark, without getting too technical, that's because your phone camera is trying to make your background not be overexposed, once overexposed, the background will not be able to be recovered; you sort of have to choose, do I make the background look good or do I make my subject look good. With a pro grade camera, the files have much more flexibility and when using software like Lightroom and Photoshop, us photographers can raise the shadows and lower the highlights to get you details in both bright and dark areas. Below are some samples, the top is unedited while the bottom is edited.

Nikon D850 First Images

Welp, Nikon has finally done it; they have caught up to and arguably surpassed other camera manufacturers with the introduction of their new and jeweled camera, the D850.  The D850 claims to be the jack of all trades, boasting strengths of portraits, weddings, sports, and landscape.  Being back-ordered for 6 to 8 weeks and possibly even longer for people who had waited too long to order theirs, I am very lucky to have one of my own at this moment.

Having owned a D800, the D850 felt very much at home with the exception of some improvements such as dedicated ISO button, higher resolution and touch LCD screen, and more focus points to name a few.  My lens of choice was a Nikkor 200mm f/2.  Unlike the D800, the D850 was able to fully utilize all of its focus points instead of being limited to the most sensitive center focus point like the D800, which means I did not have to focus and recompose.

Though, much testing still needs to be done, I am quite happy with the D850.  Stay tuned for more testing of this camera at weddings, sporting events, and landscape.

My Babies Are Almost All Grown Up!

08.28.2017

Every June, a duck family would populate our retention pond.  I have always wanted to document their growth, but I've always been too busy.  This year, I made a video clip in slow motion of them being fed.  The ducklings are such clumsy little things!

09.29.2017

They have grown so big, almost as big as their mother.