my digitized life // john hwang » Photography

HDR anyone?

john — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:42:22 +0000

To the right is one of my first attempts at High-Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. It was easier than I expected so I would highly encourage other photography enthusiasts to give it a go. I set my alarm for 6:50AM because sunrise was supposed to be at around 6:57am. I woke up either by accident or because I received an email and my phone beeped. Either way, I just grabbed my camera and tripod and grabbed a couple dozen shots on this wooden walkway.

After the three exposures were HDRified, I made some minor edits using Photoshop like darkening the sky and upping the contrast and sharpness overall to give it a more dramatic look. I kind of wish there were more clouds in the sky, I think that would have looked spectacular.

Turkey Day Feast.

john — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:46:08 +0000

I completely forgot about these photos that I took on Thanksgiving Day. My family met at my eldest sister’s house and most of the food was prepared by Cecilia and Johnny. We actually ate the food for lunch but it was so much food, I don’t think I ate dinner until near midnight on Thursday. Most of the photos are pretty much self-explanatory… except for the last one; yes, that is kimchi. What did you expect?

Needless to say, the food tasted as good as it looks in the pictures. The food was… mmm mmmm good!

Captured a split second.

john — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:41:08 +0000

I was just walking by on the dock, heading toward a ferry when I saw this little girl playing on the shore of a lake. I didn’t even bother to stop when I decided to compose a shot. I looked through the viewfinder of my camera and loved the scene enough to have stopped exactly half a second to press the shutter. I like how it turned out; the texture of the drying out shore is amazing. This was taken with a Canon 30D and a 24-70mm f/2.8L lens.

57mm 1/50s f/22 iso1000

New Additions.

john — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 04:45:25 +0000

Well, just last week, I ordered some new additions to my photography hobby arsenal. It was supposed to have been delivered on Friday but no one was home during the delivery time so I had to call in and tell them that I'd pick it up. I had to drive about 30 minutes to the UPS Customer Service center (middle of nowhere). Anyway, this is in addition to the list from this post, the new additions to my photography equipment include:

When I opened the shipment box Friday night, everything looked fine. The box looked undamaged and all the boxes inside were undamaged. The first thing I opened up was my new lens (my first L!). Such a beautiful lens, I noticed from taking out of the box how well it was built (like a tank as they say). Holding both the 17-40mm and the 18-55mm (kit) lenses in my hand, I could definitely tell the difference in quality of the build. Stuck it on my 30D body and looked through the viewfinder, the AI on this thing is spot on, quick, and quiet. I have not yet had a chance to take this lens out yet but I plan to next weekend when I don't have much planned. One of the reasons why I chose this lens as opposed to other focal lengths and other brands is the number of creative exposures I saw people post at pbase.com with this lens along with the fact that it's a great complement to my 50mm prime.

The bad news is that when I opened up both the tripod box and tripod head box, I was disappointed. I took the tripod out of its box to find something dropping from the top. It was a piece of the tripod head base. It's pretty weird how this piece was broken out of the box except the box itself was not damaged at all. As for the tripod head, I took it out of the box and found it to be a bit dirty; it looked as if someone handled it with a greasy hand.

So I got an RMA for both the tripod and the tripod head to get it returned. Thankfully, my purchase was from the reputable B&H so their customer service department quickly gave me an RMA number as well as a prepaid UPS shipping label so I can ship the defective tripod and seemingly used tripod head back although I'm sort of worried how 'new' items was delivered broken and also dirty. I may need to carefully examine my lens to make sure there isn't any problems with it.

Charlotte International Auto Show.

john — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 06:15:07 +0000

Took my camera and ventured into the Charlotte International Auto Show today. It was indoors with horrid fluorescent lighting conditions; I took about 176 photos on the floor, a dozen or so came out creative enough so wasn't a bad day. I am still learning a lot about photography and this was definitely a good experience. One thing I definitely realized was that the 50mm lens I have is a spectacular lens BUT it was way too long for shooting. It was very difficult for me to get a full-body shot of any car; I had to stand about 10-15 feet away from the car which caused another problem of people walking into my shot. So most of the time, I had to use my 18-55mm kit lens. The experience has left me wanting a lens like the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L.

Well anyway, here are some of the photos:

So from the top-left corner to the bottom-right going from left-to-right and top-to-bottom: Ferrari Front, Ferrari Side, Ferrari Engine, Porsche Cayman S, Pontiac Solstice, Dodge Challenger, Ford Bronco Concept, Acura TSX VTEC Engine, and Hummer H2 Chrome Grill.

My brother-in-law tells me that Hot Import Nights started coming to Charlotte. I will be planning to go to that event although from researching past HIN events, it will be very difficult conditions for photography (very low light).

My Canon 30D.

john — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 03:48:34 +0000

I am officially a Canon man. This is sort of a continuation of my previous post labeled Blurry excitement. Last week, I finally purchased the camera and equipment I've been wanting for over two years. On top of that, I bought some supplemental items as well. As of today I received all items ordered. So now in my possession are the following items:

Canon EOS 30D Digital SLR Camera
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens (kit)
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens
Canon ES-71II Lens Hood
Sandisk 2GB Ultra II CompactFlash Card
Giotto Rocket Blower
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW Bag
Book: Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
Book: The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby
DVD: The Rock (it was filler, saved me money).

As you may be able to tell, this was a serious investment for me. It definitely wasn't me being impulsive – it was about me finally having the time, money, and the need to explore a hobby that I've wanted to develop for a very long time. It would have been impulsive if I bought the Canon 5D (ok, I admit considering it for about half a day but I came to my senses ).

It's going to take me some time to get to know my new equipment, especially since I usually don't have much time during the weekdays. However, it will be difficult for this camera to be not in my hands when I am not at work. I will be honest here and say you won't see very good photos from me any time soon but I will try my best to capture captivating light through the eyes of my new camera.

Bad news is… I got a lot of rebate forms to fill out. Oh darn, I'll live.

Purchases aside, I've been looking at the weather forecast for this weekend and it looks like there will be precipitation in the area Saturday but sunny on Sunday. Either way, I hope the weather will allow me to go out and shoot this weekend. I am thinking about shooting at one or more of these locations: a park, uptown, and where I work.

Speaking of which… I'll need to revamp my site (preferably redo and design everything from scratch) to make room for the gigs of photos that will be posted by yours truly in the near future.

Georgia Tech Campus Gallery!

john — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 18:05:42 +0000

I've finally added another photo gallery to my site, I thought it was about time. I just went through all the photos I've collected from my digital camera and from friends to find all the pictures that would fit in the gallery theme. I might be doing a 'Goldfellas' theme for the next photo gallery. I have over a 100MB of collected Goldfellas photos from my experience with the organizations and photos submitted to me from other Goldfellas. Then I might do a 'Friends' gallery; I seemed to have taken ALOT of photos of my friends from different stuff we used to do when we weren't all so busy trying to graduate. Related Links: – Georgia Tech Campus Photo Gallery

Summer photos finally up!

john — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 03:07:18 +0000

Sorry about the 7-month delay on getting these photos up. All my photo galleries will be added under the "Photo Gallery" part of the sidebar. Related Links: – June 2004: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Portland – Post I made before my Vacation

Tech.

john — Wed, 21 Jan 2004 09:39:27 +0000

Third week of school: it's 4:16am, and I'm still studying. Woohoo! I'm looking forward to a short nap before classes. I hope your day is going as swell as mine. Some more pictures: 1) Photograph taken of the endzone and a very small part of the Atlanta Skyline by no other then the talented Jess Parsons. That endzone is the South stands where the student section is – this is where (usually) the Goldfellas can be found You see the brick-buildings in the background, that is the Georgia State Village dorms – Georgia State students reside there. 2) The Love building in front of the CRC, I thought it looked cool… one of the most interesting looking modern buildings at Tech. 3) A picture taken from top of Stone Mountain at Stone Mountain, GA. 4) So Jordan and I were like: "Hey, let's go to the library to get some work done." And, as soon as we got there and sat down – Jordan fell asleep on those uncomfortable desks. He woke up later, though – I think. 5) "What da crap is a Terp?!" – A quote from a poster a Tech fan held up during the Georgia Tech vs. Maryland football game. As you can see – Maryland's mascot (the Terp) is on his knees… and watching the game. How boring of a mascot is he?! Enjoyed the pictures? Comment!

Photos.

john — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 20:28:15 +0000

1) We decided to buy Sodas in bulk as a whole section then we thought, where should we keep all the drinks cool and available for everyone 24/7? Then we remembered this old locker (as you can see on the left side of the photo) from the Towers attic that wasn't being used. So we brought it down and we were 'engineering' a customized whirlpool. From left to right: ChrisH, ChrisS, Tony, and Dave. 2) Our butcher paper version 1.0 – by the end of the year, we had around 7 or so butcher papers… and they were known as "Take it out of context" papers where we would write down hilarious remarks made by anyone of us without any context… making it even more funny. 3) Here is ChrisH (my freshmen roomie) who is an AE major working on a CAD of a plane for a project. Future hardcore GT engineers at work 4) Random picture I thought was cool from a batch of photos taken at Miami. The owners of all those items were, of course, in the cool water jumping around trying to catch a disc that either being pushed around by the wind. 5) Our team is in a huddle trying to pick a play to execute while the UGA defense just stands around doing nothing. From looking at the stands, you'd think we were at UGA… but nope, our fans love wearing red during the GT vs. UGA game. :-/