Blog

06.04.2009. So I missed the apparent cool lightening storm last night in the bay area. However, while looking out my window around 8pm, the sunset looked like it was going to be awesome. I got into my car and headed out to the bay. here's the best of the bunch

06.03.2009. I went to the Goodguys auto show in Pleasanton on last Saturday. There were some very cool looking muscle cars there. My favorites were the mustangs and the new charger looks good too.

05.29.2009. So I went to Yosemite park last weekend during the Memorial day weekend. Holy shit!!! Do not ever go there during a national holiday. Part of the road to get to the park was destroyed do to a rock avalanche so there was a one way light that let cars from different directions every 15 minutes. It took us about 45 minutes to get through.

Next the line to get into the park started about 2 miles before the entrance. That was stop and go for about 1-2 hours. Once we got it, it was smooth sailing until we got close to Yosemite valley, the area where el capitan and hafl dome are located. it took about 30-45 miinutes to get close to Curry Village. We ended up parking and walking the rest of the day. There were thousands of people. Once we started on foot, it got a lot better though since you didn't have to fight traffic.

I was able to get a shot of Half Dome at dusk which was very cool! Almost missed it if it wasn't for a large crowd of people taking pictures of something.

Monday and Tuesday were very relaxing days though. The crowds were gone and it was very pleasant day. We took a grand tour on Monday...went to el capitan, glacier point, wawona, and mariposa grove. It was an all day tour - 8:30am to 5pm. On Tuesday, we used the morning to hike to Nevada falls. I made it a third of the way and waited for the wife to make the trip and back. I stayed at the bridge facing Vernal Fals. Beautiful! Should've taken a nap there though.

05.19.2009. I came across a pretty cool looking camera neck strap while searching for a good price on the Crumpler Industry Disgrace neck strap (see picture)

It's a cool looking strap...actually not really, but it looks very comfortable. The one thing I don't like about it is there are no quick releases so it's pretty much stuck on your camera while you'rw\e on location.

Then I came across the Black Rapids website and watched the following video. It has a quick release and it's low profile...perfect!

Click on the picture to watch the video. It's safe to say this bad boy is on its way...

04.27.2009. On Sunday, I went to a photography class. it lasted about 8 hours and there were a live photo session with models. Overall, I thought it was a good learning experience. In the afternoon, they went over the use of Adobe Liveview 2. It's a cool looking program. For $300 though, I think I have to wait a bit.

Here's some pics of the session

04.27.2009. I went to the 49er draft party last Saturday. We got there around 12:30pm so I missed when they brought out to model the new uniforms. The place was packed, but I was able to set up near the stage with no one in front of me. There were players signing autographs, stuff for salte, etc, but I just wanted to hold my spot, wait for our pick and listen to Singletary.

As our pick was getting closer and as each team announced their pick, the crowd was get more excited that certain players might be available. The classic moment of the day was when the Raiders pick was announced...the cheers were almost as loud as when the niners announced their pick.

Michael Crabtee! No way did I think he would still be available at 10. Since he was and the niners announced that they picked him, the place went nuts!

Afterwards, Jed and Singletary addressed the fans

04.20.2009: So I went to watch the Cherry Blossom parade in SF Japantown on Sunday, 4/19. It was a hot day and there were a lot of people. The parade lasted about 2 hours. George Takai from Star Trek was the grand master.

Overall, the parade was just ok, but the taiko drummers were pretty good. Here's a video of the drummers:

Kata 3n1 20 Sling/Backpack

04.17.2009: I have a favorite bag that I use whenever I'm at an event. It's small enough, but can hold what I need - Kata H-14. However, I'm still not satisfied with my Lowepro Slingshot 200, so I got the Kata 3n1 20 Sling. It looks more versatile and can be converted into a backpack. This bag looks like it can hold more, whereas I don't have much room with the Lowepro. It's starting to look like Kata is becoming my favorite brand.

My only issues was whether to get the 20 or 30 model. The 30 is a couple of inches wider. Since I wouldn't be carrying a laptop, I chose the 20 just to make it a bit smaller. I think I'm getting close to what I want. We'll have to see once it arrives.

Here's a review from some cute girl. Ok she's not that cute, but you'd think when she puts the bag on her shoulders her dress would fall off, but noooo...

04.16.2009: I just got the Gary Fong Lightsphere II. I can't wait to see how it works. Probably the earliest I can try it out would be in July at HIN Pleasanton. I got the beginners kit and includes a cloud and clear with two domes. I've seen people at HIN and Wondercon use this diffuser and looked at some of their pictures. It definitely looks like it helps with portrait shots making the face softer looking. Here are some examples from this one guy from Wondercon - http://www.conpix.net

There are 3 sizes as well as a universal size. I have the one that fits a Nikon SB-600. It's feels like flexible plastic and just slips onto the end of the flash unit. I don't think it will hold the weight of the flash and camera if you try to hold it by the sphere, but it's fairly snug and should stay on. I guess more on this later

Here's Gary himself explaining his product

04.16.2009: This was actually my first time at this event, but every year in San Francisco on April 1st, there's what's called a St Stupids day parade. I heard it's been going on for 30 plus years. I don't really know what it's about, but I'm guessing it has something to do with April Fools day. There's one part of the video where someone tries to explaim what it is. Anyway, here's some video of that event.

Only in San Francisco...gotta love this city.

Part 2

HIN San Mateo 2009

I went to Hot Import Nightst in San Mateo recently. It was my first time there and I'll definitely go again. A lotta girls, more girls, and some really good looking girls. I think there were some modded cars too, but who gives a shit about that. The girls were hot, dancing and skimpy outfits ware abundant, and even the gang bangers were very friendly.

The cops were out in full force and they were pulling cars over left and right as they entered the parking lot. Not sure what all that was about, but I was not harrassed. The line to get in was pretty long, maybe 500 people, but it didn't take long to get in...maybe 20 minutes. The hold up was, or course, going through the metal detectors.

It was from 5-11pm and I stayed just about the whole time. It actually felt a little rushed and too short. I got some good footage, but I'll know to better prepare next time. For one, my external flash was unreliable. I had it set so the on camera flash was the commander and the external as a slave. A lot of the time, I kept forgetting to pop the flash up to activate it. I'll use a flash TTL sync cord next time. And batteries, batteries, batteries.

Anyway, here's some videos you might enjoy!

Go go girl!

Checking out the thongs

Biker chicks...ok, posers

Booty shake!

Hotty in a nightie

pole dancers

Model posing for pics

Sennheiser CX 500-B In-Ear Headphone

One of the better in-ear headphones I've tried. I either have or have tried the mid priced Ultimate Ears, Bose, and Shures. These earphones are by far the best sounding. Then again, I like bass and this has it, provided you insert it into your ear properly. There's a volume level on cord so you don't have to keep taking out your player. What's it's missing areplay, forward, reverse buttons. It'll probably make it to bulky anyway.

For about $50, it's a good value compared to higher priced competitors.

Sanyo Xacti HD1010 Camcorder

I keep this bad boy with me most of the time. Fits right into my bag. Whenever I need a shot, I just take it out, flip open the viewer and take the shot. It also has a 4MB camera, but I rarely use it unless I have to. There's several recording modes, but I can't seem to record in the full 1080p. Whenever I play it back, the video freezes at the start and end of a scene. So I have at a diffrent setting for the time being since I'm too lazy to see what's wrong. The video is still great though. Some occasional artifacts, and once in awhile a little bit of lag. For me, it makes up for in size and comfort. you hold it like a gun and you wrist won't get tired like it would if you were holding some of the more traditional camcorders.

I brought this to a night time event recently and I was impressed with it's low light recording. The strippers were shown clearly and their pole dances were successfully captured on SD card for later, vasoline applied viewing. Overall, a great little camera for taking just about anything at any time. Unfortunately, it's a little too big as a spycam.

Sony SRS-T33S Portable Travel speaker

This speaker isn't bad. I paid $10 for it at a Sony outlet. Pay anything more and it's not worth it. The sound is a little hollow sounding and there's no bass to speak of, but it's portable. It takes 2 AAA batteries. Again, I use rechargeables and I haven't had to swap it out yet. It's been about 4 months. Than again, I don't use this anymore since getting the Altec Lansing below.

It's definitely better then the iSHIT (iHOME) below.

iHOME Rechargeable Mini speakers

Talk about piece of shit products. This POS shouldn't even be allowed to be called speakers. If I crank up those shitty ipod earphones to the max, that would sound better than these good looking, shitty sounding speakers. Great concept...the speakers fold down and clip to each other so that it looks like a potato bug when not in use. It's rechargeable and if you want to listen to it, just take it apart, pull out the speaker for extra bass sound and your good to go.

To bad they forgot to add some really good sound to it. For $50, I'll pass. Returned to sender with a big F you for making a great looking, good quality speaker, but someone forgot to listen to it before giving the thumbs up to go into production. Whoever it is should be fired for being a dumb ass.

Altec Lansing iM-237 Orbit

This is a very cool mini speaker for MP3 players, iPods, etc. It's a single speaker with a 3.5" plug that fits into standard players phone jacks. The very short 5" cable tucks neatly away by wrapping it up under the base. The sound is good especially coming from a single speaker.

It's great for listening to music while your at a picnic, hanging out, or just in your backyard or patio. It take 4 AAA batteries. I just use rechargeables. I've had a set in there for about 2 months and I use the speaker about 3 times a week for an hour or two. So far, I haven't had to swap the batteries yet. It's small enough that I keep it in my bag all the time in case I ever want to use it. Not bad for about $25.

Kata DR-467 backpack

Here's another Kata product that I like. It's able to hold my laptop, various backpack accessories plus my video cam, camera and lens, flash and an extra lens all at the bottom of the bag. One drawback, although the bottom is padded, do not drop the backpack onto the floor. I'm fairly certain your camera will be toast.

One good thing about the bag is it doesn't look like a camera bag. If someone's gonna steal the bag, it's probably because they think there's a laptop inside. The camera will just be a bonus for them.

Custom Brackets Mini-RC

I just bought this bracket recently. I wanted to shoot with my flash off camera, but I also didn't want to carry a behemoth while taking shots. I saw this bracket in a youtube video and I knew it was for me. Many comments on it say that it will not work on Nikon cameras...Bullshit. It works fine on my D90.

It's very small and light so you can carry it in your bag all the time. You do have get a flash sync cable or a flash shoe mount. I used it the first time using the Nikon's creative lighting system. Basically, I set the on camera flash as the commander and the remote flash as the slave. It works flawlessly except for the times I forgot to pop up the flash.

Overall another great buy.

Check out the bracket in action

Kata H-14 Holster Case

A very cool bag if you just need to take your body, lens, and flash. Plus a few other odds and ends. I was at an event recently and everyone else was carrying backpacks with several lenses, brackets, diffusers, etc. My gear was in the bag so no one knew what I was carrying. When it was time to take some pictures, I took out my Nikon and 18-200mm lens, attached my bracket and flash, and I was ready to go. Plus one of the pockets was still holding my video camera.

There's one main compartment for your camera and lens, a small compartment in front to hold extra batteries, a remote, or cleaning supplies. up top on the inner side of the flap, you can put some flash cards, business cards or filters. Two side pockets can fit a SB600 flash and my video camera. Finally theres a back pocket that can hold my bracket, some booklets and other flat items.

By all means, bring your big bag if you need to, but leave it in the car and transfer what you need into this H-14, and you'll be a happy camper.

Lowepro Slingshot 200

My first foray into camera bags. This is a nice bag. It's a sling so there's only one shoulder bag. Unfortunately, you can't put it on either of your shoulders. it's made to hang on your right shoulder then you sling if forward from your left side. I'm a lefty and it doesn't really bother me. I brought it to Wondercon and it was very convenient to be able to put my camera away without having to remove the bag from my shoulders, opening it, then putting the camera away only to find out I need it again in a couple of minutes.

This bag does it's job, but my back started to hurt after about an hour. I can tell it was the bag because it hurt only on one side. I think I may have had the bag hanging to the side rather than in the middle so that may have been the cause. It's a little bulky and does scream camera bag, take me! But, it's able to store a dSLR with a medium size lens as well as plenty of other pockets for most, if not all, your gear.