Bridal expo in Chicago Illinois

Today me and my fiancée went to a bridal expo in Chicago. There was a ton going on at the venue. The main reason why I wanted to go there was the fashion show.

This will be my very first live fashion show so I decided to bring my most trusted lens which is my 70-200 IS telephoto. I actually made a smart choice as I can just stay in one spot and zoom in all the way to the closest shot that I can get. Couple of days ago, I also got a Canon 430ex II, to replace my aging Sigma 500 dg st. Both pieces of equipment proved to be really worth it for this case scenario.

It was pretty bright in the venue as the sun was shining through the windows where the fashion show was held. I had enough light so I set my camera to aperture priority mode so I don't have to worry about my exposures as the models are moving. I used a flash so the models faces would be lit evenly, even in the sun. To avoid overexposure, I set up my flash to high speed synchronization mode...as my camera sometimes sets the shutter speed to above the normal sync speed. Great results were achieved throughout the show!

The complete set can be viewed here:
http://www.pbase.com/hardcoreboy/2011_bridal_expo_fashion_show

Getting ready for the Chicago Flower and Garden show

I took shots that I will enter for the 2011 Chicago Flower and Garden show photo contest. So far I've had some great concepts. I managed to take some shots and was very proud of my end result. I'll have them printed out then mounted. Then we'll see the results this coming March.

I took some shots while I was prepping my set. So far I've used 2 of my favorite lenses...My Sigma 70mm macro and my Canon 50mm 1.8. For shots like this, I'd suggest using prime lenses, so you can compose your shots without really messing with the zoom.















These aren't my final shots yet. I'll post them as soon as I can.

Eagle watch with no eagles

Today we went to the Elgin public library in Elgin Illinois where there was talk that bald eagles were seen roaming around that area. So I grabbed my trusty 70-200 IS lens, my 1.4 teleconverter and my 10-20mm, just in case I wanted to take photos of the scenery out there.

We got there and were looking around for about half an hour with no eagles in sight. Then from about half a mile away we see one...flying around an area with a lot of trees in it. Aimed my lens into the flying bird but cannot see a thing. And I realize that the 70-200mm on a teleconverter on a non full frame camera is not enough to capture the birds that far.

I captured one that was flying above our heads though but this is the closest I got:




















Bummer...So I just snapped my 10-20mm lens and shot the scenery instead. Shooting at around 3:30 pm gave me that long shadow look in photos which I loved for that special effect that I was trying to achieve.




















So it wasn't bad after all. I just spent the entire remainder of the day photographing the beautiful landscape.

Lake Geneva WI. and my 10-20mm

Couple of days ago we went to Lake Geneva Wisconsin. Stayed there overnight, woke up and went to the lake.
The temperature was around 10 degrees...a typical winter in Wisconsin. So I bundled up, grabbed my camera bag and braved the cold temperature just to take shot of frozen Lake Geneva.

It was a bit busy when we went there. There were people ice fishing, some were skating. It was all a nice experience though. I also got to try out my 10-20mm lens I got from Christmas.



Lake Geneva was such a nice place to photograph when it's frozen. Highly recommended!

The rest of the series are in:
http://www.pbase.com/hardcoreboy/frozen_lake_geneva

New toy from Christmas

I have always loved toys since I was a kid. Grew up in the 80's so I am really fond of Transformers, Voltron, GI Joe, Robotech, and a lot other mech/robot toys.

I always wanted a Voltron when I was a kid but never really had one. Now that I am grown up and able to afford toys :) I bid on this masterpiece edition Voltron in ebay. It arrived in the mail and I never had so much excitement to take photos of it.



Shot with my 70mm lens, 160/sec, f13 at ISO100.

Complete series is at:
http://www.pbase.com/hardcoreboy/voltron

Photographer's forum magazine

Photographer's forum magazine just released their yearly book.
Best of photography 2010 is now out and one of my photos is published!

Details at:

http://pfmagazine.com/

Heres my photo:

Happy new year to all!!!

This year has been fun for my photography.

I won my first contest and my first image was published.

I manage to hoard a ton of equipment and there will be more!

Also I got engaged!






See you all next year!