Great job from THK photo products!

Last year I bought a Slik Sprint Pro II Tripod from BH photo and was delighted with it. I've used it for a year till I brought it to a company event and unfortunately, while I was packing up my tripod just fell apart, like literally just fell apart. I loved the tripod because it's the most compact tripod I have. Inspecting the tripod closely I noticed that the rubber feet have slipped off, causing the lock to not catch the leg when folding away...thus loosing a spacer of some kind which caused the entire leg to fall apart. I felt so bad because I really loved that tripod. My Manfrotto ones are really sturdy, not too portable though. So I was browsing the web for repair facilities for Slik and I found the THK photo products website.

THK photo products is the distributor of Tokina, Hoya, Slik, and Kenko...popular brands for photography equipment. So I looked at their website for warranty and repair information for Slik tripods. Slik Tripods have excellent warranties. Mine was 3 years from the time that I bought it. 3 years is a long time. So I emailed their customer service and surprisingly got a reply within minutes...I'm surprised that customer service reps actually reply that fast! I had received an email from Mr. Glenn Nash from THK photo telling me info where I can send it and what I need. He was very informative. He even told me that if I cannot find my original receipt that I can just email BH photo for that, which I think is excellent. So I packed my tripod and sent it away!

Got my tripod in the mail like 3 days ago, a week and a half after I sent it...which in my opinion is pretty good service for repairs. It came out almost as good as brand new. From what I noticed, it's actually better than when I first got it because they glued those rubber feet in their proper places.

This is what I call excellent customer service. Basically what we need for every retailer we buy our stuff from. So THK photo products...Kudos to you!!!

Back to the studio

Yesterday I woke up and realized that I haven't used the studio in while now. About 2 and a half months to be exact. I have been taking a lot of outdoor shots since I got my mountain bike and totally forgot about the studio. Also, my table in the studio (the one I use for table top shots), was full of crap. So I basically spent my afternoon shredding old bills and mail that were in my table.

Come 8pm my studio was pretty much clean and ready to go. I had been partying the night before so I was still feeling the wonderful hangover I got in the morning. Had a quick dinner then I was off to taking pictures in my studio.

I setup my first shot and as I noticed, one of my speedlites that I use for fill light wasn't firing. The batteries were all drained. Luckily I have a fresh set of batteries ready to go so I replaced them so I can continue on working. That just explains how long my studio was vacant.

I took some shots of some vegetables we bought from a farmers market earlier in the day. After a couple of shots, I was tired...my back was hurting. That just tells me that I have to do this more often. All in all it was a good day to go back!

Bug shots

Went to my fiancee's moms house to celebrate her moms birthday over the weekend. Brought along the trusty 50d equipped with my favorite 70mm macro. For the lighting, I equipped it with a Canon MR-14EX. Right now is the perfect time to capture bugs outdoors. I suggest doing bug shots with a tripod, as I was too lazy to bring one, these were just shot handheld...not too bad though.

I had ton of bug pictures taken, though these were the only ones I uploaded.

Gutfest 2011

While in Tennessee, I brought along my trusty old rebel and equipped it with my 35mm prime. I had thoughts of bringing in my 70-200 IS USM but I was thinking it was an extreme music festival...so there's a pretty good chance my camera and lens might be knocked off my hands and into the mosh pit, and boy that's not going to be a pretty sight. So I brought along a kit that is light and portable and at the same time cheap...just in case something happens to it.

The 35mm is an awesome companion to a full frame and even on a crop body camera as it becomes a 56mm, pretty close to a normal 50mm lens for full frame. A very popular focal length among photographers. Though for band shots, you kinda have to move a bit closer to the band to fill up the frame, which I don't really mind.

I took pictures of this awesome band from MD called Partdeath. Great set! They kinda brought life to the audience. Too bad I cannot take pictures of my own band...this is the next best thing to that.

It was pretty dark in there and I didn't want to use a flash as much as possible, though I did sometimes. I had my camera accidentally set to aperture priority which put my speed below 100/sec...not too good for moving subjects. I would've set it to manual or shutter priority so I can set my speed higher, but things happen. Though the pictures came out pretty well.












Check them out here!

Taking shots in Tennessee

Went to Tennessee a couple of weeks ago. Been busy doing stuff so I haven't had the chance to do a lot of photography lately. So I guess it's about time to show some shots from the state.

Tennessee is a pretty place to take pictures. Lots of open fields where you can basically see miles away from where you are. The most exciting thing in my opinion when we were over there were the storms. Lightning was everywhere! It did freak out my friends. Too bad I wasn't stationary to take those awesome lightning shots, but that's fine.

Here are some of my shots:


Our car in a bridge somewhere


On our way home approaching a storm!


The next door neighbor where we stayed in