[Note: The first minute or so of the video doesn't have audio, so you don't need to adjust your audio settings.  Just an FYI.  I'll probably fix this later. Also, you can like, comment, rate, and subscribe on my cousin's youtube channel: JennyD12345]

Behind the Music Video

So, a few weeks ago, my Aunt and Uncle told me that my cousin (whom I had taken photos of in a previous post, here) was in need of a music video.  My cousin had recorded a demo of original songs, and were asked to provide a music video for one of their songs to participate in a contest.  They were referred to, and had spoken to, some guy who makes videos.  Apparently, in exchange for his services, he was asking for a woven basket full of beanie babies stuffed with unmarked twenties. Well, maybe it wasn’t specifically asked for in that manner, but the point is that it was an amount my aunt and uncle weren’t willing to pay that amount.  So, they came to me, their awesome nephew, looking for help.

Now, I had never done much video work, but since I have a camera that shoots video (the Nikon D300s), and I’m almost always willing to learn and try something new, I said, “Well, by golly, why the heck not?!” (But not really, because who really talks like that?  Not me, by golly!)

We shot this video at a park near Jenny’s home.  We didn’t realize how cold it was going to be, as it had been in the high 40′s (Fahrenheit, that is) that week, and only snowed that morning (and melted the following day).  We ended up having to go back home to get extra socks and a warm water bottle for Jenny as she was getting cold.

The Gear:

So, I shot this with my Nikon D300s, mounted on a Manfrotto 561bhdv-1 video fluid head monopod (for stabilization), a LED video light, and a handful of my prime lenses (the 85mm f/1.4D, the 50mm f/1.4D, the 35mm f/2.0D, and the 20mm f/2.8).

Overall, the D300s did a decent job.  It only shoots in 720P at 24fps (not the 23.98fps most cameras shoot), which is fine, but the overall control for video on the camera isn’t great.  But as long as you are aware of it, you can totally work around it.  For example, there are no manual settings for shooting video.  You can set your aperture only while outside of Live-View, and then use the AE-Lock to lock the exposure.  But in order to get the right exposure, you have to meter on something bright if you want it darker, or dark if you want it brighter.  Once you lock it in, it only stays locked in as long as you don’t exit Live-View or turn your camera off (which you would probably do if you want to change aperture, lenses, or the battery).  So, there were a few times when I forgot to lock the exposure, but this wasn’t a problem as long as the metering area didn’t move over to a darker or lighter spot during recording, as that would cause a visible stepping-up or down of the overall exposure).

What I would have done differently:

I wish I had shot more moving shots.  It would have added a lot more to the video.  I had relied on a lot of static shots, because I’m not really used to handling a DSLR to shoot video, so I wasn’t confident in being able to handhold the camera steadily.  I think if I had one of those LCD Viewfinder magnifier things (like a Zacuto Z-Finder, or a cheaper one, like this one here), it’d add another point of contact, and give me a little more confidence to handhold the camera.

It’d also be nice if I had multiple cameras.  This video was made using multiple takes, instead of having multiple angles of a single take.  This made it harder on my cousin (as her fingers were getting cold, so she couldn’t play through the whole song without putting onto a warm water bottle), and more difficult to synchronize in Premiere Pro. I had my other cousin, Brian, help out by playing the song on an ipod speaker, so Jenny could try and sync closely to the actual song.  So I used a lot of transitions to tie it together, and hide the majority of inconsistencies between the takes, although, if you’re paying close attention, you’ll still spot them.

Since this was my first time editing actual video, I didn’t have much experience with Premiere Pro.  I had initially screwed up the sequence settings when opened up my project, so the audio bitrate wasn’t matching up, and I spent hours trying to figure out why my audio was crackling with static.  Also, as I said earlier, the intro scene doesn’t have audio, and that was due to me screwing it up in Premiere Pro, something which I didn’t know how to fix at the time, but now I do.  So even though I didn’t start out with knowing how to use Premiere Pro, I was able to google, and youtube just about anything I was trying to figure out how to do (aside from the audio issue I had to troubleshoot for hours).  But, I guess next time, I’ll know a lot more about how to do what I want, or at least where to start. Also, I had Brian helping me out, and learning alongside me, which helped out with the frustrating parts.  He also added the title in the intro with After Effects.

So, that’s about it… I’d say, it’s not bad for a first effort, but, there’s always room for improvement.  If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below!  Thanks for checking it out!

A slideshow

So, I made a slideshow for the Long’s Peak hike, which I blogged about in laborious detail here: http://jletookthis.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/longs-peak-my-first-fourteener/

I know some people appreciated the timelapse-slideshow I made of my Europe trip, so I decided to do the same to all the photos from the hike.  You can watch the video in HD on Vimeo, or in the embedded video below.

Long’s Peak: My First Fourteener from Justin Le on Vimeo.

In August of 2011, some friends and I attempted to hike Long’s Peak – one of the more well-known fourteeners in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. The journey is grueling, and reportedly perilous. Would we make it? Watch the video to find out!

I blogged and posted some photos of the hike a couple months ago (http://jletookthis.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/longs-peak-my-first-fourteener/), but then I decided I’d put together a timelapse-style slideshow of the hike with all the photos I took. These photos were shot in raw, and were taken straight out of camera with no editing or cropping, and batch exported to jpeg.

Gear: Nikon D700, Nikon 20mm f/2.8, Sigma 24-60mm f/2.8

Song: Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

http://vimeo.com/34117404

Crater Lake in July

Crater Lake National Park (Crater Lake, Oregon)

This past July, my brother and I were able to take a roadtrip across the US.  One of our stops was Crater Lake National Park.  If you ever find yourself in Oregon, I would definitely recommend taking a trip to Crater Lake National Park.  If I recall correctly, it’s about a 5 hr drive from Portland, OR, or just over 3 hrs from Eugene, OR.  You can drive almost all the way around the lake, and there are some great little hikes in the area.

My brother and I hiked down to the water, which is where I snagged this shot.  The water stays close to freezing year round, but that doesn’t stop tourists from jumping into the water from a rocky outcropping. If we would have known, we’d have worn our swim trunks and taken a dunk as well.

Tourists taking a Dip in Crater Lake

If you’d like to learn more about Crater Lake, I’d recommend you check out the wikipedia entry for Crater Lake, OR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake

On Content-Aware Fill:

For most photos, I tend to only use Adobe Lightroom 3 for my post-processing needs.  However, sometimes some photos have distracting elements that just can’t be fixed in camera or in Lightroom.  For times like this, I use Adobe Photoshop CS5.  CS5 has a new feature called “Content-Aware Fill” which allows you to easily select distracting elements, and the program automagically fills in that area helping it blend it into the background.  For the first photo, I used content-aware fill to remove a distracting rock from the foreground (on the lower right side), and some lens flare that I found distracting.

Here’s the original photo:

Crater Lake in July, Original Image

And here’s the final image, which can also be seen at the top of the post:

Crater Lake in July

So, it’s not a huge difference, but I think it’s something that definitely improves the final image.

Gear:

Here is the basic gear I used to take this photo (Linked to Amazon):

Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3

SanDisk Extreme Compact Flash

Nikon D700

Nikon 20mm f/2.8D

Nikon EN-EL3e battery for D700

Eurotrip 2011: Poland, France, England from Justin Le on Vimeo.
(Watch it on Vimeo for the HD version…)

I left Detroit, MI on 10/28/11 and returned on 11/11/11. Midway through my trip, as I was scrolling through my pictures on the LCD of my D700, the thought occurred to me that it could be neat to make slideshow out of all the photos. This way, I don’t have to spend hours, days, or weeks going through my photos before I feel like I can show them to people, and can share them immediately.

Obviously, for my fragile ego’s sake, I have to mention these are all un-edited and unprocessed. Therefore, I make no guarantees as to the actual quality or content of these photos individually, but together, it seemed pretty nice. These are all the photos from my memory cards. 1511 photos, which was about 20 GB of space, all crammed into 8 minutes. I imported these photos into Adobe Lightroom 3, converting from .NEF to .DNG, with a basic preset which slightly adjusts the clarity and the tone curve. Once imported, I did a batch export to .jpeg, resizing the image height to 720px (maintaining the 3:2 aspect ratio), and then brought them into Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 as numbered stills. Added title screen and credit screen, slowed the speed to 12%, and added music. Song selection was based on what I was listening to on my iPhone while traveling, and has no real relevant meaning, aside from any subconscious reasons that I’m unaware of.

As this was my first time doing anything of this sort, and using Premiere Pro even, please forgive the basic-ness of this vid.

Things you’ll see in this video:

Poland (Warsaw):

- Tenderheart Care Bear, Shark Attack, & Waldo (aka Wally in Europe).  Halloween isn’t celebrated in Europe like it is in the States, so the Americans in Poland celebrated it twice.
- Assistant Coach Katz
- Old Town Market Place
- All Saints Day at the Cemetary

France (Paris):

- The Opera
- St. Germain des Pres area (I guess the French love the rapper, Jermaine Dupree)
- Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel)
- The Champs-Elysees Avenue
- Arc de Triomphe
-  National Residence of the Invalids (Hotel Des Invalides)
- Moulin Rouge
- The Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Le Sacre-Coeur MontMartre)
- Place de la Concorde (including the Fontaines de la Concorde & the Obelisque de Louxor)
- Jardin des Tuileries
-  Love Locks on Pont des Arts
-  Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
- The Louvre
- The Notre Dame

England (Cambridge):

- Thien & Stephen’s new pad
- Jesus Green
- King’s College
- Clare College
- Saint Catharine’s College
- Great St. Mary’s Church
- Our Lady & The English Martyrs Curch
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed it.

Camera Gear: Nikon D700, Nikon 20mm f/2.8, Nikon 50 mm f/1.4D, Nikon 85mm f/1.4D, Sigma 24-60mm f/2.8. Video created on my Dell XPS 15.

Any other questions, let me know. Thanks!

Went home to visit the ‘rents today, and thought I’d take some star photos.  My hometown is about 20 minutes outside of Lansing, MI, (which is to say, 20 minutes into the boonies), so there is less light pollution than the city, but it’s not completely absent.  My buddy Andrew had sent me a shot of what I think is called a star field (correct me if I’m wrong), and I figured I’d give it a shot.  The sky was clear enough, but I definitely think it’d be better if I was further away from any large light sources polluting my sky and my photos.

My first attempt trying to capture star fields. All shot with my Nikon D700, and the Nikon 20mm f/2.8 at various settings on a tripod.  It was hard trying to set the camera in the dark as well as having to focus manually, so I might have some things I want to change for next time.

…At least, that’s what I assume it’s called. After leaving my friends’, Andrew & Carrie’s, wedding in Saint Paul, MN, I went straight instead of taking a left turn. I ended up going under this bridge, and started to turn around right after the bridge. I thought the lights on the bridge looked cool, so I decided to stop for a few photos of the bridge. Unfortunately, the old UV filter I have on the wide angle lens I like to use (the Nikon 20mm f/2.8) that came with the lens when I bought it used, was actually literally, old.  Anyway, the old “haze” filter left some haziness in the flare of the lights, so those didn’t turn out so great. But, here are a few others which turned out pretty good, I think, anyway.  Let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, I’ll probably start browsing for a new multicoat UV filter for my lens, or remember to remove it for those kind of shots.

Just over a month ago, I, and 6 of my friends, embarked upon a journey. A journey of modestly epic proportions. A journey that many have done before, but none of those people were us. We were going to hike Long’s Peak.

We had all traveled to Estes Park to celebrate, our friends, Rob and Julie’s wedding, and after the wedding, we took a week to enjoy Colorado.  During the week leading up to our hike, we had been discussing whether or not we would attempt Long’s Peak.  If you don’t know about Long’s Peak, it is the only fourteener (where the summit is above 14,000 ft above sea level) in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I’ll let wikipedia describe the Keyhole route for you.

The hike from the trailhead to the summit is 8 miles (13 km) each way. Most hikers begin before dawn in order to reach the summit and return below the tree line before frequent afternoon thunderstorms bring a risk of lightning strikes. The most difficult portion of the hike begins at the Boulder Field, 6.4 miles (10 km) into the hike. After scrambling over the boulders, hikers reach the Keyhole at 6.7 miles (10.5 km).

The following quarter of a mile involves a scramble along narrow ledges, many of which may have nearly sheer cliffs of 1,000 feet (305 m) or more just off the edge. The next portion of the hike includes climbing over 600 vertical feet (183 m) up the Trough before reaching the most exposed section of the hike, the Narrows. Just beyond the Narrows, the Notch signifies the beginning of the Homestretch, a steep climb to the football field-sized, flat summit. It is possible to camp out overnight in the Boulder Field (permit required) which makes for a less arduous two day hike, although this is fairly exposed to the elements. 57 people have died climbing or hiking Longs Peak. According to the National Park Service, 2 people, on average, die every year attempting to climb the mountain. In the summer of 2005 a Japanese climber was blown off a ledge after reaching the summit. On September 3, 2006 a man fell 800 feet (244 m) to his death when some rocks let go while he was descending the Loft route. Less experienced mountaineers are encouraged to use a guide for this summit to mitigate risk and increase the probability of a summit.

-From Wikipedia

CAUTION! ACHTUNG, BABY!  This is a very photo heavy post.  Click at your own risk.  There are dozens of photos in this post, so those on a 56k modem should probably join us in the 21st century and get some hi-speed internet! (j/k but, you know, seriously, it might take a while to load.)

After reading something like that, it leads a person to really reconsider whether or not this is a task worth undertaking.  The article doesn’t mention that the total elevation gain during the hike is 4,850′, with the summit at 14,256′.  If you’ve never been to Colorado (or anywhere a mile above sea-level), you probably wouldn’t know what it’s like to hike where the air has less oxygen.  You really don’t notice it until you realize that after climbing one flight of stairs, you find yourself breathing heavy.  This also doesn’t include the potential for altitude sickness, if you don’t allow your body time to acclimate.  Last year, I was in Estes Park rock climbing with some friends, and decided not to hike Long’s Peak at that time.  A few other friends had went ahead with the hike, and although they all reached the summit, one of the girls suffered from a real bad case of altitude sickness, causing her intense headaches, vomiting, and severe nausea.  With that in mind, I, and a few of the others, were a little hesitant to undertake this ordeal, while a few others were a little more gung-ho.

As my longest hike had been about 5 miles (with an elevation gain of ~3,500 ft), and I was extremely sore for the next few days, I wasn’t sure a hike of this caliber was within my capabilities.  Luckily, my friends encouraged me, and a couple days before we were tentatively planning on hiking/climbing Long’s, we did a warm up hike with Flattop Mountain.  It’s a  7 mile round trip hike, starting at 9,475 ft, with the summit at 12, 354 ft giving an elevation gain of only ~2,800 ft.  This hike took us about 8 hrs to complete, with some intermittent rain during the ascent.  The hike went well, and really gave us a good understanding of the pace we wanted to go, and how the altitude would affect our body.  Additionally, it gave us a good understanding of how much water we needed to bring, and snacks to keep our energy up.  I felt pretty good after the hike, and it gave me confidence enough to know I could at least make it to the Boulder Field, and then at least attempt hiking Long’s Peak.

Gear:
REI Traverse 30L backpack
REI Taku Jacket
REI Adventure Pants
Platypus Big Zip SL 3.0L Reservoir
Patagonia Capilene 2 Zip Tee
Ex-Officio Boxer Briefs
North Face Bambeanie Hat
North Face bamboo gloves
REI Hybrid Light Hiking Quarter Socks
Salomon Fastpaker Mid Hiking Boot
Chili’s Polarized Sunglasses
Hiking Poles
Nalgene 1L bottle
Nikon D700 & 20mm f/2.8 & Sigma 12-60mm f/2.8
Ultrapod 2 Mini Tripod
Headlamp

The reason I think it’s worth listing my gear is that without these items, the hike would have been a lot more miserable than it already was (even writing this over a month later, I still haven’t forgotten how taxing this hike was).  The night before, we assembled all of our gear, made sandwiches, and filled our hydration packs, and water bottles with a 50/50 mixture of gatorade and water.  From the warm-up hike, I knew I’d need at least 4L of water.  We went to bed around 10:30pm on wednesday night, and got up at 1:30am on Thursday in order to get to the trailhead by 2am, giving us ample time to get up  and down below the treeline by early afternoon to avoid exposing ourselves to thunderstorms with no cover.  We ended up getting into the parking lot at around 2:10am, and found a dozen or so cars were already parked, and people on the trail.  We got our packs on, adjusted straps, adjusted our layers for the weather.  We finally hit the trail at around 2:20am or so, and by the time we had hiked .4 miles, we were stopping again to readjust our layers.  It was 60 degrees, but with the hiking and altitude, we were sweating in no time.

The nice thing about bringing a camera with you is that it gives you an excuse to stop and catch your breath.  You just pretend like it is a good spot to stop for a photo, and then you don’t look like a wimpy idiot stopping every few minutes to catch your breath in front of your friends.  But seriously, we had gotten a good pace by the time we cleared the treeline.  We were stopping every hour or so to make sure we drank a little bit, and had a granola bar to keep our energy up.  By then, I was leading the pack and setting the pace.  Which made it easier for me, because I could go at a speed I was comfortable with, and not at someone else’s speed.  And considering my pace was pretty slow anyway, it worked out for everyone else.  Once past the treeline, you could kind of see the half-moon illuminating the landscape around, although it was hard to really appreciate it when your eyes are basically glued to the trail looking for good footing, and you are counting out your hiking pole swings-to-steps ratio and trying to keep your breaths-to-steps ratio even.  It takes your mind off of how grueling the hike is, and how you attempt to convince yourself you’ve gone further than you’ve actually gone. “Man, we’ve got to have gone X miles by now.  We should be seeing [insert some landmark we read about online] any second now.  I swear we are close.” And each time that thought crossed my mind, it was not close, and you just had to stop thinking about it.

At one point during our hike, we had started to get higher than our surroundings, and we really started to feel the wind pick up and the temperature drop.  As we crossed over one ridge, we had to stop to hide out behind some boulders in hopes that the 40-50 mile an hour winds would die down.  We stopped put on additional layers, put on hats, zipped our jackets up tighter, and huddled together as we took the opportunity to munch on some clif bars and sip on our Gatorwater mixture. A few other hikers joined us in huddling behind boulders to escape the wind.

After about 10 minutes, it became obvious to us that the wind wasn’t dying down, and we were only getting colder as we had stopped moving. Our only choice was to keep going, and hope that the wind was less severe as we crossed over the ridge. We had gone about 20 minutes, just over the ridge when we finally felt the ridges around us giving us shelter from the wind. The sun was just starting to peak up over the horizon, as we decided to stop and admire the beauty of nature, and have a couple of bites. Forcing ourselves to stop and make sure we were eating a bit and drinking a bit was helping us keep our morale and energy up. During this stop, I was able to set my mini tripod and get some more long exposure shots going.  The stars were out, and the skies mostly clear.  The moon gave enough light to illuminate the landscape for these shots.

After stopping for a few moments, we continued on. With the sun coming up, we hoped we were nearing the Boulder Field so that we could remain on pace with our schedule. As we looked down the trail we had hiked below us, we saw a stream of bobbing headlamps coming up the trail, which just looked awesome. There is just something about knowing there are probably hundreds of people hiking this trail along with you that gives you a sense of ease and unspoken camaraderie. Capturing these bobbing lights in a photo translates into some neat squiggly light streaks.

We finally approach the Boulder Field, and we start to see the Diamond face, as well as the Keyhole ever so small in the between the ridges.

As we cross the Boulder Field, you find out just what you are getting yourself into. The 5 miles up to this point were nothing compared to the remaining miles, as those would be accompanied by the steeper elevation gains, as well as more exposed routes. As you hop from rock to rock, you keep wondering why the Keyhole is so small, and so damn far away.

Once we got to the Keyhole, I found myself feeling pretty good. Up to that point, I had given myself the option to stop, and turn around at anytime, but now with us having made it to the keyhole, I had finally convinced myself that I could actually potentially make it to the summit. Once you get to the Keyhole, you feel as if the strong gusts of wind might blow you off into the endless abyss (so to speak, you could actually see the bottom, it was just really far below, and full of pointy, painful looking rocks). But, once you get around the corner to the other, you breathe a sigh of relief, as it’s relatively calm. Then you look ahead at the “trail” only to find you are now on The Ledges. You realize you may have sighed too early, there’s no relief yet to be had. But the only redeeming factor was that it wasn’t going to be as steep for a little while, but it will be scrambley (as in, full of scrambling).

The Trough:

The Narrows:

The Notch:

The Homestretch:

This is the only photo I have of the homestretch. After crossing the Notch, I looked up at the Homestretch, and while for every other part of the hike, I felt I could continue, the homestretch was really where I began to doubt that I would finish. Prior to this point, we had no idea how difficult this part would be. Earlier, as we were still coming up to the notch, a lady was already on her way down. We made some conversation with her, and she had made it all the way to the Homestretch, but only to take one look, and she turned around without summiting. She was fit and in great shape, as she had made much better time than our group, but the exposure of the homestretch was too much for her. And until we got to this point, I couldn’t understand how you could get to the Homestretch, only a hundred yards or so away from the summit, and turn around.

We had given ourselves a time table, so that we could complete the hike (by 10 am), spend some time on the summit (until 10:30am), and potentially be down below the treeline (by 2pm) before the afternoon thunderstorms typically start. With that in mind, and knowing I would have to be scrambling on all fours in order to stay on the wall, I didn’t want my camera dangling, swinging, and banging into the rocks (I gotta draw the line somewhere). I put my camera in my pack, and for the next 20 minutes, I made my way up the wall. My legs were weary, and I could feel my legs began to tremble with each step. And with each step, I found that I had to keep convincing myself that I could make it, even though I was breathing heavier than before. It’s hard to explain how the altitude leaves you gasping for air, as well as how tired your body gets after almost 8 hours of non-stop activity, with each step requiring your stabilizing muscles in your legs to help you maintain your balance, but it becomes more of a mental thing than anything at that point. I pushed on. Some spots were nothing but slabs, with only a thin crack with which you would have to wedge your boot and hands into to try to get up the next 6 foot stretch. The wall was angled just enough that there was not enough friction to smear you soles on the wall and walk up, but you actually had to find some handholds and footholds to make your way up. The wonderful part is, that as you are coming up, you have to stop to allow people to come down. Everyone there all provided words of encouragement, seeing how weary we were (at least how weary I was; the others had gotten ahead of me by this point). With a lot of “You’re almost there!” and “You can do it!” and “Keep it going, you’re doing great!”, I managed to finally drag myself up to the top, and breathed many rapid and deep sighs of relief. I managed to congratulate myself as I made it up saying something to the effect of “I’ve done what no man has done before! Except for all you guys, and everyone else before me…”.

The Summit:

The Long’s Peak Summit Crew: (From L to R) James, Matt, Rob, Me (JLe), Julie, April, and Brian

We were relieved to make it to the top. We signed the summit register, and ate some food, and took some photos. I felt pretty good, although, I felt really gassy, and had a slight headache. Brian and James didn’t fare quite as well, as they had pretty bad headaches and nausea… (Above is a shot of Brian sprawled out on the summit. Brian and James only stayed about 10 minutes and headed back down, while, the rest of us hung out for about 25 minutes or so.

The Descent:

Descending from the summit is much harder than you think. Sure, it’s all down hill, so it’s not too strenuous, but at the same time, if you want to descend carefully, you have to go slowly and more controlled, otherwise, I’m sure it would be much easier to go tumbling down the mountain. I don’t have as many picture of the descent, because by this point, the sun was overhead, and not quite as dynamic, but also, we just wanted to get the heck off the mountain. My left knee was starting to ache at this point, and my legs were definitely weary. We slid on our backsides, and scrambled down. And each stretch seems twice as long as it seemed on the way up. I’m sure it was a combination of thinking that going downhill would be so much easier, our eagerness to get off the mountain, our minds subconsciously blocking out how long it took us, and the twilight making everything pleasant tricking us into thinking the hike up was shorter and more enjoyable, but every stretch seemed to be twice as long on the way down. More than a few times we said muttered to one another, “I don’t remember it taking this long.” (Especially on the Ledges)

We met up with Brian and James at the bottom of the Boulderfield, where they had taken a nap for about an hour. They had gotten off ahead of us, as they didn’t feel well on the summit, and as we started hiking again, they got ahead of us again. With about 3 miles to go, I was sick of hiking, and knowing my knee was going to ache regardless of how fast I went, and my legs were going to be tired, I started setting a rapid speed hike down the trail even old mallwalking grandma’s would be impressed with. We finally made it down by 4:30pm and we were exhausted.

We expected to find Brian and James in the parking lot, but as it turns out, they were so sick of the hiking, they had called their wives to come pick them up. (The story goes that about an hour before they got down, they had minimal signal on the mountain, and were just able to leave a voicemail message before their battery died, so they had no idea if their wives would even be there when they got to the parking lot, but i think Brian had even said it was one of the happiest moments of his life to see his wife waiting there in the parking lot for him.)

After 14 hours of hiking, we were finally done. We received no trophies or medals, but we got to experience nature at it’s finest, and even accomplished something which I never thought I would be able to do. We rewarded ourselves with Chicken McNuggets and Subway, although, I only ate half my sandwich, and 2 nuggets before I couldn’t eat anymore. For a few weeks after the hike, I had some weird joint aches, and the arch in my right foot was achy. But other than that, I guess I can now say, I survived Long’s Peak!

Disclaimer: This post may be modified in the future to add in more details, or correct spelling, grammatical, factual or sequential errors. That hike took a toll on my mind as well, so that way if something occurs to me about the hike, I’ll add it to this post. Thanks for reading!

Andrew and Carrie were married just yesterday in a beautiful ceremony in Saint Paul, MN at the Harriet Island Pavilion. Andrew and Carrie are both friends of mine, and they had asked me to help out with capturing some photos while the guys were getting ready for the ceremony. They had hired a pro, so that allowed me to enjoy the rest of the day without having to stress about photos and just letting me catch up with friends I haven’t seen since I moved away from the Twin Cities almost 4 months ago. Since I got to tag along with the wedding party, I was able to snap some candid pics while the wedding photog was busy setting up the group formals. JLe, you sly dog, you. I imagine that’s what you would be saying right now, although, that phrase seems dated now that I’ve just typed it. The diptych above was taken at the Sibley House Historic Site in Saint Paul, MN.

A few weeks back, I attended the wedding of some very close friends, Rob and Julie. They had their wedding at the amphitheater at Morraine Park in the Rocky Mountains National Park. Since it was a small wedding with just family and close friends, they asked me to do some photos for them as they were looking for a pretty low-cost, low-maintenance wedding. Wedding photography isn’t my thing, but I rarely turn down a friend when in need (and when the favor is something that interests me anyway). Having only done a few weddings, I’m always learning, and I’m always learning how difficult wedding photography is, and how much respect great wedding photographers deserve. In any case, here are a few of my photos from the wedding.

Getting Ready:

First Look:

Waiting for late arrivals before the grand entrance:

Ceremony begins:

The Guests:

The Fam:

The Photographer (me) & Assistant (ATP) A.K.A. Tricks 101 Snowboarding Crew):

Ring Shot:

Post-Ceremony:

The Reception:

The end of the night:

While in Colorado earlier this month, I tried to capture a few star trail photos.  I understand the concept pretty well; basically long exposure shots of the night sky, but without having done them before, they aren’t as easy as they look.  The key to getting some interesting shots is to have a good foreground to anchor it.  Otherwise, it’s just some arcs of light.  I think even a silhouette of something would work.  Here’s a few from a campsite just outside of Fruita, CO.  These trees were illuminated by a nearby tungsten light from the campgrounds.   Luckily, it was a relatively windless night, keeping the leaves still enough to get some detail.  Anyway, I’m pleased with the results.  I’ll be trying it again sometime soon, but now that I’m back in Michigan, the mosquitoes are not really convincing me that I want to spend time outside at night… But perhaps, when it gets a little colder, I might try to make it out for some photos.

This last one is actually from later in the week, in Estes Park, of what I believe is Long’s Peak.

I took some outdoor portraits for my cousin Jenny last month.  She’s a budding musician, and has a bunch of vids posted on Youtube, where she does a bunch of covers and occasionally does an original tune too.  She’s getting more gigs for shows, and occasionally they ask her to provide a photo,so I offered my services.  I had recently picked up an Westcott Apollo 28″ Softbox as a flash modifier, so I was pretty excited to try it out on a new victim. So The results are quite pleasing; you can see for yourself down below… It gives a nice soft light and is super easy to set up.  It sets up just like a silver reflector umbrella, but it also provides better light spillage prevention while softening and evening out the light in the front.  I shot these with my Nikon D700, Yongnuo RF-602 flash triggers, 85mm f/1.4D, and SB-28dx flash, triggered off camera.

In any case, here are more photos below, including a couple of behind the scene shots as well.

BTS:

I returned from Vietnam a few weeks back, and although I’ve been slow in working on these photos, I have to admit, I’ve got a good excuse.  Although, maybe that’s a story for another time.  I just thought I’d share a few photos from Vietnam.  I haven’t made my way through all of them, but when I do, I’m sure I’ll let you know.

I’ll be doing some more in the next few months as I go on a few different journeys.  Went to The Flash Bus tour and found a lot of inspiration, especially for lighting and portraits.  It was led by Joe McNally (one of my photog heroes) and David Hobby (one of the innovators in the strobist world), and I definitely learned a lot, and look forward to putting that to good use in the near future.  I’ll be heading for Vietnam, and then hopefully, travelling and photographing for the summer, so hope to get some better posts up in the next few months!  Until then…

Well, being kind of a techie, and a camera nerd, I guess it makes sense that people ask me.  But then again, you never hear people ask, “What kind of car should I buy?”.  Just like there’s no one right car for anybody, there isn’t going to be a camera that will please everyone.  People have different needs and preferences, so it’d be really hard to recommend just one camera to fit everyone’s needs.  I think the issue is that most people don’t know much about cameras, and what the differences are between the different kinds. I’ll try and breakdown the major differences between the major types, but I do recommend you do your own research for a specific camera, as you’ll be much more satisfied with the purchase because you’ll rest assured it’ll meet your specific needs.  Also, for the most part, any kind of camera you are looking for will be listed/reviewed at dpreview.com (it’s one of the premier camera review sites; it’s where I do the most research on new cameras).  In any case, here are my thoughts:

But, with how popular my Christmas cards were in 2008, As seen here:

So needless to say, there was a lot of pressure to create a card that would top that.  2009, I started working on an idea, but it never really jumped out at me as outdo-ing the previous year’s card…I had a few designs, but ended up scrapping the whole thing.  So this year, with the last card all but forgotten, the pressure was off, and I was free to get creative again without the performance anxiety.  I had seen a great stop motion video on vimeo (http://vimeo.com/17087679) using light stencils, and I thought I’d do something similar.  I ended up making multiple stencils, using a flashlight to do some light painting, and then doing a little stacking and photoshopping to get the final image.   Hope you like it!

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Photos from a recent birthday party I shot at…

After my last trip to NYC, my friend Patty asked if I was interested in a photo gig.  She told me about her friend who was throwing a big birthday party for her 1 year old son (well, more for friends and family, I’m sure), and she wanted to hire a photographer.  The gig wouldn’t completely cover my flight out to NYC, so I was basically working for a discounted trip back to the City.

I thought about it for a couple of days, and decided I would do it.  Partly to say I had a paid gig in NYC, partly to get some more experience, but mostly to hang out with Patty.  I told Patty I was in, and booked my flight.  The gig was on sunday, so I had a couple days to hang out before the gig (I’ll post some of those personal photos in a separate post).

The party was going to be held at 230 Fifth; an awesome rooftop bar that Patty works at.  They had booked one of the rooms with huge windows, offering a great view of the city.  Given that the venue’s primarily known as a nighttime hotspot, they also have an amazing brunch.  But with that said, the lighting conditions weren’t ideal for the type of shooting I was hoping to do.

I was really hoping to do mainly natural light, candid shots.  For whatever reason, I was in the mindset that I could shun flash, and get by with natural light only.  Had the ceilings/walls not been painted red, I might have considered bouncing the flash.  However, I, being the stubborn “artist” I am, did not want to use direct/unbounced on-camera flash (the walls were dark, and the ceiling was a glossy red).  I ended up going the hi-iso (iso 800 – 1600) route.

The gear I used was my newly acquired D700 with 20mm f/2.8D and 85mm f/1.4D, as well as my Olympus E620 with 35-100mm f/2.0.  I didn’t realize how tight the quarters would be, and if I had to do it over again, I would have used the 12-60mm on the Olympus with the on camera flash.  I was supposed to be getting a 50mm f/1.4D for my nikon, but I didn’t end up getting it in time before I left for the weekend.  The other thing was the 35-100mm is such a big lens, I opted to leave the lens hood off as to not to be as intrusive with a camera with a huge lens.  I think I would have kept it on as it would have reduced the lens flare in some of the backlit photos.  All in all, I think the photos turned out pretty good.  My only regret was not getting a better understanding of what the client wanted.  I was vaguely told to “just capture everything,” but I think for next time, I would have asked for a more descriptive objective.  I blame my inexperience, but I think I may have provided less than what the client was expecting.  For the future, to do event photos, I’d have to ask for a general schedule/agenda, just so I would know when and where I should be throughout the event, and what was important.  Additionally, what specific shots the client is looking for, group photos, etc, and I could have set something up so I could be ready to do it, and do it quickly.  To be honest, it was fun, but it was pretty stressful.   The whole time, I couldn’t help but think about what other gear I could have used.  In any case, it was a good experience, and I definitely liked the moments I was able to capture.

A month or so back, a friend of mine had asked me to take some photos of her family… I’ve done family photos before, but usually it’s with parents who have young kids (I’m at that age where my friends are starting to have kids).  So this was a nice departure, where it’s easy to get the subjects to actually look towards the camera… (then again, you don’t get the cute candid moments where the kid is definitely doing something he’s not supposed to be doing )

The photos were done early evening, slightly before the golden hour, so the light still wasn’t great, and so I decided to use off camera flash.  Sometimes I get a little too tunnel vision on doing things a certain way, I miss some other shots.  I think I could have balanced the flash with the ambient a little better, or gone with some shots with just available light for a more natural look.  Luckily, Greta and her brother and mom were great sports about it, and we had a great time.  And they liked the pics too.  So that’s good.  Also, thanks to my buddy Rob for hucking my gear around and being my Voice Activated Lightstand.  I treated him to a delicious vietnamese meal for his hard work.

So, I recently went out to NYC for my friend Allen & Julie’s wedding.  They had a really sweet photographer already, so it was awesome to watch him in action.  The dude had an assistant holding a light stick, with a continuous LED light, as well as a couple of strobes which looked like they were being triggered by radio poppers.  In addition to those, he had a couple of strobes on light stands in the corners of the room.  I did my best to stay out of the way of the professional photographer, and only took photos for myself.  I took advantage of the continuous light the assistant was carrying around and grabbed a couple of shots without flash, from where I was sitting…

So, I took a bunch less than what I have taken in the past, but at the same time, I got a few that I really liked.  I used my 35mm f/1.4 to get these shots in low light (at iso 800, with the shutter speed around 1/60th of a second, which was enough to reduce motion blur and camera shake, but still get enough light without having to go past iso 800, which can get a little noisy on the Olympus E620).  And since I took less, I didn’t have to process as many, and that’s nice.  The wedding was super nice, and really fun… Open bar, tons of dancing, and the best wedding date ever.  There was a time when I spent too much time taking pictures, and not enough partying… this time, I think I struck a good balance.

They had their wedding in Long Island City at the Water’s Edge, which offered an awesome view of the city… I took this handheld with my wide-angle zoom at 12mm (24mm EFL), iso 800, and 1/3s.  It was a really sweet view, which was made even more awesome with the misty fogginess which followed the rain earlier that evening.

And here are a few more photos from throughout the night…

With Redstone in town, Rob and I commandeered a rental vehicle, and we made our trip down to the Cape of Good Hope.  Along the way, we were able to stop at Boulder Beach and check out some hot penguin on beach action, and even hiked up Cape Point.  We made our best effort to make it back to Cape Town to catch the game with Bafana Bafana vs. France, but ended up listening to the first half on the radio (although it was a little confusing, as they were alternating commentary on both games that were going on simultaneously).

Basically, I’m way behind on this blogging, so I’ll keep things concise, for my sake.

Today was Alex’s last day of her short stay in Cape Town.  She managed to wrangle a couple of tickets to the match in Cape Town that day, so she was able to get the full experience (even if it was the abridged, cliff’s notes version).  This would also be my first World Cup game as well, and only my second ever actual football match (look at me, calling it by what the rest of the world calls it, I’m quite the sophisticated one).  The first being, England vs USA back in 2005 over memorial day in Chicago.  But, that’s not important.  Today’s match was the oh-so impressive Portugal vs. the not quite as impressive North Korea.

We met near the Green Market Square where Alex wanted to check out the wares to pick up some gifts.  It was raining, so we shopped around for some ponchos (and paid a premium for the security of little sheets of plastic with a hole for our faces).  We walked the fanwalk, which was pretty awesome; reminiscent of the march from campus down to the Big House for football games, but obviously, not as busy… The big house’s capacity is still at least 200% of the Cape Town stadium, but nevertheless, it was awesome.

We arrived about 20 minutes early, which definitely wasn’t enough time to get through security.  Unfortunately, security at the stadium wasn’t quite up to snuff, and we ended up getting through security just as the game was starting.  We only missed the first few minutes of the game as we made our way to our seats.  Along the way, we saw mostly Portugal fans, along with some girls holding signs requesting that people give them a ticket and “take them in with them”.  These were young girls, probably no more than 19-20 years old.  I was in disbelief that there were girls this bold to expect people to give them a ticket to a game and expect nothing in return.  A Portugal fan, (obviously drunk), badgered the girl, and kept taking pictures with her as would put his arm around her.  She pushed him away, and renewed her efforts to find somebody to bring her into the game.  As she pushed him away, it seems that he noticed Alex and I watching him.  And, in a case of mistaken nationality, he began a chant for Korea.  It was hilarious, obnoxious, and awkward, and I do what I typically do in those situations, and pretended I didn’t notice.  Alex, on the other hand, piped up.  She was all, “WTF Mate?” and he was all “What?”  She basically called him out for assuming I was Korean, and he pretended his chants were coincidental with him staring at me.  Basically, the main thing I recall from this confrontation was Alex saying, “He’s American, you idiot!”  We continued on our way, and made it to our seats only missing the first few minutes of the game, and none of the excitement.

The reason this game was a notable game was that Portugal defeated North Korea 7-0.  It was an extremely exciting match, even though it was quite lopsided, you couldn’t help but feel bad for the N. Koreans.  There were rumors circulating that the North Koreans had hired Chinese actors to dress up as N. Korean fans/supporters.  What they didn’t realize, was they only had to encourage any people who looked Asian to attend a game, because people will assume they are Korean.

At around the 83 minute mark, with Portugal up 5-0, Alex had to leave the game to catch a flight, and didn’t want to be caught in the mad rush to leave the stadium and not be able to catch a cab, and make her flight.  As we were leaving, we hear cheering from inside the stadium, and we knew Portugal had scored.  We didn’t walk another 100 feet when we heard the crowd erupt in cheers again, and I assumed it was for a replay or something.  Who would have thought they would have scored 2 more goals in the last 7 minutes of the game?  Turns out we missed the last goal, which was scored by Ronaldo on a sweet play which had the ball bounce off of his back, go over his head, and basically land on his foot as he put it in the net.  So yeah, I was at that game.

Alex ended up making it to her flight on time, and the sun had come out after a day of drizzling rain.  As Alex was leaving to make her flight, my buddy Adam was making it down from Jo’burg to visit for a few days. I booked him a bed at the hostel I was staying at, which was the Cape Town Backpackers, and that was awesome.  We grabbed a beer at the hostel’s bar before we headed out for dinner.

We took him to the best burger place in town, Royale, and then headed back to Arnolds to unwind after the long day and catch up.