Vicki and Peter's Paper Anniversary!

A few days ago my sister wanted me to shoot family portraits for Peter, Vernon (their dog) and her. My sister Vicki and her husband Peter are celebrating their one year anniversary today! Hardly surprising they made it to a year (they are awesome together) but I am still damn happy for them!

Frankly, I was really scared about shooting pictures for my sister. My sister claims she was looking for just a single picture to be able to frame but I'm a professional damn it! I need to provide excellence! No seriously though, since she IS my eldest sibling, I felt like I had to do an especially amazing job for her because a) she's a genius and likes everything to be 100% awesome and b) it's my responsibility as her youngest brother! Adding to my fright was the fact that this is only my second portrait shoot ever. My first was for Nancy's graduation portraits and those actually came out nicer than I was expecting. Still, with no specific locations around her neighborhood in mind to shoot at and only 1 portrait shoot under my belt, I was going into this already self-prophesied lofty shoot pretty unprepared.

We literally walked around the blocks surrounding her neighborhood and I actually found some fantastic locations for photos. Unfortunately the setting sun was strong, which made looking into it for lighting difficult for them, and the surrounding tall buildings made for hard shadows galore. Still, I got some shots I really loved and hope they love too:

-This was my favorite shot from the shoot by far. We were walking around and in the beginning, I was pretty wary about barking directions to my sister and her husband because, well, she's my oldest sister! But we were walking around and I was sorta taking stalker walking pictures and I saw this alleyway and immediately barked "STOP! GET OVER THERE!" Peter was like "Oh you're doing professional style huh?" It was pretty empowering I admit but hey it made for a nice shot!

-This picture is taken on the center divider in the middle of the busy San Vicente Blvd in Westwood. At the time I thought nothing of how awkward a couple holding a dog for a cameraman in literally the middle of the road was but looking back on it... yeah it could have been awkward for them. Still, not as bad as the pictures we took on the haystack, which had them sitting on haystacks in the middle of the street while I was across the street barking directions! I was looking for some trees in full light that weren't shadowed by buildings and the only ones I found were in the middle of the street! The sunset was pretty bright though, which was unfortunate. PS, plus points for Vernon sticking out his tongue, shooting with a dog as subject is tough stuff.

-Ok so there's a whole set of pictures I took at this location, which is right outside of the Pinkberry in Westwood; I won't post them all because there's like 8 of them but this is my fav of them. The lighting and shadowing was perfect! The set of pictures I took here were pretty ideal: not too bright, not too dark, the lighting in the entire picture I thought was all even. I especially love how the yellowing leaves in the background are mirrored by my sister's yellow dress. Very summery, light and bright! I love this picture in particular because, well, Vernon is giving my sister a kiss, which is always cute.

-One more back at home of Vernon with his FAVORITE ring toy. This dog seriously does not stop once he thinks you want to play with him; he persists in making you play tug of war with him until your arm gets tired... then he just starts licking your face.

-One year ago, their wedding invites. Congratulations, Vicki and Peter!

Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin

Chasing That Elusive Dream.

Nearly two months later, I'm finally posting again in my little, unloved and unread blog. Trying to enjoy my last summer to the fullest often involves trying to post in the blog as little as possible, because posting in the blog often means I'm bored or studying, the two last states of mind I want to be in during my last summer ever.

I went to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from the middle of June to the middle of July. Given this is supposed to be a photo blog, I think I should post at least one or two of the 3200 pictures I took there. There may or may not be pictures at the end of this post... I'm still trying to decide as I type this out. I will say that the trip was tiring, intense, and a great, great deal of fun. It was a trip I didn't think I would ever or will ever go on again, and it was one of those experiences I will not forget for the rest of my life. From riding bikes across Vietnam, to getting into a taxi gang fight, to waking up at 4am in Angkor Wat, and everything in between, SE Asia was gorgeous and exciting.

So, I want to talk briefly about the subject matter of the title of this post. In the past month or so, I've noticed this really crazy phenomenon. Almost every single one of my girl/friends has seemed to find their perfect dude, or found happiness in their relationships, or something of that sort. When dealing with girl/friends, I'm usually accustomed to balancing out one girl's drama with another girl's happiness, or one girl's totally nauseating happiness with another girl's unwavering bitterness. I've never had to deal with total happiness and content from multiple, or almost every, girl before concerning their relationships and can I just say that as happy as I am for each and every single one of them, as a single guy failing miserably at "the game," it's really, really annoying.

I don't want to sound bitter or catty or anything because it's not their fault. I'm pretty sure it's mine. My inability to be content in a relationship or have enough balls to chase something I think would make me happy is not their fault and probably the focus point of my frustration. And it only gets exacerbated, like salt in the wound, by this recent phenomenon of, well, of happiness.

I keep on telling myself I'm really happy being single because I like the freedom being single affords, but given the latest string of events I think it's because I don't know what being content in a relationship really means anymore. I can't really chase that elusive dream if I don't know what that dream is, I guess, and I'm just too lazy and too scared to find out. It can't be that hard... it seems like all of my girl/friends have found it (even if none of my guy friends have.. hm.)

While I was typing that, I've decided I will post a few of my favorite pictures from each country I went to. This is nearly impossible as I like a LOT of the pictures I took, but oh well, here we go. Just making sure this photo blog doesn't turn completely into an emo blog, or something!

-Riding our motorbikes from Hue to Hoi An. This isn't an especially awesome picture or anything (I didn't even take it, our bike tour guide took it, but he was surprisingly good at taking group photos for us every single time!) but it really reminds me of that epic bike ride and puts a smile on my face every time. This was the start of one of the most amazing roads I've ever driven on ever, a cliff-side winding road overlooking the blue, blue Vietnam ocean. Spectacular.

-The floating market on the Mykong River in South Vietnam. I really love the lighting and coloring of this picture, and the woman overlooking the transferring of the goods. I conjured up a set of new Lightroom presets for my SE Asia pictures and I was going for a bright, lomo-ish look on this one with a little hint of gritty blues in the boat.

-A nice relaxing day at the beach on Phu Quoc island, Vietnam. People often think this is an HDR, complain about how the colors of the sky and water look fake, etc. etc., but it's not. Clearly this picture has been edited to bump up the contrast among other things (I got a cool lighting effect on the back of the seats and stuff, pretty excited about that) but this photo has a LOT LESS post production work done on it than it looks.

-The world-famous Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Now this is an HDR, and I hate overblown HDRs so you'll never see me doing an HDR that just looks crazy. Just really wanted to use to HDR to bring out Angkor Wat especially with the sun rising directly behind it. Gave it some pretty cool coloring in the sky too. I have maybe 10 versions of this iconic picture but in my opinion this is the most ~standard~ and easy to understand.

-Apparently these monkeys had rabies. They were just chillin on the steps outside of Angkor Wat and I really love how the composition of this picture came out, with a little bit of bokeh'd Angkor Wat in the background to give some context to the picture.

-Kuangsi waterfall in Luang Prabang, Laos. It was bright and I have still yet to get myself a filter so I could only afford at 1/3 exposure time. Still, I got the smooth waterfall look I was going for. This waterfall is pretty breathtaking in real life, very very large and powerful. It was tough not getting my camera wet for this shot but with some imaginative shielding I got it done.

-View of the sunset over Luang Prabang, Laos. This is an HDR shot and I wanted to see how a black and white HDR would look, using the HDR solely for lighting. I think it came out pretty well, gives it a very mystical, ye-olde-time look to it.

-One more from the same location, different post processing. The normal HDR for those pining to see how the picture looks with color. Looks pretty good to me.

Two more weeks.

Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin.

I Love You, Beach.

I have a very love/hate relationship with surfing but today I definitely fell right back in love with surfing. For me, it's not even about catching waves or anything because, let's be honest, I freaking suck at surfing. I just love sitting out there in the middle of the ocean taking in the vastness of the sea and the beautiful La Jolla sky. I love the seals that pop their heads out of the glassy water to say hi. I love watching birds skim across the water mid flight. Today I saw pelicans diving into the water to catch fish. I saw a stingray on the ocean floor. Pretty sweet.

The clouds were particularly fluffy and funny looking today. They were promising something pretty special. It was my first time walking down the hill to Black's Beach. We waded out there, me on Thomas' 9-foot long board. The fluffy clouds start getting darker and darker and before we knew it, it started raining.

I've never been to the beach while it's raining (I mean, who would?) but the sea during a heavy rainfall is seriously one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. The way all the rain makes the water look white and dynamic, and a mist starts rising in the distance from off the ocean surface... it's hard to explain what the ocean looks like while it's raining and you're sitting in the middle of it, but it's just awesome.

And then my board starting making *thwack thwack* noises. I looked at Nathan who was equally confused, and suddenly, hail started pelting us. HAIL! This dude who was surfing near us said he had been surfing in La Jolla for 40 years and had never seen anything like it. Hail hurts like a bitch when you're in the middle of the ocean with nothing to protect you but it's still fun.

The hail passed and we were surfing in the midst of the sounds of thunder. I caught a few good ones on my boat of a longboard, and we called it a day. Days like these make me remember how amazing getting out there on a surfboard can be. Love it.

I took some pictures of the sunset today. Pretty happy with how they came out. Crazy weather = crazy clouds.

Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin