Runfola Photography

Scripps Pier-henge

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 06:37:00 +0000

Twice a year, in May and August, the setting sun lines up directly with Scripps Pier in La Jolla. This biannual event draws a small crowd of photographers who all gather under the pier, carefully lining up their tripod-mounted cameras as close to center as possible, and as close to other photographers' cameras without disturbing them. A small handful of photographers set up hours in advance of the event, while others manage to show up 30 minutes (or less) before the event. Everyone is polite and cordial, and the "first come, first served" rule is respected. New acquaintances and friendships are made, and knowledge is exchanged between new and seasoned photographers.

In the last few minutes before the event, final adjustments were made on cameras and settings were double- and triple-checked. There was a brief moment of silence as the sun came into view around one of the pylons at the end of the pier. Suddenly, like several machine guns all firing simultaneously, the soft sound of camera shutters clicking filled the air for the next five minutes.

As suddenly as it had started, it was over, and photographers eagerly and excitedly checked their cameras and shared their photographs before dispersing and driving home to post-process their photographs and, hopefully, sell a few copies.

Yes, we will all meet again in nine months :)

Thirty minutes before sunset. More photographers arrived after this shot was made.

While waiting for "The Event". Taken with an iPhone 4.

My Scripps Pier-henge photograph!

Sailing on the Bay

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 23:01:00 +0000

We went sailing with a couple friends on their sailboat this past weekend and had a great time! Also got to meet our friend's brother, Mike, and a mutual friend of theirs who has an identical sailboat a couple sloops over. Anthony got a little seasick, but he managed not to throw up, and is looking forward to going sailing (and doing some fishing) out on the open sea. Click any of the pictures to be taken to the gallery.

Anthony waiting to set sail on the bay

Hanging on for dear life while the boat leans

Richard steering the boat back home

L-R: Frank, Beth, Gena, Jesse, Richard, Chris
(Anthony fell asleep downstairs -- the fresh air knocked him out)

Schmooze, the Chargers, and Testing a New Lens

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:20:00 +0000

Just posting a couple pics that I've taken since the last update -- I've been in a photographic funk lately and haven't really felt inspired by anything. Hopefully that will change soon.

My friend, Rex Castor, of the musical group "Schmooze", performing at Rebecca's Coffeehouse

Watching the San Diego Chargers take on the New England Patriots

Testing out my new lens, a Nikkor 55-200 f/4-5.6 VR

Is it hot enough for ya?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:54:00 +0000

Below is a screen shot from my phone of the temperature in Mira Mesa, San Diego, California at 11:56 a.m., September 27, 2010. Mira Mesa, a community of San Diego, is about 8 miles from the coast, close enough to still be considered part of the coast, but only two miles from being considered "inland". I don't remember it ever being this hot in Mira Mesa/San Diego as long as I've lived here! But, considering the extremely mild summer we've had, this heat wave was kind of to be expected. On the bright side, we're actually expecting a litte rain this afternoon from a storm coming up from Mexico...

Leprechaun of the Seas

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 04:40:00 +0000

My friend, Joe, finally took his new surfboard out on its maiden run at Torrey Pines State Beach last Sunday and I was there to take pictures of it before he waxed it up, which I've compiled into a short slideshow. CRANK UP YOUR SPEAKERS AND ENJOY THE MUSIC!

Surfboard and Cellphone Designs

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:51:00 +0000

A couple months back I was asked by my "brother", Joseph, to come up with a graphical design for a new surfboard he was having shaped. He initially wanted something to reflect his Italian/Irish descent, but after not being able to settle on an Italian theme that appealed to him, he decided to go with something that would display his Irish heritage instead. As he was conferring with me over lunch about what he wanted, the little designing gears in my head started cranking and I had a design all planned out even before he finished talking to me. Later that evening, I created a rough sketch of the design in Photoshop and emailed it to him -- he loved it! After a few touch-ups here and there and some drop shadows, it was ready to go to the printers and then on the board. He finally picked up the finished board yesterday and sent me the following pictures for now -- we're planning on going to the beach next week to take some better photos, so check back after next weekend for the updates.

I even made him an iPhone 4 skin to go along with his new board:

Please leave feedback about the designs and, if you have any, suggestions for an Italian-themed board.

My First Post from my iPhone!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:08:00 +0000

So, as the title suggests, this is my first post from my iPhone. I thought it would be a great idea to be able to update my blog with information and pictures while "on location" without having to wait until I get home (or close to a computer). That being said, the only pictures I will be uploading while "on location" will be those taken with my iPhone; others will be posted as before with links to my website. For those who are curious about the app I'm using to blog, it's called BlogBooster and is available in the iTunes app store absolutely FREE! Well, now that we have the words out of the way, let's see if I'm able to insert a picture into my post. The first picture I'm posting is of the red sky at sunset behind some palm trees taken from the pool.

UPDATE: after about eleven attempts to upload the sunset picture, I finally succeeded! I'm not sure, at this point, whether the fault lies with the BlogBooster app, the 3G connection, the Wi-Fi connection, or a combination of all three, but it's definitely gonna take some familiarization with this app to figure out its nuances. The screen capture below shows the error message I was receiving:

Playing with (a) Light

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:17:00 +0000

Recently, when sticking his hand between the sofa cushions while watching TV, our son, Anthony, found the little LED ring light we had received when we attended Comic-Con 2010 and promptly "lost". This evening, as I was playing with it, I got the idea to suspend the light from the livingroom ceiling, position my camera directly underneath it and pointing up and, using an exposure time of one minute, decided to photograph it and see what it would look like. The first couple of attempts yielded poor results with the light just going in a circle that gradually got smaller and smaller and smaller. I then tried pushing the light just off-center to see what would happen, even adding a few puffs of air -- the results are below.

Perseides Meteor Shower & "The Green Tide"

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:09:00 +0000

Thanks to my good friend, Jacque (HI, JACQUE!), who forwarded me some info on this year's Perseid meteor shower, I decided to head about 40 miles inland early Friday morning, the 13th, at 3 a.m., to get away from the lights of the city and suburbs and to hopefully get a nice shot of some meteors streaking across the sky. While driving to my destination, I saw several meteors and felt that I was going to get some good shots. Having finally arrived, I set my camera up on the tripod and pointed it in the general direction of the Perseids. My goal for this shoot was to get some shots of static stars instead of star trails, so I had to make sure that I used a slow enough shutter speed to minimize any trails -- I found that 15 seconds at f/2.8 ISO 400 seemed to be enough. While making the exposures, I noticed that the meteors seemed to be appearing just off to my right, so I repositioned the camera and started taking some more exposures. Now they were appearing to my left from where I had originally pointed the camera! HUH?! WHAT?! Anyways, and I am sad to say, I did not get a single meteor shot. And of all the pictures, only one turned out somewhat decent (see below). After one unsuccessful hour, I finally decided to pack up and head back home because I still needed to eat breakfast and get ready for work.

View towards Orion's Belt

That same day, I decided I wanted to go to La Jolla after work to take some pictures of the hundreds of Leopard sharks that were swarming along the south end of La Jolla Shores, so I went home and picked up Gena and Anthony and headed to the beach. By the time we got to the beach, the clouds had rolled in and were blocking the sun. In addition to that, some weird green algae had infested our waters making it so murky that we couldn't see the sharks. So, I decided to take some pictures of the green algae instead. You can read more about the algae here. Photographically speaking, it truly was a Friday the 13th for me :(

Green algae being pushed in by the tide

Interesting pattern created by the algae

My pristine white feet before being touched by the algae

"Algae touch Hulk's feet. Hulk mad!"

"Hulk stomp algae!"

Anti-Pasta Pasta

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:47:00 +0000

The weather has been really unusual the past couple of weeks -- definitely not typical summer weather for San Diego. Two weeks ago, the weather was cool and cloudy on a daily basis with temperatures ranging between 65°F and 75°F. Last week it was extremely warm (hot?) with temps reaching into the 90s -- we had to turn on the air-conditioner in our home for the first time this year! Now, we're back into cooler temps again. Bizarre.

Anyway, last weekend, while the weather was still very warm, I decided to make something refreshing for dinner -- my famous anti-pasta pasta! My anti-pasta pasta is exactly what it sounds like: anti-pasta salad with pasta. I simply boil up some multi-colored rotini, shock 'em with cold water to stop them from cooking, and spread them over a bed of chopped lettuce. Then, I add tomatoes, sliced red onion, olives, fresh chopped basil, roasted bell pepper, salami, pepporoni, prosciutto, and fresh-ground salt and pepper. Next, I drizzle on either home-made or store-bought Italian dressing and top it all off with freshly grated Grana Padano parmesan cheese. Add to that a nice glass of home-made red wine and you've got yourself a refreshing summer meal! Buon Appetito!

New Jersey 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:09:00 +0000

Oh my goodness! Look how much time has passed since my last posting! I keep meaning to update the blog on a quasi-regular basis, but life keeps getting in the way.

The period of June 16th - 23rd was quite exciting as it was spent in New Jersey with family and to attend my sister Joanna's wedding. It was really nice seeing everyone again and catching up since we last saw each other. We also had the pleasure of meeting my new brother-in-law, Michael Santore, who is a really cool guy. We wish Joanna and Michael many happy years together.

The pictures displayed below are a small collection that best showcase our daily activities while in NJ. You can view the rest of the collection by clicking any of the pictures.

June 16

Anthony looking through airplane window

Dinner with the Runfola Family
L-R: Augie, Me, Gena, Anthony, Gina, Michael, Joanna, Sal

June 17

Breakfast at the Avon Pavillion along the Jersey Shore

Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

June 18

Chillaxin' on the deck while waiting for the BBQ'ed Italian Sausages

June 19 - WEDDING DAY!

Anthony and his Grandfather playing with a shortwave radio while the bride and her bridesmaids get beautified

The Bride, Joanna, with her Maiden-of-Honor, our sister, Gina on the dancefloor dancing to the song YMCA

June 21

Bottling a barrel of Sangiovese wine -- we got about 252 bottles from one barrel!

At the shooting range

June 22 - Pennsylvania

Near the spot where George Washington crossed the Delaware River

Getting ready to have lunch in New Hope, Pennsylvania

XKCD on Earthquakes and Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:24:00 +0000

This strip was posted yesterday on xkcd.com, appropriately enough.

6.9 Earthquake Rattles Baja and San Diego on Easter Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 23:38:00 +0000

At 1540hrs (that's 3:40 p.m. for you non-military folk ;)) Baja California, more specifically, Mexicali, was rattled by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake which was felt rather strongly here in San Diego and Los Angeles. You can read more about here.

Gena and I were sitting on the couch in the livingroom watching TV and relaxing from a large Easter lunch. I felt some light shaking and at first thought it was Gena shaking her foot. I glanced over at the cord hanging from our Rock Band drumset and saw that it was swaying (I've learned from experience that the cord tends to sway regardless of how weak a quake may be). Our dog, Leica, continued sleeping on Gena's lap and didn't react until I told Gena we were having an earthquake (what a great early warning system the dog is). At that point, the quake intensified and small figurines on top of our television set actually fell off!

Check out the USGS earthquake map showing the locality and magnitude of the quake:

BANZAI!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:13:00 +0000

Last Friday we, once again, spent the night at Barona Casino. Gena regularly receives free 1-night stay coupons in the mail which we don't always use and, because it has been a while since we last stayed at Barona, we decided to use the coupon. When we go, we usually stop at one of the many fine restaurants Barona has to offer to grab a bite to eat before Anthony and I head back to the room to play games and download movies from Netflix while Gena tries to strike it rich on the slot machines. This time was different.

Because we now have a puppy, we couldn't leave her home alone for 24 hours, so we took her with us and smuggled her into the hotel in one of Gena's big purses (I call it a duffel bag). Leica kept poking her head out of the purse, so we had to throw a sweater over Gena's shoulder and let it hang down in the front to cover the dog up. It worked!

As soon as we made it safely to our room without the dog being detected, Anthony went back downstairs to play near the fish pond for a short while before it got dark outside. While he was gone, I set the camera and lights up in preparation for taking a picture that I've been intending to do for quite a while. Once everything was set up, I asked Gena to sit on the corner of the bed so I could "test" a feature of the camera. I positioned myself a few feet behind her, then ran and dove onto the bed. The first picture shows her patiently waiting while I "tested" the camera, not expecting me to jump on the bed.

I then told her that I had to adjust something on the camera and needed to take another picture like the first. This time, knowing what to expect, she prepared herself the moment she heard me running towards the bed, as you can see in the second picture. When I saw her reaction, I knew I had the shot in the bag!

Five minutes later, Anthony returned and we ordered room service while watching "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on Netflix.

Homegrown CSI

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:44:00 +0000

Okay, so, Gena's favorite TV shows are CSI (all versions), NCIS, Law & Order, etc. (do you see a pattern here?). This weekend, while catching her watching what I call "The CSI Channel", and seeing two of the main characters searching a room with a UV light, I was hit with the realization that, using a UV light source, I could easily find urine stains on the carpet. Having bought a UV flashlight a couple years ago for a camping trip to the desert with hopes of finding scorpions at night (they glow green, y'know), and not having found any, I had put the flashlight away and kind of forgotten about it. Until this evening...

I jumped up off the couch and went into the garage to look for the box with camping gear. It was pretty easy to find because it was rather large-ish and had "Camping Gear" written on the side. Opening the box, I immediately found the 9" long UV flashlight, a Streamlight TwinTask 3C, sitting on top of the larger items just waiting for its moment to shine (literally and figuratively).

I returned to the kitchen where I donned rubber gloves and then proceeded to turn off all the lights in the apartment (because that was how they did it on CSI). Turning the flashlight on, I immediately saw a couple small urine stains on the livingroom carpet. Scanning the apartment, I found approximately ten small stains throughout glowing bright green-yellow -- these must've been ones that we missed because more recent "accidents" that I've cleaned up were not visible (we've been spraying her "accidents" with Nature's Miracle Stain & Odor Remover after dabbing the area dry, which does a fantastic job of cleaning up).

Check out one of the pictures I took of the stain:

Looks like we'll be renting a steam cleaner soon...

My New Leica

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:58:00 +0000

Actually, the title should read "Our New Leica" because Leica isn't exactly a camera in this instance -- she's the newest member of the Runfola family and is what is considered a "teacup" chihuahua because of her extremely small size.

Born December 3, 2009, Leica was given to us by a family friend whose chihuahua (one of seven different breeds of dogs he has) had two puppies. His wife, apparently, didn't want any more dogs, so he offered us one of the two pups. We acquired her on January 28, nearly two months after she was born.

Since becoming part of the family, she has brought everyone much joy, as well as grief. The grief has been brought on by the difficulty of housebreaking her, but with all three of us taking an active roll in the process, she has already progressed immensely and is running to her "puppy pad" to evacuate. Because she is still a puppy, she isn't always able to control her bodily functions (just like a human baby) and makes on the carpet, but we're always there to clean up after her and spray the area with an odor neutralizing spray.

I've taken charge of the majority of the training and have already, in less than two weeks, taught her to sit. We are now working on "stay" and, after only a couple days, I am able to walk 8-10 feet away without her moving. Daily walks are done without a leash, for now, and she does really well walking by my side and keeping pace. Occasionally, she'll fall behind when something catches her attention, or she'll run a few feet ahead and wait for me to catch up. Walking back, she knows exactly which path to take to get back to our apartment. Leash training will commence soon.

As mentioned before, we're having lots of fun with her and look forward to many years of more fun.

Rainfall Totals for Mira Mesa, California

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:05:00 +0000

As promised, the rains have finally hit San Diego. For those of you watching the news, you are aware of some of the devastation caused by the heavy rains, mudslides, winds, and surf, especially those counties north of San Diego. We haven't seen this kind of storm in a loooong time, and my son and I are actually enjoying it! Just this evening as the brunt of the storm was overhead, he asked me if we could go driving in the rain. Naturally, I had to oblige as I love driving in the rain -- what a blast it was (yes, I did drive safely).

We also received a digital rain meter from a friend which we have been diligently monitoring every 12 hours since the storm started, from 6am-6pm-6am. However, I'm only entering rainfall totals over a 24-hour period. Be sure to check back daily as we continue to update it.

Rainfall Totals in Inches for Zip Code 92126 (will be updated daily as long as it rains)
Date	Daily Total	Cum. Total
Jan. 17,2010	0.02	0.02
Jan. 18,2010	0.95	0.97
Jan. 19,2010	0.58	1.55
Jan. 20,2010	0.81	2.36
Jan. 21,2010	1.35	3.71
Jan. 22,2010	0.29	3.99

Large Storm Headed Towards SoCal and San Diego

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:55:00 +0000

Looks like we'll be getting the heaviest storm I've ever witnessed here in San Diego starting this Sunday. According to the Special Weather Statement released by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), we could receive record rainfall! Check out NOAA's statement, below, and then my screenshot of this evening's weather report following this statement (those measurements are inches of rain, not snow!

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA
159 PM PST FRI JAN 15 2010

CAZ042-043-048-050-055>058-060>062-162200-
ORANGE COUNTY COASTAL AREAS-SAN DIEGO COUNTY COASTAL AREAS-
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY VALLEYS-THE INLAND EMPIRE-
SAN DIEGO COUNTY VALLEYS-SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
RIVERSIDE COUNTY MOUNTAINS-SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS-
SAN DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-APPLE AND LUCERNE VALLEYS-
COACHELLA VALLEY-SAN DIEGO COUNTY DESERTS-
159 PM PST FRI JAN 15 2010

...BIG CHANGES IN THE WEATHER NEXT WEEK...

A SERIES OF STORMS WILL BRING PERIODS OF LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN AND
STRONG WINDS NEXT WEEK WITH SNOW AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS.

THERE IS STILL A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THE EXACT TIMING AND
RAINFALL AMOUNTS...BUT THESE STORMS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE QUITE
VIGOROUS...AND BRING LARGE RAINFALL TOTALS TO THE LOWER ELEVATIONS
AND HEAVY SNOW TO THE MOUNTAINS.

THIS ALL WEEK LONG EVENT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE RAINFALL OF 5
TO 8 INCHES NEAR THE COAST...TO 20 OR MORE INCHES ON THE COASTAL
MOUNTAIN SLOPES. TYPICALLY WETTER LOCATIONS ON THE COASTAL MOUNTAINS
SLOPES COULD RECEIVE 30 OR MORE INCHES OF RAINFALL. EVEN THE DESERT
LOCATIONS ARE LIKELY TO RECEIVE BETWEEN 2 AND 4 INCHES OF RAIN.

SNOW LEVELS WILL MOSTLY FLUCTUATE BETWEEN 5500 AND 6500 FEET WHICH
WOULD CONFINE HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS TO THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS IN
THE SAN BERNARDINO AND SAN JACINTO MOUNTAINS. AROUND 4 FEET OF
SNOWFALL IS POSSIBLE AT THE HEAVIEST LOCATIONS.

WITH THE RAINFALL AMOUNTS EXPECTED...THERE IS HIGH LIKELIHOOD
OF FLASH FLOODING...ALONG WITH MUD AND DEBRIS FLOWS...ESPECIALLY IN
AND BELOW RECENTLY BURNED AREAS. THERE COULD ALSO BE ROCK SLIDES
ALONG MOUNTAIN HIGHWAYS...MAKING TRAVEL IMPASSABLE AT TIMES.

THE HEAVY SNOW FALL AMOUNTS EXCEPTED...THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF
AVALANCHES FOR AREAS LOCATED BELOW THE STEEPER SLOPES OF THE HIGHER
SAN BERNARDINO AND SAN JACINTO MOUNTAINS.

THE STRENGTH OF THE JET STREAM DRIVING THESE STORMS IS OVER 200 MPH
AND THE STORMS THEMSELVES WILL BE MOVING RAPIDLY ONSHORE IN QUICK
SUCCESSION.

AS A RESULT THERE ARE LIKELY TO BE STRONG WINDS THROUGH MUCH OF NEXT
WEEK. OVER THE COASTAL WATERS GALE FORCE OR HIGHER WINDS ARE
EXPECTED. OVER LAND...DAMAGING WINDS ARE LIKELY TO PRECEDE THE
ARRIVAL OF EACH STORM. WIND GUSTS BETWEEN 50 AND 60 MPH ARE POSSIBLE
FOR THE COASTS AND VALLEYS...WHILE THE MOUNTAINS AND DESERTS MAY
HAVE GUSTS 70 MPH OR HIGHER.

PEOPLE SHOULD STAY UPDATED WITH THE LATEST FORECASTS. LISTEN TO NOAA
WEATHER RADIO OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WEATHER.GOV/SANDIEGO FOR THE
LATEST UPDATES OF FORECASTS AND WARNINGS.

$$
SMALL/BALFOUR

Weather Report Screen Shot -- that's inches of rain, not snow!

Ocean Beach Pier

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:03:00 +0000

Inspired by my good friend Bob, and by the 15' waves San Diego has been experiencing the past couple of days, I decided to head with my wife down to the Ocean Beach Pier this evening after work. Thanks to rush-hour traffic, we arrived at the pier just in time to catch the last few rays of sunshine before the sun set over the horizon. Hoping to at least catch the Green Flash to make our visit worthwhile, I set the camera to Continuous Mode and rapidly shot off about 50 frames in rapid succession. Unfortunately, atmospheric conditions were not conducive to rendering a Green Flash :( Additionally, the pier was closed due to wave damage, so we decided to walk down the steps to the beach.

With daylight quickly diminishing, I scanned around for interesting subjects to "paint". Except for a few lonely people, the beach and boardwalk were rather empty. Seeing a lady walking towards us with her dog, I decided to "paint" a few pictures of her -- the "paintings" didn't quite turn out how I had pictured them, but I was pretty happy with the results nonetheless. After the lady with the dog passed by, a young man walked in front of us and I managed to get a couple shots of him as well. Below are two of my favorite photos from this evening.

Evening Beach Stroll with Dog

Lonely Beach Stroll

The Best of 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:31:00 +0000

As 2009 comes to a close, I'd like to share a small selection of my favorite photographs that I've taken this past year. Some of these photos made it either to my website or this blog, while others did not. Many of those that did not make it to my website were either not "artistic" enough or I just didn't feel like sharing them. Either way, they still hold a special place in my heart, which is why I'm sharing them now in this slideshow.

The song selected for this slideshow is "Little Green Bag" by the George Baker Selection. I first heard this song in the movie "Reservoir Dogs", and then again while watching "So You Think You Can Dance" in which Pauline Mata and Peter Sabasino performed while in front of a giant backdrop of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. Their dance was one of my favorites and you can watch it here.

Enjoy the slideshow!

Christmas Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:43:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago I was asked by two friends to take some Christmas portraits of their sons and some of the whole family, as well as a couple of maternity shots. I had just bought some new equipment a few days prior and was eager to try it out (for those interested, I bought a new Nikon SB-600 flash, two flash stands, and one backdrop kit to hold the roll of 6' wide backdrop paper my Dad had sent me some time ago). Below are but a few of the pictures taken.

BTW, the second picture of Andrew has been Photoshopped. Can you tell which part? If you guessed the Christmas tree, you're wrong. It's the present sitting/standing/leaning on the overturned box! Andrew was becoming a bit irritable (most likely from the heat of the costume) and wasn't cooperating fully. We managed to get a smile out of him by fake coughing and gagging. In the rush to shoot the picture, we left the gift out of the picture, but I added it later by copying and pasting it from another picture I took after this one.

Halloween 2002

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:48:00 +0000

I was recently discussing with a friend a Halloween costume I had made for my wife back in 2002 for her company Halloween costume contest. At the time, she was working for Qualex, a subsidiary of Kodak, which was mainly responsible for processing film dropped off by customers of larger chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, etc. I used to work for Qualex, too, but left the company in 2000 to enter the world of fiber-optic technology.

Two weeks before Halloween, Gena came home from work and informed me of the upcoming company Halloween party and costume contest, and also of the grand prize: a 4.0MP Kodak Easyshare DX4900 digital camera, which was announced by Kodak February 22, 2002, and retailed for approximately $500. No sooner had she finished telling me all this when I was struck by inspiration and told her I would make a costume guaranteeing that she would win the camera (hint: anything company-themed is a good guarantee of a win).

With only two weeks to plan, design, and build the costume, I had no time to waste and worked on it every day up to one hour before the contest when I pulled up to the side door of the company to drop off the costume. The production manager opened the door for me and was so blown away by the costume that she immediately paged the whole company over the intercom to come to the Film department. Once everybody was gathered around, they all agreed, hands down, that Gena should receive the grand prize -- no voting was needed.

And that was my first foray into the world of digital photography.

Below are some pictures of Gena's costume, as well as the digital camera that we won (all taken with the new camera).

PACQUIAO WON!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:50:00 +0000

Rather than going into the highlights of the match which can be found all over the Internet, I just wanted to express my excitement at Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao's win over Miquel Cotto and commemorate the win with this, my favorite, fight poster (click on image for a 1250x1830 pixel poster).

Yellow Belt Promotion

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:33:00 +0000

Anthony was promoted from white to yellow belt in tae kwondo on November 10th. It took a bit longer than expected because of a few missed classes, but he finally reached the requisite number of class hours, as well as skills, to graduate to the next level. Needless to say, he was really quite excited about his achievement. Congratulations, Anthony!

Of Photographic Challenges and Stereotypes

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Too often the quality of a photograph is based on stereotypes such as sharpness/clearness and exposure, with subject matter being of least importance. One might have captured a controversial image of a starving infant in Africa, for example, but if that image doesn't meet the stereotypes, nobody will really see the message. What you WILL hear are comments such as "The image is out of focus" or "The exposure is off". Who came up with these ridiculous "rules"?

I recently read about some photographers who add "texture" to their photographs in post-processing. For example, to an image of a homeless person on the street, one might add a gravel texture to enhance the "hardness" of the image and make the message louder. Or to the image of a bride and groom, one might add a paisley texture. The combinations are endless and result in some interesting photographs that illicit a slew of emotions. I don't see anything wrong with using this process to enhance a photograph, and I kinda like it myself.

What I find wrong, however, is that the author of this particular article posted a "how to" and stated that is impossible to achieve this sort of layered effect in-camera. I took that as a personal challenge and created the image you see below, which by a few people has been likened to an oil painting. Let me remind you: this effect was achieved in-camera, not in post-processing!