Last Saturday Caroline, Mai, and I visited the SF Zoo with Ian, Peggy, and Erin. Given the fairly early (for our family) 9:15am departure, I was very happy that Ian agreed to drive us in their minivan. The weather was pleasant, though the ocean breeze occasionally made it a bit chilly. Ian and I both brought our cameras. He used a Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 as his primary lens, while I used my Sigma 18-200mm OS lens. The kids behaved well overall, despite some occasional issues, especially by the end when everyone was getting very tired. The zoo was just the right size for a day trip, wasn’t too crowded, and had a pretty good assortment of animals to see. We had a wonderful time, and look forward to coming back on a regular basis as Mai gets older.

Favorite photos:

You can see the rest of my SF Zoo photos at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7747943_H7Ke3. Ian’s photos are at http://photos.codrus.com/gallery/7757575_eSvJf.

After the Kuroshitsuji photoshoot, I took a few photos of the cosplayers getting ready for the upcoming Death Note photoshoot. I also brought my camera along to Juban and took some pictures during the delicious dinner. These photos attempt to capture the fun time we all had during and between the two shoots.

Here are some of my favorites:

You can see the rest at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7715453_wvk5L.

The first of the two private photoshoots on Sunday, 3/15 of the cosplay group PHAB JAMS was of characters from Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler):

Madam Red (Baroness Angelina Durless Barnett)

Ciel Phantomhive

Sebastian Michaelis

Grell Sutcliff

The shoot took place at the Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco. The hotel is furnished in a Victorian style, making it an ideal backdrop for the shoot. The hotel staff were very friendly and helpful, even with three photographers and four cosplayers rearranging furniture and setting up a variety of lighting equipment in their lobby.

This was my first formal shoot with my new umbrella, light stand, and second flash. Having two sources of light improved a number of the shots, as did the ability to throw very soft light from any direction. I’m looking forward to when my second PocketWizard arrives, as that will give me even more lighting flexibility.

Here are some more of my favorite photos from the shoot:

After over three hours of picture-taking, we wrapped up this shoot, got some dinner, and started preparing for the Death Note shoot I posted about earlier.

You can see the rest of my photos from this shoot at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7693371_qTR5R. Shinjixikari, another photographer at the shoot, posted his photos to http://winterwish.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2203. PHAB JAMS’s website is at http://phab-jams.deviantart.com/.

Last Sunday I participated in two private photoshoot of the cosplay group PHAB JAMS. The second shoot was of three Death Note characters:

Light Yagami

Misa Amane

Mello

The shoot take place at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Because the first shoot took longer than expected, the Death Note shoot didn’t start until 11:45pm, so we had to take all the pictures outside the cathedral. Because of the time of day, I didn’t want to bring my umbrella and light stand. That made the lighting fairly harsh, but I think that’s appropriate for Death Note characters. It also started to rain slightly shortly after we started, further limiting where we could take photos.

Here are a few more of my favorites from the shoot:

The shoot wrapped up around 1am, and we all left exhausted from a day of photography.

You can see the rest of my photos from the shoot at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7674569_fi6Tv. Shinjixikari, the other photographer at the shoot, posted his photos to http://winterwish.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2201. PHAB JAMS’s website is at http://phab-jams.deviantart.com/.

I’m still working on the photos from the first shoot that day, and hope to have them posted in the next week.

After organizing the very fun Christmas in the Park cosplay gathering in December, Kitty and Yukari decided to organize a second event in the spring. The plan was to meet someplace scenic, where people could have fun in between photo shoots. After much discussion, it was decided that the gathering would take place on March 14th at the Japanese Friendship Gardens in San Jose.

There was only one catch — the City of San Jose owned the park, and required permits for professional shoots and large gatherings. Kitty tried to get the permit, but the city bureaucrats were a pain to work with. They didn’t seem to understand what this was, and starting asking for things like a separate permit for each person with a camera. Like most bureaucrats, they had no incentive to be flexible, friendly, or understanding. With some reluctance, about two weeks before the gathering, we starting discussing alternatives on the forum. Afterwards, the alternatives were put to a vote, and my suggestion, Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, was the most popular.

Hakone also required a permit, and since Hakone was my suggestion, I called them to get things set up. They too were a little unsure as to how to classify a cosplay group, but being a relatively small private foundation, they had the flexibility to work with us. After a bit of discussion, the terms of the permit were agreed-upon and everything was finalized. Unfortunately, because we were booking our slot at Hakone so late, they only had a two hour photography time slot available for us. We decided to meet up at Hakone about 30 minutes beforehand, so we would have the full two hours in the gardens.

Despite my worrying the last few days leading up to the event, the gathering went very well, and everyone had a great time. The biggest complaint I heard was that it was too short, which should be easy to correct next time as long as we book a month or two ahead of time. Afterwards, many people went over to Mitsuwa for lunch and shopping.

You can see the rest of my photos at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7602949_RAkC4.

Other photographers there included, in no particular order:

• shinjixikari
  • http://winterwish.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2114&g2_navId=x808ea9c7
• Tenchi Fan
  • http://faidoi.smugmug.com/gallery/7601835_DzfYx
• davidyuweb
  • http://www.pbase.com/davidyuweb/norcal_spring_gathering_2009
• peiqinglong
  • http://clients.buiphotography.com/Events/737817
  • http://buiphotography.com/blog/2009/03/norcal-spring-gathering-cosplay-a-success/
• Wren
  • http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v661/WrentheFaceless/Nor%20Cal%20Spring%20Picnic%2009/
• Travel-Valenti
  • http://www.scarlet-rhapsody.com/traveling/hakone2009
• Katsumiyo
  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantris-driffen
• bishop27
  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/bishop002700/sets/72157615293249103/
  • http://mananiplay.com/?p=102
• kimu
  • http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v503/taleoryn/Nor%20Cal%20Spring%20Gathering%2009/
• Kaoru the Vamp
  • http://www.cosplay.com/gallery/143589
• RyuHayabusaDOA2
  • http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=71176&id=655332880&ref=mf
• Mkamzng1
  • http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t147/Mkamzng1/NorCal%20Spring%20Gathering/
• lalaxmink
  • http://sc-x-kazuha.tabulas.com/2009/04/11/norcal-spring-gathering/
• ININ
  • http://cosplaygatherings.innovateinfinitely.com/2009norcalspring.html

During our vacation at Indio late last year, we visited Joshua Tree National Park three times. The first time we left a little later in the day than we intended, and only had about two hours there before dark. The second time, we decided to drive up to the north entrance. This unfortunately took three times longer than Google Maps estimated, again leaving us with relatively little time in the park. The third time we arrived much earlier, giving us a full afternoon there. Between the three trips we drove the entire length of the park in daylight, and visited most of the points of interest. We still want to go back again, though — it would nice to be able to hike around when Mai is older, and to spend more time at the many scenic spots in the park. If you’re ever in the Palm Springs area, I highly recommend taking a day or two to visit.

Between our relatively hurried schedule and having a fussy toddler, photography was a bit challenging. I’m also more of a portrait photographer than a landscape photographer; this was very apparent when Caroline started sorting through the many pictures I took there. In the end, in between the tons of boring photos we found some really nice ones, so I was happy.

Photographs in the desert are also challenging because the colors frequently come out pretty dull straight out of the camera. When editing these photos I increased the saturation quite a bit on many of them. I really like the result, but Caroline, who tends to prefer very minimal editing, is less thrilled.

The other thing I learned while taking these photos is that my camera sensor has dust. Sensor dust is only visible with relatively small apertures. Since portraits are generally shot with large apertures, I didn’t notice the problem until I started using the small apertures required for landscape photos. Canon’s Dust Delete Data worked well at removing most of the dust specks, and some quick work in Photoshop fixed the rest. At some point I should get my sensor cleaned, but since I’m back to shooting mainly portraits I don’t see the problem any more. Perhaps I’ll get this done right before the Yosemite trip this summer?

Here are my favorite photos from the three park visits:

To see the rest, please go to http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7552522_opZm2.

When someone says they are going out to take photos, your first thought may be that they’re going to a zoo, national or state park, or some other scenic destination. However, interesting photos can be found almost anywhere, even right outside your house. Here are some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken recently walking around my neighborhood.

You can see more at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/6761365_7igGT.

Much to several people’s surprise I did not attend WonderCon this past weekend. While it is a fairly large local convention, there were several reasons I wasn’t too excited about attending. First and foremost, based on the schedule, the convention feels very “corporate”; it seems like it’s more of a tradeshow than a party. Compared to a convention like Dragon*Con, there appears to be a lot more “Company X is going to offer a sneak peak of upcoming movie/comic/TV show Y”, and much less fan-oriented stuff.  Also, since it’s in San Francisco, I would either need to drive up and find parking (ha!), take Caltrain (1.5 hours each way), or stay at a nearby (read: expensive) hotel, none of which are that appealing to me.

Instead of going to WonderCon, we took advantage of the beautiful California weather (78 degrees & sunny). After meeting up with friends for lunch at Mojo Burger, we drove over to nearby Kelly Park, where we walked around and took lots of pictures at the Japanese Friendship Gardens and the San Jose History Park. Once the kids started to get tired, we went over to our friends’ house to play with some new photography gear. By the time I got the hang of using a remote flash with an umbrella, everyone was hungry again, so we went to Sushi Zone for a very delicious dinner. Stuffed and exhausted, we headed home and immediately fell asleep.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the day:

You can see the rest of my photos from the day at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7496930_VBsH6. You can see Ian’s photos from the park at http://photos.codrus.com/gallery/7479428_z3uVv.