Toolbox

My current Toolbox:





Nikon D80 Camera Body









50MM F/1.8D AF Nikkor






As a comparison, here's a toolbox by Mike Colon, a legendary Nikonnite:

Nikon D3 Camera Body
200MM F/2G ED-IF AF-S VR Nikkor
70-200MM F/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor
105MM F/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro Nikkor
85MM F/1.4D AF Nikkor
50MM F/1.4D AF Nikkor
24-70MM F/2.8D ED-IF AF-S Zoom Nikkor
14-24MM F/2.8G ED-IF AF-S Zoom Nikkor

Just to give a basic idea, the bottom two lenses mentioned above (24-70MM, 14-24MM) cost somewhere around $1700 total.

Given that my budget for the next lens is around 300 dollars, I am looking at the following:
- Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor ($329)
- Zoom Super Wide Angle AF 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor ($349)

Possible Cheaper Alternatives:
- Zoom Telephoto AF Zoom Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G ($134)
- Wide Angle AF Nikkor 28mm f/2.8D ($235)

*Note that these are prices listed on B&H Photo & Video webiste.
**This is certainly a very expensive hobby...

Shoe Shopping

Hunting for the right shoes takes patience and practice...

Richmond Youth : Part I

Currently, I am responsible for a class of eight kids, at Richmond Korean Baptist Church. Most of them are in high school, though a few are still in junior high.

Two of my kids were missing when we took this picture, but we had a "visitor" taking the picture with us. :-)

(I think the first group picture is actually slightly over-exposed, so I am thinking of taking another group picture once everyone is back in my class. For now, you can find more pictures of my class as well as some of the other members of R.Y here. Note that all of these pictures are taken with the Nikon D80 without any touch-up, yet)

I think my work with the youth keeps me young at heart (and though I would like to argue that it actually keeps me "looking" young, some may disagree... ), it also encourages me to see that young people have such a heart, a pure and clean passion for God.

Sometimes, I feel like the world has tainted my hearts, as I get caught up with the daily stresses from work, making mortgage payments, credit card bills, the loan payments, etc... but I feel like the youth group allows me to "be like the children."

Be the Light of the World

In today's Bible Study class, the topic of light and darkness came up. We discussed how light and darkness cannot coexist; God is light, thus the darkness cannot coexist with God, therefore we can no longer be in the darkness when we are with God.

In many times, however, I think my life may not be in 100% light, but perhaps a mixture of light and darkness...

But it is my prayer that I will continue this fight, continue this race, until it is completed and I can stand before the One, and I will strive to stand in the light, and to be the light of the world, just as He had commanded.

Wife and I

My beautiful wife and I. Using our new Nikon D80. (Can anyone guess where this picture was taken from, perhaps???)

Maybe we can revisit this site in 10 years, (if it's still around) and marvel at how young(!) we used to be.

Or marvel at how we are still young(!) after all these years. Definitely.

Foggy Trees

So I've finally had a chance to upload some of my initial pictures on the web, ready for your review and critique.

Actually, it's not quite ready for critique yet, as I haven't had the chance to retouch any of them yet. Though tempting, I ought to work on other, more relevant matters, such as my "job."

For now, the photos are available under my website, for your preview, here. These pictures were results of my initial studies with the topic of depth of field, as you can sort of tell by the blurred image of the tree in the background.


More to come! Hopefully soon!

Pictures... please?

I realized that although I was going to post my encounter with my camera and post pictures on this site, I haven't had a chance to take a decent walk to take some pictures with my D80, yet (sad sad). But I've always wanted to take some pictures of my car with the new camera; just waiting for the right moment and time and day and all that good stuff, so I think I will start it off by uploading some of my old pictures, just for comparision.

So here's my RX-7, when it was still semi-clean. These pictures were taken with Canon S60.




Here's how the Mazda Rotary Engine looks like, under the hood. Click on the image for the animation.

Comcast and Castro Valley

Well, I've been with Comcast for as long as I can remember, and when I was living in Berkeley, everything was great! That changed quickly once I moved to Hayward; and the reason being Hayward/Castro Valley has the oldest cable infrastructure, which just goes to mean that the Comcast customers living in this particular region will get the worst of it all. They are constantly fixing the cable lines, and we get the worst of HD selections.

So I need to change over to Direct. I've been meaning to do that for the past months now! OK. February is the month when I will switch over.

In the meantime, I am on the phone with a Comcast tech every other week, and in the end, there is really nothing that they can do to help! How frustrating! Well, I do enjoy the occasional break from work to go out to a nearby Starbucks and work from there, as they get more reliable Internet connectivity via Tmobile... and not to mention, I get to see other fellow human beings.
The real reason for this post was that I was really excited to find a cool feature in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom where it allows me to easily upload the photos to the web!

Ah well. Perhaps next time.

In the meantime, I ought to re-touch the photos with Adobe, but then again, do I have to?

January 13th, 2008

We have ventured into the world of Digital Single Lens Reflex through the recent purchase of an used, but in good condition, Nikon D80. I should mention that the camera comes with great expectations, having been used by a great amateur, Mr Jonathan Yeo himself! ;-)

I have fond memories of my first love with photography, when I was taking my first photography class during my freshmen year in high school, at Berkeley. Back then, my friends were into photography, and so they urged me to get into it as well, and so we went out and purchased an SLR, a Canon Rebel SLR, for my class. Then I soon learned how to take photos, how to develop films, and then how to print them in a dark room. I suppose it is not quite the same thing, now that the art of photography has been reduced to capturing the World into 0s and 1s... but I must say, the digital SLRs certainly does this job very well!

This purchase is "one small step for [us], one giant leap for [our future of photography]."
Our first reactions: "Beautiful. Beautiful. Magnificent [pictures]." (in-direct quotes from Neil Alden Armstrong and Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. during the first lunar landing.)

Since then, I've been itching to take the camera outside and start shooting some pictures, but I still have to work and pay the mortgage; in the meantime, I've been reviewing some tips and information that's available online, and it's been helpful to review some of the features of the camera. As most digital camera enthusiasts will tell you, the DPReview site is definitely recommended (http://www.dpreview.com). Also, I've started browsing through Thom's website (http://www.bythom.com), which has very good information.
And it seems like everyone recommends the B&H photo video store for all your camera needs, at http://www.bhphotovideo.com.

One thing that I've always known, and now I am beginning to painfully realize, is that this is indeed a very expensive hobby. "Welcome to the [expensive] side..."
and oh, that is not a direct quote... it's just something I made up... but supposed to sound cool, like from Star Wars or something...