Life Update: We are Moving!

My wife have finally made a big decision. We have been carefully praying and seeking God's direction in our lives. We have decided to move back to Taiwan the beginning of August! 

This is a very exciting and scary time for us. We have lots to do in preparation. We don't have all the details now. However, we hope to send out a newsletter in the next month or two to inform those who are interested in praying for us and supporting us financially.

My First Wedding Shoot

I was finally asked to shoot my first wedding. I was pretty hesitant about it. I take pride in doing a good job and don't really try to sell myself because I think I could be a lot better. I told them I would do it. However they have to understand that this is my first wedding and if they had the money to go with someone who has experience.

Apparently the groom used to read my blogs about Taiwan when he was planning on going there. And I was also the bride's English teacher for a semester while living there. He already saw a lot of my work throughout the years and I think my work helped him learn a lot about his future wife's culture/country.

Seeing we had that connection and were friends I didn't really want to charge much. I charged enough for me to kinda break even on the flight. In the end I lost money however it was my first wedding shoot and didn't want to charge them much for taking a chance on me and giving me that experience for the first time.

This was a very nerve racking experience. I have never shadowed under another photographer in any sense, especially not for a wedding. I tried to do a few shoots for free to assist another photographer at a wedding but it never seemed to work out. I began studying wedding styled photography and tips from the web and youtube. Many photographers that I came across had very poor work which gave me some confidence going into it thinking "If people are happy with their work I should have no problem." and at the same time annoyed me because they would sell their work with such terrible results.

It was raining terribly for the rehearsal. So the rehearsal was inside. The space we had was very tiny and not optional. This allowed me to practice using my flash and getting settings right for an "indoor" wedding, however the actually wedding turned out to be outside.

So here it is...some of the photographs from my first wedding!

This is the "full" Flickr.com album. (only 65 out of 250 photos)

We started the day with taking photos of the groomsmen. I had a second photographer take care of the ladies for me.

The men prayed before the wedding, it got a little emotional.

The Groom's first time seeing the bride.

After the wedding we shot pictures of the Bride and Groom with family members. Then shot the wedding party.

The sun was super harsh but then quickly began to go away. We had to work quick to still get great photos of the bride and groom while also getting to the reception on time.

Overall my first wedding shoot was a really good experience. I wouldn't do it for as cheap as I did ever again. The day wasn't too bad but the post-processing work took me a good amount of time. It was defiantly nerve raking for the first time. I had no idea what to expect to come of my work. The hardest part of the day for me was posing the wedding party and the bride and groom. The other difficult part was having to quickly adjust my camera during the ceremony with the harsh sun glaring directly into my lens.

I sent 3 photos to the bride and groom the day after their wedding. This is something my wedding photographer did that I really appreciated. This aloud them to get a quick glimpse of the day while on their honeymoon. It then took me about 2 weeks to get them the rest of their photos.

Budget Camera Flash: Neweer Speedlite 750II Review

For the longest time (about 4 years), I never used any form of external flash equipment. It was either adjusting my settings to work with the natural lighting or using my internal flash, which in reality was never an option. I was always hesitant because of the cost of Nikon Flashes. However, I began researching cheaper options and decide that the Neewer Speedlite 750II i-TTL seemed like the best low cost flash ($55 at Amazon) for my Nikon. This flash should work on most DSLRs.

Even indoors, I would be shooting skateboarding with not much light which would result in me adjusting my settings trying to get the highest shutter speed possible without turning my iso to far up. The photo would turn out, but I would generally edit it to B/W because it helped hide the noise.

No Flash, 24mm, f/4.0, 1/125, ISO 1600             "Photo of Tyler Blackert - FS flip"

There is a cheaper Neewer option for about $35 but I opted for the $55 one because it has i-TTL. i-TTl is basically Nikon's why of having the flash communicate with the camera. It allows the flash to adjust to the correct exposure and can sense the lens zoom. Its basically an auto mode for your flash. The flash will send a quick pulse of light, quickly get a measurement and then send the full flash. This happens so quickly your eyes can't catch it.

Bounced Flash off of Wall, 18mm, f/5.0, 1/100, ISO 800       "Photo of Isaiah Jones - BS Crook"

Even with the high ceilings I was able to bounce the flash off of them for some other shots, though it didn't come out as well as when I had it bounce off a wall. The head of the flash does rotate into almost any angle you choose.

 

Slave

You can turn the Neewer Speedlite 750II into a slave. Slave is an off camera flash generally triggered by your on camera flash. This will give you the possibility of having a multiple light setup at a very low cost. Most you would need to spend is $160 to get three of these flashes. It does come with a component that will allow you to attach the flash to a tripod, just like you would your camera. In general though it is advised to use something more reliable like a Pocket Wizard to trigger your other flashes. However, if you are buying this flash you either don't have much money or will be able to buy Pocket Wizards with the money you just saved. (which should work with this flash because it has i-TTL)

Editing Process

First major difference I noticed when beginning the editing process of the photo that I used flash with was that I hardly had to increase the brightness to the photo. It seemed like the in-camera auto white balance was more accurate too.

The Shell

The body of the flash seems to be pretty solid. It is made out of plastic and has a good weight to it. You will definitely notice the weight when shooting in vertically. I've seen multiple SB flashes that had their hotshot broken, however I don't think this will easily happen on this flash. Although I'm not sure if you can easily find replacements for it.

The Flash head rotates to just about any angle that you would need it too. There is no button to squeeze to allow the head to rotate. Simply just move it without hesitation. 

The Neewer version seems to have all the same options as you would on a Nikon SB flash. I have had no problems with reading the display. Allowing you to easily change settings on the fly.

Comparison too the Nikon SB-800 by Thanks Review

Final Verdict

I would definitely recommend this flash to those of you on a budget. There might be some small downsides to it that in the future if you are making good money from photography would be worth the investment in a more expensive model. For $55 you won't have to worry about breaking it as much as a $300 flash. I will most likely buy two more of these in the near future to give me two off camera slaves.

Akron, OH Fire on Kenmore Blvd

Winter Skateboarding - Alex Kuss 360 Shove

Skate Perspective: First Glance Skatepark

Skateboarding to the outside world is viewed rebellious and destructive. However, skateboarding is an art form. We are creating and recreating what others have done. Our daily lives involves the act of exploring and thinking about what could be done that no one has done yet (also known as NBD). To create art we use our surroundings. A simple piece of metal is turned into a pipe that we dance across. This photo series is to display those pieces/surroundings that allow us to create what we view as beautiful.

5 Ways My iPhone Ruined My Life

1. Maps

This is actually one of my favorite features on the iPhone. It is extremely convenient. I can add locations to my calendar and simply click on it, showing me how long it will take to get there. It makes it so easy to keep up with my schedule and the places I have to be. I love it for road trips and going to places I've never been before.

However, it has destroyed me! I now am so depended on my smart phones map program that I don't know how to get to areas that are only 15-20mins away from where I live. This is sad. I can easily compare my two lives with and without a phone because I lived in Taiwan for two years without a smart phone then moved back to America for two years with one.

In Taiwan I could easily get across town, on a bus or scooter with no problems. I could take a train to a city that was two hours away and know how to get around in the city fairly well. Keep in mind this is in another country, making in 10x harder to know street names and to describe to people where you are going etc.

Now fastforward to living in America for the past 2 years. I know use my smart phone to get me to locations I've been 2-3 times already. I use it to get to other cities that are only 45 min away. I never needed this before. I use to just look at a google map print it off, within the first day of using it I was fine without a map the next time I went to that location.

2. Money

This is a pretty obvious one. When I used to be satisfied with my sad little flip phone. I paid about $10 a month and put more minutes on it when I needed it. I mostly only used it for emergencies. Made a call like once a week only. Now I can get into contact with people a lot easier and don't have to worry about my minutes running out, but I am paying $60 for unlimited voice and text then $10 for data. That $70 a month, $60 then my previous phone! Add those months over a year or two and I am short a ton money! I got my iPhone when I had a better paying job, but not being locked into a contract has me trapped. Even if I pay early termination fee's I will still come out with more money if I switch my plan...

3. Photos

Now this topic isn't so bad, but there is a point I would like to add. Having a mildly decent camera on my phone has been wonderful! I love it so much. Its one of the most used features I have. The only down side is, I bring out my professional Nikon camera a lot less because I know I have my phone with me. Then later I will look back and say man I wish I brought my camera with me today or I wish we got some higher quality photos of this.

4. Time

Phones are a great device to have with you all the time. They help me organize my life. However while they are helping me get more organized, I find myself wasting hours staring at their tiny little screens for no good reason. Rather if its killing time on a terribly made game from the app store or just scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, etc. I have found that I have to force myself to not just grab my phone whenever I feel slightly bored and unsure of what I want to do at the moment.

5. Distraction

My phone has become a huge distraction. I find myself staring at its screen while friends of my wife talks to me. It drives me crazy when I realize what I am doing. My wife and I have always made it our goal to never pick up our phones while we are out on dates or having dinner with people (this is one of my biggest pet peeves with some of my friends) but they still seem to claw there way into the pawn of our hands at other occasions. Its one thing if its for a photo, but to just scroll through Facebook or reply to an unimportant text.

 

Bellevue Skatepark Trip

One Year Anniversary Pictures

On one of the days that we celebrated our one year anniversary, we decided to go to the park to take photos together. I guess you could call these photos selfies...

Kickflip Tailslide

I've been trying to land a kickflip front tail on and off for five years now. Finally I started landing them on a normal height ledge about two weeks ago. Then I decided to take it down the hubba...