twofiveone's Xanga

See you all soon!

Thu, 03 May 2007 12:28:56 GMT

Xanga has been blocked in China and as a result I haven't been able to keep up on anyone's posts let alone update my own. Well we're in Korea right now on our way back to L.A. - see you all soon! (Uncensored and superfast internet for a month! Whoo-Hoo!!!)

Who Will Go?

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 04:59:58 GMT

Lama Temple, 2/2007

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 13:43:09 GMT

We went to a famous Peking Duck restaurant (Quan Ju De) last night with Connie who was visiting us from the U.S. last night. It was the best duck we ever had - worth every kuai/yuan/RMB we spent!

Anyhow, the three chefs who were carving the duck looked pretty interesting so I took a quick shot with spot metering for bit more of a dramatic lighting effect...

Just thinking about it makes me hungry again!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 05:00:46 GMT

Looks like xanga's back online here... (although the add new entry page took a minute to open here...)

Here are some pics from a couple of nights ago - Chinese know how to really party here!

(btw, the Chinese usher in the new year with insane amounts of fireworks to scare off the demons...)

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 01:19:52 GMT

Xanga has been nearly impossible to access from here in China - this page just barely opened for me. If you're interested you can check my flickr (which for some reason still works from here) for family pics or my personal photojournal www.twofiveone.org for other pics. See you there!

Friday, December 22, 2006

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 04:47:04 GMT

Loving the bokeh on my cheap & old 50mm f/1.8 lens these days...

Monday, December 18, 2006

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 05:13:37 GMT

It's been so cold that I really haven't been motivated to do any shooting outside. (It was 6 degrees below 0 today!) So I've just been taking more pictures of the girls and that keeps the grandparents happy so I guess it all works out in the end...

Gotta love that afternoon sun through the window...

Friday, December 15, 2006

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 07:14:35 GMT

She's growing up so fast...

But then there's always the second one

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:40:05 GMT

So we got the most ghetto plastic tree we could find in Beijing and got to work on it as the good friends of Charlie Brown also once did.

and then...

"I never thought it was such a bad little tree.
It's not bad at all, really.
Maybe it just needs a little love."
- Linus Van Pelt

(In case anyone's wondering, which I highly doubt, there is no post-processing on the last image of the tree other than for some cropping due to our ugly TV to the left of it; the starlight effect is "all-natural" with no filter - just small aperture and long shutter speed usually does the trick. Do try it at home! )

18-200 VR Samples

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 03:51:48 GMT

Since my friend and a Canonite Kenny's been doing some subtle bragging about his new 5D, I thought as a proud Nikonian I'd also write about how pleased I am with my new Nikkor 18-200 VR(a wonderful gift from some awesome friends back "home" - you know who you are! THANK YOU!). These were both taken at ISO1600 @ 200mm with absolutely no post-processing what-so-ever, including NR, exposure, sharpening, and white balance adujustments. Both of these were handheld at 200mm(300mm equivalent) with VR on and shot in compressed RAW first then converted to JPG. What do you think?

(2 things I already know you don't have to tell me: 1) Yes I should be working to memorize more Chinese characters but it's Thanksgiving! 2) Yes I too am surprised by how dirty my watch is ... I'm going to clean it after this post)

D200
Exposure Time = 1/30"
F Number = F5.6
Exposure Program = Aperture priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 1600

D200
Exposure Time = 1/15"
F Number = F5.6
Exposure Program = Aperture priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 1600