Random Work Stuff

Recently, we are busy with meeting new clients and doing some marketing matters. I know I missed a few weekly blog updates...

I hate to wait for shipping. I ordered a Zoom H4N hand held sound recorder and it actually arrived in Canadian Customs 5 days ago. However, it was "just released from customs" in the afternoon of Friday. Other than H4N, I ordered a few PC Sync cords from eBay (because we lost one and broke one in 2009 season). I'm still waiting and waiting... :-(

I found a video from 1D Mark IV with a Tamron 11-16mm f/2.8 (APS-C lens). The result is a bit better than my Sigma 10-20mm on 1D Mark II N. I guess f/2.8 APS-C lens has less dark corners at wide end. If I need something wider than 16mm or 17mm, I don't mind to put Sigma 10-20mm on 1D Mark II N. Canon's 14mm f/2.8L is nice but Jessie and I don't like the unprotected front element.

You can see me using Tamron's lens cap on a Sigma lens, right? It's because Sigma's lens cap is really bad.


Usable wide end starts from 11.5mm (11.5mm x 1.3 = 15mm)


The color came out of this lens is pretty nice (I didn't do too much color correction on this shot). This shot used 11.5mm.


We had less than 2 weeks to finish last wedding's photos because the couple had to go back to Hong Kong last week. The wedding was very traditional Hong Kong style. The set had about 150 group photos!









I hope I can show you the H4N mic next week.

Raymond
www.raymondleung.ca

Good Day & Bad Day

Our job is very meaningful, I think. We document one of the most important moments in people's lives. Because of that, Jessie and I always try to stay in shape before wedding shoots. For example, we don't eat raw food, ice-cream, and unidentified food in the week. However... Last week, Jessie got sick since Thursday. She had a bad cold and swollen throat. She coughed whole night in the night of Friday. It was too late to call our associate photographers to substitute her in the middle of the night. At the end, we finished the wedding shoot and brought back a lot of great shots.

Jessie is a real warrior!

Raymond
www.raymondleung.ca

You can see how sick she was... (@lunch hour break)

Viva Las Vegas 2010 New Year

Happy new year! Jessie and I had our vacation in Las Vegas during the new year's period. It was fun to count down in the middle of the strip. We found it wasn't easy to see all fireworks from the road. All fireworks were shot from the top of some hotels such as Planet Hollywood, Treasure Island, etc.

The security policy at Vancouver airport was bad... My original plan was to bring a few lenses to shoot video, but I ended up taking only one lens with 5D Mark II and a 580EX without a bag. It was bad. What if we needed to shoot a destination wedding in Las Vegas? How could we take all our equipment with bare hands?

This trip was a 100% pure vacation. Not work related. We were not so sure whether we would go to WPPI convention @ LV in March this year because we should have a lot of engagement sessions to shoot around that time. We drove around in these 5 days and ate a lot of steaks, prime ribs, king crabs, and seafood everyday. Many hotels offered very good deals on meals. The best one was Monte Carlo's "Late night steak & egg special" for $5.99 from 12am to 6am. In downtown, Fremont Casino offered "Steak & Lobster" for $11.99 from 9pm to 11pm. Coach had a great sale at the nearby outlets. 50% off and then 30% off on top (crazy, right?). Finally, we had time to watch some shows and do some activities we missed in our past Las Vegas trips. In Europe, we visited the real Eiffel Tower,and we went to the mini one at Paris Paris Hotel this time.

The new CityCenter opened in December, 2009. Many stores inside the mall were not opened yet. The tram at the back ran 24 hours a day. The rail had 3 stops: Monte Carlo, Crystal (CityCenter Mall), and Bellagio. In our mind, the best part of CityCenter was the lunch buffet. Strongly recommended!

Raymond
www.raymondleung.ca





Fireworks


CityCenter


King Crab










Fremont Casino has a lot of good deals on meals


See the 2 specials


The actual Steak & Lobster


Hoover Dam