Kitty Cat Diary 2006

Kitty Cat Diary | 貓咪日記

The Kitty Cat Diary is a photo diary of my adorkable wife, and it's what happens when a photographer marries a woman who doesn't mind having a camera pointed at her during everyday life. Elena (A.K.A. Kitty Cat, because my nicknames for her all revolve around the theme of a cat.) is my favorite subject to photograph--there's just something very theraputic about grabbing a camera and capturing the person you love the most in the world, while combining that with creativity and aesthetic sensibility. This interaction has brought us a lot of joy over the years and captured a lot of precious memories. If you want to get to know Elena better, her bio is the best place to start.

Since these are spur-of-the-moment snapshots, it's best to enjoy them simply as casual fun instead of serious photography (you can find more serious photography in other areas of my site). A wide range of camera were used to shoot these photos--from professional cameras to casual compacts and smartphones. You can find out what photography gear I shoot with in the FAQ section.

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Kitty Cat about to head out for my birthday dinner (I turned 34). My brother Dennis and his wife Liz took us out to Cascal for dinner. You can see photos Kitty Cat took of the restaurant at her blog entry.

This shot is a great example of how easy it is to mess up a simple photo if you aren't 100% on top of your game. You might hear the focus lock beep, but is the image really in focus? Did you use single-shot or continous or tracking focus? Did you or the model move after the focus locked? Even pro bodies and lenses make mistakes, and it's up to you to catch the mechanical (or maybe human) error.

Kitty Cat enjoying the Christmas decorations at Santana Row (a posh shopping district in San Jose, California).

The next 3 photos were taken with the Fuji F10, hence the difference in image quality.

We all know that often attractive females love to take "selfie/selca" photos of themselves--it's that old narcissism at play. Kitty Cat isn't one of them, although she enjoys being in front of the camera if it's the right person behind the lens. In all the years I've known her, I've never seen her take a single photo of herself (it could also be that because I take so many of her that there really is no need). It's with that understanding that one afternoon I heard her clicking away behind me in front of a mirror (you can see me in the mirror bundled up like a bear--it was really cold in that room we rented temporarily), and I thought it was strange since it was so out of character for her. Then I looked at the photos she was taking and I nearly died--my Kitty Cat was taking photos of herself making all kinds of bizzare and freaky faces. And people wonder why I say she's a giant dork. You would never know by interacting with her--she only gets that way when we're alone. But now I have proof! And of course, with every funny face she made in the photos, my love for her grew even more. I'll spare you guys the rest of the awesomely bad photos she took since she barely allowed me to post even a single one.

Kitty Cat was sitting on the bed reading newspaper (one of her favorite pastimes), and I said, "Those pastel colors look good on you."

I've written about the complexities of black & white conversion in digital photography before, and this is a good example here. The red channel is key for black & white portraits, because it controls so much of the skin tone--knowing what to do with the red channel will get you a porcelain-like radiance (simply jacking up the curves, contrast, brightness..etc will not get you that look--it'll just degrade the image quality drastically, and it's one of the most common mistakes that inexperienced digital photographers make). You can also get similar results by having two Hue/Saturation mask layers, with the top one set to no saturation at all, and the bottom one is the one you tweak (the hue)--you can also add one more Levels mask layer at the very top to do some more fine tweaking, but be careful with that because that's when people go overboard and degrade the image too much. This type of look will probably blow out some highlights, which isn't necessarily a bad thing depending on the subject. For casual shooting of cute females and babies, it probably will look fine, but that same approach won't work for something like war journalism photography, where massive detail in the middle values are extremely important for that gritty "hyper reality" look).

For some of the photos in this batch I used a silver reflector, and for some I used fill flash, but you probably can't tell which is which from just looking, unless you know how to spot color temperature shifts in the secondary light source based from the reflections on her skin.

Um... no, I really have no idea what possessed Kitty Cat to pick up a pair of er...toe gloves.

Kitty Cat trying on a new top. She's been into what we nicknamed "boobie shirts" lately--shirts that are low-cut and meant to expose some soft flesh. I'm the opposite of most men; I don't get all bent out of shape if my woman shows some skin. In fact I encourge her to be as bold as she can comfortably handle. One time I sort of shot myself in the foot though, because I picked out these super short skirts for her, and realized they were just a little too short when we were riding up the escalator at the mall one day. I think my face was burning hotter than hers though.

Kitty Cat asked me, "What if I parted my hair on the side instead of the middle?"

I don't know. She looks cute either way. She'd probably look cute bald, so I don't think it makes any difference.

Kitty Cat at Starbucks. We were waiting for a potential business partner to talk about starting a photography studio.

The next 6 photos were shot with the Fuji F10, hence the difference in image quality.

Kitty Cat at the beach in Sunset District, San Francisco. I used to live in that area for almost six years, and driving around there brought back lots of memories.

Kitty Cat trying on new clothes. That white dress was really expensive, and we really agonized over whether to buy it, even after taking it home. In the end we decided to keep the dress because it's just so cute (can't you just picture it with a pair of wings?).

Kitty Cat in her birthday suit, surfing the internet. This was during the heat-spell we had, when the temperature shot up and stayed up for too many days. In the Bay Area we don't have air conditioning at home because it never really gets hot enough to need any, but on rare occassions like this past July, we have no way of cooling off. When getting naked, splashing on water, and blasting the fan were no longer enough, we'd just head out to the mall and cool off there (no, of course not in the nude).

Kitty Cat almost always hits the sack before I do, since I'm a bad boy and like to stay up late. Every once a while I'd look over and find her in some adorable sleeping position, and then out comes the camera.

Kitty Cat visiting the famous 17 Mile Drive (we didn't have time for it the last time I took her to Carmel and Monterey). I've been trying my best to show her around various places worth visiting in Northern California (within reasonable driving distance)

Kitty Cat is afraid of the sun (she dreads freckles), so she's always got something to protect her face on sunny days.

The next photo was taken with the Fuji F10, hence the difference in image quality.

Kitty Cat passed out for her afternoon nap. That green cushion is her favorite new toy, which we nicknamed "Mochi" (a traditional Asian snack that's made of sticky rice).

Kitty Cat being handy, fixing the broken front license plate of my car (after we worked our butt off fixing the front bumper that got ripped out. The damn hood of the car came down on my left hand because the hydraulic rods that held it in place broke. Luckily no broken bones).

I've been teaching Kitty Cat how to drive. She's got very slow reflexes and bad eye-hand coordination since she grew up sheltered from playing any physical games with other kids, sports, dancing, video games..etc. Not having those early experiences makes a drastic difference--this woman is a complete klutz. Fortunately, I'm a very patient teacher, so she lucked out big time.

Kitty Cat at her first art & wine street show, where we picked up the hat she's wearing. My mom used to attend the shows every weekend for many years, selling hand-painted clothing. We were her helping hands, so our entire family's attended more art & wine street shows than we could remember.

The next 6 photos were taken with the Fuji F10, hence the difference in image quality.

Kitty Cat in Foster City, my home town--one of the prettiest cities in the Bay Area. It's literally built on the water, which runs all around and through the city.

Kitty Cat beaming after trying out our new portable vaccum cleaner. Like all other cats, this one likes to be clean.

Kitty Cat out on an errand run. We've been running all over the place taking care of mundane necessities after a move like car insurance, banks accounts..etc. She looks like some elf girl with her hair braided like that--missing just the pointy ear.

Kitty Cat during our final days in the temporary apartment we stayed at in Fuzhou after we sold our house.

Kitty Cat about to head out for one of her mind-blowingly frustrating meetings at the restaurant. Having witnessed the kind of crap she deals with as a co-owner of a restaurant, I can only conclude that for some people hell must be a giant restaurant where the cooks are tempermental prima donnas, the busboys are morons, the waiters are irresponsible jerks, the cashiers are gossip mongers, the managers are incompetent lying egomaniacs, the customers are violent, and the other co-owners are...well, they could be reading this.

Kitty Cat going through her daily newspaper session--one of her favorite things to do.

Sometimes, a good black and white conversion really brings out out a special mood in the photo. The color version is an okay photo, but the B/W conversion is one of my favorites among all the photos I've ever taken.

The sun was setting, and Kitty Cat was trying on a new camisole and robe. I saw the red silky stuff, glanced at the the setting sun outside and said, "Get yer ass out on the balcony--we're going to shoot a little session." These photos are technically half-way between a formal session and a Kitty Cat Diary entry. It's more thought out in terms of photography, because I brought out a big oval reflector, paid more attention to aperture/exposure settings (whereas I usually just wing it for casual shooting), and she was more or less posing strictly for the camera. But it's not really a serious session because we didn't bother with fine makeup or even iron the camisole (you can clearly see the fold creases). Also, if this had been a serious session, I'd have brought out the entire lighting rig for more sophisticated fill-light, so basically this is just us goofing off. You can see tell clearly which shots used the gold side of the reflector, and which ones used the silver side.

Kitty Cat at the local foreigner's Exit & Entry Adminisration in Fuzhou, extending my residential permit.

Kitty Cat traveling by taxi. I don't usually go out with the Sigma 12-24 unless I know I'll be needing an ultra-wide lens, but on that day I decided to use it as a walkaround lens. On the longer end, you can actually shoot without much distortion if you're careful. The wider end is so nice for getting in the entire surrounding. I should use it as a walkaround lens more.

Kitty Cat at Shangri-la hotel--currently the nicest five-star hotel in Fuzhou. The food's way too expensive, but it is the best by far in this backwater city.

Kitty Cat on the balcony. I actually brought out the reflector for this one, because I felt bad about not using fill light as often as I should. To tell the truth, these entries generally don't benefit all that much from fill-lights, as it kills the natural and spontaneous look I prefer for the Kity Cat Diaries. I almost don't want any of these entries to look like too much thought went into them, as for me, they are like an escape from doing more serious and complex photography. I just want to have fun and capture Elena in our daily life when I shoot these entries. Using a fill flash isn't as annoying though, because I just dial the flash exposure compensation I want, point it where I want it to bounce, and shoot away (I avoid direct flash like the plague unless I have no choice).

Kitty Cat waiting for friends to arrive for dinner. Although it's a common preference for photographers to have only similar temperature of lights as to not complicate the white balance situation, I actually like the fact that a fill flash adds a cooler light source to the otherwise very warm ambient lighting of most indoor settings. This comes from my background as an artist--as we're taught that having warm and cool colors in an image is often more interesting.

A lot of people who have only used point & shoot cameras mistakenly believe that a nice DSLR will easily give you better photos. This shot is a good example of how more advanced cameras actually make it a lot harder to capture good photos. The larger sensors on DSLR's are far less forgiving at large apertures--any slight movement or less than perfect focus will give you out of focus shots like this one. This problem is compounded by the fact that you are often shooting subjects that move--so you'd have to anticipate your subject's movement and track them with your focus. I often shoot as wide as f/1.4, so it's especially difficult to track moving subjects at that aperture.

In Kitty Cat's paws is the inventory list for all of our packed up boxes for the upcoming move back to the States.

Shots with strands of hair falling in front of the eyes are notoriously hard to focus, because if you use autofocus, it'll most likely focus on the strands of hair instead of the eye--which is where you always focus for human subjects (unless you have a compelling reason for using a different focus point--for example, if the lips are the main point of the photo). In situations like this, you simply have to switch to manual focus and do it the old-fashioned way. The viewfinder on the Canon 1D Mark II is a lot smaller than those of film 35mm or full frame DSLR's, so manual focusing is a bit challenging.

Kitty Cat before leaving the house for one of her meetings at the restaurant (she's been hiring and firing a lot of staff lately).

Window lighting is God's little gift to photographers; I can never resist good window lighting in the late afternoon. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd put on the flash for some fill light or bring out a reflector, but the whole point of these Kitty Cat Diary entries is because they are totally casual and spontaneous.

Kitty Cat after getting a massage and "gua sha"--which is a gentle scraping technique that supposedly draws out the toxins from the muscle (they first lubricate the skin with oil, then use a round-edged instrument and apply pressure in a scraping motion). "Cupping" is another popular Chinese massage technique, which involves using suction on the skin to expand the blood vessels and improve circulation. It is said that if your muscles are free of toxins, the purple marks would not appear even after scraping. But science has proven that this is all bullshit, yet so many Chinese people still believe in it. (Some Chinese medicine do work, such as acupuncture and some herbal medicine, but some have been completely debunked by modern science.)

Kitty Cat freaking out over the beautiful snow and ice while flying over Alaska.

Although the white balancing for this shot is not the "right" one, I liked the look and kept it that way. Too many photographers are osbsessed with getting accurate white balance, but sometimes having a color cast is more appealing.

This is a perfect example of the F10's lack of dynamic range. In the first shot I metered the background and the figure became too dark, but look what happened in the second shot when I metered the foreground--the background gets totally blown out. Although it's a tricky metering situation for any camera, the Canon 1D MKII would've done much better.