News:
The new magazine from UK’s Future Publishing I mentioned before has been published, and it’s called ImagineFX. I just received my copy and it’s very nice. Now that the magazine is out, I could show the piece I did the tutorial on (titled Till Death Do Us Part). It’s not exactly how I hoped it would turn out, but isn’t that how it usually is? Anyway, here it is:
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It turned out that we’re moving back to the States afterall. After a talk with a lawyer, we learned that in order for Elena to get her American citizenship smoothly in three years, she needs to be living in the States for more than half of the time, and realistically, we just couldn’t keep new business ventures in China running if she has to be in the States half the time. So, the game plan has officially changed to us moving back to the States around mid-May this year. This means I’ll need to start sending out resumes for a new CG/game job around early May. We probably won’t consider states other than California, as my family and friends are all in Cali.
Weblog:
After dumping all the photos I took from the vacation onto the hard drive and going through them, I was hit with the realization that I might have finally managed to grasp the most important lessons in photography. This sounds funny because I’ve already been shooting pro gigs on and off for a couple of years, but the reason I say this is because an overwhelming percentage of the photos I took on this vacation had dead-on exposure, regardless of the environment (darkly lit restaurants, bright daylight, dusk, interior at night..etc), and the compositions just right with no need for cropping at all. In fact, out of the couple thousands of photos I took, I have yet to do any significant post processing–which is a refreshing change. I’m not sure what it was, but somehow, everything just snapped into focus on this vacation–the past lessons I’ve learned became second nature–and I stopped making the same mistakes I used to, and started doing things right. While looking at the photos and thinking back, I noticed the things that made a difference this time around were:
1) I stopped taking shots that didn’t have good lighting in the first place. Being pickier gave me a much higher percentage of good photos.
2) I stopped being stingy with the ISO setting. Getting the shot is a lot more important than getting a blurry mess.
3) I started stopping down more than I used to.
4) I gave thought to how the environment is lit and how to best use the flash exposure compensation in the most natural manner before taking a shot.
5) I took the time to anticipate the subject’s next move.
6) I kept in mind that just because something looks cool does not mean you’ll automatically get a great photo just by shooting it. A great photo and a great subject are two different things.
7) I started switching to different metering modes more often to accomodate various situations.
8) I paid more attention to possible blown highlights.
9) I stopped carrying too much stuff and gave a couple of lenses to my wife to carry instead. This significantly improved my mobility and placed less strain on my shoulders.
10) I stopped taking shots that are similar to stuff I’ve taken in the past.
All of these are really simple things that anyone who’s into photography would pick up along the way. However, we don’t always remember them in any given situation–especially when these little things add up and can eventually fill an entire book on photography. I guess when you start to be able to do them instinctively in any given situation is when you’ve “arrived” as a photographer. I still have a long way to go before I feel like I’ve truly “arrived.”
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Kitty Cat Diaries updated:
