Bokehlicious

As I was scrolling through my news feeds on Facebook, I came across a comment B&H made on one of their fan's picture that fan had posted up. At first I couldn't tell why it was special, but after examining the links they posted I realized what was different with that picture. Check it out DIY link here: DIY - Create Your Own Bokeh

Here's my Bokeh filter that I made with some paper my sister had laying around.

Canon 50mm f1.8

Jib Done & Tested

Finally I got around to finishing the DIY jib I started last month.  The only part of the jib I left unfinished was the counter weight which is a crucial part of any jib.  Also, I went ahead and added a swivel wheel on the end of the arm.

counter weight

swivel wheel

Check out the test video I shot.

Worship

The most powerful times of worship for me don't take place at a church, at a church meeting, or even with a live praise team.  The most powerful times of worship for me have been by myself, in my car, and with the radio tuned into the local Christian radio station.  (WGTS 91.9 Family Friendly)

Canon 50mm f1.8

Pictures of Pictures

I absolutely love Canon's 50mm f/1.8 lens.

 

15mm

50mm

14 years later

I've lived over half my life without him.

 After 14 years, its still hard to visit this place.

Canon 50mm f1.8

Early Morning Craving

So, I woke up at 4:00 AM and couldn't go back to sleep.  There was something that was unsatisfying to me, a feeling I've never really had before.  I went online and started to check my email when the wallpaper of a Canon T2i on my computer's desktop caused me to jump to B&H's website to view their selection of lenses.  Not having saved enough money to make a lense purchase, it still wanted something for my T2i.  I then clicked on the DSLR support systems and looked at a few shoulder rigs.  A shoulder rig is almost a must-have when it comes to DSLR filmakers.  Not having any money for a rig, I figured I'd take some time and make one.  As I watched videos of DIY shoulder rigs, I ran across a DIY jib.  I've seen some DIY jibs and there won't any out there that I thought was easy to make and cheap, until that day.  Here is what happened.




After 4 hours of running around from the Home Depot off of Shaddy Grove to the Lowe's in Laural, MD, I finally got all the parts I needed to start the construction.

However, after only an hour and half of work, I had to go to a planning meeting for our church's Friday night youth fellowship. Good news though, was after the meeting, Hunter was able to come over and lend a hand.

Then there were the guys inside the house drafting their fantasy football.

And no day of men building things with their hands would be complete without hunting and killing something.

While Hunter and I were working on the jib, I left the garage door open because the cool night air was so refreshing. However, because the door was open, the light from the garage attracted all sorts of insects and HUGE bees. What seemed to be a genetically mutated bee started to fly around us and that's when things started to get dangerous. Then, what's worse than a mutated bee flying around you? TWO mutated bees flying around us. This is when we brought in the big guns, the fly swatter.

After we were able to lure one of the bees out of the garage by turning off the garage lights and placing a light outside the garage, one bee was gone. The other bee was more challenging to get rid of, but luckily Hunter is a master fencer. Using his fencing skills he acquired during his time at CalTech, the last mutant bee had no chance.

Once the drama with the bees was over, I was able to get back to work and finish up the project that got me up so early in the morning and kept me up so late into the night.

Canon 15-85mm f3.5-5.6

A Memorable Park

The Bench

Here at Wooton Mill Park was the site of two of the first video projects I worked on. Many people would remember the short "FOB Man Can't Jump" written by Mikie Tong and produced by our very own twin brothers Toby and Tony. The other video Rom and I filmed for one of the first "Mikie's Mudsling" episodes. It was an reenactment of how Fei Fei came to know Jesus Christ. Good times...

Taco Bell is pretty cheap food. Meals there cost generally less then other fast food places, and it usually leaves me satisfied. I tried their new lemonade drink and it taste OK. Their margarita drink in my opinion is much better.

The Nail

Canon 15-85mm f3.5-5.6

Random Moments

So while I was testing out the quality of the built-in flash on my camera, I decided to snap some random pictures of my niece and nephew.

Noah and Melia

It's pretty easy to take good pictures when you have great subjects.  I felt bad when Noah told me that his eyes were flashing.  Apparently, I was taking so many flash photographs that he started to see only flashes of light.  After reviewing my pictures, I noticed that he kept looking straight at the camera in every picture.  Using a flash while taking pictures is too distracting for me.  The type of pictures I prefer to capture are the pictures of real life, not posing ones.

Canon 15-85mm f3.5-5.6

Champions Again

The REM (Rockville Enanglical Mission) Team A have done it again for the second year in a row.  They took first place in the REM Basketball Tournament.  Congratulations to Team A.

REM 2010 Annual Basketball Tournament Champion

And as always, I have to show what we ate for lunch. Mad props goes out to my sister for providing the wraps and sandwiches. We definitely had more then enough lunches to go around this year.

Checking out the delicious food.  Right...  j/k

Big thanks goes out the all the water boys that kept Team A hydrated throughout the tournament by making all the Gatorade from Gatorade powder.

The kids made Gatorade and a big mess.  Haha.

Announcing the "Most Christ-Like Team"

Brotherly Love