What I've been up to?

Ok folks, I'm back!  Here's what I've been up to lately:

• I went to Hong Kong for a couple of weeks, had 1 engagement session, 1 wedding session, and 1 family portrait session, and some quality time catching up with family which hasn't happened for many good years. It's really been long due. =)
• My cat, CC, has been diagnosed with cancer about 4 months ago. Her conditions deteriorated rapidly while I was away from home, but she hung in there like a warrior and waited for me to come home. We spent the final moments together as family, and words cannot express the pain I've gone through. Life never means so much to me, and I'm beginning to discover new meanings to photographs I treasure.
  
• Work is piled up, and I'm doing my absolute best to get things done. I managed to lock myself in front of my computer and came up with about 70 album layouts that will help speed up the album design process hereafter.
• I'm preparing for an entirely new website for the year 2010. I know, the last major changes haven't even been 2 months and I'm already working on the new.
• New Blog! Yep, I finally decided to move this blog in the first quarter of 2010 to WordPress. I migrated from my PC to my iMac 6 months ago and I simply hate using my PC... sorry folks, "I was a PC"! WordPress will make the blogging less painful to do especially the picture posting part which I had trouble with over the past few months. Moving large number of pictures back and forth the Mac and PC isn't the most enjoyable part of my job!
• I attended a Joe McNally's Location Lighting Technique Workshop early November, and it's really an eye opener to see the Master of Nikon CLS work his magic. It's absolutely inspiring and it is opening new doors to how I shoot with my Nikon SB Speedlights. It's also inspired me to go back to my experimental phase again with small objects and multiple flash units to get creative with lighting; eventually this all will contribute to new ways of how I shoot. Photography has always been exciting and fascinating for me, and it always seem to find new ways to keep me going forward!
• Must be that time of the year... I've been on a spending spree lately with photography related items. One of the new toys (haven't used this term for my camera stuff for a long while!) is the PC-Nikkor 35mm F/2.8 shift lens seen below, and I have a tilt adapter coming in to help me explore new boundaries of the land of tilt-shift. =) Stay tuned, you'll see me using them on the field in no time...
• I hope my new Panasonic DMC-TS1 is truly waterproof, 'cause I'll be testing it in Maui after X'mas. Can't wait!

This is it folks, time to post some pictures to share!!!

 

Goodbye CC, you’ll forever be missed

 
Herman Au is a Wedding Photographer located in Los Angeles, California
Service area includes LA, Orange County, and San Francisco Bay Area
Will also travel worldwide for destination weddings
http://www.hermanau.com

Out of Office - Hong Kong

I'll be out of office for 2 weeks traveling to Hong Kong. Although I really never liked long flights 'cause I just never sleep well especially on the plane sitting next to strangers, it's about time I pay a visit to my families and spend some quality time with them! I'll be covering a wedding, an engagement session, and also one family portrait session during my stay. Be back soon! ;-)

August… Wedding Season!

Boy, it’s HOT in SoCal the past couple of weeks. I’ve been a little overwhelmed lately with all the projects unwrapping in July, August, September.

• I have a farmer’s (photographer’s) tan… and it’s getting more serious by the day
• I bought an old Miata to reward myself and to save the earth (some gas), but the convertible driving is making my photographer’s tan even worse
• This week marks the first time that I’ll be shooting 4 days a week
• Helen & Alex’s album arrived along with Venetia & Steven’s and Forbeyon delivers once again, they never fail to impress! I am a proud photographer to deliver these quality albums to happy customers
• I’ve been receiving prints from WHCC several times a week these days, and the UPS man is wondering what’s up with all the odd sized packages *grin*
• WHCC prints are out of this world… for your reference that’s what I deliver if you order prints from the a la carte menu. Trust me, the print quality never fails to impress.
• Totally out of context again, but I bought Wii Sports Resort and I’ve been getting e-exercise… the sword fight gave my wife a sore arm, and thanks to the Wii I’m getting some morning exercise every day to kick start the day!
• A few weeks ago we went Segway Riding with Segwow. It’s F-U-N, and I think once of these days I’ll try to persuade my brides to do a segway engagement session! =)
• Oh, and congratulations Lisa & Erwin, you guys are totally awesome and your wedding has been a blast to photograph! Keep an eye out for your pictures coming up very soon!

And… New blog design update should be on its way… :-)

Herman Au is a Wedding Photographer located in Los Angeles, California
http://www.hermanau.com

Jane Lui @ Hotel Cafe, Los Angeles 7/25/09

I don’t normally go out to concerts, or parties, or clubs… you get the picture. But then one day Shirley came across Jane on Youtube, and I was like, Jane who? Turns out that it’s the Jane that I’ve known since highschool, some… 15 years ago? We haven’t kept in touch for sooooooooo long, and I guess we always have the Internet to thank for these types of reunions.

It turned out that Jane Lui became a signer / Internet sensation these days. The opportunity finally came and she’s performing at Hotel Cafe last Sunday, and so Shirley and I decided to catch up with an old friend and show some support. Hey seriously, I ain’t kidding you guys gotta check out her work, really, ‘cause it’s your loss if you don’t!

Here are some shots from the night, and trust me I behaved well and stayed in my seat being a good audience. Looking forward to the next show!

Herman Au is a Wedding Photographer located in Los Angeles, California
http://www.hermanau.com

Goodbye my Nikon D70

"Thank you"

My Nikon D70 really took me to a different level moving up from my Nikon D50 with a lot more features that are missing. For that kind of money, it's an absolutely perfect camera for anybody to move up from point & shoot to really get a taste of DSLR photography. I had a talk with my die-hard Canon friend comparing features of the few cameras we've had our hands on, and I'm sure he'll agree if I say that Nikon really packed a lot more features and value into this camera than anything comparable with the same price tag with the name Canon on it. Just by holding the camera in your hand and you'll feel the difference, much like feeling BMW plastic comparing to Honda Civic plastic.

Why am I getting rid of it? It's sad but 6.1 megapixel is simply not enough if I start printing or selling my images. It's really unfortunate that it boils down to this, but it's the sad truth that the D70 is made for the consumers, not prosumers, nor the pros. If I were ever to dip my foot into that area, it simply isn't good enough.

Why not sell the D50? The D50 is a newer camera, and I find it generally much easier to capture good images with it than the D70. Don't get me wrong. Both cameras are neck to neck in terms of image quality, and the D70 gives you a lot more bells and whistles and extend your capabilities to create that "better" you'll struggle with the D50. However, the D50 is my choice to serve as a second camera, or as a backup camera. On top of all that, my wife bought the D50 to me as a gift... :-)

If you want to seize this opportunity and pick up my D70, it's on ebay for 7 days starting today 7/25/07. Here's the link to the auction.

Goodbye D70! You served me well, and It's really sad to see you go. I hope your new owner takes great care of you!

The death of Sportsmanship

Yep, it's dead. Sportsmanship has probably been dead for a long time in this country. It has become very obvious when the penalties were announced for Robert Horry of the San Antonio Spurs, Amare Stoudamire and Boris Diaw after game 4 of the NBA Western Conference Semi-Finals.

I've always been a believer that sports is a form of fair competition where people can play against one another in a fair manner where rules and officiation. Unlike what we encounter in life which isn't always "fair", we all find a way out and see athletes compete fairly while we can enjoy the excitement. The series has been a very physical one, and the referees are supposed to be the ones drawing lines of what is and what is not a foul in order to keep the games in check. Some may disagree with me, but I honestly do not enjoy seeing players going down hard every single time they make a layup. Every time you fall down like that, you risk injuring yourself, and for those athletes that may lead to career ending injuries. In this series particularly, I honestly don't remember an "unchallenged layup" where players can come down without getting the physical treatment. The stakes are high, and the players and fans all know that it may very well be the series to determine the championship team of this year.

Game 4 in final seconds, the Suns were on its way to winning it in the final seconds. The Spurs had no chance to even tie the game, and the questionable foul happened when Robert Horry hard fouling Steve Nash lacking any sportsmanship of any kind to protect him from injuring. Instead of just a regular foul, it appeared that he basically tried to knock him down hard to cause injuries to the Suns' MVP star player. Usually, a player commiting a foul to a running player on a fast break situation would be to wrap him around to stop him from continuing to run in a way that he would not fall down hard to risk any injuries. Instead, as you can see from the video, Robert did it exactly the other way around.

The aftermath of all that:
Robert Horry the bench player who committed the horrific foul: 2 game suspension
Amare Stoudamire (The Suns' Star player), Boris Diaw (The Suns' starting Foward): 1 game suspension each in the determining game 5 of the 7 game series for simply leaving the bench area that caused... nothing.
The TEAM with the player that caused the flagrant foul lost a bench player for 2 games.
The TEAM that had the MVP knocked down almost knocking his head to the officiating tables lost 2 starters for the decisive game 5, and eventually losing the entire series.

The reasoning:
NBA has a rule stating that if the players on the bench leaves the bench area, they will be penalized. Honestly, the rule itself isn't a bad one. It's designed to keep the players in check; the game undisturbed; and in a sense that incidents like these will not escalate.

Fairness? None...
The rule was made in order to keep the game to be played fairly, correct? It's just like our laws were made in order with justice and fairness in mind, except it applies to the game instead of our lives. What happened to the justice and fairness that we were hoping for in watching sports games? Do we live in the age where sports is more of a form of business instead of competition?

Stu Jackson's decision to suspend Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for leaving the bench during the fracas at the end of Game 4 is utterly, profoundly, alarmingly, unreasonably ridiculous, writes Chris Sheridan. -ESPN

I think Stu Jackson and the NBA has lost something that used to capture the hearts of basketball fans, and it spells S P O R T S M A N S H I P.

"The rule is the rule," Jackson said.
"It's not a matter of fairness. It's a matter of correctness."

What if that's what a Federal judge say to you in your face where your fate is determined?
It's about correctness of applying a rule that is designed in a world of sports where fairness stand by some guy's biased interpretation of it?

There is no doubt that the Spurs/Suns series is already ruined by the call, and there is little doubt that the NBA playoffs season is ruined by this one misjudgment.

Fouls like these are OKAY, and it's already become a part of the game that even players like Bruce Bowen who kept crossing and pushing the line are rewarded with Defensive Player of the Year, TWICE.

IF, and I repeat, IF the Spurs ordered Robert Horry to intentionally make a hard foul on Nash and walk back immediate to cause this mayhem, then what? I mean, I am by no means making an accusation, but let's just assume for a second that is actually a remote possibility... then the NBA just got lured into making a call to just ruin the entire season of eliminating the Suns to compete fairly to the end of the season. If I am the coach of the Spurs in that situation, presumably knowing the outcome of all this, would you have done it?

The NBA needs to review these rules. The NBA needs to look at a bigger picture on the scale of a team instead of just a player in situations like these. The NBA should also look into promoting sportsmanship and fairness, instead of abiding by the books. The season for me, is already over, and I have lost any further interest in watching it any further regardless of how much I enjoyed the Golden States Warriors vs the Dallas Mavericks series. I can't help but still remain a bit of hope, because I still fantasize what sports should be all about.

Interesting fact: NBA commissioner David Stern has canceled a schedule appearance in Phoenix for Wednesday night's Game 5.

Robert Horry Foul On Nash

What do you know... the Spurs just keep living up to the "dirty team" name Amare called them. Robert "Big Shot" Horry landed a cheap shot on Steve Nash last night in game 4. Robert, word of advice for you here: "learn better from master Bowen". At least the dirtiest player in the NBA Bruce Bowen does it with some subtlety.

Baron Davis DUNK over Andrei Kirilenko

OMG OMG OMG... Game 3 2nd round playoffs Golden State Warriors against Utah Jazz. I think this guy Baron Davis is turning everybody who watches his play into his fans. BARON! BARON! BARON! BARON! BARON!

Bruce Bowen's "Champion Defense"

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a youtube video is worth 10,000,000 words. Bruce Bowen is known to be a tough defender, and also a dirty player to some. You be the judge... and be sure to check out the other Bowen videos when u're done with this one.

Choose a Vista

Apple rolled out a few new commercials and I love this the most. As a PC guy, I really hate the new different versions of Vista to death. It's just way beyond software and OS, and simply a stupid shallow crooked marketing move. Kudos Apple, haha! :)

Steampunk Keyboard

I'm sure I'm not the first one to blog this, but this keyboard "mod" is way beyond crazy... It reminds me of all those Sherlock Homles games I played... If computers were invented back in those days, I'm sure this is how the keyboard would have looked like. :) If not mistaken, the original modder Jake Von Slatt at Steampunk is actually willing to make these if the price is right. Wish you the best of luck, Jake! Nice work!

Golden State Warriors made History!

Tonight, Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, Jason Richardson, and the entire Golden State Warriors (42-40) led by Don Nelson made history by defeating the #1 seed Dallas Mavericks (67-15) in the first round in game 6 winning the series 4-2. This is first time a #8 seed beating a #1 seed ever since the NBA changed to 7game/series in all rounds, and probably one of the biggest upset in NBA playoffs history.

After blowing a 2 digit lead in the final minutes in game 5, the Warriors bounced back to seal the deal by winning a whopping 25 points. It's a complete team effort and faith that the warriors put in that captured the hearts of all the fans. The Warriors, towards the end of the season, secured their final #8 playoffs spot by winning 8 out of 9 games losing only to the Spurs, including a defeat to the Mavericks at 4/18. The irony is if the Mavs played all their starters in that game to actually try to win it, they probably would have faced the Clippers instead and cruised by round 1 with ease.
And of course, big props to Don Nelson who truly believed that they had a chance to win, and coached the team to win the series. I still remember the days when I first moved to the bay area watching the Warriors and started watching NBA and learned what basketball was. It wasn't until later til I learned how Nellie coached the Sprewell, Harderway, Mullin 3 guard formation to success.
Keep it up GSW! Wish you guys the best of luck in the next round(s)! :-)

*Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images, copyright NBAE

I quit!

Yea, I quit my day job. I quit my job for numerous reasons, and I think you may find some of them very familiar:

• I don't enjoy working with (some of) my co-workers, mainly because of too much drama/politics.
• I find myself growing beyond my position, and the chance of getting a raise/promotion is slim.
• I find the company/industry I work for is going downhill.
• I find myself spending way too much time stuck in traffic.
• I find myself not having enough time to do the most basic things in life, quality of life is falling fast.
• I find myself getting further and further away from my life goals than getting closer.
• I am simply not making enough money, and continuing to do what I'm doing isn't going to help.
• I find myself having little to no control of improving my life with what I do at work.
• I'm not enjoying work, and I hate waking up on Monday mornings so much that I always want to call in sick.

Heck, if you find yourself fitting one, or some of the criteria I listed above, maybe you should sit yourself down and THINK hard for yourself what you could do to change things around. I QUIT! I decided to start working for myself to try to find a different route, and with the spare time around I'll catch up with the things I wanted to do, and do the things I need to do to improve the quality of my life, and my family. Wish me luck, and I wish you all the best of luck with your careers! :-)

Speed Loading Adobe Acrobat 6.0

Ctrl-R, enter C:\Program Files
Navigate to Adobe/Acrobat 6.0/Reader
Rename plug_ins folder to plug_in_NOT
Make new folder plug_ins and copy the following 3 files from plug_in_NOT to the new folder: EWH32.api, printme.api, search.api

That's all you need to do. :) Enjoy

Taken from PC MAGAZINE October 19,2004

About me | Herman Au

Photography is not just my profession. It is most importantly my life-long hobby and my passion. I first picked up a camera on my honeymoon, fascinated by the camera but drawn by what I was able to capture. It is the joy, the happiness, and the memories that stayed with me after the trip that made me realize I wanted to continue shooting. I photographed everything around me - food, flowers, water, buildings, cars, people, and everything else I found. I took my camera out wherever I went, shot whatever I could, and all I read was photography books and magazines before bed. However, nothing satisfied me more than being able to do what I do now - preserving precious memories and capturing life stories as they unfold.

Random tidbits about me:

• I was married 3 years ago, and I still freshly remember the bits and pieces of it. I treasure my own wedding pictures because they preserve the memories for that memorable day from a different perspective. I love that, and now I try my best to pass that along with my own camera.
• I currently own 7 cameras - Nikon D700, D300, D200, F100, Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3, DMC-TS1, and a Polaroid ONE Instant Camera. I do take quite a lot of pictures with my iPhone, but that's my phone and it doesn't count!
• I wear glasses, sometimes, and yes they are corrective lenses if you're wondering.
• I use Macs, and I <3>
• I bought my first convertible - a 92 Mazda Miata, in 2009; and driving it with the top down became one of my favorite pass-times.
• I lost count of how many polo shirts I have already...
  
• I don't know why, but I keep on losing my bluetooth headsets; just like how everybody's socks keep disappearing when they do laundry, but somehow you only lose one of the pair...
• I'm usually very critical about things in life, and I am also my own worst critic. =)
• I love Japanese food, and I love love love good o' authentic real Japanese sushi.
  
• I have fruits phobia. Yep, you read that right... the only fruits I eat are: apple, orange, lemon, pineapple (on Hawaiian pizzas only), and tomato (yea?).
  
• Latest addiction - watching Dexter on Netflix