Macworld 2008 Keynote in 60 seconds

Thanks to Mahalo Daily with Veronica Belmont, today's Macworld 2008 keynote speech by Steve Jobs has been condensed from 90 minutes down to 60 seconds. They should do this every year! ;-)

First International Photo Shoot

Today I did my first ever international photo shoot in Tokyo, Japan. Up until now, I have had very little experience with both fashion photography and working in a studio setting. Thanks to Stephanie (our model) and Mai (our makeup artist), I was able to practice both today.

Through Mai's help, we found a small studio in Tokyo - White Studio. This was very easy to get to - I only had to take 1 train with no transfers to get to the studio. Mai was very helpful - she even met me at the train station to make sure I didn't get lost. I am so glad I was able to find such a great makeup artist to work with in Japan.

I met Stephanie through Model Mayhem. She is a great model to work with. Great smile, very easy to work with, professional, and really tall!

As an added bonus, we were also able to have a hair stylist (Miho) come in to do Stepanie's hair so we could do 2 very different looks .

Our shoot took about 6 hours to do 2 different looks and overall, the results came out much better than I'd hoped. I consider myself very lucky to have found such talented people to work with in Japan, and I hope I will have the chance to work with them again in the future.

Grow Cube

Came across this Flash-based game tonight and before I knew it, I had lost several hours in it. Is it a game? A puzzle? Life simulation? Frighteningly addictive? You bet.

Apparently it's the latest in a series of games from this creator. Have to keep an eye on this one.

Cece and Clint's Wedding Video Online

About a year ago I purchased a Sony HDR-HC1 to use as a travel camcorder and also as a backup video camera whenever I shoot a wedding. I've never really put it through its paces until last weekend when I went to my cousin Cece's wedding last weekend. I wanted see how it would hold up shooting a wedding reception and a reception. I also wanted to experiment with compressing video for the web. You can see the results here or by clicking on the photo above:

Cece and Clint Wedding Highlights

Please note that this is heavily compressed for the web and the final widescreen DVD version will be much clearer.

I've also added a second page with some photos from the event. Please contact me if you would like full-size copies of these for printing.

Photoshop Retouching Video

Found a really good video tutorial on Photoshop portrait retouching on YouTube:



I'm always on the lookout for video tutorials on photography, lighting, & Photoshop, so if anyone has any favorites that they've come across, let me know!

Congratulations Cece & Clint

My cousin Cece and her fiancee Clint got married at Keawalai Church yesterday, October 13th. Watching her walk down the aisle was truly a sight to behold, as well as seeing just about every other relative wielding a camera. I've never seen so many camcorders, camera phones and digital cameras in that church before. Simply amazing. ;-)

Congratulations Cece and Clint! Welcome to married life - you're gonna love it! :-)

South Park Self Portrait

I haven't watched South Park in a long time, but at the college where I work, one of the instructors really admires the writing in episodes of South Park. He sometimes refers to particular episodes to illustrate ideas in class. This got me into watching the series again (can't believe they're on season 11 now).

I also came across a website that lets you create your own South Park characters. They just recently updated to version 2.1 and added a whole bunch of new clothing and props. You can kill a whole afternoon in your office by using it to create South Park versions of your co-workers. It's eerie how close you can get sometimes.