photography – Page 2

Don’t Miss A Heart for Christ. (Urbana Through a Lens: Day 4)

God has been touching lives all week, but on Wednesday morning, lives were changed right in front of my eyes. Day 4 was centered around Christ’s sacrifice for our salvation.

Morning Session: David Platt, author of Radical (on Matthew 26):
–“Does your heart belong to Jesus?”
-“Selfless love for others spring from supreme selfless love for God.”
–“We have the sinful propensity to advocate for justice while ignoring Jesus.”

-The woman with the alabaster jar realized two things:

She realized the significance of Jesus’ death… “eternal heaven and eternal hell are real.”
She realized that the purpose of her life is to pour out her heart in sacrificial, selfless love for Christ. “She hears that Jesus is her reward… Jesus is worth giving everything for… Jesus alone is worthy of all your life.”

–“Don’t manufacture a heart for missions and miss the heart for Christ.”

David called out something most people wouldn’t be comfortable talking about. He said that YES, it’s right to work to stop sex trafficking, but we are still watching pornography, which creates a demand for more prostitutes, which increases the amount of sex trafficking. He said “There is a clear link between pornography and sex trafficking. We’re not fighting injustice. We’re fueling it.” I think it’s easy to think: “pornography doesn’t hurt anyone else, so what’s so wrong about it?” But it’s the exact opposite. Watching pornography fuels sex trafficking.

When David Platt asked “Does your heart belong to Jesus,” he asked those who wanted to accept Christ into their hearts for the first time to stand up. And people stood up all around the arena. They were given glow sticks. and one by one glow sticks were broken and shone around the arena. I couldn’t help but smile. There was a sense of joy seeing members added to my spiritual family right in front of me. And I think that this joy is what should drive me and all of us to continue and spread the gospel even in my hometown.

day4-1 — People all around the stadium came to Christ Wednesday morning.

I recall hearing a story this week about someone who came to Urbana for the “Hack4Missions” hackathon, and because of the conference, he gave his life for Christ. Praise the Lord.

618 people came to Christ during the entire conference.

Lunchtime: The Bookstore.

David Platt stopped by for a book signing.

I decided to line up to have my book signed by David Platt… and I got to say hi to him! 🙂

Story: While I was standing in line, I asked the person behind to take a picture with my Sony digital camera. His name is Josh. He then asked me if I could take a picture for him on my camera and send it to him via e-mail (instead of using a phone). Of course, I said yes! In a quick conversation afterwards, I learned that he was part of the Marine Corps, almost done with his service. This is where it gets exciting. Continuing our conversation, a girl walked up to us and interrupted us and said something in the lines of: “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but did I hear that you’re part of the military? Because I joined and I’m freaking out. I’m freaking out.” At that point I was happy to leave them to talk. I was witnessing a brother helping a sister he didn’t know out with her worries about the future. Wow.

day4josh-2 — A new friend Josh (right) sharing his military experience.

The bookstore had so many books. And most of them were significantly discounted.

Afternoon: Hack4Missions (blog post about Hack4Missions will come later)

Night Session: Testimony and Communion
-we heard a testimony that I can’t go into detail about. However, the anonymous speaker encouraged us the reach out the international students, because they might be the ones who will bring the gospel back to their homes!
–we also had a communion at Urbana Wednesday night

Keep in an eye out for Day 5. Thanks so much for reading! 🙂 Happy New Year!

Blessed are the Persecuted. (Urbana Through a Lens: Day 3)

Day 3 at Urbana was a quick, busy day. Simple as that. No more rain though!

Morning Session Part 1: Dr. Patrick Fung on the parable of the 10 virgins.
–“No one can rely on someone else’s spirituality… Spirituality CANNOT be borrowed.” (Acts 13:36)
–“Let us be a community of God’s people, not burnt out but burning bright far and wide for him. The time will come to divide the ready from the unready.”
–“Jesus’ coming will be (1) Unexpected, (2) sudden, (3) definitive, and (4) decisive.”

Morning Session Part 2: Evelyne Reisacher
-I have to say, this lady had the cutest french accent ever!
-Acronym: WWW – Welcome, Wisdom, and Wonder.

Welcome –“I am afraid of scary Muslims as well as scary Christians, but I won’t be afraid of Muslims as a whole.”
Wisdom – we need Christians who can resolve conflict as peacemakers, in education and social work… to care for Muslims where they are mistreated. It takes time to grow. It combines learning with prayer, submission to God and passion for service.
Wonder – “Christians must rediscover that wonder is part of our mission.” A wonder of discovering more about science and discovering more about people through relationships.

–“Our goal should be a lifetime of relationships and conversation with Muslims.”
–Jeremiah: “I have cried until the tears no longer come.”
-“We are ‘hostages of hope.’ We remember that Jesus is the Joy of the World.”
–“It is the joy that brings me back to weakness, because I want to see more joy!”

Lunch: My good friend Jon and I decided to take our lunch break and go to Kiener Plaza to see the famous St. Louis Arch with the Old Courtyard building.

On the way back we ran into a food truck. I got a “Captain Obvious” sandwich, which is a BLT with avocado and an fried egg. I also got their self made chips.

Afternoon: Hack4Missions – I’ll blog about the project on another post. But here are a couple pictures I managed to take during Tuesday’s Hack4Missions activities.

Dinner with Grace and Will – One of my roommate’s friends mentioned that something to eat in St. Louis is toasted ravioli (essentially fried ravioli) at a restaurant named “Charlie Gitto’s.” I got to eat there with two friends in our church’s Young Adult Fellowship (YAF). Both are Rutgers graduates and former Intervarsity members. I talk to them all the time at church even though I’m not a part of YAF, and I love learning from them and spending time with them. I also teach a 4th grade Sunday School class with Grace! 🙂 Also, Will is volunteering this year for Intervarsity at Urbana. Food pictures coming up! The ravioli was pretty darn delicious. The ground-meat inside was on point, and it was fried so well. It’s like a different take on a chicken nugget… I love chicken nuggets.

After dinner, we also visited Kiener plaza (the same place I went during lunch with Jon) to see the same view of the St. Louis Arch at night.

Then we returned to the convention center for the night session. I stopped to take a long exposure shot.

Night Session – Prayer Meeting for the Persecuted
–I won’t be going in much detail because for safety purposes.
–“Today’s persecuted Christians know that the best response to persecution is to pray for the persecutors.”
-“When we align ourselves with God’s kingdom there is always a resurrection. Always. Always. Always.” – MaryKate Morse
-We sang: Father, let this cup pass from us; yet not as I will, but as you will. We bless those who persecute us, we pray and choose to bless.
-“Our call is to press in. (1) To read. (2) To watch. (3) To pray.”

Approximately 16,000 people prayed for the persecuted during this night session. At one point it was almost completely quiet. A crowded football dome… quiet. At another point many broke out singing “How He Loves,” and many other songs to follow.

There were electronic candles passed around to create a candlelight/bonfire type of setting. I’ve been part of candlelight services and bonfire prayer meetings before, but in this stadium, it was like no other.

Lastly, we were given different ways to pray for the persecuted. One way was to write down Bible verses and worship music lyrics on a card to send to others who may not have access to the Bible. This activity made me think: what would it be like if I didn’t have access to a Bible? I was given a renewed appreciation of the Bible verses I’ve memorized at church as a child. I was also encouraged to want to memorize more Scripture now in college.

Roommate Huddles: our room shared about our days. We also prayed for each other. We mainly discussed the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (from morning Bible study), trying to figure out how it applies to our lives. I think that the workers who complain represent many of us who struggle to commit our complete lives to God. If we only need salvation to go to heaven, why do I need to try hard to be a Jesus-follower now? If someone who accepts Jesus on his deathbed gets to go to heaven, why can’t I pursue a comfortable life?

I’m finishing this at midnight after Day 4 (Wednesday) and I can say that Urbana is continuing to be ridiculously tiring, but such a blessing. Keep a look out for a Day 4 post- thanks for reading 🙂

Please pray for a more energy and good rest at night, and also the Hack4Missions presentations tomorrow (Thursday).

If Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord AT all. (Urbana Through a Lens: Day 2)

My day 2 update is coming at the end of day 3. That goes to show how busy days 2 and 3 have been.

day2-11 — An evangelist standing in the rain.

It was another rainy day. Packing Timberland waterproof boots and umbrella really helped.

There is so much going on at Urbana right now. So much worship, learning, and fellowship. It’s almost overwhelming. One of the things that I’ve always had trouble in life is prioritizing. I want to do everything, and make the most of every hour that I have. Urbana is no different. There are people to meet up and catch up with, seminars, tracks, and people to fellowship… prioritizing time is so important. It’s peculiar that I’m struggling with something at this conference that I struggle with in routine life.

The morning session started with another message by Dr. Patrick Fung.
–“Jesus led his disciples into the storm, and jesus saved his disciples from the storm, but Jesus never let his disciples avoid the storm.”
–Following Jesus is: (1) Radical. (2) Risky. (3) Costly.
–“If Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.” -Hudson Taylor
–“Are you willing to follow Jesus into the storm?”

The morning session continued with a message from Christena Cleveland. She talked about unity and division from a Social Psychology view. She mentioned “The Power of US“: When we are together and connected, we share each other’s resources, but we also share each other’s pain.
–“Unity is powerful, but division is just as powerful.”
-“We create ‘us/them distinctions.’ Once we decide who our ‘us’ is, we perceive everyone else as ‘them.’ When we create ‘us/them distinctions,’ we have an inaccurate meta-perception.”
–Christena defined meta-perception as: What we thing that they thing about us.
-We should step into others’ shoes.
–“Who is part of your family? How will the world know?”

In the afternoon we had seminars go to, exhibits from different organizations to visit, and a bookstore to browse. There are also differnet tracks that students were able to sign up for. I signed up for the “Hack4Missions” track.

What is “Hack4Missions”? It’s essentially a hackathon here at Urbana.However, instead of a continuous all-nighter, it’s a designated time in the afternoon (1:30 PM – 5:30 PM) for three days (and one day for presentations). We were given 12 projects to join and help with. There are different things that we can contribute- from coding to web-development to project management to graphic design, and many other tasks. Read more about Hack4Missions here: http://hack4missions.org/

I’ll talk about the project I got to take part in later.

During our night session, we first had the privilege of hearing Francis Chan speak. He talked about “Living Under the Authority of Jesus.”
-He mentioned that there is such a pull to live a comfortable life, and a pull to make a name for one’s self.
–A comfortable lifestyle “pales in comparison to following Jesus.”
–Sometimes we just “discuss the Bible to death.” What does following really mean? “We make so many excuses to not do anything and not make an effort to tell others about Christ.”
-“Paul: Anyone who desires to live a life worthy of Jesus Christ will be persecuted.”
–Chan asked: “Do you want to know the will of God?” If God were to reveal his plan for me RIGHT now, would I even want to hear it??

One thing that really opened my eyes was Francis Chan’s description of the disciple Matthew’s calling to follow Jesus. He asked us: “What do you think Matthew thought when Jesus told him to follow Him?” From Matthew’s standpoint, Jesus just raised a paralyzed man, calmed the storm, drove out a demon. Chan said that Matthew must have been thinking: if every force of evil is under this guy’s power, what is there to fear? Matthew rose and followed him. Chan stated that the book of Matthew is obscure. Matthew knew he had to get up and start moving. It got me thinking- how am I responding to God’s call in my life?

Next came Michelle Higgins. She is an activist for #BlackLivesMatter.
–♪ hold on just a little longer. everything will be alright ♫
–“I love you. Thus, you have dignity” – Deuteronomy
–“If you don’t know your history, you will repeat it.” (Japanese internment. Now refugee crisis).
-“We must tear down our idols. God wants to release you of the burden of being in control!”
–We should say: “I don’t want to bear this burden of being in control of defining justice, but I know the one who does.”
-“We hope for thing that are unseen. This hope becomes part of the unseen. A community of people committed to abiding love is evidence to things unseen.”
–“We must commit ourselves to give control of our stories to the God who wrote them.”

I’m really grateful that Urbana is making an effort to address the current events happening around the world, and doing their best to provide us with a godly and mission-minded perspective in response to these events.

Finally, we had roommate huddles. My roommates George and Jeff are in the business track, and it’s nice to hear about what they’ve learned in their track. George echoed Francis Chan, describing how we know that life is not meant to be easy, but our college education is all about attaining a life of wealth, success, and comfort. Jeff mentioned that an important thing about being a Christian is to simply be the best we can be for God.

Urbana is getting more intense, and the days are getting longer. There is so much more to learn and experience.

Please pray for energy, passion, and a Christ-centered mindset.

R8 Post-Joaquin Hiking @ Point Mountain – 10/10/15

10/10/15 – Second hiking trip to Point Mountain, Washington in a month.

This time i went with my home church’s (Rutgers Community Christian Church) collegiate small group: R8. It’s named R8 after Romans 8, a chapter in the Bible. Our goal is love God, serve the church, and to impact the community with the good news of Jesus’ love.

“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? … No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” – Romans 8:35, 37, New Living Translation.

WARNING: Photography Jargon START

After dropping my 50mm f/1.8 prime lens off the cliff last month, I decided to invest in a refurbished lens (low budged). I went with a 30mm f/2.8 macro prime lens.

This 30mm macro lens has slower aperture than the 50mm prime, but it’s much better at close-up pictures because the macro lens has a minimum focus length of around 6 inches, compared to the 50mm prime lens, which focus length of 24 inches. This means that the “new” macro lens that I bought can focus on an object when I hold a much smaller distance than my other lenses. Do you know how when taking a picture even with your phone, once you get too close to an object it won’t focus? Exactly that. In other words, this “new” lens made look pretty funny when I was holding my camera super close to random small objects during the hike.

Being so close to an object makes it really hard to focus on a small object. Any tiny movement of the object, my camera, or my camera’s focus ring could make the image blurry. It takes a lot of patience and it takes many tries. However, when taking close-up pictures of nature, it’s so peaceful that the extended time doesn’t bother me. It does leave me far behind the rest of the hiking group though, haha!

Photography Jargon END

The following pictures were taken along the hike. I used mostly my “new” 30mm f/2.8 macro lens with my Sony a57, but I also used my 75-300mm zoom lens as well.

I took a lot of pictures that beautiful Saturday. Here’s a gallery of all the photos I took:

Food-venture @ NYC (feat. Jon Lo) – 10/25/15

My friend Jon loves finding the best spots to fine-dine in New York City. And where else to find the most scrumptious food than in the greatest city in the world?! These spots aren’t easy to find all the time; some (probably most) of the best spots are usually in non-tourist spots of the city.

(Check out Jon’s instagram: @jonlolol)

I had an amazing time walking around NYC and eating good stuff. I’m glad I got to incorporate a bit of photography into the day as well! I used my Sony a57 camera with my 30mm f/2.8 prime macro lens.

I’m no food critic; it doesn’t take much to make me happy when it comes to food. I’m going to try to describe the food.. but to be honest it was ALL super delicious.

Lunch

First, Jon took us to Motorino Pizza Napoletana in East Village. One pie was about $16. They used natural ingredients and everything tasted very “clean” and non-processed. The best way I can put it is that there was no layer of cheese that can peel off easily. My favorite part was the soppressata (pepperoni). It had some heat to it, and the meat was of very high quality.

Dessert

The Spot (also is East Village) was next. We ordered a “Chocolate Forest” cake with pistachio ice cream served with it. There was oozing molten chocolate in the center. There are so many items on the menu there and I wanna try all of them (I have a weakness for ice cream and good dessert!),

Coffee

My friend Jeff loves good coffee. We stopped by Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Greenwich Village. Coffee makes me wayyy too jittery and I crash real quick so I’m not much of a coffee drinker.

I didn’t end up taking a picture of the coffee cup because it’s just a simple white coffee cup with no words on it, haha! I guess it’s really all about the actual drink when it comes to gourmet coffee.

Jeff ended up grabbing one of these bags:

Dinner

Last, The Breslin “gastropub” inside the Ace Hotel, at16 W and 29th.

We had two appetizers: the Scotch Egg, and Crumpets.

The Scotch egg is a soft-boiled egg (boiled egg white, but the yolk still runny), inside sausage and deep fried with bread crumbs.

Crumpets are chicken fingers, but with lamb meat. So lamb fingers..? It came with a vinegar sauce. I LOVE fried chicken (chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, popcorn chicken, fried chicken.. anything related). But I really like the taste of lamb meat. So you can tell that I loved this, haha!

For the main course, Jon recommended the lamb burger, medium rare, with “thrice-cooked fries.” The fries came with “cumin mayo.” It sounds interesting.. but it was delicious.

Lastly, on the way back to the path, we passed by the Broadway Bites food “area” by Urbanspace in Koreatown. There are lots of booths with different foods. Again, I loved fried chicken so I had to get it when I saw it on the menu. It was similar to any fried boneless chicken, but this vendor used thigh meat, which added a different texture to the chicken, which I liked a lot!

It was a great night out for the boys (we all attend Rutgers Community Christian Church). Let me know if you have any questions regarding the locations we visited! Another thanks to Jon for bringing us along!

Spontaneous Hiking Trip (9/24/15)

Thursday, September 24, 2015 – Hiking at Point Mountain Reservation, Washington, NJ.

Last Thursday, I was able to go hiking at Point Mountain with my friends Jen and Dorothy. Jen and Dorothy were undergraduate seniors at Rutgers when I was a freshmen two years ago, and they’re both like older sisters to me. Jen would always invite people to go hiking, and she’s one of the reasons why hiking has become one of my favorite things to do on a nice day. I happen to have Thursday mornings and afternoons free every week this fall semester, while Jen and Dorothy both work jobs that have very sporadic schedules. Jen is a nurse at a hospital, while Dorothy tutors students in secondary education. Both happened to have Thursday off as well, and the weather was GREAT, so it all worked out perfectly!

QUICK HIKING SPOT REVIEW: It can be difficult to find nice overlooks when it comes to hiking in Central New Jersey. There are lots of nice forest areas to hike, but there just aren’t a lot of peaks to choose from. Only about a forty-five minute drive away from Rutgers New Brunswick, Point Mountain was a great surprise. This hiking spot is a part of the Musconetcong Reservation in Hunterdon County. The peak was beautiful and really high up, and the hiking trail involved lots of rock scrambling. Also, if you go on the right trail path(s), you’ll hike alongside the peaceful Musconetcong River (there’s just something peaceful about running water!). I would love to go back again soon. Jen and I both share a favorite hiking spot in NJ at Mount Tammany and Dunnfield Creek @ The Delaware Water Gap (http://www.njhiking.com/best_hikes_red_dot_mt_tammany/), which is over an hour drive away from Rutgers. However, I think that Point Mountain, much closer to my Central NJ home, in comparison to Mt. Tammany was also really great location! Difficulty: 7/10 (lots of climbing and rocky paths), Overall Rating: 8/10.

Check out Point Mountain for yourself here! http://www.njhiking.com/nj-hikes-point-mountain/

(WARNING: Photography Jargon) I have gone hiking quite a lot the last two years, and most of the pictures I’ve taken have been focusing on the wide landscapes, such as a view on the top of a mountain, or a flowing river. However, early in the hike, I saw little stinkbugs crawling around. Most of the macro (close up) photography I take outside are usually pictures of flowers. I was able to find a couple insects and take macro shots of them during this hike!

Random fact about this hike: I had taken my Sony 50mm 1.8 prime lens out to take most of these macro pictures. It was my first time using it (I have used a 35mm or the past year). On the top of the mountain, I actually dropped my 50mm prime lens off the cliff (it went CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK as it bounced down each rock) at the end of the hike… so these pictures you see here are pretty much the ONLY pictures that were ever taken by that 50mm primes lens sitting and rotting somewhere in the forest at Washington NJ.

(WARNING: MORE Photography Jargon) Using my Sony A57 DSLR camera, I carried three lenses with me: my Sony 50mm f/1.8 prime lens (for portraits and macro shots), my Sony 75-300mm f/3.5-6.5 telephoto zoom lens (for far away shots), and my Samyang (Rokinon) 14mm f/2.8 ultra-wide angle lens (for landscapes).

FIrst, the macro shots:

The first two pictures are of a caterpillar species that I saw twice during the hike. These caterpillars look super white and fuzzy… searching it up, it’s called a Hickory Tussock Moth (Lophocampa caryae). According to the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, it has poison glands on the longer lashes that causes a burning and itchy rash. Glad I didn’t touch it, haha!

50mm f/2.8 1/80 sec ISO 400

50 mm f/2.8 1/80 sec ISO 200

Stinkbug (Halyomorpha halys). 50mm f/5.6 1/160 sec ISO 800

Here’s a picture of a daddy long leg (called the “Eastern Harvestman”, Leiobunum vittatu). We saw a bunch of these on bench along the trail.

Bees! Not sure what type this is. Some sunlight bokeh in the background. 50mm f/4.5 1/1600 sec ISO 400

I believe this is a honeybee. 50mm f/4.5 1/1600 sec ISO 400

I wasn’t able to find out what animal this is… please contact me or comment if you have any clue! This worm or caterpillar would burrow itself into the leaves/dirt to protect itself. When I removed the dirt to look at it longer, it would curl into a “fetal” defensive position. 50mm f/4 1/100 sec ISO 800

50mm f/4.5 1/125 sec ISO 400

50mm f/3.5 1/200 sec ISO 400

A couple of landscape/telephoto pictures:

150mm f/8 1/250 sec ISO 200

14mm 1/125 sec ISO 100 (NOTE: the aperture is adjusted manually on the lens, so I don’t know what f-stop it ended up being!)

Mini long exposure of running water. 50mm f/13 0.4 sec ISO 200

The 0.4 second exposure allowed the shot to have a silky water movement.

14mm 1/80 sec ISO 400

Pre-sunset. 300mm f/11 1/1000 sec ISO 100

Lastly, a couple portrait/people shots:

Direct sunlight allowed for some interesting bokeh here. Thanks to Jen for standing still for me, haha! 50mm f/2.5 1/125 sec ISO 800

50mm f/3.2 1/160 sec ISO 800

Dorothy overlooking the peak of Point Mountain. 50mm f/11 1/250 sec ISO 800

Jen hopping on rocks in the middle of the river. 50mm f/2.8 1/320 sec ISO 800

50mm f/3.2 1/1000 sec ISO 1600

LASTLY, a selfie with the three of us… (no selfie sticks were used here. Actually, no selfie sticks will EVER be used for this blog… unless it’s a blog post filled with pictures of tourists and people using selfie sticks!).

14mm 1/125 sec ISO 100

Thanks again for reading 🙂 If you like these pictures, please share this blog with your friends!

Follow me on instagram (@mattlau95)! Also, follow Jen (@jenwenlee) but I think she may have her account on private, haha!

Happy Labor Day! (Post 5 of 5 in 16 Days)

NOTE: It seems I ultimately gave up on the 5 posts in 5 days… ~~but at least I did three in a row!~~ failure

For my first two years of college, Labor Day was simply the last day of summer. This year, Labor Day fell on the 9/7, and Rutgers has already started classes for just about a week. A refreshing three-day-weekend to start off the summer.

Another bonus, my older brother Tim came home this weekend from NYC! Ultimately this year’s three day weekend became a weekend with the family 🙂

My brother, my godbrother (Josh) and I have been playing tennis together for over 8 years now (since I was in middle school). Since my brother lives in the city, we don’t get to play with him as often. But we were able to get together and play this morning! Losing king of the hill = taking my camera and messing around with it.

I used my Sony A57 and my favorite 35mm F1.8 lens for these:

Same settings for the tennis pictures coming up; all were taken in 100 ISO because the sunlight was so bright today. I used a steady aperture of f/2.0 for a shallow-er depth of field (I tried to make the background as blurry as possible). 35mm, since it’s a fixed prime lens (no zoom). Lastly, because of how bright it was, I was able to use a shutter speed of 1/4000 of a second to be able to get a frozen still of the ball, as well as Josh/Tim moving around.

Josh is a fellow Rutgers student with me, but he’s a huge Tenn, Vols fan!

Also, family weekends at home means my mom’s amazing cooking! Baozi 🙂

35mm f/2.0 ISO 400 1/160 sec

Happy Labor Day everyone! 🙂

Mom’s Home Gardening (Post 3 of 5 in 5 days)

My mom has started to work more on our home garden the last year. It might be in congruency with me go to college, haha! We live in a very deer-populated area, so it can be pretty difficult sometimes to avoid chomped petals.

My mom’s garden was the perfect opportunity for me try macro and flower photography.

I used around with my trusty Sony a57 DSLR, and I used my 75-300mm zoom lens for the first two flower picture below, and then my 35mm f/1.8 prime lens for the third picture. If anyone knows the names of these flowers these are let me know! They’re both about like 1-2 inches in diameter.210mm f/5.6 0.5 sec ISO 400

280 mm f/5.6 0.5 ISO 400

35mm f/1.8 1/500 sec ISO 200

Photography Jargon: This last picture shows a really good example of “shallow depth of field” that comes with a low aperture of f/1.8, which explains the blurry background.

I hope the deer will stay away from my mom’s garden so I might have more things to take pictures of!

Prom? (Post 2 of 5 in 5 days)

School’s about to start, and the there’s a whole new of freshmen getting ready for the college life. One of them is my best friends and also my godbrother (godbrother = son of my godfather/godmother) Josh. He’s getting ready to move in to Rutgers this weekend.

In May, Josh went to prom with his friend Verity. I had an opportunity to take pictures for their “pre-prom” at Spring Lake Park, South Plainfield, NJ. It was super cute 🙂 They cleaned up nice, no?

I ran around with my Sony a57 with a Sony 35mm f/1.8 prime lens that day. Here are four of my favorite shots from that afternoon, all the way back on May 8, 2015:

I really like this shot! It was like capturing the act of a selfie. Also, the lighting was perfect in the top left corner. Featuring Josh and Verity’s friends Caroline and Brittany (their prom crew).

So cute 🙂

I really enjoyed shooting for these two. The sunlight was perfect that day for shooting and the park was a pretty nice location. Barely making the cut for Day 2 at 11:58 PM… stay tuned, three more to go!

I love dolphins. (1 of 5 posts in 5 days)

If you should know one thing about me, you should know that i love dolphins. When I was born, i was showered with stuffed dolphins instead of teddy bears. When I was around four to five years old, I decided to become a Miami Dolphins instead of a New York Giants fan like I should be because I thought the Dolphins logo was cute. Still a Dolphins fan today, haha!

I still love dolphins because of how cute and majestic they are.

On Friday, July 31, my family took a trip out to Atlantic City and went on a dolphin watching cruise! The cruise takes us out to the Atlantic City shore and we got to see dolphins in the wild. I was so excited because the only live dolphin I’ve seen were the ones living in aquariums a long time ago (probably running back 10 years).

Check the cruise out at this site! It was worth it 🙂 http://www.atlanticcitycruises.com/

I ~~ran~~ sat around that day with my Sony A57 APS-C DSLR, and a 75-300mm Sony zoom lens. These were my three best dolphin shots of that morning:

135mm f/5.6 1/1250 sec ISO 200135mm f/5.6 1/2000 sec ISO 200

Quit showing off!

135mm f/5.6 1/2000 sec ISO 200

Because it was so bright out that day, I could keep the ISO low for less noise and use a ridiculously quick shutter speed (reaching 1/2000 of a second) to snap a dolphin jumping out of the water. I would totally go again, so if anyone is interested in taking a trip out to AC to see dolphins, let me know 🙂