Thursday, September 24, 2009

About dating

I like you a lot but I'm not sure if I have much chance with you.  May be about 1%

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I'm gonna ask you out 100 times then. 

hahahha a random thought that just entered my head for no reason.  Here's yet another unreleased picture:  have a nice day.


Sunday, September 20, 2009

Old Friends

First of all, shout out to my friend david who was on the front page of the Korea Times:



... actually it's more like the back of his head.  Anyways, thanks for hooking us up with the makkoli (Korean Rice Wine) bro. 


Going out to LA, getting hooked up on free makkoli by a friend you've known for over a decade, and eating three hot dogs with another friend whom you've known for a decade:



priceless.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Unreleased pictures

"Unreleased" here basically means pictures I didn't upload onto facebook (or at least I don't think I did).


From This and That
Poppies



flower and a cross




just a flower




All the pictures except for the first one were taken from San Juan Capistrano Mission, last year.

If you can tell, my style has changed drastically since last year.  I guess you can say that my pictures nowadays are more abstract, and that would be true.  But more than just abstract, I try to look for a story behind every shot, while sometime ago, I just tried to make them pretty.




I much prefer these types of pictures nowadays.  It has a story no?  For the title, how about "chasing after dreams?"

Thursday, September 17, 2009

post modern art

I once read an art professor's interview about post modern art.  When asked about the confusion often experienced by many people while appreciating a piece of contemporary art, she replied, "Even I often ask myself, 'what is this?'  It's important to approach a piece with honesty." 

Nevertheless, it's quite refreshing to know that even an art professor asks, "what the fawk?" (not in those exact words) when confronted with post modern art.

Sometimes, I feel like taking "what the fawk?" pictures.  But it can't be just any ol' picture - they gotta look remotely good, at least in some weird, abstract way. 


From Blogger Pictures





From Blogger Pictures

It's the effort that counts.






From Blogger Pictures
The flower may be dead, but it still attracts butterflies.

Size change

If you haven't noticed, the size of this blog changed.  It is officially uglier, but I can post bigger pictures.  What a catch-22.

This isn't really a post.  It's more of a calibration test to see how my pictures will look.








jyeah, I like it when pictures are biiiiiiiggggggggggggg

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Big cameras, Olympus PEN, etc etc

I don't want to be judged by my equipment, but by my photographs.

In photography, a lens often acts as a phallic symbol, where the guy with the biggest package gets the biggest ooo's and ahh's, while the dude with the smallest package shamefully takes picture at the back, claiming, "well, I just started taking pictures not too long ago..."

Yet I take pictures with the cheapest dslr camera (actually the second cheapest) and the cheapest lenses possible.  Judging by the looks alone, I should be photographically impotent; supposedly barely able to perform. 

Despite all the misconceptions, I still prefer smaller cameras because I'm a street photographer by nature (and I don't have money to buy nice big equipments).  I like to walk around the streets of Santa Monica or Seoul and take pictures of whatever I find interesting, and if I have a humongous ginormous peni.. I mean camera and lens, it is likely to attract attention, which is the last thing I want.  If people feel threatened by my existence, then I don't feel good about taking their pictures either. 

From 2009.08.19 Santa Monica


(It pays to be candid)  

If you've read my facebook status, you've probably heard of the Olympus PEN.  This is the new camera that I want:

*Olympus PEN E-P1.  It looks more like a compact than an SLR, which is perfect for my needs.

* The marketers claim that PEN takes better pictures than a compact digital cameras and weighs a lot less than a digital SLR.  But if you think the other way, it's heavier than a compact but takes worse pictures than an SLR.









*It comes in two colors, silver (top) and white (on the left).  

*I think the designers did a wonderful job - its retro design is the reason why people in Japan and Korea are going crazy over this camera.














If I carried this around, people will think I'm some kind of tourist or one of those casual compact digital shooters.  They're in for a surprise.  Before they know it, I'll move in for the kill, and walk away with the perfect shot.  

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Do I still want big fat nice cameras?  Of course I do.  For studio work, landscapes, and other still life stuff.  When I'm taking pictures in a studio, I want the model to feel as if I know what I'm doing, so I need the big stuff to create the perception.  With landscapes, tough luck if my big fat lenses make the mountain feel insecure about himself.

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Long story short, I really want a PEN.  I'm actually dying to have one.  The only thing standing between us is the price ($900).  For 900 dollars, I could get a much better performing DSLR, which would still be great for studio work and landscapes.






















*multiple polaroid shots of my room.  Just kidding, I took this with a compact and photoshopped it into a "polaroid" style.  Compacts still take pretty good pictures if you know what you're doing...

My mornings, fisheye test

Good(?) news to people who visit my blog: I will post more pictures on my blog than facebook.

I guess that wasn't much of a news.  The reason for the change is because it's just too much work to post pictures on facebook, cyworld, cyworld blog, picasa, xanga, blogspot, etc... not to mention that it's completely pointless!  So I'm just gonna post new pictures on picasa/blogspot and cyworld.  If it's something special, then I might upload it to facebook as well. 

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This is what I go through every morning, or most mornings:

(my mornings in pictures)
















































































and no, I do not sleep with my door open.  I'm at the bathroom on that one, which is the only picture taken in third person and the reason:  Taking a picture of my private part (especially during mornings) and posting it on a public blog just seemed a little bit inappropriate.

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Anyways, I had a 17page project due today.  So I spent most of the morning taking pictures because I didn't want to work.  Today, I didn't really try to take "good" pictures or "meaninful shots."  I just let my shutter loose and took whatever I felt like.  Today, I literally looked through the lens.  Literally

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yes fred, keep on searching - if you keep on pushing yourself, you might even take a decent picture someday.

(I'm mean to myself to that I can improve.)
















Through the lens~































That cute little boy is me, or used to be.





































Father and son.

That is it folks!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Main Picture













The above picture was taken at death valley.  The reason why I posted it as the main picture of my blog is because the photographer in the picture is searching emphatically for that perfect shot, which is something I like to do - just not that often at sand dunes because it's difficult to walk around in them.  In fact, I was walking with him, but I decided to take a break as he walked up by himself - and guess what?  I got my favorite shot of the day!






















But the main picture seems too skewed to the right... I'm considering changing the picture to this one because it fits better - but at the same time, the picture itself is inferior to the first one.  I don't know what to do!

I'll just post another picture of death valley, that's what I'll do...














... or should I use this one as the main picture?






















The above picture is one of my all time favorite as well.

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*edit:  I'm just gonna stick with the first one.  But the "shrink to fit" option doesn't really work - instead of shrinking the picture, it just cuts it off about 1/3 of the picture, which just happens to be the most important part.  To my annoyance (I find blogspot to be quite annoying), I will have to shrink it myself and post it back on the blog - later.

cool!

alright!  this time, no one screwed around with my picasa!  I'm so excited that I think I'll write a back to back second entry... 

Anyways, if you're wondering why I titled my blog as "search for expressions," it's because I'm a photographer and I like to walk around and search for "stuff."  I mean, I'm the type of photographer that likes to take pictures "as is," meaning I don't like to manipulate too much before or after the shutter clicks.  My aim is to become a good street photographer, which is somewhat problematic in the great city of Upland because there's nothing at the streets, but I like to capture whatever it is that I find it to be interesting. 

Do you create writing or discover writing?  Unless you coin words or invent a language, isn't it true that you're actually discovering it?  as in, you're not really creating your sentences but you're using and rearranging words and grammatical rules that are already in existence? 

In a similar fashion, I believe a photographer discovers their work instead of creating it - hence, I must search to express whatever it is that I want to express. 
















(This one really should be viewed as a larger picture...
http://picasaweb.google.com/fspaik/UnlreleasedKoreaPictures#5370813225193531874)

For instance, the above pictures is depicting a crowded store in Korea, where everyone is partitioned in their own little space like caged chickens in a luxurious store (somewhat ironic in my opinion).  Isn't this somehwat similar to our everyday life in modern society?  I mean, are we living a life of luxury? or do we have more in common with caged chickens in a farm?

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 yes, this sort of stuff is what I search for everyday - and hopefully I have my camera to capture the moment.  Nothing is more rewarding than being able to express myself without a single word in a succint, clear way.

Take 2

I previously made a blog, deleted it, and created yet another one again.  I thought about going back to xanga, but it's just too ugly and no one ever uses it, though I'm sure that not many people will visit this either.

Anyway, the reason why I deleted my first blog was because whenever I updated pictures, it automatically created a new album on my picasa profile, which I found to be immensely annoying.  But, I think I can upload pictures from picasa to blogspot without it doing anything weird, so hopefully I won't have much of an issue.  I was also annoyed at the fact that pictures came out too small, but I suppose I could live with that.

The only real reason why I'm making a blog is because I have nothing to do and I have no friends to share my life with.  Yeah, I'm not afraid to admit it.  Sometimes I don't have many friends, other times I have too many.  Another reason is because I have too many jr. high kids as friends on facebook and I don't want them to know what I'm really thinking.  About a week ago, I wrote a piece about my nicotine withdrawl cycles, which I thought was wonderfully humorous - but I had to think twice before publishing it on my feed because I was afraid that little kids might read it.  But this blog?  I have all the freedom to write whatever the fuck(?) I want - at the cost of dwindling popularity.  I don't know if this is a good thing...

Anyways, let's test posting pictures again.  This time, I would like to get it straight from picasa, and hopefully it will not do anything annoying.

man, this is as large is it gets...

anyways, I hope this didn't screw around with my picasa.  I'd hate to delete another blog...