Here are some photos from the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. I'm not entirely impressed by the photos I shot. I have already been to both places prior to this trip so I guess the excitement wasn't really there. Here's the Grand Canyon in the hot mid day sun.



Since I last visited that same spot in the winter of last year, I was pretty sure that I had at least shot two photos that were similar so I can post a comparison like the one below.



That night we were in Vegas and things looked pretty much the same to me again. Plus its not exactly my favourite place to visit. Its all nice and fun inside the hotels but when you're out at night, it doesn't feel safe at all. I visited so many hotels that I don't remember where these photos were taken anymore!

I'm about 80% done with my photos from the big post graduation trip with my parents plus about 20 of my friends and their parents. We went to so many places and I shot lots of photos. I have no idea how many parts I should split the trip into so I'll just keep going until I run out of places and photos. Part 1 will feature my favourite theme park cum zoo ever! Seaworld! Despite being my 3rd time there, the shows still excite me (although they're the same!). Pictures of the Shamu show first.











The dolphin show.





Sea lion and otter show.



... and I finally caught the otter with the Pepsi can this time.



Something new in the sea lion and otter show. What I think is an albino manatee!



Beluga feeding.



Somehow a trip to Seaworld always ends with the killer whale viewing tank, as did my previous trips.

I have shot many portraits in this same position in the past but most of the time the lighting wasn't quite as right as I wanted it to be. This time I planned way beforehand (a month!) to make sure everything turned out perfect; and so it did and I am proud! All in all, I shot 11 families - the Hwa's, the Soo's, the Lee's, the Wong's, the Teo's, the Heng's, the Cho's, Vinod and his dad and three Tan's (oh were so common even in the US!). I couldn't do all the graduates from TPM as there were too many so I just called those close to me. Furthermore, time was limited. I had to rush home just in time for a quick shower and lunch before heading off on the tour. However I did forget Sheena! I'm really sorryy! Thank goodness I had the chance to make it up to you.

The main issue here was getting the sun angle right due to the CLA building pointing southeast. At the wrong time, the light could have been too contrasty leaving one side of the building overexposed and the other in the shadows. So making sure the building was lit without too much contrast was a priority. The building should also be lit on one side slightly more than the other, to accentuate the "pointyness" of the building a little. As such, I needed a high sun shining from somehere in the southeast, and be as high up as possible. I checked the sun angle here long before the shoot to decide the proper time to do it. The sun was calculated to be around 60^o up with an azimuth of 110^o (east by southeast! sweet!) from 11-12pm and this was good enough. With a sun high up in the sky, I would also be able to get a well polarized sky near the horizon - best polarization occurs at an angle perpendicular to the sun. So with the sun in place, the only problem left was lighting the people.

I left it to the flash to provide even, fill light on the people. I put the diffuser on each of the flashes to soften the light. The flashes were then set to balance out the sunlight. Finally settled for 1/4 power after some test shots. Additionally, the flashes also provided specular highlights on the diploma to give it a little glint. Lighting diagram here!



Exposure was made for the sunlight and it was set at 1/250, f4 at ISO 200. The Nikon D300's RAW files are a little different compared to most other DSLR's because it recovers a whole lot of highlight detail better than shadow detail - up to 3 stops in the highlight region. With that in mind, I overexposed the images by 1/3 of a stop to make sure I hadn't lost any shadow detail.

The ingredients:
1. High sun from the southeast.
2. A clear blue sky (which is easy to get here in summer So Cal) so that the sunlight would be constant throughout the shoot and not go in and out of the clouds. Also no distracting cloud shapes in the sky.
3. Both SB-800's at camera left as fill, one lighting the upper body, the second lower body to provide even light throughout. Both at 1/4 power. Flashes also provided specular highlights on the diploma.
4. Wide aperture to blur the CLA slightly.

The tools:
Nikon D300
Nikon 18-70mm
Circular polarizer
Two Nikon SB-800's with diffuser
Light stand
Tripod

A WHOLE LOT of Photoshop went into these pictures and that's why they took so long. After more than 16 combined hours of photoshop, I can pretty much tell everyone I photographed where every single blemish, pimple, scar or wrinkle is on their faces. =P I also removed airplanes and bees that decided to fly in the moment I clicked. The photo that needed the least photoshop and which is also probably the nicest of all is of Chea Ean's family. I like how the height arrangement played out.



Of course in the end we had to take a group photo. The lighting was changed a little to offer even lighting on both sides. So I had one flash on a light stand to the left and one on the grass just outside the center of the frame. The group photo isn't the greatest. The biggest flaw is having too many people on the left side of the photo. Plus I had to photoshop in Jean's mortar board as she didn't have one.



L-R, Chea Ean, Jean, me, Kan Lun, Roy, Vinod, Joan, Meng, Sean, Yung, Choon and Loong.

EVERYONE! Only hiccup, why is Joan disconnected from her family???

This post is nothing about photography although the perfect photo above is courtesy of Lucio Villa, my good buddy from The Poly Post! The only thing that spoils it is my ugly wide open mouth. So graduation came and went in a flash. I loved how quick and painless (meaning no waiting!) the ceremony was. No long and boring speeches, no crappy traditional rites. Simple and efficient, just the way I like it. The only catch: the ceremony for The College Of Science was held at 7.30pm, meaning it would start just when the sun sets which is obviously not ideal for photos. Nevertheless, I decided not to let that put a damper on my spirits.



Graduation was held at the university quad out in the open. Thankfully my parents had good seats and they actually saw me up on stage.

As I promised some of my professors a chance to see my parents, I didn't waste a minute after the ceremony and quickly got my parents and the professor's together. Here's Dr. Eskandari whose lab I have been working in for the past year. Also in the picture is his 8 month old daughter Lily.



The best physics teacher anyone could ever have, Dr. Siegel. "1.. 2... 3.. DECAY!!" (and the whole class throws ping pong balls at him!). Those were great times!



Next up is the Dean of The College of Science, Dr. Straney aka my boss since I take photos for the college.



My mentor for the next few years, Dr. Adler. I'm truly thankful that she offered me a place in her lab for my masters research thesis. I never imagined that taking the immunology class last fall would open up a new, major path in my life. I will be conducting phase II animal model experiments on a herpes vaccine whilst completing my masters. Well, another long road ahead for me.



Last photo: The best pair of parents whom have been so supportive in everything I do! Thank you mumpsie and dadsie! To come to think of it, I would never be here if dad didn't keep convincing me to stay in TPM. Two months into TPM, i was constantly depressed and was sure as hell that I had made the wrong choice by transferring there. I can remember the countless talks I had about going back to Monash with my parents and friends most notably Chea Ean. I'll never forget dadsie going, "Tahan 2 years here, then everything will be ok in the US. Just TAHAN!". Sure enough, everything turned out right in the end.



More details on the formal portrait shoot that I did for my friends and myself to come.

On a side note, the sense of achievement and joy that I’ve graduated was really short lived. Although I’ve waited all my life for this, it wasn’t as fulfilling as I thought it would be. Of course I was overjoyed during the ceremony but all that just fell away that night itself, a few hours after the ceremony. To come to think of it, the sense of accomplishment wasn’t there in my heart, to the point where receiving congratulatory messages and praises didn’t mean much. It was as if graduation was just some fleeting moment, some small rite of passage. It was as if I did nothing much. It was no big deal. Graduation… So what? Throughout the 4 years, I know I’ve done a whole lot, but somehow not enough to please myself – the praises my lecturers said about me to my parents and my 3.9 CGPA are a testament to that, but I still feel incomplete. Furthermore, knowing that I’ve already have secured a place for masters under a well known researcher should have made things all the more relieving – but no. Then after my masters I’ll go out to work or get a phd, but even then I don’t think I’ll be satisfied. Even in the far future if I have actually accomplished something like create a new vaccine or find something novel, I don’t know if I’ll ever be totally and completely pleased with what I’ve done. This is good in a sense that I’ll never ever stop trying. However there’s this unending void that’s just dying to be filled and somehow I doubt I’ll ever fill it in my entire lifetime. I’m just so afraid that I’ll be lying on my death bed with this sense of discontent in me. There’s this emptiness in me all the time.

Going back in time, the student of the year award back in the last year in high school was one of the higher points in my life, but even that never really gave me a total sense of accomplishment. There’s this itch in me that just wants more and no matter how much scratching I do, the itch will never go away and it annoys the heck out of me. It’s like how I keep going out taking photos with all that zealousness, knowing that there’s always a photo out there better than the best I currently have. I guess it’s just who I am; a perfectionist that’s never going to accept nothing less than complete and utter flawlessness. But low and behold, neither nobody’s perfect nor life itself. I’m well aware of this despite being a sucker for precision, perfection and excellence. Does that mean I’ll never ever be content with myself?

Its the most depressing thing to be on a bus half way to San Francisco and have the most beautiful sunset you could ever imagine unfold right in front of you behind the window of the bus. Instead of shooting HDR's or staring at the sunset in awe, it was a battle between me, the slow shutter speeds, the reflections on the bus window and the impractical stars stuck on the it for aesthetic purposes. I wish I could have stopped the bus. The pictures would have been way better! I guess I've spent all my luck on the exams.