TGIF!

We're off to Vancouver B.C. this weekend! I love hanging out in this city. Looking forward to riding around on a bike around Stanley Park with some friends. Last time Linda and I rollerbladed around the park and it felt really refreshing. Maybe we'll squeeze in a photo shoot somewhere while we're playing around. =)

Here's a few pictures from Balboa Park in San Diego last weekend. I guess this is a popular wedding venue as there were several wedding parties engaged in photo shoots. So of course naturally, I went into role play mode and pretended we were there to shoot too, not of a bride of course but a princess in my book. =) I wanted to shoot RJ and Yuki as well and we got a few of them as well. We've been shooting a lot at dusk lately so I've been struggling with having enough available light to get good camera focus especially with the kit zoom lens, but I like these pics anyhow because it reminds me how much fun we had strolling through this beautiful park in San Diego with RJ and Yuki showing us around.

I was going for a low key shot here to go with Linda's dress, the moody chandeliers and her hat she picked up at Pacific Beach. Dig the hat! Kind of Michael Jackson/Thriller like. RJ helped me out by holding the speed light, thanks buddy! You can just barely make out the flash on the left side of the frame. Could have cropped it but then it again, leaving it as shot will be more entertaining for me down the road when I look back on it.

I like this shot of Yuki and RJ with their pimped out bikes and RJ's green color coordination going on. They are into riding their bikes whenever they can so I think this picture captures that lifestyle well and in high fashion with their shades and all, ha. =)

The sun was setting and we saw this spot where the warm light was peeking through on the edge of the trees so it made for a nice back lit shot. A key thing I learned from this day of shooting is that I was not using a much needed bump in ISO to my advantage to keep these hand held shots from blurring. I shot in aperture priority mode and I didn't pay close attention to the shutter speed it used, which was too slow to avoid blur. ISO was on 100 or 200. Man, the beautiful 3" high res preview screen is very deceiving. Everything on it looks crisp and sharp in focus but as I found out, that doesn't mean it is! I know I'm supposed to zoom in and see what I'm getting for sharpness (shoot and chimp) but I got caught up in the shoot while the light was still there. Now I know when compromising with a bit more image noise for sharpness is worth it in situations like this.

Got one of Yuki too but of course it is a bit blurry too, sorry Yuki :( ha