JPP Daily Photos

Ok I'm back to my normal program. Taking photos and editing them on my new computer! =)

My friend, Glen, invited to his family's BBQ on Saturday. Afterwards, we ended up scouting some areas in Fremont for potential photoshoot locations. Near Ohlone College is Mission Fremont. Although I had worked in the Fremont area since 2000 (specifically near Mission College Blvd) I'm somewhat familiar with the area. Well this was the chance to visit Mission Fremont which is one of the oldest Missionaries in California. Glen and I had a chance to catch a special organist concert that afternoon. Here are several photos of the inside of the mission during the concert. I also took some outside photos which I used Lightroom to make them look dated.

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JPP Thoughts

Addendum to previous post: Zokes! After much running around getting some needed parts (Thanks Glen for going along with me to Central Computers yesterday), I finally have the new system up. I've already installed a fresh copy of Windows XP Professional with latest updates. I'm in the process of installing Windows Vista 64-bit and after Windows 7 (to take advantage of the 8GB of DDR2 memory!). When all is said and done with installing the OS's, I still need to reinstall all of my photo editing software (Photoshop, NIK, Lightroom, actions, drivers, etc). But so far the new system is running lightspeeds over the old system. In short, it looks like it was worth all the effort. Seriously this should increase my productivity on my photo editing stuff. =)

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JPP Thoughts

Well my adventure in upgrading my computer still continues. I need a bigger power supply to run the newer components. So its off to Central Computers today. Hopefully I can get this done because I really don't enjoy upgrading computers anymore. I just want it to work with no further hassles!

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JPP Thoughts

Between this darn virus/spam/malware (aka Total Security) issue this week and my Lightroom 2 crashing randomly, I've decided to just upgrade to a new AMD Phenom II CPU, motherboard and RAM. I'm going to either install Vista 64-bit or Windows 7 RTM 64-bit. Wish me luck. I hope this doesn't take more than a few hours to do the hardware installation. Installing the new OS, my photo applications and drivers should take the rest of the night...!

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Photo Tips & Tricks

Anna Kuberburg's blog (kuperblog) has some examples using Boutwell's latest actions called "Dirty Pictures". Its pretty amazing. I'd like to get it myself but I already spent a small fortune for some photoshop templates at Pro Photo Expo SF on Sunday. sigh. maybe i can get it when i get a few more lucrative gigs....

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JPP Daily Photo

Here are a couple of photos I edited from the wedding I did a few weeks ago.

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JPP Daily Photo

Here's some photos of my youngest niece, Miley, enjoying an ice cream drumstick!

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jpp thoughts

Although i was going to work on some album designs and my upcoming senior photos advertising campaign, I spent most of today and parts of yesterday trying to get rid of a pernicious malware called "Total Security." It mimics other virus and anti-spam software. Based upon my google search, apparently it scares people into buying their software with false messages of virus and spam alerts. How they've been able to run a legitimate company and product with this type of tactics is beyond me. So after updating to a new malware/anti-spam software (goodbye Microsoft Defender which I am no longer using) and manually editing my registry, I think Ive removed TS. I'll find out if it works when I restart my computer. Previously whenever I restarted my computer after scanning and cleaning with the new software, TS would always pop up again. If I knew where the makers of TS lived, I would hunt them down with a dull knife!!

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JPP Daily Photo

I promised to show you some of the photos of Jess studio that I visited last week. Its a nice cozy studio that I would love to own myself. Since I don't have my own studio, I do mostly on location photography. Fortunately Jess has been kind enough to let me use the studio anytime. So I should be setting up one or two shoots in the near future. Here's a peek of what his studio looks like.

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Pro Photo Expo San Francisco 2009

Sorry I didn't take enough time to to shoot more photos at the expo. I took one shot from the front. The last two are a couple of the album and print vendors that I talked with at the show. I had a good time especially since my buddy Glen decided to join me. I sincerely hope they continue having the expo next year!

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JPP Daily Photo

These two blokes were the guests of honor for dinner Saturday night. However they did not appear to appreciate the honor as they did push the lid off the pot once. Once the lid was put backed on and the heat reached boiling point, they did seemed resigned to their fate. In fact, they were quite delicious!

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Photography Tip

I found this tip on one of my recent photography email newsletters. Hope you find this info helpful.

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9 things every photographer should know.# 1
1 Did you know? ... While using your Pocketwizards, both antennas should be parallel; otherwise you will have LOW to NO radio signal. Many photographers attach their pocketwizard directly to the top of the flash with the antennas perpendicular. This is not good. This will only give an unreliable weak signal.

jpp thoughts

I was hanging out with my good friend, Glen, yesterday when I was telling him about how a recent event. Its not photography related but its still an imagery thing. Earlier this week I started reading a copy of Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien who happens to be my favorite artist since I first read The Fellowship of the Rings in the early 80's. Well I was telling Glen that when I first started reading this week, I had a very vivid memory of the first time I read the trilogy back in middle school. The memory was so real I could almost picture my surroundings, remember the sounds, everything! I guess thats why Tolkien's books are so memorable to me. Funny thing is I remember wanting to live like one of the characters from the novels that I started making items from the book. I put together a makeshift chain mail armor made out of a lot of paperclips that were clipped together! I carved out a piece of wood into a facisimile of Frodo's sword "Sting". In order to mimic Sting's glowing affect, I even pasted a bunch of leftover glow in the dark glue from Halloween. Finally I would wait til the middle of the night and sneak out with my entire outfit (armor, sword and a bedspread that doubled as a cloak). Since I was supposed to be fast asleep, I snuck downstairs in the dark. Made my way to the backyard and would stare wonderly at the bright stars. I fancied that there might be an orc or an elf hiding amongst the shadows in the backyard. My Lord of the Rings phase lasted for several weeks that summer with the occaisonal slipping out the backyard at night.

Re-reading the Fellowship of the Rings this week really evoked those memories. Ahh to remember those innocent days of my youth! So here's the cover from the the trilogy set of LoTR that I read back in those days.

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JPP Daily Photo

While headed towards the Fremont Marriott from Keeble & Schucat Photography store in Palo Alto, I popped my rented Nikon Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens on my Nikon D200. As I'm driving past East Palo Alto, I snap this shot of a reconstruction sign with my right hand while my left hand is on the steering wheel. This may not sound like a great feat but take into account that with the D200 and a very heavy lens, it does take some skill to take a steady one handed shot while driving 60mph!

P.S. Oh and it does help that the very expensive 70-200mm Nikkor lens is tack sharp! Guess thats why it retails for about $1800 US and why I'm only renting it this weekend. lol.

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JPP Daily Photo

As promised, I'm uploading some of the edited photos from this past weekend's photo gigs. Today's photos are from Jade's Cotillion (aka, Debut). Here's Jade getting ready in her suite at the Fremont Marriott.

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JPP Daily Photo

Tomorrow starts my 2 day photography session. An all day cotillion/debut and Saturday a wedding. Here's the interior of the The Point which is the location for the Saturday wedding. Its going to be quite a challenge but should be fun experience all the same!

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JPP Daily Photo

One of the great things about living in California is the weather. Most of the year round its pretty temperate. However once summer rolls in, it can get pretty hot like this week. The hotter the weather, the more colors we get in our sunsets. Usually the really hot days will have very red and orange sunsets. On cooler days, the sunsets are usually more blue! This is what I've captured in the last week around sunset.

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Upcoming Events This Week!

This week should be pretty exciting. I have Jade's Filipino Cotillion coming up on Friday. I also have My and Romy's Wedding on Saturday. Which means I will have some very nice photos to show you all on my blog in the coming week! Plus I'm renting a Nikon D300 and 70-200 VR 2.8 lens from Keeble & Schucat. I may also spend the extra for a fisheye if I can afford it...!

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JPP Daily Photo

After dropping of the 2nd Cypress Manor DVD last week, Ian and I headed to our usual hangout spot at Starbucks. As always, I try to taking any interesting photos even if its just around starbucks. Here's what I took.

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JPP Daily Photo

I was recon'ing the location for the wedding I'm shooting on the 15th. The place is called the "The Point" near the eastside of San Jose. Its on a hill off Quimby Road that overlooks the valley. Its definitely a nice location for a wedding. Here's some of my recon photos of the outside.

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JPP Daily Photo

Apologies for no updates in the last few days. Just been busy with finishing some photo books and getting ready for next week's big gigs (Cotillion and Wedding back-to-back Fri & Sat). Here are some photos I edited for Cypress Manor, more misc shots.

Also for those of you who noticed my domain name down, the credit card that I had on file for yearly renewal expired. So I need to update it with the updated info. Soo glad that I have to renew once-a-year! It should be back up in the next few days....

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Non Photography Topic

Ok, ok. While this is not photography related, it does fall under my interests (i.e. Mythology, RPG, Fantasy/Sci-Fi). So my brother introduced me to this free internet RPG game. Its pretty simple but fun. Part of the game includes getting credit by getting people or friends to clink on this link. If your interested or have nothing better to do, please click on it to help me out!

Thanks,
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Equipment News!

Nikon announced the new D300s and D3000 both available later this month. You can see the specs here for the D300. MSRP for D300s is $1799.95. MSRP for D3000 is $599.95.

D3000 link here.

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JPP Daily Photo

Here's some night shots (unedited) taking of Cypress Manor last night. The gig is part of the setup for the launching of Cypress Manor as an event hosting site (weddings, parties, etc).

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