Nikon Announces D3100 and 4 New Lenses

It has been six months since the last Nikon announcement, so I was very excited for something new from Nikon. No surprises tonight as I'm a religious follower of Nikon Rumors. New camera body is the D3100. It's an entry level camera with 14 MP, continuous AF in video mode, 1080p video, 11 point AF, and more. The biggest feature in this camera is of course the 14 MP. Nikon has been milking their 12 MP bodies forever. This gives a very likely chance of the rumored 16MP count in the D90 replacement and D700 replacement. The 1080p will also mean 1080p in the rest of their new cameras. I don't shoot video very often, but I'll take 1080p over 720p anyday.

The new lens line-up are listed below. I'm a very happy camper for the new 85mm 1.4 update :)

• Nikkor AF-S DX 55-300 f/4.5-5.6 G ED VR
• Nikkor AF-S 85 f/1.4 G with Nano coating: 10 lens elements in 9 groups
• Nikkor AF-S 24-120 f/4 G ED VR with Nano coating
• Nikkor AF-S 28-300 f/3.5-5.6 G ED VR

Yoshiki & Sugizo at Otakon 2010

I was very excited to have a chance to see Yoshiki and Sugizo at Otakon. And even more excited to take pictures of this event. I was able to find my way up to the front row. I had the 70-200 f2.8 with me, so the pictures came out fantastic. There were enough light on stage where my shutter speed was 1/100 to 1/160. During their second and last song, Endless Rain, the lights dimmed very low and my shutter speed was hovering around the 1/40 and 1/50. A few shots came out blurring, but I had enough where I had 3-4 good ones.

Yoshiki played the piano and Sugizo played vocals on violin. It was a very special event that'll probably never happen again.

A Few Photos with Atalie

Took a few photos with Atalie last weekend around the meet packing district in NYC. Atalie is not familiar to posing in front of a camera. She is only a seasonal cosplayer. I love the contrast of the black and red in the pictures. For a few shots I used a reflector to bounce flash off for a kicker light on the eyes.

Studio lighting is the $hit

Played around with studio lighting, Profoto equipment, at a photography class. The two examples shown are what David Ziser calls it as looping lighting. It's beautiful lighting and very flattering to our subjects. The lighting setup comes for an angle can casts a little shadow on one side of the face. The second shot, there's a second light source coming for the rear right of the subject. It's a hair kicker light that separates the subject from the background.

Miyavi Appearance at Kinokuniya

Miyavi made showed up at Kinokuniya in NYC for a Q&A, one song performance (Kimi Ni Funky Monkey Vibration), and ten lucky fans got his autograph. All this was made possible by The Diva Review. I was lucky enough to take photos at this private event.

The room was semi-dark, but a 2.8 glass was good enough for the job. I didn't shoot with a FX camera but for web viewing the noise level was also good enough. I thought I did a pretty good job capturing the moments of the event with limited movement. Getting the right white balance was tricky in the room, but luckily I was shooting RAW. I'll let a few sample pictures do the talking.

The Dream Station @ Arlene's Grocery

Band: The Dream Station
Venue: Arlene's Grocery

Shot a local band, The Dream Station, at Arlene's Grocery. I saw the lighting situation when the previous band played and was pretty confident. When it was time for me to shoot, I found myself not getting the good shots as I'm used to. I really need to upgrade if I'm going to get serious. Tip of the day: never get over confident for a gig.

Lilac at Webster Hall: The Studio

Venue: Webster Hall: The Studio
Date: May 16, 2010

It was J Summit at Webster Hall this Sunday night. My friends, Lilac hosted the show with four other bands. The lighting was very dark and had constantly changing lights. It was a nightmare to shoot without flash. This was one of the nights I wish I had a FX body. Well, at least I had fast glass with me.

I felt in their previous show at Don Hill's, I was very conservative in my shooting style. This time I want to spice it up with different perspectives. My fisheye lens will come in handy. Despite the terrible lighting conditions (tons of people were flashing), I felt I did pretty well. Definitely captured the mood of the place. Some of my favorite shots were of Gabriel Tanaka (bassist), check picture below.

Vocaloid Magnet PV @ BBG

Series: Vocaloid
Characters: Miku, Luka, RinI remember just two years ago, the amount of people cosplaying at Sakura Matsuri equals to the amount of finger and toes I have. At Sakura Matsuri this year in Brooklyn, cosplay has exploded like regular people owning DSLR's. Cosplayers were everywhere and the "regular" people were confused. A few of my cosplaying con friends were there as well in their Vocaloid Magnet PV outfits. We took this opportunity to take some photos in the backdrop of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

The sun was harsh that day, not ideal for taking pictures of people. Fortunately I packed my reflector along. A few of my shots I had someone reflecting light into my subject's face. In one occasion, I had to block sunlight shining on the cosplayer's face. The two lenses I carried with me were the 17-55mm f2.8 and the 50mm f1.4. It was very bright. This day I wish I had a polarizer filter with me to shoot at large aperatures. An interesting thing I found out in post was I was missing focus with my 50mm prime a lot more than usual. Not really sure why this is happening. My shutter speed for most shots were in the 1000's so hand shake wasn't the issue. Am I missing focus because of the shadow DOF? I was shooting center-weighted, that might be it. Not sure what happened, guess I'll have to test this lens again some day. I shot from many different angles, including shooting down from a tree. Got fantastic photos. My advice of the day is; move around and shoot from different angles is key to a good photoshoot.

More pictures from the shoot can be found on my flickr site.

Lilac at Don Hill

Venue: Don Hill
Date: April 18, 2010

Shot Lilac's first show with new bass player, Gabriel Tanaka, last Sunday night at Don Hill's. It was a very relaxed place. Pretty much no management was there. Just a door man, tech guy, and bartender.

The lights weren't that great for their set. Not much incandescent lights on the faces and way too much flashy lights. I shot with one camera with two lenses (17-55 f2.8 and the 50mm f1.4). Some of my favorite shots came back side of the stage of the band overseeing the crowd. I was shooting on manual at first then switched to aperture. By the end of the set I felt like I did a shitting job because constant changing lights. In retrospect, I think I did a decent job shooting Lilac's performance. Here are some samples of their show.

Fashion Meets Finance at Empire Hotel (Rooftop)

A bit late on this post, but here are a few comments on my gig on Fashion meets Finance at Empire Hotel Rooftop last week. This is a good place to chill and have a few drinks with friends. The bar and lounge area is at the rooftop that overseas New York City. There are two outdoors area with comfy couches and chairs. What I don't like about this place is only two elevator leads to the rooftop. Usually there is a long line to go up and leave this place.

The purpose of this after work mingle was to show off new head wear and swimsuit from designers. The build up for the runway was way too big and it all ended way too quickly. I was surprised that there weren't other presentations except for the runway. After that, it was just another night at the club. I got some good pictures though.

Anime Boston 2010

Anime Boston 2010
April 2-4, 2010
Hynes Convention Center & Sheraton Hotel

I've been an attendee of Anime Boston for many years. My first year at AB was in 2004. This was when AB was still held in a hotel! This year I made the jump to staff as a photographer. It was a very exhausting experience, even more so than as an attendee. However, I loved every single minute of it and I plan to return as staff next year.

As a staff photographer had the fortunate opportunity to photograph Japanese guests Nobuo Uematsu and MYM. I enjoyed Nobuo's panel and was overjoyed to hear Final Fantasy 6 was his favorite Final Fantasy game. Had a blast photographing MYM's concert. The best moment was when MYM's cried on stage out of joy and I captured it with my camera. The Video Game Orchestra was a fantasti get for Anime Boston. They played classic pieces from Mario, Silent Hill, Chrono Trigger, and of course Final Fantasy (Nobuo came out to play on keyboards). These were the three highlights of the convention. I was busy running around from panels to varies events all weekend from morning to the end of the day. I miss not having enough time to take pictures of cosplayers while as a staff. I don't regret it though, it's worth giving that up to be staff.

More pictures from the con are still uploading. Here's the link to more Anime Boston photos.

Lelouch (artbook) photoshoot

I was staffing for Anime Boston, but squeezed in a photoshoot with a friend of mine. She cosplayed the artbook version of Lelouch of Code Geass. I'm not familiar with the series yet, but I love the style of this cosplay, so I made time for it.

I had my two camera setup for this shoot, the 17-55 and 70-200 were my glass. We went to a nearby cathedral very close to the convention center as our location. I had a great time shooting and this was one of my best shoots ever (I'm sure the 70-200 played a part in this). I loved the long hallway shots and hope you enjoy them as well.

The shoot only last for 30 minutes because I had to go back for Nobuo Uematsu's panel. Here's the link to the other photos from the shoot: Lelouch artbook shoot

Lilac Photoshoot

Had a great time shooting Lilac on Sunday. We were hit with light rain around noon, but that didn't stop us. From left to right base on the picture above: Gabriel Tanaka (bass), Toshi (vocal & guitar), and Cha Cha (drums). The band is fun and energetic. Our first location was at a fancy building down in Wall Street. They had a great location at the lounge. The guys sat down on the couch and I fired away. I used a simple set up with a SB900 firing through a white umbrella. After that we moved to the hallway where I put my fisheye lens to good use.

The rain stopped, so we moved to a few outdoor locations. We founded a white wall and a graffitti wall and that was our ideal spot. I didn't need to add additional light shooting at this location because it was an overcast day. Didn't even need to use my reflector. We ended the shoot with more fisheye shots. Love it that the $700 lense is getting some use.

Lilac plays at Downhill club in Manhattan April 18th. Check them out!

Acefest Industry Bash 2010

Got a gig shooting the Acefest Industry Bash last night. The venue was at Amnesia Nightclub at the west side of midtown. It's a decent club. The cool part of this club is the third level where it's super dark. My guess is a lot of shenanigans happens in that area...but last night was not that type of night. It was a networking party for filmmakers and actors. It was a very lay back atmosphere and an easy gig. Here are some more pictures from last night.

Canal Room 3/20/2010

First official warm weekend of this year and a busy night at Canal room last night. As usual Rubix Cube rocked the house with the classic 80's hits. Pretty lively crowd as a few of them dressed up for the event. If you're an 80's child, Canal Room is the spot on Saturday nights.