you might have noticed that i mix alot of my own personal stuff into my blog here as i want to show who i am and one thing is my relationship with Jesus. i think the resolved conference is one of those christian conferences that i love because it is all about upholding the word of God to its highest and to “unleash” the truths of it. there is nothing here to butter up Gods word as its the word delivered at its rawest. this one is my 3rd one and its been totally awesome to help me continue the fight for my soul here on earth. i am no where near perfect but its only by the grace of God that i am alive and still fighting.

ill be posting some random shots as well as vids on facebook too.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2414263&id=3205527&l=891467b9e1

not much to take shots of but lots of goodness to hear.

and most of you probably know already that i am a landscape photographer at heart. some may think its boring but i think its totally exciting being able to capture the majesty of god and his creation. that sense of awe and marvel i get is unexplainable and feeds me to do more. i think its just god wanting me to check him out and glorify him!

all these were taken with my 24-105mm lens if you are wondering. i never bring more than one lens on a trip. it not only allows me to travel light but forces me to be creative with only what i have on hand.

the desert is actually a pretty nice place! the views from down here on terra firma are gorgeous. good thing it wasnt too hot.

the sky from down here is definitely amazing. like i said before, totally gods canvas!! the mountains even look like paintings from this distance!!!! ok i took these outside the car window as we were heading back to LA on the 10.

my best friend said that these windmills are scary. i guess they are if they break and own you but watching them go round and round slowly seems peaceful. i wonder if one of those can power my house…though that be an ungainly sight in my neighborhood

and you probably have noticed that i love flying too. the views are also gorgeous up here too and i hope these shots can show you a bit of gods awesome creation even in the sky. gahhh every nature thing on earth is gorgeous! its already pretty amazing that a piece of heavy metal like a plane can fly too!!

there was a medical emergency on my flight when we landed so as i was confined to my seat i snapped this shot of the busy southwest ramp! planes and vehicles everywhere! its kinda like watching ants go about their busy day.

when i move back home, i aspire to be one of those guys on the ramp servicing planes. i hope i have the time to do so and apply for a job at SFO! those guys are buff stuff though, im skinny bones, dont know if theyll hire me

very very peaceful, serene light/glow of the setting sun. i LOVE it.

and here is a short series showing Gods hand at work on his canvas…LIVE! these shots were taken only seconds apart (use the mountain in the background as a reference to how close these shots were taken apart from each other) yet they show the dynamics of the clouds in the sky!!!!

random note: i dream of shooting a destination wedding in taiwan. that is my ultimate goal.

i visit taiwan to go back home. yes thats right its not really a vacation but it is as relaxing as one. i do consider my home in taiwan (even though i was born here). so when i go to taiwan, i go HOME.

but back to the point…its been 3 years since i went back to taiwan and this time it was for my grandpa’s 88th birthday. 88 is suppose to be a special number in many senses in chinese culture. my family is from a little town called dongshih (near tai chung and fongyuen) and i do take pride in being taiwanese. maybe one day ill move to taiwan. the good thing about the usa is the opportunities to make money. in taiwan i got everything else that really maters in life: family, food, simple living, and a nice health care system. hahah.

i wont be posting all the pics here so please visit my facebook album called “The Chao Dynasty – Taiwan 2009.” hahah i wish i was a part of some royal dynasty hahaha. anyways go visit it, i have commented much on each pic. heres a big linky for everyone to click on. and if you arent a friend yet, comon, dont be a stranger! =)

no further comments here. go visit the facebook album! thanks!

i got this shot below. pretty cool huh? we all know jerry ghionis’s famous saxophone player shot. and now that i know how to do this through this airplane model experiment, i can add it to my vocabulary of photographs (shot was done with one flash partially hidden behind the plane, plane was set on a black foam core board to reflect some but not all the light to the underside of wings, i dusted the plane off, set it on its stand, gave the dust a slight blow and fired). probably not as graceful as jerry’s shot but i think it works.

i guess the point of this post is to say to any new person to photography that may be lurking here on my blog, is that i want to encourage you guys n gals to keep experimenting and taking pics of anything and everything in any situation. photography is one of those worlds where you can never learn everything and thats so wonderful! airplanes have nothing to do with people/wedding photography but something like this shot can be applied in an artful way during a wedding perhaps! so go take pics of your orange, your pencil, your stuffed animals in all different situations! that was one shot out of the many, take advantage of digital, keep snapping away! now dont go thinking that i know everything about photography for truly what i know is just like a 1/8 of one grain of sand on the beach. im just saying to keep taking pics and keep experimenting!

(i know my watermarking of images hasn’t been consistent lately…im still trying to figure out the best way to do it, bare with me…seeeee even i am experimenting in different ways)

ok i must get back to editing wedding pics. i was so excited going through the shots yesternite that i went to sleep 2 hours late!! im pretty tired right now!!!

i actually dont like vegas at all and would never take a vacation here if it wasnt for the workshop and wppi. im not a big fan of these fake, tacky sights, and the smoke filled casinos.

some pics of the flight! I didn’t checkin early enough to get my favorite seat but im at least thankful that i got a window seat! more updates as the days come…and if i can find internet in this lousy place.

waiting for my flight in sacramento on board southwest’s N735SA

i dont like sacramento either haha but its nice from the air!

do i need to tell you guys all the reasons why i love flying? =). the skies are gorgeous…that’s a reason

i rode my bike through the rain a couple months ago and ever since, my gears squeaked like mice fighting over cheese. so i took it into the shop to get my gears soaked in solvents and get my bike tuned and cleaned up and that meant it came back to me nice and shinyyyyyy, bling! ive always wanted to take pics of my bike so now was the chance before i dirty it up again.

my bike isnt made totally of carbon fiber, its not the showiest on the road, not the lightest, not the fastest, and definitely not the most expensive (it was actually the cheapest in the store haha) but i love it nevertheless. i think if you paint objects with light (dramatic light) only, it makes the object look like a million bucks when it really only cost about as much as a load of laundry! well at least i think so =).

i must do more of this when i have time so stay tuned! maybe with different objects too.

I love how the light just grabs the edges to define the bike’s form.

sexy curves

out of the world! and to think its just a simple bike!

a view from my flight deck. i think that sliver of light defining the right edge of my right aerobar is so sexy

i’ll admit, for 2 hours i didnt know what i was really doing or trying to achieve but gradually figured out how to place my flash to get the results i secretly wanted but didnt know i wanted. learning like this takes awhile but once you finally get it, its ingrained in your head forever.

the setup was as poor man as you can get really. i used my housemate’s toyota sienna car seat to prop my bike up. used a big foam core board that i use to build my model airports to reflect some extra light onto the bike. then i guess the more expensive stuff is the flash on a stand controlled by a pocketwizard. this all shot in total darkness with a flashlight to help my camera lock focus. try it!