JinPhotography

New Blog - Blog Moved

2009-08-06T11:56:00.002-04:00

I am so happy to announce my new blog. Its much easier to navigate. Please goto my new blog for future visits. http://michaeljinblog.com/

Deanna & Jose : Day After

2009-07-21T01:33:00.010-04:00

Deanna & Jose got married on a Caribbean Cruise a couple of month ago. They wanted some Day After pictures at South Beach in Staten Island. We went there early in the morning for the photo shoot. The light got harsher and more difficult to shoot. But we had a great time. Here are some of my favorite images.

Yuhwen & Sung

2009-07-18T13:53:00.012-04:00

Yuhwen & Sung were married on July 4th. The weather was so nice. Its my 2nd time shooting at that church. Then we headed to the beautiful reception place in Long Island. They have peacocks walking around in the garden during cocktail hour. How cool is that.

ceremony : Reformed Church of Newtown
reception : Westbury Manor

Wai Ling & Jerry : Esession @ HighLine

2009-07-18T13:37:00.012-04:00

I had a chance to shoot Wai Ling & Jerry's esession at HighLine in Manhattan. Its an old above ground train track converted to a garden. There are flowers planted on the sides. Its view is very beautiful. We had such a great time. I wish we could have stay longer to explore the rest of the garden.

Carmen + Michael | Wedding

2009-07-08T23:19:00.007-04:00

Jessica + Ian | Wedding

2009-06-23T07:58:00.018-04:00

Jessica & Ian were married on 6/13. I had a great time photograph their wedding. I am so happy for them. Congratulations!

ceremony : CCHC Mission center
reception : Leonard's

You may remember Jessica & Ian's engagement session from last year.

Susan & Angel

2009-06-22T01:00:00.005-04:00

Susan Stripling's 1 day workshop

2009-06-17T22:37:00.004-04:00

I went to Susan Stripling's 1 day workshop in Brooklyn last month. here are few pictures I took at the park nearby. We talked about marketing, workflow, techniques etc...she covered alot of different areas of stuff and answered all the questions we had which were very useful to any wedding photographer. I love the small group we had from the workshop. I strongly suggest you sign up her workshop if you can. Her workshop got filled pretty quickly.

Suki & Stan : WEDDING

2009-05-30T01:20:00.012-04:00

Proposal

2009-05-19T10:09:00.004-04:00

I know I've already shared Alex & Priscilla's engagement photos before. But these proposal photos are very special that they chose to only share them on their wedding day. I am so happy to see guests are moved and touched by these pictures. Nothing is more rewording than this. On the technical side, these photos were taken with Nikon D3 + 70-200 f2.8 lens @f2.8.

Mina - Flower Girl

2009-05-17T17:52:00.004-04:00

These were taken past Saturday at my friend’s wedding. Mina is such a cute flower girl. She is so cooperative. According to her mom, she only cooperative when she is in good mood. I think I was very lucky that day. They were taken with my new Canon 5Dii + 50L@f1.2. It's my new favorite lens.

Canon 5D Mark II

2009-05-06T11:43:00.006-04:00

I am so happy that I finally received my new Canon 5D Mark II and 50mm f1.2 L lens over the weekend. It’s a very popular camera and it’s been out of stock almost everywhere. I waited 3 weeks for it. I’ve been a Nikon user ever since my first DSLR. So why do I get a canon? First of all, I am not switching. Nikon still be my main camera for weddings. I still love my Nikon D3 and lenses. I love the FAST Auto Focusing from Nikon. Nikon has the best build quality of the camera I think. It feels solid in my hands. The grip is great.

However, there are a few things Nikon doesn’t offer. Nikon doesn’t have autofocus f1.2 lens. Nikon has the older manual focus f1.2 lens. Since I photograph weddings & portraits. I like to shoot wide open. I love to have the f1.2 lenses. One of the lenses I lust for is the Canon 50mm f1.2 L lens. I have a set of prime lenses I like to get in the future. The Canon 85mm f1.2 L, 135mm f2 L, 24mm f1.4 L.

Canon 5D Mark II can also capture video which Nikon doesn’t offer in the pro cameras yet. I take a lot of pictures of my baby Elyse. So video capability is a big plus.

Another main reason I get a Canon is the colors of the photo from Canon is very unique. Nikon’s color is more greenish where Canon’s color is more magenta. Magenta is more pleasing for portraits. Although there are things you can do in post processing, images from canon or Nikon still look different. I am not talking about Studio condition. Studio images from Canon or Nikon can get very much same results I think.

I am not expert in comparing Canon and Nikon. They are just my opinions. And I haven’t play with Canon 5D enough. So far, I love my new canon 5D. I think the menu is easier to use than Nikon. The only thing I don’t like is the focusing in low light is very slow compare to Nikon. This photo was taken with my iphone this morning. It’s been raining every day since I got the camera. I will take some pictures and post them this weekend.

Cherry blossom in Brooklyn Botanic Garden

2009-04-28T23:18:00.006-04:00

Last Saturday we went to see the beautiful Cherry blossom in Brooklyn botanic garden. We’ve never been there before. We got there before 11am hoping its less people. But there were still a lot of people. The funny thing is there were about 3 or 4 cherry trees blooming and full of crowded people. Despite the huge crowd, we had a great time. Nothing beats fun family time in such a sunny day. Although I wish we could’ve gone late afternoon for better light, I did get few pictures I like from the high noon.

This is my little Elyse checking out the cherry blossom. She turned 1 year old 2 weeks ago.

Priscilla + Alex : eSession

2009-04-20T07:16:00.011-04:00

Alex & Priscilla are a great friends of mine from church for years. Alex and I are basketball buddies and we used to play every week. Priscilla, my wife and I used to car pool together to church. It’s great to see how they met each other and started dating. Now they are getting marry in May. Can’t wait for the wedding day. I am so happy when they asked me to photograph their engagement session. The weather was perfect last Saturday. We had so much fun walking around in the sunny day around Brooklyn Bridge taking photos. This is one the of the sessions I enjoy the most. Thanks guys.

Sunrise

2009-04-01T17:30:00.004-04:00

My little daughter Elyse was little sick and she didn't sleep well last night. she woke up around 5 this morning. so i was up until i saw sunrise from my window. This was taken through the window. I did a cross processing on this photo because i like this look better.

Stan & Suki esession II

2009-03-28T21:37:00.007-04:00

Today, I shot Stan & Suki's 2nd esession. We almost postponed the session because rain but turn out rain stopped in the early morning. It was still pretty cloudy day. We just took some shots in their neighborhood.

1st wedding of 2009

2009-03-27T00:02:00.016-04:00

Last Saturday i shot my 1st wedding of 2009. last year i shot about 30 weddings and i only blogged a few of them. Starting this year, my goal is to blog all the weddings i shot.

I was hoping to take some outdoor pictures but the weather was still little cold that day.

me

2009-03-19T15:43:00.001-04:00

thanks dmitriy for taking picture of me during the photoshoot.

South st. Seaport - Christina

2009-03-19T13:53:00.006-04:00

last week, i did a quick photo session with Christina at South st. Seaport. It was taken at noon where the sun light was very strong. The weather wasn't that cold except little windy. All photos were taken with 85mm f1.8 lens mostly wide open.

Denis Reggie Seminar

2009-03-16T00:41:00.004-04:00

I went to a great seminar last week by Denis Reggie in long island. Getting there was little tough because the place was in a small college. Some of us got lost. But they actually waited for us.

Denis is one of the leaders in the wedding industry. He is pure PJ(photojournalist) style and a story teller with camera. He shot a lot of famous people and celebrities. For example, Kennedy Jr’s wedding and Arnold Schwarzenegger ’s wedding. He shared how he market to the upscale people and what they are looking for and how his photography provided their needs. It’s kind of cool the way he put it. it’s like followers and leaders. The middle Americans are followers and the upscale people are more of leaders and live in the city. The upscale people prefer natural, untouched, to document the actual wedding event. They prefer "whole food" style, no posing, less Photoshop. The average American accept the artificial and wants more directions.

He also shared how he shoots during the wedding and what camera and lens he uses. He is a canon guy with all the top gears. He showed a lot of great pictures during the presentation. Pictures with great moment; emotions and the best part is, they weren’t posed. He also shared his techniques and how to bounce flash to get the natural looks. Those photos really inspired me a lot. Here is his website. Check it out.http://www.denisreggie.com/

Misc macro

2009-02-23T21:21:00.006-05:00

I saw this thing when i was at children's museum. I don't really know what it does. Maybe just a toy. I attempted shot this photo with a zoom lens at f2.8.

Jessica

2009-02-10T23:45:00.007-05:00

These were taken couple of month back. Jessica is really a fun loving person. We had so much fun shooting with just 2 small flashes. She is always ready for the new ideas i have. did i ever mention I've know her since she was a teenager? she is like a little sister to me. Here I tried a few different lighting setups. It's always fun to explore and tryout new things. I can't wait to shoot her wedding on June 13th.

2008-11-23 Ying & William

2009-01-29T00:02:00.012-05:00

Honestly i haven't blog about most of the weddings i took last year. I was busy with work and family. I will try to blog about hightlight of 2008 wedding pictures soon. For this year, I'll try to blog as much as i can.

Meanwhile here are few of the pictures from 11/23 wedding. William and I actually went to college together. He is a good friend of my suite mate. He is a really funny guy. Guess what, my suite mate turned out to be one of his grooms man.

Holiday is over

2009-01-27T00:01:00.005-05:00

Holiday is finally over for me. It’s been very relaxing. I spent a lot of quality time with my family. I’ve been lazy on blogging. Now that I am back. I just like to share one of my favorite picture taken with Window Light. I took this yesterday with my D3 and 60mm micro lens. One thing I learned when photographing kids. It’s HARD. But having mom next to me helps get the baby’s attention.

Joe Mcnally & David Hobby

2008-12-11T22:38:00.008-05:00

I found a couple of pictures that i took with Joe Mcnally and David Hobby at the PPE show couple of month ago. Please excuse the quality from my little point and shoot camera. They really have been an inspiration to me.

If you never been to David Hobby's www.strobist.com site, you have to check it out. I've learned so much about off camera lighting stuff from his site. As you can see i had Starbucks coffee in my hand. I had to be there early to attend the seminars. I needed my morning coffee to keep me awake.

I love Joe Mcnally's work. He is the most versatile photographer i know. check out his blog at http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/ I read his awesome book "The Moment It Clicks" recently. It's totally worth reading it. Pick one up if you can. He shares the stories on how he shot the pictures and he even shares his equipments list at the end of the book. You can read either the story part or the technical part or both if you want.
He has a new book just came out. Be sure to check it out. The name is "The Hot Shoe Diaries"