200th post! Giant Recap!

I have been a faithful blogger since 2004 using Xanga.  Sadly, I no longer have that account on Xanga.  I was Random_Pepperhead and then the great mango (which is still there I think…)  Then I switched to Blogspot for a little while.

My first blog entry was this: My trip to Ireland

I blogged entries from my travel journal to start with.  Then I moved to WordPress and imported all the entries.   And was so much more happier with the design and ease of use of wordpress.

Over the course of the years, since 10/19/07 (start of blogspot), I traveled to California twice, Seattle, and Italy, prior to that it was Thailand and Ireland.  And my camera gear has changed as with my shooting habits and styles!  It is quite interesting to see how much I have changed.

I went to California with my brother, sister in law, and nephew to see Yosemite, Mojave desert, disney land and some other places in between.

My very first portrait session was … for lack of better terms a “failure.”  It was with this one guy I contacted on craigslist and it just didn’t go so well and the photos ended up … bleh.

But a little afterwards I was contacted with these two friends and I did much better with their portraits.  I am a quick learner so all the mistakes I did in my first session I fixed for this one.

Yeah.. I totally overdid it with watermarks….  don’t stone me!!

And right after that I photographed my first wedding!

The thing with that wedding was that the bride and groom are my parent’s friends and knowing that I wanted to get into weddings they told me to bring my camera gear!  So

But right afterwards, another family friend gotten married and wanted me to shoot the wedding.  My first two in one weekend wedding!

Because I had FF miles, I flew off to Seattle for a week.  And had a coffee and Thailand food delight!

Then a little bit later, I worked with a singer/actress from around work and tinkered with my portrait and lifestyle photographs.  I did tone down my watermarks!

Although it is fair to say that, I still need to work on controlling people’s expressions, at this point.   So it was fair to also say, that I was more of a candid photojournalistic style shooter.

By the time I finished working with her photographs, I was following Vincent Laforet’s blog and usage of the new Canon 5D mk II!  And was stunned with what he did with it!  Little before the camera came out, I purchased a 100 mm macro lens planning to get the 5D Mark II much later.  But I happened to have walked into a best buy, that had the body in stock.  At that time, hardly any retailer had one in stock!  And then and there I picked one up!  My most unplanned purchase!

Stoked with both the 100mm macro and the 5D2, I also signed up for bludomain for my own site.  www.tednghiem.com.

And then … I stumbled upon a wedding site and got some eSessions!  My first eSession was with Kara and Bryan

I did more eSessions afterwards, but in between those eSessions and my boudoir, I went to Italy!

I had the time of my life out there in Italy!  Two weeks of pure gelato and exploring bliss!

Then I did some boudoir!    I did two prior to this next show, but they did not want me to show their photos.

Boudoir

Right afterwards, I went to Florida to spend time with my brother, sister in law, and nephew in Disney World.

I came back refreshed after having a ton of fun with my nephew, brother and sister in law, to get right back into another boudoir.

Then a little later, I was in contact with Pat Furey to 2nd shoot for him!

So within 200 blog posts, I was able to accomplish this much!  I still have ways to go to be an awesome wedding and travel photographer, but i know I will only keep getting better!

Surely I should wait to make this post when the year ends, but 200 posts is a pretty big number!

Little wings that could fly

Vincent looking into my eyes, at Yosemite National Park.

Ever wonder where and when you started to find something you truly love doing?  People always say that when you travel you tend to discover more about yourself, if you go with other people, you learn more about them.  They go on to say that traveling is a sort of “spiritual journey.”  Seriously?

Those two photographs that I posted above, is a story of getting starting the enjoyment of photography.  My nephew, vincent, is really lucky.  He is starting out really early and that his parents are letting him spread his wings early.  He doesn’t get stuck in a position to please his parents, well at least not yet, with a position of status.  He is embracing his creative side and just is.

I think I have been shooting myself in the feet since I left Rutgers.  I was sincerely pursuing graduate school in Cultural Psychology, trying my damnest to get accepted.  I was negligent towards the other part of the life I should have been pursuing.  I come from a former middle class family, I say former as my father is now on disability and the sole income lie on my mother and myself, whose belief was that we should get high paying jobs after graduating.  My father’s ideal.  My mother’s was to find a steady job that was reliable and what we could survive off of.  Not bad.

But it amounted to the traditional occupational roles.  Before, when I told them I wanted to be a Cultural Psychologist.  They were shaky at best, as I wasn’t accepted into a graduate program.  Now if I told them I am going to pursue freelance travel photography, well… all hell’s would break lose.  I can understand, I am trying to get my photographs sold, so I can understand the despair!  Where would my income come from, those sorts of questions.

My first travel outing was to Thailand in November 2006.  It was for a spiritual retreat and that was when I started to really shoot a lot of photographs.  Granted I just got my 30D and the kit lens, I was shooting away getting a better grasp of the camera.  I had my first taste of international travel and it whet my lips.  Sure I didn’t get to travel a lot outside of the area where we stayed, I did enjoy the location, to a degree, where we stayed.  There were so many things that went wrong there, however, that left a foul taste in my mouth.  But I still appreciated the fact that I was able to go.

My trip to Ireland, back in August 2007, is where I should say it really started.  Oh god, I loved flying, hanging around Dublin, hiking thru Howth, taking a bus around the Ring of Kerry, getting stuck behind a bunch of sheep, going to different hostels, and absorbing the life in Ireland.  I didn’t think about school, I didn’t think about family, and I didn’t even think about girls…no wait I did think about girls on the trip!  I did what I loved the most, travel and photograph my journey.

I felt nothing but absolute bliss being in a foreign land with foreign people without an absolute care of where I was going to be next.  I didn’t worry as much about food, although living off of bread, cheese, pizza, and potatoes sure does put a crimp in the culinary and stomach, I survived.  And still loved it.  It was just great to be that free. Sure there was the money issue, flying and traveling in Ireland was pretty pricey, although I was able to budget my stay there.

After returning home, after work, I would go home and work on the library of photographs that I have taken from the trip.  Well I did eat dinner, clean, and shower, but those are regular day things that one has to do daily.  Well I guess if I said I just edited and overviewed my photograph and that’s it, than that might be hardcore and a very wow factor.  But I am still human.

Then came my brief trip to San Diego.  I originally went there to help out with something which wasn’t the real reason to go there, so I left heart broken to San Diego from Las Angeles.  I stayed at my parents’ place, who let me stay there and fed me understanding what I was going through, well I think so.  And from there I was able to go to La Jolla Cove, check out University of California San Diego, Wind and Sea Beach, and visit Linda for a few.  The entirely heart broken moments tamed by the photographic moments that I had.  So in a way I was glad I came out there.

Just like with Ireland and Thailand, preceding this trip, I would spend a lot of my time working on my photographs from the trip.  It just gave me a great sense of purpose.

Then the final push to my final career motivation was my most recent trip to California, where I traveled with my brother, sister in law, and nephew.  I had nothing but fun and enlightenment during this trip.  Enlightenment?  Maybe not, but I did learn much more about what I wanted to pursue.

Travel Photography.

Traveling a spiritual journey?  Seriously?  Yes it is.  You really can find out more about yourself.  Discovering that maybe things that you held onto so dearly really isn’t or wasn’t for you.   I still hold a love of Cultural Psychology, and that is how I will view my surroundings as I travel further around the world.  But my life will be dedicated towards preserving it’s vintage culture in a photograph so that we will never forget the beauty of seeing culture.

Carlsbad’s Bad!

Day 3

This was our intermediate travel stop.  Before we actually headed down to Carlsbad from Anaheim, California, we had to go back to Little Saigon to get some shakes and some food.  I purchased a Strawberry Colada, Eric had a potion, and Ann purchased a milk creamy shake.  And Vincent sampled all of out drinks by hording them for himself!

After we finished the shakes and food, we headed down to Carlsbad, California.  This time we stayed at a Ramada Inn, a very nice hotel as it had a pool and a jacuzzi!

We took a swim in the pool and jacuzzi when Eric popped the question if we wanted to go to the beach to check out the sunset, Vincent and I were excited and exstatic

But we didn’t go to the beach, some.. other events occurred.  So I plopped onto the really thick grass outside and took some shots with my wide angle.  I took several shots and thought about what was down the street.  Thinking that i didn’t want to hang out in the hotel, I crossed the highway  to the shopping center.

When I returned Vincent was upset that I took a walk without him.   We all got ready to go eat at a Mexican restaurant that made these immensely huge burritos!  They were like 4 inches in diameter!!

We bought food and I had that 4 in diameter burrito.  It had black beans, cheese, veggies, and other goodies!  My quesadilla was filled with cheese and beans.

After devouring our dinner, we went to a yogurt place right across the highway from them.  It.was.great!  Much better than the stuff at Yogurt Passion in Little Saigon!

We went back to the hotel room; Eric, Ann, and Vincent went to the Jacuzzi while I decided to shower and sleep.

Day 2, Disneyland is for …

[I have published most of the photographs from the trip to California here: California. The remaining set is from Yosemite, which is a lot in itself. Working on the photographs since I came back till now from coming back to work till 11 pm at night. Good stuff!]

Day 2

Fill in the blanks. We walked to Disneyland after eating Honey Nut Cheerios and Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast. Eric left first to pick up the tickets that he purchased very cheap!

When we got to Eric, we got our tickets and more people started to come to pick up their own tickets. Sweet! Cheap Disneyland tickets! Beats the $96 per ticket was $32 per ticket! They were basically a six day pass and we took just one of the days. Eric and I looked online at the prices and were astounded at the prices, but Eric and Ann budgeted the trip very well from hotels to the theme park!

Well we got our tickets and took a fifteen minute stroll to Disney. There were a lot of families that were going to Disney as well with their kids. I put my 24-70 lens to shoot for the day. It was the main lens of the day! I was finally getting able to test it out as a walkaround lens!

We walked thru the baggage check and passed the ticket place and we made it inside!

Our first ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride. We all thought that Vincent would love that ride, but he was scared! We went in and use laser guns to shoot targets. Well when we finished we went to space mountain. What was amazing was that what would have been an hour or something wait was only a doable forty minute wait. More reasons to go during non-peak times!

I was next to Vincent on the ride, I kept my arm around his neck and head so that the vibrations and kickbacks wouldn’t knock his head back. And Vincent enjoyed the ride even though it was dark! I guess that is because there weren’t any weird looking things inside. Afterwards we headed for Autotopia, a big go kart ride. Eric went with Vincent, Ann was in front of me, and I tailed.

We went on till we finished the course, then we took the tram to another section of the theme park where we wanted to go on the Find Nemo ride, but it was jammed packed! So we went on to look at the sights. The last ride we went on before we went for lunch was this spinning cup ride. Don’t take pictures while spinning.

Lunch time came and we went to the park’s dining room. We ordered Mac N Cheese for Vincent, two pizzas, and a veggie burger. They were really helpful and the food was ok for its price.

Afterwards, we went on the carousel before it turned 2:40 PM. When 2:40 came around we went back to our hotel room for a break. We rested till 5 PM and then headed back to the park. This time we headed towards Adventure california to ride this Aviation ride that was really awesome! It was an all around simulation on flying!

But we couldn’t see Lightning McQueen there, Vincent wanted to see him so much! We had to head back to main park to return our tickets to the guy. Vincent and I rode this spinning ride, while Eric and Ann returned the tickets.

Right afterwards we went on the Star Wars ride, which was underwhelming. Then onwards to toonland.

Nightfall came and we went on two more rides, the bobsled ride, which was really fast, and finally the Finding Nemo ride.

By 11:50 PM we went back to the hotel room to rest up for the next day.

California Day 1

My wonderful two week vacation journals! Starts now:

Day 1

I left home at 6:10 AM to bring dad to this massage place that he likes going to. Mom dropped me off at the Philadelphia Airport at about 6:20 AM. There I checked in and then was searched by the TSA. I forgot to take off my belt so I gave the alarm a spin. The Lady said to go back and take off my belt and try again. I did and did not beep. Then the guy next to her patted me down and the other lady grabbed my gear to swab it down. I didn’t feel like arguing as it was early in the morning, and I would have been held back longer. That was an unsavory, but interesting experience.

Well that was over with, so I walked to my terminal waiting for the South West plane to fly me to California. I have been reading on Cnn.com that the airlines are plotting to add prices to the free drinks and food that they serve. But they didn’t, FREE COFFEE!!

After self seating and flying to Chicago for my layover, I finished my first book called, “The Art of Travel,” I thought that it was a pretty good read.

What else was amazing was that I arrived in Chicago 15 minutes earlier than expected! I was in Chicago for about fifty minutes waiting for my flight to LA.

While waiting, I ate most of the food that I brought along from home. I had three sandwiches, two apples, one bag of baby carrots, and a bag of brown rice sushi.

The next flight took me straight to LAX, Los Angeles Airport. During this four hour flight, I finished from start to finish the other book that I brought along, called “The tourist.” It was a book examining from a sociological perspective on who travels. It was very verbose and not really what I was looking for in a read. But it helped pass the time on the airplane. The man next to me constantly put his arms way past the divider putting me into a very uncomfortable position. But luckily I had the aisle seat!

I finally landed at LAX at 12:23 PM.  Eric, Ann, and Vincent landed about an hour and a half before me.  So when I landed I called Eric that I landed and where to meet.  He told me to get my luggage ad meet them at the Budget Car rental office where I would meet Ann waiting in front with their luggage.

I think I like SouthWest airlines.  They did not lose my luggage, put on additional fees, or excessively late!

Well I met Ann and Vincent before I saw Eric waiting in line to get a rental car.  Vincent loves to fly on airplanes!    I said hi to Ann and rushed into the bathroom in the rental car place.  The line to get the cars was long!

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As you can tell from the rudimentary drawing, that was a very long waiting line.

Eric, Ann, and Vincent brought a lot of gear.  I only brought my camera gear bag, the tent, and a duffel bag of clothes.  When we finally got our maroon Ford Taurus, we packed it to the brim!  The trunk was absolutely packed and the side seat vacant to the right of Vincent was filled with our backpacks.

Then we started our trek down to anaheim to the Quality Inn to stay for two nights.  On the way we went to Little Saigon to eat lunch and get some food for our day at Disney the next day.

We ate at this Vietnamese Vegan Restaurant.  I ordered lemon grass tofu dish, Eric ordered a hot pot, and Ann ordered a noodle dish.  Vincent was picky as always with his food.  He gets too distracted to eat.  When Eric’s hot pot came out, I whipped my 30D out and snapped some photos.

By 2 pm, we finished our meal.  The owners saw that I took photographs of the food and showed me a photography book from a prominent Vietnamese photographer.  There was some really nice photos in there.  After we ate and looked at the photography, we headed to some near by Vietnamese stores to get some Boba tea and other assorted goods.

When I tried to pay, I was informed that i couldn’t use my debit or credit cards to pay!  Oh crap!  So I was forced to withdraw money, $40 worth.

We went back to our cramped Quality Inn.  It was really small, but we all fitted in the room.  Setting our gear down, Vincent and I grabbed our swimming gear and went down to the pool with Ann.  The water was freezing cold!!  Ann headed back, while Vincent and I played a game of water chase!

Eric came down several minutes later and joined us in the fun.  So it became a three man troupe!  We kept on swimming till Vincent’s lips turned a slight purple color and then headed back.

Dinner came and the night came right afterwards harking in the next day.