I've moved!

After lots of consideration and much pondering, I had finally decided that I should go ahead and move to a new domain. It was very hard to let go of the whole mozemoua.wordpress, but then having my own domain means I have more moving room, I can do much more than just blogging, but then again until I learn everything about building a website and blogging I will just continue to blog. The whole website thing is for later usage, as for now, I’ll still continue to do my normal blogging.

I am trying to find a way to redirect all my visitors from mozemoua.wordpress to my new blog mozemoua.com, but until I learn how to do so please, update your blogroll or links with mozemoua.com instead of mozemoua.wordpress.com

The only changes with the new blog is to take out the “wordpress” besides that, you still got the same old mozemoua!!!

If you guys know how to link the two blogs or if you guys know how I can forward everything done from here on out to the new blog, please let me know… As for now, everything had been transferred to the new blog!

Oh and one more thing, I am still blogging with wordpress as a plugin, but I am hosted by justhost.com

Here is my new website

www.mozemoua.com

or click here to be directed to the new blog or click on the icon below.

There will be a lot of changed until I am happy with the new blog, so I am sorry for the messy blog until everything is fixed and settled!

Basic of Flash Photgraphy

I found this great video by Snapfactory hosted by Mark Wallace. In this video Mark explains the basic information on flash photography, he does a great job explaining and showing examples. He explains how the shutter works on a camera, what shutter sync is and how it works and he also explains how an individual can control ambient light.

Finishing up the Set

All day today the upper quarter class worked on our holiday set for our holiday portrait. it's very interesting how things are coming along, lets hope that we all can finish everything within this week since our holiday portraits starts next week on Thursday. 

Studio Photography Guide

Picture was found from this article.

I had found this great article on Studio Photography Guide, in this article there are many tips on studio lighting, the many differents styles and ways you can do studio lightings and they also gives you tips on controlling your lights inside the studio. They also explains the different angle of view and even how to be creative with lightings. If anyone who would like to do more studio photography, this article is just perfect for them. It's a good guide and a good way to start.

Solfbox or Umbrella?

Since we are in advance portraiture and we are not always sure if using a softbox or an umbrella is better for the photos, I found this video by Jim Talkington. He explains what are some pro's and con's of both the umbrella and the softbox. Now judge it for yourself, which would you prefer?

Check out Jim's website at prophotolife.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

Today I had met up with a friend of mine who lives in Norcross and we had visited the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Lilburn GA. This Indian temple was amazing, there is no word to discribe it, it was just beautiful and the details were extremely fine. Every detail put on this temple was done to perfection, every design was beautiful and makes you wonder how long it had taken anyone to hand carves these designs.

Pity that once you reach a certain point of the temple cameras and camcorders are not allowed. They were very strict once you enter the temple, even gum chewing was not allowed. We went during the time of a prayer so it was very interesting to see the Indian people do their interesting prayers.

Inside, every single way and ceilings and even poles were hand carved and designed to perfection, even the wooden doors and donation boxes were hand carved in fine details.

I think this wonderful temple is a must visit, and best of all, it's a free temple to visit, well worth your time!!

Potential Fill Flash??

Okay so on the positive side of my wreck I think I got a potential fill flash assignment for my Journalism class. Mrs. Finch did said we can shoot anything, well of course, besides a teddy bear, and after I was able to take all the breath I needed after the wreck the first thing I thought of was my fill flash assignment and spot news, I know this will not work for spot news since I was involved (and first on the scene) so I decided to do it for the fill flash assignment. I was very glad my camera in my car was unharm, even my key chain broke off my car key and my thumb drive broke into pieces during the wreck.

I am so sore from the wreck right now, let's hope I do get better by tomorrow.

Daylight Savings

Happy daylight savings everyone! I hope everyone set their clocks an hour back last night. With the daylight savings I hope everyone is able to find the right time during the day to do a photoshoot. Over on my end it looks a bit gloomy to really consider doing any photoshoot, but for the rest of the week according to Google weather this week will have nice weather for any photoshoots.

Remember we still have our Glamour/Fashion/Fantasy assignment to shoot for, so lets hope we all can make the best of this daylight savings time.

Trick or Treat!!!

Even though my legs were in pain from the car accident I had this morning I forced myself to go out and walked with my friends and the kids for trick or treating. There were times when I was really in pain but it didn't last too long.

It's a pity that this year it was drizzling and somewhat raining but that didn't stop the kids to go out and get themselves some free candy. There were a lot of trick or treaters out there with very interesting customes.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!!

A Bit of Fun at Work

My company had a halloween costume contest at my work place so I decided to go and shoot the fun event. It was small but with lots of fun. With the busy schedule we all had, the company was kind enough to set aside some times for us to enjoy the spirit of halloween.

Winners from this events are:

First Place: Pang Vang as Princess Fiona
Second place: Jeffery as Werewolf

Thirdplace: Katie as Crazy Cat Lady

I AM ALIVE!!

All I got to say is: I AM ALIVE!!!!

For more photos click here.

This morning at about 5:20 am I was driving to work and then I lost control of my car, the road condition wasn’t good at all, it had rained all night and was drizzling and fogging, I lost control of my car and then I went off road and hit a area of trees!

Right when I hit the trees, I felt lifeless, but at the same time I felt like my grandparents was there carrying me, but in the back of my head all I can think of was “I don’t want to die yet, I am still young and have not experience life enough” then BAM I hit all the trees. I swear I must had blacked out for like 2 second then the first thing I can think of was “I AM ALIVE” and then I called 911, they were quick to get me. As soon as I called 911 I called my younger brother, he didn’t pick up then I called Hlee and she picked up so she came and picked me up at the scene.

I didn’t hit the air bag in my car (good thing or my face would had been all bruised up!!). It was so hard to breath when I hit the trees; the impact was so bad I felt it all over my body, I felt like a wave of pain came rushing into me and felt as if I couldn’t move for that two second I thought I had blacked out. Then I took off my seatbelt after I had called 911. While on the phone they asked if I was hurt, and I honestly wasn’t sure if I was hurt or not, I just felt numb.

As soon as the fireman and ambulance came (which they were super fast), he opened the door and asked if I was hurt, I told him I wasn’t sure, he asked if I felt pain and I told him just a bit under my chest and my right pelvic so he felt right under my chest and asked if I felt pain, and I said no, then he felt on my right pelvic and asked and that’s where all the pain was, I then also sprung my right ankle as well. I told him I really honestly just need to take lots of deep breath so he allowed me to do so. I came out of the car and then I signed a paper saying I did not need to go to the hospital.

I watched my car get towed away and got a damn citation for driving a bit fast under bad road condition. MAN!!!

Good thing I didn’t hit anyone else or anyone’s home or business because right ahead of where I wrecked my car there are a lot of homes, small business and etc. That would have been extremely expensive for my insurance!!!

I think it had to do with a dream I had had the other night, I think the dream was telling me something! But good thing I walked out of the car accident ALIVE!!!

I don’t know why I didn’t think of calling my parents, but I finally called them on my way back home. The first thing I told my dad was “Dad, when you and mom has time, you guys need to hu kuv plig” (“HU PLIG” means soul calling, I felt like my soul had been lost during the wreck) my dad was like “WHY??” then I told him I got into a car wreck so he said okay and kind of gave me a sympathy lecture about driving.

I am alive, thank goodness!!!

MY CAR!!! MY BEAUTIFUL CAR!!!!

Youtube Problem On My Blog!!

I don't understand this.... I am having youtube problem on my page. Last week I was able to put up a youtube video on my blog and it worked out fine, Mr. Jones even saw it and he said it was good, the whole video was in the layout and etc, but for some reason on Wednesday after class I came back to do a new blog, I notice that my youtube links were not showing up but a small thin line going through the blog. If anyone knows what is going on, please do help.. I would show a screenshoot of what I had done but I am blogging at work on my break and somehow it's not showing my HTML in my YOUTUBE blogs.. I will screenshot when I get home!! I hope the problem will be fixed soon!!!

Learning to Fill Flash

Photo was found online

I found this great aticle on "fill flash" called "Using Fill Flash" written by Darren Rowse. Since our next assignment for Photojournalism is fill flash I decided to look into fill flash more and get a better understanding of it. Well I must say, this website did a great job explaining the use of fill flash. I hope you guys find this article as helpful as I did.

At Work, Working Hard!!

During our open lap, Ally, Chealsea and I had went into the studio and lay the wood flooring together, I thought our hard work had paid off. We are now building the set for our GTC Holiday Portraits and so far so good. I think we had made good progress thus far. Let's see how much we can get done by next week since the wood floor had been lay and the rug had been put in place.

Thanks to Jennie for the photos!!! Check out Jenni's flickr for more photos and also photography made by herself.

How to Fill Flash

Our next assignment for Photojournalism is "Fill Flash" and because of that, I found this great video on Fill flash on youtube. In this video Michael Andrew explains what a fill flash does and how it helps the image. I found this video helpful and with these tips I hope to be able to do good fill flash photography!

Overlook at Tallulah Point

The only thing I can say is BREATH TAKING!! On our way back home from Rabun County we stopped by Tallulah Point and boy it was beautiful!! It took my breath away, I just didn't want to return home. This is one of the main reasons why I LOVE LOVE LOVE autumn! No other season can beat the beauty of this wonderful change of colors!

WildLife Photography

I found this awesome article on wildlife photography. This is a real helpful site for any individual who would like to take wildlife photography, in this article they gave good and helpful hints and pointers that will help any individual. 

Night Photography

I found this cool video on night photography on youtube. In this video, Gordon Laing explains and shows us how to do good night photography in the manual mode. I find this video very helpful for individuals who wants to learn how to do night photography. 

You can also click here for more tips by Gordon. 

Potential Feature Photo?

I went to the pumpkin patch at Washington Farm this past Saturday and I think I MIGHT have a few potential feature photos for my Photojournalism class. I took pictures of the kids having fun feeding the goats and the donkey; I also took pictures of the kids at the pumpkin patch, at the corn maze and the pool of corn kennels and etc. Let’s hope that Mrs. Finch will find one that she likes.

Black Rock Mountain

What is better than to enjoy a beautiful day in high elevation watching nature’s beauty from above? I had spent my Saturday wonderfully, we first went to the Minnehaha Falls and then drove around the recreation and Rabun Lake, and then we headed farther north to Black Rock Mountain State Park. I was expecting a lot more than just an over look park, but either way, who wouldn’t love it? It was beautiful, I am glad we had picked a perfect day and time to visit Black Rock Mountain State Park.

Honestly, today was supposed to be spent doing my Glamour/Fantasy/Fashion assignment, but with the beauty, we were distracted and was not able to really concentrate on the assignment. Good thing I have a few more weeks before the assignment is due.

I am in LOVE!

Yes guys, I am in LOVE… with nature that is! After visiting the Minnehaha Falls in Georgia, my sister and I drove around the recreation and enjoyed the beautiful autumn scenery, I must say, it was well worth the gas we had used and the steep drive up and down the mountain and around Rabun Lake with my small little car.

In this photo, I had captured in front of a resident, there are many houses build around Rabun Lake but I couldn’t help it but to take a photo of this beautiful scenery, it was breath taking; I wish I was able to stay there much longer so I can enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery, but reality kicked in thus I must leave the beautiful scenery behind.

Minnehaha Falls...In Georgia

I had learn that there is also a Minnehaha Falls here in Georgia as well as the Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota. Well today my friends and I went to Minnehaha Falls here in Georgia, it was about a good hour and 30 minutes drive from where I live, over all it was not far at all. We had a short hike to the water fall and believe me, it was beautiful, well worth the hike. It was a secluded waterfall, very private with hardly anyone there. This waterfall is a cascade of 3 falls together. If anyone ever has a chance to go there, it is worth the drive. There are many waterfalls around the areas as well, but we didn't have the chance to visit the rest of the waterfalls, I will make time for them the next time I visit.

Pumpkin Patch

The sun may had not been up today, but it didn't stop us from going to the pumpkin patch. Today, my friend Nicki and I took the kids to Washington Farm to play and pick pumpkins. Also at the same time I was able to do my feature assignment for my Journalism class. Although it was a bit cold, after running around and having lots of fun, we forgot all about the coldness. Everyone had fun and at the end of the day, it was a great turn out.

At the farm I met our very own Lisa there, and also did I mentioned that Washington Farm is own by our very own Deanna and I too saw her there.

Glamour/Fantasy/Fashion Assignment Thumbnail

As you can see, I cannot draw to save my life so I drew stick figures, it's the best way around it!

On Wednesday I had turned in my thumbnail for the glamour/fantasy/fashion assignment for my Advance Portraiture class, and I am very happy that the one I wanted to shoot was picked for this assignment.

Tomorrow morning, on Sunday, my friend and I will be taking a trip to the moutains to shoot for this autumn theme. Her brother was nice enough to be my male model and her friend's niece was nice enough to be my female model. I have a lot planned for this photoshoot, but we'll see how successful it will turn out. I am hoping for a good turnout.

My sister Hlee will be attending this photoshoot to assist me in any way needed. She is pretty much my personal assitance, she had worked along side me for few of my photoshoots that I've done thus far, and she had been my model for a lot of my photoshoots.

This Weekend is Looking Good!!

Image is screen cap from MSN weather on 10.22.09 at 3:00 pm


The other day I had blogged about how this weekend may end up raining on Saturday and I was hoping it wouldn't rain, from the looks of today's forecast for the week, it looks like this weekend there will not be any rain. I am now excited! I can actually get these photo shoot done!

On Saturday I am hoping to get my feature images taken.

On Sunday I will be going out to the mountains to shoot my Glamorous/Fashion/Fantasy assignment so I do hope that this weather forecase is 1000% correct, yes I meant it when I said 1000%. LOL.

Autumn Photography

Autumn is my all time favorite season, and with that being said, for my Advance Portraiture class, one of our assignment is to shoot Glamorous/Fasion/Fantasy photography and for this assignment I will be shooting outdoors in the mountains along the autumn leaves.

I cannot wait to start shooting for this assignment and with that, I had found this amazing article with great hints and tips about shooting in the autumn only that I will be plugging in people to the picture. I had already secure my models, only problem is, will the weather be nice to me?

In this article it is entitled "How To Take Great Fall Photographs" and in this article they gave us 7 good tips for photographing in the fall. Here are the 7 tips in my own words.

1. Get the Classic shot-the winding roads along the beautiful trees

2. Just add Water- slow shutter speed with soften the water

3. Use the Weather- use the weather wisely both overcast and sunny days

4. Develop Tunnel Vision- Your lens type will be very important

5. Look Down-good framing can be right at your feet

6. Get Really Close-got micro lens, use it, close up photography will be awesome

7. Make Abstracts-try something new, do many different exposure, have fun.

Rain or no Rain?

Weather forecast was screenshot from MSN weather on 10/21/09 at 6:30 am

I have a big weekend planned and believe me, this weekend is planned with lots of photoshoots, but I had checked the weather and it's not looking too good. Why oh why? I am crossing my figers that it will not rain this weekend at all so I can do all the photoshoots I had planned. It was hard enough to get everyone to work with me to make these plans possible and all it'll take is the rain to ruin these plans, I hope that the weather man is wrong and the weather will be nice with the sun up and smiling right at me.

So please, cross your figers for me that the weather wil be as nice as possible for me, and for anyone else who has big photography plans this weekends. It's sad to say, but we as photographer depends a lot on the weather to do our photography, therefore lets hope for the best weather this weekend!

Check me out on Flickr

Whew, I had a hard time getting flickr to work for me. First I was having problem with my yahoo email, it's been a year since I had logged onto my Yahoo email therefore it had been closed down, so I had to reactivate the whole entire account which had taken a few days for it to be activated, but glad I had gotten it to work.

I am new on flickr therefore there are not many photos uploaded, but soon enough I will load my flickr account with as much good images as I can. So do check out my flickr photos!!

Here are the 3 sets I have thus far.
Nature's Beauty
Studio Work
Individual works

Burn and Dodge Technique

Last quarter in Photo Imaging III we learn how to burn and dodge an image without destroying the image.
Here are the steps you'll have to take to burn and doge the images.

Step 1. open up the image you want
step 2. go to layer–>new—–> layer—> then name your layer—> change color to gray—> change mode to “overlay”—>click on “fill with overlay-neutral color (50% gray)
step 3. use the paint tool to darken or lighten the area wanted —>use the black filter to darken image and use the white filter to lighten image——->use about 10% opacity while using the brush only, never use it at 100%
if you darken of lighten something too much, do not delete anything, just use the simple tool and then simple the gray and paint over it to normal again.

very easy but just a lot of paying attention and etc

Before

After

During

Low Key

Today in advance portraiture our assignment was High Key/Low Key, I decided to photography low key which is a concept of dark colors against a dark background. I photograph my sister Hlee as a fallen angel, over all the shot went well. 

Wedding Photoshoot:Barry and Chee

My friends, Barry and Chee had their wedding earlier this year and had not had any photos done so they had asked me to do a wedding photoshoot for them, I enjoyed it, although this is my first wedding photoshoot, I wish I could had done better. It was very challenging, but who said challenges are bad?

I have more room to learn when it comes to wedding photoshoots!

Kids Photography

Last week our assignment for Advance Portraiture was Kids photoshot, and my kid was my baby cousin, baby Savier! He was such a good boy UNTIL.. okay here's the story, we arrived to school and he was very good, he listened to me and stayed with me the whole time without putting a fight to go out or do something he isn't supposed to do. We set up the set and then right before we started the photoshot he saw the lollipops I was going to give him after the shoot, and once he saw those, he refused to do anything I had asked him to do, so I had to do what I can, but overall it was very successful! I got some pretty decent shots of him!! Of course he was an extremely handsome model!!

Infrared

Here is a technique called “infrared” it only works on certain type of images, mainly on green plants. This is a black and white infrared technique done on Photoshop.

Atlanta Turkish Festival

Today I had the chance to attend the Atlanta Turkish Festival in Duluth GA at the Gwinnett Convention Center. The event was fun and very interesting, I had a good time and a great experience filled with the unique culture of Turkey.

Moua New Year Party Celebration

This weekend was the Hmong Moua (Hmoob Muas) New Year party celebration, it's the Moua (my clan's) pre-New Year celebration at the Boys and Girls club in Social Circle, it was an honor to be requested by my Uncle to be a greeter at our party.

This party was a great sucess, it was the first time the Moua clans of Georgia had came together to throw such a huge party, we had a great turn out with over 500 people showing up.

Click HERE for more photos from the event.

Stanislaus River in California

Back in June I was able to take a short trip to California and while I was on vacation I was able to visit some parks and locations that I used to visit as a kid. Calaveras Big Tree National Park is amoung the parks and recreation that I had visted on this trip and places that I had traveled to as a child.

Here is a slow shutter speed image I had done on the Stanislaus river that goes through the park. This river is beautiful, I remember sitting on a huge rock on the edge of the river and just listen to the beautiful sound of the rushing river and smell the sweet smell of nature, how wonderful life was at the perfect moment, and then I had to snap back into reality.

Click here for more photos of the Stansislaus River.

Trying to be Creative?

I had some extra fabrics left over from making my Hmong clothes, so I decided to make my little cousin a traditional Lengha Choli for halloween. A Lengha Choli is a traditional Indian skirt for little girls, I must say, the outcome of it was pretty decent since this is my first time really trying something on a sewing machine. I had a good time playing with the sewing machine, again, this was trial and error only.

The photos were used as snapshots only, it was late and I was tired, please do not mind the quality of the photo.

Old and Damage, You Think?

One assignment we had learned back in our Photo Imaging classes was restoring old and damages images. We had learned to control our tools on photoshop and restore the images. Here, I had worked on my great grandma’s photo taken at least 15 years ago with some other aunts of mine whom I had never met before. This image was torn on the bottom and had lots of spots around the images and the color had started to fade away. I was able to save one of the most precious picture in our house, what more can my mom ask for when I had fixed the damage photo of great grandma?

Airbrushing

From my previous Photo Imaging classes we had learned how to airbrush a person's face. so below are some things I had done to airbrush Shaw's face.
Anyways, I had also screen cap the layers that I had made and used to fix this photo. And these layers are not in order of how I worked on them, but they are in the correct order so the pictures won’t look distorted. So I lighten up her face, and airbrushed her lips and added lipsticks, sharpen her a bit more and then soften her face, I had also put blush on her. There was more I can do, but I wanted to keep it natural so here are the images...

Mystery and Culture

The audio is a song from Vib Thoj entitled “Kuv Thaij Yog Tus Hlub Koj” (I am the one who loves you) for translations please check here.

To anyone, these two images may just be another shot of 3 girls from behind, but to me, I find these two images beautiful and breath taking, why? There are so many stories behind the Hmong people; we are a group of mysterious people with so much history. Until one knows a Hmong’s true story, they are yet to know how life as a Hmong person really is. I like these two images because surrounding these two images are mystery and tradition. We as the viewers does not know what’s really behind these images, what they are doing, what they are waiting for.
I do not know the photographer of these images therefore I am not able to credit them.

Black and White

I had always enjoyed black and white photos, for one, it’s much easier to print and easier to manage, but then the biggest thing I enjoy about black and white photos is that somehow I enjoy the mysteries feeling from the photos. There’s always a sort of emotion that is implied into the black and white photos.
These two images were taken during my Black and White theory class, back in the winter of ’09. Enjoy!

Georgia Hmong New Year

Come out on November 14th and 15th to enjoy a great Hmong culture event organized by the GA Hmong Culture Organization INC. It'll be their New Years celebration, a weekend full of beauitful colors, beautiful clothes, great food, sports, ball toss and live entertainment such as traditional dancing, singing, poetry singing, traditional instruments and other great entertainments.

Event:

Georgia: November 14th and 15th
Lo’s Soccer field
2007 Stanley Christian RD
Monroe, GA 3065

All photographers and everyone else at all ages are welcome!!! Come experience this wonderful celebration and get your cameras ready!