Uploads from Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai, with geodata

Curvaceous

nobody@flickr.com (Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 02:16:07 -0700

I recently just got back from 3 days weekend spending in the eastern of Washington at a small farm town called “The Palouse”. Last year was my first time to explore the land of Palouse and after that one visit I knew that I had to come back to this place again. Palouse is no stranger to a lot of photographers in the Northwest and even to a second timer like me Palouse is definitely one of the most beautiful places in Northwest filled with such tranquility and relaxation. A place where I can just temporary clear my mind, breathe in the fresh air without any urban pollution and enjoy the serenity moments.

This particular shot was captured on top of a 3612 foot tall natural monument called “Steptoe Butte”. I was standing on top of the butte looking at a 360 degrees view of the rolling hills when this conspicuous curve caught my attention. This will be my first image of Palouse, I have a couple more to edit and maybe post after if you’re not sick of seeing brown and green curves yet :-)

As always, thank so much my friends for the helpful and warm comments on my last post. Look forward to seeing everyone’s work soon.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend ahead.

D300s
Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

© Hai Nguyen Photography | All Rights Reserved | Please do not use without my permission, thank you.

The Leap of Faith

nobody@flickr.com (Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:35:25 -0700

Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai posted a photo:

This is my first attempt on levitation photography. Also one of mine joyful experiences and favorite shots this year so far. This was a short project I had in mind after my last long exposure shot from “Log Boom Park” using my home made 8 stops ND filter. The weather here in Seattle was great recently with beautiful partly cloudy and sunny so I decided to do another long exposure shot. However, the question I had in mine was how can I make it different and more unique this time? Even if I shoot at a different pier it’s just another dock leading into infinity.

A couple weeks ago while I was catching up on Flickr, I saw 1 portrait shot that really captivated my attention and sparked an idea in my head. It was just a simple portrait picture of a couple that got lifted into the air by holding onto an umbrella.

I wanted to try something similar but added my own concept in landscape photography. The process of executing this shot was quite hilarious. The 1st day I failed by taking too much time trying to the captured the long exposure and didn’t spare enough time to capture a self-portrait of me. 2nd day I came out again but it started raining so it was another unsuccessful evening. 3rd day was a charm, I came back with a friend and the first thing I captured was a self-portrait of me in mid-air utilizing 8fps burst mode on the D300s. The 2nd raw exposure was for the background using a B+W 110 10 stops ND filter (borrowed) plus a 3 stops Hitech soft GND filter to create the dramatic sky and to calm to the lake . Finally went home and manually blended the 2 raw exposures together in CS5 and converted to monochrome using Nik Silver 2 Pro software.

I wanted to thank a couple friends that shared their perspective on the D800 including Thuy, Aldo,
Bjorn and Aaron Reed. It really help a lot because now I have clear decision to make and the 1st thing I need to do is start saving :-)

Thanks again for the constructive comments and will catch up soon. Everyone have a great rest of the week!

D300s
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
B+W 110 10 stops ND
Hitech 3 stops soft GND

© Hai Nguyen Photography | All Rights Reserved | Please do not use without my permission, thank you.

My Emerald City

nobody@flickr.com (Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:17:36 -0700

Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai posted a photo:

Thank you for all of the constructive comments on my last post, much appreciated. This is my most recent shot at Kerry Park. As mentioned before that Kerry Park is one of my top go to spots in Seattle because it contains all of the elements that represent this rainy city. You have a clear view of the iconic Space Needle, the skyline behind it and of course Mt. Rainier in the distance. With that being said, this was one of those days where the weather was extra dry, nice and sunny in Seattle so the park was full of tourists, lots of loving couples and a bunch of photographers with nice cameras and big their lens :-) I was there with some of my friends whom I met through Flickr including Dene, David, Lisa, Aaron Reed and Aaron Eakon. They are a great group of friends, very sincere, very talented yet super funny. I had a lot of fun reunited with them that night as I laugh so hard when Aaron Reed did an impression of some crazy dude on TV. Great time, great laugh, and great food.

Thanks again, and have a wonderful rest of the week friends.

D300s
Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 af-s vr
Tiffen CPL
Hitech 3 stops soft GND

© Hai Nguyen Photography | All Rights Reserved | Please do not use without my permission, thank you.

Blue hours at Pier 66

nobody@flickr.com (Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:24:34 -0700

Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai posted a photo:

This is a "fresh off the oven" :-) shot yesterday night minutes after the sun submersed the horizon. Beautiful colors and textures began to appeared as I stand next to a line of photographers capturing the city lights.

It's been exactly 1 year since I last shot at this location. Feels good standing on a familiar ground capturing this same scene again. I have 3 favorite places to go to in Seattle, 1 being the 12th Avenue Dr. Rizal Bridge, 2nd is Kerry Park and this Pier 66 roof top would be my 3rd. I gotta admit that I've shot here a dozen of times but never really encounter any photographer up here before. I guess I must have came at the wrong time because I'm often the only person there. However, yesterday was a different story as there were already 2 other photographers when I arrived. As the light show began more and more photographers started to showed up.

This is a new composition for me as I mostly shoot horizontal here but I recently entered a couple of contests and they required vertical images for a magazine cover. Therefore, I figured it's a good idea to shoot both a vertical and a horizon with the same location just in case I need in the future. This Anthony Seafood Restaurant turned out to be a great subject and it fitted exactly into my frame :-)

Will do some catching up again this week and thanks so much for your constructive inputs on my last post. Much appreciated.

Have a great week my friends!

D300s
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Tiffen CPL
Hitech 3 stops soft GND

© Hai Nguyen Photography | All Rights Reserved | Please do not use without my permission, thank you.

Winter on Mt. Rainier

nobody@flickr.com (Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:04:23 -0700

Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai posted a photo:

It’s raining here in Seattle so I got a chance to catch up on photography. I am quite excited to post my first winter shot on Mt. Rainier. Last last week a friend of mine, Dene, had the urge to shoot Mt. Rainier in the winter time and she was very determine to go after I asked her what she was doing in the coming weekend. I was glad that she told me about Mt. Rainier because I have never been up there in the winter time. Therefore, last Sunday Dene, me and 2 of our friends drove up to the mountain. As mentioned earlier that this was my first time snowshoeing, therefore, I forgot my gloves, beanie, food and even snowshoes were not mine. Luckily I got the hooked up from Ron, Dene and Vinny at the last minute.

We started the hike around 10am at 6000 ft which was at the parking lot and by 4pm we got up to 9000 ft and these numbers are "very" vague :-) yes very. After arrived at the elevation we wanted, Alex Mody, another great funny local photographer that joined us then we began searching for our favorite comp. Ron and I split up from the group and we’ve found a couple nice clean snow humps and that was it. I’ve tried many other compositions but I ended up liking this comp the most so Ron and I camped here at the humps 2 hours until sunset arrived at 6pm.

I definitely had a great time with Dene, Ron and Orion. It was a good day for us since we were treated with beautiful condition with partly cloudy, minimal wind and yes, a huge lenticular cloud was on top of Mt. Rainier. Fun times!

Well, I hope everyone is having a great weekend and as always thanks so much for the great constructive comments.

Have a great work week too my friends!

D300s
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Tiffen CPL
Hitech 3 stops soft GND

© Hai Nguyen Photography | All Rights Reserved | Please do not use without my permission, thank you.

George Washington Memorial Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:49:32 -0800

Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai posted a photo:

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was pretty good, busy but good. I had another family portrait section last weekend so I’ve been busy trying to catch up on the editing. However, after work last Friday I did had time to explore the city of Seattle a bit more. It’s funny how I sounded like a tourist when I’ve lived here for the last 18 years but it’s true. I didn’t really see the beauty of Seattle until I started looking through the lenses. There are so many places within the city that I take for granted and not pay any attention at all like the DNA Bridge I shot a couple weeks ago but I’m glad that now I tried to carry my camera everywhere go.

After shooting the DNA Bridge I’ve decided to search for more bridges around Seattle so I visited the “George Washington Memorial Bridge” AKA Aurora Highway 99 Bridge. This is one of the oldest bridges in Seattle and in fact it was registered as the National Historic Places of America. This bridge was completed and opened to traffic on February 22, 1932 which was a tribute to America 1st president George Washington 200th birthday. Yes, this bridge does contained lots of history to Seattle as well as to America. So enough with the facts which was collected from Wikipedia :-)

Who said Seattle doesn't have a similar bridge to The Golden Gate in San Francisco or The Brooklyn Bridge in New York? :-) J/K I’m sure there are more similar looking bridges like these around the country. I've always admired the architecture of these old school bridges so I was glad to have found one very similar. It was definitely a good night, the sky was clear, minimal clouds and the water was actually calm.

Well, everyone have a great working week and I'll be catching up some more this week.

D300s
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Tiffen CPL

© Hai Nguyen Photography | All Rights Reserved | Please do not use without my permission, thank you.

"Fallen Sky"

nobody@flickr.com (Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:53:42 -0800

Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai posted a photo:

It is the 3rd week in 2012 and I was blessed to witnessed one of the most extraordinary and rare sunsets to ever happen in Seattle City. Last week was a special week in Seattle, we had a weird weather system that came in and came out like it would rain 1 day, sun break 1 day and rain the next day. In between those days some of my buddies (Dene, Aaron Reed and David Irons) have captured beautiful sunrises and sunsets but unfortunately I was stuck.

Last Friday I brought my camera to work with no expectation to use it since I figured all of the crazy lights were probably gone by now. As I got off at 4pm I ran straight to Kerry Park and did not see anyone with a camera and the sky looked like it’s about to rain. I was discouraged and decided to go visit my parents instead.

On the way to my parent’s house the sky started to lid up bright orange. I stepped on the gas and raced as fast as I could to 12th Avenue, Dr. Jose Rizal Bridge. Within 3 blocks to this bridge I was stuck behind a Toyota Prius that was going 15mphr like the car was looking for an address on a 1 lane street!!! I looked out the window to see if the light was still there and I looked back the Prius is still in front of me. Right when we both turned into a 2 lands street I accelerated, parked and ran to the middle section of the bridge and there it was. The entire sky was bright red, orange, purple and pink. Even the grass and the ground were reflected with the same colors as the sky. Not only that the textures and the ripple effect in the clouds were quite nice. That was definitely a humble experience for me to capture this rare unexpected light from this location.

Seattle is now blanketed in white snow. Yesterday I came out for a model photoshoot in the snow and as the sun came down my friend Dene called so I met her at same location again to capture Seattle’s blizzard.

I hope everyone had a great weekend too. Thanks so much for the critiques and comments as always. Stay warm and dry my friends.

D300s
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Lee FDK holder
Hitech 3 stops Soft GND
No CPL (I left it in the car that time)

© Hai Nguyen Photography | All Rights Reserved | Please do not use without my permission, thank you.

Amgen Helix Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:16:53 -0800

Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai posted a photo:

There are myriad famous bridges around the world built to look like DNA, the 3-demensional double helix design. One of the most stunning and the first double helix bridges in the world that we all know is located in Singapore. Well, recently I discovered that Seattle also have a double helix bridge named “Amgen Helix Bridge” located just 5 minutes away from heart of Seattle downtown. Amgen is known as one of the biggest Biotech Company in the world and they have spent roughly 10 million to build this bridge.

I worked in Downtown of Seattle for the last 6 years and always drove by this area but never really notice the bridge because it is kind of hidden away from the main street. Until I saw a video clip that was recorded at this bridge and the cool twist and turn of the steel appearance have captivated me. I’ve always admired all the architects how they have transformed everything into life with a bunch of large cables and steels and with everything else we’ve seen around the world. So after seeing the video I finally drove back here with a buddy to shoot the bridge and man it is definitely one of the coolest looking bridges in Seattle.

As for this shot, it is a single exposure processed in CS5 with minor saturations, curves, blacks and lots of lens distortion correction :-) However, lens distortion is not really a negative thing for me because that is what unique about a wide angle lens. A while back I was inspired when I read this quote online from a photographer, he said “a wide angle lens is not all about getting everything in but it’s about getting close capturing the in your face perspective” and that is one of the main reasons why I love my ultra-wide lens. With that being said this is how I’ve been able to approve my photography was by reading online blogs and thanks to all of my Flickr buddies for sharing your work and all the critiques and comments you’ve given.

Well, another 3 days weekend is coming and I’m looking forward catching up on your streams. Happy shooting and thanks again for all the New Year wishes my friends!

Same to you all!!!

D300s
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

© Hai Nguyen Photography | All Rights Reserved | Please do not use without my permission, thank you.