Concord Sunrise

Recomposed to achieve balance between clouds, dark sky and trees. Flaming colors and dark sky yielded high drama.

Work-in-progress...

	Captured sunrise image from the roadside. Dark blue sky of day break was nice contrast to the warm colors of the clouds. Power lines in the foreground did not complement the theme.
	Zoomed in (3x) to clean up foreground clutters. Trees and sky created visual depth.

Autumn Lilies

White balanced and fine tuned composition. Asymmetry and dark backdrop result in stunning image.

Work-in-progress...

	Golden lilies combo in night shot. Slightly over-exposed and cluttered composition.

Lafayette Reservior

Postcard shot of water tower in early fall.

Work-in-progress...

	Plush foliage along the waterfront next to the trail loop.

Pack of Puppies

Tighter composition and patience yielded this cozy image of puppies curled up in a pack.

Work-in-progress...

	Captured a pack of puppies under natural diffused lighting.

High Clouds

Autumn high clouds nicely framed by trees. Fine tuned camera angle to obtain verticle balance, show-casing the clouds as the main subject. The wide-open sky extending down behind the tree creates an effective illusion of depth.

Work-in-progress...

	Leaving work, took this initial shot of the high clouds in the parking lot. Aimed camera high to cut out the foreground and street scenes. The tree seemed over imposing, while the clouds came out a little washed out.
	Aimed camera even higher to draw focus to the clouds. Recomposed and framed picture with trees on three sides. Both the trees and the clouds were slightly out of focus. Felt a little disoriented, not knowing where the horizon lied.

Tropics

A tighter composition of a similar flower from a more vertical angle. The two tone color palette and simple geometric shapes result in strong visual impact.

Work-in-progress...

Tropical flowers taken at a nursery store, under diffused natural indoor lighting. Background was a little cluttered.

Dragon

Clouds moved into perfect position to form the impressionistic dragon. Very happy to be at the right place, at the right time.

Work-in-progress...

	Wide angle shot of spectacular color display in the sky. Face of the dragon still slightly deformed. Too much sky on top and foliage on bottom.
	Underexposed (2.0 f-stops) to darken the sky. Zoomed in for a more dramatic composition.

Rose

Intense color of the full bloom makes it pop right out of the page. Thanks to the dark background, and the warm mid-day sun.

Work-in-progress...

	Typical 'no brainer' snapshot of a blooming flower in the front yard.
	Set camera on tripod, composed against dark background, using natural sunlight with reflector boards. Decided to return again the following day to capture the flower in full bloom.

Water Drop

This image has a certain surrealistic quality that makes it captivating.

Work-in-progress...

	Prop set up, camera on tripod. Image was still out of focus, and revealing too much of the water container.
	Locked on with manual focus mode. Moved camera higher on the horizon and got the composition I wanted. Just needed to keep trying until I capture the water drop.

Sea Urchin

Natural backlighting, balanced with incandescent fill, which added warm tone to subject.

Work-in-progress...

	Harsh shadows due to built-in flash, auto focus was slightly off.
	Improved using backlighting and reflector boards.

Bouquet

Taken at a supermarket, with halogen spot lighting.

Orchid

Polished shot with dew drops, using only the built-in flash and reflector boards.

Work-in-progress...

	Background slightly cluttered.
	Hard shadows from indoor lamp. Lowered camera angle distorted shape of flower.