"Today's Pictures Are Tomorrow's Memories"
One, five, ten or maybe twenty years from now what will you remember of loved ones, places traveled, special moments experienced, or daily moments to treasure? Or think about it another way, have you ever looked at a picture from a few years ago, from a vacation, a special moment and have it bring back a warm feeling inside or a big smile? As an "older" guy with more and more in the rear view mirror than on the road ahead, having those wonderful pictures of past times has become more and more special, and that is why photography is both a hobby and passion of mine. Take a memorable picture and capture that special moment in time and you'll be able to treasure it forever! It ain’t about likes it’s about capturing for yourself those special moments, and the gear doesn’t matter does it!
The pictures here are archival and represent some of the shots I’ve taken while photographing my and other kids. They do grow up fast, don’t blink or the moments will be gone. If you find something you like I hope you find it worthy of purchase. The cost is far cheaper than those charged by the pros and the little I make keeps the site up for others that just want a screen capture for their phone.
How it all started …………………………..………………………………………………………………………………….
A long long time ago in a place far far away I got the photo bug and started taking snapshots with a Kodak 110 film camera, later I saved up my pennies in high school and shot as my first SLR an Olympus OM2. After I graduated from HS, between college, graduate school and raising a family was way too busy & poor so I just settled on capturing "Kodak" moments with cheap film cameras. I first ventured into digital in 2001 with a cheap Kodak P&S and quickly started upgrading every 6 months or so as each new model was measurably better and better, thanks to Moore's Law.
As my kids started doing fast action stuff finally leaped to a DLSR and found how much better pictures could be and became a crazy Nikon dad with a D40 and then from there the crazy NAS started but is now ending! As they got faster, the kids that is, I had to also and get better too! Shot my kids participating in Football, Wrestling, X-Country, Track & Field, Swimming, Gymnastics and Skiing. These days find myself doing sports less and more often Theater, Ballet, and Dance. Doesn't matter what it is, I love the challenge of capturing the "best" moment the "best!" As I try and explain to my dear wife, it's much easier with the "best" equipment.
Call me peculiar or is it lazy, but you won't find me waking up early or traveling to crazy places lugging tons of equipment to take a picture for the sake of a picture. If a "Kodak" moment presents itself and I have "the equipment" conveniently there I'll take it. If I don't, the ever present iPhone is more than good enough!!! You will find few pictures of sunsets, iconic scenery, or me simply out challenging myself with my big toys. Arrogant or not, I know with a little work there isn't any shot I can't get with the right equipment, but often the iPhone is simply good enough, for a pano, sunset or selifie moment LOL. Like I said, call me lazy, peculiar, and arrogant. Take a picture that captures the moment personally and is meaningful is what matters in the end. Life is too short to waste too much time taking pictures for the sole purpose the picture, and also life is too short and memory too fleeting to not have pictures of moments in life! Or most simply "if a photograph makes you happy: it's a good photograph. You are the best judge of your photography!"
These days shooting a D5 for sports/lowlight and a V1 and V3. Find the three amigos mounted to 24-70 & 70-200 2.8 zooms or primes; 20, 28, 35, 50, 85 and 200 naked or with 14, 17 or 20 TCs. For portrait or lowlight when I need it, add a SB900 / SB600 flash with remotes / stands / umbrellas if required. When I want to go small and light without sacrificing speed nor too much IQ you can find me shooting a Nikon 1 and some CX glass ( 6.7-13, 10-100, 10 prime ), or mated with FT1 to an F-mount for some serious reach with FPS! Of course, there is always the ever present iPhone for them, easy to take and easy to share snapshots / selfies, but when you really want the best you got to use the high end stuff for the best special pictures!
If you have a specific event or portrait you'd like me to shoot feel free to drop me a note. I don't charge a fee and you can compare my work to so-called "pro's" and their prices. I give them more than a run for the money with equipment that matches or exceeds most pros! The few $ I make selling the photos here help me cover the cost of hosting this web site and storage of the digital pictures for a bit. BTW if I don't have the right/best equipment for an upcoming shoot, don't worry, I now have the excuse to go get it again.
Bodies come and gone: D40, D300 D5000, D5100, D3200, D7000, D700, D3s, D600, D800e, D810, Df, D4 ( I buy and sell a lot, my current stable of equipment is always for sale for the right price ). The churning of bodies has pretty much come to an end with D5/D810. I think the pinnacle has been reached. Yes D850 and Z7/Z6 are pretty awesome, but I won’t be able to see them materially so I’m very happy to ride into the sunset with my current three amigos.
Lenses come and gone:
Nikon-F: 14-24G, 16-35G, 24-70G, 70-200G VR1, 50 1.8D, 50 1.8G, 50 1.4G, 200F2 VR1, 28-70D, 24-85G, 18-200G VR1, 16-85G VR, 18-55, 18-55VR, 70-300VR, 18-105G, 24-120G F4, 35 1.8G DX
Tamron-F: 28-75, 28-300VC, 17-35
Nikon CX: 10-30, 30-110
As if you don't know by reading this but I must confess my terrible midlife crisis was NAS ( Nikon Acquisition Syndrome). I love trying new equipment. I am not a collector, keep what I use often and what really improves my capability, sell what I don't use as it is so easy with CL, Fredmiranda, and eBay to buy and sell off what you don't need or use.
Some may ask why Nikon? Well started as I picked the D40 on sale at Costco versus the Canon Rebel, LOL. If the Canon Rebel had been on sale at the time instead I'd be shooting a Canon 1D X MKii with some white lens. Since I ain't a weak / fat guy the mirrorless hold little interest with their small form factor and fancy menus and slower focus, yet that is. Hopefully mirrorless will get there when they get some fast lens that match up from 14 - 300 in the 2.8 range with focus matching the D5 then it could launch my next round of GAS when the third generation comes and I can pick them up for real cheap.
If you have any questions or want to start a conversation about "gear" I can be contacted at clchu "at" yahoo "dot" com
If you've gotten down to here you must be really curious, so here is a little more about me. Born in Taiwan with a short detour to the Congo ( yes Africa where I uttered my first words in Swahili ), but I mostly grew up in California, Oklahoma, Colorado and then back to California. Finished my higher education with a BS in Electrical Engineering at U. C. Berkeley and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford. Started my working career with a short stint on the East coast at IBM in Fishkill and Yorktown Heights working on 0.25um 100GHz Ft SiGe HBT BiCMOS and DRAMs. Next worked at Intel for 23 years, Did short stints in New Mexico and Arizona before settling in Oregon. For more than two+ decades worked on the development of EEPROMS, Flash Memory, x86 CPUs, Chipsets, SOCs for phones/tablets and even eDRAMs again. If it computes with silicon I've probably had some small hand in it. Done this for something like 12+ generations and counting. It has been a wild and crazy ride from 0.8um down and down to 14nm. It was then time to move on as Intel sadly is history. I then moved for a couple years to a small consulting company helping other companies develop technology faster. For a couple years flew every week to the far east to lead a small consulting team and racked up ~375,000miles/year. As those in the industry know Moore’s law has stalled and the value of the exponential scaling we’ve all taken for granted for the last 30 years has stopped. As flying got old and a breakthrough was needed, next moved to AMAT new tools/materials to enable engineering a few more breakthroughs so you all can have a few more generations of iPhones with doubling memory for at least another decade. Now made one last change, back to manufacturing at the greatest chip manufacturer on earth that makes the electronics of almost everything you take for granted, another wild ride for the coming decade!
Thanks for visiting and discovering a bit about me!