• Seeing my family (dad, mom, sister Rachel, step mom Krista, step brother Mikey, Grammy Elaine, and Grandma Alice)
• Seeing a number of my friends – Justin Klein (you can read his take on our get-together here), John Medina, Jeremy Sultan, Susanna Hyatt, Chuck McGill, Ross, Davide, Madeline, etc. and talking with many others
• Flying my old airplane
• Taking some great pictures
• Riding horses with my sister and Dad up at Will Rogers’ park
• Swimming at the Brentwood country club
• Taking a family trip up to Telluride, Colorado
• Eating some In-N-Out and many other things that I had been craving
• Shopping for all the stuff I can’t find in China
• Visiting the Getty Center
• Showing everyone pictures of my girlfriend Shenqi, and seeing everyone else’s pictures
• Drinking some good Italian wine
• etc.

While all of this has been really nice, I miss China, my friends, my house, my girlfriend 申琦, and my life there. The U.S. and everyone here just seem so foreign to me now. I am having a lot of trouble getting used to the slower pace of life in general here, the MUCH higher price of everything, and, I can’t believe I am saying it, but how inefficient many things are. When I first got to China, I would have never dreamed of saying that America was less efficient, but in some aspects it is quite true. I can’t stand how long it takes to wait in lines here, shop, pay for things, wait in restaurants, etc. Having an unlimited cheap labor force really makes many things run faster in China. I had to valet my car today when I went to visit my dad’s new office, and the valet took 5 minutes to get to me, get me a ticket, and take my car. I couldn’t believe it, but it wasn’t like it was anything weird by U.S. standards. That situation just doesn’t occur in China. I then waited 30 minutes for a table, only to get served SLOOOWWWWLY by a waitress who was overloaded and couldn’t handle all her tables. It took forever to order, get our food, get a check, and get change. I missed China.

Also, making plans with people requires much more notice and planning than it does in China. If I want to meet with someone in China, it happens that day, not a week later. There is no telephone tag, schedule checking, planning, etc. It just happens. Everything for the most part is on a much more accelerated schedule.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not saying that everything about China is better. All I am saying is that there are a few things about life there that I really really miss.

I have a few more days here in L.A., and then Labor Day weeked in Las Vegas before I fly back to China. I intend to savor every minute of my time here in the states, but will definitely be happy to get back to 中国 (China).

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I had some time to do this assignment and decided to try and get it done in advance so that I might actually have a chance to modify or re-shoot if necessary. My photographer friend Ross came over to help me figure out the best way to shoot this. I had thought of either shooting the dining room or living room, and decided on trying to shoot the living room and highlight the two grand pianos.

Getting both grand pianos in the picture, the scene properly lit, and no funky distracting shadows turned out to be impossible. We decided to go to plan B and shoot the living room and back into the dining room. While this wouldn’t feature the two grand pianos, this was much easier as there were no harsh reflections or shadows to tame.

We setup one Canon 580EX clamped to the curtain above the flowers. This was pointing down onto the flowers to the right. Another Canon 580EX was set on top of a book shelf in the dining room just out of frame to camera left. It was bounced off the ceiling illuminating the dining room. A third Canon 580EX was fired into a silver Westcott 2002 umbrella to camera left and high up on a stand on a table. The umbrella was pointed at the couch and table to illuminate the overall scene. You can see the overall setup in these two shots:

My final exposure settings were 28mm f/6.3 1/30s at ISO 640.

Here is the origonal unlit shot, followed by the final shot:

Technical Details:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Digital
Lens: Canon 24-105 F/4.0 L IS USM
Memory Card: Ritek Pro-2 8GB
Wireless Device (x4): Pocket Wizard Plus II
Flash(x3): Canon Speedlite 580EX
Umbrella: Westcott 2002 Silver
All images shot in RAW
Used Adobe Camera RAW to convert to JPG

Many thanks to my buddy Ross,

-Andy
http://www.andrewstrauss.net

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I came back to the US from China for a brief vacation, and didn’t bring my full kit of gear. I was only going to be in the states for about a week, and thus wasn’t too worried about the bootcamp as all prior assignments were two weeks long. Well…..on my second day here, I noticed that we were only given one week for this assignment….DOH!

I knew that my current location, Telluride, Colorado, was a good place to shoot a water advertisement as it had a lot of beautiful scenery (mountains, streams, etc.) but I was worried about my gear. I had all my flashes and two light stands, but I didn’t have any of my light modifiers (snoots, gels, umbrellas, etc.). I made a few cereal box snoots that made my family members laugh, and decided to make do with what I had.

My sister Rachel had an initial idea of shooting a bottle of Evian covered in condensation on a grassy knoll. I would shoot looking up at the bottle, and get a bit of grass and the bottle in the foreground, and then a mountainous landscape in the background. We did a few test shots but thought that they were all too boring. We then passed a small stream on the way home for lunch, and thought that the stream would be a better idea. It was noon and the light was horrible so we decided to come back around sunset.

When we got back, the sun was at camera left and setting fast. I metered for the background at my desired f stop and got f/14 at 1/125s with an ISO of 400. I then tried to bounce a flash off the side of the SUV that I had my sister park next to the shooting area, but the black SUV was either too far away or absorbed too much light as the Canon 580EX on full power didn’t make any difference. I scrapped that light.

I then added a snooted Canon 580EX on a light stand to camera right pointed at the bottle’s large label. This was set to around 1/64 (can’t remember exactly) and triggered by one of my new pocket wizards (which I LOVE!!!)

I adjusted the flash level until things looked right and started shooting. As the sun set, I had to constantly adjust my ISO and shutter speed to keep the background exposed properly. My sister used a 409 bottle filled with water to keep up the condensation look on the side of the water bottle. I tried using a S. Pellegrino bottle first, and then an Evian bottle, but the Pellegrino bottle looked best. You can see the setup here:

And a sample ad with some corny text here:

My final exposure settings were 90mm f/14 1/125s at ISO 400.

Technical Details:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Digital
Lens: Canon 70-200 F/2.8 L IS USM
Memory Card: Ritek Pro-2 8GB
Wireless Device (x2): Pocket Wizard Plus II
Flash(x1): Canon Speedlite 580EX
All images shot in RAW
Used Adobe Camera RAW to convert to JPG

Many thanks to my patient sister Rachel.

-Andy
http://www.andrewstrauss.net

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I managed to again wait until a few days before the deadline to shoot my entry for assignment number three. Luckily Aaron was a good sport and kindly offered up his time. I struggled a lot with how to make someone look smart while sticking with the theme. I knew that any old shot of Aaron wouldn’t cut it, so I went through some ideas of what to include. The day was quite overcast so directly using the sun was out. I thought about shooting Aaron indoors and using some creative lighting to make it seem as though Aaron was glowing, but thought that idea was too close to what I did for assignment number 1, and the whole point of this bootcamp is to try new things. I then thought about a “work” setting, like up at the blackboard or working on the computer, but decided that was too plain and didn’t really have anything to do with the solar panel theme.

We thus ultimately headed outside where I noticed this cool building that looked like it was covered with solar panels. I figured that it would fit the overall theme for this assignment, and would certainly have been appropriate had Aaron been the designer of the solar panels that were covering the building.

I decided to shoot Aaron from on the ground to make it feel as though we were looking up at him. This seemed to give him a smarter “feel.” I then setup a light stand with a Canon 580EX being fired into an umbrella about three feet directly in front of Aaron (AKA camera left at 90 degrees). I added a Canon 580EX directly behind Aaron firing back towards him. I wanted to have a slight halo around his head to help separate him from the building and make him seem as though he were glowing. I ultimately turned that flash off, however, as I didn’t like the effect it had. You can see the whole setup here:

I metered for ambient and then dialed down the shutter speed a bit to slightly underexpose the background. I then manually set the flash to an arbitrary setting and took a few shots that contained only Aaron’s face in the frame. Once his face was over exposed, I turned the flash down slightly and was set. I took a few different shots with his head in various positions, but ultimately liked the one with his head half over the building. The shot below was not bad, but I thought that the space between his head and the building made the building seem a bit distant and unrelated. Let me know what you think and if the shot below is better:

My final exposure settings were 40mm f/8 1/160s at ISO 640.

Technical Details:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Digital
Lens: Canon 24-105 F/4.0 L IS USM
Memory Card: Ritek Pro-2 8GB
Wireless Transmitter: Canon ST-E2
Flash(x2): Canon Speedlite 580EX in slave mode
All images shot in RAW
Used Adobe Camera RAW to convert to JPG

Here are a few other backup shots I took at a gazebo in the same area. A few came out nice but there was no connection to the solar panel theme:

These two shots were a lot more complicated, and required that I use 3 strobes including one to light the background. Ultimately I decided to submit the single strobe in an umbrella shot. Simple is quite often better

-Andy
http://www.andrewstrauss.net

After the hike was over, we had lunch at one of the restaurants there. 申琦 (shēn qí) and I both managed to find seats in the one indoor area. It was much cooler inside and just the break we needed.

After lunch, we went to get on the bus and found out that the air conditioner was broken. DOH! Not cool considering that it was ROASTING outside. The bus company, however, was smart enough to fill one of the cargo bays with extra parts and after thirty minutes, the two drivers managed to have the problem fixed.

We then proceeded to 西柏坡 (xī bǎi pō) which was supposedly the birth place of the modern Chinese communist party. There were three different areas of 西柏坡 (xī bǎi pō) that we visited. The first was a hall with a bunch of old calligraphy. I could actually read some of the characters which was cool. The second stop was the most interesting part, a museum with original documents and videos about the founding of the current government. We spent nearly an hour looking through here and taking pictures. The last stop was one of the original meeting halls and Chairman Mao’s old house. This was probably the least interesting of the 3.

We then headed back to 石家庄 (shíjiāzhuāng), all totally exhausted from the hiking and sun-exposure. Shenqi rubbed some aloe on my burns and we called it an early night.

The school seems like it wants to do a few more of these field trips. I really hope they are serious about it as I had a great time. Shenqi even went so far as to call it a mini-vacation

Anyway, a few things led me to want to head home for a few weeks (in no particular order):

1. My step brother Mikey, who is just over a year old, has really grown up while i have been away. When I left, he was a tiny little guy who couldn’t even crawl. Now he is talking, walking, and eating solid food. He has gotten much bigger and heavier, and I generally feel as though I am missing a huge part of his development
2. The little things that I don’t like about China are getting on my nerves more and more and I am finding that I am focusing on them and taking for granted all the things I love about this country. A little time at home will help put things in perspective and remind me of how much I really do love this place
3. I miss western food. It isn’t that there are a ton of things that I miss, or that Chinese food isn’t good (It is VERY good), but more that I am craving a few specific items. A good hamburger tops the list right now. I have yet to find one here in 石家庄(shíjiāzhuāng). The other foods I have been missing (mac & cheese, Mexican food, potato salad, etc.) are not quite as critical, but will definitely be consumed while I am at home.
4. Shopping. I can find most of the things I need here with the exception of English books, specific movies, sticky Velcro, and some photo equipment
5. I miss my friends and family
6. I miss flying
7. I miss driving
8. I need a break from studying ~6 hours a day. I think that coming back refreshed will allow me to restart and continue at a faster pace.
9. I want to go out and not have to speak Chinese for a whole day
10. I am sick of bargaining for EVERYTHING I buy.

So if you will be around and would like to catch up, shoot me a line and we will meet up. See you all back in the states ….

Rough Translation for all you English speakers:

My girlfriend Shenqi wrote this. You can see what I wrote here.

This was my first time using Andrew’s Canon 5D. I still sometimes call it a D5 instead of a 5D. When Andy finished the photo assignment, I knew that he was very tired. I was curious about his camera so I paid more and more attention to it. It is a camera that has more than 12 megapixes and is thus quite specialized. This was my first time to experience being a photographer.

He very carefully put the camera strap around my neck and gave me the camera. He then seriously told me how to use it. There was no way, however, to fully understand such a specialized camera in such a short amount of time. Even though it was so complex, I gave it a shot. He already setup the lights and distances, and dialed in the camera settings. He was so tall, however, that at the begining the pictures were not very good (The lights were adjusted for my head, which was at the same height as his chest).

I started by trying to copy how he setup each picture, moving the umbrellas and flashes around, and then instructing Andrew on where to stand and how to pose. Ha Ha. Just like a special photographer. The world may never have another female photographer as good as me (Kidding of course). I just used my own way of takeing pictures of Andrew, a very handsome man.

I hope a lot of people can give me some positive feedback.