As we all know, all good things must always come to an end. Sad.

It’s even sadder when you have to leave the beautiful Miami sun to arrive at the airport  at 4:00 AM for a flight that only departs at 8:00 AM. Why? Ah… I suppose I should have reserved my ticket earlier and left with my mom and sister instead of going on a separate flight.

So anyways, I’ve gotta say it’s been pretty sad coming back to Montreal ever since I stepped foot outside to the gorgeous -20 C weather. Actually, I was sad before that just from looking out the window.

Let me explain with a pair of very unattractive photographs:

–> View from the airplane in Miami :

–> View from the airplane arriving at Philadelphia (for transfer back to Montreal)

And I suppose that concludes the Miami saga of my life. Hope you guys enjoyed it =)

—
Benjamin Wong
http://iintrigue.com
Montreal Based Photographer

Hihi, faithful blog readers!  Me again, on my last day in Miami.

Today I actually spent the majority of my time enjoying the sun and water instead of taking photos. My dad and a couple of his colleagues went on a snorkeling trip in Key Largo. Since we were on a catamaran and no dry boxes were available, I decided to leave my baby in the car. Consequently, all of the shots come from a cute little place along the waterside where we had dinner. Honestly, these shots will be repetitive because I’d like you guys to tell me which ones you find the best!

By the way, the intro shot was posed, taken of a couple, Manuel and Samantha (the two on the left corner, bottom photo).

It actually wasn’t too hard to get them to pose after showing them this candid photo that I took of a random couple that was exploring on the beach. I really like the duality of the two people with matching poses and the two bikes that came up in this shot =)

As the sun continued setting, I had the chance to experiment a little bit to get some different effects.  I’m glad to have managed to catch this one since the shot wouldn’t have worked a couple minutes later as the sun continued setting =D

Of course, no blog post from Miami is complete without a photo with Alison in it… so here goes my lame attempt at a nostalgic sunset photo haha. One flash on camera left with a 1/4 CTO gel (orangish gel) helped to achieve the lighting on her… If i were at home I’d probably spend some time darkening the skyline and horizon but I am photoshopless here =(

Finally, I have two post-sunset photos that are both HDR. The first, my favorite was taken to capture the moon and sunset all in one…. whereas the second seemed to have more potential as a future desktop background. Once again, let me know what you think?

—
Benjamin Wong
http://iintrigue.com
Montreal Based Photographer

Today, was the first day that we had a full day of fantastic sunshine. Turns out that despite wanting it for the entire beginning of the week, strong afternoon sunlight is not the greatest for photoshoots, especially when you don’t have a reflector. No worries, the sun has other uses such as sunbathing which is what I did, so not that many shots to share with you today.

Below are two shots that were taken with the high afternoon sun. The first was actually a mistake, but I really like the effect of my sister smiling. The second, was likewise another fun semi-dramatic shoot. Theres actually a sea-doo in the background but shhh…. !

Besides my sister, the only other shot that I took was of this fat dude that decided to feed seagulls right next to us… Not sure what he threw but in about 3 1/2 seconds there was an army of seagulls hovering over and around the guy. Maybe thats why he was sitting alone… !

Finally, during an evening walk, I came up with this 30 second exposure of cars passing by on Ocean Drive and 11th Avenue. Took about 10 tries to get the angles, flares and everything all perfectly lined up!

—
Benjamin Wong
http://iintrigue.com
Montreal Based Photographer

My entire family and I woke up at 5h30 AM so that we could make the sunrise this morning! Ok, fine, the shot above isn’t the best shot of a sunrise…. but it’s my first 7~shot composite HDR so I thought it’d be pretty interesting to post this up.

As you can see, we’re not the only one on the beach… because off to the lower left, you can see a little head bobbing up and down. Some guys have courage to go in the water so early!

Then again… he was pretty much the only dude in the water. After running around to find something interesting to capture on the shoreline that did not involve washed up dirty seaweed, I found a little patch of birds that were enjoying the sunrise and waited for the sun to pop out from under the clouds:

From there, it was back to good old-fashioned model-shooting with my sister. Poor light stands in the salt water =( I got my fingers crossed  hoping that they wont be rusting!

I personally see lots of small flaws to work on… but felt that it’d be a shame not to share these shots that are unique to me. Hope you enjoy them too!

Following that, we took a walk off to hunt for a fancy rock pile and snapped off a couple shots while playing hide & seek with the sun. All shots were taken with Natural Light since there was no realistic way to stick my flashes anywhere practical.

(note: I think the last shot has to be my favorite shot of the day… I find it extremely symmetrical and love the two different “seas” that are split by the center column and my sister. A larger version would show that my sister’s expression is “pensive” as well, probably outlining a choice to make?)

Day 2 in Miami was pretty interesting and photo heavy. I spent the entire day lugging around photo gear…. but am not the least disappointed in the results! I really do wish I had photoshop right now though to touch up the details on these photos… but I think they still turned out pretty decent =D

The day began at a pretty slow crawl until we ran into a fantastically bizzare creature while taking a walk on the riverside, hence the title of this post. If anyone can identify this creature, please click HERE and leave a comment! It was about 2 meters long, 1/2 a meter fat and had about a good centimeter of fungus growing from it.

Besides that. the downtown miami area ended up being surprisingly empty and boring. The bizarre creature we ran into in the morning was the most interesting thing that happened heh.

No worries though, who needs an interesting cityscape when I have a great model to work with!

As I mentioned yesterday, the weather since we’ve gotten here has been ridiculously cold and that has unfortunately not changed. In fact, it was actually colder on the beach, so despite spending the afternoon out on the beach front, I didn’t even get my feet wet! The majority of the time was spent waiting for the sun to pop out from under the clouds… and once that happened, all that remained to do was pop off the shots! Its getting kinda late so I’m not going to enter lighting technicals but if anyone wants to know, just ask!

During this time, my mom was having a great time hiding under two sweaters and a make-shift wind shelter. We also found out that the US seagulls seem to be braver than the average, and would actually eat from your hands… which my mom proves on the photo below:

Getting tired of the beach, my sister and I went out and wandered around the beach-front area… and had a great time exploring and being weird until the sun set. Hope you enjoyed the shots from today!

—
Benjamin Wong
http://iintrigue.com
Montreal Based Photographer

Well, for those of you who don’t know… I just got off a plane some 6 hours ago and have now arrived in Miami, Florida. It’s only 20 degrees here, but although that isn’t very warm for Miami… its a good 30 degrees warmer than in Montreal so no complaints!

Before continuing on, I just wanted to mention that I REALLY LOVE the shot above for absolutely no reason. I actually have a shot of the bird looking at me but this imperfect one just moves me so much more. What do you think?

The bird shot and the one below were two quick shots I managed to get off as I was waiting for my dad to pick me up at he airport. I’m hoping to convert the lower one into a HDR when I get home… but for now, my sisters laptop can only barely support Lightroom heh.

Unexpectedly, my dad had to return back to work after he picked me up so I had the opportunity to go spy on what he does. Turns out I got to enter the premises as a “test engineer” and play in a couple million dollar airplane simulator. I even got the chance to fly the dinky machine (and successfully land the craft twice I might add!)

And of course, being the geeky photographer using one handheld off camera sb-800 and my trusty D300 I shot off a couple shots of my dad looking professional:

After all that excitement, we joined the rest of my family back in a Loft in downtown Miami (w00t!) and went to explore a bit of the surrounding area. We captured a hapless tourist to help snap off a shot of the family together (below) annnnnd finally a random architechture shot that I found somewhat intriguing.

And now its past my bedtime….

1/250th, f2.8, ISO 1600

Turns out that tonight’s Friday the 13th so my creepy shots that I managed to capture in Toronto actually turns out to be somewhat appropriate!

I managed to snap off two interesting misty shots while in Sheridan Park, Mississauga before the sky opened up on our (me and my buddy Mr. D) heads.

4 seconds, f22, ISO 400

Despite the seemingly miserable mood in the upper two shots, it’s always nice to remember that the Sun always follows after the rain. Don’t we all love the blue sky =)

1/4000th, f8, ISO 800

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all.

—
Benjamin Wong
http://iintrigue.com
Montreal Based Photographer