Nguyen Huu Thanh Hai's photostream

It has been a month already since I last logged on Flickr :-) Recently my older brother just came back to Seattle from Vietnam for vacation after 6 years. My parents and I haven't seen him since so I've been spending time with family mostly. However, a week before him and his daughter arrive in Seattle I took a weekend photography excursion with a friend, Long, to explored the beaches in Oregon Coast.

Woke up at 6am early Saturday morning and we drove 7 hours straight to Cape Perpetua in search for a hole in the sea which some of the locals has come to known as “Thor’s Well”. From a distance the diameter of the hole seems small but as we approached it the size was quite significant. When we first arrived at “Thor’s Well”, it was absolutely cloudless in the sky, however, minutes before sunset a thick patch of scatter cloud finally showed up. We scrambled trying to compose our shots and we kept on getting splashed by the waves. Quickly we wiped, shoot, wipe, shoot and that was one of the funniest moments ever during the trip. I have to say that we both lucked out that evening.

Before each photography excursion, a number of hours of research were performed to prepare for the trip regarding location, weather condition and tide behavior. Of course even with hours of research, still can't really predict what Mother Nature will bring. I'm humbled to witness the glory of this colorful sunset, the roar of the ocean and to see the size of this "hole in the ocean". This was my 1st trip to the coast and Mother Nature really gave me a lot of love and definitely a trip to remember.

Happy Friday!!! and hope everyone had a great Mother's Day weekend.

D300s
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Hitech 3 stops soft GND
Lee FDK holder

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

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.

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 shooting 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.

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.

Here is the shot 2 hours later from my last post. The light show was definitely beautiful filled with warm golden colors. However, the cap of Mt. Rainier was engulf with thick clouds but I guess I was still lucky that it only blocked the cap and not the whole shape of Mt. Rainier. I was also happy that some of the good light leaked through those clouds on the left side which created a bit more definition.

Each time when I'm on a photography excursion trip, beside coming home with photos to edit, I have also gained new experience, new company and of course the new friendships. Which is definitely of the many fundamental things I like about shooting. Great times with friends!

Happy Wednesday too!

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.