Shunkan.org - Blog

Covered the San Diego Comic-Con 2018, probably the last one for at least a while, since most likely I'll be unable to attend the next one in 2019. I ran into some cosplayers with amazing costumes, so enjoy my pictures. Feel free to link to my blog or share on social sites! Especially if you are one of these amazing cosplayers.

A while ago I have discovered that Adobe Lightroom is capable of stitching panoramas as well as computing HDRs. While the results for the HDRs, which stands for High-dynamic-range (imaging), are not very convincing in my opinion, Lightroom does a pretty good job stitching panos. It even stitches RAW files, so you can work with parameters such as white balance, contrast, perspective and everything you can do with regular RAW files as well.
Shooting real panoramas vs. using super wide angle lenses has the advantage that the resolution is way higher, since they're stitched from multiple files which are hi-res already, and also depending on the focal length you're using for the pano-shots, things in the distance appear a bit closer.
So dive into the landscape captures and enjoy the scenery!

In December I went to the Global Winter Wonderland, a festival with lanterns depicting famous buildings from countries all over the world, and all kinds of imaginative creatures. There is even an Eiffel Tower!
I had so much fun taking pictures at the festival, it's an color explosion all around you! The Global Winter Wonderland is debuting this year in San Diego at the former Qualcomm Stadium.
I totally recommend going there. But check out my pictures first!

One of my favorite holidays came up recently: Dia de los Muertos - the day of the dead. Two years ago I went the first time to see it, and the available light situation during the procession there is really bad. Alas, I brought my 5D MK IV, so I dared to crank the ISO up to 10k, and shot most of the pictures with a recently acquired Canon 100mm USM lens f/2.
Dia de los Muertos still seems to be more of a celebration to me and I love to take pictures of the mask-like painted faces and gorgeous dresses, people are wearing to commemorate the deceased.

When I went to Anza-Borrego in March to take pictures of the blooming desert flowers, I also took some pictures of the rusty metal sculptures at Galleta Meadows at night. That was the very first time I tried to take pictures of a starry night. I later learned that the best time to see the many stars of the milky way starts a little bit later than March, and I ended up going again in September.
Check out some epic nightsky photographs!

In the Southern Californian desert is a thing called "Salvation Mountain". It is a stunning art installation in the middle of nowhere, devoted to the Christian god. I went there the night before and spent the night in the car, and almost the whole next day to enjoy the beautiful colors.

In August the Buddhist Temple of San Diego and the Japanese Friendship Garden hosted the Bon Odori once again. A much appreciated opportunity to enjoy a festival involving Japanese tradition and atmosphere.

This year's Comic Con was kind of disappointing, since the organizers had closed the grand staircase at the Convention Center, where cosplayers and photographers usually meet for photo shootings. So it was kind of hard to find good locations and good cosplayers at the same time.
But when I stumbled upon something called "Blade Runner 2049 Experience", all grief was forgotten. Basically they had set up a piece of the dystopian world of the new Blade Runner movie, which takes place in Los Angeles in 2049.

I consider the SDCC one of the highlights of the year, there are so many exiting costumes to see, so many interesting people to meet. And as a professional photographer I appreciate the many opportunities to take beautiful pictures of colorful cosplayers.
Feel free to link to my blog or share on social sites! Especially if you are one of these amazing cosplayers.

It's that time of the year. Comic Con is going on and fans are buzzing all over the finest city of America. Luckily it wasn't as hot as last year, so cosplayers didn't have to suffer that much.
If you are a cosplayer, and you are interested in a photo shooting, let me know and contact me here. I also collaborate with cosplayers and I do insane edits for select cosplayers. See examples in my art section here and here.

On Memorial Day I went to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, to attend the military funeral of lieutenant commander Frederick Crosby, who went MIA in 1965.
For those of you, who have never attended one before just like me, it's a lot like in the movies.
Only it's real. The honor guard firing rifles, giving a "Three-volley salute", the sailors carrying the casket, the lone trumpet player, everything.
It was a pretty intense ceremony, and I was very impressed how they honor the fallen with this tradition.

This winter it rained a lot in California, so all of the water reservoirs got refilled and the drought is more or less over. At the same time the flowers in the desert started blooming like crazy, so I decided to go to the Anza-Borrego Desert to capture some of that beauty. That desert is located east of San Diego, on the way to it you get to drive on a scenic route with some pretty windy roads.

Last weekend I went on a road trip to Borrego Springs, which is located east of the mountains roughly 2hrs from San Diego. Luckily I was able to ride shotgun in my friend Mike's Ferrari.
The Borrego Springs Winter Cruise was hosted by the AutoFeels Driving Club and the San Diego RX Club, so there was a bunch of nice people and an interesting choice of Italian, American and Japanese automobiles.

Last month I had the chance to work with a Japanese model, Michiru-San. We started the photo shooting at my retro-seventies-residence, found this beautiful mural in Pacific Beach and went to Torrey Pines State Park eventually.