Science Advocacy

April 15, 2018 by Ming Hung in People, Science

I am by no means a great advocate or activist for science. My education in the sciences is limited to what I learned in high school. While I did graduate from a four-year university with a BA in Anthropology I took no science courses as an undergrad. And my education ended there as I did not pursue graduate studies. I will, however, share a little about science via articles on social media and in blogs like this with whatever limited reach I have.

There were several March for Science events throughout the country this past Saturday. Last year's event was a rally and an actual march. This year the organizers here in Chicago made the event a science fair at the Field Museum of Natural History. I originally would have preferred a march and a rally because it would have drawn a bigger crowd, and I wanted to get shots of signs and the sea of people on the city streets. The weather we had here on Saturday would have put a dampener on the proceedings anyway so this was perhaps the better option. At the event I realized that the science fair was a better vehicle to get information to kids (and adults). It is more effective to have people see and touch and learn versus marching and chanting.

It was very cool seeing kids engage in learning. I do not have children myself so maybe it seemed extra cool to me.

We cannot afford to ignore or deny science. It is the bridge to our understanding of the world and universe around us. That is the philosophical view of science overall. The more pragmatic and immediate concern is our direct effect on the Earth. If we are just asking ourselves what we are doing wrong or if we are in fact affecting our environment then we are way behind. We have to decide yesterday what kind of planet we will leave the next generations.

Nothing special on the photography side in this blog. It was relatively dark in the museum. To make the process more interesting to me I created a film look for the otherwise not very interesting shots.

For more information on science related events near you visit http://marchforscience.com. The Illinois Science Council will be presenting the Chicago Science Fest next month from May 8-16, 2018. Visit http://chicagosciencefest.org for tickets and information.

Click images to view on black.

Working Through the Grind

January 12, 2018 by Ming Hung in People, Cosplay

Hello! It has been a few months since I posted last. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is off to a great new year.

This series of images was done with a local cosplay friend of mine who designs and creates costumes and props. This was a rather "simple" costume based on the John Wick movies. I am not going to talk about our creative process for this series, but touch upon working through the grind.

I had already done a shoot of several hours prior to this one. I was physically and mentally fatigued--maybe even emotionally. So when the time came for this shoot to start I was not "feeling it." The location was not what I had envisioned for the shoot. The view out the window was not what I imagined or wanted. These are common issues that all photographers face every day. I was really feeling uninspired and did not want to shoot at all.

I am pretty sure he may have felt something was off. Neither one of us was making any money here. It was purely for fun so it would have been easy for me to just put it off for another day. I also had another friend present, a novice photographer who wanted to learn and practice. I did not want to let either of my friends down. I had to get my brain to start working again, to come up with solutions and to produce.

As with our other shoots my cosplay friend is pretty good at just coming up with ideas and poses so we started working. Eventually I started to feel it and it started to show on the back of the camera. I got my confidence back, and with it, energy and creativity. Do not give up and you will be rewarded. Not every single image was great, but we managed to come up with a few that I am happy with.

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Trump International Hotel and Tower

August 02, 2017 by Ming Hung in People, Street Photography

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum there is no denying that the current president is making some noise. Closer to home the Trump Tower has become a gathering place for protesters, supporters, artists, and tourists.

The artist who created this sculpture was not being political, as this piece was made several years ago. Whoever decided to install it across the river from the tower was probably practicing some political commentary.

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Color Street Photography

April 05, 2017 by Ming Hung in Street Photography, People

I generally prefer producing and seeing street photography in black and white. However, sometimes color works. I guess monochrome gives images that "classic" street photography look, but I do not think photographers should say this should be one way and that should be another, but to just concentrate on creating the best image they can. There are too many rules. Rules are great guidelines--especially for those learning photography--but each artist has the freedom to do a variety of things for any given shot.

As I approached this couple I fired off a shot as they were setting up for a selfie (or is it celfie?). I captioned this image the way I did because at a quick glance the man's profile reminded me of famed comedian Jerry Seinfeld. I liked this scene because of the blue of the sky and in the two glass buildings, and the muted colors of the other buildings and the couple's clothing.

I was fortunate that this woman walked by because I wasn't waiting for any particular shot. I saw her and I saw--I'm pretty sure subconsciously--the golden light from the restaurant and I tilted my camera that was hanging by my navel toward the woman. I am still a bit shy about shooting street photography with the camera up to my face. I fire from the hip over half the time. It's something I have to work on.

I noticed this man as I was waiting to cross the street. I hoped that when I got to him that he would still be preoccupied with whatever he was doing on his phone. He did not disappoint. And he was standing right in the middle of the sidewalk! What attracted my attention was his outfit. To many people a plaid pattern is loud or tacky. I would not say that this man's plaid jacket was particularly loud in that the colors are not vibrant, and so it meshed well with the drab, gray day.

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Peaceful Protest

February 21, 2017 by Ming Hung in People, Street Photography

There were two anti-Trump protest rallies/marches this past weekend, February 19 & 20. The first was on the one month mark of Donald Trump's presidency and the second was dubbed "Not My President's Day," a play on the holiday. I originally thought about approaching these protest/street style shots in monochrome. However, people made all kinds of colorful signs, and the makeup of the diverse crowd was colorful as well so I shot it in color, with Fujifilm's classic chrome film simulation.

I do not have a zoom lens for my Fuji X-Pro2. I spent my time switching between three different prime lenses: the 23, 35, and 56mm lenses (35, 50 and 85mm full-frame, respectively). I was kind of slow with my lens changes, although I don't feel like I missed any shots. The difficulty I faced was that I would see framing for the lens that I did not have on the camera, lol. The next such event I go to I might just carry one prime with me, and that would help me to just look at framing scenes for only one focal length.

There was a band called the Sousaphones Against Hate. They played some Pink Floyd tunes and standards such as "The Imperial March" (Darth Vader's theme).

What I found myself doing was just taking picture after picture of signs, something I didn't want to end up doing the entire time, but I saw interesting signs every direction I turned. I just chose this one to share here randomly.

There were three pro-Trump supporters at the rally--that I noticed anyway. The interactions between them and the anti-Trump crowd made for more compelling images.

This red, white, and blue clad woman with the megaphone repeatedly chanted "Happy Trumpiversary! He is your president..."

It was great seeing young people engage like these two young men talking to the pro-Trump guy in the suit. There was some yelling from both sides, but this guy remained calm and talked rather than yelled. That's something we all need to remind ourselves to do. The boys asked him some questions, but I wasn't able to hear over other protesters who were trying to drown out the pro-Trumpers.

The woman in black was really trying to drown out the pro-Trump woman with the megaphone. She led various chants, and the anti-Trump crowd responded.

There was a group of Muslims who arrived together, perhaps bussed in for the event. I missed a shot when they arrived. One Muslim man was taking in the rest of the crowd--how diverse it was, how loudly they chanted, and how they were all there to support Muslims and each other. The man nodded and his eyes were welling up with tears. Seeing the emotion on his face touched me. That was the only shot that I regret not getting.

This was my favorite sign.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..."

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Chinese New Year Parade

February 08, 2017 by Ming Hung in People, Culture

There are two lunar new year parades in Chicago. These images are from the "south side" Chinatown. I am a lazy photographer, lol. I went out only twenty minutes before the parade was to start so I did not have a good spot from which to shoot. I must confess. I have not been to this parade since I was a child. So when I started the editing process I knew I wanted to use some film presets for a "retro" look. Only problem is that digital grain doesn't look exactly like film emulsion, but hopefully the mood comes across in my images.

I actually got a good spot for the lighting of these strings of firecrackers. Switching to the Fuji mirrorless camera system has been great. I can use the LCD screen on the back of the camera to shoot shots like this. I just stuck my arm up in the air and looked at the screen. I never shot with live view when I was in the Canon SLR system. I like the people across the street covering their ears.

Most of the time I spent at this spot I had to look through a window such as this. I need to be a little taller!

I was shooting pictures of Chinese members of the American Foreign Legion parading by when this gentleman walked into the scene. I included the image because I like this character.

I like it when the guys swoop the dragons down toward children in the crowd. Some kids delight in it and some show apprehension like the little girl in pink below.

I will forever have the lion dance drum and gong beat in my head.

I don't have great images from the parade, but it was still hard to keep the number of images here to a limit. I don't want these photo essays to be very long, but I don't have a very good reason for that either. I'm still trying to figure out what this blog is supposed to be.

Click images to view on black.