If you’re thinking "What? Nathan Chung is blogging on NathanChung.com?!" you’re correct. It may sound a bit dorky but I’ve wanted a website for the longest time. I never had a reason to but as I've taken interest in photography I thought they could go hand in hand. After encouragement by awesome people, I took the leap. The creative name stems from parental deliberations before my birth. I didn’t have a choice but the name just stuck. With this "hip" website, I want to share random moments and musings that have taken root. I also want to share my thought process on taken photos.

I've always seen couple photos scattered throughout websites like Tumblr and Pinterest (no shame) but always felt unsure to take any. I've worked up the courage and took a few steps to enable myself, haha. Right before Christmas, I spent a day-te with Rachel & Shin at Mosaic District. For sure, if they were random people I would have left awkward, confused, and with terrible photos. They, on the other hand, were awesome.

(BTW Rachel is going to Discipleship Training School in just a few days! Support her.)

I’m not kidding when I say it was like going on a first date; you’re a bit nervous yet excited. You don’t know each other too well and you’re trying to gauge when to say a lame joke. The only difference is that two are dating and I’m sitting there taking pictures. I loved it. HAHA

For our day-te, I used a 35mm 1.8 and a d5300. I used a 35mm instead of a standard 18-55mm for a few reasons.

1) The aperture and shorter depth of field is nice.

2) It's dark,

3.) The intent was to convey a regular date—just talking and enjoying each other’s presence.

Since the shoot had more than one person, I had my aperture around 2.8-3.4 the whole evening. I wanted the blur in the background, but didn’t want only the nose to be in focus. I could have gone lower but I enjoyed the way the photos came out. The ISO stayed around 200 until the evening and even then it was fairly low.

As a lover of stories, I made an effort for some continuity in the pictures. Let me know if you can see it, haha. In the next few months, I want to start messing with flash, reflectors, and get more insight into portraits. There are a boat load of things I can improve on: editing, composing the image, even getting to know the people I’m shooting. All tips and tricks are appreciated and encouraged. Please let me know how can I improve!

This photo with Rachel & Shin was taken with the kit lens, 18-55. I always hear the stock lens getting talked down but it’s still a great lens. Although, a zoom lens with a fixed aperture would be amazing…