There was a time when I was in the fine jewelry business. That was about 12 years ago in Tacoma and I learned all you can about diamonds and wedding rings. I even took some courses with the GIA (Gemological Institute of America). When I bought my wife a wedding ring (pictured below), I fell in love with the design of the ring from one of Simon G’s wedding ring collection.
Today, I went shopping for wedding rings all over again because my wife’s cousin is planning to purchase an engagement wedding ring and he wanted my help. First, we went to EE Robbins in Seattle because we’ve heard so many good things about them. They were totally professional, offered us drinks and things to eat and explained everything about the 4C’s of a great diamond. You know what they are… cut, clarity, color and carat weight. They carry the Simon G collection as well as designs from other well known wedding ring designers. Ask for Chelsea if you go in to the downtown Seattle store, she has a wonderfully bright personality and of course she is very knowledgeable about diamonds.
Next we went to Tiffany and Co. in the Pacific Place Shopping Center. The sales consultant had slightly more of a we’re the best attitude [nose level slightly higher =], but he was very accommodating and helpful. I really couldn’t complain and there’s a reason why he was that way. Tiffany rings are absolutely beautiful. My wife’s cousin fell in love with one of their rings right away until he saw the price tag. Fortunately, Tiffany’s offers all kinds of various combinations of diamond quality and size so the sales consultant was able to locate one with the same design in the price point he had in mind. We’re supposed to go see it on Tuesday when they ship it here from the East coast.
Following that, we went to Cartier to see what engagement rings they had to offer. Wow, this time we saw security guards right next to the sales consultant. A wonderfully proud lady helped us out and she was very helpful too. She was very proud of Cartier. We also stopped by Nordstrom’s fine jewelry department, but their collection was limited.
I have a feeling my wife’s cousin will go with either the Tiffany engagement ring or go with a design we found at EE Robbins. By the way, going from white gold to platinum raised the price by $1000. What in the world? Something only a woman can appreciate I guess.
Oh… so if you want a custom made engagement wedding ring of the highest quality you should check out J. Lewis Jewelry in Bellevue, WA. Our wedding clients, Alice and Kevin, had their wedding ring custom made there and it turned out wonderful. It’s pictured below… It’ll cost you though so be prepared.
Photos by Todd Kim
As I slowly (quickly) make my way from being in my early 30’s to now getting closer to mid 30’s, I am realizing the future is now. What was once viewed (by me) as the future and seemed so far away is the here and now.
Microsoft has unveiled something that will seem more like what I envisioned seeing in the future when I was 18 years old. The technology is amazing and I see how it will impact how we do things on a daily basis through the use of this technology. It is called Microsoft Surface and this is what they say it does under their FACT SHEET:
Surface is the first commercially available surface computing platform from Microsoft Corporation. It turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, interactive surface. The product provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. In essence, it’s a surface that comes to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more. Soon to be available in restaurants, hotels, retail and public entertainment venues, this experience will transform the way people shop, dine, entertain and live.
Images courtesy of Microsoft Surface website media kit
Microsoft Surface will break down the traditional barriers between people and technology, providing effortless interaction with digital content. Similar to the way ATMs changed how people got money from the bank, Microsoft is changing the way people will interact with all kinds of everyday content, including photos, music, a virtual concierge and games. Common, everyday tasks become entertaining, enjoyable and engaging, alone or face-to-face with family, friends or co-workers.
The paragraph above is where I think this technology is key. For a vast majority of us, using a keyboard and mouse is second nature, but people like my parents or those unfamiliar with computer technology have a hard time getting used to using something as simple as a mouse. Of course, people can learn it with some practice, but it isn’t very natural. What I am noticing with the Surface technology is natural human movement. In order to move the picture (as illustrated above) you simply move the picture on the table. If you want to rotate it, you make that gesture with your hands. If you want to enlarge it, you hold the picture and stretch it.
I can see how this technology will improve with time and be implemented into so many other areas of our life so quickly that it won’t even seem that special after a couple of years.
Imagine wedding photographers who will quickly go through wedding proofs or wedding album designs using the Surface technology. It’s exciting to think about all the different ways this technology will change our lives.
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My first SLR camera was a Canon Elan which I purchased in 1993 when I took my first photography class. It was a super nice camera that I bought for around $500 if I remember correctly. Of course, I couldn’t afford high quality lenses at the time or the cost of developing lots and lots of film so I didn’t get to experiment and learn all the features. I usually took the pictures in P (program mode) and it seemed to do fine. I sold it a couple of years ago for around $120 at a camera shop. They were only going to pay me $60 for it, but I asked for more in the form of store credit and they obliged.
My next major camera purchase was a digital point and shoot for around $500 again. It was a Kodak DC280 which offered 2 megapixel resolution and at the time came highly recommended. I bought it in 1999 and I still own it today, but it feels like a brick toy now.
I’ve purchased other point and shoot cameras through the years that were okay, but not too memorable. My favorite point and shoot digital camera before I jumped into digital SLR cameras was the Olympus C8080 Wide Zoom. It offered some amazing image quality for a point and shoot and I learned to be creative with that camera.
After being so happy with the Olympus C8080 it was natural for me to want to stay with Olympus in the dSLR world. I guess I should have done my research first. I tried the Olympus E-1 and E-500 dSLR cameras and they were fine for everyday shooting, but they were not the best for weddings. Slow auto focus and bad high iso performance were two of the problems. I didn’t figure that out until I spent $800 for one lens and $2300 for another lens. When I tried to resell the Olympus gear at Glazer’s camera in Seattle, they didn’t even want it. No offer at all! I took a pretty good beating and sold it all to some Olympus fans on a Olympus forum I found. I lost so much money with the Olympus gear that I told myself I would buy the best next time.
After much research into what wedding photographers use for cameras, I realized Nikon and Canon were the only choices. In the end, I chose the Canon 5D as my main camera. It is a full frame dSLR camera and I love it. I haven’t once regretted paying around $3000 for this camera. We also own a Canon 30D which is okay, but I let my Rebekah use that.
I’ve said all that to get to the reason I am writing this post. I haven’t owned a point and shoot digital camera since selling the Olympus C8080 and I really wanted a small point and shoot camera so I can take snap shots where ever I went. It is not cool taking your $3000 camera and $1500 lens with you all over the place for casual pictures. I looked at the usual p/s cameras that are in the market place. There are a ton out there with megapixel resolutions rivaling dSLR cameras. The problem with most of these from all manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony, etc is they take lousy high iso natural light pictures. The one exception I found was the point and shoot line from Fuji. The Fuji F20, F30 and F31fd are awesome little cameras that have the perfect resolution (6.3 megapixels) and perform remarkably well for being what they are. They don’t rival or even come close to my Canon 5D for high iso pictures, but they do allow you to take natural light pictures that would print fine at 4×6. It is also really great to be able to take the camera where ever we go and not worry about losing the equipment that puts food on our table.
The picture above was taken with the Fuji F20 in night time scenic mode. I set it on a flat surface, set it to 2 sec delay shutter and the camera took the picture. I adjusted the curve slightly in photoshop, but if you want to see what the original high resolution picture looked like CLICK HERE. If you use the picture somewhere please be sure to credit the picture to me and my $150 dollar point and shoot Fuji F20.
Picture of a painting inside Vivace Coffeshop in Seattle. This picture was taken hand held at ISO 2000, f/2.8 using natural light. If you look at the full resolution image, there are definitely a lot of smearing noise artifacts, but I’m sure any other p/s camera from any other manufacturer wouldnt be able to stand up to the high iso images from my little Fuji.
Another high iso image of my wife enjoying Vivace coffee.
Another iso2000 image of Vivace coffee. You can definitely see the noise in this one.
Here are some pictures I took of the Fuji F20 using my Canon 5D at 1600iso.
Some other things I really like about the Fuji F20 are it’s movie mode, build quality and small size. The movie mode is important to me and it provides 640×480 resolution at 30 frames per second until the memory card fills up. Speaking of memory cards, that would be Fuji’s only negative. It uses xD cards and it sucks. I have found it to be slower than CF or SD cards and slightly more expensive. The new Fuji F40fd uses SD cards, but the F40 is a 8 megapixel camera compared to the F20, 30 and 31fd’s 6 megapixels. I returned the F40fd because for more money than the F20 it offered worse high iso images. If natural light shooting is not too important to you, the F40 is a very nice point and shoot camera offering 8 megapixels and a nice lcd screen.
By the way, I purchased the camera through B & H Photo/Video. They’ve always been good.
Copyright Todd H Kim Photography | Living Life Media
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Somehow, I’ve gotten myself all excited about the new Apple IPHONE. I’ve always enjoyed Smartphones. My original, purchased in early 2001, was the Kyocera QCP 6035 through Verizon. The phone alone cost $500 when it first came out, but I enjoyed that big brick. When I came back to the US from overseas a few years ago, I purchased the tiny little Audiovox SMT5600 through Cingular. I haven’t been that happy with Cingular, but the phone has been decent. I’ve thrown it a few times (protected in its sleeve of course) and it keeps on working! One time, I threw it about 30 yards on hard concrete at Home Depot and I thought the phone was going to be dead, but lucky me it was still working. My biggest complaint with the Audiovox would be the screen is way too small. Amazingly, it plays all my media files through the Windows Mobile OS. The IPhone promises to be revolutionary in many ways and I can’t wait to get my hands on one. Of course, I will tell my wife it will be used for our wedding business =)
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