Ken Oak Band

I first saw their performance at UH a couple of years ago and I got hooked to their mello/acoustic style. My brother told me they were coming on monday to play at UH. I took my camera gear with me to class and waited. They had played for a total of 2+ hrs, 7p@UH and then 8:30@Teahouse, which is pretty cool because it was an open event for anyone. Everyone who walked by stopped, listened, and watched them perform.

These were all shot with 20D, 50 1.8, and tam 17-50 2.8. ISO was always 400+.

More here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dphan/sets/72157602447041633/







Yep, Ed broke his strings several times... prob bc of the humidity.


These were shot at Teahouse. Sucks that they had to play in such a cramped place.










More Here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dphan/sets/72157602447041633/

Goodbye...

My Canon EOS 10D with grip is up for sale now since I've upgraded to a 20D. It's kind of depressing because I've kind of grown attached to it because I know where all of its flaws and sweet spots are. It's okay thought because the new camera now blows it away in speed. It feels a little different, but I think I can adjust to it. All I'm waiting for now is a vertical grip.

Today in hematology lab everyone had to have a tube of their own blood which means everyone had to stick someone. My friend, Tram, and I were going to puncture each others' veins because she was comfortable with me I guess. So we start off and decide that she will go first.

Me: "Ready?"
Her: "Yeah...."
Me: I check to see if I have all the materials ready...
Her: Puts right arm on desk
Me: Gloves on... finds target vein to puncture.
Her: "Do you see it? It's right there."
Me: Feeling around... "Yeah I found several. Let's do it there."
Her: "Ok"
Me: Puts on the tourniquet. Then I look at her. "Are you shaking?"
Her: "Yeahh, I'm nervousss."
Me: Wiping target area with alcohol. "It'll be all over soon." I have a huge grin on my face as I dry the area.
Her: Looking scared.
Me: Looking for the target vein again and getting the needle ready.
Her: "Do you see it?"
Me: "Uhhh yeah." I didn't want to let her know that I could only feel it and not see it.
Her: "Okay go."
Me: I take the butterfly needle, poke her but I missed her vein so no blood was drawn. "Damn I missed it!"
Her: "NoooOoOooo"
Me: "I'm sorryyy"

So long story short she took my blood and got a 3/4th's tube full of my blood. I told her good job, but it really isn't that hard to take my blood because my vein is clearly visible. After that we take another shot of getting drawing her blood again. She is super nervous by now and I am kind of nervous too since she's nervous. I hate it when people do that to me. So I start poking her left arm with the needle and she just yells ouch. I take out the needle and ask her what happen? She just tells me it hurts. WTF?? I had the needle in the right spot too. So we wasted another needle just because she cried because of a little poke. Gawd! This time we had to use a different needle since we ran out of butterfly needles. It was longer but thinner. Ok so I'm super nervous now and I poke her.

The professor is watching because we've already wasted 2 needles. I get the tube in and get some blood out. The professor walks over and makes sure I'm holding the tube correctly. Then the blood stops. We both look at the professor and she looks at us. We're all like wtf happenned? Either the vein collapsed or we moved the needle deeper through the vein. So she starts looking for the vein by moving the needle left and right under the skin and I'm watching with eyes wide open. My friend is crying because she's in pain. The professor tells us no more is going to come out. So she ends up with a tube less than half full and a bruise from all the blood and muscle accumulated under the skin. She blames me for it T_T

Feeling... Content.

I wish I could get more views of Houston's Night Skyline because it's damn nice. This was taken around 8:30pm on top of TSU's parking garage with my 70-200 f4L. I've never had the chance to shoot Houston's skyline at night so I brought my camera along with me to school. I knew class wouldn't end until 8 so I was ready. I kind of got in trouble because I needed permission to shoot on TSU Campus. Apparently I need to "read" the student handbook. He let me go because I was a TSU student. I could've just told him I was shooting for photography class but I don't think TSU offers a photography class.

Other great news today: I made an A on the Microbial diseases exam and I'm upgrading to a different Canon body. Yeaaaauhhhh!

Here are some pics from Boba Zone tonight.

Crunch Time

So far I've passed 3 exams and bombed one horribly. I have one more tomorrow and my brain is not just soaking in the material. It would help if it was more science related but it's more about law and regulation requirements. It's so damn boring. I'd take Organic Chem over this anytime of the day.

Tuesday Afternoon

What an interesting day today. I volunteered to have my blood drawn today in Hematology lab (not a good idea) by a first timer. I haven't taken anyone's blood or stuck anyone with a needle before, but how is it to find a vein? The sucky part of being stuck by the needle was it was a butterfly 19G needle. The diameter of the needle looked huuuuge.

So she feels around my arm for a vein with a pulse.

I look at her and ask her, "Have you found it yet?"

She tells me in her nigerian voice, "Yeah I think I've found it."

You think you've found it? WTF? That was the expression on my face.

She tells me, "Okay, I'm going to stick you now."

I say to myself, "Oh shit!"

Everyone in the class watches her stick me because I was the first to be stuck by another student. Her first stick was not successful because she stuck it in an area of muscle and no veins. Ahhhh! The professor tells her to stop and pull out the needle.

She asks me if she can stick me again and me being the nice guy (or sucker) I say, "Sure."

This time she chooses one of the veins that can be seen much better. I had to be more cautious this time so I asked the professor to watch her. Smart move on my part but she still stuck it in a little too far. The nigerian still got one tube of blood from me. *waves fist in air*

I will get my revenge next week so no grudge here.

After lab I head to downtown to look for a suitable spot for Sahba and company's photoshoot. There are some possible places to shoot at but I'm not sure if we need permission because some places look abandoned. From what I've read you could get in trouble for shooting anywhere downtown without permission. I might just play it safe and shoot in a park or something. After driving a good 20 minutes around downtown I headed back home. I took a little rest and headed towards George Bush Park to play with my 70-200mm f4L. I haven't shot with it in awhile so I had to put it to good use today.