Sushi Parlor

Odds and Ends

Some recent photos.

The day of Cecilian Music Club performance at Carnegie Hall, NYC.

Day of CACA speech contest final (with contestants from 5 different chinese schools)

Crystal poses with her piano teacher Ingrid Clarfield after the studio winter recital.

Oldie... But a Goodie.

This was retrieved from my video archive. Crystal was 6 when this performance took place. This performance was for winning High Honors for NJMTA 2007 Spring Audition. I love the way she scanned the audience and capture them before she actually sat down to play. The name of the piece is Sonatina in G Major, Op. 168, Rondo Allegretto by Diabelli.

Enjoy!

Clarfield Studio 2007 Winter Recital

This happened a month ago, but I just got the time now to upload part of Crystal's performance during that recital. The following clip is Crystal playing Chopin's Waltz in B Minor, Op. 69, No.2 at Westminster Choir College. This performance, by far, was THE best performance that she ever did on this piece! Afterwards, Crystal's piano teacher simply have one word describing her performance, "flawless!"

I hope you enjoyed this video as much as I did.

Crystal Did It Again!

It's that time of the year again. During the month of November, Crystal auditions in two piano competitions, one is the Cecilian Music Club and the other one is the New Jersey Music Teacher Association (NJMTA) Young Musician competition.

While Cecilian Music Club audition does not differenciate placements (1st, 2nd, or 3rd), it does select the best performers according to age groups. Last year, Crystal was the only six year old selected and this year, she was the only seven year old selected as well! She will be performing at the prestigeous Zenkel Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, NYC.

NJMTA Young Musician competition is one of the more challenging competitions because this competition is very well-known and a lot of piano teachers send their students to compete in this competition. Last year, Crystal took home the 1st place trophy in the six year old group. This year, she did it again and took home another 1st place trophy!

What a rare treat!

It was tough preparing for these competitions. Crystal worked very hard on perfecting the audition pieces. While trophy was a nice reward, it was not the sole purpose of these competitions. Crystal wants to compete in these competitions because she enjoys them and she has fun with them. Win or lose, she walks away with a big smile on her face knowning that she did her best. Trophy was merely an icing on the cake.

Trophy or not, we are always proud of Crystal in her piano achievements!!!

Here is some pictures from the NJMTA Young Musician Winner Recital and a video clip of her performance.

Quick portrait before the performance

Come on, give me my trophy!

Crystal and her piano teacher

Crystal and Mrs. Lin, piano teacher and conductor

Crystal and Courtney, her music theory teacher, who is also an fabulous cellist

Here is the video clip of Crystal playing Haydn Sonata in D, XVI:4 - Moderato

First time as a Wedding Photographer

My friend, Roy Wang, and I were recently given a rare opportunity to be the back up photographers for a church friend's wedding. Needless to say, it was exciting and at the same time, nerve-recking. while this was "pro-bono" gig, Since Roy and I are both photography fanatics, we jumped at this opportunity without even given a second thought.

I never realized this, but, being a wedding photographer is no a stroll in the park, and we are only the back ups. I think we did a pretty good job. The bride and groom were given a final DVD picture slideshow of their wedding. The couple loved it. They even think the quality of our pictures and DVD were of better quality than the main photographer had produced. I'm not sure if they are just being nice or if they were serious.

Here are some sample take at the wedding, processed in PS CS2 for color, noise-reduction, sharpening and framing.

Joshua Posing for me!

Joshua was being such a sport. We was willing to pose for his Dad. I was messing around with the 70-200/2.8 VR, testing VR and non-VR differences. Then Joshua popped into my office and sat down and decided to read (well... pretending to anyway).

Joshua pretends to read to his monkey stuff animal 1

Joshua pretends to read to his monkey stuff animal 2

Joshua pretends to pray

The look!

Philadelphia Zoo - 9/17/2006

Here is couple more photos that I dugged up when the family went to Philadelphia Zoo back in 9/17/2006. Even though they were taken with the late Minolta 5D, they still lookedpretty good to me. Boy, I missed the near noise-free of the 6MP sensors.

Joshua in shodow. I really like the lighting on this one.

Crystal and Joshua in a make-belive dinosaur egg.

Truely, beauty and the beast.

Crystal pose 1

Crystal pose 2

Laziest Blogger in the World

I must be the laziest blogger in the entire world! It's been more than a year since I last posted here. Talk about a hole in your life. 2006 WAS a crazy year for me. Between family, new job, school, kids activities, and more kids activities, I hardly have time to post anymore. I'm sure there are tons of reader out there that are DYING for my updates. Well, to make up for the lost times, I'm gonna give you the quickest photo updates of what's going on with the Chiu family currently and happened to the Chiu family in the year 2006. If I don't get to all of them, I'll post more pictures in a later date hopefully won't take a year :)

During 2007 Chinese New Year parade organizaed by several chinese school around the area, I found a nice spot for a quick photo ops for Crystal. (Taken with Nikon 85/1.8)

Joshua got a hold of a maracas and trying to dance with it! (Taken with Sigma 30/1.4)

On 2/4/2007, Crystal participated in a charity concert that help raise money for the musicians that were effected by the Katrina disaster. Crystal raised close to $500 for this event! Most of all students from her teacher's piano studio! (taken with 70-200/2.8 VR)

Took the new camera for a spin. Sold all my Minolta gears and got a Nikon D80 with some high quality lenses. Theses were shot with sigma 24-70/2.8. Some this lens is soft, but I beg the differ. Joshua was being a good sport about posing for a photo shoot.

On Christmas day, 12/25/2006,Crystal and Joshua and their gifts. Joshua loves to pop those air bubble wraps. These will be the last pictures taken with the Minolta 5D.

Gotta throw this one in. Joshua fell asleep while I was reading to him. What an angel.

Crystal had an terrific 2006 in terms of her piano achievement. She was the winner of the Cecilan Music Club competition in her age group. She also won 1st place in her age group in the New Jersey Music Teach Association (NJMTA) competition. Here is a video of Crystal play Valse Semplice by Dennis Alexander at the Winner recital for the NJMTA competition.
(video by yours truely, converted and uploaded by Chung Chi-Ming, Crystal's uncle)

(If the embedded video doesn't work for you, here is the link: Valse Semplice By Dennis Alexander)

I think I'm goona stop now and post more pictureswhen I get a chance. Problem with being a photo fanatic is that you are left with way too many pictures to sort thru. When I have more time, I'll try to post more. Hopefully you have enjoyed these photos. :)

Snow Storm Aftermath!

Before this snow storm, we had bought a 9HP snow blower from a hardware store. The snow blower was in the garage for more than a month and it is looking for some action! When we heard of the news on the approaching snow storm, we did not panic like we used to, we were actually praying for more snow fall! When it is all set and down, we've got more than a foot of snow! In some area of the property, namely, right outside of the garage door and in front of the main entry, it had more than 2 feet of snow caused by the wind. Below are some pictures of the aftermath. This, I believe, is the first time we took Joshua out to play with the snow. He did not want to go back into the house! Enjoy the pictures.