www.tsaiphotography.com

My new website is live. Right now it's just a simple photoblogger but I'm working on making a full-featured website. Until then, I'll try to update pics every day. I'll likely update pics everyday when I'm in Australia so check the site often!

Update: I was having some problems with the site, but I think I got the basic functions working properly now. Some of you have asked about shooting data for my pictures. Just click on comments and the data is there. It's not in a pretty format (yet) but it's there!

I've been so blessed with my job over the past 2 years and the icing on the cake is that I will be going to Australia and New Zealand this coming Christmas. It begins with a 2-week holiday to spend time with my mom in Melbourne, Australia, and then I'll be travelling to New Zealand and Sydney, Australia, for 4 weeks of work. I hope to come back talking like an aussie, but we'll see!

I'm really looking forward to spending time with my mom. Just too bad that the real reason for the trip (Christina coming to meet my mom) fell through as she couldn't find a flight back to Canada in time for the January school start.

Anyhow, I plan on taking LOTS of pictures down there. Part of my travels will take me into Wellington, New Zealand, where Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings production was based out of and where much of the footage was shot. I can't wait!

I might be forced to wear long sleeves though. Christina's orders are that I don't tan too much otherwise by the time the wedding rolls around, I'll be african-american.

Go Leafs Go!

I love hockey and I love the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm a realistic fan I know their chances of going deep into the playoffs, or even making the playoffs are slim but I will still cheer them on this year and I like what I see in the team this year.

Teams I like:
San Jose Sharks
Calgary Flames

Teams I hate:
Philadelphia Flyers
Buffalo Sabres (I respect them as one of the best teams in the NHL)
Ottawa Senators (mostly feel sorry for them)

Taken during a fall hike through the Bruce Trail in Milton some time in October. I'm planning on blowing this picture up to about 24" x 36" and framing it.

And the winner is:

Ok, since no one else has decided to make a guess about the concrete structure in the shots below, I should just tell you.

Sam is technically correct. It's a drain-hole from a man-made lake at the top of a mountain near Atlanta, GA. Water drains into the hole, comes down 600 ft. and drives a hydroelectric generator turbine and exits into a bottom lake. This drain is roughly 30 ft. in diameter and 600 ft. straight down. It was blasted out of solid limetone/sandstone.

The question is, how do they get the water back up to the top!? Well, during the day, power is expensive, so they run the generator and water comes down. At night, power is cheap and in excess from nearby nuclear stations so they take that power and drive the turbine generators in reverse as motors and push water back up to the top lake. By the next morning it's ready to go again. As they run these 343,000 hp motor/generators in reverse, the 16 storey, mostly underground concrete bunker structure shakes from all the energy dissapated from the turbines.

The drain is capped like many are in bathtubs to avoid creating cyclones in the water as water goes into the drain.

Cyclones = excess air in water = destroy turbines

Although Sam was right, Cal, wins the prize as I'm sure that:

1. Cal can eat that much food

2. Cal can clean his plate like that

Anyone who can guess what this is will get a special prize. Anyone who I've told already is disqualified and if I did tell you already, don't say a word!!

P.S. That isn't me standing in front, that's my friend Mike

P.P.S. If your guess is creative enough, I might just give you the special prize, even if you're wrong!

What is this?? 

Downtown Toronto 

Another shot from the photo shoot! 

 

 

 

Thanks to Sasi and Arthur for the shots above and big thanks to the rest of the Nikon gang for taking engagement pics of Chris and I. We had a great time at Centre Island last Sunday and the above shots are just a small sample of the great pics we got!

Karyn and Joe's wedding last weekend. 

Cynthia and Paul's wedding earlier this summer. I think there's a bit of a trend here.. 

Taken in New York last Christmas/New Years with Christina, Jasper and Darana. Click on the picture for a bigger version. (It looks better bigger...)

Cuba!!!!

I'm leaving for Cuba in 2 days....

I've been kind of lazy and slow in editing all the pictures I've taken at various events this summer:

Brian's Wedding
Paul and Cyn's Jack and Jill
Jesse's Engagement Party
Paul and Cyn's Wedding

I'm just about done with Brian's Wedding. Hopefully I'll finish the rest in the next month...I know I'm slow...

I want to post the pics somewhere but I haven't come across any photo websites I really like yet....any ideas!?

24 Hour Worship

This coming Saturday is another 24 hour worship.

These worship times have been going steadily once a month for the past several months and involve many, if not all of the churches that initially started Toronto's Global Day of Prayer event.

Last month the 24 hour worship was at Karyn's church, Castlefield Community Church. This month it will be at my church, Toronto Lifespring Christian Fellowship.

If you or your church are wanting your church to become more involved with what is happening around Toronto, this is a great way to get connected. Come out, worship and if you like, even volunteer to lead an hour or two of worship next month! My church building is labelled as Willowdale Pentecostal Church and it's located on Cummer Avenue between Yonge St. and Bayview.

The worship team from my church will be closing off the worship event this saturday from 7-9pm. If you want to come, you are all more than welcome! Come out, worship God and find out what He is doing in our city!

Where are the chinese!???

I've had some time to think about this past weekend and the Global Day of Prayer. God really mobilized His people to pray for our city and our country this past sunday.

I was overjoyed and at the same time, heart-broken. Let me explain. I was so happy that so many people came and so many people prayed. At the same time, I realized there was something missing. Almost every nationality was represented except for one, chinese people.

WHERE WERE ALL THE CHINESE CHURCHES? The planning committee phoned TWO HUNDRED chinese churches trying to get them to come out and what happened!? Hardly any came. How could they pass up on joining the rest of world in prayer? I was so disappointed to hear the responses they gave when asked if they want to participate:

"We're doing our own thing"

"The airport church is involved? I don't think we should join"

"We'll hand out the flyers but we won't really push for it"

What lame excuses.

"For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory."

Isaiah 66:18

The chinese churches need to wake up and smell the coffee. I can't wait until God comes and rocks the boat in these churches, they need it. I say that lovingly, believe it or not!

Post GDOP thought...

Many of you reading this do not believe in God and do not believe in Jesus.

One of the reasons I believe in Jesus is because I see a world, city and society that is dying. Society is becoming more advanced and yet the quality of life is rapidly deteriorating. Families are distant, crime may be on a slight decline, but is becoming more violent and involving younger and younger people. I could go on and on. I've seen it, experienced and lived it. This world needs answers and no one can give them.

I challenge you to pick up a Bible and see for yourself what Jesus says. The Gospel of Jesus Christ just might change your life.

Reminder! GDOP!

Just a reminder, the Global Day of Prayer is next Sunday, June 4th, 2006.

Doors open at the Air Canada Centre at 2pm.

If you are coming, leave a comment!!

Check out www.gdoptoronto.com and watch the videos, they're CRAZY!!!

Shot at the Guild Inn in Scarborough on one of my monthly photo trips. The inn is completely abandoned. We got inside and it's still fully furnished and it looks like it could still be occupied but it's completely empty. Kind of spooky!

Shot with Nikon D70 and 12-24DX at 12mm, f13 @ 1/750s, levels and color adjustment in Nikon Capture/Photoshop

Global Day of Prayer Update!!

What? Global Day of Prayer

When? June 4, 2006

Where? AIR CANADA CENTRE!!!!!!!!!

How many? 500,000,000 worldwide!!!!!! (That's 1/2 BILLION people!!!)

Why? To pray for God to heal our City, our Country, our Nations....

What can you do? $150,000 is needed to make this event happen. $100,000 has already been raised and they need $100,000 more. If you want to help out financially let me know. Also, there are weekly prayer meetings every wednesday to start praying for this event!! If you're interested, let me know!


Resources:

www.gdoptoronto.com

www.praygta.com

www.missiongta.com

EXCITED!!!!!

I Believe It

Is it true today that when people pray
Cloudless skies will break
Kings and queens will shake

Is it true today that when people pray
We'll see dead men rise
And the blind set free

It's true today that when people stand
With the fire of God, and the truth in hand
We'll see miracles, we'll see angels sing
We'll see broken hearts making history

- Excerpts from "History Maker" by Delirious

With these lyrics in mind, a group of Toronto pastors embark to have 60,000 people from across Toronto come together to pray for this city on the Global Day of Prayer, June 4th, 2006. Last year, Toronto had 150 people. God's going to change that.

What's happening today in Toronto is bigger than just me.
It's bigger than any one church.
It's bigger than any one neighbourhood.
This is Toronto wide and even bigger.
God is moving across this nation, our nation.

If you haven't heard about it yet you will.

I've been dormant since I've come back to Toronto but lately, I've been stirred and excited again about Toronto. God's people have seen enough hurt in our city and in our country. It's time to get on our knees and start praying.

To those of you in school and ACF, with the school year coming to a close, don't waste the summer middling in trivial things. Open your eyes to what God is doing, you have the opportunity to be part of something bigger than ACF and bigger than Western this coming summer, don't let that go to waste!!!

Check out www.gdoptoronto.com

Here's how the Global day of Prayer started....

Arising from AfricaIn 2001, one stadium in Cape Town, South Africa was filled with 45,000 people to pray. In 2002, it expanded to eight stadiums and 350,000. A year later 2.5 million gathered in 130 stadiums. On May 2, 2004, the movement exploded to nearly ten times the size. More than 22 million rallied in prayer at more than 2,000 sites throughout every single country on the continent of Africa (56 nations). Leaders from most major traditions of Christian faith called their people to join in this historic act of united prayer.

On May 15, 2005 more than 200 million Christians in 156 nations united in a day of repentance and prayer for the world. Christians came together in large stadiums, open fields, market squares, churches and other public venues to pray. It was broadcast by hundreds of radio and TV stations around the world. Many prayer networks, Christian organizations and prayer leaders support this initiative.

Christians all over the world are invited to take hands in a Global Day of Prayer. This initiative will continue for the next five years, until 2010. Every year on Pentecost Sunday there will be a Global Day of Prayer.

The two key verses that are guiding our planning around the Global Day of Prayer, are 2 Chron.7:14:

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land"

and Hab.2:14:

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

More news to come about Toronto's Day of Prayer ....Big news.

Colours, colours and more colours!!

I finally got a grasp of how to manage colours in photoshop. For those of you who are new to it, basically it's all about making sure colours appear as they should on my computer screen so that after I do my editing on a picture, colours show up properly on my final print from my printer and, when I post the picture on the web, shows up properly on your computer monitor. Ever wonder why after you post pictures on the web they look washed out and just plain bland? Read on...

In photoshop, keep your working colour space as Adobe (1998)!! That's it! Easy!

If you're going to post the image to to the web, once you're done editing, the final step should be convert to sRGB. Most web browsers are unaware of colour space so any picture left in Adobe (1998) shows up washed out. Adobe (1998) has a wider colour gamut then sRGB so you still want to make sure your original pics are in Adobe (1998) to retain all that colour depth. Of course for the colours to show up properly during processing in photoshop you'll need to have your monitor calibrated properly. (I got a used calibration system for $100 to do this).

If you're going to print your picture, leave it as Adobe (1998), get a colour profile for your printer/paper combo and use that. Adobe (1998) has a colour gamut wide enough for most printers so leave it there.

Simple stuff.....amazing what you can learn from the internet. See below for example pictures of what I'm talking about. Both pictures are the same photo with the same colours. One was left as Adobe 1998 and the other I converted to sRGB before saving. Open them in new windows side by side and the differences will really stand out.

On another note, I've made it my goal to make my own personal website by the end of the summer.

If all goes as planned, I'll do it all myself from scratch and it'll include a flash intro and definitely an image gallery.

I'm currently learning:

Dreamweaver
Fireworks
Flash
Photoshop (I know it, but always learning!)

I'm enjoying learning this stuff! Taking the picture is only half the battle, knowing what to do with it after is a whole different story.

sRGB JPG 

Adobe (1998) JPG 

Headaches already!!

Getting engaged is fun. Planning a wedding is not fun.

Rob & Christina's Engagement Story

As many of you have heard, Christina and I have finally gotten engaged. Due to sheer number of people asking us how it happened, whether I screwed up (hehe) and whether or not the performance was worthy of her saying yes, we've both decided to sum up our experience in this short story.

You may or may not know that I'm not the most careful schemer when it comes to planning surprises for Christina. She has ruined many of my previous attempts to surprise her. That made planning this engagement that much more difficult. The idea I finally settled on was to go with her to New York City and propose to her while skating at the Rockefeller Center in front of the giant Christmas tree. I didn't really have a date or a plan set for this, I just knew "skating" and "Rockefeller Center". Great idea right? Read on!

The trip to New York went as planned and we even got Jasper and Darana join us! On Friday, December 30th, our third day in New York, we decided to that we'd definitely skate somewhere in manhattan and maybe at the Rockefeller Center. Even though I was planning on asking her at the rockefeller center, I would have been happy with proposing at central park or any other skating rink in Manhattan. The day started badly with miserablely cold weather. Througout the day, We made our way to several ice rinks, and EVERY single one was completely PACKED with people. The Rockefeller Center was the worst, with people lining up for hours to skate. Needless to say, we didn't get to skate anywhere. Christina was soooooo disappointed because she suspected I would propose when we went skating. She doesn't like crowds so she was in a pretty bad mood once we decided to leave. I don't like crowds either so I was also annoyed. To top it off, my mind was in a frenzied panicbecause I had absolutely no backup plan!! I really had no idea what to do. Walking away from the ice rink, I prayed to God that somehow, the opportunity would arise where I could propose.

Riding on the bus back to our hotel in New Jersey, I noticed that the waterfront in New Jersey overlooks the Manhattan skyline. A light went "click" in my head and I knew that was where I wanted to take her. As soon as I got back to the hotel, I looked up the directions to the waterfront with Jasper. I then told Chris to bundle up because we were going out. She reluctantly agreed to go.

The waterfront was everything I could ever have imagined. After parking, Chris and I split from Jasper and Darana and immediately we walked through a path littered with beautiful street lamps and even walked under a small wooden arch that looked like it belonged in a wedding ceremony. It was quite romantic. We continued walking and we eventually came to an abandoned pier. I made Chris climb a fence to get there (she HATED that part). Once over, we had the quiet dark pier to ourselves. Chris was so afraid we'd be busted for trespassing by cops. She kept looking over my shoulder, expecting a big cop to show up and arrest us..haha. I brought along my MP3 player with headphones and played our song "Amazed" by Lonestar as we danced. After the song I professed my love to her (very cheesy). At first she laughed at me, then she cried. I guess Chris likes my cheesy lines! After the chesse, I was about to propose....standing up. Luckily, before I could ask, Chris said "wait!" and gently pushed me down on one knee and then I popped the question. Even though she doesn't remember it, she did say "Yes Rob, you're the man of my dreams"...haha...ok, she just said "yes". After slipping the ring on her finger I asked her if she liked it and she said she couldn't see it because it was too dark.

After proposing, we joined Jasper and Darana in a seafood restaurant called "Arthur's Landing" that we passed by walking to the dock and we all had possibly the best dinner of our entire trip. The restaurant also overlooked the manhattan skyline, providing a breathtaking view that we will all remember.

This entire proposal was not planned. I just happened to see the waterfront. We just happened to find the romantic path. We just happened to find the abandoned dock. We just happened to find the amazing restaurant. The plans I had to to propose to Christina fell apart but in return God blessed us with the perfect place and perfect circumstances for our engagement. It's almost as if God said "No, my way is much better" and from the happy look in Christina's face whenever you talk to her about our engagement, God was right.

God Bless you All!

Rob and Christina

I asked.....

and she said yes!

More details to follow (I'm still in New York/Boston until Jan 20th)