Royal Buffet Lunch with Balanced Exposure Students - Royal Buffet in Hoffman Estates, IL

I had lunch with four of the Balanced Exposure students today at Royal Buffet in Hoffman Estates, IL.  We had a great time!

The students that went have the opportunity to win a free class of their choice worth up to $79 by posting one of their best smartphone photos on the Balanced Exposure Students Group within Facebook.  The photo with the most "LIKES" from our student group will win!

With only four students entering this contest, they have a 25% chance in winning! Great odds!

The photos above are of the food I ate at the buffet.  Can you identify all the items on the two plates?   I also had a couple of items for desert (red bean ice cream, two small slivers of a pecan pie, a small coconut macaroon, a small cream puff and a small  raspberry cheese cake square.

Overall, I estimated my total calories to be a tad over 2000 calories (based on the MyFitnessPal estimates).

The students were all impressed with the size of the restaurant.  It used to be a former furniture store, so you can imagine the size!  Many Asians go to this restaurant, so you know it has to be good!

Images taken with my iPhone 6s+.

Shen Yun - March 23, 2018

My wife and I attended the Shen Yun performance at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont, IL on March 23, 2018.  What a great show!  Our daughter purchased the tickets as a gift to us.  We had great seats about 9 rows back, but off to the right side.

This is classical Chinese dancing at its finest and original Chinese music as well from a live orchestra!  In addition, there were vocalists (a Baritone and a Soprano) who sang accompanied by a pianist and a very impressive woman who played the Chinese Erhu better than I had ever heard it before!  The two announcers also did a great job.

The only issue I found with the show is that they really push the Falun Gong movement in China.  It's almost a religious movement in China and many practitioners are persecuted in China for it.  Organ Havesting is also a reality too in China and many Falun Gong practitioners are the victims of it.  While I do not condone this behavior in China, neither do I follow Falun Gong.  The show almost seems to be a way for the producers to push this idea on the viewers because many of the dances are based on the topic of Falun Gong persecution.  To read more about what Falun Gong is, check out this Wikipedia article.

Still, I highly recommend this show for anyone who can appreciate dance.  Go see it!

Weber Limited Edition Original Kettle Premium Red Kettle - 22"

It all started with the Weber Spirit E-310. Added the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker (WSM) and then the 22.5" WSM, and then the 14.5" WSM. Now I have a Limited Edition 22" Premium Original (Red) Kettle!  I also have a 65,000 BTW wok burner... not shown. The grill family is growing!  

Volo Auto Museum - Photographing Museum Exhibits Class - March 11, 2018

I went to the Volo Auto Museum again, but this time with several of my students from Balanced Exposure!  We had a great time taking photos of the cars and exhibits there.  One of the best looking cars in my opinion was this Ford Mustang Shelby... $138,000 (give or take a thousand dollars)!

The hood was open, so I couldn't get a shot of the car from the front, plus a lot of people were around the car as well.  But hopefully you can get an idea of how nice this car looked from the few shots I was able to take.  It even has a McIntosh car stereo in there!  If you know anything about high-end audio gear, you'll know that McIntosh is among the best audio gear!

We'll do this museum class again on May 6 from 1 PM to 4 PM.  Sign up for the class and join me!

Back To The Future - DeLorean DMC-12

Like the 1966 Batmobile, the Back To The Future DeLorean DMC-12 is perhaps one of the most recognizable cars around!  While one of the real DeLoreans can be found at the Volo Auto Museum, I decided to get a model of the car just like I did with the Batmobile!

The gull wing doors open and the car rolls on its wheels, but I can't get it to 88 mph, so I can't tell you if the time machine actually works.  Look close and you can even see the "Mr. Fusion" in the back of the car!  Throw a banana peel in there and maybe the car will power up!   This version of the car is from Back To The Future 2.

1966 Batmobile

This is a 1966 Batmobile toy replica.  Purchased at the Volo Auto Museum for $26.95.  Considering the real Batmobile sold at auction for $4.2 million, I suppose this one is a bargain!  Check out this website for more information on the Batmobile!

My brother reminded me that we had one of these toy Batmobiles when we were kids!! I thought that thing looked and felt familiar! That was over 50 years ago! I believe the one back then was my brother's. Well, now I have one!

Growing up, I always thought the 1966 Batmobile was the coolest car around. I still think that! :)

Volo Auto Museum - Volo, IL

(Click on the photos for a larger view)

I went to the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, IL today.  Wow!  What a museum!  This beats the auto show!

Not only did they have a lot of cars from movies, they had a bunch of cars for sale too!  If you are in the market for a collectable car, this is the place to get it!  I was shocked at how many cars they had.

Besides cars, there were exhibits like scooters, antique boat motors, Wurlitzer jukeboxes and military displays!  I plan to use this museum to train Balanced Exposure students on how to photograph museum exhibits and how to adjust cameras for proper exposure!

I found myself constantly adjusting my exposure settings since the various exhibits' lighting kept fooling my camera's meter.  I believe the students will learn a lot by accompanying me to this museum to see how to proper evaluate their settings and dialing in the right exposures.

Come with me when we do a class here!  It will be worth learning how to interpret camera meter readings and adjusting exposures properly!

Besides the cool exhibits at the museum, I was lucky to meet Dick Shepard, the museum's commercial photographer as well.  He showed me his photo studio where he takes quality photos of the cars they have for sale.  It's a large converted garage with overhead continuous lights with light diffusion panels.  The studio is also equipped with studio flashes.  Above, you can see a photo of a vehicle ready to be photographed in the studio.  The floor rotates continuously so that various angles of the cars can be taken without driving the cars!  Looks great in videos too!  Very impressive.  He said they never touch up the cars in the photos, so what you see in the photos are the way the cars are when you buy them.

My favorite exhibit?  Can't you guess from the photos?  It's the Batmobile from the 1966 TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward!  I grew up with Batman & Robin so this car just brought me back to my childhood!