My mom visited us in our new condo this last weekend. Haven't seen her for a few months and I was excited to see her. Incidentally, it was her bithday last and we kinda celebrated it by having lunch and eating her favorite (although bad for her, but hey what's not good for you is what you normally crave for) lechon. I told her she can only eat this once a year, and she did make the best of it.
Also thought of getting some birthday portraits to remember this day.
Here's another with her new bag my brother gave as a gift...
In other news, I said goodbye to my beloved black straw snoot. It was a good 5 months, and it served me well. Took one final shot of it for you to see how used it has been.
I have an idea for another snoot, this time not involving sticking together 100 straws. I'll keep you posted.
A couple of storm has passed. And although we always get hit by one ever so frequently, this one hit too close to home. I hope everyone is safe and okay. Please pray for those who have been affected and those who may still be tormented by typhoon Parma.
Photo above is the view from the back of my new condo. That was farm land before, but was turned into a deep pond last week.
Okay, make it a looong while. Unfortunately, I've been really busy, more unfortunately its not about photography. It wasn't even about my day job. Me and my wife were stuck with some legal issues on our recent home purchase. That took a lot of my time....and funds. Between that and my walk-all around lens breaking (unrepairable) I'd say I haven't had a really great life. LOL. Alls well, though, as we were able to settle out of court and we're happy to say, that we love our new home. And the broken lens did not go to waste, as I sold it for parts and got a decent, almost equal-in-spec Nikon glass as replacement.
Any ways, I wanted to share my recent vacation. We recently came from Coron, Palawan for a well deserved vacation.
The sun wasn't really cooperating, but when it did, it gave us some amazing light. With the help of some nice clouds acting as huge softboxes, we got all the shots below with only available light:
I took the chance to bring some lighting gear just in case we get a chance to shoot some themed model (my wife of course) shoot. We saw this great house from the 1800's that was torn down back in the 40's and all that's left was walls with some great grungy textures and graffiti. Two strobes used with the shots below with either both with snoots, or an umbrella -snoot combo.
That wall was so pretty that I decided to join in the fun as well!
Some group shots:
We also got a chance to help out with a local bar there and took some photos for their brochure. We were glad to help, especially when we get free drinks. More on this on a future post. Man I love Coron!
Edit: I know I said i was changing the format to a plain black template, but blogger was giving me some problems with adding photos. I think I'll go plain white for now.
Yes. I have been succumbed by the dark side. I've seen so many black template-blogs nowadays that i felt that I did not need to have one when I was starting this out. Thought I will be a little different, but here I am. Black does bring out a little kick to photos so I guess I will stay with this for the meantime.
After a long long sabbatical, I'm back to blogging. There's a ton of things that has happened since my last post (or even before that post):
1. Had a ton of work in my day job (sucks)
2. Shot a Corporate sports event (view some of the photos here) with a camera from the other side
3. Shot two StrobistBootcamp assignments here and here that made the final cut (thanks DH!)
4. Bought a our first home (yahoo!)
5 Had more day job work (really sucks!)
Any way for the meantime, here's some photos while I was out. Hope to blog some more soon. Man, I am so digging snoots....
Update: My entry made it up to the final cut only (out of 700 entries). Not bad. The results were announced here. If you haven't heard of Strobist, then you're missing a lot of good info on lighting and photography. Now, if you have been reading it, then I would like you to know that one of my photos (above) was chosen as a finalist(screams like an excited little girl).
Alright, for all you late strobist bloomers out there, David Hobby (the guy who coined the term strobist) is running a photography and lighting exercise on his site called Strobist Boot Camp 2. It's basically a list of weekly assignments that you need to complete and submit. He then judges them and picks out a winner. Boot Camp 1 was in '06, so this has been along time coming. For the first assignment, he's giving out prizes as well. Read more here.
The 1st assignment deadline was 2 days ago. I just found out that David tagged my entry as one of the finalists! Click here (for a better view) and here (and with David's note) side by side with my photo ( as it was a requirement) through my flickr stream.
Anyways, there's a lot of other very good photos there. win or lose, I'm pretty happy with what I got and I had fun doing it. I can't wait for the next assignment.
No budget to buy a camera? What? No flash? Now there is no more excuse for you not to take better pictures! More info after the jump. I had a paid assignment a while ago where my gear just ain't gonna make it. I was shooting a sporting event, and my current gear weren't long enough to reach the subjects from a safe distance. Enter CameraCart. CameraCart provides camera gear (mostly Canon) for rent. With a wide variety of products for sure you'll find what your looking for.
As a Nikon user, I was really not interested on even trying on Canon (it's a loyalty thing). But when I saw they are offering L lenses, I kicked loyalty's butt out the window and whent ahead and called Cameracart. I ended up renting a 40D and a 70-200 f/4 L. Sweet. They delivered and picked up the items. Now that's great service.
Renting is a great way to get your assignments done, or just try out a product before you buy them. CameraCart has flash units and strobes available so you can even pratice your lighting for all you strobists out there.
So if you are within the metro, give CameraCart a try. And for you Nikon users, there is also one here, but a little more expensive.
As most of you know, there are basically two types of digital cameras, the Point and Shoot(P&S) digicams and the big and expensive (looking, sometimes) DSLRs (digital single lens reflex). Basic technical difference is that P&S cameras have fixed lenses and DSLRs have removable and replaceable lenses). There are so many other differences, I won't blog them all, but will be sharing an experience I had recently were I was "forced" to use only a P&S.
Photo above was taken by a P&S.
My wife and I recently celebrated our first wedding anniversary at one of the beaches in Batangas, Philippines. So I packed my photography gear and advised my wife to bring our old Panasonic digicam in case of emergencies. Whenever you're at the beach, you may wanna bring less-attention-attracting gear if you plan to swim and leave them semi unattended. And of course if the weathers not looking good, you may wanna just risk bringing your smaller camera you can put in a plastic bag in case it rains.
Too bad the weather wasn't cooperating. We were there for 3 days, and there was not a single day that the weather didn't change from sunny to rainy in a matter of minutes. I had no choice but to bring the P&S. Our room was a bit far from the beach and I didn't want to risk it.
To my surprise, I was able to get some shots that was sharp enough that I could compare them to shots I made with my DSLR. With the help of some sunlight (at a great angle I should say) and some camera tweaking (plus a little picasa magic), I was able to get some clear shots that I'm really proud of. A lot of the shots below were taken by my wife, as I was too busy swimming. : )
Point and shoots really do well on silhouette shots......
This was the sharpest shot I made that afternoon. Click here or click the photo below for the full size copy to see the details. You can even see my reflection in her eyes!
Some tips on how to maximize your Point and Shoot:
- Look out for the Sun - the 12pm sun is too harsh for pictures. The sun at 3pm to 5pm is great for lighting portraits as it lights your subject at an angle
-Use your camera's WB and Exposure Evaluation feature - WB (white balance) is a common feature in cameras now, use it when in bright sun or when using tungsten lights to color correct your photos. (click here for a great link for learning more about WB) Exposure Evaluation (EV) is the ability of your camera to brighten or darken your photo. If your P&S is giving you a very bright picture, put your EV to a negative value and vice versa. Look for the +/- sign in your camera for this.
-Don't use your flash always - cameras nowadays are smart enough to choose almost the correct exposure for your shot. turn your flash off when outdoors. Use the sun when outdoors.
April and Nelson had a wonderful wedding. And I was honored to document their most special event.
This was no ordinary event, not only because its a very special union between April and Nelson, but also this was the first time I'll be documenting a wedding unconventionally - - as a bystander.
More photos and full story after the jump.
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I wanted to give April and Nelson moments that their hired photography will not be able to get. You see, a wedding photographer has so many things to do during the event. From knowing the program and coordinating with the organizers to get all the "important" shots to editing on site and preparing the on site presentation. Unless they have 6 or more people to handle the whole group, the photographer would miss a lot of moments that a couple would like to remember of their wedding. Plus knowing the couple, I know when and where to take their photos to convey a story that the couple would surely smile and be fond of. Here's some of the shots.
The bridesmaids (notice how almost all of them were taller than the men!):
A very anxious groom... The kids:
The bride... Some random shots... Finally some shots of the couple.... I hope the couple is having a great honeymoon in Palawan.
