[ Sunset at Montemar Beach Club in Bataan. ]
Happy summer, everyone!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Life's A Beach
A triptych in celebration of the last days of fantastic sunsets from an all too short summer season.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Nintendo Game & Watch Comes Full Circle
If you were a kid in the '80s, you'll remember Nintendo's Game & Watch series was rocking the portable gaming scene way before the Nintendo DS. Now Nintendo's innovations have come full circle in a way, brought to us by the most unlikely source. Combine Game & Watch style quartz LCD games with Wii-like gameplay and you get the McDigi series of toys!
On the left is the McDigi Tennis game, where you swing the toy left and right to return volleys from your digital opponent. On the right, the McDigi Baseball game, where you must smack the toy on its side to swing your bat. It's been available with every McDonalds Happy Meal in the Philippines for a while now, but for a limited time only.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Shattered Glass
It happened in slow motion. One errant swing from my not-yet-one-year-old's hand sent my camera bag tetering on the edge of the dining table. It backflipped off the edge and struggled in midair to rotate back into an upright position. Physics would dictate otherwise. With just one meter to cover, it hardly had a chance, landing on hard tile at a tilt. It was a painful sight, much like watching some doomed Olympic diver headed for a concussion and an inevitable set of zeros from the judges.
[ The filter did not go to its grave in vain.
The Nikon 18-135/3.5-5.6 it was attached to survived.
It took a lot of dusting to get all the glass bits off the front element. ]
[ The Nikon cap had one side stuck in the filter's frame.
Goodbye Hoya Super HMC UV optic! ]
Goodbye Hoya Super HMC UV optic! ]
[ The filter did not go to its grave in vain.
The Nikon 18-135/3.5-5.6 it was attached to survived.
It took a lot of dusting to get all the glass bits off the front element. ]
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Mariel and Geobz Tie The Knot
Just a little over a month had gone by and we were back in Tagaytay for another wedding, this time not as the main photographers (no less than Dino Lara with 'assistant' Jason Magbanua were covering), but as guests with a special favor to do for the bride and groom. Cary and I were going to shoot portraits of the principal sponsors and have them printed and framed on-the-spot, as special souvenirs.
For the background, we staked out a nice spot at the entrance to the venue, where the event stylists had hung the couple's prenup photos on a trellis. For lighting, we brought a couple of SB-600 Speedlights and mounted them on tripods. For light modifiers, we used a Lightsphere to soften the main light, and a Lumiquest Mini-Softbox on the secondary light, held up above our group, to even out the shadows on the other side. The speedlights were controlled wirelessly through Nikon's handy Creative Lighting System. As a bonus, the sun was already setting directly behind the trellis, so we had on hand a strong backlight for the group. I planned to shoot the setup, but I was a little busy playing light man, holding up the secondary light on the tripod to get more height. Even with the mini-softbox on, the second light was still putting out too strong a side light and creating harsh shadows.
Thankfully, Cary's Nikon D70, in PictBridge printing mode, played nice with the portable Selphy printer made by that other camera company that has all the white lenses. We shot all of the portraits in Direct Print mode, and the 4x6" prints turned out surprisingly well straight out of the camera. The only hitch that came up had little to do with the equipment: Gourmet's Cafe suffered a couple of blackouts while the reception was in progress. The Selphy, while portable, could not be powered off batteries. It was a tense few minutes while we sat in the dark waiting for the power to come back so we could finally finish with our prints. In the end, we were told that the sponsors enjoyed the photos. So, all's well that ends well!
I have a few snapshots here in a set "just for friends" on that handy-dandy photo sharing site, Flickr.
For the background, we staked out a nice spot at the entrance to the venue, where the event stylists had hung the couple's prenup photos on a trellis. For lighting, we brought a couple of SB-600 Speedlights and mounted them on tripods. For light modifiers, we used a Lightsphere to soften the main light, and a Lumiquest Mini-Softbox on the secondary light, held up above our group, to even out the shadows on the other side. The speedlights were controlled wirelessly through Nikon's handy Creative Lighting System. As a bonus, the sun was already setting directly behind the trellis, so we had on hand a strong backlight for the group. I planned to shoot the setup, but I was a little busy playing light man, holding up the secondary light on the tripod to get more height. Even with the mini-softbox on, the second light was still putting out too strong a side light and creating harsh shadows.
Thankfully, Cary's Nikon D70, in PictBridge printing mode, played nice with the portable Selphy printer made by that other camera company that has all the white lenses. We shot all of the portraits in Direct Print mode, and the 4x6" prints turned out surprisingly well straight out of the camera. The only hitch that came up had little to do with the equipment: Gourmet's Cafe suffered a couple of blackouts while the reception was in progress. The Selphy, while portable, could not be powered off batteries. It was a tense few minutes while we sat in the dark waiting for the power to come back so we could finally finish with our prints. In the end, we were told that the sponsors enjoyed the photos. So, all's well that ends well!
I have a few snapshots here in a set "just for friends" on that handy-dandy photo sharing site, Flickr.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Sticky Note: Getting Hitched
[ "Sticky Notes" are my way of pointing to posts on the same subject. I will continually update every Sticky Note with whatever I post that has any relation. Why? I am just that obsessed. ]
Since joining the PEP Team, I have gained huge respect for the job wedding photographers do. I learned very quickly on my first wedding shoot that wedding photography is not just about events coverage, or photojournalistic shooting, or portraits, or candids, but all of these things, plus a lot of heavy lifting!
These pages are about the weddings of the couples for whom I have had the privilege to shoot:
Since joining the PEP Team, I have gained huge respect for the job wedding photographers do. I learned very quickly on my first wedding shoot that wedding photography is not just about events coverage, or photojournalistic shooting, or portraits, or candids, but all of these things, plus a lot of heavy lifting!These pages are about the weddings of the couples for whom I have had the privilege to shoot:
- Mariel and Geobz Tie The Knot - Added May 7, 2006
- Joy and Jonas Sanchez Get Married - Added March 28, 2006
- A Boracay Wedding - Added March 28, 2006
- Pre-Nuptials - Added February 6, 2006
- Wanda and Jukey Celino Get Hitched - Added January 28, 2006
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Beach Bummed in Bora
These are from March, but it took me forever to post these photos from Boracay (a combination of procrastination and slow upload speeds). Summer is still in full swing here, so I suppose it's still relevant to post about the Philippines' most popular summer getaway.
It was my first trip there, and it was a bit of a surprise to find staples of Manila's urban jungle, like Andok's Lechon Manok, a Mongkok franchise, the Bite Club burger grill, and an Ice Monster, all in and around a mall on the island. My favorite photos have none of these places in the frame, if only to give a sense of Boracay before its apparently inevitable commercialization.
It was my first trip there, and it was a bit of a surprise to find staples of Manila's urban jungle, like Andok's Lechon Manok, a Mongkok franchise, the Bite Club burger grill, and an Ice Monster, all in and around a mall on the island. My favorite photos have none of these places in the frame, if only to give a sense of Boracay before its apparently inevitable commercialization.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Sticky Note: Travelling (Without Moving)
[ "Sticky Notes" are my way of pointing to posts on the same subject. I will continually update every Sticky Note with whatever I post that has any relation. Why? I am just that obsessed. ]
I began carrying a camera around as a tourist, no doubt like many others. I would come to a place I have never been, and coming back from that place, people would like to know what it was like. I was compelled to shoot what I saw that words cannot describe.
I have found, though, that making photographs out of scenes is a lot like turning words into stories. Without deliberate intent aided by technical familiarity and effective composition, I could not deliver my "message" in the way that I wanted.
In this way, travel photography gave me my start and pushed me to learn how to shoot seriously.
On these pages are places I've seen through a lens:
Click a link and take a trip!
I began carrying a camera around as a tourist, no doubt like many others. I would come to a place I have never been, and coming back from that place, people would like to know what it was like. I was compelled to shoot what I saw that words cannot describe.I have found, though, that making photographs out of scenes is a lot like turning words into stories. Without deliberate intent aided by technical familiarity and effective composition, I could not deliver my "message" in the way that I wanted.
In this way, travel photography gave me my start and pushed me to learn how to shoot seriously.
On these pages are places I've seen through a lens:
- Beach Bummed In Bora - Boracay, Aklan, Philippines - Added April 22, 2006
- Barely Breathing in Bangalore - Bangalore and Mysore, Karnataka, India - Added April 18, 2006
- My Hidalgo Pilgrimage - Hidalgo Street, Quiapo, Philippines - Added December 13, 2005
Click a link and take a trip!
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Barely Breathing In Bangalore (2004)
Over the Holy Week, I had the chance to slow down and reflect (read: I had nothing to do and nowhere to go). I took the opportunity to dig up an old photo set that I used to have on my Fotopic galleries from my three weeks in India in 2004. It was a popular photo set, though I suspect the popularity had more to do with the captions that I wrote or the humor to be found in the photos, rather than the quality of the photos themselves.
It was a refreshing exercise to revisit old photos. It made me cringe to look at the poor, cluttered composition, the uncorrected cyan color cast, the tourist-y feel of the perspectives, and so many other things that I was blissfully unaware of back then. But it has shown me how far I have gotten from days when I shot with a truly point-and-shoot Sony P7 and barely a concept of proper exposure. Out of a set of about 150 photos, I postprocessed and cropped the life out of a handful of photos below. Not bad, coming from a point and shoot, I suppose.
Photos from left to right, top to bottom:
1. The Cathedral of Saint Philomena in Mysore.
2. A red house and a mini (micro?) van on Chamundi Hill.
3. The Sri Chamundeshwari temple at Chamundi Hill.
4. An old man tending to his sores nearby.
5. Two old women by the temple.
6. Nanda the Bull near Chamundi Hill.
7. Gateway to a temple in Mysore.
8. The temple up close; guess who's from out of town.
9. Mysore Palace.
10. Inter-school trivia competitions are big in India; covered on ESPN!
11. You can get a side order of curry with your KFC in Bangalore.
12. Mango vendors on a sidewalk in Bangalore.
13. Cafe Coffee Day is the only drink around in the two-terminal Bangalore International Airport.
It was a refreshing exercise to revisit old photos. It made me cringe to look at the poor, cluttered composition, the uncorrected cyan color cast, the tourist-y feel of the perspectives, and so many other things that I was blissfully unaware of back then. But it has shown me how far I have gotten from days when I shot with a truly point-and-shoot Sony P7 and barely a concept of proper exposure. Out of a set of about 150 photos, I postprocessed and cropped the life out of a handful of photos below. Not bad, coming from a point and shoot, I suppose.
1. The Cathedral of Saint Philomena in Mysore.
2. A red house and a mini (micro?) van on Chamundi Hill.
3. The Sri Chamundeshwari temple at Chamundi Hill.
4. An old man tending to his sores nearby.
5. Two old women by the temple.
6. Nanda the Bull near Chamundi Hill.
7. Gateway to a temple in Mysore.
8. The temple up close; guess who's from out of town.
9. Mysore Palace.
10. Inter-school trivia competitions are big in India; covered on ESPN!
11. You can get a side order of curry with your KFC in Bangalore.
12. Mango vendors on a sidewalk in Bangalore.
13. Cafe Coffee Day is the only drink around in the two-terminal Bangalore International Airport.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Sticky Note: Photo Gear Envy
[ "Sticky Notes" are my way of pointing to posts on the same subject. I will continually update every Sticky Note with whatever I post that has any relation. Why? I am just that obsessed. ]
People sometimes make the mistake of thinking that I review gear for a living and am qualified to tell them how to burn their cash. Now that I've gotten into photography, I get asked about my opinion on camera gear.
Now the next time I'm asked to give a rundown on the latest greatest photo gear, I can say, with an air of authority, "Check out my user reports at Gear Envy: Hack Your Toys."
Oh, and yes, that's a photo of me demonstrating how NOT to sight properly on a DSLR, with one eye closed. While we're on the topic, this photo of my transgression against good photography was taken by my brother with his Canon Powershot S410. Ironic is not the word for it ....
People sometimes make the mistake of thinking that I review gear for a living and am qualified to tell them how to burn their cash. Now that I've gotten into photography, I get asked about my opinion on camera gear.Now the next time I'm asked to give a rundown on the latest greatest photo gear, I can say, with an air of authority, "Check out my user reports at Gear Envy: Hack Your Toys."
- Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro AF Lens User Report - Added June 28, 2006
- Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR AF-S ED-IF AF Lens User Report - Added May 31, 2006
- CompactDrive PD70X User Report - Added May 21, 2006
- Nikon D50 DSLR - Added April 18, 2006
- Nikon 50mm f/1.4 D AF Lens - Added April 13, 2006
- Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC AF Zoom Lens - Added April 12, 2006
Oh, and yes, that's a photo of me demonstrating how NOT to sight properly on a DSLR, with one eye closed. While we're on the topic, this photo of my transgression against good photography was taken by my brother with his Canon Powershot S410. Ironic is not the word for it ....
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
A Boracay Wedding
When I found out that my cousin planned to get married in scenic Boracay in March, the shutterbug in me was compelled to jump at the invitation. I just had to shoot a beach sunset wedding! As a bonus I had the chance to see Ariel Javelosa and his crew at work covering the event. The art direction was all his, I was just shooting from the sidelines, trying to keep out of the way.
I processed some of my favorite photos from the set below, all shot with my Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 and a couple with an SB-600 and a Lumiquest Mini Softbox attached.
I processed some of my favorite photos from the set below, all shot with my Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 and a couple with an SB-600 and a Lumiquest Mini Softbox attached.
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