Photo 35: Baby Kate

Baby Kate will be having her Baptism this coming weekend! But before that, she got her pictorial session :)

Oh yes, she is just irresistibly cute and adorable! :D
Je and I had a really fun time taking photos of Kate. We tried experimenting a little bit with different shots this time :)

Here are a few more pictures :)

Photo 34: My PS3 Buddy

Ok, I'm about 3 entries behind schedule! I hate to admit it, but I think I'm on a slump...
No current projects, no fascinating subjects, no beautiful models, or no interesting concepts to shoot...

Perfect!! It's during these times that I have to push myself and my creativity to come up with new ideas. It's the perfect opportunity for me to learn something new.

I sat back and thought to myself... What do I need to improve more in my photography stuff?
I haven't been shooting much black and white pics, and I haven't been doing a lot of product shots...

So I decided to challenge myself by taking a photo of some mundane item and make it look artistic in black and white.

Surprisingly, the lighting concepts that I do for model shoots are the same lighting concepts I use for product shots. For this photo, I had two kicker lights on the sides to add separation and a key light smack in the middle as the main light. The most important aspect of this set-up? It was probably the setting up behind the scenes that I did before the actual shoot... The controller was really dirty with libag so I had to clean it with alcohol and cotton buds :D

This is actually fun... I think I'll experiment some more and I think I can still do more improvements...

Photo 33: A Different Kind of Couple Pic

Last year I was asked by Kristell Lim to take photos of her doing cosplay and we tried entering a photo contest with this entry. We didn't win but I think we got to top something because the photo got included in the album cover (they made a compilation of all the top picks).

A year later we're back, doing another cosplay shoot, which we'll be entering in the contest again :D

I'm actually pumped about this contest because we're supposed to submit photos that are NOT edited. It fits my style perfectly because I only do minimal editing for most of my photos.

This is Kristell and Adi as Megurine Luka and Hiyama Kiyoteru from Vocaloid.

It was sort of like a prenup pictorial session so I felt right at home directing the shots :D

And here's Hatsune Miku also from Vocaloid :)

Wish us luck! Hope we win this time :D

View the rest of the photos through this link.

Photo 32: Soleil

Hehe... I'm a tad bit late with my weekly project... I've been sick with tamaritis and I actually already have a couple of photos ready for upload but just haven't done so. I've been on bakasyon mode lately and so I took a little break from my blog :D

Anyway, I'm back! And I'm starting off with a photoshoot I did for an upcoming shoe brand.

I did a photoshoot for Soleil to model their shoes. It was a nice afternoon outside so almost all the shots were done with ambient light.
Before I got into shooting events, I got interested in Photography because of portraits, so doing a model shoot felt really comfortable for me :D

Here are a couple more shots from the session :)

Photo 31: Ezekiel

One of the hardest shoots to do is of babies. Obviously because you have very little control over their mood swings. They can be happy and cheerful one moment, and the very next second just before you click on the shutter, they're crying... well, like babies!

Having said that... One of the most gratifying shoots to do... is also of babies! :D

C'mon, they are just the cutest!! :D You just need a little patience and a bit of luck, and when you get that perfect moment, it's gold!

Here's Ezekiel for his baby photoshoot before his Christening :)

And here are few more teasers before I release the rest of the adorable baby Ezekiel pics :D

Photo 30: Wet and (and not so) Wild!

Waking up to a lazy rainy morning gave me an idea to redo my Photo 8. With my brother still asleep, I went to my DIY buddy, Danny Boy.

I have a hunch that the most common question that I'll be getting with this shot is "how fast was your shutter speed?"

It was 10 seconds :)

Yep you read it right! How did that happen??
Instead of using the shutter to freeze the moment, I used flashes instead. The speed of light is faster than the fastest shutter speed available!

So can I share my set-up for this shot? Of course I can... BUT where's the fun in that?? :D
I researched this stuff on my own and I learned by doing the experiments myself! So you should too :)

I'll help out though by at least sharing the key elements :)
To get background information, I researched on High Speed Photography. For the actual shot, I had a key light, kicker lights, remote trigger for the lights, and a water gun.

So there you have it. Good luck if you decide to try it out yourself :)

Oh and here's a failed attempt. I aimed too low and Danny Boy evaded the shot :D

Photo 29.5: Post Runway Shoot

My previous entry was awesome (Jason Magbanua!! Hell yeah!!!), but I didn’t get to feature any lighting techniques at all… So when our company had a Fashion Show event, I brought my camera to work in case I would get a chance to take pictures. Too bad the event was too early for my shift so I didn’t get to take photos during the actual event.

I’ve actually already worked with one of the models before (Kristell Lim), so when she asked if I’d like to take some portraits after the show, I quickly agreed :)

This was an impromptu shoot in one of our conference rooms. I’m really pleased with the makeshift set-up that I came up with so I’ll take some time in explaining what I did :D

This is how the impromptu set-up looked like behind the camera. Not so glamorous, no? :D

The key light was my speedlight pointed at the wall and then gobo’d to keep the light from spilling into the subject. The makeshift gobo was a file binder :D  Pointing the speedlight to the wall and using a gobo were very important in achieving this shot for these reasons:

     1. How do you make light soft? By having a bigger light source. When the light bounced from the wall, the entire wall became illuminated and it became the huge light source. If I pointed the speedlight directly to the subject instead, then the size of the light source would have been limited to the surface area of the flash head, which is just roughly the size of a clenched fist and a lot smaller than the wall.
     2. Gobos constrict the light and keep unwanted light from getting everywhere. Here are test shots I did without, and then with the gobo. Who would have thought that such a big difference can be achieved with a file binder and a book :D (Oh and thanks to Randell for helping me set-up, being the test subject, and for lending me his speedlight, which was used as the background light)

A second speedlight was pointed at the back to wash out the background and also serve as kicker light. It was also gobo’d with a black book.

Later on during the shoot, we had some trouble syncing the second speedlight. So I just turned it off and it became a 1-light set-up. So for some of the photos, there were 2 lights, and for the rest, there was only 1 light.

I asked the other models if they’d like to get their photos taken as well, and they agreed! So here are some of the other shots I did:

Kristell

Kam

 

Dianne

Jed

Sab

Click on my FB Album to view more pictures :)

Photo 29: Star Struck!

For the first time in my weekly project, this week's photo has got nothing to do with lighting or portraits... This photo was not even taken by me (thanks to Eric for taking the shot for me :D). It's a photo of me with THE Jason Magbanua!! :D
(If you're getting married, planning on getting married, or know people who are getting married, BUT you don't know who Jason Magbanua is... shame on you!! :D)

I've chanced upon actors and actresses in public places but I never paid them any attention. I never got curious and I've never had the urge to take a picture with them... Yep, you can say that it's my first time :D

This is all thanks to Jeri! I got hitched in his gig and I was commissioned to take pics for a couple of wedding photo masters, 12 Masters Photography & Brownman Photos :D  Truly awesome experience :D

With everything that happened, I just had to include these memories to my weekly project :D

A couple more behind the scenes shots from the wedding coverage :)

Here's Jeri with Sir Jason

And here's the whole group, minus Korei (pic was from Jeri, thanks uli, I grabbed it from FB :D)

View a few more from this FB Album

Photo 28: My Little Friend!

Say hello to my little friend! :D

Danboard - is a cardboard box toy robot (http://www.collectiondx.com/node/2107). He's commonly known as Danbo, and he's quite famous among photographers. It's become a fad to take pictures of this toy in cute and funny situations (samples by a photographer I chanced upon via Google: http://arkarthick.com/2010/06/15/cute-funny-danbo-cardboard-box-toy-robots-art/).

My little friend IS NOT the original Danbo :D

Since most of my extra income has gone to photography equipment, I no longer have the money to buy an original Danbo :D (I hear that it's quite expensive and it's also not available locally).

This is my DIY-Danboard, Danny Boy. I purposely gave him a darker color to give him a Pinoy look. Hehe :D

Lighting was simple with just 1 speedlight on camera right as key light for Danny Boy and a 2nd speedlight pointed at the back to my bokeh wall :)

Here's one more shot...  :)

Photo 27: Bea & Apple

Bea's a good friend and so when she asked if I could take pictures of her with her new baby... Of course I was happy to be her photographer! The new baby was Apple, the beagle puppy :D

It was a gloomy and rainy day at Eastwood Mall, so it was a good thing that there were lights everywhere, which helped us take nice and colorful pictures :)

It didn't show in the picture but it was actually raining at that time. I should have used a speedlight to backlight the shot because that's how you make the rain droplets visible. Oh well, I'll do it next time. Besides I think it still turned out ok :)

For the shot above, I used the ambient light from the incandescent light bulbs all over the place, which meant I used a white balance of 3230K. This turned the sky bluer than usual.


Here are a few more teaser shots from the set :)

Cute cute ni Apple!! :D

Photo 26: Barkada Shoot

I was asked by Tere to do a shoot for her barkada. I think it's a fabulous idea to do a funshoot with your friends whenever you can! I mean, you don't know who'll be going abroad next, or you'll find your schedules getting harder and harder to match. So you should definitely try immortalizing those fun moments by taking barkada portraits :)

This was done on the hallway of a hotel. I like the way the hall framed the group and it made it look like a frame within a frame.

Here are a couple more shots from the set :)

I'll be posting more soon! Watch out for them :)

Photo 25: Roland + Allen

Roland and Allen were my entry for Photo 21 during their prenuptial pictorial session. A few weeks later, I covered their wedding ceremony :)

This is one of my favorite shots to pull off... Which is using a speedlight at the back of the couple to backlight them. The church at the back was pretty dim in relation to the sky, so if it weren't for the backlight, they would have blended into the dark background. Because of the speedlight, Roland and Allen got a kicker light, which provided a nice separation light.

Allen so far has been the giddiest bride that I've had the pleasure of working with :D It was the usual nervous act during the preparations, but after the ceremony has ended during the reception, she loosened up and she really enjoyed her day with her groom, Roland :D

To Roland and Allen, congrats again for tying the knot :)

Photo 24: The ERM Team

Our team went on an outing last weekend. It was almost cancelled because of the weather but thankfully it pushed through! :D

We documented the event by having a group portrait :)

Doing a group portrait is different from the casual group snapshot. A portrait has a couple of elements that sets it apart from a snapshot:

1. A group portrait is coordinated and planned. No, we didn't happen to have white shirts with us at that time. We coordinated with each other and planned ahead to make sure that everyone brought shirts of the same color.

2. A group portrait is composed and posed. We didn't just fall accidentally into our positions. The team was directed so that no one will be blocked from view. If you'll also notice, our team resembled a triangular pattern, which looks good in photos.

To the ERM team, thanks for the great weekend, I had a blast! :D
Congrats to the overall winners of the activities :D

Photo 23: Mac & Choco

It's been a while since I did a formal portrait session so it was fun when Mac & Choco scheduled for one. They also asked me to do a quick lecture on basic digital photography. I hope that I was able to do a good job :D
Mac & Choco, hope my ramblings were able to help you understand your cameras better :D

Here are a couple more photos from that session...

Like they say, dance like no one's watching :D