Silhouette

What's life without a li'l drama? Sorry I haven't been posting lately, but rest assured I haven't gone cold on my photography. Took this picture last weekend on our little trip to Lian, Batangas. I asked my best friend to pose for me, facing the sun, so that I could make her a great silhouette and, thus the result. As I have said before, I love shooting sunrises and sunsets. Some people even call it the magic hours of the day. The color and mood is really great. This was taken a few minutes after sunrise. I woke up pretty early waiting for the sunrise. I had several shot, but alas, my friends are all still asleep, so I had no subject whom I can ask to pose. I had to improvise, nonetheless I got the shot I wanted. I'll be blog hoppin' and posting more of my shots during the trip in the following days. Thanks to all who dropped by and left their comments. :D

Black and White

Black and White. Ahh, it's been a week since my last post, so I felt like posting two pictures today. Yesterday, we had the privilege of joining the company of Mr. Ed Santiago, a reknowned black and white photographer and photojournalist. He shared with us his collection of photos which are of course mostly black and white. He also shared his experiences in photojournalism and his insights in creating a photoessay. He didn't really teach us the technical side of photography but rather his 50+ years of experience in the profession. By the way, he is one of the more rare photographers nowadays, who prefer film over digital cameras. Moreover, he values the B&W prints more since according to him, it can be preserved in its original state much longer. I was inspired by his stories and I have to admit, after seeing his portfolio, I had a deeper appreciation for black and white photographs. So, I tried practicing on shooting B&Ws.

The first photo was taken at a Starbucks store. We bought some coffee and hanged out for a while. I remeber the first time a Starbucks coffee shop opened near my school in Makati. People rushed in the store buying coffee like crazy. Maybe it was for the love of coffee - frappuccino, latte, espresso - you name it. Maybe it was for the whole new coffee experience - students drinking expensive coffee while reading the newpaper comfortably sitting on the couch, chatting, or maybe it's just the rush of everybody wanting to try a newly opened store. As time passed by, as expected, the number of people dwindled. Sure there were still customers, but not as much as it first opened. Then came the rise of San Francisco coffee, Seattle's Best, not as strong as Starbucks though, but competition emerged - the nature of things. I don't know with the others, but compared to the other coffee shops, I still would love the Starbucks experience. I am not an endorser of Starbucks coffee. In fact I hate their iced tea and iced fruit juices, but I have to admit, I love their iced mocha frappuccino. That's my favorite.

Coffee and cars. This second photo was taken inside the car parked near a gas station. I was waiting for my friend, who was buying something. I got bored and took out my camera and began shooting. It was almost night time when I took this picture, so I had to use flash to illuminate the interior of the car.

Gawad Kalinga Fun Run 2008

GK Fun Run '08. Yesterday, I woke up early to witness a small yet unforgettable event, 2008 Gawad Kalinga run for a cause. My very good friend, Faye was of course ever present in the 5K marathon together with her mom, Tita Anna. I arrived there around 6:10 AM, just in time to see the runners take off from the starting position (left). The event took place at SM Mall of Asia near the SMX Convention Center. There were all kinds of people who joined, I saw kids, old people, foreigners, airforce personnel, etc. I got a chance to photograph the largest group who joined, a contingent from the Philippine Airforce (right).

But of course, I went there to give support to my friend and her mom. Faye's dad, Tito Jun and I were waiting for them at the finish line. We counted and counted and almost lost hope after about fifty or more runners already crossed the finish line. But to our amazement, surprise, shock and joy, Faye won second place in the 5K women's division. Tita Anna finished 11th (so close), because they were giving gift packs to people who finished up to the 10th place. Anyway, we had a great time, considering this is the first major race that Faye won. Congratz my friend! 'Til the next one!

As a side note, there's one thing I've learned from this. It is quite difficult to shoot sporting events. You have to be at the right place at the right time and since everybody's moving around, you have to have anticipation on what might possibly happen, so that you can be there to shoot it when something extraordinary does happen. Also, I find that using a telephoto lens is more reliable than a standard kit lens (personal preference). Having a telephoto gives you more time to anticipate movement and capture specific events even at some distance. It also gives a great depth of field especially for candid portrait shots.

(Left to right) Faye at the starting line (she wasn't aware that I took her picture, whew! At least I got there just in time.). Tita Anna jogging to the finish line. Faye showing off her 2nd place win. Awarding of the winners for 5km. race. [Some photos have been edited - cropped, etc].

Faye receiving the award (left). Bautista family after the race (right).

Still Life

Still Life. This is my first real attempt in shooting a still life photograph. Still life photography is the art of putting inanimate objects together in an artificial setting or purposefully arranging related objects together, or at least that is how I understood it. I admit, this one was difficult. Lighting was important to create a good effect and I had a really hard time. I wish I had a studio (wishful thinking). It took me more than an hour to shoot this one (Whew!). I shot this in a very dark room and used only one light source. I tried backlighting it to minimize the glare, but apparently was quite unsuccessful. I think I shall practice shooting some more.

Flips

Flips. Last Monday, we went to 9 Waves at Rizal, a cheaper counterpart of the 8 Waves resort in Bulacan, I think. It was my friend's company outing and I decided to tag along. I didn't swim. I went there to actually shoot some photos, beautiful scenes probably. But it turned out that the place was inside a subdivision, so there were no beautiful landscapes and such, so I decided to take portraits of people instead and luckily also because I needed them for my photo assignment. I got a couple of good ones including this. I found some teenagers doing somersaults and flips. It was kind of difficult to shoot them using telephoto lens. I had to stay very still to avoid motion blur and I had to capture my subjects at the right time. Since most of them didn't really know that I was taking their picture, so I had to time it perfectly otherwise I would've missed the action. Also, I shot this using aperture priority(A) mode. I set it to f/5.6 and let the light meter decide the proper shutter speed. That way, I could shoot faster without having to adjust the shutter all the time.