Birthdays and Dreaming of the Beach

Today marks the start of another year in my life.

I have been fond of spend my birthday in a quiet manner. Be it in a coffee shop with good friends or just a casual dinner with the family. I am not a fan of big parties or drinking sprees during my birthday. I want it to be as simple as possible.

And today, I have been daydreaming about being somewhere quiet. I dreamed of spending this birthday in Malipano Island, in one of the cozy Pearl Farm Beach Resort villas with an awesome view of the ocean while drinking a nice cup of hot choco. My friends say it’s a birthday celebration befitting my personality.

And I remember this shot I did about two months ago, in the main villa of Malipano Island while savoring a cup of hot choco early on a Sunday morning. This is a 15-shot handheld panorama of what I was looking at on a comfy couch facing the ocean. I didn't even bother getting up to get a better vantage point. This is the exact view I have been dreaming about the whole day.

Too bad I am stuck in the office doing mundane tasks today. Anyhow, I'll be out early because its my birthday. Happy birthday to me.

On Black and White Treatments and Portrait #22

Life is a lesson, you'll learn it when you're through.

Photography for me is an endless learning experience. I shoot macro and learn new things about insects and flowers. I shoot portraits and learn about the person I am shooting. And after shooting, I decide on how to post process a photo. And since I am still in the stage where I do not have a permanent workflow, I experiment on techniques; and again I learn new things.

And in the photo I am going to show, I learned that having a Sepia layer on top of the traditional Black and White layer makes the B&W look softer. I tried different opacity values and layer arrangements. Experimenting on the treatment is as fun as researching things about my macro subjects; and takes up as much time.

The day that I stop learning in photography is the day that it will become boring.

Portrait #22: Genie

A little something about Genie, she is a model and singer. As you can see, she is really pretty and she has a voice that is as pretty as her face. She is always seen in product launching events and other events with models. She is probably as busy as I am and this is only the second time I had the chance to shoot her as she is busy with all her gigs.