on Music Videos and Minimalist Concepts

It is 29 days to the New Year and I want to catch up on my blog so that by the start of 2016 I will be free of backlogs.

One other reason why I find the need to write is because I need to diversify. I accepted a part time gig writing articles of an automotive website based in Australia. I want to write other things besides cars and what better way than to get my blog updated with my current projects.

I have to admit, I am not much of pop music and it has been awhile since I last watched a proper music video. When my partner in crime Chawie wanted to do a shoot that was inspired by the music video of Good For You by Selena Gomez, I had to watch it to get the idea. And I will admit that before this shoot, I only knew of one song done by her and that is because she collaborated with Zedd, who I listen to.

Anyways, with Chawie and our frequent muse Krestle, I knew it would be another fun shoot.

And I was right; it was a very relaxed shoot. We had a white wall and a long bar stool and ambient lighting. I really enjoy minimalist concepts because I find that I can do a lot more when I have fewer distractions. A plain blank wall works best for me.

Here are some more photos from the shoot...

There you have it, another set with Chawie and Krestle. It’s always enjoyable working with them. No stress and I am guaranteed that I will have some keepers worthy of posting in this blog. I'll be posting collaboration with chawie probably this weekend. Until then!

PS: Thanks to Charisse Ann "Chawie" Bibera and Krestle Deomampo for this shoot. And to Chawie's grandma who welcomed us into her home so we could use the blank white wall in her backyard.

on Backlogs, Clothing Ads and Portrait #45

This is long overdue!

I have had the priveledge to do three shoots with Fatima already and I haven't had the chance to publish any of it here in my blog. Truth be told, I always have fun doing a shoot with her because I do not need that much effort during the shoot because she is just simply awesome in front of the camera.

I just want to share with you guys the shoots I have done with her and to officially add her to my portraits project.

This shoot happened about a year ago inside the pedestrian underpass to the airport.

The next shoot was for a makeup competition where she and her makeup artist Paulyn Dy made it to the final cut.

 

The last shoot was taken about a month ago. This one was a quick strobist shoot with my good friend and peer Charisse Ann Bibera. I was inspired by the advertisements from clothing companies and tired a hand at making my own.

 

 

And this will be my entry to my portrait project:

Portrait #45: Fatima

This is probably the most number of photos I have published in one portrait blog. I know there will be more shoots in the coming months when she visits Davao again. She will always be one of my favorite models.

PS: Special thanks to all those who made these shoots possible. To Paulyn Dy of Makeup Magic by Paulyn Dy for the makeup on the first two shoots and for introducing me to Fatima. And to Charisse Bibera for being my co-shooter for the past few months. I hope to collaborate with all of you in the near future.

on Long Breaks, Backlogs and Portraits

It has been awhile since I last wrote something on this blog. I have been meaning to blog about some of my portraits from 2014 but I just haven't had the time or the motivation to do so. So while I am in a lull from shooting events and for clients, I want to write about my personal shoots last year.

People have been asking me if I have finished my 100 portraits project and sadly I haven't. I still have to reach halfway into the project. Since I have this HUGE backlog of portraits to post, I will be publishing these five portraits that I will add to my project. These five ladies are all friends from highschool; they went to the same school as me. And I did all had their "pre-debut" portraits. All the photos were taken last year during "pre-debut" portrait sessions. I like working with them as subjects because the shoots are all light-hearted and fun. I guess photography is the one aspect of my life where I perform best when not under immense pressure.

It was also from their shoots that I got the hang of post-processing with the colors I use now. I got so used to the workflow that I have been applying it to all my shoots with people regardless of it being a portrait or an event. The vintage purplish / yellow / sunset hue is now an identifying trait of my portraits; call it my signature style if you want. I want to continue developing this workflow until I a master it.

Here are the five portraits I am adding to my collection...

Portrait #40: Annalou

Portrait #41: Rin-rin

Portrait #42: Mary

Portrait #43: Ella

Portrait #44: Jill

PS: I will hopefully be shooting a few portrait sessions before the summer ends. If anybody is interested, do send me a message in facebook, twitter or instagram.

PPS: Speaking of instagram, I added a widget on the right for my instagram feed. Follow my mundane not-so-artsy photos of everyday life there.

on Hiatus, Comebacks and Portrait #39

Finally, I'm back after a seven month long hiatus. Well, I took a break from blogging but not from photography. I just did not have the time to update my blog since I was busy with all the other things going on in my life.

Much has changed in the last seven months. I quit my day job, started working professionally as a photo retoucher and I have been shooting for clients more. Now that I found some time in between projects, I want to update my blog with some of the photoshoots that I have done the past few months. And I also want to update my portrait project.

 

Paulyn and Kezia

My first feature will be of my good friend and makeup artist Paulyn. We did several shoots the past few months and this one is with her friend Kezia. We did a shoot for Kezia before, but I am featuring this one because we got it right this time around. And ofcourse there is that mandatory portrait of Paulyn as well.

 

Paulyn and her flower crown 

During the shoot I worked mostly against the light as it was a particularly sunny afternoon. I added a slightly purplish haze during post processing to balance out the yellow and orange cast of the sun. Interestingly, I find adding some sort of haze effect to make portraits appealing. I like the “vintage-ish” look I get.

 

Kezia's angle :) 

And as promised, I am adding this portrait to my project.

Portrait #39: Kezia

 

PS: Thanks to Paulyn, Kezia, Fatima, Junah and Annalou for joining me in this shoot. I'll be posting Fatima's photos next. :D 

on Revisiting Chesca

It has been a long while since I last had a blog entry. I've been busy with so many other things lately that I found it difficult to find time to shoot and write. I am also preparing for a massive career change that is to come at the end of summer. Well, I do hope I can find time to write about the photos I took since my last entry.

For my comeback blog, I revisited the photos of Chesca. I was looking for photos to apply some new things I learned about post processing and I tried it on some of her portraits. I was inspired by the works of Emily Soto and I tried my best to replicate what she was doing. I must say, I am kind of enjoying the vintage and dreamy feel of her portraits. It would be a good addition to my traditional portrait post processing techniques.

 warm tone vintage...

It can be sometimes daunting because of the number of layers I have to create to capture a certain look; this is on top of my usual workflow for portraits. The additional work though is well worth it. Gone are the days of just clicking the "convert to black-and-white" button when I do not like how the colors work. And now, I have more options when I get bored of my "safe" post processing workflow.

 cold tone dreamy look...

I think the new look of the portraits fit my style. The subtle colors, dreamy feel and vintage vibe are more or less what my portraits are about. I will see what other portraits I can apply this style to.

PS:

A few days after finishing the two re-worked portraits, Chesca won the Mutya ng Dabaw pageant. It is probably the biggest and most prestigious pageant in the city. I am really proud to have met her and to have taken her portraits before she became Mutya ng Dabaw. She is the second Mutya I have in my portrait project.

PPS:

Today is also her birthday. Big shout out to the birthday girl! Happy bday Chesca!

on Finding Crab Spiders

I've been under the weather lately and work is killing me. Anyhow, I found some time to blog since tomorrow is a holiday. This post is long overdue.

It's been a long time since I started doing macro work and people often ask me this question: "how on earth do you find these spiders?"

 perfectly camouflaged in its surroundings and waiting for passing prey...

I've learned a lot about how to track spiders and where the most promising spots are in our little garden. Since I specialize in Jumping Spiders, I tend to go to spots where there are big leaves as they like to hang out there. But the most sure fire way to track them down is look for the food source. Where there are flying and crawling insects, you will surely find a spider nearby.

 front view of this Crab Spider...

This curious little critter is what we commonly call a Crab Spider since its stance is similar to that of a crab. They tend to be well camouflaged and according to my research can change color after a few days of being in the same spot. I've seen greens, yellows and brown colored ones in the past. This particular one is somewhat orange as I found it on dried up leaves and flowers. They are really hard to spot since they do not move and are well hidden. They are ambush predators and wait for days on end to catch prey.

 old photo of a Green Crab Spider...

I think I am lucky to have spotted and photographed this specie as it is very hard to find one in the confines of our small garden. I am hoping that by exploring other areas, I'd find some more of them in the future. And since tomorrow is a holiday, I'll make it a point to go shoot macro. 

on Finding the Ant Mimicking Spider

I went through my archive and found the most curious Jumping Spider that I still have yet to blog about. This is the jumper that I have long searched for. In all my years of macro photography, I encountered it only twice and this was the first time I had a good shot of it.

The Salticidae I am talking about is the Ant Mimicking Spider (Myrmarachne). There are a lot of species found in the Philippines but so far, this is the only one found in our garden. I found it on top of the car because it looked weird for an ant. When I took a closer look, I found that it huge jaws and fangs. I took some shots of it before it fled when a bigger Salticidae arrived. If you compared it side by side to the more common jumpers, it will be relatively small and looks incapable of fighting off the larger ones like the Cosmophasis I posted in my last blog.

Here are two of the shots I got for the Ant Mimicking Spider on top of the car. Shot with the same 90mm macro and 50mm reverse stack and an on-cam mounted strobe with an omni-bound diffuser. The greenish tint is from the reflection of the leaves.

I will search for these spiders more this summer. I don't really know how to track them down since I only saw it twice. The next one I find, I will probably observe it more so I get an idea of how they behave and where they are commonly found. Wish me luck! 

on Work and Play

The problem with work is that it interferes with your hobby. I still have some photos from my September shoot that I need to post process but I do not have the luxury of time to do so. I had a hell of a week and now I realized I haven't even touched my camera since my last shoot.

Now that I have some breathing room, I am posting two more images from my last shoot.

The first is from the main model Kitty. I don't usually take this kind of upward angle shot that fills the frame. I like a bit of negative space but this one turned out nicely with the rembrant-ish lighting setup.

The second photo is from a light setup test that turned out quite nicely with Kate who was the stylist, makeup artist and talent manager for that shoot. Having the soft box so close to the model really does produce good results. This was done with a two light setup with the soft box to the right of the model and another strobe to light up the background a bit.

There are quite a number of keepers from this shoot that I'd like to publish in the coming weeks granting that I have the time to edit them. I have yet to start on the set with the second model of this shoot. But this weekend, I promise to take my camera out for a walk first because it is that time of year again that photographer from all over the world would be out on the streets for the annual Scott Kelby World Wide Photowalk. I hope I get some keepers this weekend for the contest and for content in this blog as well.

Wish me luck.

on Revisiting Claire

I should make it a habit to revisit my previous sets.

Last night, I found some unprocessed keepers from a shoot that happened about six months ago. I was bored and there was nothing good on TV so I decided to do some quick post processing. And since a lot of my previous posts were in black and white, I went with some colors for this one.

I really need to work on my post processing skills especially when doing color adjustments. I still haven't found the right mix for those vintage looking photographs. I have some scripts that I tweak to my liking but it isn't as consistent as my B&W photos. I guess there are just too many variables in color photography; or I am just too lazy to post process photos until I get the hang of it.

Anyway, I have some more photos from this set that I would like to publish. I just need to find the time to work on them. For now, I'll be busy with some other stuff like taking a class picture for a graduating class and an upcoming portrait shoot.

on Studio-ish Macro and Reflections

Happy accidents!

I've been having trouble with my new stacked macro lens setup. I stacked a Nikkor 50mm 1.8D on top of my Tamron 90mm 2.5 SP Macro lens with a cheap 52mm-52mm coupler ring. I like the resulting 2.5x magnification but the problem is that the spiders keep on jumping on to my lens. It must be the shiny chrome bayonet mount that attracts them to jump up to my lens.

While out shooting near our black Honda sedan, a spider jumped on my lens. I went to the back of the car so I could lean on the trunk and find where the spider was to remove it. I blew it from the lens to the top of the trunk. The Jumping spider just stood still and I took the opportunity to take some shots. The output was totally unexpected.

I accidentally found a nice shooting location that provided something of a studio feel and at the same time added a reflection. And when lit up by my strobe, the dust added some bokeh to the shot as well. I have tried shooting with the other car which had white paint but the shots were prone to sensor flares.

After discovering the studio like effect of the black paint job, I have had a lot of success shooting on top of the trunk lid. I'll some more photos soon.

on CS6, Tunnels and Portrait #30

One photo will make your day...

You can quote me on that statement above. I have said it before and always say it when shooting models or clients. I just need one photo to make my day. Everything else I shoot will just be for posterity sake. I mean, I am already there so might as well shoot some more right?

And last night I really thought I had a lot of time to edit an entire photoshoot set from a month ago. But then I selected my first photo, I didn't stop tinkering until I got what I really wanted out of it. I spent about an hour and a half doing stuff I normally don't do in photos like removing stray hair and all those portraiture stuff. Well, I guess there is a first for every thing.

Oh, and I did it in Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta release. And I had so much fun because everything was faster and smoother. I learned how to use the color mode in the clone stamp tool and the new feature which is content aware move tool. But I didn't really move the subject around with the tool, I just extended the photo a bit to look more pleasing (in that rule of thirds kind of way). And the action scripts I use don't freeze my laptop anymore.

For those wondering how this shot was done. It was shot using my trusty Nikon D7000 and a Nikkor 85mm 1.8 AFD @ f1.8 and ISO 500 in ambient light. This was shot in a tunnel and I wanted to get the right light to expose my subject as well as the light from the other end of the tunnel for that starbust like effect. I am really liking the 85mm 1.8. I hope I can get one by the end of the year.

The model by the way is Mary Claire whom a co-shooter met while walking his dog. she does professional modeling here in the city. One this I really like about her is her confidence and easy going attitude. Well, come to think of it, those who get into my 100 Portraits project are all easy to work with.

 Portrait #30: Mary Claire

PS: Special thanks to Karina Asetre for the makeup and styling and as usual the Photobomber Crew for the Shoot. Do like the Photobomber Crew Facebook page.

on Revisiting Dannica

"Seek and you shall find..."

At the request of Dannica, I revisited her shoot to look for one more photo she could use as portfolio for a contest. I found this particular photo. At first it was a bit over exposed but I liked how her beauty radiated through with the setting sun behind her. So I went to do some post processing on it to see what it would look like. And after about an hours worth of tweaking the levels and exposure, I found what I was looking for. Its still over exposed but in a good way. This photo was indeed a diamond in the rough. And I am left wondering why I skipped it before.

 

Spurred on by this photo, I'll be revisiting some of my other shoots and perhaps I'll be able to find more hidden gems. And since my archives is over a 100gb, I am sure that the odds of finding workable photos are high. This is also a good practice for my post processing skills.

On Portraiture Year One

It has been a year since I started doing portraits. And curiously, I didn't blog about the start of my portraiture journey.

It started with an invite from a friend to shoot with models. It was a holiday and I didn't really have anything else to do so I went. It didn't go well since I didn't know much about portraiture then; the next shoot had similar results. But during my third shoot, I met people who were already into portraiture; they gave me tips on how to do portraits. And it was the first time I played around with off-cam strobes.

That was probably the real start to my portraiture.

Well, it went through the roof after that particular shoot. Everybody from my group was doing portraiture and I must say that we all improved on our skills. There was even a point where we had weeks that had consecutive shoots; sometimes even days. It's all in the name of the love of photography.

I have experienced shooting in a whole host of different locations and themes. I found what I like to do and where I usually fail. I have learned a lot of things over the past year and I am continuing to make myself better. And it's a continuous learning process which I like since being bored will kill my interest. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish my 100 portraits project this year or perhaps early next year.

So, I'm ending this blog with some of the shots from last year I haven't published.

Marie: The Fairy

Marie: The Fairy in Mono

Jaynie: Split Light