on Lightning and Interval Shooting

I just love it when there is a lightning storm. It's like nature is putting on a light show. I can just sit and watch it for hours.

Better yet, I could shoot it.

There have been lightning storms over the weekend. Since I have been under the weather, I decided that I'd shoot the storm tonight just to keep myself busy. But I did it in the relative safety and comfort of our living room. So, I mounted my camera on a tripod, set the interval shooting mode to shoot one hundred ten second exposures at one second intervals. I had a total of three rounds with the same settings and got these three frames.

It was the first time I tried shooting lightning using the interval mode and it turned out better than I expected. Too bad I didn't have a better angle on the lightning cloud or a wider lens. I hope to do better next time.

on Rainy Days and Mondays

There are good days and there are bad days. And there are times when one photo is enough to make your day.

I had a recent shoot with Sofia along with some of my Photobomber friends on a rainy Monday afternoon. It was a damp and dreary afternoon. For me, rainy afternoons is the ideal time to sleep. But boredom got the better of me and we decided to proceed with the shoot. And on the first location, I didn't even bother looking for keepers as my brain wasn't working.

On the second location, my friend had the idea of taping a strobe to an umbrella and letting the model use it as one would use a normal umbrella. When I knew I had my shot, I passed on the strobe trigger and called it a day.

Ansel Adams once said that having twelve good photos in a year is a good crop. In the age of digital photography, one good photo per shoot will make it worthwhile. And with a model like Sofia, a shoot is never boring as she has a limitless supply of energy. A fun shoot plus a fun model always makes things interesting.

PS: click the image to be redirected to my 500px.com portfolio.

The Flooded Streets

Climate change has certainly been in the spotlight for the past weeks with those monster storms in Australia. Floods, at least, flooding of city streets during heavy rains is very common in Davao City. As far back as in my childhood days, flooding has been a problem in this city. And in recent years, it has gotten a whole lot worse.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I was stuck in Victoria Plaza, a local mall, with Anna. We met up there to go to another mall to watch a movie. But it was called off on the account of rain. The flooding was so severe that we decided just to eat and hang out at a coffee shop on the mall grounds. Before proceeding to the coffee shop, I got curious and took a closer look at how bad the flooding was. With camera in hand, and inspired by the Bad Weather Photos by Danny Santos, I took a few clicks. Then realized I had the perfect vantage point for panning shots.

On the first set of clicks, I got my first keeper.

Then, I waited patiently and got another one.

The pair of photos I got were the ones that I liked the most. It was hard to get panning shots but I had fun. I know composition is key to a good photo, but when your subject is moving, it’s a different thing all together. What matters is that I had fun taking these shots. And I do hope to take some more bad / extreme weather shots and perhaps make a portraiture set out of it in the near future. For now, panning shots keep the boredom away.

Creature of the Night

In recent days, I have found a liking to shooting at night. Light streaks in photos really make my day. I don’t know what it is that draws me to the light but it really does fascinate me. And besides, it’s much more convenient for me to shoot at night after work. I just wish that there are more places for me to shoot at night. If you have ideas on places where I can shoot then please do leave comments. Also, I wish that our city has underground power lines rather than those hanging on poles; it sort of ruins the shot when you see dangling wires everywhere. Here are a few of my recent shots in the nightscape genre.

I See The Light

As a kid, light has always fascinated me and it didn't matter where it came from. I am especially attracted to bright lights of different shades. Fireworks, Xmas Lights, Flashlights and anything that blinks easily attracts my attention. And I was a bit of a pyromaniac too. Anyway, my love for light has also taken root in my photography. Here are a couple of pictures that play with light. I'm still learning how to use the ambient light and manipulate the light sources for it to become art.

This is my first attempt at Light Painting. I picked a simple word to illustrate what a mobile light source and long exposures can do. (I flipped the image horizontally because I was having a hard time writing backwards.)

This next one is called a "Bokeh" shot. The ambient light behind my subject becomes an accent for the whole scene. It's one of the techniques that I would like to master in the coming months.

The last is a nighttime shot at long exposure. It was a spur of the moment thing to shoot above street level and show the night scene of JP Laurel Avenue; one of the busiest streets in Davao City. When light and cars come together is a scene worth capturing. I do hope to take better long exposure shots because this one was done in a hurry. My framing also needs some improvement.



P.s. Your critique and comments about the photos are most welcome. I want to get better at what I do.