hey kids..

how's it going everyone?

m.

glamour shots

On the last meeting of our photography class, we were asked to submit a glamour shot and a still life shot of glassware.

It was a Saturday, approximately 3:30 in the afternoon..

Good thing my sister agreed to pose for me..

And this is Jei, Ton's subject. This photo was at the Top 5 and he got a medal for it..

The 5 sessions we took at the FPPF, I should say was all worth it.

window light illuminated portrait

WRITER'S NOTE: CAUTION! The photos you are about to see are products of not having the appropriate model and sunlight.

Heck, atleast we were able to come up with a decent window light illuminated portrait given that we started working when the sun is about to set. We don't have a choice but to make use of the resources available, i.e. ourselves.







Blimey!









I have no words....













RRRRRooooCCKK SStarrr!!!

H1N1..are you fully aware?

According to an online article:

"The recent outbreaks of disease in people globally are caused by a new influenza (or "flu") type A (H1N1) virus. There is a human H5N1 virus circulating and causing seasonal influenza and in the past, very occasionally, H1N1 viruses from swine have infected humans. The specific type of the H1N1 virus causing illness now is new or "novel" and in the current outbreak it is clear that this virus is able to infect humans and be passed from person to person.
Although part of the virus may have originated from pigs, there is no evidence that the current spread of infection is coming from that source. "



So how well do we know this "new" phenomenon? Are we equipped with the right knowledge and supplies to combat this?

A lot of questions cross my mind each time I hear updates from the news, when I read the papers and during discussions with co-workers.



Am I at risk?

Of course, each and everyone of us is, it's a flu virus after all. This virus spreads from person to person through coughing or sneezing of people with influenza.



If it's just a flu then it's curable?

Uhm yeah.. of the recorded 3o something thousand cases of this virus throughout the world, there were only 163 casualties. But this doesn't mean it is something to be taken easily. It's a new strain, experts are still on their way to a breakthrough on how to cure this. Flu shots and medicines available are designed only to combat the human virus (H5N1).



How can I ensure myself and my family's protection against this?

Aaah good one! During my Basic Life Support training at the Philippine National Red Cross last May we were given some precautionary measures to prevent ourselves from getting the virus. First and foremost is to maintain good hygiene, always wash your hands. Stay in good physical health, boost your immune system. And most importantly, practice social distancing, I know this one's hard to do (I'm a sucker for hugs and kisses too!). Always allow yourself 3-4 feet from people specially on crowded places.

Wake Up!

Are we being punished?

Hell yeah we're surely are! Hahaha just kidding! The way I see it, God is trying to give us a message. Like "My child, the signs of the time is coming.."something like that. He is tugging our sleeves and waking us up to see this reality. Mother nature is starting to take its toll on us.


For more information, please visit:
www.un.org/staff/pandemic
www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en.index.html
www.cdc.gov.swineflu/investigation.htm

Laborious Growth

Growth is slow and painful. A constant struggle for survival.

Red and Green..and brown

I'd like to share some shots we took during our rendezvous in Fort Santiago last Sunday.

got green? =p

here kitty-kitty

Isn't it great?! I love long weekends!

This is one of the one million cats (exaggerating) we have in our home. He doesn't have a name. We quit giving names to the cats because we lost count on them.

Enjoy the weekend!

mae

Lemy..

Meet Lemy, an innocent looking slug from the flowerboxes of Fort Santiago. Last Sunday the sun finally showed up and brightened the sky. We were all enthralled by the fact that we're gonna be able to go out and take shots around Fort Santiago. If it wasn't for the long discussion on composition we could've had A LOT of time and sunlight to take photos. Last Sunday's class was pretty interesting, even premiered ad photographer Jon Chua dropped by to give a talk on making a career out of photography. Neat!

Class ended pretty late because of the many things the instructor had to say on composition. It was almost 4 when we were finally dismissed. We all quickly went out to "sarge" for spots where we could take a good photo for next week's assignment. Ton and I managed to take a lot of shots with what's left of the sunlight (and Lemy was one of them).

blk-on-blk

It's been raining nonstop for days now. It's hard to get a decent photo for this week's assignment. A couple of days ago the power went out as I was eating breakfast. I asked my mom if we have candles lying around. It was too dark that breakfast had become difficult. My mom descended from upstairs and handed me this tubby candle and told me to use it for the meantime. She can't find a regular candle so she let me use this really fancy one and it's scented. Voila! an instant black on black shot for my homework!
I ate quickly after that, the scent of the candle did not compliment my eggs and hotdogs well. It was revolting.

mae.

Digging into the archives..

I am getting the hang once again of this blog thing. I mentioned once in a previous post that this will not be often updated. I don't know why but somehow each time I went online in the past week this is the only site that I seemingly frequented. Maybe because of the anxiety brought about by falling short of numerous shots needed for this week's assignment.. I am inches away to "cranky mode". Juggling the goddamn day job and this new found hobby is becoming a challenge but nevertheless I am enjoying it. It's good to let your creative juices flow out of your system once more .

It's been a while since I detached myself from the arts. When my "band" went to "hiatus" I never really get to play that much anymore. I really need to kick myself back to art, I just never realized till now that it's going to be this kind of art. Visual.

I am not gonna share photos that I took today but rather something from a couple of months ago. Last December, me and Ton went to my mom's hometown (Laguna), to visit my grannies and escape the toxicity that is the city. We brought along with us my sister's point-shoot-click-sh*t camera. Ton managed to take a few decent photos out of it.

I am not so sure on what kind of specie this creature falls. It's hairy, it crawls and it's freaky. This was hanging on Ton's shirt when we first saw it and then he gave the poor thing the flicking of the lifetime and it fell into the ground. The creature lay there lifelessly and we decided take a photo of it.

I took this one of Ton. We were walking along Baker Hall in UP Los Banos and decided to stop and admire the wide stretch of the soccer field across it.

I wanted to have a photo of us together but too shy to ask strangers to do it for us. This is how we figured out how to do it. =P

And finally a kissy picture.. I love kissy pictures.. There was no mistletoe but there was this huge Christmas tree standing near the entrance of UP.

Time to sleep now..

purrrr..

The gods did not favored me this morning..

"Is it too much to ask for a little sunlight?" =(

I took this photo in front of our doorstep. Our cats seems to have a certain inclination over our old and crummy doorstep. Rain or shine, they sit and sleep there.

m.

the idiot's guide to basic photography by:mae

After weeks of waiting we started with our basic photography class last May 31st at FPPF. I personally believe that Ton should take advance photography class right away because he already knew what was being taught there, but the good part was he was there to explain to me when things get unintelligible. Hehehehe..

Basically the instructor introduced us to the wonderful world of operating our DSLRs.

By next meeting we should come up with nine shots with certain themes like color, pattern, shallow and deep depths of field, motion freeze, motion blur, (I'm sorry I'm a bit lethargic to expand these terms right now) and all other things on the creative mode of our DSLRs. I am falling behind. Up to this time, I had just came up with two boring shots of a leaf with a furry little insect in it and the shot I took in Fort Santiago for close up and deep depth respectively. I will not post it now because I have to consult my specialist if these shots can make the cut.

Anyways.. I fool around with the camera while we watched the photographer take pictures of my classmates for our IDs.






I don't know her name, will find out on Sunday. This is the closest I could get to them when our instructor was taking photos. She's cute.. hehehe..

I like this shot that I made because there was minimal camera shake..

I still have a long way working on my exposures..

DARN it!






The ceiling. I was playing with the white balance of the camera here. I took like a bazillion shots of this ceiling with different white balance settings. I believe I'm using the fluorescent setting on this shot.







Fun with shutter speed! This is a "not so great" example of a motion/blur shot. I enjoyed taking this photo. You should see how ridiculous we looked doing this.






When we got home, there was this thing going on in the hood. Because of the weather that time, I could not get any closer to this lady right here. Hers is one of the few with a very good lighting. I was using an 18-70mm wide lens and Ton was using his tele. I will ask him to post some of the shots he made so you guys can see the difference. This shot could be a good example of a shallow depth of focus, if only I got the chance to get near her face.


I hope the weather would be great tomorrow so I could bring the camera outdoors. I am still 7 shots short. HELP!!

A Post Long Overdue: Puerto Galera

I never promised that this will be updated regularly, lolz. We have day jobs too you know!

Last May 15 and 16 we went to Puerto Galera to celebrate our 9th year anniversary and welcome my 25th year of existence in this world. Ton crashed in my place at around 10 pm, we're supposed to go to the bus terminal at three in the morning. To kill time we went to McDonald's to eat and went back again to my house and watch a whole lotta tv! By the time it was three I can barely keep my eyes open but then again we have to leave or we'll miss the earliest bus to leave the metro.

Huholz! Photos!

It's past 5 in the morning when we arrived at the port area. We have to wait for an hour and half before we boarded the boat to White Beach. In this photo, the photographer (Ton) went walking around the waiting area shooting random things. I wonder why the seats needs to be color coded, (are the green ones for the passengers going to Occidental Mindoro?,the blue ones to Romblon?,) but nonetheless its interesting.

Ah, the fisherman.. I believe this was taken on the way there.. Too bad we're not able to catch dolphins on our way..




We arrived at White Beach at around 9am. I took a quick power nap and my photographer scoot outside taking photos of the beach. He never wanted to miss these shots, with the sun shining bright up the very blue sky. Too bad I was not able to join him (blame it on the cramps).







Another frustration that day was never getting the chance to kayak. I enjoyed kayaking when I went to Palawan a long time ago. I never noticed my skin getting all scorched up because of the activity. I will definitely kayak when I get back to the beach. I just hope it won't cost that much. Yes, I'm still in the middle of the power nap when he took this shot.

(If you know a beach just a drive away from the metro and have good facilities, kayaking, snorkeling activities, etc. please let us know)




At around lunch time, I finally woke up and join Ton outside. We went walking at the beach to look for a place to eat. We found one a couple of blocks from where we were staying.






This is Ton, he takes a lot of good photos and do the meanest photo manipulation you can imagine. I have to mercilessly convince him to take his photo. I was playing with his camera while waiting for our food.














And this is Mae. A self confessed book worm with a passion for hating clowns and making coffee. She makes the world's most beautiful foam and multitasks like she has 8 hands hanging out of her. When not doing this she is either reading a book or trying her hardest to take a decent photo.


When we finished lunch, we went back to the house and stayed there for a couple of hours. It was hot as hell outside. We sit in front of the tv which apparently had only a single channel. Rats! We got ripped off!!


At around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. We went out to once again capture the scenery outside before sundown.








I sat on this decaying tree bark and read the book I brought with me. Gnarly!













I have been rereading this book for quite sometime now. Haha! I kind of personally like this shot (because my face is blurred hahaha), it makes a good avatar or something.


I was the not so glamorous model that day.








We went walking back and forth across the stretch of the white sanded beach looking for interesting sites to capture, and this was one of them. A walk path that leads to some resort at the white beach. We like the horizontal panels of wood that kinds of gave the photo symmetry and balance.








And this one too. haha!










Of course a sunset shot has to take place, but Ton told me it's actually dangerous to take photos of the sun directly. Anyways, it's a beauty even you can tell that.




On the dawn of my birthday, we went out to get the famous Mindoro Sling, and boy it was a wrong move. We managed to finish the whole pitcher but we went tipsy instantly thus commencing the night short.




But we were lucky enough to get a glimpse of the fire twirler!









When we got back to the house everything went blank completely. We were not able to wait til 12 midnight and go out again to celebrate my birthday. The next thing we know it was already bright outside! We just grabbed lunch and waited for our boat to arrive.

The trip was short but worth it!

kick off

What makes a good photograph?

In a world swarmed by wannabes and posers one gets caught in the cliche and the pressure from a society that demands constant beauty and appreciation, where technology became a passion and being in is a necessity. It's hard to find that "humble sauce" that what I think makes up a good thing. Bleh, I'm not making any sense am I?

To cut this thing short, in the succeeding posts you will see photography on a different perspective, from a photographer who is truly a man of the arts and a blogger who, sometimes has a say on anything, (intelligible and unintelligible that is.)

Spread the word..

Comment if you may..