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!!