It was summer. The heat of the sun felt like needles pricking your skin when you're exposed to it. But then, the shivering heat will be added with a feeling of coldness after witnessing a horrific view of men with stains of blood on their back and head... then suddenly, some of them were been prepared to be NAILED!!!
Ok, enough of over-reacting. I've just visited my in-laws to see the annual Lenten festivity at their place. As a tradition, religious catholic men practices penitence by creating wounds at their back then continuously hit it with a whip made of wooden sticks at the end. Some other devotee were crucified according to their religious vow (Panata).
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Engaging yourself in a social event may always be considered challenging particularly, where most of the visiting people are aiming to take memories of the event through photographs. There are a lot of events worth covering: common events are weddings, birthdays, reunions and many similar more. But, all that I mentioned were family or friends event which is quite far from the kind of social event I am referring to... I am referring to an event such as a promotional convention or exhibit... something like a CAR SHOW event.
These kind of event will give you a lot of chance to push yourself to have the most satisfying photos you can get "no matter what it takes". Although these kind of event was mostly in favor of the male guests, there are still a lot of things well-prepared to be photographed. The challenge mostly comes in only if you try to take photographs of the GIRLS or what they called them as the race queens. Taking their photograph means you need to endure and "fight" your way to the front of many eager and enthusiastic photo takers in commotion wherever a race queen is at sight, and you must patiently wait for your subject model to pose the way you wish they should be. If you're lucky enough, the race queens may think of you as a professional and you might find yourself being favored by them by facing you always while doing a couple of different poses. It might put you on pressure, though, to not let all these "favors" they given you to be put in vain. You may think that, almost 90 percent of the poses they make must be well photographed. Well, don't think like that... It will be almost impossible to be that accurate on photo-shooting... Even a professional photographer takes hundreds of photo but keeps only five to ten of the best ones. So, for me, for these kind of event, just prepare and bring your reliable gear, shoot away and enjoy.
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Nowadays, due to hot weather with unpredictable monsoon rains, it's quite inconvenient to go out and practice to improve our photo-shooting skills. But, it's good to know that there are lots of photography expertise that someone like me may practice even indoors and while in the comfort of our home. Some may practice studio modelling photography, high-speed photography, product photography or food photography. Among the four mentioned photography practices, the least or "cheapest" equipment used to practice, for me, is the Food Photography.
As I researched to get guides and tips in doing food photography, the most common tip I get is, look for a very good source of light. The suggested light source are natural daylight that passes through windows or doors or use studio strobes with soft-box to mimic daylight although this means you need these equipment that are quite costly. Well, if I will have to choose between free and cheap, I would certainly pick the free... anyway, we can always work-around the free option, but good thing in food photography, picking the free light source option, the daylight, is the best. Basically, since daylight is the best light source, as long as you can mimic the light intensity and white balance setting for daylight using other artificial light and applying some reflectors, these will work fine.
By the way, Food photography works perfectly with food styling. Food styling is like "make-up enhancement" done to make the food looks very appetizing.
Here are the photos resulting from different light sources. Some photo shoot were prepared while some are just spontaneous.
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There is always a time that I was at a point of thinking, Where can I get a subject "Well prepared" and just waiting for someone to get some shots before they will be taken away? Most of the time, this kind of well prepared subjects such as pretty places or items that were decorated with colorful or elegant accessories, can be seen on locations with festivities or some kind of celebrations. That's one of the best places to go to collect some simply amazing photos without much effort.
So, one time, I went to an exhibit that displays things that commemorate the history of Singapore. I didn't fail with my purpose of having a couple of photos of things that were visually appealing and placed on a well lit locations. That's what I meant of "Well Prepared" subjects. Some "Well-Prepared" subjects that we may consider are blooming flowers, pretty models wearing their best make-up and dresses and nature to name a few.
Here are some photos on my last visit in a museum.
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Creating an amazingly sharp and detailed landscape during my free time of the day, which is mostly at night time, is one of the things I've been fascinated to learn when I was starting the photo-taking hobby. I know, this photo taking knowledge of night shooting while enjoying the collections of clear and crisp photos I may took will save me from being frustrated in this kind of past-time-turned-serious-hobby. Night shooting, for me, is always related to long exposure photography. A photo taken from 1/10th of a second or longer can be considered taken through long exposure method. Well basically, as long as your subject's movement or the one's around it are moving faster than the rate of your camera's shutter speed, you'll be in the long exposure mode. But to be able to capture a subject in a very low lighting condition, a much slower shutter speed is required to collect enough light that bounces off from the subject's surface.
For beginners and who are not familiar to digital photography terminology, long exposure photography is a method of collecting enough light during times or place that has very small amount of light. It's the same as how you are able to see inside a dark movie theater after some time of staying inside.
Here are some of my recent photos taken by long exposure method.
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This summer, when you heard that you will go to the beaches, instantly, you'll visualize a blue-green sky meeting with clear water
beneath, clean white sand, cool breeze and the sweet smell of air passing through the coconut trees... how relaxing and a great
opportunity to take "Amazing" photos. But.... what if when you reach your expected promising beach, you'll find no extra-ordinary or
worst, totally opposite of what you imagined? Well actually, it's your fault to expect too much... don't forget, beach amenities and
features always comes with a price... So what do you expect on a public, not-so expensive or effortlessly near beach resort? Nothing. This is
exactly what I experienced when visiting some beaches recently. But I told myself, "I'm not going home in vain"
Taking photos of not so appealing locations will give you challenge and the only
thing you need to do is to hold on to your expectations before you came there. Thanks to photo editing software, you can apply
different look to your photos and even enhance it to become what you've imagined it would be.
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Been here.... Been here all the time. It's Baguio City, Philippines. It's been countless times that I visited this "Summer Capital of the Philippines" due to the cool climate all year long but the coolest during December to February. I love the climate reaching at a moderate temperature of 10 degrees Celcius (probably the coolest I only experienced) but there are records that It reaches lower than that. It's been very common to take photos of the prominent tourist attractions from this small town in the mountain, so, I simply avoided it. I took photos of some things that, for me, gives me an impression of this small city. The very busy night market, arts and crafts and the cool weather, specially at night.
Photos taken was during my December 2012 vacation.
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