Tag: Photography

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Mostly Everything

Photo Project: Lighting

We have a very friendly stray cat in the house named Ming Ming. While doing our once a year drinking binge slash photography session, Elber brought along his Nikon external flash which we used to do an impromptu portrait take for the cat.

cat photography.jpg

Click on the image for the full view.

The result was absolutely amazing. One the hardest aspects of photographing animals is getting them to stay still – and stay uninterested with your photography equipment that they won’t care less about being shot. Good thing the cat was patient enough to sit through the whole thing.

We did something different here. Elber brought along his home made diffuser, very similar to the DIY FinnBounce and Smelfen for the 350D. But instead of bouncing light, it stopped it. But since the internal flash still fires, it triggers the Nikon slave (apologies, I forgot the model) allowing us to flash from anywhere. His home-made device is made of film strip bunched together and taped with masking tape which is inserted above the lens. I then uploaded the image to iPhoto and with a click of a button, converted to B&W.

So that is how we achieved this image. I was using my favorite prime lens for this. You can check out the full EXIF data here.

When shooting animals – especially cats, it is advisable to try to get the whiskers and eyes as your focal point.

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Mostly Everything

Around the World in One Camera

around the world in one camera traveler.jpg

The Around the World in One Camera Project needs your help! They still need 2 – 3 more participants preferably from Africa.

The whole idea is to create a photo album from images taken by 36 people from around the world using the same “travelling” camera and a single roll of film. Every participant will receive the camera by mail along with a notebook. Using that camera the participant will take a photograph of anything he or she wants and will have to submit a short note, explaining his or her choice of what has been photographed. When it’s done, the camera will be sent to the next participant. The whole process will be repeated until the roll is done.

If you found it interesting and you’d like to be one of the album creators, let me know. If you found it interesting but you cannot or don’t want to be a part of it you can always follow the story in this blog. Every participant will automatically become an author of the blog.

Representing the PH is Jedazzy!

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Mostly Everything

Have you started Christmas shopping?

Pot of Flowers.jpg

I’ve been making my list (and checking it twice) and composed a smile whilst I realized how the list gets longer and longer every year.

I remember something Gail mentioned a few posts back that the true “rewards” of blogging aren’t the AdSense cheques or Xoom transactions, but the many sorts of ties we form, from cyberspace link building to real-life community building.

On a related note, anyone up for a blogger Christmas parteh?

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Mostly Everything

November 2006 Photo Classes by Jo Avila

If you’re dead set on enhancing those photo skillls, or really just want to get those basic photography lessons, you may want to check out this schedule of classes for November. The year is about to end and it may be good to learn something new before 2007.

The great legendary Jo Avila will be giving these classes.

Weeknight Schedule
November 7 – Basic Theories and Principles of Photography
November 9 – Composition Techniques
November 14 – Basic Studio Lighting
November 16 – Basic Photoshop
November 21 – Advanced Photoshop and Guerilla Shooting Techniques

All sessions shall be from 630pm-930pm.

There are only fifteen (15) slots available.

The seminar fee of P3, 500/participant is the total fee for all five sessions. All participants will receive handouts and a certificate of attendance.

Weekend Schedule
November 11 – Basic Theories and Principles of Photography
November 18 – Composition Techniques
November 25 – Basic Studio Lighting
December 2 – Basic Photoshop
December 9 – Advanced Photoshop and Guerilla Shooting Techniques

All sessions shall be from 2pm-5pm.

There are only fifteen (15) slots available.

The seminar fee of P4, 500/participant is the total fee for all five sessions. All participants will receive handouts and a certificate of attendance.

Advanced Lighting Workshop
November 8 – Composition & Lighting
November 15 – Composition & Lighting
November 22 – Composition & Lighting
November 29 – Composition & Lighting

All sessions shall be from 630pm-930pm.

All sessions will begin with case study discussions of certain shooting situations. All sessions will have a studio shooting session using various light sources and techniques. It is for this reason that the class is limited to a maximum of eight (8) participants only.

Slot reservations are on a first come, first serve basis.

The seminar fee of P4, 500/participant is the total fee for all four sessions and is already inclusive of a certificate of attendance.

All sessions will be held at Unit 114, Gold Building, 15 Annapolis, Greenhills, SJ. You may reach Jo at pinakamagalingako at hotmail dot com.

Categories
Mostly Everything

Photo Project: Working with Frames

leo castillo photoworks.jpg

Yesterday concluded the end of our six day workshop for Batch 25 of Photoworks! I learned a lot from Leo Castillo and my classmates. It is a class I am recommending to those who would want to learn how to develop an eye for photography with (relatively) not a lot of technical information.

To cap it off, I’d like to do a case study of one of my photo projects where I had to print something using emphasis with frames. I already had the initial shot in mind, to take my dog peeping through the spokes of our calesa in the garden. The problem was how to make him sit still whilst I focused.

Here’s what I did. I turned off auto focus and manually focused on the wheel with my 50mm prime lens. My dog doesn’t have a very long neck so I would assume that he would be on the same focal length as the wheel. I propped the 350D on the tripod and used an RC-1 remote control. What I did was to take the orange ball and put it in between the spokes so that Hondo (my Boston) would try to get it. I was on top of him at the time, firing the shutter every second.

I guess that this goes to show how hard it is to photograph pets. Not only do you need to get down to their level, but you also need to show some form of engagement and be able to freeze that action. I only had one good shot out of about 20.

I was shooting with an ISO of 100 which I realize now made the shot harder because it bumped my shutter speed to 1/20 which is hard for pet shots, especially when they move fast. Thank God he stayed still for once.

hondo with ball.jpg

Click on the image to view.
ISO 100 f/1.8 1/20

You can view my EXIF data here.