I had the chance to shoot at the finals of the search for Rivermaya’s next singer and I think I left with quite a few good shots. I’m not posting theme here though. Instead, I’ve posted a pair somewhere in my new portfolio over at LightChasers Photography.

Aside from that, I’m posting one of my favorite shots of the night. It’s not edited - I only resized it for the web. Yeah, there’s a distracting element, but I barely noticed it. Besides, that can be removed in Photoshop.

I didn’t take this - Bear did. I may have set up my own studio, but what does it say about me if my girlfriend gets the money shot? I’m not too sure, but I guess I’ll just have to hire her for all my shoots.

Nikki Dy-Liacco, Sana Sta. Ana, and Nina Yuson, all travel writers, were shot several times in Makati last week. The culprit, a photographer named Luis Cruz. The three travel writers, along with their books, found themselves in the sights of Cruz’s camera and ended up with more photos than they bargained for. See some of the images after the jump. [more…]

Ask most photographers what they want for their birthday and they probably would mention a lens, some lights, or some other expensive piece of equipment. No, they probably aren’t asking you to buy those things for them, but face it - that’s what they want. Wait, let me correct that - that’s what we want.

Unfortunately, a lot of the items we want are just too damn expensive to give away. Fortunately, there are still lots of little trinkets that we will always find useful and are still damn cheap.

I’ve got 10 gift ideas for photographers under $20. Some items are meant for more advanced photographers, but all of them are very affordable. Do you want to know what they are? Read on… [more…]

I’m fascinated with shooting tiny things - I guess that might explain my penchant for shooting objects & trinkets that I can put on my desktop. I would love to shoot even smaller items, but unfortunately, I don’t have a macro lens.

It’s a good good thing then that Brian Larter wrote a little post recently on reverse lens photography. What in the world is that? In a nutshell, it involves mounting a lens backward on your camera (or on another lens) to get a makeshift macro lens.

He discusses methods of mounting a lens backward, magnification levels, and other things, but the one topic I was really thankful he tackled was controlling the aperture on your lens. No, this isn’t a problem if you’ve got a lens with manual aperture control on it - but it is when you’re dealing with EF or EF-S lenses. If you’re reading this Brian, you’re a lifesaver.

After reading this, it took me all of two seconds to whip out my camera and try this out. One of my first shots was this abstract piece. Can you tell what it is?

I moved on to other items, and soon decided to play with my makeshift macro lens in my makeshift studio. Several hours and even more shots later, I ended up with the shots of tiny things in my gallery.

So, what do you think?

Tags: macro photography, reverse lens photography, tiny things, DIY, Brian Larter, brianlarter.com

You’ve seen the shots. You know they were all shot with one light. The question is - have you figured out exactly how they were shot?

Yes, I’ve actually learned some things from Strobist - and I’m sharing some of those things with you…

[more…]

Can anybody guess how I shot Ryu?

The answer has to do with lighting, and here’s a clue: all three of these shots were taken with one small light.

Yes, I’m brushing up on my Strobist skills. No, I’m not quite following the Lighting 102 series, but I’m still playing with small strobes. I used a single Canon 430EX for these shots, but what I’d like to know is this - can you tell how I played with the light from my flash?

On another note, I know the figure on the right (the one Ryu is punching) is a Street Fighter character. Can anybody identify him?

Tags: Strobist, Lighting 102, Canon Speedlite 430EX, Street Fighter, Ryu

I don’t own one, but I’m a fan of Timbuk2’s line of bags. I toyed with the idea of building my own Timbuk2 bag a few years ago when I got my laptop, but I ended up with something I could get locally.

Like I said though, I’m still a fan, so when I received an invitation to the launch of their Blogger Bag, I braved the Friday night Makati traffic and trooped over to Outback in Glorietta 4.

Did I finally get a Timbuk2 bag? Not really - I took home a goodie bag, but that doesn’t count. I could have won the one they raffled off, but nope - that bag went to Anton.

So what did I get from the launch? Read on…

[more…]

I know yesterday was Friday the 13th, but unlike last time when I defined the word paraskevidekatriaphobic, I didn’t write a post about it. I guess I couldn’t really care less about the date - that, or I was just too busy to even think about it. It’s a good thing the five-minute blogging fool and apples-pie (it’s her birthday, by the way!) were more mindful of the date.

More significant than the date, however, is the fact that I haven’t written anything in 10 days. Heck, I don’t even have anything scheduled. This is not good.

This is also why I’m writing now - not really about anything in particular, but really more to remind you that I’m still alive. I might as well direct you to my gallery too - I’ve got quite a few new shots up there.

Tags: paraskevidekatriaphobic, Friday the 13th, fool45.com, apples-pie.com