Club Balai Isabel (feat. coworkers)

Nice place; good times.

I also got to test drive a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS (owned by Gil Paredes). Not much compared to the fancier L lenses, but it's relatively cheap and compact; ideal for those who want to travel light.

Messing around with bokeh...

...still life...

...lighting...

...exposure...

...and action shots.

(-2/3 EV)
Typical set of night shots. For all photographs taken outside a well-lit room, expect negative exposure values.

(-2/3 EV)

(-2 EV)

(-4 EV)

(-4 EV)

(-4 EV)

(-4/3 EV)

Shooting a 250mm f/5.6 at 0.5 meters for (pseudo)macro with shallow depth of field...

... or 15 meters for unobstrusive candid shots.

Pretending to be a wild bird photographer.

More boke. I believe Einhard was handling the camera for this shot.

Now I'm stuck trying to decide between EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS (for compactness), EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM (for a little more focal length without having to rob a bank), or EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM (for uncompromised image sharpness). Not that I'd be able to afford any of these within the next one or two years anyway.

The obligatory (and late) Christmas post

All pics taken with a pair of Lensbaby lenses. The brand's not particularly known for creating sharp images, though it should also be noted that most of these were shot at wide apertures (f/4) to compensate for the low light. Add to that the factor of human error due to lack of autofocus for the lens and lack of experience with manual focusing for the user. Blur is expected.

Incidentally, the guy sitting at the front row of pic #4 is probably a professional photographer. Aside from the speedlight, the L lens was a complete giveaway (I reckon either a 70-200 f/2.8 L or 70-300 f/4-5.6 L. Either way, it's much larger than the f/4 I tried last Wednesday.)