Diwata

Having enjoyed only 6 hours of sleep from Friday and none at all the night before the event, I had second thoughts about joining the shoot last Sunday. Once I pulled the camera out of the bag though, there wasn't any room left in my mind for fatigue.

The weather was fairly cooperative this time. I've heard countless photographers complain about sunny days due to the "harsh light" it gives to subjects in the photograph, but I personally find sunlight, blue skies, and green foliage pleasing to look at.

Given that the theme for the photoshoot was diwata ("fairy/nymph/dryad"), I made a conscious effort to incorporate the environment itself into the images.

My preference for scenes over poses also explains my recently heavy use the fisheye lens instead of more conventional options for portraiture (i.e. wide aperture telephoto lens). As such, the shot below is my favorite from that day.

As suggested by a fellow photographer,
I have named this shot "The Temptation of Eve"

That said, I'm quite aware that my current style relies heavily on using unorthodox lenses as a gimmick of sorts.

One of the photographers at the shoot was using a basic point-and-shoot camera, but he was still getting good results with his knowledge about posing and directing models. I intend to learn a bit about these skills at some time in the future.