2015/12/31

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)




The Roman Forum

When in Rome, all roads lead to Rome (sic).

Although the Philippines has its share of old structures in places such as Intramuros and Vigan, these seem freshly built when compared to the millenia-old ruins and monuments of Rome. It's no wonder that Rome is also known as "the Eternal City".

ITALY

Rome

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)





I was hoping that Venice would be the highlight of our trip, but limited time and less than ideal weather somewhat dampened the experience. Nonetheless, it was still a beautiful city, and I would love to return someday to wander through its labyrinthine paths under clear blue skies.

FRANCE

Venice

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)





The world-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I had planned to take a picture of myself performing a jumping side kick against the tower, but I left behind my tripod on the tour bus. orz

ITALY

Pisa

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)





With an area of 2 square kilometers, Monaco is second only to Vatican City as the smallest sovereign state. However, Monaco boasts having the highest population density among these sovereign states at 18,900 people per square kilometer.

MONACO

2015/12/23

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)





Nice (same pronunciation as "niece") doesn't get as much recognition as other cities such as Paris, Venice, or Rome, but this place turned out to be the photographic highlight of my trip.

FRANCE

Nice

2015/12/21

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)




Through association with the eponymous film festival, tourists might have high expectations of glamour for the city of Cannes.

Although we saw no movie stars during our brief visit, what I did capture with my camera was a picturesque city and an unusually high concentration of photogenic individuals.

FRANCE

Cannes

2015/11/07

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)


It probably doesn't get any more First World than this. The standard of living in this country sounds almost unreal.

SWITZERLAND

Geneva

2015/11/01

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)


Hailed as "one of the most beautiful villages in France" (Les Plus Beaux Villages de France).

Looking around, it's not hard to see why Yvoire was bestowed that honor.

FRANCE

Yvoire

2015/09/26

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)


Shot from a moving boat in the River Seine at night in the pouring rain.
In-Seine conditions, yes?

FRANCE

Paris

2015/09/12

Veni, Vidi, Vagari (I came, I saw, I wandered)


Checking The Latin Dictionary, "veni", "vidi", and "vici" are verbs in the perfect form while "vagari" is in the present infinitive, but I just wanted an alternative to "vici" since "I conquered" would be an exaggeration of what actually happened.

UNITED KINGDOM

2015/08/29

Umi Ryuuzaki (Magic Knight Rayearth)



I missed the first 15 minutes of Inside Out due because of this, but it was well worth it.

Special thanks to Inah Uriza for the mini-photoshoot session (even though I only had a compact camera to shoot with upset).

The bubbles weren't as effective as I had hoped, but her idea to incorporate the stairs worked ridiculously well with the character's water theme (note how the reflected LED lights give the impression of waves and ripples).

Cyberzone Cosplay Craze


Cyberzone Cosplay Craze

No DSLR due to lack of clarification for Cosplay Snapshot rules; I had to make do with a compact camera (Powershot S110) and an external flash unit as optical slave.

No RAWs; just JPEG with reduced contrast for speed and a bit of flexibility.

2015/05/01

Ozine Fest 2015 (day 2 & day 3)




Ozine Fest 2015

Incidentally, the management explicitly forbid (among other things) photographers from setting up mini-studios. As such, the overall output from the photographers of this event was a tad bit less impressive than usual.

2015/04/19

8th Philippine Cosplay Convention





The past month kept me busy with travel photography editing, but I chose to take a break from all that to honor my yearly visit to the Philippine Cosplay Convention.

2015/02/28

Lens testing at Quiapo




After concluding that 50mm is far too narrow for practical freelensing, I eventually headed to Quiapo to hunt for a prime lens with a shorter focal length. It was in one of the unnamed shops where I stumbled across the smc PENTAX-M 1:2.8 28mm.

2015/02/22

AACP (2015-02-15)


Yet another AACP photoshoot.
Tried combining 3 of my experimental techniques, two of which I've known for 2 years yet have never been used in portrait shoots.

2015/01/29

Otaku Expo 2015 (day 2)


Dropped by Otaku Expo 2015 (day 2) to try out freelensing and an experimental lighting configuration. The results were ridiculously inconsistent but still promising.