Premeditated shooting

Something caught my attention after participating in several informal fashion shoots and attending a few cosplay conventions.

Despite the proliferation of digital cameras, photographers are still lagging behind illustrators in terms of imagination. The vast majority of photographers seem to be stuck in a rut wherein the point of view is always between eye level and chest level, with the subject holding static poses about 3-10 meters away. Surprisingly, the issue of uniformity persists even in toy photography (albeit with scaled down proportions and a different range of angles).

Celestial Clockwork

Here is a series of shots that required a little more brainstorming, planning, anticipation, cooperation, measurement, trial and error, improvisation, and luck than usual (even more so than the food photography attempt the week prior which was for another contest).

Synesthesia

Front to back, left to right:

 Sprite, Tanduay Ice (original), Coke Zero

Tanduay Ice Yellow Paradise, Tanduay Ice Blue Illusion

Tanduay Ice Red Mirage

Fireworks displays, and how I(S) blew the shot

Climbed up the water tower with 2 cameras and tripods for a better view.

Shameless self-portrait over. I'll get straight to the point.

If you're shooting on a tripod, never forget to turn off the image stabilization (IS, Canon)/vibration reduction (VR, Nikon)/vibration compensation (VC, Tamron) of the lens. It's a handy feature for handheld shooting but it turns tripod mounted shots into tripod mounted shits, as demonstrated below.

Best Wishes

 So...

What did you wish for last Christmas?

Go Figure (2012/12/13)

Props to Lester for the idea of using an LCD screen for the background; it's a hell of a lot more convenient than setting up a diorama. I'll be using my own photographs though, partly out of respect for the copyrights of other photographers on the Net, but mostly because it'd make a more interesting challenge to create my own set of stock photos.


Total time for setup and experimentation:

• 2+ hours

Random paraphernalia:

• a reasonably large LCD screen for the background
• a clamped desktop lamp for lighting
• a sheet of paper as diffuser
• a stack of books and my everyday black hat as the elevated base for the figurine

Goldilocks

Taken with the IXUS 105.

Despite the market share of compact cameras being eroded by the proliferation of smart phones with decent optics and cheaper interchangable lens cameras, I think that there are enough people out there who still appreciate the balance between performance and size.

CONTRACT. NOW.

"I want you to make a contract with me and—

Wait...

...you don't even have a soul, do you?"

One stop closer (minor level up for cheap pseudo macro)

Finally solved the depth of field issue using reversing rings.

Six hours between sunset and sunrise

From Narita to San Francisco for my sister's wedding. All taken with my IXUS 105 since the 600D was stowed away.

Ride the Lightning

Just spent the past hour staring out the window.

Pyromaniac

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Go Figure (2012/07/16)

After much procrastination and the recent suggestion from DigitalRev, I had finally assembled the Evangelion model which I had bought last year.

The Walking Man (volume 2)

In contrast to my previous solo photowalk which involved a single zoom lens (the EF-S 18-135mm), this collection was taken using only prime lenses (specifically, the cheapshit EF 50mm f/1.8 and the Lensbaby fisheye with the f/8 aperture).

Also, these were taken over several days instead of in a single session.

Although I also had the Lensbaby Sweet 35 in the bag, I had not encountered any subject recently which really begged to be taken with a selective focus lens. That piece of glass has rather limited use outside of portraiture.

Incidentally, I need to do a thorough check of the camera after this batch of photographs. Frequent switching of lenses is a recipe for stubborn dust on the sensor.

An unsound mind in an unsound body

Yesterday, I went to the hospital for a pulmonary check up.

Waiting for my turn to see the doctor, I wandered through the halls at 8PM and noted that I was exhibiting the symptoms of having played too much Silent Hill.

The fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh.

 Seriously, these walls would have been fucking awesome if they were painted red

An unsound mind in an unsound body, but at least the imagination is somewhat healthy.

Foaming at the mouth

Kabilin-bilinan ng lola
'wag nang uminom ng serbesa
Ito'y hindi inuming pambata
Mag-softdrinks ka na lang muna
Pero ngayon ako'y matanda na
Lola pahingi ng pangtoma

The stuff's flavored though; I can't stand the taste of the regular variant.