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

Smile Service: Openshoot for a Cause

This photoshoot marked my first use of the Nissin 866 Mark II for portraits. By then, I had already recognized the tremendous potential of using external flash, but this event also reminded me of how limited my current knowledge is.

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?

Let there be light

Just got myself an external flash unit. This is intended primarily for strobing and high speed sync, but I suppose I could also use it occasionally for portraits and events.

Realization

Looking back, I realize now that we were the main cause of our own disappointment. We had anticipated so much and waited for an act of God, yet did nothing ourselves to turn our hopes into reality.

Simply put, the world didn't end on December 21 of 2012 because nobody had the balls to push the big red button. =(

The photographer's wakizashi

My fourth Canon, I suppose.

1st - IXUS 105
2nd - EOS 600D
3rd - Powershot G12 (won in a raffle, owned for about 3 weeks, used for about 15 minutes, eventually sold)
4th - Powershot S110

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

Canon Photomarathon 2012

This shot would have probably looked better if I had the fisheye lens with me.

The Canon Photomarathon of 2012 came to a close yesterday.