This photo of my lovely wife was taken at The French Baker inside the South Supermarket in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. I was kind of hungry and I was looking for a place to get some snacks. We found this place right after we bought some groceries at the supermarket. A nice, quiet spot to relax and sip coffee after a long drive from the province. And as usual for me, I take snapshots of my lovely wife haha! Who wouldn’t?
I love photography as an art expression and ever since our younger days, she has been my photo subject. I usually just take snapshots of her haha! Here’s a photo below when she was about 22 years old. Back then, I took this shot with a Nikon camera with a 50mm lens. It was then a time when I was still beginning to learn about photography and I was fascinated with my newfound hobby. I’m still learning up to now. And of course, my lovely wife was and is always a willing photo subject haha!
Last November 2013, a group of photographers organized a “photoshoot activity for a cause” to help victims of the calamity caused by Typhoon Yolanda. I learned about this from a friend so I joined. I wanted to learn more about photography and in some way help as well the calamity victims. This was my first time to experience a model photoshoot along with other photographers. It was a great experience. I learned a lot and it exposed me to the world of models and other photography hobbyists and professionals including make-up artists. The donations were turned over by the organizers to ABS-CBN for the Typhoon Yolanda victims.
In this particular shot, I now know that I made a mistake in setting my ISO so high at 1600. I discovered that my kind of camera becomes grainy even at ISO 800. I now only limit myself to ISO 400 because of this experience. Other cameras can handle higher ISO better than my camera can.
Oh well, it was my first experience in photoshooting with a real model along with other professional photographers. I did learn a lot.
This was during my first experience to join a photoshoot —my first photoshoot — along with other photographers and during this time, I was still trying to figure out how to shoot well. I was still trying to figure out which lens to use. I had an old f1.8 50mm Nikon lens, 30mm sigma lens and my kit lens. It was a time of experimenting and learning haha!
I’m hoping I’ll be invited again to another photoshoot so I could get to learn more and enhance my photographic skills—and have fun along way, of course.
This was my first experience at photoshooting models. It was my first experience to join a photoshoot organized by a group of photographers for the benefit of the typhoon Yolanda victims. I was glad I joined. Models and make-up artists also joined this photoshoot for a cause. I learned a lot by just being exposed to fellow photography enthusiasts who are more experienced and more knowledgeable than me.
Model: Gummi Fiona (Click to zoom)
For these particular shots, it was a challenge to get a really good shot because I was using an old f1.8 50mm Nikon lens which I attached to my Panasonic Lumix GF1 camera body. The 50mm Nikon lens was a kit lens for my old Nikon EM film camera back in the 70s. Since it had no electronic connections, I had to focus manually and it was a challenge because the model does move once in a while and I was shooting without a tripod. I was glad I was able to get some good shots. It was a great learning experience.
This is actually just an ordinary photo of my daughter which I took sometime in 2012. I tried to enhance the quality of the image and I’m still learning a lot. In this photo, I’m also trying to learn how to make headshots based on what I have learned from professional photographers on YouTube. I’m not sure if I’m successful in portraying the character of the person here but I hope it does show somewhat from looking at the picture.
My daughter loves to make digital drawings and she is an Animation student. By showing her artist’s cap, I’m trying to convey that it is what she loves doing the most. She is actually in her college uniform and so I included her shoulder to show the white blouse. I’m trying to convey her character here. Hmmm… portrait photography.
