my chucks and i

my chucks and i
Originally uploaded by gezelle

i have created a set inspired by my multiply skin. photos were taken at home and is part of the self-portrait series. this is my third "do-it-yourself photoshoot" set and is the most difficult so far. the shoot took the longest but with the least number of good outputs. i needed several makeup retouches for this to remove sweat in the face and several water breaks to relieve the stress that was already building up. it wasnt at all easy to take photos when you're wearing a gown for sure!

the first good photos came out after 90 minutes of testing and figuring out what to do. i wanted to stand up but my head gets cut-off because there wasn't enough room in my house for stepping backwards and i wasnt comfortable in shooting at portrait mode.

the next challenge was posing to make sure i looked good and my flaws were not too evident. it doesnt help that the gown was tight in the tummy area which made bending or slouching impossible because every time i would, a bulk (or two) around my stomach would show up. definitely not a pretty sight.

as before, the setup was pretty basic. there was one light source that was constant and diffused by a white umbrella. in manual mode, my setting was similar to what i had used in my other DIY sets with the
lens almost at 35mm and aperture at f5.6. shutter was at 1/40 and white balance was in bulb setting.

please let me know what you think of the odd pair set. thanks and have a good day!

the one with the volkswagen

the one with the volks
Originally uploaded by gezelle

this photo was shot at the parking lot of the SLU campus in baguio. the car isnt ours and in fact, we dont own one. we just saw this beetle on our way out of the university after having attended her brother's hooding ceremony. the ceremony was amazing and was part of the graduation rites, in case you were wondering.

it was not difficult for me to come up with the body pose. i knew i wanted to shoot her sitting at the front. i knew i wanted one leg stretched and the other bent. but i kept on struggling about the facial expression. i didnt know how i wanted it to be. in the end, she helped me out and made several faces. she smiled, she frowned, she looked up, she looked down, she appeared serious, she appeared lost... but in the end, i chose this: her "my car got broken and i have been waiting for a while now so please help me fix it or something like that" look :)

as usual, this was shot using my olympus evolt e-500, my kit lens set at 35mm and aperture of f5.6. iso is probably 100 or 200. the photo was mildly post-processed using lightroom to provide a purplish tone to the highlights and to crop the photo a little bit.

c&c's are welcome! thanks and God bless! :)

crayons

crayons
Originally uploaded by gezelle

these are my favorite colors from a box of 16 crayons. i took the photo and submitted this in our monthly photo contest. the theme is "colors".

photo taken at home this morning. the crayons were spread out in a white cloth and the lighting source was an incandescent bulb, situated almost near the ceiling. white balance was adjusted to match lighting source.

other info: iso 320, f5.6, shutter was 1/20. shot using my kit lens.

Photography Composition Tips

Taken from "101 Photography Tips" by Chris Marquardt

http://www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com/

1. Focus then recompose. Many cameras allow you to pre-focus a shot by half-pressing the shutter button, and then when the right moment is there, fully press the shutter. This way you can capture that perfect moment more precisely, especially with older point-and-shoot cameras that have a longer shutter delay than more recent ones.
2. Learn to love overcast days. The dynamic difference between shadows and harsh sunlight at noon is hard to handle for most digital cameras. The diffuse light conditions on an overcast day are your friend.
3. Get closer. Robert Capa said: "If your pictures aren't good enough, then you aren't close enough". Next time you take a picture, try to walk a few steps towards the subject, or even pick out a detail of a scene rather than the whole thing in one. You'll be surprised.
4. One subject only. Pictures often work better if there's a clear subject. Competing subjects are hard to handle.
5. Don't forget about the background. Often you find yourself paying a lot of attention to the subject (the foreground) and completely ignoring the background. The background is as important as the foreground, it is a part of your image. A simple step to the left or right will help you avoid things like branches of trees growing out of your subject's head.
6. Change your point of view. Every day we see the world from our own perspective, usually from our own eye level. Change your perspective by shooting from a frog's perspective or from within a fridge and create an unusual look that people won't forget.
7. Moving subjects need space. Your compositions of a car, a bicycle or someone walking will usually look nicer if you give the subject some space in your image to move into.
8. Use negative space. Negative space is the part of an image that is not your subject. Don't be afraid to use lots of it every now and then.
9. Avoid falling lines. Tilting the camera up when taking pictures of buildings will produce "falling lines", e.g. the building will look as if its leaning backwards. Sometimes that cannot be avoided. This can usually be fixed in post processing.
10. Keep water lines horizontal. If you take an image of a lake or the sea, make sure to keep the horizon level. Even a slight skew of half a degree will make the viewer feel uncomfortable with the picture.

colors of summer

colors of summer
Originally uploaded by gezelle

the man was selling this huge umbrella by the seashore of the san juan surf resort. i thought id take shade from the sun's scorching rays for a while and figured i might take a photo or two as well. manong was very much willing and did not hesitate a bit to show his awesome smile for me!

photo was taken at aperture priority mode -- iso100, f4, 1/2500. some areas were totally washed out and could no longer be recovered because aperture was too wide open. i should have adjusted that to at least f11 and took some more care metering the scene. oh well... when i see another manong selling colorful summer umbrellas on the beach once again, id know better what to do :)

enjoy your summer everyone!

portrait of a bride

portrait of a bride
Originally uploaded by gezelle

while waiting for my turn to get my hair and makeup done for my friend's wedding, i asked the bride to stand near the window so i can take her photo before the photographer takes her away for their official photo shoot. i had my olympus e500 with me, almost running out of space and battery that day. i was already dressed up in a powder blue gown when i took the shot.

this photo was shot in aperture mode at iso125 and f4.5. i used spot metering in order to meter her face and body correctly and make the curtain appear slightly washed out. comments and criticisms are welcome :)

i was the last bridesmaid to be made-up and prettied-up by the beautician and ended up not being able to walk down the aisle -- the girl before me took too long to get her hair fixed! i should have just skipped the make-up part altogether and combed my own hair or powdered my own face. or better yet, i should have convinced my friend to hire me to become her backup photographer instead, hehehe!