Photography R US! (Read the 1st page before you post!)

[Señor Joze]

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@huslabiatch, Very impressive. Very nice shots. I like the dog and the one with the yellow blouse on. How long have Nikki been taking photography shots?

[mercurial]

Nice ang mga photos ni Sëñor Jözé og Abortretryfail, bilib ko.
I-post sad diay ninyo next time inyo mga website nga naa didto
tanang inyong works.

Off topic:
www.photos.ph | www.photosig.com : these are just two of the sites
that you may want to visit if you're into photography.

[abortretryfail]

Off topic:
www.photos.ph | www.photosig.com : these are just two of the sites
that you may want to visit if you're into photography.

photos.ph is a gallery/portfolio hosting site run by and for filipino photographers. a free account is available but you can only use it for a limited trial period. at least subscription rates are in pesos. but I've found the picture managment system abit hard to work with. it's really easy to create directories and load your stuff up. but it's tedious to edit them especially when you want to delete old work for room for new ones.

photosig is also a gallery/portfolio hosting site but it also runs on a peer system. each picture uploaded is open for comments and critiques so it's also a good way to help refine your picture taking. only problem is that with free accounts you're allowed to post one picture per day. and that can be a hassle if you have alot of work you want to put on display.

but you can earn the right to increase your picture posting rate by commenting and critiquing other people's work. and there's also the option to upgrade to the higher subscriptions.

[Señor Joze]

One of my entry for the "Watershed Photo Contest" a few months ago.
Taken in Mananga Bridge, Talisay City.

[abortretryfail]

Mao ba? Available light ra diay imo gi gamit? Cool :!: . so I guess you used some reflectors? How many?

It was a very large glass door with glass windows on each side. There was enough soft light coming in to wrap around the food. So no need for any reflectors.

Kind of drives you insane that such shots are actually very simple.

But I do usually carry a reflector in my bag. I took a big pop-up window shade people use in cars (60 pesos) and tore out the screen. I found this nice silver cloth (200 pesos for one meter) in a fabric shop near my house. My wife sewed it together and so I have a nice 28" pop-up reflector that folds down to a handy 10". And the nice thing about the silver cloth is that the other side is white. So for less than 300 pesos I have a two sided portable reflector.

Problem is the metal loop from the window shade is rather thin compared to store bought photo reflectors. So it's not that sturdy and a bit troublesome to hold up sometimes with one hand... but that's what photographer's assistants are for

My first reflectors were two styrofoam boards. Each had one side covered with either a silver or gold textured foil (usually used as wrapping paper). Everything was bought at National Bookstore. They were great but alot of trouble to carry around as I do a lot of location shooting.

When I started shooting professionaly, a lot of my stuff was the do-it-yourself type. I even have a glass-top photography table made from PVC pipes.

My first "lights" were two hotshoe flashes bolted on to cheap lightstands (around 1000 each at Seven Arts; on Legaspi near Colon, across from the Oriente Jollibee). One flash was on an slave (500 pesos from Colours Photo) and the other connected to my camera via a homemade cable. I bought a silver umbrella for around 1000 also from Seven Arts. But for my shoot-through white umbrellas, I get them from Windy's (a shop selling imported Japanese stuff in the new UC building across from Gaisano Country Mall) for a 100 pesos each. I just break off the handle.

I started off with one "light" first and used this cheap set up to shoot my first cover for ZEE magazine of Ms. Philippine's Natalie Tarin. They really loved it as it allowed me to shoot almost anywhere, even standing in water, as the "lights" were battery powered... and very light too. We'd shoot, then I'd simply grab the lightstand and we'd move on to the next location.

I did have a problem though with the wind blowing down my stands and wrecking my umbrellas (I've bought nearly a dozen white umbrellas from Windy's in the past year). I remedied that by bringing plastic "sando" bags along, filling them up with sand, rocks, or whatever, and tying the bag handles to the legs of the stands.

As I went on I was able to afford a more "professional" lighting system. At times I get frustrated getting tangled up in wires and cables and being limited to by the length of my extension cords. And when I do, I break out my old hotshoe flash units, bolt them on the lightstands, and happily shoot away wireless and free.

Anyway, more or less, good photography is not about how much you're gear costs, it about using what works

[Señor Joze]

Anyway, more or less, good photography is not about how much you're gear costs, it about using what works

I totally agree with you. :2thumbs:
For me, a good photographer is not measured by his equipments or photo gears, how much they cost, or is it imported but measured from his/her abilities and results of his/her shots.
Take for example these shots below, I took them using only a Pentax K1000, ( pinaka barat and low end/cheep amateur camera) only a 35-80mm lens and a defective light meter. I had to use a hand held light meter to check on my exposure reading. Grave ka Faet! And what was the result? I won the 1st and 3rd place. Kuwang nalang 2nd place sad, ma pakyaw na unta nako, hehehe.
If you just have the conviction, the passion and confidence that you can do it, then you have nothing to worry about. No camera equipment will be able to beat that!

"Hapit Na!"

1st Prize winner of the "Watershed Photo Contest '99"
Shot in Mananga Dam,Talisay City. 135mm Film, Pentax K1000 in 35-80mm lens.

"Manoy's Creek"

3rd Prize winner of the "Watershed Photo Contest '99"
Shot in Mananga Dam,Talisay City also. 135mm Film, Pentax K1000 in 35-80mm lens.

[Señor Joze]

Check this out folks...
http://forums.istorya.net/viewtopic.php?p=909668

[abortretryfail]

We were there at the launching...



and had some fun afterwards...

[mercurial]

"21-9"
Canon T50


"1629"
Canon T50

[Señor Joze]

@mercurial: Nice shots bro....