Meet Trixie

Meet Trixie. My new camera.

Trixie

Its a GoPro Hero 3 camera. I needed a smaller / less serious camera. I figured this one is perfect for my needs/wants. :D I got her from echostorePH for a price cheaper than of local malls.

Charging for a test run

Right now, I'm still reading its manual and familiarizing myself with the controls. I think I need to get some accesories for her. Maybe the tripod mount and some extra batteries.

Here's a test photo that I took.

Not bad for a lowlight shot.

I also used her to video our new year celebration at home. You can watch that here.

Please watch out for more updates from this blog. :) Trying to be active here for this year.

Happy new year everyone <3

What's the use

What's the use of having a lot of batteries, when you end up leaving them at home. 

Bad luck for my shoot earlier. I needed a fresh set of batteries but my I left my spares at home.

I really should have a checklist per shoot.

Misaki Tokura of Cardfight! Vanguard

Just had a Misaki Tokura shoot last weekend with Mimi Monster Cosplay.

First time using Visatec Flash heads. <3

Here's the basic setup that we I did for this set. A basic one light setup to light the model. Small softbox located camera left. Two other lights were used to add color and details to the background glass door. (gelled with red and blue gels)

Light Diagram 1.0

Here's the output.

Misaki Tokura by Mimi Monster Cosplay

I would like to thank Vogue Royal Studios for the location that we used. The three lights I used were also provided by them.

More from this set can be found here.

Cosplay Snapshot Project 2013 - Finalist

I received a good news from the organizing team of the Cosplay Snapshot Project. 4 of my entries made it to the book. :) It was very exciting to read about. And hopefully some of them would reach the final 20.

You may see my entries here.

Entries that got in are:

• Elven Priestess by Mimi Monster
• Rider by Mimi Monster
• Lara Croft by Nat Miranda
• Wretched Egg by Hibernation Panda

Again, My sincerest thank you to everyone who helped me during the shoots.

Goodluck to everyone who made it! :D

Cosplay Snapshot Project 2013

It's that time of the year again. Fantasy Quest 3: Live On! is now over and it's time to submit my entries for the 4th Cosplay Snapshot Project. This will be the second time that I'll be joining. My first one was last year.

Lara Croft : Tomb Raider II

On my previous post, I mentioned that we are going to have a part II of our Tomb Raider shoot. And last weekend, we did it. We shifted our location to my province in Batangas. It was 1~2hours trip from Alabang.

teaser photo

Lara Croft : Tomb Raider

So I'm back into blogging. I just had a another cosplay shoot. This time with Nat, Jean Paul, and Ryan (same Ryan from the Merida shoot).

#projectTen2Twelve : Michelle

Remember the project that I told you that I'm about to start. I decided to name it #projectTen2Twelve. I'll be discussing the details of it in another post. For now let's talk about Michelle

Portrait Session with Pam

Its been a while since I last updated this blog. And since I'm into story telling mood, I decided to post again here. (hopefully this will be updated regularly).

The last shoot that I had was with Pam last Saturday around Ayala area. Unknown to all, Pam was the very first model I shot after I decided to take a career in photography. We were both newbies back then. That was maybe three years ago.

New Modifiers: FLASH GRIDS

Few weeks ago, I stumbled upon this site. I remember doing something like that before but ended up broken after a couple of usage. This is where Mimi gets in the picture. Since she knows how to make props for her cosplays I figured she'd be able to make a more decent flash grid for my flash guns.

First Cosplay Shoot of 2013: Merida of Brave

Its been a while since my last post. I've been busy with a lot of things lately that I forgot about blogging.

Anyways, I would like to share to you guys my first cosplay shoot for this year. Katz Del Rosario's Merida cosplay.

First out-of-country shoot

Almost all of my photoshoots are done within the metro. My visit to Singapore for AFA was the first cosplay convention that I attended outside Philippines. My shoot with Jovi Claire Farron day before the event was my first out-of-country shoot.

Anime Festival Asia 2012

Two days from now, I'll be leaving Manila to go to Singapore. I'll be attending the Anime Festival Asia. Its my first con outside the Philippines. I'm kinda excited and nervous at the same time.

Photowalk with a model and building rapport

Few days ago, I had a model shoot with my good friend Mary. It was unplanned and was very rushed. The shoot formalized before a long chat with her.

Cosplay Snapshot Project - My Entries

Since the Cosplay Snapshot Project is officially over (congrats Jermaine De Borja), its time to upload all my entries for this contest.

Cosplay Snapshot Project 3 - UPDATE

I just got an email regarding the Cosplay Snapshot Project. Apparently my entries got in the book. The book has 120 pages and has 150 images. 30 pages more from the 90 paged snapshot book last year.

There were a total of 75 photographers from that email list. Which means 50% of the images inside the book are 2nd (or may 3rd, 4th, or even 5th) entry of a photographer.

The question now is, which one from the list have 2, 3, or even all his/her photos featured.

And my personal question: Which of my entries got through.

Cosplay Snapshot Project 3

About Project Snapshot
Cosplays and cosplayers aren’t forever, but we do our best to immortalize the beauty of cosplay in the special Project Snapshot competition. Cosplayers and photographers work hand in hand to create vivid works of photographic art. The prize? A place in the highly prestigious Project Snapshot Photobook!
- source

This has been the talk of the town for almost every cosplay photographer that I know. Basically you submit 5 of your best snaps for the year and hope for the best.

Shooting TTL with Nikon's CLS System

Last Sunday, I had a cosplay shoot with friends. My model, Akire, was cosplaying Ayame from Tenchu Fatal Shadows. The mood of her character is dark and more on being stealth. Shooting in broad daylight, I had to loose some of the available light to give it a night time like of setting.

Lucky enough I was brought all my flashes to the shoot. I decided to skip on the radio triggers and use the CLS technology of Nikon. I was able to go beyond the 1/200 sync speed of my camera. Also since she was climbing trees for the shoot, I had to get my lights high as well. Since I was using my SB-700 as the commander. All my exposure adjustments are done in my camera. I didn't need to bring down my light and adjust it.

We started late maybe around 3PM. And we were able to finish by 6pm.

Some of the outputs

See the rest here.

Black and White Portraiture

I've been wanting to produce black and white portraits for quite some time now. And last Sunday, I was able to start working on it. 

New Glass : AF-D Nikon 60mm f2.8 Micro

I recently acquired a new glass for photography.

AF-D Nikon 60mm f2.8 Micro