Nothing like a 101

My journey to photography was a little odd.
The  years was an on/off interest to learn the basic and the control panels.
I was never fully interested, I just listen but I truly appreciate great looking photos.
My husband whose addicted to taking pictures of our kids constantly request my assistance to hold that off camera flash, set up the tripod, hold the reflector and occasionally do some make-up.

My interest in photography was way back girl scouting days. I would often go camping with my patrol. I would always nudge my mother to lend me her camera. Those days, it wasn't easy bringing one. The film is expensive and you never get to preview if the photos are okay. Often, my mother would allow me to bring it on regional camping....like the one I attended in Marinduque.

Our camping was set on that holyweek of 1991 or 1992. We were also attending the famous Moriones festival of Marinduque. I was amazed by the places of Boac, Gasan, and then the Fantasy Elephant Island. Is it still there? I wonder. I had pictures of those places....probably buried by several typhoon that I have experienced in Camsur. But there is one picture that I am trying to find out where it is now.....the picture of the man who portrayed Jesus Christ. Up to this day, his image is still vivid in my imagination. I was awed when I captured his face in pain at the cross and backdrop is the bluish summer sky of Marinduque. Everytime I come home to Camsur, I always searched for that photo. Maybe it was gone!

Sometime 2008 or 2009 my interest in camera was reacquainted when I was in the company of Maam Angie and Eye. Initially, they taught me how to use the light meter of my point and shoot to secure a good exposure. "Just make it zero!" (Of course they were referring while on manual mode, tweaking either aperture or shutter speed). Then make sure the composition is okay! Oh how well I remember those words of wisdom. Then the rest is history.

Fast forward....2011
On the ordinary days of weekend or weeknights...
My husband and I would  challenge ourselves with single light source photography.
Be it high key, low key, semi low key. It doesn't matter. It is often a mind boggling discussion of recent books of interest such as off camera flash, on cam, light and science hahaha alright not that nerdy!

I realized I have graduated from the "Auto" mode of my camera.
I guess it began when I sold my point and shoot and get stucked with D40.
Now I never use auto mode or scenes.
I use the built-in or off cam flash and the camera parameter to tweak it to give me an optimum exposure or images.
I still do not wish to upgrade....I am slow in tinkering the camera buttons and panels.
As an apprentice...there is much to learn....food, i haven't done fireworks and that famous bulb setting, panning shots and of course the wide angle landscape.

Here are few of my attempts to portrait or photo experiments (as I call it).

This was taken sometime June, while Luzon is swept by terrible typhoon "Frank".
According to news there were "possible" flooding in some area including our village hehehe. So while the house looks okay. I put on a quick make-up and a quick set-up for the lights. Thanks God we were spared.

I literally took this picture via remote trigger at the
setting of F4, 1/125, ISO400,50mm (fixed lens)
Single light source from our Flash SB-80DX (yes intended for the analog SLR)
we used umbrella, half open (with the black clothe on it). 

My husband took this one with practically the same setting as above.
I think we achieved only semi low key. Ahhh! I hate the shadows
under my chin....that's what you get for single light source.

 And then sometime July I guess. I finally had a chance to photograph my dada loves. When I posted below pictures in my facebook. I find it so funny to receive a message from our common friend saying that he looked like Jason Kidd, the NBA player. So I posted Jason Kidd photo alongside his....and got very few agreements hahaha.

The camera setting is F5.6, 1/80, ISO400,70 mm (fixed lens)
on-camera flash but uses the bounce flash technique
same flash  "jurrasic" SB-80DX (amazingly serves same
purpose as SB-600) 

Our daughter caught his attention while i was still on
the viewfinder. All i do is to click the shutter  using similar setting

The following shots were over the weekend. I was trying to do high key. My willing subjects were playful. Considering were frolicking around a small corner white wall. This time I used a fully opened umbrella, I removed the black clothe. There's a reflector on my left. The setting is common: f8, 1/70, ISO400,50 mm (fixed lens).

This is really funny! I was crawling in front of them trying to perk up
my son. I have to cut Dada because the farther wall on his back is red.

I love this shot very candid, but notice the shadows.  

To document that toothless grin! Did you see the catch light?

By the way, the camera used for above photos were from my husband not my D40. Lately I realized having buttons for the aperture is good unlike my D40 hmf!

P.S. I have extra copy of off camera flash in case you are interested to purchase it just PM me.

Fun Run

Fun run in 21K.
It felt good running this distance and feeling like a kid.
Thanks photovendo for the wonderful shots. I didn't know these guys could capture my jump shot at different angles.

Photo Blog #15: Puerto Princesa

On our way back home



Halloween night

Butterfly farm at Sta Monica

Bakers Hill Photo Ops

Crocs from crocodile farm

All photos were taken by my Nokia6300 phone- no edits. Most of the photos were taken by hubby and I'm too lazy to cross post here those that were already posted in FB.

Accommodation: Lola Itang, this is highly recommended- clean and cheap.

Day#1 -Oct 29 we arrived 1120H

Activities: City Tour- of course we don't have a tour guide, we opted to rent a tricycle that would take us to the various points of the city (including the cathedral).

I had a chance to run along the baywalk which totaled 5K- I was a little bored running the 500 m stretch.

We dined at Kalui- a very nice resto (which requires reservation hmmmm good thing were small family- hubby was able to nudge the manager to get us through).

Well the resto is famous for barefoot dining- you have to leave your shoes or slippers at the entrance.
 The food were really great. The wheatgrass with palawan honey is a must try drinks.

Day#2 -Oct 30 we woke up early....hubby and I sealed it with a kiss. Because it was our 11th wedding anniversary.

Spend the day island hopping at the honda bay (this was spelled hunda bay-which is which? am not sure about it). Again, we head off without a tour guide- this is to minimize expense and to get to know the locales better and interact with them. We find our way by commuting through a jeepney ride to Sta Lourdes.

The order of our island hopping visit is Pambato - which is really a fun filled snorkeling area. Then there is Luli -nothing much. But the island is interesting because the island is not visible during high tide (So Luli is for lulubog lilitaw)....reminds me of the famous Ms Universe pageant response on a question how many island does the Philippines have...."High tide or low tide?". Then there is starfish island- the starfish here are with hard shells, rich in calcium carbonate structure compared to the soft starfish we see in the beaches of Batangas. Afterwards we went to the famous snake island were we had our lunch a yummy grilled "Talakitok" and steamed crabs....I didn't know that two adults and two pre-schooler can consume 1.5kg of each viand harharhar....after lunch we had fun snorkeling the fish would go near over a pinch of bread...amazing. Our last stop is the Pandan island- in this place our boatman took us to a snorkeling site where I saw nemo's home the anemone....hmmm the clownfish isn't a funny fish, they were terretorial.

Before we knew it...it was almost four o clock time to go home.

Our way to the hotel was a little exciting- tricycle rent is really expensive so we end up walking the 1 km stretch from Honda bay to the main road hehehe so we can be a regular passenger (no tricycle offering their rental services)....I was telling my hubby if we could run 10K-why can't we walk the 1km? =) sometimes my responses could still be influenced by my running activities- maybe I'm crazy.

It was less than an hour ride to Puerto Princesa main city- so our next stop is the market...we purchased some cheap dried fish and nuts (kasoy!).

Dinner is at Bilao't Palayok- the resto is also good....but I realized we could have had our Anniv dinner instead to Kalui. But anyways, I enjoyed the exclusivity of the place- Kalui is usually jam packed....a lot of people wanted to partake the sumptous food it has to offer.

We were too tired that getting to bed and having a good night sleep was a wonderful luxury.

Day #3- Oct 31-We woke up early because we have in mind a swift run before going back home in Cavite. 8 AM is our supposed check in time.

But then the news of typhoon Santi in Manila glued as to our seat as we started watching tv to get updates....whoa! can't be another Ondoy.

Then the long wait is over- flight cancellation were announced-so we have to stay for another day.

Hubby immediately went to the airport to have our tickets reschedule the following day.

While hubby is away- had my breakfast with the kid....oh no! there were no more plans....I was thinking why not try the underground river. So while hubby is rescheduling our ticket, I was calling him to check out how we can proceed with the underground river.

Unfortunately, hubby was back 9:30AM which is already impossible to go to the underground river.

Sigh! Instead we went to the famous hot spring- we were sure it was good for our aching muscle. I noticed that the owners of hotspring were koreans. We were so early for that hotbath, it was only 2 PM.

Hubby loves hot bath so he and the kids enjoyed it. While I decided to examine the korean garden and the other pools.

At 4 PM we decided to go back to the hostel....but on downtown, we became curios about the vietnamese noodle- hmmm since the vietnamese refugee is not there anymore.....we find this noodle house exciting- they call it Pham Chao Long. Well the bread taste good, the Chao Long is a rice noodle the soup is quite sweet in blend.....hmmm maybe we Bicolanos are comfortable with spicy - my verdict it taste good but still nothing beats my favorite Loglog or Kinalas.

At dinner time we tried chooks to go- it's like Andok's- roasted chicken is their specialty, we took some stroll on the city plaza....oh the singing contest was just concluded....we didn't catch a glimpse of it. Their plaza is well built. Our attention was caught by the long lines of voters registering for the comelec hmmm this reminds us that its the final day to register.

Our Puerto Princesa visit is great! Adventure-filled and most of all value for money hahahaha....the airfare is cheap....everything was just economical- which is our target everytime we took a vacay-less spending.

Photo Blog #2: Getting to know PS SX110 IS

My new baby is giving me really a hard time figuring out how to make the best photo using the manual mode.

Sigh! The Av (Aperture priority) and Tv (Shutter priority) modes proves to be very challenging in producing visually appealing photos. There is just a lot of shake trace even if the camera actually have this image stabilizer.

I have to admit that the preset menu is a lot convenient specially in producing "moments".

I am so glad that hubby recommended PS SX110 IS for my photo exploration....it's all what I needed.

It does not only have great reviews, but it is also budget friendly.

And this morning I learned that this camera is actually a beginner's telephoto series of Canon's powershot....wow not bad having a 60-360 mm lens at a very compact package.

Wow! I think I am starting to fall inlove. =)

See photo shoots:

P.S. Toys were shoot in an aperture priority and the sad baby was shot using the preset (kids mode).