I'm back. :)

After being out for almost two months, I'm finally back. Glad to be back. :) So where I've been? It's a long story. Ok, let me just describe it...



Now, you know. :) Big thanks to our family, relatives, friends, our ninongs and ninangs, Fr. Mon Torres (a very good friend), Mimosa (especially Jayne), Chapel 2, Mixed Elements (coordinator), Vic Sison (main photographer), Alvyn Cahili (videographer), Mr. Lansangan (musical director), my legendary choirmate (Edna, Art, and Lodiver), etc. Of course, thanks to our Big Boss who just celebrated His birthday the other day. It wasn't easy for me and Tere but He was there all the way with us. :)

So now, I'm back. :) What's new? Nothing much really. I actually missed a lot. No giant lantern pics for this year. No SM fireworks photos for this month. No nothing. :-D But what I do have is a new lense. Yeap, I've upgraded my beloved kit L-ense. :-D It's now a certified L-ense. ;-) It's very heavy and the new range is new to me. I'm loving the color and sharpness! I'm getting used to it little by little already. I'll be a backup photographer on a debut at Shangri-La Makati on January 5 and it'll be my lense's first official project. Wish me luck. :)

I want to share some photos I took three hours ago. Jewelries. I like what I did, however, some results were "nyarp" when zoomed very closely. Shots were taken handheld (left my tripod at home). What I'll do is reshoot the items once I'm back home then share them here. :)

Got to go for now. Belated Merry Christmas! :)

Testing 1-2-3

Hi guys! Sorry, I haven't updated my blog yet. I never knew getting out of my day job will make me a lot busier instead. :-D I have some new photos and stories to share but they're still in my camera. They're called backlogs. :-D Anyway, just dropping by to say "Hey, I'm still here! I hope things are ok there".

TTFN. I need some sleep. I promise to update my blog frequently... as promised. LOL.

Cassy and Von-Von's

The day after A380, I had a photoshoot. It's Cassy and Von-Von's 1-yr-old and 2-yr-old birthday (respectively) celebration. Big thanks to their proud parents for trusting my skills. Actually, we were two photographers so the same credit goes to my partner Abel. Ate Josie has always been a good friend. The birthday party was a blast! Everybody enjoyed the event. And the food? Three big cakes from Goldilucks, Jollibee, and another one which I'm not sure of, two lechons (plenty for everybody in the house), and four super luscious menus placed on big chafing dishes. Not to mention good mushroom soup and desserts. Sorry, I got carried away with food. I just enjoyed them (after the event that is). ;-)

It feels good to shoot again. My hands got tired again with bringing my camera. I'll be upgrading some gears soon and there's no doubt my camera will be MUCH heavier then. Good for the muscles. ;-)

Here are snaps from the event... :)





So when's the next photoshoot? I don't know. :-D

A380

After weeks of "stand-by" mode, I was able to get a hand on my camera again. This time, to capture a huge visitor. It's Airbus' biggest commercial plane A380 or what they call Super Jumbo Jet. From the name itself, it's bigger than the Jumbo Jet (Boeing 747) and it's no joke indeed. It's completing a certification flight and I was very excited to see it. As of today, Airbus already delivered its first A380 to Singapore Airlines and it's scheduled to have its first commercial flight on October 25, 2007. It's fully-booked already even before the hand-over. :)

Here are some snaps of the humongous aircraft I took at Diosdado Macapagal Airport, Clarkfield:











The last two pics are my favorite. :)

It's my first time to shoot an airliner. I learned you can make a plane look small or look big through your photos. It's in the manner of handling and positioning the camera. Both wide and telephoto lenses applies. I can't wait for more airliner photo-ops. :)

Zzzz...

No new posts. I know this is really starting to be boring. :-D I haven't been shooting lately. I think it's already two weeks since I really had a photoshoot. Been very busy with advertising jobs (prints) on the side and my day job is consuming 12 hours of my time (wake-up at 4AM, I arrive home 4PM). Photography is what I love doing more. In this regard, I'll quit my day job soon and start shooting instead! :-D I know it's not that easy and it took me a lot of time to prepare. Now is the time. Now if anyone of you knows how to write a resignation letter, help me to create one. :-D It's time to shoot more... and post more! :)

Reflection

This is a nice photo to share. It's a reflection of a Barasoain Church replica at Nayong Pilipino Clark. I love the effect I did in this photo. It looks like a castle at dawn. The other interesting thing here is how I shoot it. Just go figure it out. :)

Sarah's favorite

This is a glamour portrait of Sarah. Believe it or not, I took this during a wedding portraiture workshop under Mr. Vic Sison. Yes, you may ask what's this kind if image doing on a wedding portraiture workshop. As every photographer knows, you'll get more than what you expected when sir Vic shares his knowledge in photography. So here we are ending up doing glamour portraiture at the end of the day. It's just a bonus actually. :)

This shot is perfect. Although it's blurred, it's still an art. As if it's meant to be that way. I remember the works of another legend named Manny Librodo. Some of his works are really "not good" in the photography world but still, he's proud to present them and you will actually see the beauty in them. He's a real artist. That's the same beauty I've seen in the photo below. It's also Sarah's favorite. I, therefore, believe this photo is perfect. :)

"Precious Lips"


I have more shots of Sarah but I haven't processed them together with her escort that time named Jeremy. I'll post more as soon as time permits. O:-)

Her name?

A lot of my friends are asking who's the girl in the wedding gown? Her name is Sarah. She's a student of Holy Angel University. Ok friends, that's all you need to know. ;-)

My first wedding glamour photoshoot

First, it was a wedding proper itself. Second, a wedding fashion show. Now, I have a wedding glamour photoshoot. Seems like nothing is in order. :-D I'm proudly to share my first wedding glamour photo! I'm sure it's not a perfect one but I'm happy with it. :) I took this pic the other weekend when I attended a wedding glamour photoshoot workshop facilitated by Mr. Vic Sison. I learned a lot! As usual however, the day was too short. Thanks to sir Vic for unselfishly sharing his knowledge again.

The most challenging part about the photo is white balance. Actually, this photo is very dark with my camera set at +2 saturation, +1 contrast, AWB, and ISO 1600. In other words, it was a disaster considering that I'm also using the kit lense (don't get me wrong, I love my kit lense). :-D I just somehow tried my best in my PC to come-up of this. I also wish I have Spyder2express. I'm using a new rig using an LCD that's not calibrated. My old CRT is more dependable now. Anyway, I will try to improve this. I haven't tried printing it.

For now, feel free to share what you think about the photo.

Cheers! :)

Event Photographer

I'm starting to really love this kind of job. I enjoy doing it and I'm improving. There are a lot of challenges but I'm learning to overcome them. Camera settings, flash settings, available light, venue space, wall textures, etc. It's also nice to see people smiling at you. Well obviously, yes, they will smile. LOL. The latest event I covered is a 1-yr-old birthday party. It's my 3rd 1-yr-old birthday party coverage since I started event photography 3 months ago! Fourth one is on October. I wish to get more. :) Here are some photos from the recent shoot:











Thanks to my best bud Badette and fafi Brye for putting their faith in me. I'm no veteran but I'm very happy they loved the images. It's flattering to hear words like "I want them all printed!!!" ;-)

Optimus Prime!

Meng, a good friend of mine, bought himself a toy. It's literally a toy. :-D It's a 12-inch Optimus Prime. Yeap, the Autobot daddy. My fiancee will definitely kill me if I bought myself one of these. It's not a cheap toy but it's just that boys will always be boys regardless of the age. Ladies, please understand that. ;-) Meng is very much in love with his Optimus Prime so as a tribute, I took some pics of it using my mini studio. :)





Feel free to email me if you wish to see the rest of the set. mtoldoya@yahoo.com

Cheers! :)

Done with the crab!

The month is almost done and I'm also done with the crab. :) After starting from scratch, I found out that I still end up very similar to the first one I did. I guess I was doing the right thing after all. :) I asked a bunch of people about it and they all liked it! One comment from a friend though is the reason for cutting the main subject has to be compelling. I appreciate that one. But I did cut it as I meant it to be. :) I have some criticisms/comments with my own work also but I didn't hear them from those people so I guess I passed the test. But I'll keep on improving! By the way, the people I asked are consisting of businessmen, photographers, computer geeks, and caterers. I'm done with the crab! LOL. Below is the final image. The print output of this one is simply "yummy"! :)

Still confused... with the crab!

I was able to revise the crab shot last night. Still, I'm not satisfied with the output! It's basically the same as the 1st one. But I'm not giving up. I'm positive I'll fix the problem. I printed a hard copy of this photo from a photolab and it went very well that's why I'm really confused again. LOL. Maybe it has something to do with the photolab machine. ;-) But what I'm seeing is I have a problem dealing with white balance. It involves the use of a gray card and calibrating my monitor. I hope I can have my monitor calibrated. :(

I'll meet my friends Lee, Beth, and the others tonight. We have this photo/art project for an exhibit we'll have on September. I'm excited about it since this will be my first exhibit. Let's see what photos we need to get. I think they assigned colors for each of us. :)

Going back to the crab, I'll get back to him tomorrow evening. ;-)

Confused

We had a special dinner last week and I ran quickly in my room to take a shot of my meal. I shoot in RAW. Somehow, I'm not happy with the outcome. But before I go with the shoot details, I wish to focus on 72 dpi. Some photographers prefer to post images online at 72 dpi. What I did is I used 72 dpi at 500x333 pixels. I think that wasn't a good idea. Just click the pic below. Nyarp. :-D But I have a workaround here. I'll post a more improved copy of the pic below when I have the time. It's a busy Monday for me. :)



Criticizing my own work, I think white balance is an issue. It's my first time to shoot using a mini-studio and I discovered setting the white balance is very crucial. Anyway, practice practice practice lang... :)

P.S. Confused... coz this crab pic is giving me a hard time justifying my work!!! lol. I'm looking for areas of improvements. I know there are. I'll show this to my friends for C&Cs once I'm happy with my pic. :)

Shooting Jewelry

My "boss" and I bought some photography gears for product shots last Saturday and I started shooting last night. First in the list is my mom's jewelries (the reason also why I needed to acquire the gears) and believe me, it's not that easy at it may seem! I need to practice more and purchase more stuff needed to get what I'm looking for in the shoot. I'll see what I can get from the mall later. :)

At play

While thinking of product shots, I thought of taking a first step. I haven't bought my equipments yet for a mini-studio but out of nothing to do, I paid a tribute to one of my toys. :)

Survey #1

I received one reply from my survey. "yes boss! your pictures are great!" One down! On with getting more. I'm promising these clients that I won't be stopping to improve my skills for them. :)

What's Next?

So what's next after the stage shot. For one, I will need to do more stage shots before I can say I'm a stage event pro. I'm thinking of product shots now. This is challenging since I will need to set up my mini studio. I'm excited about it. I'll try it later if I won't have a meeting with a potential client in advertising. :)

I'm really starting to get bore with work. I can't wait to go full-time with what I love doing more. Planning is very crucial at this time. Too many things to do and consider but I'm excited at the same time. Wish me luck! :)

Stage Shots Revised

Time to upload the final images for the stage event. Nothing much done here but I think that'll do. :)

Survey

I started sending out survey to my previous clients so I'll know how I really did with my shoot and what to improve more. I want to know what they look for in a photographer. It'll help me a lot. Let's wait and see...

Re Stage Shots

My greatest mentor, John Chua, told me one time not to come up of "satisfactory" photos. Always show people "great" shots! I'm thinking about my stage shots shared a while ago. I'm not satisfied with what I've posted. I should do PP and come-up of the final images before sharing anything. That's what I'm going to do tonight. It really bothers a lot if my images are just "satisfactory". On the other hand, I enjoy a lot when I have great pics! It's one super big self-fulfillment. :)

Stage Shots

This is the first time I tried using the kit lense with 580EX on a stage event and it went well! I love the result. It lacks sharpness but a little PP will do. Not bad for the kit lense. It almost work like a 2.8. Some professionals may not agree but I'm just making the most out of what I have now. Those are pro shots (after PP that is) and I know they'll agree! I'm excited to shoot more stage events. My "boss" also bought me an omni bounce to improve lighting. I can't wait to try it! O:-)

Wedding Fashion Show

Here's one of my "making-ups". This is a wedding and lingerie fashion show which was held in Angeles Beach Club Hotel in Angeles City. Such a beautiful hotel. The rooms are so much better compared to other hotels in Angeles and Clark. Shhh... :) I learned again a lot in the event. Lighting was difficult (not much ceiling to make the bounce) and I'm still using the kit lense which is poor for evening shots. I repositioned myself and I was still able to get some decent shots. I can't wait to upgrade my lense. I'm enjoying fashion photography. :)

Here are three pics only. There are more behind the scenes shots (dressing room) but I promised the models that it'll be for their eyes only. :)

No updates yet...

Yesterday, I promised to make-up with photo updates. There are no updates as you can see. O:-) Something came up and I needed to attend to it. I'm trying to close a deal with a company for their advertising needs. This is also what I love doing and I'm enjoying it. I just hope the big bosses will like my work and move on with the project. I already have a wedding photoshoot, kiddie b-day photoshoot, and now, advertising. I'm really enjoying. I'm learning a lot.

Going back to my promises, I hope I can come up of some photos tonight. :)

It's been a while...

I promised myself I'll be updating my blog with new photos but I failed. As much as I want to make-up, I don't have my images here at work. I have been too busy with quite a lot of photoshoots and projects. I hope I can share something tonight. I have added my blog in my "to do list". :)

My 1st wedding photoshoot

It was my privilege to assist my friend last Friday to shoot a wedding. I learned a lot. Thanks to Juan for inviting me over. I think I'll enjoy events photography. I'm now thinking also of investing more on equipments for events. Anyway, here are some photos using the famous kit L-ense. Just click photo to enlarge. :)

Nayong Pilipino Clark

Nothing much in here huh

Yeap, you're right. But what I plan to add first is our photoshoot at Nayong Pilipino, Clarkfield, Pampanga yesterday. I will try uploading some photos tonight. I never thought it's that beautiful. It's still under development but they plan to have a grand opening in Novemeber.

I'd like to thank the Lightroom peeps together with our friends Elle, Nheys, and Rachel. It's a simple photoshoot bonding thingy but we enjoyed very much, which is more than what we've expected.

Welcome to my blog!

I hope you'll enjoy the stay. Thank you for dropping by. :)