Visiting Photographers

Saturday, the 29th of this month, was a busy day.

Well the day before that was kinda hectic also. Jose Mari Chan – singer-songwriter and sugar seller – had a concert (slash comedy show) Friday night and a few of us Sideroom Photo Club members were there to cover the event. After the show, we had a few beers and a couple bowls of batchoy. Promptly, we went home around three in the morning.

After a few hours sleep, four club members – me, Charles Borja, Roy Navea and Atty. Libby Casilan – went early to the city wharf to greet a bus-full of photographers from Cebu City on the first fastcraft trip. Thirty of them, all carrying a bagful of photography gear for their Bohol Photo Tour.

The Photographers Club of Cebu is a Cebu-based photography club with a membership of almost 300 online members (with about a hundred active members). The 3-year old club was born out of the desire to teach and start a gathering of amateur, hobbyists and professional photographers.

PCC’s board is led by Ben Shan, Ryan Belleza, Ian Javier, Michol Sanchez, Don Dexter Antoni, William Yeh and Eric Saguin. Known as the most active club in Cebu, the group conducts monthly workshops, organizes fun shoots and does club contests.

Marian Jabines and Ghen Lumayag, both Boholanos, coordinated the event. Marian who is from Maribojoc but now works in Cebu, emphasized that the club’s motto of having a worry-free and fun-loving club is shown in the way PCC gathers for fun shoots and out-of-town soirees.

While in Bohol, they visited and photographed some of our world-class natural and cultural heritage sites like the Baclayon Church, Loboc Church, Loboc River, Albur Python, Bilar Man-made Forest and Sagbayan Peak.

Too bad though, they had to catch the last fastcraft to Cebu after their Bohol tour. Our morning welcome was well-received but we were basically still half-asleep that time.

Cross Training

Manny Pacquiao, the reigning no. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the whole world, will be facing for the third time (and hopefully the last time) archenemy Juan Manuel Marquez on November 12, 2011  at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pacman is currently training hard in California to finally seal the deal and erase all doubts about his previous fights with the Mexican boxer.

Manny’s team is amazing. Freddie Roach is one of the world’s best trainers and conditioning coach Alex Ariza certainly tops everyone in the biz also. Manny does conditioning work, strength training, speed mits and spars with a number of opponents. Not satisfied with the regular training regimens that most boxers do, he does uphill running, basketball and swimming.

Cross training is a great way to diversify the usual training routine and develop new skills for specific purposes that are not necessarily covered by the usual schedule. Running greatly improves Pacquiao’s stamina. His signature fleeting left overhead punch while ducking and sliding into and out of the opponents reach clearly mimics his cross-over moves in basketball. His agility in the court translates well on the ring.

Swimming is a perfect alternative to road work like what happened last year when a tropical typhoon ravaged through Baguio while in training. Ariza wove this discipline into Manny’s training regimen.

Purposeful Shooting

More often than not, a professional photographer takes pictures to produce photos for a client. He is paid to do things such as conceptualize a shoot, scout for models, book a location, hire a make-up artist, a hairstylist or a designer who could supply the outfit, dress or costume. He may have to set up big studio lights or compact flash units a la Strobist to light the scene.

Renting specialized lenses, if the photographer doesn’t have it, will surely be part of the budget and hiring a Photoshop “magician” if needed – which is almost always – when dealing with commercial clients. Most probably, directing skills are a must. Acting like a total nutcase is a plus too, to get better reactions from hardy subjects.

Annie Leibovitz, when tasked to take portraits of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, had two sets of equipment and likewise, two teams of assistants. While shooting on the first location, the second team would be setting up the second location and as soon as the first set finished, the first team would then rush on to the third location. And so on.

The professionals would have to do these things because they are being paid. Heck yeah, they enjoy their jobs, but, it is a job nonetheless. They are being paid to do these things.

Anticipation

Back in the day, when I was still learning photography using a film camera (my father’s Canon A1), buying a roll of film was pretty darn exhilarating. Well, first of all, ‘twas due to the fact that I could hardly afford any – I was a high school student then – and times when I had the chance to steal/beg/borrow some cash were rare. Once every four months or so, I went to the photo center in Alturas (it’s still there, I think) to buy a 36-roll Kodak or to BQ Arcade to grab some Fujifilms which were cheaper. Sometimes, I get my stash from Ramasola Superstudio which sold 36-shot Agfa films that had a couple or so extra frames at the end – such joy winding the frame to 38 or 40!

That was the bulk of my shooting then. No digital cameras yet. No cellphone cameras either. I shot film which regularly kicked me in the face with more than half a roll of garbage. But, I was not to be deterred. Or, maybe I was somehow deterred but stubbornly went back at it because I easily forget. But mostly, it was the thrill of shooting film though. The thrill in the hunt for the perfect capture.

See, during those times, photography classes and workshops were hard to come by. There were only a few people doing photography so I did not have photo buddies of any sort. My father taught me a few things and I had a single photography book to guide me through. Nothing more. So, most of my frames were estimates and experiments while trying to memorize the settings for different shooting conditions. One time, I had to list down the settings for every frame as a guide. But still, nobody really knew what was to finally come up on the negatives.

Street Photography Tips

According to Wikipedia, street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings.

Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society. Street photography often tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter, and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment.

Now, walking down the street and shooting with a camera in tow is already street photography by any means. But, the challenge is to raise the bar and create art pieces that matter. For last Saturday’s Tagbilaran Group Worldwide Photowalk, we walked the streets of Tagbilaran from the plaza to the K of C wharf. For the local walkers, especially the first-timers, it was a real challenge to take.

Finding the light

Light reveals the different shapes of the bottles.

The camera is a brilliant little contraption. It takes pictures, captures scenes and produces photographs. But, technically, it basically gathers light through its lens and a sensor captures the light streaming in. All cameras – whether SLRs, rangefinders, DSLRs, pinholes or what-have-you – are built the same in this sense.

But not a lot of photographers realize this. Most are oblivious to this fact and go on their ways taking photographs without taking account of the light when in fact, some of the essential questions a photographer should ask before pressing the shutter release button is: Where is the light? After which, the photographer should ask: Where is it coming from? What color is it? How strong is it? How weak? Is it appropriate for the shot? Among others.

To be a successful image creator, one has to see the light and describe it in terms of its direction, source (or sources), power, color, size, duration and most importantly, usage.

Shooting the town red

(L-R) Charles Borja, Dennis Oppus, Ryan Macalandag,
Ariel Angalot, Justin Paolo, Lourd Pocon

Not just the town nor the city, but, some parts of the province as well.

September 3, 2011. We just came back from MetroCentre Hotel in downtown Tagbilaran for the Visayas leg of the 2011 Canon Photo Marathon. The Canon Invasion as some Nikonistas were calling it (you know who you are, guys) prompted all photographers from all walks of life in the region - and from all camera brands, too – to line up and get red-tagged.

Now, most of you know that I am a Nikonian (I use a Nikon D7000 for my professional work). But, I also own a couple Canon film cameras which make me, at least, eligible I suppose. (Paste smiley icon here.)

Red is the color of Canon and together with a few hundred others, we wore red Canon shirts and scoured the whole island to capture three photos to best represent three complexly-worded themes. The whole-day photo contest was a literal battle of wits, creativity, muscle (for those who walked and jogged) and gas for those who – like us – were driving around with cars, motorbikes and huge beer bellies. We went to as far at Loboc to shoot. Well, a few of us anyways.

Camera you, camera me

(L-R) Geramil Cordero, Melchor Daniel, Jr., Ryan Li,
Joel Diccion and Jude Montejo.

About a year and some months ago, I wrote a piece on buying a digital camera. “Five quick tips,” it said. One was about determining what you really need. Two was about choosing the mainstream brands. And so on.

I cannot ultimately say that people read my article (probably not, I had a few readers counting myself), but in over a year, more and more people are buying these little gadgets faster than you can say, “Say, cheese, one, choo, three!”

You can find cameras everywhere – in schools, at the malls, on the streets, at birthday parties, in a church. Yes, even those guests who are rudely walking out of the wedding reception immediately after quickly finishing their dinner, also brought cameras with them – taking pictures of themselves grabbing some giveaways on the way out.

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A few of us Lifestyle Bohol team members have quietly left this publication a few years back – and for different valid enough, of course, reasons. But, some readers did not get the memo and continued on assuming we still worked the shift. I’d occasionally meet a few of them and would point out that they knew me – the bald Lifestyle guy – from the staff box photos we used to have here. I, stuck with the apparent fame, would flash a casual grin and utter a shyly “Yeah, I’m him.”

I would not explain myself. The story of my parting is boring and uninspiring. Plus, I actually liked being associated with the paper! In fact, Lifestyle Bohol – Photographer/Designer, my CV would say. I am proud to have had toiled alongside the gang – Chris, Jasper, Vida, Liza, Sonieta, Mitzi, Paul, Michael & AMB. I have learned a lot on the process.

Now, I’m back and this time with a proper column. A photography column, in fact.

Since its inception (second inception actually), Lifestyle Bohol boasted of sharply written articles and superb photography. Christopher Ramasola (congratz, new dad!), our team photographer and creative director had an uncanny vision for creating superb images for every issue. I sat around and absorbed a few tricks.