FPC PoW!s -- Week 08, 2008

With the hubbub of the 12th Hot Air Balloon Festival dying down and the blog nearing completion and sealing its culmination, we turn our attention once more to learning how to light. "Light is a verb," so says the slogan of the Strobists blog site. We agree. The quality of the image all depends upon how light is controlled. Or uncontrolled.

FPC has been in the forefront of the advocacy of Remote Lighting System or RLS, as we like it better-put. The main reasons why we do so are:

(1) RLS packs a good amount of desirable light (although outdoor studio lights are still preferred). You can step up the aperture to F/11 and still capture a good amount of it falling on the subject, when set to manual mode;

(2) Flash guns are more versatile than studio lights and requires less accessories. You can pull out the wide angle panel for broad lighting or zoom it to 105mm for spot/snoot lighting; and

(3) RLS equipments are lightweight and small, and thus, very portable, adding to its versatility. You can put it on rocks or crevices, mount it on tripods or monopods or put them on the ground.

Armed with just Nikon SBs and Canon EXs, we head off to the Sea Breeze Resort in Brgy Hagonoy, Taguig City, Philippines (same location where we shot the "Butterfly in the Rain" concept) for an afternoon-to-evening of RLS shooting with two models. To add a fresh touch to our concept, we enjoined the local construction workers to pose with their equipments and the model. We've toyed with the idea in Vigan and also in Wawa, and we think that it's a great idea. We definitely will do such concept in future location shoots.

And now our PoW!s from the Sea Breeze shoot from Eric and Garry. Others, like Ryuji's and Sidney's are noteworthy posts too, but of course we can't show them all here. We add a touch of photojournalism from the stream of Marvin, with one of his Boracay photos.

This is NOT IN ANY WAY A PHOTO CONTEST. We just want to honor Photographic creativity :D

Here they are in order of date and time shot:

February 15

"Bora Trip [day 3]"
by Marvin Maning
Shooting Info:
Camera: Sony DSC-R1
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 14.3 mm
ISO Speed: 160
Exposure Bias: -7/10 EV
Flash: Flash fired
Exposure Program: Portrait mode
Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average

February 16

"Need Help Boys?"
by Garry Cruz
Shooting Info not available.
Garry's Photo Description:
Model: April Sevilla
Make-up: Egay Dacanay
Strobist info: 3 SB800s were used
1&2 at the left and right of the model about 45degrees from center
3 at top right side


"Hard Hat Area"
by Eric Fernandez
Shooting Info not available.
Eric's Photo Description:
10 FPC photogs.. 2 models.. 1 makeup artist.. 1 great location.. 2 groups doing remote lighting system.. 1 helluva shoot.....
Model: April Sevilla
Hair & Makeup: Egay Dacanay
Location: Sea Breeze Resort, Taguig


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FPC PoW!s -- Week 07, 2008

Photojournals from the recently held protest rally in Makati City last Feb 15, 2008 would have been great to feature this week, as well as photos from the second FPC Sea Breeze photo adventure. Unfortunately, there was none of these photos in the pool yet. But that doesn't mean we don't have other great photos from able and respected FPC members. This week, two of them are from Pinoy photogs based outside of the Philippines.

Ronald makes it this week with one of his photos from our wedding shoot last January 26. The bride had been hiding her real emotions, covering it up with humor. But the sight of the altar may have broken down her defenses and beneath the veil, she lets out her true feelings. Alex takes us 133.30 meters up the Platinum (Al Bida) Tower in Doha, Qatar and melts our knees with his perspective, adding a fellow photog for the total vertigo effect. Joel shows us how to photograph cars in a way that makes you want to buy them (assuming you have the money).

This is NOT IN ANY WAY A PHOTO CONTEST. We just want to honor Photographic creativity :D

Now, our PoW!s in order of date taken:

January 26

Untitled
(reco: "Beneath the Veil")
by Ronald Bolante
Exif Metadata:
Camera: Canon EOS 30D
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 191 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
Exposure Program: Manual
Metering Mode: Spot

February 9

"A View to a Kill"
by Alex Atienza
Exif Metadata:
Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV
Flash: Flash fired, red-eye reduction
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Metering Mode: Partial

Alex's Description: Model: TABS; Location: Platinum (Al Bida) Tower, Doha, Qatar; Lighting Setup - Strong afternoon sunlight from the right and 1 Canon Speedlight fired in E-TTL mode with a Speedlight ST-E2 trigger.

February 15

"Ferrari Enzo"
by Joel Monsalud
No Exif Metadata available.

Joel's lighting information: Two lights: AB800 with 20-degree honeycomb on top of the subject. Another AB800 with snoot for background.

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FPC PoW! -- Week 06, 2008

The 1st day of the 12th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival was a great day for FPC members who went there. The sky was blue and had puffs of clouds--for the perfect sky photo. Most of all, the balloons went up and soared! Imagine that!

Majority of FPC members, however, came to the festival on the 3rd day, when the wind was stiff, disabling even inflation of the balloon. Even the night glow did not materialize. Fortunately, we had a side trip to Candaba where, although we had a rough time on the road, we had a great time shooting, NOT birds, but Isai, our model :D

This is NOT IN ANY WAY A PHOTO CONTEST. We just want to honor Photographic creativity :D

Now, in the order of date taken, our PoW!s for this week!

"Taking Off"
by Rey Nocum
No exif metadata available.

"Pinwheel"
by Eric Fernandez
No exit metadata available.

"Macro"
by Richard Santillan
Exif Metadata
Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO Speed: 320
Exposure Bias: -1/3 EV
Exposure Program: Manual
Metering Mode: Spot

Richard's Description: Found this diminutive bugger in our garden and thought i'd give the Nikkor 105mm 2.8VR Micro a test. It was a cloudy day so i had to pop in my SB-800 on my D200's Hot Shoe to illuminate the scene. Took around 10 frames of this spider and i was quite lucky to get this shot. Shot handheld with VR turned on =)

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FPC PoW! -- Week 05, 2008

January is over. February offers a full-packed schedule of FPC Photo Events starting with the 12th Hot Air Balloon Festival. Meanwhile, let us look at some great photos we, otherwise, would have missed. This week's picks manifest the nature-loving, intrepid and brazenly creative spirit of 3 of FPC members--Zek, Perry, and Marvin :D

"Butterfly3"
by: iankino2007
No exif Metadate available.

"Katamaran"
by: PowerPee
Exif Metadata:
Camera: Nikon D2Xs
Exposure: 0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/6 EV
Exposure Program: Manual
Metering Mode: Pattern
PowerPee's Description: "This is a trademark here in the Philippines. This 'banca' carries several passengers and acts like a bicycle with balancers. A lot of locals use this as a means of livelihood."

Untitled
by: [2]rokbot[2]y
Exif Metadata:
Camera: Sony DSC-R1
Exposure: 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 26.2 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: -7/10 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
Exposure Program: Portrait mode
Metering Mode: Pattern

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