The Journey Continues... » Photography

Day 10: South Beach Diet

Ricky — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:06:04 +0000

To start a brand new week, we prepared something for the diet conscious people, the famous south beach diet. Three dishes were prepared, Lettuce and Cashew Salad, Grilled Chicken Salad and Maple Glaze Pork Roast.

The preparation of these dishes was so quick since only the Maple Glaze Pork Roast and the grilled Chicken were cooked, which was good for me, I have to go to EDSA Shari-La in Mandaluyong City to shoot an event. Sad that I was not permitted to post the photos for the privacy of the attendees.

Welcoming the Year of the Metal Tiger

Ricky — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:20:13 +0000

I was in Binondo earlier today to shoot the festivities at Manila Chinatown, today is New Year’s eve for our Chinese brothers. The coming year is the year of the metal tiger according to the Chinese calendar.

Believe it or not, it was an instant decision, I haven’t decided of going until I woke up this morning, this is my first time to shoot the event and it was the most tiring 2 hours of my life. The crowd and the never ending chase for subjects made all the fat flow out of my body.

Check out some of the photos I’ve taken today, just click the photos to view a larger version.

Before leaving Binondo, I passed by an Eng Bee Tin outlet to purchase some moon cake (Tikoy), yeah, Chinese New Year will not be complete without Tikoy. Kung Hei Fat Choi!

I’m gonna miss PhotoWorld Asia 2010

Ricky — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:47:18 +0000

For the past 2 years, I’ve been visiting the PhotoWorld Asia at the Glorietta Mall in Makati, not just to look for bargain photography equipments but also to meet my photo buddies. Most of the time, we just roam around and check whatever is being offered or maybe shoot the models.

This year, I might not go there, yesterday was the opening day and it will last until February 2nd. Honestly, I forgot about the activity until I visited PiPho forum this morning, maybe because I’m not planning to buy anything (or maybe I got no moolah to spend).

I still have at least 5 days to visit the event, I’m still not sure if I’m going, que sera!

My Nikon D80 is 3 Years Old

Ricky — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:23:13 +0000

My Nikon D80 is now 3 years old, I bought this trusty camera a few days after coming home from my tour of duty in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It’s old but still performing very well.

We’ve been together and have seen a lot of places and events together and hopefully more to come.

I hope to be busy this year

Ricky — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:51:23 +0000

I felt bad that I wasn’t able to shoot the feast of the Black Nazarene yesterday, I was busy preparing for my first photography assignment for this year, Mitch Angela’s 18th Birthday at Paradiso Terrestre in Molino, Bacoor, Cavite.

I got an email from Mitch last month asking for a quotation which I quickly replied, after a few more negotiation, we agreed on the terms of service. I asked her on how she found me, apparently, she found me on the net while checking her high school classmate’s debut party. I covered Aila Marie’s 18th Birthday (also held at Paradiso Terrestre) last November and posted it on my Wedding Photography blog, the page is currently ranking very good on Google’s SERP on some keywords.

That was not the first time that I received an inquiry from someone who found me in the web, although I was not pouring much of my (limited) SEO knowledge on the site, it was good to know that it was ranking fairly on some of the keywords.

I just hope that this will be a start of a better year for me as a photographer, I wish for more work!

Images of the New Year’s Eve

Ricky — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:36:45 +0000

Since we didn’t buy any pyrotechnic products this year, I just enjoy what my neighbor’s fireworks. Here are some of the photos that I took, all are taken on long exposure (20-30 seconds), f8 @ ISO 100. Not much post-processing was done, I’m a bit sleepy that’s why. Anyways, enjoy!

Again, happy new year to all!!!

Neil + Niel’s Wedding at EDSA Shrine

Ricky — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:06:53 +0000

This is not an official photo assignment for me, the 3rd (I’m scheduled to shoot 1 more after this) of my wedding shoot for the month of December 2009, the last one was a garden wedding at Island Cove.

What made this coverage special is the fact that the groom is a friend and fellow SEO Philippines member, Leoneil Maranan aka KB (for kapeng barako). I went there with Major, yeah we’re late, blame that to EDSA traffic and how hard to find a parking space inside the Robinson’s Galleria.

Neil and Niel tied the knot of marriage at the Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace (aka EDSA Shrine) in Ortigas Avenue corner EDSA in Quezon City, the reception was held at Valle Verde V Social Hall in Pasig City. Check out some of the shots I’ve taken during the ceremony.

Photo courtesy of http://www.marikenya.com

If you have noticed, the nicknames of the bride and the groom sounds the same although spelled differently, how many times you will encounter that? Maybe one in a million.

To Neil and Niel, my best wishes.

DBS: Dead Battery Syndrome

Ricky — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:39:17 +0000

While preparing for a Debutante’s Party shoot last November 22, I noticed that the battery of my aged battle tested Nikon D80 indicates ‘Low Battery’ whenever I insert 2 batteries on the MB-D80 battery grip.

So I checked which of these equipment is busted, I prepared so well for this shoot and I don’t want to mess up. I finally gave up, I slept without finding what’s wrong. What I did was to just use 1 battery even with the MB-D80 attached to the camera, I was able to survive the assignment even being short-handed.

The same thing happened when I shoot a wedding at Imus Cathedral last Saturday, although I was quite confident since I carry 2 cameras (a Nikon D80 and a Nikon D70) whenever I shoot.

Puzzled, I tried to search for a solution to the problem that I am facing, I went back to the photography forum that taught me a lot of things, there I found out about the Dead Battery syndrome (DBS). Apparently, Nikon D80 and D200 users have been hounded by this problem since last year and Nikon has released an upgrade for both cameras firmware (v1.11 for Nikon D80 and v2.01 for Nikon D200). I checked the link to the site where I can download the firmware upgrade and upgraded my cameras firmware.

It solved the problem but also confirmed that one of my batteries finally died.

For Nikon D80 and D200 users, check out the firmware upgrade to avoid the experience that I went through.

World Pyro Olympics 2009

Ricky — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:44:20 +0000

This came to me by surprise, I just checked the site and found out that there’s already a schedule for this year’s World Pyro Olympics.

After seeing the schedule, I checked my calendar for any possibility of shooting the event.

November 21: not possible since I have a paid gig (shoot) the next day;
November 28: I have a wedding shoot on this day;
December 5: No schedule but might be in-charge of my 2 nephews;
December 12: Get together/mini-reunion/Christmas Party with my high school batchmates;
December 19: Another wedding shoot.

Ooops! Seems no chance for me to shoot the Pyro Olympics this year. As a consolation, I don’t think Fort Bonifacio Global City is not a good place specially for a commuter like me. So what happened to the Esplanade at the Mall of Asia?

Testing the iPhone 3Gs Camera Capability

Ricky — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:03:37 +0000

I got a new gadget, it’s an iPhone 3Gs!

I’ve used several camera phone’s in the past, my first one was a Nokia 6610 which I bought in 2004, my sister’s Sony Ericsson K800i and a Nokia N77. I could say that among these 3 camera phones, it was the Sony Ericsson K800i that suites my taste, with Sony’s cybershot technology that was incorporated in it’s 3.2MP camera, no doubt that Sony Ericsson’s camera phones are the best (at least as far as I am concerned).

I took my iPhone 3Gs for a test drive when I attended Republic of Cavite Restaurant’s food tasting activity yesterday, the overall experience was good, the only complain that I can give is the absence of flash.

Check out my Tumblr account for more photos and updates.