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Category Archives: Photography

All the lenses you need

A wide lens
A fast prime
A fast telephoto

BUT

1 is enough
2 is playing safe
3 can be too much

bringing more than that can be stupid.

Why? You’re going to be thinking too much.
You’re going to be thinking about which lens to use.

CONSTANTLY rethinking your shots will mess you up.
Your photos will suffer. YOU will suffer.

Learn to stick with one lens.
Learn to figure out which lens to bring.
Learn to move so that you can still compose no matte what your lens is.
Learn about your camera, learn about your lenses.

Living HCB

Henri Cartier-Bresson – revered master of the “decisive moment”

My idol, plain and simple. Far too many of my favorite photographs are his.

I need to take photos of LIFE again. I seriously need to stop taking photos of stuff that’s going to be there later. I’m just going to end up frustrated again when the fountain runs dry.

I’m inspired by life.
Simple enough statement, but I’m also proud to say that while I may make a bug deal about capturing life, I know how to enjoy it as well.

I love thinking about the stories.
Taking it to the streets lets me do that.

I need to go back.
I need to reach out to HCB again.

Repost from my tumblr

I’m practically a luddite

I have two cameras, a Canon EOS 450D/Rebel XSi and a Sony DSC – W200. Both cameras have 12.1 megapixels. Do I use 12.1 megapixels?

Nope, I shoot 6MP fine on my Canon and 5MP on my Sony.

Why? Because there is no real point.

Firstly, for everyday shooting there isn’t really a need for hi-res, it’ll just take up space. Let me tell you, I’ve taken 4,000+ photos on a 3 hour event already so space is pretty important for me. If you tell me that I’m doing a photoshoot with Georgina Wilson, Solenn Heusaff or Christine Reyes I’ll be changing to RAW but until then, no need.

Secondly, since I upload most of my photos, 5/6MP is already enough for the internet. Megapixels matter for PRINTING. I print my photos, all the way up to 8R and there isn’t any pixelation, the way I PP gets rid of that.

Thirdly, RAW slows you down. I don’t have a prime laptop that can really handle RAW. When I upgrade to a Mac, I may just try it out again but I’m not holding my breath. I can do most of my PP on Jpeg so I have no need to go for RAW.

Finally, most of my photos are SOOC. If I want to do PP it’s because I want to make it unrealistic or I want to crop it. Otherwise, whatever.

My flirtation with Lomography

Not to bash, but it was a failed experiment.

I admit to having fun, I admit to enjoying the freedom it gave me. The ten rules are simple, there are no real rules. Just live fast, live hard, go strong, be active, be spontaneous.

BUT

I didn’t like the fact that it was too… free and loose and didn’t inspire anyone to IMPROVE. I found myself going back to normal photography conventions more and more. It felt wrong at first but I just kept integrating back into photography while using the tools of Lomo. In the end, it was just photography.

It was great when I was haggard but in the end I couldn’t accept the death ratio. Having a 20% keeper percentage was brutal but it was also the norm. I just didn’t enjoy that.

I knew I enjoyed taking photos with film, I knew I loved the unpredictability of my Holga, I knew that I wanted to get better, I knew that I could be creative without being wasteful.

So I stopped Lomo.

I’m grateful for the experience because I learned to stop being so uptight.
BUT, in the end, I learned that a well thought out shot, capturing the moment while being of sound composition and sound impact will make me feel better than going for the random thrill.

Missing my nifty fifty

It’s been more than a months since I lost my 50mm f/1.8 lens. I say lost in the loosest term possible. I actually destroyed it from overuse. Overuse? Yes, 20,000 actuations of overuse. You might say that it was a sucky lens in terms of how long it survived but you can’t really expect me to feel bad about it since I paid the equivalent of 80USD on something plastic.

I just miss it because it made my job so much easier. 50mm lenses with an aperture that big just sorta make me happy. LOL that it came out that cheap was a big bonus on my part. I could use it for anything because I was normally unafraid to get up close to my subject.

My problem now is that I feel myself getting lazy with my zooms. It’s now a problem for me because I find myself just sitting on my ass and just settling for whatever shot, whatever composition I can get rather than actively looking for a good photo.

I need a prime to get up off my ass.

Sticking with one lens

This is an exercise I tend to do for weeks at a time.

I normally find it wasteful when I bring more than one lens with me.
I end up trying to switch out into what I think is the better lens.

So alot of the time I just bring one and deal with whatever.

This forces me to do a few things:

Move around. Zooms make me lazy, packing the wrong focal range means I have to actively move to make my composition actually fit.
Try something new. Take landscapes with a telephoto lens, take portraits with a wide, whatever.
Actually learn about my lens.

Another benefit is that I carry far less.

Enough with the flowers!!!

Okay, I’m putting a one week ban on myself from posting any flower photos.
I am now officially making myself sick.

These next two weeks will be about…

Texture Macro photography.

My weakest design point is texture. I’m more of a shape and form guy than anything so this will be something.

Oh yeah, the light-painting stuff?
My sister hasn’t gotten back to me on that…

New Macro shots are up

HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

Light painting exercises

My sister asked me to teach her to do some light painting photos. Ah well, I shall try to but there will not be any assurances.

Basic principle, use a flashlight to draw in the air using a long exposure. Awright, awright.

Hopefully I can do some later this week and post them.

A good deal

I just bought a set of close up filters for 1,320 pesos. I’ve been pretty interested in taking photos of nature/flowers/insects lately and I think this is a better choice compared to buying a macro lens for close to 30,000 pesos.

The close up filters are pretty simple, just screw them on the camera lens and take photos. They’ll allow you to focus much much closer than you normally would be. As I’m not really thinking of doing macro photography as a livelihood I’m sticking with this.

This opens up a whole new world for me to look into because I’m really used to taking photos of people and their surroundings so taking photos of the little things should be an adventure.

Sample photos will be up soon!!!

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