Off the usual path

I do miss Europe. I do particularly regret having missed a majority of my summer, having spent it in the monsoon rainy season here in Asia. Whilst I am learning a considerable ammount, and the longer I spend here the further I see photographic oportunities arise before me, there is something particularly special about Europe during the summer. Its not just Spain, but rather the UK, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Tangier, Casablanca (I know they dont technically constitute Europe but they do border the mediterranean), France...They always say, "I'm going to spend my summer in Europe," or ,"Remember that summer in Europe?" There is just something magical about it. In my last days,  as hectic as they were I took the oportunity to take a drive with my brother down the coastal highway, till we found some random exit, and made our way down to the beach. The sun was just beginning to set, and I thought rather than sit at home, it would be the perfect oportunity to get out and do some shooting! And boy am I glad I did.
















Of course shooting at sunset is always an interesting adventure. How long do you spend on the sun? When do you catch the Sun? When is that sweet spot where you can catch the most ammount of detail? When is that shot that you take Just after everyone else is finishing shooting the sunset which blows out half their image? One of the first thing's I learned about photography is that when the sun is setting, theres always a "sweet" moment slightly later than most might consider which give the best dynamic range and colours. The shot which sets you aside as a "pro" photographer. However, just because you're sitting around waiting for it, doesn't mean you cant keep shooting. As a the Sun begins to set, you often get the best kind of light to shoot things in. One of the important things people forget during a sunset is to turn around! You never know what magic the light from a setting sun will bring...just dont forget to look back at the sun when its just about to finish dipping beyond that horizon...














Of course a sunset was not all we found at the beach. The building in the following image as I discovered was one of a series of abandoned railway stations from years ago (back in the days of Franco I beleive) which went along the coast from one end of Malaga to the Other. I have made a note of this, and am determined to seek out these other stations my next summer back home.





I hope you've enjoyed the images and you can find the full flickr set here

a teensy self portrait

Okay so considering today's photochallenge was backpack, I took the oportunity to take a couple of self portraits (anything to practise strobing). I quickly realised I need to establish a place where I can shoot stuff in the house....having realised today My dressing room, half covered with mirrors, and a dressing table painted in varnish are all recipe's for incredibly bad lighting. The mirrors send any light they pick up bouncing everywhere lighting bits, I probably didnt want lit, and the varnished furniture....well lets say in a small room where a stand and a brollie were probably not the best options simply because of the mirrors, said piece of furniture was very un-bogen-superclamp friendly (in other words I couldnt stick my flash to it). Eventually after getting some work arounds, and banging up my guitar a bit, I finally was able to get some half descent shots that I felt could make it online...although nothing thats comming into my portfolio thats for sure. I really would have loved to have had a black background, some space, and a second red gelled flash bouncind some colour onto it, and me enough distance away so that any light hitting me wouldnt affect anything in the background.....sigh rarely is photography so ideal...unless you've got a light rigged studio...



anywais for the photochallenge pic you can click here.... for the self portraits of yours truly scroll further down
also if anyone can help me....why are my pictures loosing brightness when exported from lightroom! something is up! they were MUCH brighter on Lroom.....

Bangkok

Yaaaay! Bangkok pics. While I didnt get the oportunity to shoot as many as I would have liked (meh), mostly because the lack of a workable camera had something to do with it,  I did manage to get one or two pics I'm relatively happy with. Although I would have garnered at the oportunity to shoot all weekend in and out. 

I found Bangkok to be a particularly thriving city, much more impressive than Manila, which to be honest surprised me. They are light years ahead of the philippines, particularly in infrastructure, safety and government. Yet in other things they surprisingly fall behind, such as the locals inability to speak and comprehend a descent amount of english, despite the previous English occupation (in comparison in the Philippines its not difficult at all to find english speaking locals. However Thai roads, supermarkets and a foreigners ability to safely use a taxi are unsermountably much better than here I'm sorry to say. The city itself was a plethora of visual candy, buildings telling unsermountable ammounts of stories and showing a personality that just had me itching to yank the next tourists camera off his neck to start shooting. The touches of english Imperalism coupled with the countrys strong budhist and local history and architecture melded together to create a dynamic, almost patchworked city where one street could be the equivalent of oxford street in london, only to turn a corner and find a shady alley filled with prostitutes and pimps. Very interesting. Very dynamic. I must go back and shoot, once I have saved enough, and gotten my wide lens and a second flash. The oportunities to shoot are simply endless. 

Anywais I'll leave you with a few of my fave pics from the weekend. As usual the whole set can be found here

50mm and landscape do not go together...also 101 posts! WOOH

Yesterday was one of the most gruelling days in photography I have had in a while (rise at 4am crash at 12 at night). Albeit my shooting time has diminished tremendously as of late, getting a new camera in my hands has renewed my desire to shoot with a greater vigour than ever. However hand in hand with that in a strong sense of a rusty eye, and of course my continued lack of a complete range of viewing in my lenses, I chose to participate in this competition, more as a test of what I could do with my current gear than to actually win. Although in being frank towards the end of the day I did have a slimmer of hope that I would make the top 12 but alas it wasnt so. As I mentioned my day began at 4 am, having woken up to be early for the 6 am registration time, however much to my dismay there were already a plethora of photographers well ahead of me waiting to sign up for the registration. I did however take the oportunity to take a few shots whilst waiting.

I almost inmediately felt the lack of having a wide lens. I very quickly realised that 50mm would do little in helping me capture the entirety of the Ayala Tower one building, no matter how far back I went, I was unable to squeeze in enough of the building in such a way that it fit in nicely, let alone consider other components to add to it. Eventually I was moderately pleased with what I could it in, but I continued to find the Images lacking...so I did what a 50mm does best! I added people. I felt that in going with the theme of the shoot (Theres land, and theres ayala land) including the staff that make an ayala location so "special" would be of some importance. However, whilst the Idea was sound, my lens failed me again not giving me a pleasing constuction of the image elements. Then of course I had to communicate with my subject (not speaking much tagalog, this was another story of fun and games), and of course managing my SB 900 so he wouldnt be more than a sillouhette. Its at this point I was extremely thankful for my last minute tripod purchase as I'm not sure my semi dislocated shoulder would have been able to cope. Below is one example of the setup

After running around Tower one for a while failing to get anything satisfactory, I decided to hightail it to Greenbelt and try my luck there. As you can see the results were a little more fruitfull however I was far from happy. I simply just wanted to go wider. Whilst there was lots for my tele to pick up, little stories here and there, I felt that to relate to the concept my image would have to be wide...perhaps not super wide, but certainly wider than a 50mm portrait lens.

After having gone twice between the two locations and exhausting my options and Ideas of what to shoot with my Sigma zoom and my 50mm, I finally submitted two Images....the one of the cross you see above, aswell as one of the employee with the building. Neither Images I was particularly entrhalled with. Having considerable time to kill before judging, I decided to head over to Fort Bonifacio and try my luck with that assignment. Having never been to the fort before I was quite at a disadvantage not knowing any good shooting locations or anything to plan with as I rushed over. The first thing I did was recharge my batteries with a quick starbucks. Having sorted that I proceded to shoot what I could.

This did end up takign considerable time, and it was well past lunch by the time I was done. Once finished, again rather dissapointed by the quality of my images, I finally threw in the towel, submitted my two Fort Images and settled down to lunch. I then made my way back to tower one to await the judgement, and see what freebies I could get my hands on. As I expected I wasnt able to win, however I did learn quite a bit thru my failed attempts, and especially more so after seign some of the winning images, giving me a variety of Ideas of what I can attempt to shoot as practise to improve my work.

As usual the rest of the Images can be found here at my flickr

Shooting in the Rain

Just a quickie today, I was out shooting some decorations for today's daily challenge, when it began to rain, so I took the advantage of taking some macros of the dew on the leaves. However I also discovered its not easy to hold an umbrella, pray, a D300 and a flash all at once. I was particularly happy since having all of this I didnt ahve to worry about the flash performing. As usual it all worked beatifully :)

Hmmm I may need to calibrate my monitor...they were brighter in Lightroom....

Newer, Bigger, Badder and Better than ever before!

Thats Right Folks! Regular blogging is back! Some of you may know I recently made a trip to Bangkok, and although the shooting oportunities were in fact endless, much to my dismay I was unable to take full advantage of them. However not all is failed! This trip to Bangkok did produce a lovely piece of fruit! I am now the proud and happy owner of a brand new Nikon D300! After much hunting, searching, shop scouring and painfull feet, I finally found a new boxed Nikon D300 in Pantip Plaza in Bangkok. with it I purchased a 50mm f1.8 lens and a sigma 70-300. Neither lenses being particularly my first choice, I was expecting the kind of quality images from when I first began shooting, however I am quite pleased to say both lenses have impressed me thoroughly. despite not having good range on the wide end of photography I never realised how much fun the 50mm is. Aditionally the 70-300 has also continued to impress me, it may not be as lovely as my 70-200 f2.8, but it certainly pulls its weight, especially in macro. My only issue with it perhaps is its focusing engine, as its a little slow, loud and imprecise, especially when macro is involved the depth of field is so small I often have to switch to manual, which without a tripod can be quite painfull to shoot.

[Bangkok pics still under processing will be up soon :)]

Aditionally Yesterday upon my return from Bangkok I was also able to purchase the first nikon flash of my kit! A brand spankin new SB 900, which I promptly put to use blinding my cousin and aunt with lots of pics :D. My aunt was also doing some baking in the kitchen, so thus I took the oportunity to use my flash and a difusser panel to do some food photography. I should note, being an excited doofus I forgot to reduce my ISO to 200 after doing some shooting in low light, so I beg eternal forgiveness for the noisy images, however at 1600 Nikon has delivered and with no photoshop involved the noise levels are quite minimal. Especially when viewed at these sizes. Anywho I shall stop rambling on, and allow you to enjoy the images. :D

say hi to the new kit! :D

Oh Yes! also, with my new camera I have vigorously gotten back into the daily photochallenges! to keep up with that you can click here!

On a final note, I have oficially begun a rebuild of the blog. December is coming up and What a beter time to launch a new blog than in the New Year. Seems only fitting, New camera, new gear, new passion, new direction, new site, so the only thing missing is a new blog....I will be attempting to incorporate my daily photochallenges into the new blog aswell, so you guys can get everything in one spot!

Enjoy!

update of the week?! more like of the month....Blog drought to end soon! :D

The first draft of this post actually finds itself birthing in the trenches of a little warzone I like to call Microsoft Word, considering that my ever – unreliable connection has once again made its way into the fritz and the fact that I find myself able to string two tangibly interesting sentences together (in my mind at least) have resulted in me seizing the moment in an attempt to write this post which I hope you are reading (if not its probably still buried in my Hard Disk somewhere which begs the question, “ why am I directing this to a reader who might possibly never exist” to which I answer, “ sod off”. Not that anyone reads these anywais. Except maybe Adam if he can get past my gruesome grammar and spelling which he lovingly enjoys pointing out xD.

The purpose of this post, though interesting and strange and rare thoughts of this person may be is in fact an update on my photography. As many of you have noticed posts have been rare and usually a selection of images dug up from my archives that should have but never made it onto my online flickr. For as you also may know, I have been attemptin to and nearly successfully sold my Camera equipment. But fret not, for I’m not putting away my voracious trigger finger, but rather placing in it a new direction of photography, for I am (hopefully) no more than a week away from completing the first phase of my transition from Canon to Nikon, and of course as any photographer knows, new toys means a near obsessive frenzy of new Images, particularly when it’s a new camera, lenses and a much desired Creative Flash System. However before I bore those few of you who have decided to take the adventure of reading my blog, here are this weeks archive dig outs:

Oh yes and before I forget, if you do enjoy my clicking, shooting and bamboozling be totally awesome, like barney ( I hear he’s awesome) and support me by succumbing to the much hated but necessary and free method of providing me a small source of income. Of course I cant directly say what it is without breaching contract, but if you’ve been aroud the internet for a while you know what I’m referring to (if you need a hint look towards the top of the page) . Just be thankfull there aren’t any popup versions J.

Enjoy!

....okay so maybe at the time of this post the pictures are uploading at an approximate speed of......10kbps....dont you just love my ISP? I'll leave the link to my Flickr photostream and update this post accordingly once the pictures make it....if they do http://www.flickr.com/sbalani