Its that time of year again… Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving! I asked myself on our way to work, its thanksgiving today, what am I thankful for. I answered myself without batting an eyelash, I am thankful for my wife and kid for giving me strength everyday. I am thankful for my parents and inlaws for unconsciously giving me guidance and direction. I am thankful for my having a (my)job, as it supports us in our needs and most of all, I am thankful to God for having created me, because if not, I wouldnt be thankful for the other things I am thankful about. again, happy thanksgiving! and again, thank you!

 

It’s new and it’s hot. Fresh from my hard drive.

Yes, here it is again. The new and improve personal site. You can check it out at www.myclickingpen.com.

Just finished adding up more photos for you to see. I’ve added photos that are new and some, well, not that old. From portraits to food – from industrial to documentary. And maybe you’ve seen some along the way. A long range of samples for you to review, and what the heck, and for me to have new friends to work with.

By the way, I am opening a spot in my blog every wednesday to anyone who wants to write about anything. Life, photography, digital imaging or whatever tickles your fancy.

Again, welcome and enjoy. Careful, its HOT!

Chill out with some cool rhythm and mash-ups.

Just want to share some shots with you. I started doing these series of photo a month or a month and a half. At first, it felt, yes, I’m in my zone. Fast paced shots. Yes, it is fast paced but not as fast as I expected, its faster. You don’t get another shot at it. Not like in sports, you can predict what will happen and expected it to land on the spot. But for music photography, its different. If they are done, sorry for you if you didn’t get it.

www.musicstudio.coca-cola.com.ph

Here is the link of what I’m talking about. Get out of your chair and start shooting. Go, search for some music gigs around your place. Start local, I bet, you have friends or friend of friends that are in a band. Start with them, them go for the big bucks.

Happy shooting.

Happy late new years greeting.

O yes, it is late. Good thing its just my post online. Here’s a sample of whats been going on for the past month or so.

It was a very fruitful 2010 but it will be more bangin in 2011. Oh yes! Thats amy predition – business wise that is.

Here’s to more stills, clips and sounds. Here’s to 2011!

Dear Santa, I am a good Boy.

Happy thanksgiving to everyone all over the globe. And yes, its officially here, the holiday or Christmas season is already around the corner waiting for us.

Here I am again, after a couple of months. I’ve been busy and blessed with projects that I wasn’t able to blog about anything. And the now, the season is fast approaching. I just can feel that cool breeze. It just feels so good.

Here comes the busy part. For you – that is. for the last two months, I have migrated to another camera system. From Nikon to Canon. Reason, I will just keep it for myself for the moment. All I can say, I am happy with the performance of my new camera.

So here it is. My wish list for this season. Hope it comes true.

1. Canon LP-E6

Canon LP-E6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everybody needs some extra juice when they are using their gears. So adding an additional batt would benefit me and my clients.

2. Canon 580 EXII Speed light

Canon 580-EXII

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though DLSR camera have their own low light claim to fame, we still need additional support for it. Not all darkness can be lighted with just the camera. We need an additional light source, artificial or ambient.

3. Zoom H2 Handy Recorder

Zoom H2 Handy Recorder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capturing the best visuals is not complete without its real audio. Sound recording is crucial now a days as most editors or agencies need audio and visuals to support the stories they convey to the public. Now, playing a background music is already a thing of the past, real audio is now in.

4. Think Tank Photo Airport Takeoff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, with all these gears, how will I travel without thinking about the condition of the gears that I bringing. With Think Tank’s Airport Takeoff, I can travel without worrying. Owning a Skin system and a Belly Dancer harness from TTP, I can let it worry about itself. Protecting it from weathers, especially rain.

So there it is. Any good and giving souls out there? Good thing, these gadgets are available locally where I live, so there’s no problem in looking for one.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Are you different than others?

Image courtesy of www.moonbattery.com

Are you different from the rest of the guys out there? If you are, what makes you different? Its really easy to distinguish from those who are idiots.

Everyday, more and more people change. For something good, and sometimes even bad. We cannot do anything and everything to make things happen but still, we want change. Coming from what happened yesterday at the State of the Nation Address by the Philippine President. He has enumerated things done in the past which caught his attention and the attention of the people listening. I am not saying that what he said was wrong, it just how he delivered it. Is he that perfect in the first place? People reacted in different ways – some rallied some praised.

They, who rallied first.
Unbelievable! They took every word literally during the inauguration of the president. As they said before, at least there is a honeymoon stage for it. But what did they do? They wanted results now – WTF! They must be kidding! Smart people do some research first on the problem before they move in and attack the situation. They just don’t jump in the fire and start fire dancing. They ain’t that stupid you know.

They praised!
They gave him about 30 applauses total for the whole speech. What more can I say? From a different perspective – its not really because they believe everything you said is true and will be done but it is the hope of change in you. Its more of the trust that they are giving you. Hopefully it won’t be written on water.

I am not a voter. I am a taxpayer. The tax that I am paying is paying for their salaries, cars, gas etc. Results is what we want to see rather than just hearing it. I still stand on what my classmate in high school said – we like what you are doing but that doesn’t you still deserve to be there.

On the bright side – We are in the second half of the year and it will go up hill from here on. Its gonna be a wild ride from here. Wild in the sense that its gonna be full of surprises. It will be more – it will be merry. Early christmas? Why not?! Here’s to more to be merry!

Two for the Record.

Just came from a two day shoot last Thursday and Friday. Its for the MRM Worldwide website. We were commissioned to do the shoot for the MRM Manila team to be placed in that site. Last week was a crunch time period for them and our team. We had to do the planning starting Monday. Come Tuesday, its my time to do some scouting at the location. It may look simple but given the places that I have to be in, its a little small and the lighting is just not that good. Come Wednesday, it my time to sit down with the accounts people to do the pre-production meeting. Started showing them on what I got from my scouting and some possible shots. I also showed some of the pegs that I have in mind. Lovin every moment of that three days.

Its Thursday – its game time. Starting early is one of the things I love photography. Started at around 9am and quickly did the setup for the lights. After 10 mins, I started shooting. Just had a hard time with the talents – though they are not really talents, they are the other accounts for MRM. After about 30 mins, we moved to the next setup and another after 20 and another before having lunch. After having a jap lunch, we went ahead to fix the setup and start shooting again. We packed up at around 4 and I should be getting back to the studio for another shoot schedule.

TGI-Friday! Its time to drink and celebrate a successful shoot. But the day is not over yet. Started early again to end the day late – if we could. Started shooting in a small office of the managing director. Its a small space area, good thing there is a glass wall in front of it. One large softbox for me. Then moved to a mini conference room then into a smaller room. Yes, a much smaller room. At around 4, officially, its a wrap!

After two day, we edited the images, sorted it out on the spot and picked the ones that will be sent global. After picking the images, a quick edit through Aperture I quickly downloaded the images into a cd and gave it to the accounts.

The best part of this project – but not for some, it is a probono. Yes – PROBONO! Felt good and felt great about it.

Here are some of the images that were taken.

An eye candy for more challenges.

Also last week, (a continuation of my earlier post) we did a campaign for a motorcycle brand. This company commissioned me and our company to shoot their campaign for a certain model of a scooter. Approval of this project came a long way. As soon as the contract was approved and signed, we started preparing for this shoot. Adding to our list of equipments, we purchased materials for a DIY 10′x8′ reflector. Based on existing and expensive ones, I custom made a reflector big enough to be a gown of a bride. After having access to the reflector, we started practicing for the shoot. In the process, we used a different make of a scooter. Simulating the difficulties of the grooves and curves of it. It proved to be a challenging shoot for me, as the photographer. It is my first time to shoot such product in a controlled environment. I’m still used to photograph such in outdoor scenarios. Where light is just natural and strong. Due to my confidentially clause contract, I cannot show the brand yet but i can show the talent. We did the whole shoot in 14 hours. That includes setup, shoot and dismantle. Good thing I got great hands to help me out the whole shoot. Even though they were the ones who moved the bike around while I was checking the exposure to make the perfect shot.

Showing up early, getting home late and do it all over again tomorrow – Chase Jarvis

Just simply wonderful. Having to work with a talented, and famous model/actress gives me that certain jolt of sugar in my blood. Sorry guys, I’ll just give you a monochrome photo. Just wait for the main campaign to come out. Don’t worry, I will be posting it when it comes out.

The agency that we are working with give us about 3 hours for the whole talent shoot setup and the rest of the day was to finish the 10 bikes. As we predicted or even better, the talent shoot lasted about 45 mins including costume change.

While we were shooting the bikes, the talent, (Marian) came in. To our surprise, we asked about ten minutes to change the lighting setup for her. Having only one thing on my head, I was able to do the setup in less than five minutes and 3 minutes for the test shoots. As I gave the go signal, Marian went to her place. I told that I will do some three frames for tests then were good to go. After that three frames, to our surprise, those tests were already good and can be used already. After the agency gave me the go signal, I started shooting away. When I get the thumbs up from the agency, I give about two frames more to finish the set and move on to the next. And its a wrap! We’re good and done – for the talent setup, that is. After, here comes the group and individual shots with the crew. The client went first of course. Then us!
We were almost  done with the bikes. We are almost done for the day. Only 5 bikes to go and the close up sets remaining and we’re good.

Its one of my memorable shoots and the first campaign that I did. And its one tiring but fulfilling day! I wasn’t able to thank the people who helped me out during that whole day shoot. To Jun, Mike, Gil and Sarah – Thank you for helping out and making this shoot come through. Till the next campaign – Kudos to us! Here’s to more shoots, locations and talents!

One of those new challenges.

Just finished a gig a week ago. It was for San Mig Strong Ice beer.

As a backgrounder, we also did the production design for this one. As on of the solutions that we did for the client, we offered them a cost for photography and PD as one. thus lessening the other costs given by other PD’s. At the same time, giving the client a better solution for their money. Come to think of it, the cost varies from 30k to 150k for this project but giving the same results.

Giving something that would benefit the client is good,

but giving their money’s worth is much better.

This is the final project that we did. All of the images that were used is done by us, (except for the clouds) including the ice, sweat beads, frost etc. It was the longest shoot I’ve done so far until the next one that I did.

It was a challenging project indeed. Even if we practiced days before until the day before, during the shoot date, it is still different. Effect and output wise. We have prepared all the ice a week before, thanks to a post at flickr for the tip on how to make one. Then we started custom making the machine that will be creating the twister in the beer and water. Generally, we would create bts for each of our shoots, but for this one, we were not able to create one.

For my next post, I promise to post one.

Till then.

It was 13 years ago.

Its been 13 years since we last saw each other. By the time they started to come, we started to reminisce what we did before, how we looked like and who our teacher was – who was connected with whom.

It looks like we never changed. Those attitude of ours are still there. Wackiness of each one still delivers smiles and laughter like old days. Some came in late but were still able to catch up with the jokes. Then the whole group broke up into small groups for some chit chats, catching up and some interview on current work, wife or wives, and kids. Because some of the guys, came from their child’s party. Some of us are in the arts or advertising industry, some were engineers, a lawyer and some were in the BPO industry. All were happy with their jobs and some were just ok. Then there is this classmate of ours, he is the flower of our class. But when you look at him, he has the biggest and funkiest tattoo other than those of the other guys. He has a half sleeve tat and big nasty one at the back of his neck.

Everything changed with the whole group or each individual. Before, if we were used to just drinking this 30 pesos gin along sidewalks on our streets, we know drink 800++ worth of vodka. Some drank red wine. With those drinks came those dips and sausages and cheeses. Thats what I call moving to another level. But in the end, the rest of the guys cannot handle it anymore, they ordered baked muscles, sizzling pork and some grilled tuna belly.

It was almost one in the morning and we started to clean up and started paying the bill. We had a class picture for souvenir. We said goodbye and parted ways for some. I think the other guys went on to other bars. But after that, we already set another date for the continuation of our get together.

In conclusion, it was one of the happiest gatherings that I ever attended. I missed talking to the boys. I saw my drinking buddy for the longest time up until after college. And it was successful!