Happy Holidays!.

Ruchika and Harish planned this shoot two months ago. During our pre consultation meeting we had identified different places to shoot and it was quite a walk from location to location. I have set the couple’s mind on how warm it could be walking around HK in summer and they were up for it. Ironically it rained but we managed to capture great images.

We divided the session into two. One for night shoot with the Hong Kong’s great sky line and second a day shoot.

While my wife, Joanne, was busy finishing up Ruchika’s make up I invited Harish to go out for a solo shot. He warned me that he was a camera shy and might not look good. I only said

” most guy I shot who tell’s me they are camera shy usually turns out to be camera friendly “

and so here it goes…

In the evening we took the streets of Central Hong Kong and took some of these Images

And these are my favorite of the second day.

and for the magazine look

These are all straight out of the cam. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Alex is an 8 y/o cute little kid that has the making of a model.  It’s so nice when a parent trust your ability to capture the best photos of their kid specially this particular job.

I had been a family photographer of Alex for a year now. Her mom, Jinky, once approached me and asked if I can take the first portfolio shoot of Alex.  Who would say no if you know this kid is a natural model.  Here are some of the faves and set card I made for her.

 

More here ”

I have been waiting for this shoot for a month to happen.  Danielle, who is a stage actress for Mickey Production in HK Disney,  asked me a few months ago to shoot some photos of her to be used on her website.      I have worked with Danielle before when I was just starting.

We have originally planed to do three look for these session.  Natural Light, Beauty Shoot, Dancing and Pin Up.  We ended up doing Fashion and Pin Up with three looks.   For fashion I wanted to create a look like she is bathed with Natural Light behind a glass door so we placed a fake door on the right of the model and made it a main light and another soft box on the front left of the model as  a fill light.   I was still getting too much shadow on her left side so I decided to put a large silver reflector to lift some details on her left side.     Here is one of the final result.

For the Pin Up we did not really have the props and the proper dress like the classic ones so we decided to create our Modern Pin Up look using whatever we can. These are just two of the ones I edited for preview.

and

I hope you guys like it! If you have any comments or suggestion just post your comments.

Dona is a Filipina working in Hong Kong as a domestic help.  She recently won in a singing competition for the Superstar Search in 2010 which is the biggest singing competition for Filipinos held in Hong Kong last year organized by a local financing company Prime Credit.

Dona’s love for music started when she was a kid.  Dona said, during her one on one question,  she nearly dropped her passion because of problems in the family.  She is a registered nurse in the Philippines but due to lack of opportunities at home she decided to risk and moved to Hong Kong to work as a domestic help.  She is currently pursuing her licensure here in Hong Kong.

As part of her prize for the Singing Competition she will be given a CD album with the three songs she sang during the competition.  She also won several prizes from different sponsors and an exciting duet with a Philippine Pop Princess  Ms. Sarah Geronimo.

Personally, when ever I hear stories about people becoming successful in spite of all the hardships in life, It gives me lump on the throat and tears.

We’re proud of you Dona!

Lighting: Elinchrom Quadra with  Octa one as main light and the other at the back (bare) of the model as rim and separation light.  Photo converted to BW in Lightroom 3.

Canon 5D Mark II
24-70mm f2.8 L
1/50 iso 100 @f8

Most of the time people get intrigued on how photographers turns ambient light into a dark moody scene.  Ambient light are the continuous light from the sky, room light, lamp etc.

In photography, shutter speed controls the exposure of ambient light.  The faster your shutter speed the less exposure it will be and vise versa.  Just to show an example on how this works is from these series of photos taken at my place where the constant variable are the Aperture, ISO, Flash Power and Flash to Subject Distance.

From these series of photos, notice how the exposure of the flash remains unaffected as I change the shutter speed.  That is because the flash exposure to the subject is controlled by another variable and will post that on another time.

Oh by the way if you’re using Off Camera Flash on manual your shutter speed is only limited to your camera’s SYNC SPEED.  So be sure to consult your manual.

Have a great weekend!!

When you were starting  in photography how did you learn your way through the technical stuff?

I have bought a lot of books that are now left on my bookshelf that was opened once or twice.  I have paid membership to forums so I could get free advice from members and get free learning materials and videos.  I have paid DVD’s on-line from famous photographers just to learn their craft.  These were the pains and how expensive I went through just to learn.  It was the passion that drove me to learn.

Last weekend I concluded my first Workshop for Off Camera Flash Photography.  I was targeting 10 participants but was able to book 8.  It wasn’t bad.  I discussed the technical issues such as Aperture Shutter Speed ISO and Flash to Subject Distance and how these variables affect each other.  We had sample shoots during the lecture just to reinforce the learning and after lunch we had the whole afternoon shooting.

Most of the participants were photo enthusiast who had purchased their gear (slr. flash, diffusers) and does not have any idea where to start.   We started the workshop with boring lecture for two hours then shoot.

How would I gauge if they learned?  Most of them just started and never had any experience shooting with strobes.  Might as well ask the participants from my facebook page (junmadayagphotography@hotmail.com)

Will post some photos soon.

Have a great day!

I just came from The Island of Boracay in Philippines last weekend for a convention.   I was planning to go around shooting local scene but instead I got a better deal.

I met a fellow photographer Carlo Cabral on the trip and on one occasion asked me to shoot a friend during sunset.   His friend,  who’s name wants to be anonymous, is a yoga practitioner and gave us a few Yoga pose.   With the stunning background, gold and red  sunset, of Boracay I was thinking should I shoot ETTL for a quick out take or Manual.   For some reason I felt more comfortable using manual.   I guess because  I have been listening to Zack Arias lecture too much on one light.     I took my Canon 7D, set the pop-up flash as a master triggering one 580 EX II (power set to 1/4) held by my friend Carlo and with just three test exposure and boom!

Hope you guys like this.

I admit I need vitamins to improve my memory.  Every time I go on a shoot I always make sure I prepare all my stuff at least two days before so as not to forget anything in the last minute.

1. Have all my batteries charged for the flash and camera

2. Zero in my camera settings

3. Format my CF cards

4. Pack them in my Think Tank

These are the 4 most important thing I do.  For family shoot that requires less gear I only use my Shootsac Lens Bag.  It can carry three lens in front and another three compartments at the back where you can put your flash CF cards and other small items that you might need for the shoot.  I like this bag as it doesn’t look like for the purpose.

I do these all the time after one shoot where I have carried all my lighting equipment and when we reached the location I just realized by camera bag wasn’t with me.  Good thing it wasn’t for a client shoot and the location was 5 minutes running away (one way!).

What’s  your worst experience?