Strawberry Delight

I've wanted to shoot some strawberries when I arrived here in the US as I believe there's a lot of good strawberries here. I have watched from some TV shows how large they are and having said that it would be easier to shoot them up close even without a macro lens.

Water Drops And Splashes

Recently, I followed Alex Koloskov at G+ and their site MasteringSplash. They've got truly inspiring photos on water splashes and I thought I should give it  a try. Before I went on splashes, I revisited some water drops and see what I can come up this time -- a 'Growling Bear'?

Growling Bear

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all and welcome the New Year!

Cheers!

VW Beetle Hoodie

In relation to my previous post: Volkswagen Photoshoot -- Die-cast, I received an email from a website design firm recently asking for my permission for them to use one of my photos that I took of the VW Beetle die-cast about a week ago as they would like to use it for one of their campaigns for their new website.

Naturally, I was flattered that they'll going to use one of my photos. :) Here's the photo they've asked permission to use:

VW Beetle 1/24 Scale Die-cast

I received another email from them with an attached e-newsletter they're going to use or are using with the VW Beetle photo of mine with an appropriate byline and I just wanted to share it with you how it looks:

Infotex E-Newsletter

This opportunity is a real big inspiration for me. Now, I'm really looking forward for more sets with die-cast toys. One more thing, this photo was taken only with a kit lens and only shows that creativity is what matters and how it's executed, right?

Volkswagen Photoshoot -- Die-cast

Diecast? What comes into your mind? Yes, toy cars, usually. Die-cast are model toys made by the die-casting method using metal, plastic, and rubber. More details about die-casting can be found in this link.

I am stuck at home and it's raining outside and I thought it was a good time to spend time with a little photography. Actually, I was really planning on taking some photos of a die-cast VW Beetle that I borrowed from a co-worker at the office.

I knew shooting this beetle will be a challenge as this model have a lot of curves. I was planning of using two lights for the photographs but I ended with only using one 24W CFL bulb in my DIY soft box and lots of card boards for fill-light and shapers.

VW Beetle 1/24 scale - Door Ajar

The above photo is edited. I frosted the headlamps with a hint of yellow just to give a little color. I wish that it had real lamps. The following photos, I retained the original color of the headlamps.

VW Beetle 1/24 scale - Parked

My one 24-Watt DIY softbox is placed directly on top of the model and card boards are placed around depending on the what needs to be filled with light and shaped.

VW Beetle 1/24 scale - Hood Up

Now from this shot you can really see that this is a die-cast car as the detail under the hood shows that it is really a scale model. I like though the detail of the spare tire inside the 'front' trunk.

VW Beetle 1/24 scale - Bin

Here's one shot that I did where I placed it beside a perfume cap. Actually, I thought that it can be substituted as a model garbage bin just to have some accessories.

Well, it was a very interesting afternoon and I'm looking forward for another set of die-cast stuff to shoot.

Flowers Delight!

Over the weekend, my wife together with my two daughters and I, went to church early and ate out for breakfast as I wanted to go to the Orchids Festival that was just recently concluded last March 7, 2011. These were taken at the Quezon City Memorial Circle where the festival was held.

I wanted to be early so I can still have soft natural light and didn't want to use flash in this occasion. Indeed the day was blessed with magnificent light. I really like taking photos of flowers under ambient light. Flower photography is my first love in photography and I can't wait to get myself a true dedicated macro lens for this (but it has to wait for awhile).

So let me share some of my favorites which I am very happy to share with you along with some description of the photo.

Here's an orchid where my intention is to focus on only one or two blossoms and let the others in the cluster blur in the background. Though the other blooms are blurred, it retained it's general form, shape, and color suggesting that the only focused bloom is part of a group and not a solo.

f/3.2, 1/200sec, ISO 200

Here's another bloom where I intentionally took a shot of the top part only of the cluster and show the color and the remains of the previous night's rain on them.

f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 200

A close-up shot (not a macro) of a bloom from a cluster of orchid blooms where I intentionally shot only one to reveal the patterns and color of this particular bloom. Actually, if you can look closely, there seems to be an alien's face (similar to movies -- big eyes, small mouth, and probably a third eye on the forehead) there in the pattern.

f/3.2, 1/320sec, ISO 200

This particular bloom is quite interesting for me as this variety is very seldom seen. The common color of this bloom is pink. I am actually trying to grow the common variety of this in our garden.

f/4.0, 1/125sec , ISO 200

I remember that this is my second shot from the series of photos that I have taken from this trip. My wife actually spotted this particular bloom for it's peachy color. The shallow DOF was intentional as I wanted to introduce dimension to the flower. I hope I achieved this. :)


f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 100

Ain't that delightful? Thank you for viewing. I hope you were enjoyed the photos as I enjoyed taking photos of them.

Share your delight and mine by sharing this blog entry to your friends.

Cheers!

Happy New Year!!!

A Happy, Prosperous, and Wonderful New Year to all!!! 2010 was surely a challenging year and I'm sure that 2011 will be one too.

I just realized that I had no entry last December 2010. I did take lots of photos to share but I guess I was too much preoccupied with my beloved kit lens losing it's AF (Auto Focus) function in the middle of a birthday celebration. Oh well, it gave me a chance to take full control of my camera this time: I'm in Manual Settings plus in Manual Focus!

I guess it's not too late to share some of my favorite shots during the holidays:

Close Encounter with Exotic Birds at Residence Inn, Tagaytay

Santa Claus

Of course some Fireworks

  

And our very little own Firworks display in our front lawn the night of 1.1.11 for the kids

Again, Happy New Year to all!!!

Spring Time

It felt like it was spring time this morning. Looking at the lawn filled with weeds reaching at most 5 inches due to the onset of rainy afternoons. Not only the weeds are thriving but also our flowering plants in the lawn. Though I think the flowers are a bit struggling due to the weeds.

Despite of this situation, the flowers are in bloom. The leaves are green and the flowers are bright.

The photo looks like a field of wild flowers. Some are yellow, white, orange, and even red. Add to that the tall weeds that makes it really a field of wild flowers. I guess what's lacking is the bright blue sky.

What made more feel like spring time is that the lawn had several visitors taking advantage of the flowers in bloom. There were several butterflies frequenting the lawn. I guess about three of this specie presented below.
Another specie of butterfly was also in the garden but wasn't able to take a photo of it as didn't rest much on the blooms long enough and it/they was/were relatively small than the ones in the photo.

The edges of the wings of this butterfly are jagged. It looks like strong winds or something else damaged the wings.

Even this butterfly have jagged wings, it's still beautiful and it's not always that these lawn visitors let me take a photo of them enjoying the wonderful blooms.

I think I would like to have a butterfly garden but I'm not sure if it's the right time as I feel the rainy season is just around the corner.

Well, I guess that gives me some time to research and get to know more about having these beautiful winged creatures that enjoy the blossoms.

I have sighted a couple of dragonflies too but didn't have the patience to follow them around in the hot sun. I think I had enough chasing with the butterflies.

That's it for my spring time -- or I should say my spring day!

Very Strawberry

This a post-valentine entry for me as I had a chance to have some strawberries -- a handful of it, for my disposal. I believe it was nice to have a handful of strawberries that I can take photos of unlike my first attempt which I had only two pieces to work with. After I have processed my new strawberry photos, I believe I have improved in my photo taking. Okay, that's only my opinion.

Here's my first attempt on strawberries:

And here are some of my new strawberry photos:

I think the new photos look tastier than my first attempt. What do you think?

By the way, you can take a look at more strawberry photos in my Food (Fruits, Veggies, Etc.) album but they are towards the end of the album:

Food (Fruits, Veggies, Etc.)

Red Flowers

It's been a rainy week. Occassionally, there would be some gusts along with the rain and there times when it just drizzles softly. I took advantage the drizzling and cloudy morning today. Took some photos of the red flowers in our garden which was quite blooming a lot lately.

Here are my favorites:

Catching The Rain - actually, it just caught the drizzles as at this time it was only drizzling. Of course, I had to be under an umbrella to protect my beloved gear -- 1000D + Kit Lens!

Watching The Cloudy Skies - A pair of red flowers looking up above. Not a trace of blue.. only white clouds sending some drizzle.

Not Alone - This one is not alone in the drizzle. There's quite a few of these beautiful red flowers that are so much in bloom. All of them catching the drizzle.

More Flowers

It was a great day, I'm glad that we made this trip. I give credit to my wife for the nagging to take this trip. It's sort of a stone hitting two birds at the same time. Actually, it can be considered to be three birds -- my wife's aunt's tour, our kids' out of town trip, and my time with these gorgeous flowers. All photos taken hand-held, no tripod or whatsoever. Just my stance. You may click on the picture for a bigger and better view.

Below is a budding bougainvillea - trying to get only the center in focus while the foreground and background blurred. Needing a lot more practice or a tripod could have helped. You may click on the picture for a bigger and better view.

A couple of yellow flowers. You may click on the picture for a bigger and better view.

Here's a bed of orange flowers. Just keeping the foreground focused and the rest blurred towards to the end. You may click on the picture for a bigger and better view.

I took this photo towards the end of our stay in this beautiful garden. This was the best I can get. Somewhat in a hurry and just fired away. Got lucky I still have this. You may click on the picture for a bigger and better view.

Actually, there's a lot more of this set and can be seen in my Flickr and Picasa Web pages.

My Favorite Flower Photo

I have been taking a lot of pictures since I bought myself a digital camera. It's one of the good models at the time I purchased it and this is one photo I love the best that I took a photo using it.

I was able to take this photo during one of the weekends I was spending time at the garden of our dorm in Japan.

I love flowers, roses especially, and I guess that's why I took a photo of this beautiful red rose. This photo has further gave me inspiration in taking more photos.

Click on the photo for a larger image.