Photographer

I am a freelance photographer based in Iloilo City, Philippines but I travel more than usual to other places in the country. I am very available for commissions, contact me if you’re interested. In the meantime, feel free to browse my photography portfolio.

Indoor and Commercial Photography

 

Food and Product Photography

 

People and Portraits Photography

 

Travel and Festivals Photography

 

Urbanscapes Photography

 

Revisit to Concepcion Islands, Iloilo in Pictures

Pictures during my trip last week to Concepcion Islands in Northern Iloilo with fellow photo trippers Raph and Kent. It was my fourth time visiting the islands and beaches of Concepcion and I’ve haven’t grown tired of it! There’s absolutely some unexpected surprise every time I go there. You can click on the thumbnail to zoom in

Bulubadiangan Island – Sandbar Island Beach Resort

Backside of Bulubadiangan Island

Agho Island

Year-end Trip to Bacolod City Photos

Went to Bacolod City during the last days of 2009 to be at my lolo’s wake and burial. Sneaked in some shots of the city during my free time and got to visit the New Bacolod-Silay Airport, while fetching some of our relatives. Also, took some night shots of the Lacson Ruins in Talisay since my grandparents’ house is just nearby.

Iloilo – Bacolod Ferry

Bacolod City

My Photos in iTravel Mag Bacolod Feature

Two of my pictures taken during recent visits to Bacolod City, Negros Occidental were published in the iTravel Philippines Magazine’s Bacolod City feature  by Mr. Bombette G. Marin. The pictures were of the Lacson Mansion Ruins in Talisay City and the San Sebastian Church in Bacolod City. I’m very happy that my photos are circulating outside my blogs with permission and proper credits this time.

Here are the photos up close:

Lacson Mansion Ruins in Talisay City

San Sebastian Church in Bacolod City

iTravel Philippines is magazine published monthly and given free by i-worx Advertising Company Limited, an advertising company which aims to become one of the premier marketing and advertising agencies by providing quality and top-of-the-line services to its clients through innovative marketing and advertising solutions.

Bride in Battle Fashion Shoot

A few months ago I was able to have my first fashion editorial shoot with Mezzo Magazine, one of the local lifestyle magazines here in Iloilo City. The concept involves a fierce bride wearing a gorgeous wedding gown in a street battle with several highly trained assassins. The photoshoot was inspired by “The Bride” played by Uma Thurman in Killbill and Frank Miller’s Sincity.

This photo came out in the previous issue of Mezzo Magazine

I was actually picked as the photographer on the spot when I was in a conversation with their art director. He mentioned that their original photographer had backed out and asked me if I was available the next day! I agreed since it has always been a dream of mine to be a fashion photographer or do fashion editorial shoots. When I compose shots, I do my best to try to convey some sort of meaning to get my point of view across … the offer was a great stepping stone for me, though I felt anxious being on the same print with the seasoned photographers  in Iloilo.

The location was on the roof deck of Marymart Center, we only used natural lighting. You can click the photos to zoom in and get a better view

The first time I got a hold of the magazine with my photo published in it was during a media appreciation dinner in Amalfi Cucina Italia, which was recently featured as one of the best restaurants in the Philippines by Philippine Tatler. The result was very different from what I had in mind and the experience has taught me some important things to remember next time I do something like this such as doing the editing myself.

After the shoot, I gave them the original photos and told them to pick the photos that they liked so that I can send them the edited version a few days later. They said they would do the editing themselves so I didn’t bother insisting that I do it since the original plan was just to do a black and white photo and it’s mostly an easy job to edit … and shoot The photo that came out of the magazine was a bit disappointing since it was pixilated and looks like they did little to no editing … they didn’t even turn it black and white, which was the concept I had in mind when I was clicking the shutter. I could have done a better job at editing it and working around the flaws of shooting in natural light with no additional lighting equipment and my small sensor (so that the pixilation wouldn’t be so evident). Well that’s that and it has already passed. Although my photo didn’t come out as I had hoped, I learned some things, got “do a fashion editorial shoot and get it published in a magazine” off my things to do before I die list, and get my full page photo side by side with one of my favorite Iloilo-based photographers – Peter Jaena.

A Photoshoot on Prison Inmates

Well, they aren’t real inmates but we did manage to have a photo shoot in an actual prison … or rather ex-prison. The provincial rehabilitation center (jail) was transferred to a town 40 minutes from the city, which left us with an abandoned (heritage) building just ripe for a photo opportunity. The setting was really great! old junk, steel bars, empty hallways, rooms, and corridors, dirty walls, and a haunted ambiance left by a century of history. No professional work, just a bunch of friends having fun.

Disfuntional Family

I wanted to play around our interpretation of the lives of inmates. The shots are a more editorial / glamour feel rather than portrayal of an accurate image.

How did my spotlight end up here?

Behind Bars

Erased

I was in on the modeling, and my friends took some pictures of me. The clothes we took from our closets and the girls did their own make-up.

Indulgence

Left to waste

Depression

Access Denied

Allure

Our playground (lens shadow …ack!)

Missing home

This next editorial shot is my favorite. The texture of the walls and rusty ballot box came out really nice. And it’s relevant to this time since the Philippine elections (2010) is a currently a hot topic.

Ballot Thief

Easy-to-do and Cheap Paperclip Magnet DIY Photo Wall

Photographers always have this feeling of exhibiting their photos either for other people or even for their own viewing pleasure. For me sharing my photos is a way of getting my perspective out, and letting other people know more about my life and my perspective. I’ve already done spreading my photos all over the internet and on some print media, and this time, I was thinking of doing something a bit more personal. So I decided to make this cheap and easy-to-do photo wall for my room.

Photo Wall Ideas

While searching online, I came across two interesting ideas, which included magnets and metals as the core materials. The first one, included painting the wall with a metallic paint and then laying over magnet/s on top of the photos to suspend them. The second used several pieces of colored metallic strings draped across the wall instead of the metallic paint. I scrapped the metallic paint idea since it is quite expensive and labrious to cover a whole wall of metallic paint.

I’m not sure if there are colored strings available in our local hardware/craft stores but the first thing that popped into my head when I started thinking about improvising, is using paper clips. Perfect! because they are cheap and easy to find.

Materials needed for the Paperclip Magnet DIY Photo Wall:

1. Colored Paperclips – I bought packs of mine in an old school/office supply store in Downtown Iloilo (The Commoner) for a cheap price.
2. Stick-on Hooks – Ace Hardware has some variety of stick on transparent plastic hooks you can use.
3. Small to Medium sized Magnets – It was hard at first to find these magnets in Iloilo but I finally found an electronic/hardware store along De Leon St. (near Robinsons), which sells magnets of various sizes. Make sure the magnet you buy is strong/big enough to hold the photos. You can bring along paper clips and  sample photos for testing just to be sure.

Easy step-by-step instructions on how to construct the Photo Wall:

• Connect the paperclips together to form a line long enough to span the height of the wall. Do several of these paperclip lines. You can arrange them by color or whatever you like.
• Stick on the plastic hooks on the wall. I spaced them out evenly across the middle part of the wall but you can also do it your own way.
• Get your photos on the paper clips and out the magnets over the photos. If the photos fall out easily, use a bigger magnet or put more magnets on the photos.

That’s how I did it. I now have a photo wall beside my workstation to inspire me whenever I feel like being distracted and if my friends come over, they have something interesting to look at.

Problems I came across with the Paperclip Magnet Photo Wall:

• Sometimes the photos keep falling off because the magnets I use are weak. I did a workaround by clipping the bottom part of the photo to the paperclip line.
• The fan in my room sometimes accidentally blows on the side of the wall, turning the photos to its backside. I have to flip the photos over from time to time.

Art Exhibit for Independent Photographers in Iloilo – My first time experience

An art exhibit is currently ongoing at Red Steakhouse and Gallery in Smallville, Iloilo City (along Diversion Road, Mandurriao District). The exhibit is called “Spectrum: Iloilo,” there are no themes, groups, or subjects just a bunch of independent photographers in Iloilo wanting to showcase their passion for their craft.

Three of my works are also currently displayed there. I was at first apprehensive about joining since I was not confident that my works can pass the “art crowd.” Lately (that I’ve been using an SLR), I’ve been feeling that my artistic passion is diminishing. Like every time, I press the shutter, I don’t feel the spark and excitement as much (when I was using a point and shoot camera).

Tara was the one who invited me to join. I didn’t know who else was going to exhibit or what the nature of their photography is. I was anxious that maybe I will not fit into their more artsy/conceptual types. In my inner consciousness, I also wanted to join, so I browsed through my photos and picked something that I think is visually “safe.” It is a sunset shot taken from Fort San Pedro in Iloilo. I added two more photos after finding out that I still have time to produce them before the opening date.

The three photos on the rightmost are mine. The photos are somewhat related to my take on what’s happening to the heritage sites of Iloilo. I’m sad that the glory of Iloilo is being left to decay, if left unaddressed they we will ultimately lose them to modernity together with the deep seeded identity of Ilonggos.

Here are the works from the other photographers:

That’s Me and Cara posing together with our works ^_^

I hope I’ll have more chances to do things like this. It’s always nice to hang out with other like-minded people who are into the same things as I. I’m also the kind of persons that does not talk too much, I divert more into other forms of expression to convey a message so having a venue and audience for my works is something that I really appreciate. Getting to see the works of other people is nice since you get to know more about them especially becuase their works are most likely very personally attached to them.

Adobe Lightroom – Improve your photographs with the touch of a button

Lightroom is one of my most used tools in my arsenal photo-editing softwares. I’m not the most technical kind of photographer when it comes to taking photos (in-camera), so most of the time, I have to edit the photos I take before uploading them in the internet. At certain times, I have hundreds of photos that I want to upload in a short span of time. Lightroom to saves me a hell of a lot of time and effort unlike editing the photos one by one in photoshop.

Lightroom works like Picasa but is much powerful. I like that it’s able to edit RAW photos since I now exclusively shoot in RAW format. Another  thing I like about Lightroom is that you can apply “preset effects” to a photo, which means you can edit/enhance photos with just one click of a button.

Example

This is an unedited photo I took during a recent trip to Taklong Island in Guimaras. Due to the undesirable settings I had and the lighting conditions, the photo I took looks dull, which doesn’t give justice to the beautiful sight in real life. I wanted to emphasize the vibrant colors of the boat and the scenery so I had to brighten the photo, and increase the saturation and contrast. Though … before going on with the image I had in my head, I wanted to tryout some other effects. Using the preset option, I came up with these:

The mood of the picture had changed dramatically and it didn’t require much knowledge in editing or photography. After tweaking the photo some more in Lighroom, I came up with this final image:

“First Arrival” (Taklong Island, Guimaras)

My pictures on Amalfi Restaurant appeared in Philippine Star

My food shots of Amalfi Restaurant in The Avenue, Iloilo City has just appeared on a national daily, the Philippine Star, on May 28, 2009. Here’s a snapshot of the feature on Amalfi Cucina Italia:

These photos were posted with my permission. I noticed that the prints are very blurry and pixilated. I don’t know how that happened because the photos I sent has enough resolution for those small prints. Oh well!, I’m still ecstatic that they appeared in a national daily.

You can view the Online Version of the Page herehttp://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=472063&publicationSubCategoryId=81. If you want to view more pictures of Amalfi, I’ve made a post on my food photography with them here.

Pawikan Cave (Isla Gigantes Sur, Carles) Photoshoot

Pawikan Cave in Isla Gigantes Sur is one of the places that we visited during our recent trip to Carles. The atriums inside the spacious caverns created such beautiful lighting that we couldn’t resist doing a quick photoshoot. The natural spotlight and mysterious feel of the cave made such a strong effect to the pictures.

Renel in his Druid-like poses

Mamzkie and her Solitary Stature

Well that’s me, feeling Taliban