My 2012 in Images

2012 has been both a good and a bad year for me in terms of photography work. Good because I believe that I have improved at least, acquired new gear, got heaps of books and learned new things. Bad because I wasn't able to shoot that much unlike 2011. 

Now that 2012 is coming to a close I would like to commemorate this one hell of a year by recollecting some of my favorite images that I have taken and the stories behind it.

Kath's Birthday Gig

I recently took photographs of my cousin Kath's birthday gig party at Headstock Bar in Marikina and I came across into one of the most biggest dilemmas a photographer has to face. Shooting the same exact thing again. For this shoot to be a bit different what I did is I went in close so that I could photograph half of the musician's body along with whatever there is.

And these are the resulting images:

Photography Inspiration: Helmut Newton

Lately I have been studying the works of classic photographers in my quest to improve and push my craft further. This time I'm featuring Helmut Newton which I consider to be one of my main sources of inspiration. Newton's provocative black and white photographs are often dubbed as innovative that he has become one of Vogue's mainstay photographers and acclaimed fashion photographers of his time.

I couldn't help but compare Araki and Newton since both share the same penchant of mostly shooting women subjects while infusing nudity and sex in their photographs, but both photographers differ in terms of how their subjects are portrayed in the photographs.

Of Posts and Plays

Last Sunday I headed out to join a tour around at some of the beautiful but forgotten places here in Manila. The itinerary was pretty long (we are supposed to go to Arroceros Park, Aduana and many more) but because of the inclement weather we just trimmed down the tour into two places. First was the Philippine Post Office or PhilPost and the other one was the Manila Metropolitan Theater both are situated in the Lawton area.

For this shoot I challenged myself not to use my trusty wide angle lens and explore the capabilities of my nifty-fifty. At first it was tough because I am accustomed to shooting the whole scene first rather than focusing on the intimate details specially when it comes to architectural details.

Photography Inspiration: Irving Penn

I just recently discovered the great Irving Penn while I was researching things for a blog post at work. I was actually taken aback after seeing the photograph of the Ballet Society and the image of Lisa Fonssagrives. His images are just so powerful and poetic that it feels like the eyes of the person in his photograph is looking right at your very essence. Most of his photographs are stripped off color and elaborate backgrounds which makes his work so direct and emotionally charged.

The Weekend Gig-Away

While most people I know either spent their 3 day weekend at home pampering themselves or on a trip out of town to escape the chaotic streets of Manila, I on the other hand went to see unsigned bands playing their hearts out offering the restless youth a music that speaks to them. It's awesome to see such dedicated people doing amazing things for music, most specially if you are living here in the Philippines were the mainstream music is mostly comprised of overly covered songs which are not even remotely good and neither it did justice to the original song.

Anyway, time to stop this drama and get this shit down.

Friday: Black Kath Productions' 1st Anniversary at Headstock Bar - My favorite production just celebrated it's first birthday and I wouldn't miss it out specially all the fun and good memories I had every time I attend a Black Kath gig.

Maybe Thursday