Photography Inspiration: Brassai

If there was one photographer who live and very much showed his love for the place where he lived in it's Gyula Halász or more commonly known as George Brassaï or Brassaï for short. A Hungarian artist who did a lot of creative work like making sculptures, films, drawing and above all photography. Brassaï first worked as a journalist for a Hungarian newspaper but later moved to Paris wherein he stayed there for all his life.

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

The Philippine Kite Aerial Photography Project of Gerome Soriano

My good friend Gerome Soriano has this one of a kind awesome photography project. His goal is to travel the Philippines and photograph it in a rather interesting style. Kite Aerial style. It all started with a video about kite aerial photography done in America which he showed me a couple of years ago and he eventually did it for his thesis paper.  Fast-forward to February of 2012 he defended his paper to a panel of jurors and they were impressed with his work that they gave him a outstanding thesis award.

I have been a witness to my friend's hard work while he was building his camera rig. There were dead ends but despite all the hurdles he has manage to conquer them all and get to the top. Right now he is probably the only one or maybe one of the few kite aerial photographers in the Philippines.

As I've said his goal now is to travel the country but he needs our help. If you are interested to support his project hit the jump.

Strobox.com: A awesome site to learn more about lighting

My senior art director told me about this wonderful website that definitely takes way the confusion from lighting modifiers and setups which is somewhat similar to Virtual Lighting Studio. Enter Strobox.com a nice and free community-based website that allows you to share your photographs with their corresponding lighting diagrams. You can also create lighting diagrams in the website which you can export as either jpg or png file formats.

Just check some boxes and search then you are all set.

Nifty lighting diagram there.

One nice thing about strobox is that they have a iOS app which you can definitely download for free. The app actually lets you make your lighting diagram in png format which you can share with anyone. 

Neat-o!

I have been popping in and out in this site for quite a few days now since I'm buying a 400 w/s flash head and I'm torn between a beauty dish and octobox so I am using this to compare and see the limitations of the said modifiers.

I highly suggest that you guys sign up. Cheers!

One Kickass Music Video filled with Happy Fans and Still Images

Let's start this week with something completely awesome. 

Imagine yourself making a music video but then you think its too bland for your taste so what you did is you printed all the stills of that video and handed it strangers in a pub and photograph them while holding that still then you merge it into one awesome stop-motion video. Add the music, vintage color tones and post it on youtube.

Cool? Yeah, this is what you'll get:

According to Animalnewyork.com: J. Views or Jonathan Dagan made this special music video to interact with his fans (the strangers holding the stills) while doing a tour in Israel and what makes this one really awesome is that the fans can tag themselves in. Now, that is what I call quality "fan service".

Photography Inspiration: Yulia Gorbachenko

I discovered this awesome portfolio of Yulia Gorbachenko while looking around the internet for inspiring photos to keep my creative juices flowing and mostly is that need something inspiring since I have two upcoming shoots. I am just astounded with her works what really captivated me was the rich and bold colors that pop, it is as if I am looking at explosion of colors that turns into beautiful women.

More of her awesome works here.

Avengers Assembled.

In light with the premiere showing of the much anticipated film The Avengers (which I will watch tonight for free) I found this really awesome still life photos made by Portland based advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy for Target. Seems that the stuff used to create every piece is sold in Target.

Check out the awesome details here

Photography Inspiration: Steve McCurry

No need to introduce today's photography inspiration since I figured that nearly every photographer knows and has seen his works from the covers and the pages of the National Geographic Magazine. He is no doubt one of the many outstanding photographers around the world that every single photographer should look up to. For today's photography inspiration I bring you Steve McCurry.

One of the most famous images of Steve McCurry- Afghan Girl

Vietnam

Kabul, Afghanistan

Bombay, India

Philippines

Fushini Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Tokyo, Japan

Kandze, Tibet

Chiang-Mai, Thailand

Srinagar, Kashmir

Weligama, Sri Lanka

You can see more of his works here.

Adobe has announced the new Adobe Photoshop CS6 & You Can Download It For Free.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, you have read it right. Adobe is letting you to try their newest version of Adobe Photoshop. The Adobe CS6 which is currently in its beta mode looks a whole lot better from its predecessors, aside from the new UI the CS6 sports a whole lot of new and improved features as well. Making them faster and efficient. The downside to this is that the CS6 is best used in a 64-bit computer but regardless this is still the beta phase and you can still save up and have a 64-bit system.



In this video Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes discusses one of the many new features in CS6

To know more about the beta version of photoshop just click here or download it here.

Photography Inspiration: Patrick Rochon

Patrick Rochon was first introduced to me by my good friend Gerome back in our college days when we are going nuts about light painting. After going through his website for the first time back then I learned that he shoots using a film camera, his body of work was so astounding that it often leaves me wondering how the hell was he able to shoot that? 


Patrick Rochon started his flair in light painting in 1992, and has been commissioned in different assignments from shooting advertisements for cars to posters of events and even in live events.

See more of his works here

Monday at Fred's with The Cam Worx

Last Monday I visited my buddies on their set in Fred's at Cubao X while they are working on their promo video for the upcoming wedding expo in TriNoma. Its good to see my old college buddies again and seeing them working hard. I was asked to shoot a clip or two but I politely declined since I just showed up there not know the shot list nor the big concept. I'd rather sit behind the scenes, chat with some of my buddies and watch the pros.


Just this morning I watch the video and I was amazed with the output, man I wish I can do something like this but as for now I'll be sticking with still images and improving my vision. Below is the video as well some of the behind the scenes so if you guys are reading and planning of getting married this year (or this month) but still have no idea for the who you should get for the photo and video coverage you should definitely consider The CAM WORX. Check out their other works here.




Miguel + Celine - E-session from The CamWorx on Vimeo.

My motto as of this moment.

Jon "Big Boss" Lazaro - The Cam Worx CEO and Creative Director

Oko-Magoo-Kyle & Jon

The big boss directing the actors, Celine and Nonoy aka "Miguel"

Another Happy Happy Boy

Gadgets Magazine October Photoshoot

What's up Manila! I have been busy taking photos this past few weeks and still have a lot of photo projects to do and oh we just finished our shoot for the November issue yesterday so you guys better stay tuned after I filter all the 448 raw images from behind the scenes. (YEEHAW)

Here are some snaps I took during the shoot for our October issue with the gorgeous and awesome Bela Padilla at Ninyo Fusion Cuisine and while you are at it you guys do better check our October issue because we pack some much awesomeness (with lots of love) inside to feed your tech and lifestyle needs. 

Disclaimer: All images are watermarked and copyrighted.