taking a short break...

I will be out for a few days and will be back Saturday or Sunday.

While I'm out, please check what I have done to some of my photos at:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Make-Me-a-Picture--Write-Me-a-Line

See you soon!

All the best!

reminiscin'

How do you convey reminiscin' in a previous photo?

We had an assignment for a photo contest with the theme "reminiscin'". The explanation is, we are supposed to go through our winning photos for 2008 and try to reminisce about our winning moments. I really had problems with this assignment.

For example, I had a winning photograph that shows a pair of slippers covered with caked mud. So how am I going to show reminiscin' with that?

I made a collage using my winning photos surrounding an eye but it did not pass the judges critical eyes. Surprisingly, the photo that got the judges nod is this photo that I am sharing today.

I just opened a magazine showing my winning photo and then I placed a cup of coffee beside it to show that I am drinking coffee as I looked at my winning photo. Just goes to show that usually the simplest concept gets the nod. However, judging photo contests is really very tricky. Most of the time, everything depends on how the judges interpret a certain theme.

when it rains....it pours

Shortly after winning in our club photo contest, I also learned that my two entries won in a magazine photo contest with the theme, “natural rim lighting.” Hmm, my photographic adventures are now becoming even more fun. Imagine my photos in a magazine! Wow! I could not believe my luck. It was my first time to join a magazine contest, and both my entries made it. Was I happy? You bet!

Anyway, here is one of my winning photos showing the theme “natural rim lighting.” I titled this “nature’s beads.”

my first OTS

I was just a month old in my club when I experienced my first OTS. I did not even know what an OTS was then, but I kind of just figured out what it means based on how everybody was talking about it. So I learned that it stands for “on the spot” shoot or painting or anything on the spot.

Anyway, my first OTS was a festival. I have heard of the festival before and I learned that one of our club members won the top prize photo of the festival the year before. Everyone was excited because we were hoping to duplicate what happened the year before. Since our club had a big delegation, we decided to break up into groups with each group having a senior member as guide. I was lucky to be assigned under the guidance of last year’s winner.

We got to the festival site early so we were able to take some shots as the participants prepared and rehearsed their numbers. I have never taken festival photos before and even if I prepared by reading on the best camera settings for shooting festivals, I still had to fiddle around with my camera buttons because there was so much movement. I also got separated from our guide and I did not have anybody to consult with. We found each other later though when it started to rain and we had to scamper for cover.

The rain poured real hard as several of us tightly squeezed together under a very small tent. We got wet anyway but we kept our cameras dry by covering them with plastic bags.

When it seemed that the rain was not going to stop for a while, some participants started getting impatient and they started dancing even in the rain. Since it was hard to keep on changing my camera settings, I just set it in burst and P mode and kept on shooting even if I could not see anything in the rain. Well, I’m glad I did that because when I later reviewed the shots I made I still came up with some good ones. And my favorite shot is the one I share today. I also discovered a very apt quotation for the photo. So here it is, it's titled "rain dance".

By the way, this photo won 2nd prize in our club photo contest for that festival. So getting wet was all worth it.

jeepney

After about 2 years of taking pictures on my own, I decided it would be good for my growth as a photographer to interact with other photo enthusiasts, so I joined a camera club. The club meets once a month and the highlight of these monthly meetings is a photo contest. There is a monthly contest theme which is announced ahead of time.

The contest theme after I joined was “jeepney in color.”

Although jeepneys are a common sight here in the Philippines since they are major means of transportation, I have never thought of making them the subject of my photo adventures. As I mentioned before, my favorite subjects are raindrops and flowers and occasional sceneries. But jeepneys? “oh no”, I said to myself, “what have I gotten into?” So my first month as member of the club started with a real challenge.

I have never joined photo contests before and jeepneys are totally out of my league, but I had to take the challenge. Anyway, we had a month to work on the theme. So I took my camera with me every time I left home. I knew I would always find jeepneys along the way.

Most of my first pictures were blurred because the jeepneys are moving and I was also in a moving vehicle. What camera settings should I use? I tried all kinds of possible combinations until I discovered the sports mode. This mode gave me the best possible photos under the conditions.

Anyway, the photo I am sharing today is one of the results of those weeks of taking jeepney photos. Guess what, this photo placed #9 out of about 50 or so entries. Was I excited? You bet! Imagine, first time to join and I got a place already!