Finally got a chance to do a photoshoot, my trusty camera finally got  some fresh air after being stuck in the cabinet for more than a month.

Visita Iglesia which is Spanish means “church visit” in English is a common habit during the Lenten Season and done on Maundy Thursday, its been a trend that churches creates a theme either by a creating catchy design or gimik so people will flock to their church. This year’a theme is the first political related theme I saw, its the Roman Catholic’s strong stand against RH bill(Reproductive Health Bill).

I use my trusty kit lens and really have to rely on a steady pulse as I didn’t want to log around my tripod. A nice lens with a bigger aperture is a nice to  have on this type of lighting conditions.

Bought some new gears for my ever increasing accessories for my first strobist project which is to shoot grad pics for my wife and her business partners Preschoolville’s graduating students.

Got a YongNuo Flash Sync Trigger YN-04ii

Specs:

Wireless Band: ASK is adopted and there are 4 channels to be set by the user

Output Terminal : Hot shoe of the receiver, synchronous end and hot shoe of the launcher.

Remote Distance: 15-10 meters

Application time of the launcher: More than 1000 times

Standby time of the receiver: More than 100 hours

Launcher power: 23A 12V

Receiver power: CR2

And portable umbrella strobist kit ( upgraded to 43 inch umbrella, 6 foot stand and a hot shoe)

PLC Teachers strikes a pose

Learned another lesson today by mistake the hard way on UV Protectof filter, night photography and long exposure. The thing is last week while in the mall I stopped by Pixelpro just to canvas some lens and umbrella, I ended up buying a TiFFEN UV Protector filter. My purpose for it was to protect the lens from scratches and dust, not the blocking of ultraviolet rays thingie which is debatable as I know it was originally intended for film cameras where it causes a haze but not on digital sensors. I thought you just put in the UV protector filter and never remove as it won’t affect my shots.

So just for practice took a photoshoot of my niece and didn’t notice any difference. But tonight’s photoshoot which  I was waiting for and excited for the past few days was our night photography class using a tripod and long exposures.

Below are a couple of shots with the same settings. Bet you can spot the problem right away, both were taken with 30 secs shutter speed at f16 and iso 100.

For the whole photoshoot, I had the UV lens filter on and got a lot of flare and all ruining all my shots. Scratching my head why my shots of the lights looks different. After the class, I compared with my other colleagues and he asked me if I have any filter and try to remove it. Frustrated with my shots, I took one last shot and that was it, the UV filter was the culprit. I don’t know if I can get the chance again to do that kind of photoshoot with vehicles running by us at about 60-80km/hr at Olongapo-Gapan road.

Lessoned learned for night photography be sure you don’t have any UV filter on, it causes a big difference on your shots a lot of dodge and lens flare.

Today is also my birthday, exactly 2 years ago from my car accident,  I’m living my 2nd chance in life to the fullest. Nothing is more complete than a Valentines Birthday!

Being in Pampanga for more than 10 years now and the Hot Air Balloon event being yearly I really didn’t attended any of the events, but since I started photography classes it was a good experience to do a photoshoot.

So things I learned in this photoshoot so far is that for Aperture to capture the color of the sky without it appearing washout or too white is F8-F11 or higher then for shutter speed 1/100 – 1/250 seems to bring out the deep colors. ISO of around 100-200 only. My setup was only my entry level nikon d60 and starter kit lens 18-55mm.

For these kinds of event having a telephoto lense really helps. drool:)

Here are some pics I took of the event:

With the recent resurgent of my enthusiasm with photography, I bought my first low budget lighting system, I don’t want to spend too much on equipments without fully understanding them, my new code is to get experience and knowledge first then do the upgrade, reason why most enthusiasts wallets get burned is they buy on impulse.

I bought a YN-460 II speedlight from a seller in sulit,  cheapest of all the other flash system, so far still tinkering with it to fully understand all the aspects. Took some unboxing pics below

First thing I noticed is the image is crispier when I zoom I can see more details on the subject, the shot is more crispier and sharp.

Here are sample shots I took of our puppy chichi

With the normal builtin flash

With the YN-460 II power level 7 / flash pointed upward

Settings:
Shutter 1/60
Aperture F5.6
ISO 200

Trying to accomplish one of my goals for 2011, I decided to take beginners workshop in photography. I know I could learn through the internet by self study but this time I decided to enroll in a workshop as I feel this type of hobby/craft is more enjoyable to learn with a group of other enthusiast. Plus I didn’t want to be in front of the computer even on my day off on Saturdays.

So for the first day I already learned alot of things, I know a bit on apperture, shutter speed and other stuffs by reading the manual. But now I know more on when they are applicable to use and the limits my kit lens have which is an 18mm-55mm 1:f3.5-f5.6. So I need a bigger apperture for my needs which is doing portrait shots and some photo journalism. Also found a the “bulb” feature I never thought was there and got some basic crash course on lighting techniques.

Some key points.

Looking forward to next session. Took some demo shots of our instructor Ruston Banal, check out his works at http://ronzdarlhynne.tk/

Offcam Flash using SB-600 and Photix IR

Continuous Light 100watts.

Bulb technique on light painting

Been a very busy month and couldn’t find time to write a blog til now but I wanted to update you on somethings I have been doing.  I mentioned on my about page I’m a jack of all trades, now some new skill got added. I’m now into photography too. Just recently I finally got my first DSLR. A Nikon D60 kit with AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR.

I could have gotten a D90 or D5000 but I opted to the most practical thing to my budget now.  I’ll add a new section on my blog for photography for tracking my improvement. Here are couple shots where I was practicing the aperture for blurring the background.