Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Baptism & First Communion

In order to get experience and hopefully to take some portfolio-worthy images to attract potential customers, I began shooting a couple of events. I photographed an acquaintance’s wedding a couple months ago. A couple of weeks ago, I shot a double event of baptism & first communion of the two sons of the woman who works with us.

I’m new at photographing events, and I get the jitters just thinking that I won’t take the expected photo, or that it will come blurred, or underexposed, or someone will invariably close their eyes… Of course, I’ve only had two events (non-paying), and I need to build up skills. But what I have discovered is that I need to push my skills and talent even further to make up for lack of equipment.

The photo above I think has a good camera angle, the location is unique, the sky could not be more helpful, and the rapport I had built up with both children was great. However, the lack of a decent flash that illuminates more evenly than my built-in one is a deterrent of the image, and it fails to capture a wider range of colors while flattening it. Plus shooting with a built-in flash feels like shooting with a point&shoot camera.

So I’ll just have to figure out how to compensate for this while I get more equipment. Most of the accessories I had for my film camera do not work for my digital one, so it’ll take me a while to have a more complete set. My only advantage is that people here do not expect high-end photography, so “snapshots” would do. But being me, I wouldn’t and won’t be satisfied with snapshots, and I want to deliver a better product. I think I just need to get more events —or just show up at the church— and snap away…

See more progress on: Catapult my Photography Side-Career

New calendar!

Ooooo, I really dig the new calendar that the Robots incorporated today. Very cool. Me likey ;)

See more progress on: Get reacquainted with 43 Things and my list

Happy birthday, weallareone :)

I hope you’re having a resting, recuperating & recovering birthday on your tropical island ;)

Cheers!

See more progress on: Come Together For WeAllAreOne's Birthday on Dec.16th

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

My Geminid teammates are going to "shoot" me for this :P

Unlike MamaKitty and Jen, I did get to see a few shooting stars. I didn’t get to see a shower of them (like I did in 2004), but in the 2+ hours that I spent outside last night, I’d say I got to see about 25-30 meteors, which is “astronomically” more than what my teammates saw :P
As I was contemplating the sky last night, I wondered how great it would’ve been to have gone out to a darker location. Cholula is a small town with its share of light, but it is only 10km west of Puebla (with 5+ million people), and about 100km east of Mexico City (with 21+ million). That’s a LOT of light. Good thing we have the volcanoes as a buffer, and that’s where my observation concentrated last night as I saw 95% of the meteors there:

^{In spite of the long exposure, it wasn’t enough to get a single faint shooting star}
I focused in the area between Taurus, Auriga, and Perseus, just off Gemini. I saw about 7-8 longer, brighter meteors, but most were very short and faint.
The “star” of the night
There was one single meteor that blew me away. It came rather soon —the third one— and before midnight. It appeared somewhere between Aldebaran and the Pleiades and headed in the direction of Orion’s bow. How incredible is that?!
I can’t imagine the size of meteor it must’ve been because it looked more like a fire ball, and a seemingly low one; it was quite large. With a very-bright silver tail, its head was a very bright purple, with some white, and maybe a dash of golden rushing through the heavens. There it was, for a couple of seconds, so ephemeral, yet so breathtaking… I’ll always remember it; it’s stuck in my mind.
I hope that with this depiction, my teammates can visualize that incredible meteor, at least in their imagination :)

See more progress on: watch the geminid meteor shower

Week #2

Two artist's dates:

1

Two weeks ago, while on a photo shoot in a multitudinary first-communion ceremony, I came upon an extraordinary display of religious veneration. For its annual festivity, the Church of St. Andrew, the Patron of the town of San Andrés Cholula, was profusely decorated with flowers, garlands, and other ornaments. The main focus, however, was the central path which was “carpeted”. Sand, seeds, shells, glass, and other tiny materials were carefully placed on the floor to create “mosaics” of seven different worshipped figures along with vignettes and various embellishments. I was awed by the general visual illusion of it, and even more when I got close up and admired the detailed work of the craftsmen.
I wasn’t planning on this being an artist’s date, but sometimes, when you make time for artist’s dates and begin seeking them, they begin to come to you and appear unexpectedly :)

2

What would my surprise be that, within St. Andrew’s festivities, a group of dancers from Oaxaca were scheduled to perform the “Guelaguetza”, one of the most internationally-renown dances from Mexico. I had never had the opportunity to see it before… and I was blown away. The show was a good 2 1/2 hours long with about 11 or 12 different dances from different regions of the State of Oaxaca with change of costumes for each one. The costumes were absolutely fabulous. Between dances, they also threw different crafts to the crowd. The narrator explained that it’s a tradition to give them as presents. He also explained a little bit of the history of each of the dances. This gave much more insight of the dance that was about to be performed.
The performance was free, but I bought from them a CD with the music. I believe the group was quite good, and I just wished that the stage would’ve been more up to par.

See more progress on: go on an artist's date every week