In line with an earlier teaser post, I recently had time to process some pictures that are now ready for sharing.

If one of the girls look familiar, it could be because you might have seen her in a previous post where she was the model. Playboy playmate for the month of March — Jessie Medina, once again posed for this shoot. And joining her for this 2-model session is Kat Ballada.

The plan was for half of the shoot to be done outdoors. So after setting eyes on an abandoned lot as a suitable site, the camera clicking started. But as to be expected, around the time I was about to get into my groove, we were interrupted by a “site administrator”. And keeping true with the now so annoyingly familiar scene, the guy asked the shoot to stop. Arrrgh!

It actually ended with the shoot being cut short and the rest of the shots just taken indoor.

Anyway, I’m on vacation right now and looking forward to having enough time to process more photos from my backlog. To help put some order in it, I’ll try to go through about the 10 memory cards worth of raw photos (around 40 GB in total) chronologically. Now if only I can remember in which order the memory cards were used. hehehe

Good luck to me.

I recently attended the annual party that Mr. Jo Avila hosts for all his previous students and volunteer assistants (VAs).  During my early photography years, I have been privileged enough to be both. And since Jo started the tradition, I’ve always looked forward to the once-a-year gathering where I get to see the old and ever growing number of new faces.

One of the regular activities from Jo’s party is the exchanging of signed photo prints. Attendees are requested to bring a personal photograph that recipients could feel proud of displaying. And boy, did I get one this year!

The photo above is now part of my prized collection. It’s a personal photograph taken by Mr. Jon Aguirre. “Jonix” as I still often call him, is one of the few underwater photographers whose work I simply admire.

This type of photography is something I’ve always wanted to do. Exploring the vastness of beauty… the almost limitless interesting subjects… (sigh)… I can only imagine. Unfortunately, I don’t have both the expensive gear or necessary scuba diving skills to get into it.

So just imagine how wide my smile was when I got to go home that night with the picture above.

You can see more of Jon’s underwater work at these links:
Anilao – Wide Angle
Nudibranchs
Anilao – May (1)
Anilao – May (2)
Cabilao

Its now almost 2 months since my last post. As cliche sounding as it may be, but my schedule has just really been crazy these days.

My usual blogging weekends have been filled with consecutive photo shoots that I just couldn’t let pass. Now, if only I can get to the next step and process all the photos out of my camera. Then, maybe I could share the pics with all of you.

On the other hand, I’ve been down on sick bay for a few days now. And I took this as an opportunity to return and try to regain momentum on some blog updating.

To start things out, below is just a photo teaser of sort from one of those inescapable photo shoots I was talking about earlier.

Now, I sincerely hope you guys understand why I haven’t been online for some time.

Anyway, I anticipate this post is just the start and it should get me back into the blogging routine again.

I’ve always considered people as one of the most interesting subjects in photography. Consequently, I believe they are one of the most challenging subjects to work with. So every time I’m presented with the chance to hone my skills further by taking portraits, I would almost always jump at it like a proverbial undernourished wolf on its prey. Growl!

A couple of weeks back, I got the opportunity again to shoot with some of my photography friends. And it just happened to be… (tada!)… a model shoot.

The theme for the shoot was along the line of “sexy”, which believe it or not, made it more difficult for me. Fortunately, the model we worked with was very apt for the theme. Her name is Jessie Medina (Jahziel Manabat), and she was just recently chosen Playboy playmate for March.

Here are a few of my takes from the shoot…

Jahziel was very professional and easy to work with. This made it a lot easier for me to get the shots I wanted.

But as my luck would have it, I experienced technical problems with my working lens during the actual shoot proper. This forced me to switch lens, and abruptly restricted my perspective for the shots I earlier planned. Ai ya!

Oh well… I guess that just means I have to get another try at shooting Jahziel again sometime in the future.

The A-Zs of Photography are easier to understand when you’ve got a master to guide you.

Get the chance to ask your photography questions to Ibarra Deri later today (June 4, 2009) from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Main Stage, Trade Floor of the 14th Graphic Expo, Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City.

Map to the venue…

Click for Larger Image of Map

This is open to all visitors and is free of charge.

Ibarra Deri, a renowned portraitist, is the first photographer to be included in Huwaran Filipino Achievement Awards’ Who’s Who in the Philippines.

Deri (as he prefers to be called) started photography as a simple hobby. He has three college degrees unrelated to photography: a bachelor’s degree biological sciences, a masters degree in teaching in biological sciences, and a degree in dentistry. For love of portraiture, he founded the Society of Portrait Photographers of the Philippines. An avid magician, Deri spices up his photography lectures with magic tricks. He owns and operates three photography studios in both Metro Manila and Bicol.

Deri is also a faculty member at the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging (PCCI).

See you later at the 14th Graphic Expo!!!