Reconnecting with KES Batch '91

Hmmm... where do I start.... well here goes...

I live in a quaint town in the metro called Kamuning. It's comprised mostly suburban and residential houses. The nearest Elementary School is owned by the government; and to tell you honestly its not that appealing to look at that time. I don't have any qualms against Tomas Morato but man even when I was a kid I didn't like going there. My Grandma taught English classes and had duties on the other nearby school. Well it wasn't nearby for a 5 year old kid and since I didn't want to end up on this one, they all decided that I had to be sent to Kamuning Elementary School. I then had lots of Tito's and Tita's... had lots of friends. I did dance troupes, choirs, the works! School made me creative more than I ever wanted. Even if my siblings went to private ones and I stayed there, I guess it did a lot for me. I saw how real people were at those times. I grew up barely knowing what I'm good at but it has equipped me with a lot of things... but what I cherish most was the friendship. It was the first time I encountered other kids than me who were not from the same neighborhood I was in. What's funny is that I'm analyzing my childhood ha-ha!Anyway to make the long story short, yesterday was the first time in 20 years that we got to meet again. The Batch 91 of Kamuning Elementary School and all its cohorts were as excited as I am. It was something I wanted to do since we were all just talking and posting on Facebook most of the time. Even if it was only a handful, I wanted it to start something big. I always dreamed of reconnecting with the past... Just imagining 20 years of stories and lives we had; it was bound to be as big as I thought.

I got an event posted on FB and of course the response was positive. I wasn't worried about the attendance, but anyway; as long as I see some of them I'm good. This is just the beginning and I'm sure once those who are outside of the country or were busy at that time would be envious after seeing the photos. Need I say more?!
I graduated there. Got to high school, college and a job... well a couple of jobs ha-ha! I guess it spelled the 20 years for me. When the day finally came I wanted to be at the venue first so I did my best but John Lloyd beat me to it! Haha! Then after a few short stories, Enclid, Abby and Julius arrived. Sherwin came through the rain. We waited a bit and got RC, Christine and Shiela too. I guess a bit of my dream to see them was comin true... =)

L-R Christine, Lloyd, Julius, Abby, Sherwin, Enclid
RC and Shiela (seated)

Pretty soon the place was filling up. We decided to start the party and got a few more guys and gals to arrive.

(Top) Shiela, Lloyd (L-R) Enclid, Lyn (Warner's wife ^_^), Warner, Rodel, Abby Sherwin, Christine, Gina, Freddie, Maryann, Jerome, Julius, Jon-Jon, RC and Me

We drank a few bottles and ate a few things but what kept us busy most of the time was the laughter and stories. I never imagined how petty and innocent we were back then. And oh how time flies! Some of us look quite the same and some of us look VERY different... but you can't discount one thing... we all still look good. I guess time has been good to us and in fact I wouldn't wanna say how old we are, after all we're all probably the same age haha! I was a little weird in some way because I practically could occupy 1/4 of the photos, I guess I was that big! I was already big when we were kids ^_^.

I did see my closest friends though I never got the chance to talk to them that much this time. I know there will still be more of these gatherings. I want to get to know them more. We've all lived different lives, chose different paths and had been doing a lot to reconnect. It was indeed an evening to remember. It was exactly as I hoped it would be as it made me happy... I hope it was the same for them!

Here's some of the highlights!









It was a fun day for all of us. I'd like to take this part of the post to thank each and everyone who attended this small gathering. I know I'm not much of a planner or organizer but we did have fun and that's what is important. For our classmates who weren't able to come, you saw how much fun we had on this reunion... so try and be there next time okay?! Again thanks to everyone who made this successful!



PS I think everyone got home late after a few rounds of beer in Tomas Morato. Until we meet again! Au Revoir!

One Percent Of Anything

I'm watching something new now. I guess you kinda get this habit when you are stressed. For some reason it's Korean. I don't have anything against Koreans but I just didn't like MTV stations flooded with all their videos. I wouldn't be changing channels if they were all English but oh boy its all them on Channel V. Unfortunately MTV Philippines closed down via an executive decision last year. It's because of recession and they had to cut down costs. All their regional channels had gone kaput! Anyway, this is really nice and I would like you guys to give it a try and watch 1% of Anything. The plot is kinda good, to tell you honestly I just started watching it and been having a good time watching it. I probably would recommend it to my friends too. The site I'm watching it from is Mysoju which has Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese movies/series all over it. If you plan to visit check out this particular series because its funny and exciting. It also has a hint of love story and comedy which is the common Filipino flick formula. Maybe you should watch it in the afternoon too.

It's a breather from those series you often watch in primetime. Definitely better produced. I don't know about our capabilities because the last time I saw a Filipino movie we can't even get a person to fly properly like Superman in the 70's right? What a weird country we have... anyway please take time to watch it I think it'll give you something to think about watching when it gets dubbed in Filipino soon. It'll probably show up in our TV sets I betcha!

High Definition like No Other!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of faceVsion Technology USA. All opinions are 100% mine.

I've been so lucky to belong in this era where communication seems so easy. In a day and age where globalization has forced some of my friends and family for work out of the country; I still try my best to contact them through the Internet. This medium has saved me a lot of money but you have to understand that it's quite hard to get video across every time. Sometimes it's choppy and a decent stream would get you digitized on some occasion. I don't complain though because if you think about it; relatively it's still free.

I am a gadget freak and a geek. I often try some hardware for testing on my site too. I was thinking something like this one would get my video do better when using SKYPE. I've seen a couple similar ones like the LOGITECH PRO 9000 and MICROSOFT CINEMA but they didn't compare in HD quality over the World Wide Web and just perform well on a local location. That really defeats the purpose right?! Good thing there's a greater gear from TOUCHCAM N1 that utilizes H.264 CODECS. I should know because I worked on VOIP services too! It's like my brother from way there in Europe is just around town. It's way crisp and clear! Their on line store www.shop.facevsion.com is now running a back to school promotion with $10 off any purchase, using the promo code of FVTBTS2 while checkout. The promotion ends 09/30/’10. Isn't faceVsion just awesome!

Always remember this FV touchcam N1 outperformed the other brands. As a matter of fact, FV TOUCHCAM N1 is the first Internet streaming true HD webcam for Skype video calls. If you are skeptic; I dare you give it a try! FV TOUCHCAM is available through their awesome site shop.facevsion.com and other value added partners so what are you guys doing staring at the photos on my site! Get them ordered on the faceVision on line store and shipped now! You'll never regret it! Get the FV ExpressCombo so you could save a lot too!

Xander Angeles's Creative Lens Series - Boudoir Photography

I was like a kid in a candy store. It was like my first day of school again when I got the chance to be with my idol Xander Angeles and his protege Niko Villegas. Two of the best fashion photographers in the world. Doing this to give back something to the craft that made them who they are today is commendable. I was in for something big and I know how lucky I am to even get to know these people; let alone shoot with them this weekend. I wasn't disappointed because they delivered as expected on the workshop. Who am I to second guess the Jedi Masters (ha-ha!) I REALLY learned a lot... and here's a rundown of the day.

I woke up around 6am (not excited huh?! =P ) and to tell you honestly I did read off a couple of things a few weeks before I got the slot. It pays to be prepared and I don't wanna look clueless right off the bat. Xander Angeles, Niko Villegas and Daryl Quioge was at the door of The Picasso Boutique Residences when I arrived. I think I was a little late (around 10 mins) which I apologized for (thanks to Makati City's one way streets!). It doesn't take a genius or a lot to research about what boudoir photography is; and I would pretty much get this combined with wedding photography packages in the future. When asked one by one about what it is and what's it all about, I think I had the right idea what it was used for in the olden days. Boudoir is French for bedroom. This is a "suggestive" and sexy shoot made for soon to be wives as a present to their husbands right after ceremonies. This is something for them to remember too on what they looked like before they get into the motherhood business of it all.

Starting with this concept, we need to make use of lights. It is important to set the mood in photography and you use this to enhance her assets and create drama. Doing the make up for us in this shoot was Ms. Michelle Literal, if you are going to shoot something exquisite as our Brazilian Model (of which I'm going to show you after minor post processing) you need to have a make up artist that can do it flawlessly. Every setup and shot we had the MUA went in and retouched the model probably to create consistency to the overall look and get her hair in place. It is so important to also have art direction and styling involved even before you execute the concept. We had so many lights to use but I chose to have one light done on my first setup. To be able to create the drama and shot that I want I wanted her to lean on a wooden plank and have the light have some well lit and some covered in shadows. Emphasis would be on her face and body. I had a really yellow to near orange background and I didn't choose to have it softened. I blatantly had it on hard lights so the shadow didn't get diffused light but total cuts with it. It ended up with details still but I had the darkness I was going for. The light became so bright that I thought I had sunshine inside the room. It was nice to see the whole perspective of the first shot done sunny since my foreground had that color I mentioned. Some problems with posing cutting off of other body parts off the frame but I still had to have her shot there so I could get post process wise details of what would be sexy and attractive in print. I was planning a layout and it is important to have those done first. In 10 frames or a little more than that I had to do it. I wasn't rushed but I chose to be inside the limits of the challenge and get me some of the money shots without thinking that I can manipulate them on the computer after wards. The result in this case were photos that I couldn't do anything with anymore because they were already good right there and then. To say the least, I was happy with that but if I had more time I would probably have had her pose more in different frames. This was actually the second time that I used gels. I never had one of my own and since they just had their creative lighting session last week they had this shoot using those for the background. It was nice to see the effects while lights were being diffused by glass over at the bathtub. I was looking at the others who had their lights setup differently and I learned a couple or two from that. The output was awesome; we got the best shots uploaded on the computer for post processing I guess. I'll wait for that too.

What have I learned?! There's a lot actually.

1.) Create Drama with Lights
2.) Getting gels and using them on creative setups. I learned where to buy them too! ^_^
3.) Maximizing all details before shooting, getting the best MUA, Stylist, Hairstylist and Production Design, Location
4.) Planning schematics of lights
5.) Posing to accentuate body
6.) Deconstructing Photos - which is important so it would be second nature to you!
7.) Lighting makes a difference
8.) Using same set of lights but on a different angle
9.) Using Fill Light and Soft Lights to see details of the subject
10.) Making photos 3 dimensional
11.) Using warm and cold lights
12.) Rim lights
13.) I used some of the lenses Nikon had there too, you should definitely switch to Nikon if you haven't done that yet! =)
14.) Meet Joe Black can change your life! Ha-ha!

I wouldn't want to go into minute details anymore because it would spoil the fun if you guys plan to have the seminars with the masters. There's another one this weekend and I hope you guys try to get that or any of their future ones. It's all worth it believe me!

I would like to thank the other photographers who attended this Boudoir Workshop. I must say you have lots of great shots too. I had a really nice LEARNING time with you guys. Thank you also to Sir Niko Villegas for teaching creative ways in shooting, I'll never forget the water bottle and Vaseline! Thank you also to my idol Xander Angeles, you just don't know how much you have inspired me and my work. I'll definitely do my best from hereon and get to the NEXT level. I know there are still new things to learn but I'm glad to get the best of them from you guys at Elite! =) Thank you!

PS
Thank you also to Sir Nick Tuason and the people behind Digital Photographer Philippines for hooking me up on this awesome opportunity! I'll show my shots later! =)