Greetings!

Happy Holidays Everyone..

I said it in advance before I could miss to greet you all.

There's nothing new..same old same old!

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Photo of the day - Accessories

I am fascinated with photographing jewelries and accessories. I don't have a macro lens to do that but my standard zoom lens was able to capture this real good ones.

Collection of Halloween Photos

It's different here in the states. People will really dress up to the occasion. Though other countries is already participating the occasion it's not always the same here in the US. Kids love to do their trick and treat and homeowners are fun with giving kids candies.

Here's my 2012 photo collection:

A huge spider on the tree. There was a big cobweb too but I didn't capture it.

Photo of the day - Bronzy Look

Friday night I was thinking of doing a bronze look inspired by so many tutorials over the web. I want to look warm and have that coppery feel. So here's what I got.

Eye Make Up - Blue / Purple

This was just out of nowhere look. I tried to copy one's look and I end up different. Well, it's because of the product that I am using and I am a little bit inexperience. But hey, this is the fun of learning you will get surprises. Actually, it turned out nice and I think it suit me well. Also, I have been practicing for days how to put lashes on though I was successful putting it on but it wasn't balance. Not having a magnifying mirror is hard so I was eye bulling and it wasn't balanced at all. It's funny to look at in the pictures. Once again, we all could start from bad to good right? So one day, I could perfectly put the lashes on. I say I am happy I know now how to and well keep on practicing.

Eye Make up - Purple

I want to achieve more lighter shades of purple. I already have that smokey dark purple sometime and so last night I was practicing this look. I think I did a good job. But I still have to improve more with the coverage area of my eyes. I have small eyes but the gap between the lid and brow is a bit a distance so I will need to improve on this next time. I like the look a lot.

Photo of the day - Eye Liner

I discovered this product 2 weeks ago from a friend's house. I was visiting and while I was there. I saw my friend putting on some make up. What I found out from her that works for her eyes was this gel liner from Maybelline. So I bought this product yesterday while I was in Rite Aide.

Photo of the day - Maternity Pictorial

It was my chance to do a maternity pictorial. I was hoping all my equipment could work but I got problems along the way. My model which was my friend too was patient enough to understand what’s going on. Though I got some hurdles knowing how to make it work, I had captured every moment of it. I was happy to get some creative shots. This is also one way of paying her from the baby shower invitations I was not able to attend.

 This was my best shot for capturing silhouette. It was not perfect but not bad for a first timer like me. I didn’t know if I could really make it work since I never practice. I took my chance and sure did I was lucky to get this shot. I did few touches of photo but not too much. I also got the best model. She’s not a professional nor earned anything from it. Her belly looked nice considering she's 37 weeks.

 I like drama and this shot was a success. I wanted more creative shots but my mind wasn’t working too well. It must be the weather and the difficulty I was having with the strobes. I was fighting with my shaking hands as well. The photo was not as sharp as I would want to. Hand held is really difficult. As they say, practice makes it perfect. 

I am so glad that my first try for maternity pictorial was a good one. I hope to get more pictorial some day and hoping could earn something out of it. She already posted the birth announcements which soon to happen in July. It will also be a chance for me to take a photo of her new baby and for the record the baby will be the youngest from my collection. I wouldn’t want to miss that opportunity.

Photo of the day - Self Portrait

I recently took another shot of self portrait which was not perfect but good for practice.

Photo of the day - Perfume

This is a gift from a friend. It was unexpected gesture from her and I appreciate her thoughts. I actually invited her to come to my birthday party last year but she wasn't able to attend. It was just the same day the event was held that I saw saw her and she handed me a VS gift bag and the content was this gift. I didn't take any photo of it, so today was my chance. Here's the photo for the day.

One Light Pictorial

My friend and I did a photo shoot on Saturday. It's a different setting not because I intended to but because of not checking the lists. I wasn't so happy about it since I expected too much of myself. But I've learned.

For the pictorial, I only used 1 key light which my SB600 was helpful. The beauty dish I brought with the monolight strobe was useless. Do you know what I missed? The bulb, duh! What on earth did I not check that? Out of being what? Well, another lesson learned. The 3rd one I missed, the head of the tripod. Too bad, I'm getting old. Is this a sign? I missed a lot of things. So all shots were hand held. It's a practice in the sense. I know one thing I don't have a good steady hands and legs. It worked on my advantage. If only the tripod was working, it could have been less work for me.

So here's the output:

There's more to this pictorial, but I only posted these photos above. What you think? Am I improving?

Latest Hoarding

Since school is almost over. I want to do more photography shots again. I still paying my training online which I haven't really take advantage for the past 4 months, I think it's time to concentrate with it again. So for my latest product hoarding, radio transmitter. I didn't get the Pocketwizzard. I think there's no use to spend more when at this time I am trying to learn new techniques and improving shots. It's cost saving for me and the advantage is great.

Do you know what it is? It's from Impact. I spend less than expected and I got 2 receivers and a transmitter with extra battery. I am so happy that I got it.

Test shot..

 Used Tokina 12-24, D90 with the transmitter on top of a D90 and SB600 mounted to a receiver. Shot the flash in an angle. Nice... SB600 wasn't noisy if to compare using C-mode. Man I am starting to like it. 

 Used Tamron 28-75, d90 with the same combine set up like what I've mentioned above. With few shots testing the aperture and exposure composition and a tweak in Lightroom 3 i got this finish photo. Amazing! I am excited to try this more.

Impact gives me the power to shoot wireless with a flash syncing the camera. Oh boy! This could be addicting..

How to Photograph Your Christmas tree?

This is a very challenging part of photography. Up to this very day, my pictures are not good. Either blurry, too warm and dark. I have been reading about it yesterday and a few today as to how will I get that picture moment correct color saturation.

I bought my tree on Saturday and bought decor yesterday. I decorated the tree with a new theme for the year - Purple! I like that color for my tree. I did start of buying purple ornaments last year but I didn't get enough so I mixed my tree with gold. This year I was so happy when I shopped at Michael's in Cupertino. They have all the purple I want. So I finished my tree last night and I start to photograph the tree.

My challenge was to get the correct color setting. After several tries and attempts, pictures were kind of blue, some were green, some were too warm and of course the noise was terrible. I had few pictures of me and the tree. I looked blue. Yikes!

The setting I used was f5.6-8, iso 400, wb incandescent (tweak the color wheel towards blue), exp -1.3-1.7, ss 1", and sb 600 1/16 with green gel. Now when I read about my setting I was wrong with using aperture and the gel.

So tonight I hope I can get my exposure right. Low aperture, iso 200-400, wb incadescent (color wheel towards yellow orange), will start exp to 0, ss 1/4-1" and Sb 600 1/4 with CTO gel. I will cross fingers...

Here's my correct exposure for the night! yay! I love it...

My New Tamron 28-75

I got myself a new medium zoom lens. It's a 3rd party lens from Tamron. The months of deliberation is over. Battling budget, price, coverage and brand was a tough decision to make. I weighed Tamron 17-50 and it's new VC version and then Sigma 24-70mm. My ideal lens could have been Nikon 24-70 but it's way too much. I don't want to splurge too expensive lenses when it's only for a hobby. It was a hard choice but I ended up with Tamron 28-75. I am happy so far.

The decision was tough but glad I got it. It arrived in good condition. The 28-75mm range will fill my Tokina 12-24. My kind of photography covers all aspect. Though I wish I have all the Nikon's arsenal. But I am not a die hard Nikon Fan, so to speak money wise only. But picture quality it wins. I was thinking why would I spend a lot when I am still a student about this craft. I know by experience good pictures can be taken even you have the least gears. It's knowing the basic of photography and use that creative mind and skills to get the best picture out of the ordinary. Tools can help but knowledge will take you far... Saying this, I am still an amateur and want to improve my skills day by day.



I took this picture with a 35mm prime from Nikon, D90 and SB 600 with a white background paper.

So back to my Baby 28, I will call this thing from now on. LOL! Is it weird or am I ridiculous? I don't care. I have been saving a lot to get this. I am thankful for the sponsored post I have been working for the past months. It helped me to buy it. Somehow, I believe that regardless if it's a 3rd party lens, if I know how to use it, I can produce a better picture. Only those who have microscopic eyes and experts can see the difference.

So here's the verdict:

First shot - wow nice!

2nd shot - hmm, there's softness in it. By the way all photos were taken hand held.

3rd one - I am quite out of focus in here. I took this shot on the floor. It was in a very uncomfortable situation. One hand with the camera pointing to the object which was few inches away at the same time the left hand was holding the flash. Crazy ha?? lol! That's what you called lazy :) in short.


f/8, 75mm, iso 125, 1/200sec - when it reached 75mm it's quite soft and a learning curve to get the focus point.


F/8, iso 125, 56mm, 1/200sec


Handheld F2.8, iso 400, 1/30sec, Auto WB, +7 exposure compensation, No flash... I brightened the exposure using lightroom.

I will still test some more in the coming days and see how good or bad it is when used for portraits. I can't wait to try it with people. I need volunteers!

By the way, Forever21 did not sponsor me for my accessories. I wish this is a sponsored post. But anyway, those were recently purchased and not worn yet. I want to try these lovely fashion earrings to my outfits and do self pictorials again. I am excited!

Latest note: 6-1-12
I tried the lens for no flash wedding photography inside the church. I wasn't so happy about it because it was too slow to focus and the noise level was too high. I would say, it is still a good lens. My everyday lens infact. But not good for speed if you want those fast momentum capture. The prime lens is still the best compare to this.

Successful curls

I was really excited when I achieved a perfect curl. Though my pictorial was not a success since majority of the pictures taken was blurry. Still, with the many pictures taken I got a few that were sharp and clear. Proud to say this was my best curls. Practice makes perfect! I am getting there. Until the next curls lol!

Products use: Treseme Thermal Spray for heat protection and GVP ionic hair straightener. I didn't put hair spray after. The curls hold longer and the curls were amazing. Sorry for no tutorials and video.. I am not fond of it.

New Image

I got this fabulous hat from my job. The color was my favorite and so I decided to take some photos of it. I haven't been doing some pictorials at home and it was the perfect time to do another different concept. I want to take some photos with elegance and feel like European theme. I came up with just a scarf and a hat. It was match all in red.

The difference also with the setting was I tried to do low key lighting. I used 1 light at a very minimal power. I used 1/3 and turning down my camera's exposure compensation to negative 1.7. Camera setting was iso 100 5.6 aperture. It was really too low lighting. But it was cool. The pictures turned out okay.

Noreen and her baby

I did a photoshoot of Noreen and her 11 days old baby last week. It was not a perfect pictorial but the photos turned out pretty well. Every photo sessions is a learning experience and I come across difficulty but able to manage. I hope one day I could have a better and more accurate light set up.

Louella and her Baby

This is the video I made for my best friend Louella and her first baby. What do you think? Am I doing a good job? Just for your note, all photos about the slideshow are all mine and I took it myself.

Pictorial At A friends house

Well, finally I made my move to have it done at a friends house. It was a little work to get all my stuff in a car and brought it in her home. We did it last Saturday. I set up all the lights first, get the proper exposure and did our make up and changed clothes. It took over 3 hours to do everything. Maybe next time, we will set it more properly so we could not get exhausted in the end. But it's nice to feel how it is being at a different location.

I also have noticed that of all the pictorials I did, it was only that moment that I got the proper exposure. My previous trials were not that perfect and I used software to correct it. Glad I had that opportunity to experience the real true exposure compensation.

Photos to follow:

Latest Photos

This was the collage of the photo session I did last week. What makes me excited about having this self portraits is that, I always learned something new every time I did my session. The difference with this was I used a beauty dish together with the softbox. The lens used was 50mm also which I haven't really tried using much. I wanted to see how it will looked like. It was a challenge.

One thing I've discovered also, the monolight's sensor can trigger using my nikon's remote control. I've never realized that it could be possible. So the lighting this time was too low. But I've realized there was a mistake in my part using the ttl on my camera's built it in flash. I haven't tried putting it off. I will take that as a no no for the next pictorial. At least this mistake will take me something better photography and lighting next time.