If there’s one word that describe the feeling I felt upon seeing the islands from the not so distant shores of Pundaquit, it was awe. I was awed by the beauty of our country, blue skies, bluish emerald waters and various rock and cloud formations unseen else where.
The longing that was steadily accumulating in me from a year’s deprivation of nature’s beauty started to suddenly pour out. The wait was over and was totally worth it.
Having seen a few other parts of the globe, what used to be such a mundane thing as a blue sky or a cotton candy like cloud formation now strikes a chord in me every time i see one.
Sharing a few shots I was able to take from that wonderful and truly amazing place:
Just sharing a recent shoot i had at home with my housemate Allen’s girl friend, Marie.
It’s fun to be shooting with a group of photographers, except that I don’t get to dictate the shots that I wanted to make. So despite the ever growing Doha Pinoy Shooters Flickr Group, I had to venture and shoot on my own, to satisfy my own photographic needs. hehehe.
Thanks to Allen and Marie for the opportunity. It was really fun shooting you both.
Got the chance to join a studio shoot just recently. It’s actually more of a make shift studio rather than the expensive, high tech, high end studio you might be invisualizing.
We had a two light set up - one soft box and one strobe shoot on an umbrella. Participants included some of the members of the Doha Pinoy Shooters, most of which was called/texted at the last minute for this shoot.
Thanks to Tabs, who, despite the call-off of our first model, was able to find a replacement, and a very good one at that, in Lobelle. Also thanks to Cristy, Tabs better half, for the modeling tips, postures and the works. Lastly to Richard, our ever patient mentor and to Jun for hosting the shoot at his flat.
Sharing some of the shots:
Used my new Canon EOS 5D. What a cam.
More shots to follow soon, need to catch some sleep.
I’m proud to say that finally, officially, excitedly, the Doha Pinoy Shooters have finally organized. We have been shooting on and off as a group for almost a year now, but the group kicked off only quite recently with the creation of the flickr groups Doha Pinoy Shooters, and from then on the group have grown into almost 60 members, almost 30 of which are filipinos from Qatar, in just a month. Shots from the first official meet up at Costa Coffee Ramada, Doha:
I’ve been contemplating of whether to buy the Canon wireless triggerr or another flash, probably another 430 ex, and the choice was pretty simple at that time, and that’s to purchase another 430 ex, considering that the price diff is less than 200 riyals.
That was before I stumbled upon an old post from strobist.blogspot.com featuring the Cactus V2 triggers for Canon. The post was not an extensive review but the price tag of 30 usd really struck me, so I searched deeper for this cheap little triggers and was able to find a link to there site.
Anyway I purchased the trigger online two weeks ago from gadget infinity which is a Hong kong based firm who manufactures and markets the triggers online. Total price tag for a one set of trigger and receiver and three extra receivers - less than 100 USD!
The package came today and was taking some test shots, and the triggers seem to work ok, the built is shabby and my 580 exii don’t seem to lock on the trigger, I think it was the weather sealing on the hot shoe which prevents it from locking. One more thing, the receivers doesn’t lock on the small stands of my Canon flashes, so light stands would definitely be required, unless you’ll have some one to hold the flashes for you when shooting.
Will be posting some test shots during the weekend and probably additional reviews on the triggers.
Overall I think this is a good and cheap way to start off cam flashing.
It’s been an awfully long day for me, 4 am an I’m still up, with all the clattering and banging just outside my window (another building is being tore down) sleep just can’t seem to engulf me within its confines.
Anyway, I just came home from another EB shoot with some of the Doha Pinoy Shooters flickr group members, but I’m just to tired to upload the shots, so I’ll just be posting another shot I took a few weeks back, which I post processed using Scott Kelby’s tutorial on the Dave Hill effect. Been trying this work flow on some shots but I can’t seem to get the consistency that I wanted, I guess this work flow, or more so the so called Dave Hill effect is primarily dependent on the proper lighting of the shot, nail the lighting, then probably you’ll have a good chance at coming up with a decent and consistent Dave Hill effect shot.
Been doing digital photography for more than a year now, and not once during that time was I able to get hold of photoshop to post process my shots. Was relying heavily on gimp for some post processing requirements.
Anyway, one of the benefits of photography is being able to meet new friends. Luckily one of my new found photography buddies works for an ad agency and offered to install photoshop cs3 on my mac. Some shots I processed applying the Dave Hill effect from a tutorial from Scott Kelby’s site, here goes:
This was quickly done, will try to do better this weekend if i’ve got time.
Just posting a few shots during a sunrise shoot at Wakra Beach, Qatar.
Hope I did the strobist thing some justice. Planning to come back and shoot more as soon as my Cactus V2 flash trigger and receiver arrives.
My camera was glitching during the shoot and I can’t seem to adjust aperture and shutter speed. This was the second time this happened, I guess it’s about time to start saving for a 5D. Continue Reading »
Just sharing a shot from our recent meet up at the Souq Waqaf here in Doha:
Set up: One strobe camera lower right
Despite all the internet materials I’ve read for a couple of months now, I still can’t seem to get a hang of strobing, I guess the key is more practice than theory. Anyway, the slack season for us audit guys is coming soon, so I guess I’ll have all the time in the world to shoot to my heart’s content.
One Snap at a Time