The Tour

I am dearly sorry for the late redirect. I have set up shop and now 'sell my wares' over at the new site. Please update your bookmarks and follow my new blog. Please click the graphic below to go down the rabbit hole, so to speak. Many thanks!

And before the day ends, allow me greet you all a merry Christmas.

Hi, Hiatus!

Calm in the Midst of Chaos by Joel Locaylocay

My dear loyal readers, I am going to step away from blogging for a while until I figure out how best to represent myself online. I am in the process of learning how to setup my own domain and website, so saying that I am going to be preoccupied would be an understatement as I am very much clueless about how to go about the whole thing. I am undertaking this move because I would very much like to have more control over  my pictures as uploading them on sites such as this one actually grants the hosting company a license to use it (albeit non-exclusively). Essentially, I just want to plan in preparation for my transition into self-employment.

I, of course, will keep on shooting, but will be posting my pictures on 500px for now. I am also keeping my accounts on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter, so you should still be able to reach me there for a friendly chat or perhaps commission me for a portrait sitting. As of now, I am still uncertain about the future of this blog, but for now let me just say —

Thanks for reading and I'll see you around. 

The Gift of Flash - 001

Just to be clear, this new series of short posts do not refer to the following topics: the DC superhero Flash (in all his iterations), the multimedia platform from Adobe, and definitely not about a bit of unsolicited nudity. This and the other bite-sized bits of information that follow will talk primarily about the many creative opportunities that are made available to a photographer with the use of off-camera flash.

1. The ability to light glass

I'm not saying that glass can't be lit by using only natural light. It's just easier to light when you have an off-camera light source. One of the ways to light glass is... well, by not lighting it directly. This technique is called bright-field lighting. Essentially, you keep the light on the background and allow the diffuse reflection coming off it to reveal the outline and shape of the glass object. This is best carried out in a more easily controlled environment like a studio, but it can also be done outside of one when the conditions are right.

I was lucky enough to catch and capture the following setup during the department's open house a few weeks back. A shot that I could have easily struggled (or failed) to make without off-camera flash.

More to come...

__________

For those who are interested in the technical, you can hover your mouse cursor over the picture above to view my camera and flash settings. If you're interested in similar articles and would like to be notified when I put a new post up, either follow this blog (via Google reader) or sign up for e-mail updates on the left navigation bar. Thanks.

Watching the World Go By

For the Morning Grind by Joel Locaylocay

It's going to be a long week. I am girding myself for what is going to be a hectic next couple of days. It looks like I'm going to need more than my usual dose of caffeine to make it through each one. And as busy as I am going to get, I definitely need to pick my camera up a lot more often to make pictures like the one above to literally and figuratively blow off some steam.

Leap of Faith

Due to my decision to not finish my master's degree, I will most likely be teaching part-time (if at all) this coming second semester. I was in no way blindsided about this soon-to-be-fact; I was made perfectly aware that this would be the consequence of my inaction and I am gladly accepting it. Truth be told, if I was given another 'reprieve', I would adamantly refuse such an offer.

I will take my knocks and move on.

But the Finish Line Is in Sight

A lot of people have already lectured me on how little I have left to do before I get my degree, and the most common analogy used in these talks is that of a race. I'm nearly at the finish, so why not call on one last second wind to get myself to cross the line?

I am not arguing the validity of the comparison, but I must question their perspective. Whatever people tell me about how they can relate to this specific part of my life, I must remind them that no one ever can. The same way that I can't claim to know what other people are going through based on their career decisions or the kind of shoes they wear. If I were to offer my own analogy it would be that of a person drowning his sorrows in alcohol (which I have quite some personal experience with as well) looking at the last remnants of liquor in the bottle, and then asking himself whether he should just go ahead and gulp it down.

Would the same people espousing the race analogy still call it a waste if the bottle was left unfinished?

Mr. End meet Mrs. End

I realize that this will pose a number of problems for me and my wife financially, but I don't plan on taking any days off come October. I will be using the time to launch a photography business that has been in development for the past few months. I will be actively engaged in portfolio-building personal projects over the next few months and will be promoting my best work to potential clients wherever and whenever. I also realize that I will not earn anything from this venture right away, but my Susan has firmly assured me that we can do this and that she is with me every step of the way. I count myself blessed to have such a lovely and strong woman in my life.

I am also very fortunate to have the support of a select number of family and friends who have been rooting for me from the beginning. And of course, I always appreciate you, my loyal readers, for embarking on this journey with me.

That Sinking Feeling

I once heard one of my college classmates bemoan the fact that he felt his whole life was on the brink of falling off a cliff over water. I always thought that cliffs are just geological formations that signal where the land ends and the sea begins. Why should I continuously shuffle my feet near the precipice when I can cannonball into the cool water that awaits below and rewrite life from hereon in.

There is definitely more to come...

Stone Soup Light

*This is a repost from my Google+ stream.

This picture finally finds its way out of the freezer today (after four long years). It's my second book cover (first was surprisingly a vector illustration of molecules involved in chemical equilibrium), however it was my first paying job. But this picture is memorable for me beyond that fact because it's the first time I had to really think hard about how to make the shot with limited resources (one flash optically triggered by the popup flash on my Canon 350D) and a very small crew (just me).

I hope this isn't the last picture I get to shoot for books (about chemistry or otherwise).

__________
**Today was actually last Wednesday (August 22, 2012).

***And I would prefer doing an otherwise-related book rather than a chemistry one next. :-)#

Torta for Dinner

Susan has been on a baking binge lately. She is slowly notching recipe after recipe under her belt. She's starting with the standards and a number of local delicacies, nothing too hoity-toity or exotic. A few weeks back my Ma gave her a recipe for torta (mamon), which she then eagerly tried out. The recipe was actually shared with my Auntie Mye by someone from Madridejos who used to bake the treat. My Ma and Pa's hometown isn't particularly known for its baked goods, so we were a bit skeptical.

However, all that apprehension melted away after the first bite.

And since this blog isn't intentionally about food, then I'm guessing that you're here for a different kind of recipe. A list of the light ingredients can be found after the jump.

Changing Places

Some people are just irreplaceable. Their very absence leaves a void that most often can never be filled. I witnessed such a vacuum firsthand when I came to the university to teach. Our department was nearing the end of its golden age and the Atlases who once held it up were gone. The load that they carried for decades was passed on to the shoulders of those who were left. A colossal task that could have been made bearable if everyone only took on a part of the yoke.

I realized late that the 'love' people unabashedly declared for their profession was not absolute. There was no clear-cut standard for the many shades of this so-called love. Well, self-aggrandizement and self-preservation, maybe. There was now a gaping maw from where the department was and where it ought to be. In a nutshell, the bridge was out, and people weren't exactly as eager to fill this gap than to cross it at all costs. It became clear at that stage that it was time to rebuild, but it became apparent as the re-edification process wore on that some parts were missing and that some were unfortunately 'decorative'. I (as have others, albeit behind my back) have found myself to be lacking, yet I could not completely comprehend for the life of me why I threw my body to the span.

As of today, the bridge stands unfinished. It is held together by a few determined parts that have now been stretched too thin from wear and tear, holding on due to some misplaced sense of duty and familiarity. But for as long as these parts hold, the span that will once again carry the department to its renaissance will never get built. Not until people stop waiting for the next Atlas to come along, not until they search their souls for the meaning of the word love, and not until it is allowed to fall.

It has been over ten years since I first nervously stepped into a classroom full of students. Each semester since has passed by in a dreamy blur. Each new year brought its share of new faces, new stories, and old endings --- my life as a teacher became episodic. And it seems that even though nothing seemed to stay the same, everything that mattered was at a standstill.

For what has seemed like an eternity, I can again finally smell change in the air. And before the year ends, I am writing a new ending to one last episode.

Perseverance Pays (in Kind)

A few days back as I was waiting in vain (like the song) for some Perseids love, I had to contend with a zealous moon. I couldn't keep the shutter open for too long because Luna would wash the sky out.

I planned on an elaborate method of using moon-shaped ND gels held by a black piece of wire to selectively underexpose the moon. It's easier to do a composite in Photoshop, I know, but I can't afford a license for that yet. (Lightroom more than suffices for my current processing needs anyway.) But since it was around 4 AM and my brain did not have its daily dose of caffeine yet, I decided to use my finger... to surprisingly good (for me, at least) and funny results.

This is probably as close to 'compositing' as I will get.

__________

This post was originally shared on my Google+ stream. If you have a G+ account, please feel free to add me to your circles (here's a link to my profile - gplus.to/jrlocaylocay). If you're not on G+ yet and you're experiencing Facebook fatigue, then you can sign up for one here - https://plus.google.com/

Watching the World Go By

Sanctuary (?)