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...

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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).

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**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.

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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 (?)

The Lit Landscape (Part 2)

I'm a fan of the hidden nook. While at Cebu Marine Resort at Cordova, where I made this picture of Mangrove saplings, with the family, I found a patch of more mature trees that enclosed a strip of sand at the end of the concrete pier. I peered in and  saw an opportunity to squeeze in an off-camera flash into the scene below.

I changed my camera settings to underexpose the scene by about two stops. I lowered myself a bit more to get a better angle.  I planned to light the tree trunk on camera left, so I changed my position to juxtapose the yellow leaves on upper camera left with the trunk. It was a matter of asking my assistant, the lovely Susan, to move into position with the flash, which had a 1/4 CTO gel on and a grid to warm up and restrict the light coming off it respectively. I shot a couple of frames and varied the shutter speed to control ambient contribution until I got a mix that I was happy with.

I could have shot the manicured lawns and the ornamented interiors of the resort, but I'm sure that most of their camera-carrying clientele have already snapped a picture or twenty of these sights. I am a fan of the concealed cranny because I believe there is beauty to be found and revealed where it is not immediately apparent.

The Lit Landscape (Part 1)

For a portrait guy, I sure have been shooting a lot of landscapes lately. Truth be told, I am working on a number of personal projects that involve portraiture, but these are just in the planning stages for now. I have resigned myself to doing more deliberate and thought-out shoots to generate pictures to add to my portfolio, since I don't have as much time and energy as I would like. As a consequence, I also get to do fewer sittings, so I grab any opportunity to use my camera in between.

On the same day that I shot the picture I talked about in a previous post, I found a patch of Mangroves by the concrete pier that I was standing on. I stared at them for quite some time, watching them sway about in the wind. A light must have gone on in my head because the next thing I know I was grabbing a hot shoe flash from my bag. After which the following thought process ensued ---

Shoot it in under ambient (midday) light.
Blah.

Okay, let's switch WB to tungsten.
Much better. I like how it makes the water a surreal sort of blue.

Let's light this sucker!
At ISO 200 and f/11 your flash contribution isn't registering in the image.

Power on full! We can live with the seconds-long recycle.
Okay, the flash contribution is showing, but it's lighting the stalks and it's a bit distracting.

Let's get the wife Susan to dangle the flash over the water. Maybe ask her to hold it close to parallel to the ground so it just skims off the leaves.
Nice. Great idea on skimming it off the leaves.
Hey, thanks. You helped too.

And if you're wondering why I talk to myself, those who know me well will assure you that as long as I keep the internal conversations with myself to myself, I'll be fine.

Oh yeah, the picture.

Watching the World Go By

Fortress of Solitude

Saving Stories

Great pictures tell great stories. The picture above is unremarkable at best, but I believe that the story behind it deserves telling. Some moments do not simply lend themselves to repetition and they become lost in memory after they pass.

This was shot on a gusty, blustery Sunday afternoon that would see typhoon Gener ravage the northern part of the archipelago while still making its presence felt everywhere else in the country. The people in the image are harvesting shells, the kind that's usually boiled (often with vegetables) to make soup. They scoured the entire length of the beachfront for hours, wading in thigh-deep waters in that inclement weather. However, it wasn't until I passed some of them on my way home that I noticed that the plastic gallons that they used as containers were barely a third of the way full.

And it was at this moment that I decided to give this image its best chance to recount the story of these shell harvesters because I truly believe that awareness can be a powerful thing. I don't normally ask as much of an image in post as I have this particular picture, but my original capture was rather flat and undramatic. By post-processing purposefully, I pushed it to its limits to extract every detail in the tale that I begged it to narrate.

This is not a great picture, not by any stretch, and I would not normally share it, but it is an image that gave me both pause and perspective. And sometimes you have to save the picture, so it can tell its story.

Using Custom WB as a Creative Tool

Red to Blue

In as much as it is a necessary task when shooting in RAW, I have no stamina for prolonged post-processing (PP) work. I would rather be out there making pictures rather than sitting in front of a computer monitor. I do most (lately, it seems to be all) of my PP work in Lightroom, which works for me since I mainly just make adjustments to the sliders under the 'Basic' and 'Detail' panels for the pictures that I shoot. And for this very reason, I always strive to get the shot right, as I have previsualized it, before I even press the shutter. If I can't make it in camera, then I won't fake it in post.

This brings me to an article I read on setting and using a custom white balance (WB) to create an interesting scene from an otherwise ordinary location. I didn't really fiddle with the WB setting on my camera until about two years ago when I wanted to get more consistent color temperatures when working with flash, and even then I mainly just used the preset modes. If you need a primer on WB, I recommend you read this simple and easy-to-understand article on the subject.

I wanted to test the principle of the technique, so I opted to do the reverse of what's shown in the article that I linked to above. I also wanted to find out if it would work on non-human subjects, so I choose to shoot my wife's potted plants.

Okay, on with the experiment! It starts with setting the camera's WB to 'Daylight', and then shooting the scene with a red gel in front of the lens.

I wonder if I can pass this off as an abstract art piece. I mean this guy certainly pulled it off. But I digress. I shot the concrete wall above the plants since it was as close to a neutral gray as I could get. I then used the file to set my WB to a custom value, after which I set my WB setting to 'Custom'.

So, did it work?

Watching the World Go By

Unburdened

Something Good Can Happen After 3 am

There is a short window of time, right after the moon sets and just before the preglow of sunrise begins to show over the horizon, when the sky reveals its more oft-missed wonders to me --- the stars.

Under the right conditions and with a lot of luck, I can usually make out a lot more of them than one usually sees in the city, given that I'm viewing them through a sickly mixture of halogen and fluorescent lights. Watching the sky in all its glittering glory takes me back to sleepless summer nights when I was a teenager, when my friends and I would go to the beach and wait for the sun to come up. We would sit on the sand, listen to the waves lap up the shore, and just talk for hours on end. Good times.

And although I am a fan of daybreak, there is just something about a starry sky that holds me in awe and makes me feel a little more hopeful that the coming day is just going to be all right. At an age where mornings are viewed with so much disdain and dread, I believe I may just have found my own slice of heaven.

1 out of 259

Poet Rita Dove once said, "Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful." I am fortunate to have a twofold insight into that wonderful passage --- First, as a chemist, I have experienced firsthand how a substance can be refined via the effervescent purification of the distillation process. Second, as the occasional 'poet', I can appreciate how choosing the right words for the right occasion can make one's message far greater than the sum of its parts.

These words resonate in photography as well. I believe now (and it took me a while to get to this point) that if you want to make a great picture, you just don't need to get the technical aspect right, but you have to consider the creative elements of the image (and more so). Your picture must tell a story. And very often this story is achieved by choosing what part of the image to show in the frame. And even when you feel that you have a lot of good pictures that meet the criteria, not all of them will be great. Trust me, they're not. (Quite often, you have to be your own worst critic.)

I read an article for photographers who want to improve their skill; the piece was written by a professional who said that if you get ten good pictures in a year, then you can consider that to be a good year. So, in as much as I would like to 'say more' by putting out more pictures, I chose the picture below out of 259 (culled from nearly 400 images) to tell my story of last Saturday's department party*.

Do you think I was able to tell my story of the events that transpired well enough?

Please feel free to throw in your two cents in the 'comment well' below. Thanks for reading.

*Other pictures from the event will still be posted for the purposes of documentation. :-)#

Watching the World Go By

Busy-ness

Before Sunrise

I have chased many a sunrise in the past (and I still do). One time, Carlo and I were literally driving like mad just to shoot one before harsh morning light reared its ugly head. Whether you are a photographer or not, witnessing the break of day is awe-inspiring. The only catch is you have to be there pretty early to capture it.

I have mistimed shooting a sunrise many times before. In the tropics, the whole event can be over in under a minute or two. Yeah, it's that quick. If you're just setting up your  tripod, then you'll miss it. If you're still fiddling with your camera settings, then you'll miss it. If you take the time to tell the photographer next to you how wonderful it is, then you'll miss it. With these lessons learned, I make it a point to be at my pre-scouted location (usually selected a day before or earlier even) at least 30 minutes before the sun is scheduled to bathe the world in golden light.

*Thanks to the lovely Susan Locaylocay for shooting this picture.

Okay, so now what do you do while you wait?

Shoot the scene before the sun comes up.

You'll often be surprised with what you get. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the camera and the human eye don't perceive the world the same way, so what may look muted and dark to you may look entirely different to the camera. Plus, you can always manipulate your shooting settings to render the scene in front of you in a different way.

  

 Yeah, it pays to show up early. :-)#