bikini shoot

I wake up early this morning. I was a bit excited because we have a scheduled bikini photo shoot at Sentosa with my colleague in Photobongbong. Last Monday, I planned a bikini photoshoot and asked Glenn to provide the models. At first we were not sure if we can pull off the plan but with some little luck, we were able to confirmed the schedule with ladies on Saturday.

Actually, I also have another outdoor photoshoot schedule. This one was a street photography with my original group the Photonski. Tonski invited me to join them and even send an text message of confirmation. That was careless of me because I didn't check my schedule and totally forgot that I organized a bikini shoot at the same day. I know this would make Tonski and Tolitz feel bad, but I have no choice. I canceled street photography in favor of the bikini photoshoot.

The guys were already there when I arrived in Vivo City at the Harbour Front. I was glad to see that there were only 7 shooters and 2 models. Though only Vivien (who prefers to be called Susie) showed up at Vivo City, Didith called and promised to follow at Sentosa.

We started at Tanjung Beach under the shades of coconut trees.
Susie who stands 5 feet 10 inches was simply stunning as she pose among the tree trunks. Honestly, I was so mesmerized with her beauty that I didn't shoot during the first half hour. I simply stayed from a distance and watch her move with the photographers. I borrowed the Sports Illustrated calendar from Blenda and choose the poses that would best fit for Vivien. Then joined with the group and started shooting.

My colleagues knows that when I am holding a camera and shooting a model, I could be demanding and particular with details. I was always conscious on how and where the hair falls, and how the model position their arms, fingers and jaw line. I guess they agree with what I was doing because they allowed me to direct the tempo and they would wait for the right moment before starting to fire their camera.

Didith joined with us at around 1pm. We had lunch first at Kuofu food court and after an hour later, we transfered to a location along the breakwater of Palawan Beach. We spend hours at the rocks exploring some pose that would blend with their bikini and body color tone. We were interrupted for an hour because of rain but managed to get back to the beach line before 6pm. It was just the right timing to get the ladies into the water and shoot for wet look. The sun was 10 degrees on the horizon and the color cast of the sky was light orange.

I explored the use of ND gradient filter to separate the strong contrast between the sky and water, and coupled it with polarizer to diffuse the effect of water reflection. Then I asked Didith to lay down on the sand and waited for the waves to hit her body before firing my camera. It was not easy as you think. I have to lay down at the sand too to get a parallel perspective with the model. Needless to say, I got wet and and so as my gears. Good thing I have a weather sealed lens and camera body. hehehhe...

It was almost 8pm when we called it a day. I enjoyed the photo shoot and had taken almost 6GB of pictures. With an extra 1GB more, I could have taken more photos but it was already too dark and the resulting picture is no longer acceptable.

We had dinner at Food Republic. We were happily reviewing our day's activity when Susie notice that I was no longer wearing my watch. Arrgh! I left my Seiko Kinetic Titanium 4 at the Shower room. It pains me because that's my remembrance from Saudi Arabia and my first $1k treasure. Huhuhu... ang sakit.

si noel

I never had a buddy who could keep up with me except for one who used to be my "partner-in-crime". His name is Noel Macaya. We were friends way back on our high school years and were both products of a Marist Brothers ruled Notre Dame School. And during my work years at Philcom, Noel became my buddy at work: he manages the customer interfacing operations while I managed the back-end-operations. We had a seamless work relationship that we were so effective, our superiors could not cope up with our output. Several times, we were given citation as the best employees and best team in the company.

Little did the company know that we were better partners not in the office, but in our gimmicks and escapades. Almost every night, we would "hunt" inside the bars and clubs in Cagayan de Oro picking up girls, ladies and pretty women of different "variety". We alternate as wing-man and predator and we were so effective that we have a success rate of almost 100%. Once we set an eye on a "prey", it would just be a matter of minutes - we could get the target. We were known in all watering holes in the city. We earned such a reputation that other "hunters" would felt threatened of our presence, and they would make a way for us thus making our hunt much easier.

What make us tick together was our mutual respect with each other's ability and skills. Noel has good looks, charisma and intelligence, and I used this to my advantage. I am audacious, fast, and smart and could sweet talk anyone with ease, and Noel uses my skills too.. to his advantage. This positive reinforcement toward each other and a healthy competition push ourselves to a higher plane that we could not have reach individually. I don't recall we ever disagree about women. Our unspoken code: whoever first set eyes on a prey, it his!

And when we parted ways because we had to move to different companies, I felt I lost a leg. Gone was an important part of me that made me deadly on a hunt. I lost a partner. For several times I tried doing it by myself, but my success rate drop significantly that eventually I decided to stopped my hunting ways. Occasionally, we still hang out together but during the latter days, we started to lost contact when I went abroad.

That was almost 6 years ago. This evening, I was surprised to see an email from my long lost friend Noel. I learned that he is currently in Davao and is working with Splash corporation. He used to be with Smart Telecoms but found the company too boring, thus made a decision to transfer to Splash. But knowing Noel as an untamed and free spirited intelligent person, it didn't surprise me when he told me that he is planning to moved out of the country soon.

I was glad to hear from my friend. We talked about many things: work, career, classmates, and of course women. It was so relishing to reminisce our good 'ole days and we have plans to doing it once more here in Sg.

Hehehe... I can't wait.

Lower Pierce

My next schedule was a photoshoot with the PinoyITdotSg guys who will be playing Tag Paint Ball at Orchid Country Club in Yishun. I didn't actually signed up for the activity during the roll-call at the yahoogroup, but I planned to go there because this something that I don't have in my portfolio. I wanted to surprise the group crash in their activity. I am confident that they would let me in because I know most of the members.

I was already late so I took a taxi on my way to Yishun. Then out of nowhere, thunderstorm starts to pour. Tsk tsk tsk... this is bad, very very bad. I don't want to expose my gears under the rain hence I decided to cancel my trip to Yishun. Instead, I went to Admiralty and visit Rey Tuazon in his place. I stayed there for several minutes before proceeding to Chua Chu Kang MRT to meet the Photobongbong guys.

Glenn was already there when we arrived. Melvin, Jowena, Ruby and Jared where there too. We then proceed to the Lower Pierce Lake
for the sunset photo session. Melvin and Glenn gave us some tips on the basics of how to take landscape photography. Rey also provided tips and necessary information about the place and the best location where to shoot.

The photo session was fun. We didn't just limit taking pictures of the landscape but also did some portrait. And our model? Hehehe.. the ever willing and pretty Jowena.

'Twas past seven thirty when we left the place. I didn't go home immediately. Instead, I proceed to Tampines to attend the Filipino mass at the Holy Trinity Church.

I reach home at around 10pm. I didn't have time to edit my pictures, I immediately fall asleep.

http://www.photonski.com/sons_of_jorge/LowerPierce

lalie

Bong called up this morning to confirm our photo studio session tonight. He asked me to look for a stylist to take care of the make up and accessories, and they will take care of the studio location. I immediately called Ms G to check if she's available but say to say, she begged off to skip this one due to prior appointment. I immediately called Rey to help me scout for a make up stylist.

Later that day, Tolitz called. Tomorrow's 2nd session of pre-nups shoot with Doreen was cancelled. We may need to reschedule it after the wedding due to tight schedule this May.

Evening, I went to i-studio at Geylang for the photo shoot. Bong and the rest of the team were already there. Melvin gave us some useful tips on how to do glamour photography and then he showed us the basic positioning and setup of lights. Me too shared something during the shoot. I told them that it is very critical to get the attention and confidence of the model before taking any shoot. During my shooting turn, I spent almost half of my shooting time making the model relax and be comfortable with me. And though I only shot a couple of pictures, all my photos were good.

Aside for the basic studio lighting technique, I tried to experiment on low key and orange tone photography. I used a super sharp Canon 50mm f1/8 while taking pictures under a 3-stop light measurement. In layman's term, it's like reading under a 15W red incandescent bulb. And after several failed attempts, I finally got the right combination. The result was orgasmic! tsk.. tsk.. tsk..

Visit my site for more pictures

http://www.photonski.com/sons_of_jorge/Lalie