Photographs of Carcar

I went on a photowalk with Zenia and Laurie to the south of Cebu last Sunday. This was the first time I had the chance to use the new things I bought on Ebay. I was so excited that I forgot to adjust my camera settings.

I set the camera with the wrong shutter speed. This mistake ended up blurring most of my shots. I was had to use manual focus in this photowalk since I was using a legacy lens in my camera. I will have to charge those blurred photos to experience. Here are some of the photos I took. 

Exploring Black & White Photography

It's been a long time since I posted anything to this blog. A lot of things have happened in the last few months that I haven't had time to post anything on my blog. I 'm back now, and I've been busy with my hobby.

I attended a photo tour of the province last week. I've had the opportunity to practice street photography. When I was shooting the images, I had a lot of good ideas, but I wasn't able to catch anything on my camera. I'm just going to have to charge that to experience.

Interior CCBA09 - Penthouse Interior Project

A few months ago, we were hired to design the interior of a penthouse. The first problem we had was that the penthouse was initially started by a different contractor. Even though it was minimal, we were constrained by the initial layout of the interior.

 

Our first approach to the design solution was to find a way to tailor our design to the existing layout. We also wanted to achieve a design that would stand out from the rest of the building. The penthouse was to be used for private or special activities.

Reviving My Love for Photography

Lately, I have been trying to revive my interest in photography. I used to love photography back in high school, my dad taught me how to use his old film SLR cam back then. I used to take a lot of pictures of different subjects. When my dad bought his first digital camera, I also stopped my hobby of taking pictures with the SLR camera.

My fascination with photography stopped since film photography was expensive back then. It was the SLR camera that made me love photography back then. There's just a lot of difference between the point and the shoot and the SLR. Apart from the difference in the results, there is a different feeling in the handling of an SLR camera

When Zenia bought her Holga camera she asked me to go with her on a photo excursion with our office mate. While we toured around the rural areas I watched my office mates taking shots with their DSLRs. They took photos of different subjects and scenery with their DSLR. I, on the other hand, took some pictures with my cellphone camera. After our photo excursions, I noticed my shots were not as sharp as the ones my friends took with their DSLR.

 I was frustrated with the results since I might not be going back to that place for a very long time. I then recalled that my dad still had his old SLR cameras. I borrowed it from him and tested it out and found out it was still working perfectly. Although these were old film SLR camera the quality of the shots were good. Even though I had to spend on film and developing it, this would still be much cheaper than buying a DSLR camera.

Eventually, I will buy myself a DSLR camera this December. As for now I will exploit my dad's SLR cameras and learn the ropes before investing in a DSLR. I still have to convince myself that this is not just a phase, that I would find time for this hobby and continue with this it for a long time.

Here are a couple of the shots I took with my film SLR.

Switching to Free Programs

Lately a lot of offices here in the Philippines have switched to open source programs to save on the cost of buying original programs. I did my research on some alternative open source software to their commercial counter part and found out that there are a lot of pretty good and efficient open source counterparts.

Here are some of the list of programs that I am currently using and their commercial counter parts.

Open Source: Blender
Commercial Counterpart: 3D Max

Open Source: DoubleCad
Commercial Counterpart: Autocad

Open Source: Gimpshop, Gimp
Commercial Counterpart: Adobe Photoshop

Open Source: Open Office
Commercial Counterpart: Microsoft Office

Open Source: Gantt Project, Open Project
Commercial Counterpart: MS Project

Open Source: Google Sketchup
Commercial Counterpart: 3D Max

There are a lot more open source programs available and I'm still trying out some of them. I'll post some updates after I finish testing them.

Check: www.osalt.com for more information on open source programs.