Finally I found some internet at my cousins and I am able to upload and fill you guys in how my first two days were in Manila, Philippines. Traveling from Edmonton to Vancouver to Philippines was probably the hardest/longest plane ride ever… BUT once we got to the Manila around 4am it felt like 6pm for us because of the time change of 15 hours. Though it was a long first day in this busy city we did accomplished a lot: eating, drinking beer at 5am, unlocking our blackberrys, and eating more! Here are some images that should keep you informed about my sightings thus far.

Till the next post!

The latest assignment that I shot/edited was our “Layout” assignment which we were given a strict layout for a shoe AD. We had to keep the shoes as the main subject, keep the image as portrait layout, and keep room on the bottom right corner for pre-made text…basically it was like an art director telling us what he wanted in the shot that the cliental wanted. Soo I wanted to shoot a spring look since the weather in the city is soo beautiful out and keep the colors very simple/appealing to the eye. Let’s just say THANK GOD for full refunds at big name stores and for BEST friends helping out to model in a pinch! Hope you guys enjoy these photo’s as much as I did!

Layout



Makhanna was being such a GREAT model that I wanted to shoot some full body shots of her just for funn







BFF’s

This past weekend my summer car was out and ready to be driven… thus why I have not been updating cause I’ve been out every single night till 3 AM driving. I forgot how good it feels to drive this car for it’s raw-ness of feeling the road, hearing the engine/exhaust notes, and just enjoying cruising around with friends. Love spring/summer for the weather, events, and making any reason to drive around in the EG. Here is a quick shoot of the car for now… there will be better ones later on in the season!

Saturday nights are becoming a ritual for Mariel & myself to cook dinner right after I’m done work. This past Saturday night we were really craving some scallops in a simple way without wrapping bacon around it like everyone else does and we decided to sauté them in brown butter/olive oil with salt & paper seasoning. 30 secs on each side to get enough browning without over cooking it… that is a no no!



Now its on to the sides which were pretty easy as well for the prep and cook time. We wanted some greens and startch soo we got some zucchini and potatoes that were seasoned in olive oil and salt & pepper and thrown in the oven to roast. We put the potatoes in 10mins before actually putting in the zucchini to make sure we didn’t over cook them…





We were both really pleased how this meal came out for the simplicity & minimal seasoning that each ingredient stood out on its own without getting masked by over seasoning. Keep it simple!

Another day, Another Assignment Due! Soo the latest assignment I finished was a HDR shot of a location of my choice that had a pleasing decor… of course I picked The Common! Doing the actual shooting only took 15mins that consisted of several bracketed shots at f/22 & ISO 100 on a tripod. After that easy part it was time to figure out which bracket shots to use and I finally chose 10 out of 19 shots to use. In CS4 I used layered masks to “brush” in the parts I wanted from each bracketed shot to complete my final product. I’m pretty happy with the outcome… even though I don’t really like HDR shots in the first place BUT I guess if its done right it can look have decent.

For one of my assignments this week for my Lighting course we had to use “window lighting”. This could be from a flash, strobe, or actual window lighting. We had to have a very very soft light source, no direct lighting, while producing a good portrait that tells a story and has an environment to help that story. Soo I got my favourite model, Mariel, to look like she was thinking about something happy while all snuggled up in a blanket while sipping on some tea. This assignment showed me that just using window light and reflectors, you can produce “studio” lighting for free!… KEEP A EYE FOR LIGHTING PEOPLE!

After the hella fun time last night, a bunch of us decided to go for some brunch in the morning at Sawmill. This buffet had a wide range of items from salads, roast beef, eggs benedict, beacon, chocolate fountain, fruits, & much more and was only $20! This blowed my mind… need to go there more often! We had soo much food there, we started to experiment with the plethora of items to mix together… like BACON & CHOCOLATE! It was surprisingly delightful from the sweetness of the chocolate and the saltiness of the bacon… this is going to be a staple from now on. After brunch I headed to Haven to pickup my newest addition to my collection. These monochrom Be@rbricks are soo dope! Wish I had enough doe to get the 1000%, but not this time…