Posing Suggestions (Sitting)

Published on September 22, 2019September 23, 2019 by Gurezu2 Comments

I haven’t had any serious photography session in a long while. So last two weeks ago, together with our company photography club, we organized a portrait session centering on a different poses. We started with posing on a table and chairs. We took inspiration from google and pinterest but added variation on the poses and expression.

Here are my output. So if you are struggling to pose in a picture, you might take this poses into your repertoire of poses. I learned from this myself.

Model: Therese Angustia
Photography by Gurezu
Gear: Fuji XT20, 35mmm Fujinon Lens
Lighting: G2Photography @g2photography
Edited in Lightroom

Posing with a table or armrest

Posing with highchair

Full gallery in my Facebook page album below.

We also have another set that night …

Full gallery below…

I want to end this blog post with some behind the scenes photos of this session.

I hope you enjoy this photography session and gallery. And I hope this will help you in anyway to pose for your next profile picture!

Remember you are awesome!

Gurezu ❤

LET’s CoNNECT!!

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Fantasy World in Batangas as Photoshoot Venue

Published on April 7, 2019April 7, 2019 by Gurezu5 Comments

Fantasy World is supposed to be the Disneyland of the Philippines. However, due to lack of investors, the development of this amusement park went kaput. Nowadays, it is one of the the popular destinations in Lemery, Batangas for sightseeing and taking photos.

Last February 2019 I finally got an opportunity to have a photoshoot there. The client was the one who booked the place. These are the keypoints on how to reserve Fanstasy World as Photoshoot venue as of this writing.

Overall fee is P6000.00
- P5000.00 for the venue itself
- P1000.00 entrance fee for maximum capacity of 10 people.
There is no advance reservation. This is on first come first serve basis. You would visit and book the place as photoshoot venue on the day itself.
Bringing food from outside is not allowed. There are affordable silog meals available inside. I was not able to get the specific price but they were less than P150.00 each.
They have a nice dressing room or headquarter which could be a photoshoot venue in itself.

OTHER COMMENTS

To tell you the truth I didn’t like their CR. I hope they improve that in the future. The development of this amusement park may not proceed anymore but the place is still earning as tourist spot and photoshoot venue. When we were there, there were ongoing prenup and debut shoot aside from our own pre-birthday shoot. I hope it’s enough to put some attention with their CR.

But overall, Fanstasy land is a GREAT photoshoot ground. There are so much fantastic backdrops to choose from. From the lush greeneries from the sentimental feels of abandoned amusement rides. I would like to go back there myself for another fantasy themed shoot. To tell you the truth, we were caught off-guard with the weather. The sudden outpour of rain and drizzle interrupted our shoot numerous times. Photographers won’t mind being wet but our equipment were not weatherproof! I would like to have a photoshoot here with good sunny weather next time.

By the way I am the secondary photographer in this photoshoot. To have a different perspective from the main, I used 35mm fujinon lens which explains why my photos are mostly closed-up shots. Aside from photos, we also shoot the “Save the Date” video (see video at the end of this blog”. This photoshoot and video are included as a package of G2Photography Photoman and Photo Coverage which also covers the photography services on the day of the birthday party itself. If you’re interested, just click this link directing to their fb page.

Meanwhile the event organizer , props and costume including the party itself are provided by Daniela Party Needs. Click this link if you are interested with their services. Highly recommended.

I think that’s all for my short write-up. It’s time for photo flood! Please be reminded that the following featured photos were the only ones taken by yours truly.

DETAILS

Snow White

snow-white-1-3 (4) — Snow White and Her Castle

BELLE

CINDERELLA

BLUE PRINCESS

And here’s the “Save the Date” video which features more sights in Fantasy World. Videography and edit made by Zstarter Film.

Videographers/Editors: Zstarter Unciano Regino EJ Deliquina

Well of course,the crew should have pictures too!

The following photos are from G2photography, our main photographer.

Let me end this blog with a photo of a …

CAT!

I used FujiXT20 with 35mm F1.4 fujinon lens. Photos are edited through Lightroom.

That’s all folks! I hope you enjoyed this photo flood blog. Fantasy World is really a great photo venue and I think P6,000 is a affordable enough. Just be mindful of the weather so you can maximize the venue.

OVERALL CREDITS TO THE FOLLOWING:

Photographers: Gerard Dangca Mary Grace Sabado (G2Photograhy)
Videographers/Editors: Zstarter Unciano Regino EJ Deliquina (ZSTARTERFILM)
HMUA: Patricia Kyle Guintu
Event Organizer and Party Needs: Daniela Party Needs

Remember, you are all awesome!

GUREZU ❤

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Feeding the Cats

Published on November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 by Gurezu12 Comments

No fancy words for this posts. Just cats! I visited my friend’s condo that looks like cat cafe’ in general and my camera was with me. So you probably now what happened. Who can resist the itch if you have these cuties in front of you?

Yo cats gonna drop their newest album

milktea-64 — That golden cat continues to judge me.

milktea-75 — Obviously my favorite. His name is Taiga.

milktea-67 — If you’re wondering what they are looking at, they are waiting for food.

milktea-63 — This one turned out to be creepy but still cute.

Finally, the waiting is over.

My photos are kind of noisy because the place was lacking ambient light and I have to lower the shutter speed and pumped up the ISO to compensate. Even so, the original photos turned to be really dark and just have Lightroom helped me with that.

Sample Original Photo:

Exposure , Black and Shadow adjusted in Lightroom.

I’ll be coming back for more photos. I couldn’t go in daytime so the ambient light would sill not be there. Will try another lens that would be better in low-light I guess.

I hope you enjoy these photos. Are you a cat lover too? How do you catches cat’s attention aside from food?

Remember, you are all awesome,

Gurezu

Let’s connect!!!

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Alone at The Bar (Photoshoot)

Published on September 15, 2018September 15, 2018 by Gurezu4 Comments

It’s been almost a month since my last blog post. So let me complain a bit, the passing of time is ridiculous! I mean ..what the hell?

I was so busy lately but I never run out of the things to write. I have done a load of photoshoot and traveled Palawan. But checking my pile of backlog albums became overwhelming. Just sorting my Palawan pics is tiresome already. There’s too many things to write about but I don’t know where to start so I ended up slacking off. But it makes me sad. It feels like I am lacking as a person when I don’t blog or write for a long time. Do you feel the same thing blogger people?

So today, I promised myself to blog no matter what. Even it looks so-so. Just break this blocker mindset that has been keeping my flow. I decided to blog about my self-portrait shoot.

I have done this shoot on the night of August 27, 2018. This is our last night in El Nido, Palawan. We were staying at St. John Island View Pensionne House. They have this cute small bar but tourist seems not giving it attention. I guess people were mostly tired from the tour so they are likely just retreat in their rooms rather than spend some time at the mini-bar.

My friends and I would like to have pictures there but we ended up mostly straight to the bed once we had dinner. On our last night though, even I am so tired myself, I pushed myself to snap photos. Even just for a while. So I went there alone. Armed with a camera mounted on my small tripod, I had my self-portrait session. It’s not every day you have the whole bar for yourself. But when it happened, I don’t drink. I’ll have a photoshoot. Haha!

So here it is. I set my camera in timer with interval mode. Every batch, I have 10 photo snaps in 5 seconds interval. It looks like a papparazi shots, just slower. My camera as always is Fuji-XA3. I didn’t use presets this time is there’s too much color already which I love.

There are empty bottles on display. I get one of those as props. Looks like its okay since no one from the reception bothered me.

DSCF2537 — When will I be truly,sincerely happy?

DSCF2534 — I drowned my problems with beer. But problems are damn good swimmers

Props to me. I do looks like I’m sort of drunk. I’m actually just feeling really sleepy.

Getting another drink because I can’t get enough.

“Let’s make ipit para it looks like malaki, haha!”

There’s a ton of pictures actually but most are blurred since I’m transitioning from one position to next. I must have looked like a fool. But thankfully, there was no people around. The receptionist were just silently supporting from a far. When I was done, that’s the only time they turn the lights-off. They must have been waiting for me for a long time. I think I shoot for an hour. Haha!

And that’s a wrap! I’m now in full smile because I managed to write a blog. Even if it’s so-so. Small step to get my writing energy back.

How about you? Did you experience this “I want to write, but I can’t just write” sort of thing? How did you overcome it? Any tips?

How to Levitate

Published on August 2, 2018August 4, 2018 by Gurezu8 Comments

Well….. in photography!

I don’t really know how to do that in real life. Ask David Blaine maybe? But in photography, I could definitely share you some secrets . And this is surprisingly easy.

First Technique: Photoshop

What you will need: Camera, Tripod, a flexible model and stool or blocks for support.

1.Capture a photo of the background without the subject.

2. And then capture the photo with the subject. Take in mind that the camera was not moved and the lighting are the same with the background alone. For better stability, I strong advice to use tripod. This would make the editing easier and realistic.

3. Now, it’s time to open Photoshop to merge the two photos together and delete the objects that supports the subject by “Masking” tool. In that case, follow my recommended YouTube tutorial below. I assure you, this masking tool in Photoshop is MAGIC!

Levitation Photography by Photon Collective

FINAL OUTPUT:

These are the other output.

As you have noticed, the color grading of the photos have also changed in the final output. It’s because I also polished it via Lightroom desktop app. I used Rufosque preset created by Anthony Rufo. I got this preset from Lightroom Classrom PH community in Facebook. If you’re interested with Lightroom presets, I talked about it more here.

2. Second Technique: Jump Shots

If you are not interested with Photoshop, you can still achieve levitation photos by simply jumping and setting the camera in LOW SHUTTER SPEED.

The following photos are captured by my friend angelisantina and was taken way back 2013! This is me 5 years ago. I’m not much into photography back then but I’m into modeling …well to my photographer friends.

This is largely inspired by yowayowacamera.com, a Japanese photographer whose daily levitation photos became a worldwide hit! These are just some photos from her series that I really liked.

Now the question is, how would you make an ordinary jump shot into levitation photo? As a model for levitation photos myself, the key is always the facial expression. As much as possible, make your face look relax. It also helps that you look upwards as if you are heading to that direction even if you are about to fall down. Leg muscle should look relaxed too. In that matter, it would be easier to wear long dresses and leggings to hide the tension in the leg muscles for higher jumps. No doubt why in most yowayowa’s photos, she is wearing long dresses.

Although here, I bravely wore jumper shorts haha! These photos were taken at Quiapo church, a popular landmark church in the Philippines.

There are disadvantages of this technique though:

This is tiring as you need to repeatedly jump to be able to have good shots.
You will look like a fool for passerbys.
Prone to accident
Not ok at night time since low shutter speed will make your photos really dark.

We also had a shoot in UP Diliman!

Shot location at Little Tokyo

Special thanks to the following!

To my mentor G2Photography for teaching me how to edit in Photoshop and all things I know about Photography.
To my friend angelisantina.wordpress.com for taking those great photos of me from the past.

How about you? Would you be interested in Levitation Photography? Are you going for photoshop or jumpshot? Let me know!

Remember, Sharing is Twice the Learning,

Gurezu 😉

——Let’s connect!——-

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Day 7 of Portrait Challenge And My Favorite Lightroom Presets For Portraits

Published on June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 by Gurezu4 Comments

This is Day 7 and the final day of the challenge. Aside from showcasing these portraits I captured during Camerahaus Photo Festival, I also present to you some of my favorite Lightroom presets I use which I also used in this portrait challenge series. But first, let’s have an overview what presets are.

What are Lightroom Presets?

Lightroom is a mobile editing app just like Snapseed, VSCO and Instagram. Lightroom presets are actually filters but way more advance because you can adjust the settings, hue, tone curve and other things. You can actually make your own Presets. People who are good in it can share or even sell it.

I’ve been addicted with Lightroom editing recently since you can edit a lot of pictures in batches. While I do manually edits, I truly love to use presets that I got online. In this blog post I am going to share my favorites especially in portraits.

2. Where did I get this Lightroom presets?

I got this all from a Facebook community Lightroom Classroom PH . If you want to have this presets, you have to be a member of this Facebook group. Talented creators are frequently having giveaways there. They are pretty generous.

So that’s it. Off we go. Some of my favorite presets.

1.Creamy Beach

Creator : Klein Conejos a.k.a NoobGFX. The creator has his own fb page: NoobGFX.

I consider this as my most favorite preset. I actually raped it haha! And if you have been following my blog for a while, you will notice that I use it for most of my blog posts. I just love how it brings out the colors of the picture. It also gives skin a pinkish glow. Although sometimes, it is way too much pink. But for that, I just tweak saturation a little..

Before Vs After-Edit

With Preset

Other samples

See my other blog posts using this preset: Drown in Flowers in Northern Blossom Atoc, Benguet

2. Peach Perfect

Creator: Steph Villanueva

I just discovered this recently and it became my instant favorite because it looks subtle and natural. It does not change the skin tone too much. It is also extremely good in underexposed photos.

Before Vs After-Edit

Other samples

See my other blog posts using this preset: Day 1 of Portrait Challenge

3. Creamy Fade Light

Creator: Klein Conejos aka. NoobGFX.

Yes another NoobGFX preset! Creamy Beach and this one is actually part of his creamy presets. It looks like Creamy Beach but this one has slight fade effect. It also more brighter.

Before Vs After-Edit

See other blog post that use this preset: Dessert Museum Adventure

4. Orensie

Creator: JAO

It makes the photo a little bit antique. It’s just harsh on the skin sometimes. It makes the skin looks copper but it looks good if a human subject is far away. This would be my least favorite in this batch if portrait is the issue. But this looks really good in landscapes.

Before Vs After-Edit

5. Lightroom Preset Groove

Creator: Sheantel Claveria

This is my most recent discovery. I love the mood it gives to the photo and it is skin-friendly too. This is the next preset I’ll abuse.

Before Vs After-Edit

Other samples:

That’s all folks. My 7-Day Portrait Challenge is over. I actually haven’t published my Day 6 here in my blog but it’s already in my facebook page: Gurezu Blog.

How about you?! What’s your favorite Lightroom Preset here in this post? Feel free also to suggest any other Lightroom presets that are great in portraiture photography in the comments below. I would love to try them out.

Day 5 of My Portrait Challenge Featuring Filipino Handcrafters

Published on May 30, 2018May 30, 2018 by GurezuLeave a comment

Day 5 out of 7 days of Portrait Photography Challenge.

Featuring handcraft artists I met during CameraHaus neighbor event “Bosch Fan Fair” last Saturday where toymakers, wood and metal artists showcased their art. I talked with some artists and they enthusiastically posed with their sample works. I added description and their contact numbers just in case you are interested.
I also want to thank Sir Golden Maranan of Bosch, organizer of the event who introduced to me to other artists and liked my page as well. Thank you Sir!

Title: Filipino Handcrafters
Gear:Fuji-XA3, 35mm f1.4 fujinon
PP: Lightroom presets Sunnysidev2 and Rufosque
Event: Fan Fair sponsored by Bosch, May 26, 2018, BGC, Taguig City

Arvin Angeles. A creator of collectible scratchbuild Voltes V toys. He debuted his public display in ToyCon Manila 2017. He continues to join in different toy conventions and workshop in the country. You can see more of his amazing works in his fb page: ArvinAngeles2000

2. Kenneth Si of Hashikko. He does customized furnitures, decors and sculptural trophies. For orders: Contact 09166088909.

3. Donald Lee of House of Wooden Letters. Established in 2013, House of Wooden letters has provided a great alternative to commercial gifts, home, and office decors, business and office signs and souvenirs.

For those interested: like their fb page: House of the Wooden Letters

Posing with Sir Golden Maranan of Bosch Philippines.

Here’s just random photos from the Fan Fair.

Because of this event, I also come to know about Bosch User Group Philippines. First of all Bosch is a well known brand for providing tools, cordless or corded power tools which artists like them use to create wonderful crafts. These fb group is not only a user group but a hub to share their favorite tools and guidance to those who have questions about them.

I truly appreciate Filipinos that brings the honor of our country though any form of art. I wish to meet more of them personally in the future. How about you? Do you also have this kind of hobby? Please share their social media accounts. I always love to discover new artists.

Day 4 of My Portrait Challenge and Tips on Fashion Photography by Charisma Lico

Published on May 27, 2018May 27, 2018 by Gurezu17 Comments

We are on Day 4 and my model today is a celebrity! Angelina Jolie! She looks super fresh that day she made it look like the break-up with Brad Pitt was million years ago.

Of course I am kidding. But she truly looks like Angelina Jolie perhaps in her younger years. But sometime’s she looks like Scarlet Johansson too. What a lucky lady.

By the way I met her in Camerahaus Photo Festival yesterday. The highlight of he event for me is I got to attend the “Fashion OOTD Photography” seminar by Charisma Lico. And as part of the practice session, they invited Angelina Johansson (I named the model this way for the mean time” to be the student’s subject. To tell you the truth, it was not comfortable to shoot with many photographers. It was like a battle to get up close shots with the model. The shoot looks like this.

I’m not the only girl in the pack but majority are boys. I think in photography world, girls are really outnumbered. By the way I could say I am lucky to be in front as much as I’m persistent too!

She looked like Scarlet Johansson in this one.

Gear: Fuji-XA3, Fujinon 35mm F.1.4 lens
Location: BGC
Model: Angelina Johansson (Joke only. Really don’t know the name)
PP: No preset. Just slight adjustment for exposure, contrast

Since this is a fashion shoot, let’s have a write-up on her style for on that day. Angelina Johansson sported a sleeveless pink cropped-top paired with glimmery green pants.

Her sky-high stilettos might cost a fortune I supposed.

I adore her circular necklace and earrings. I can imagine this whole ensemble is well-suited for a night-out or for hosting an event or party.

Special thanks to Ms. Charisma Lico for sharing her experiences and knowledge about Fashion Photography. I have checked out her instagram and I realized that she was the photographer of almost all magazine covers that I liked recently. I am really inspired. By the way here she is! She’s pretty too!

SOME NOTES FROM HER LECTURE

1. What are the factors to help you conceptualize a Fashion Photography shoot?

She summarized the answer in an acronym DO IT.

D-Desire! You have to answer the following questions first.

a. What do you want?

b. Who is the subject?

c. What is the genre or the desired details of the shoot?

O- Overall Impact! This refers to the mood, treatment, feel or tone of the photo you want to achieve. Do you want it be magical, gothic, vintage?

I-Influences. You can also get concepts from the photographers you admire. It does not necessarily mean you copy them because you’ll never be able to. but you can always get ideas on how they approach a shoot, on what are their workflows, thought processes and so on. And from there, you will be able to create your own.

T-time. You invest time and effort. You keep on shooting, reading and learning. Eventually, concepts and ideas would automatically flow.

2. Fashion Photography comes with a set of team; you as a photographer, art-director,make-up artist, stylist and the model. It is a collaboration of artistic minds

3. In a fashion shoot, the first thing to be considered is the THEME. Eventually, the poses, location, set-design and treatment will follow.

4. Some DIY fashion tip idea. Use a projector. Very portable and it’s a set design by itself. These are the sample from her instagram. I’m pretty sure these are the photos she showed in the lecture as well.

View this post on Instagram

Such a breeze working with, @catriona_gray 👑 on the cover of @previewph Preview.PH this May in @gucci Creative direction @vince_uy and @markbuenaobra Produced and Styled by @itsmarjramos Co-produced by @yannalopez Make up by @robbiepinera Hair by @johnvalle20 Words by @officialowen Photography @charismalico using #SonyA7rii Thank you Preview team💙

A post shared by Charisma Lico – Santos (@charismalico) on May 9, 2018 at 9:52pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

Beautiful @catriona_gray 👑 on the cover of @previewph Preview.PH this May Creative direction @vince_uy and @markbuenaobra Produced and Styled by @itsmarjramos Make up by @robbiepinera Hair by @johnvalle20 Photography @charismalico using #SonyA7rii Thank you Preview team💙

A post shared by Charisma Lico – Santos (@charismalico) on May 7, 2018 at 6:32am PDT

After the shoot with the model, she showed her own output as well.

She uses Sony A7 RII. Settings says she used an ISO 500 because it was quite cloudy at that time, aperture of F 1.4 and Shutter speed of 1/800. She shoots is Raw + JPEG mode. I forgot what lens she used. I’m going to ask her in instagram. I hope she replies haha!

By the way, I won something in this seminar because I asked a question. It’s a cute notebook!

Thanks Sony although I am a Fujifilm user. ;P

Day 3 of My Portrait Challenge and Pointers of a Good Portrait Photography

Published on May 25, 2018May 25, 2018 by Gurezu4 Comments

Yes! For the Day 3, my models are cute children! I captured these photos during our company’s Trick or Treat last year. There are loads of pictures but these are my favorites.
Title: Cute Kids in Costumes
Model: Officemate’s kids
Camera:Fuji-XA3 with Fujinon 56mm F1.2 lens
Edit: Some SOOC, some with minor Lightroom adjustments to correct skin tone.

Special thanks to G2photography Photobooth, Photoman and Photo Coverage for lending me the 56mm F1.2 prime lens. It was easy to isolate the subject from the background using this lens. Truly good for events and portraits. I could not afford this kind of lens so it was a great experience to feel how it feels like to use this.

Cute Hermione

Moana (I think?)

An Angel

I’m not sure …

Princess Sophia?

Baby Shark

Thor

Little Red Riding Hood. I applied a preset on this one. I want to make it slightly dramatic. Like she’s looking for someone, a fox maybe.

And my most favorite kid that day, Chuckie! I picked him because he’s much into his character. He was running around , hiding and taunting passerby for reals. I almost had a heart attack when he surprised me. Just look at his eyes. He’s enjoying being photographed.

So while I’m this challenge, I had some readings more like a review with regards on what it makes a good portraiture photography. I’ll make this notes super super short.

Portrait Photography is capturing an image of a person base on the personality he wanted to convey

These are the signs of a good portraiture photography.

Subject’s confidence in front of the camera. To connect to the subject is the first job of a photographer and is very important. When the subject is at ease in front of the camera and the photography process, he could effectively exude the aura and do all the poses required. This all boils down with photographer’s communication skills. A good photographer could make the most camera shy person to feel confident in front of the camera.
Clarity of the eyes. As the old saying says, it’s the window of the soul. If the eyes is not clear in the portraits, the whole image suffers.
Correct skin tone or in technical terms, the right “White Balance”. Most portrait photography should show skin color as close to the subject’s actual skin color . It could be an exception if there is an unusual theme in mind. If there’s an occasion that skin color can’t be matched, the technique is to make it black and white.

Of course there are other rules but these three are the most usual key points I see in any article. In my experience, number 3 is the hardest one. First, you can’t control the lighting condition in most cases specially if its outdoor or an event. And I also have the weakness to over edit pictures. For some reason, warm skin tones looks pleasing to my eyes. A habit that I am still learning to supress! haha! Anyway I have learned something in lightroom to correct the skin tone. To help you visualize, here’s one of the pic above that I edited.

Unedited. Warm skin color. Kinda yellowish because of the lighting

Edited. Slightly corrected the skin by Lightroom.

Did the picture improved from the previous one? What do you think my dear readers?

If you think so, I’ll say how I corrected this thru Lightroom. ( Actually there’s a bunch of it in youtube.)

Day 1 of My Portrait Challenge

Published on May 23, 2018May 23, 2018 by Gurezu17 Comments

I will be posting portraits for 7 days. I’ve been thinking about seriously building up my port-folio. I’m also going back to the basic photo composition to re-motivate myself. There are LOT of decision-making and thinking lately that it exhaust me so I want to refresh. I hope this week-long activity would re-energize my drained spirit. I am seriously low in battery (spiritual,emotional,physical)

Will be posting potraits for 7 days. This is Day 1. My model is none other than my mother! She’s not that hard to convince to do this. She’s so game for this.

Some infos.
Title: Hopeful Mother
Camera:Fuji-XA3 * Fujinon 25mm
Edit: Lightroom preset “Peach Perfect”
Location: Venice Grand Mall

SET 2:Photos edited by Lightroom Rufosque preset

But of course, I won’t let a photoshoot pass by without my own photo. My mom is such a good human tripod. I set the settings then told her where I will position myself so she could focus on that. And that’s it!

That’s all folks!

By the way I’m thinking of Cafe’ portrait series. (A portrait photoshoot inside a cute cafe’)

Do you want to be a model of your favorite cafe in a minimum price (Lol. Maybe just treat me in that cafe’)? Just comment or contact me in my social media!