Korea and a special Birthday Project

Ok, so, I just came home from a week-long visit to Korea. All I can say is that Korea=COLD. Anyway. I had fun taking photos there, which will be posted soon btw. Also, I learned that Korea is not a shopping country. lol. There was one street there which had the same stuff being sold for almost all the stores. We stayed in the COOP Residence in Jung-Gu in Seoul. The room was kinda small but it was able to provide me a comfortable living environment for the week. Among the places we visited were Nami Island, Seoul Tower, the Palace, and many more. 


I especially liked walking in the streets. They were very clean and organized, not like what you would probably see here in Manila. Also, motorcycles were abundant, and not just the scooter types and the underbones, but real sportsbikes and cruisers, which appealed to me a lot because I intend to get a 200cc-400cc bike soon. Anyway. Photos will be up in a few days.. gotta fix my finances as I have been spending a lot for my new project...

Which i will discuss now.

I am planning on converting our drums/guitar/ex-piano(before it got destroyed by the flood) room into my very own studio. I have already gotten a Vivitar 285HV flash, YongNuo RF602 flash/shutter triggers, a flash stand + detachable umbrella set, and batteries. All I need to do now is to get a sufficient background and to cover the entrance with black cloth. Tada, my very own basic studio. 

There will be two sources of ambient light, a drum set(as i dont know where to put it), and the strobist equipments there. 

I'm pretty excited to try it out.. which I will probably do tomorrow.. And again, test pictures will be up in a few days.. depending on how much money I will have left. . . I used almost 200$ for the everything.. I know it's quite big for a student on a budget.. but hey, my birthday's coming up.. This is what my friend and I call "justified GAS". Lol. after this, all my photography spending will be on films. :) I am happy.

I will post a before and after pic of the room too.

On top is a photo of a sign above some fruits in a street vendor's stand taken using my sister's digital camera.


Down here is a photo of what my set up will look like. Image from http://www.Tayhua.com. That's where I bought my triggers and umbrella set.. all for Php3700. 

If you want to see some of my photos..

Check them out in my flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/franciscogmm/

Band Photography - First shot!

image from http://www.betterphoto.com/

I just got home from an event sponspored by my friend's home org. It was pretty near my place so I decided to go and check the scene out. Anyway, I heard, from another friend (let's call him A), that the band he was managing was playing in the event, so I decided to take the opportunity to use one of my rolls of Ilford Deta 3200 black and white film to do some band photography.

Since I have been to other gigs, and have played in a couple myself, I knew that the lighting would not be kind to photographers. I knew that the place would be kinda dark with lots of lights flashing around. With this in mind, I asked some of my friends if they had an available Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens that they can lend me. Luckily, one of my friends had his niftyfifty on hand and let me borrow it.

The lens was amazing. It was my first time to use one. It was very fast and it helped me capture some shots at around 1/125 seconds shutterspeed. That pretty much solved the dilemma of the band moving too much. The very high ISO of one of the fastest films out there also helped.

In fact, it was so great that I did not change back to my 28-90mm lens for the remainder of the night.

I really had so much fun because I was able to catch the expressions in their faces that exhibited their passion for the music.

In the end, I still had six more shots left. I'll probably take photos of my girlfriend or some other subject, in low light.

I shall post pics after I get them developed. All in all, I was able to take around 15 shots of Gracenote and 9 shots of Tonight We Sleep.

If you guys are fans of these bands, follow the links; or better yet, buy their EP to show your support!

P.S.

I'm really sorry that the developing is taking too long. I want to finish my last C-41 film before I send them for bulk processing. It saves me a lot of money. lol