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Supafly Singled Out from the Quiapo Crowd

Kids, I have to warn you that fishing out your camera on the LRT platform can be very dangerous even if it’s a mere point and shoot camera you’re using. Fast forward to Sunday afternoon while we were lounging at the San Mig Cafe inside the Oceanarium after a day of walking around Manila, I was reviewing my shots and came upon this:

I don’t know if it’s typical of Quiapo to be this crowded but I wouldn’t be caught dead swimming with that swarm. I’m not really a crowd person is why. I zoomed at the photo to see if anybody’ll stand out. Yeah, one person did.

See him yet? Let’s zoom in a little more.

Wide view… magnified… magnified… hold it right there Supafly! LOL

Now, the big question after this exercise: “Can your point and shoot camera do that?” /gloat

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Year-Ender Post: 2009 in Fritzparazzi Photos

Whew! This took too long. I’m sure there’s an easier way out there but I’m old school (i.e. a noob) so I rocked the hard way. If we’ve had interactions in the past year and if in those moments I was crazily snapping away like a loon, then most probably you’ll be in one of the 250 odd “fritzparazzi” photographs I used to come up with this vid. I was too tempted to use photos of other bloggers from most events because I later realized I was missing a month’s worth of pics off my archives, July 2009 to be exact, but thought better. This should do, I hoped.

So I start out with the Baconator and end with a snap of the lunar eclipse that happened on New Year’s Eve. Ok, that’s a lie. The ending’s totally different and I might end up getting killed for having that up LOL. Watch the vid already so you’ll know what I mean.

This one’s for you. For the company, the good times, your work, your craft, your dedication, and your passion. I hope that one day, I could at last measure up with the amount of efforts you have put in this endeavor, with or without Google AdSense.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s to a better year ahead of us all. And world peace.

Cheers!

Note: You may want to watch the full HD sized format of this vid straight off its youtube page. You’ll see the detail better that way.

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Productivity is Shooting During Brownouts

Brownouts in Makati at this day and age? SERIOUSLY, Meralco?! And they chose to do it last night at around 10PM! That and there’s no 3G signal anywhere within a kilometer radius from the house! No frikken way! I was so thankful that water supply isn’t too dependent on electricity or I would have checked in a hotel just so I can take a shower before going to bed.

So I was in my livingroom lit with 4 candles. I was sitting idly on the couch, sweating like a pig, and listening to the iPod when an idea hit me.

(Please click on the images below for a full 800×600 view)

I got my 21-LED caving light, had all of its 21 bulbs lit, and had its light reflect on the melted portion of the candle opposite the camera. Looking at the images afterwards made me feel really productive, talented, and relevant (as a self-proclamed camphone paparazzi extraordinaire) even if I was sweating like a pig (yes, that’s info is so worth a second  mention). I only used the Nokia N82’s camera to take these. Like a pro photographer with expensive equipment, I have noted down the settings for you, like you cared. (You know how those guys in flickr would flaunt their strobists and manual settings only to give you crappy or images you can easily replicate with a camphone? The settings below are actually for those types, handed to them on a silver platter with a “f*ck you” note signed by me. With love.)

Scene Mode: Close-Up (or Macro)
Flash Mode: Off
Color Tone: Normal
White Balance: Automatic
Exposure Compensation: -.5
Contrast: (three levels down)
ISO: Automatic

That’s about how manual a N82’s settings can get. I have observed that when the bluish-white light of the LED hit the camera’s lens, the flame would seem more yellow. Without the LED, the flame would look dull so I figured, the camera adjusts to the light source to compliment/enhance the image output. Now, how cool is that?!

I know I should be over the N82’s camera already since I could use more intelligent camera functions, the optical zoom, and more than 5 megapixels of resolution. I’m getting there. I’ve been thinking of getting the Lumix ZS3 (reading reviews, comments, and user observations about it, on and offline) for about three weeks now. If all goes well, these could well be the last images that I’ll shoot with the N82 who has greatly served me this past year and a half.

People asked me if these images are SOOC (Straight Out Of Cam) and the answer is “no.” I had to darken the midtones and black colors and tone down the digital noise. I also did a crop for one and an image inversion for the other. Other than those very minor and morally acceptable (duh!) modifications, SOOC.

By the way, these images have titles. The first one is “Bulb” (I like the symmetry on this shot), the second is “Aura” (notice how “wicked” the LED’s reflection got warped at the end of the wick), and the third is “Flora” (the red core of the wick remind me of a blow-up doll’s mouth. Please don’t judge me).

Until next time, and wish me luck on the ZS3. I could hopefully make it more popular than the N82 (yeah, I just took all the credit for its popularity, LMAO!)

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Gorillaz CMYK Vinyl Figures in Concert! LOL

Instead of just shooting the new toys the “usual, boring way,” (i.e. with them in the box, out of the box, and propped on a shelf or on the table) I picked my brain for a comp to make this photo set more dramatic and edgy. I wanted to make do a concert scene but all I have is my caving light and I won’t be arsed to create a makeshift concert stage from scratch. And then, after a glass of ice cold Coke, a brilliant idea it hit me!

Since the caving lights (a 21 LED contraption running on 3 AAA batteries) can already serve as a spot light, all I had to do was find backdrops. I searched my photo archives for concert shots (some of the stuff I used I got from the net, tee hee), had the images brightened/saturated then blurred to achieve a depth of field vibe, ran the images on a slide show using MS PowerPoint, had the Gorillaz statuettes stand in front of my LCD monitor, experimented with the LED by lighting up the toys from different angles, and VOILA, I can haz a concert scene in the comfort of my own home!

Try this technique out yourself! Experiment with an outdoorsy background or the beach, the bedroom, a dungeon, anything to serve your purpose if you need to take photos of small objects like toys but you want your shots to look extraordinary. The possibilities are endless!

The shitty thing, however, is I had no choice but to do post processing since the quality of the photos (read, digital noise all over) took a toll from the low and selectively focused lighting.

Here they are, the Gorillaz during a “concert” here at home. Snooty, huh?! LOL Click on the images for a larger view and hover your mouse on them for the caption.

More photos after the jump. (more…)

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Losing to Retail Therapy: A Tale of Awesome. In 2D.

“Depression” can be your bestest, most dependable, and at-hand’s-reach convenient reason to splurge. Use it and suddenly, like magic, everybody empathizes and tells you to “go on ahead and heal” with an assuring smile on their faces. It’s THAT fail safe. As a certified genius, I’m entitled to it more often than the average joe (because I say so)!

This month alone, I got shirts and ties, a video card, and just a while ago, something that I’ve been putting off buying for the longest time and by “the longest time,” I mean 48 hours. In Fritz parlance, 48 hours may translate to a decade or two, give or take a year, of mental anguish.

In hard times like this, thinking about a purchase is a must moreso when the “want” you are about to buy is quite costly. We must think all purchases through. No joke! Thankfully, I’ve developed something to curb impulse buying. The secret is perfecting a discipline whose core component is “great hatred for credit cards.” It took me years, I tell you, to ace it. In fact, I now live and breathe this mantra.

Plastics: they kill the environment.

I haven’t posted anything I’ve fritzparazzied in a while because, well, there’s nothing to shoot. Now, that’s changed. Please click on the photos for a larger image.

As sort of a sneak peek of my spanking new Gorillaz CMYK Vinyl set made by kidrobot, I present to you photos I took of one of the four members of Gorillaz. On lead vocals, here’s Stuart Pot aka 2D. All right reserved LOL and taken using *gasps* a Nokia N82 just like old times.

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Straight out of the N82 Camera: Hellraiser

I’ve long believed and preached that post-processing photos off a camera is a necessary evil.  That Adobe Photoshop was made to be every photographer’s bestest friend.

Not today, though. Not with this set.

I got inspired by Helga and her SOOC upload today in flickr that instead of going full edit berserk on this set, I’d show my shots as is. No post-processing (just resizing). No digital image magickry. Everything’s “straight out of the camera.” Make that straight out of the Nokia N82 camera (you may go to each of the photo’s page on flickr and check the exif data and see for yourself). The result: no angry purists. (more…)

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Flashback: 2008

No words. Just see. I suggest that you turn up the volume and please… try not to blink. Everything will be a blur. Literally. I also advise that you let the video fully stream first before watching. Hope you like it :) [EDIT] WARNING: Watching may cause seizure. (more…)

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