Photography Class Day 2

I don't know if i'm overly excited but I arrived at Fort Santiago before 8 o'clock in the morning. I really don't want to be late. I also planned to transfer my notes to a new notebook (the first notebook I had kasi was a kiddie notebook I bought at 7 11 *LOL*). When I came to Fort Santiago there was no one there but the lights and the electric fan at the gallery were open. It was the schedule of the Pacquiao-Hatton fight so I thought our class was postponed. I waited. Around 8:15 one classmate of mine arrived. I asked him if he had completed our assignments because I wasn't able to. He showed me his work and they were actually pretty good.

Before our class started with a new professor, One person from FPPF (sorry I forgot his name, will mention it on my next post) gave us a brief recap of what we've learned from the previous lesson. He also instructed us to submit our best photo among our assignments. I really don't know which one to pass. I settled on this one.

Texture

When Prof. Angeles entered the room, the first thought I had was "Mukhang terror ang prof namin. " Eventually that first impression didn't last. Despite her terror look, she tried to be funny and be a little more entertaining. She asked us one by one to vote for the best and needs improvement photo among the photos posted on the board. The winning photographer will have the chance to print his best photo on a mug, his/her photo can also be included if he/she wants to. One by one we voted. I was worried that my photo will get the most number of x's. Luckily, the voting ended without my photo neither having an x mark nor a check mark. But, Prof. Angeles did mention that she liked my photo as well as two other photos. I think she has a thing with abstract photos.

Prof. Angeles criticizing our work.

My best photo winner

My needs improvement photo winner

When classes resumed after lunch Prof. Angeles showed us a slide show of her trip to Babuyan Island. Each picture has a story. It would have been nice if the projector was working properly. All we see is black and white, no colors *LOL*. Before her lecture about composition she made us sing this hymn in photography that she wrote years ago. It was actually easy to learn and she was so happy that we were able to sing it well. I hope she won't ask us to sing one by one 'coz I kinda forgotten the melody of a few lines *LOL*.

For our next assignment we were asked to shoot inside fort santiago. Taking into consideration of course our lesson in composition. We were grouped by 8, aside from the photos from each member we were also asked to prepare a cheer. Yikes! I hope they'll come up with a good cheer even though most of my teammates were male.

Little Dreamer

I am constantly visiting Chikai and Buge's blog to check out the latest freebies in digital scrapbooking. Even though i'm not that active in scrapbooking because i've been very busy lately, I make sure I download digi kits that I like so that by the time my mojo kicks in there's something that I could use.

Our computer at home is very slow compared to what I use in the office so I do my downloading there (secretly *LOL*). Good thing they did not block any digital scrapbooking sites or else I would miss a lot of freebies. Due to the recent National Scrabook day, a lot of great designers posted their digi kits for free download. I had discovered this great site which features a lot freebies, you can check it out here.

Here are the LOs I made using two kits I downloaded. Featured in this LOs is my very cute nephew Miguel Carlisle.

credits

credits

Photography Class Day 1

After 2 months of waiting, I was finally able to attend my first day of basic photography at FPPF. I was so excited. I woke up at 6 in the morning preparing my things and worrying because I forgot to photocopy my sales invoice. It was supposed to be a requirement. When I came to Intramuros, I looked for a photocopying machine before heading to FPPF office.

When I got there I found out that our class will be held inside Fort Santiago, so off I went.

We were briefed by sir boy regarding what to expect on our basic photography class. He also mentioned the five professors who will introduce us to the amazing world of photography.

Our first professor was Sir Ador Pamintuan. He taught us how to use our cameras. From dials, buttons, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, etc. We were very active the whole day. It seemed all of us were amazed on how much our cameras can do. It's usually in auto mode *LOL*.

Lecture with Sir Ado Pamintuan

Bam asking question about her Fuji SLR

Tried the panning technique but to no success

During class

By the end of the lesson, we were given 10 assignments. 10!

1. Shallow depth of field

2. Deep depth of field

3. Motion blur

4. Motion freeze

5. Close-up

6. Patterns

7. Texture

8. Shapes

9. White on white

10. Black on black

Even before leaving I was already thinking of what subjects to choose, how I can achieve it and when can I shoot it.

Unfinished movie

I was going to open my yahoo mail when I stumbled upon a story featured on the homepage of yahoo. "Final Film Version Disputed." They were talking about the leaked unfinished Wolverine Movie. I happened to watch this version. At first it was funny because you can actually see the ropes attached to the actors while doing some stunts, the computer generated action scenes and raw special effects. But, come to think of it, it was a major disaster for the producers. A nightmare come to life. It was expected to become a blockbuster but that just won't happen now. I hope they catch the person responsible for doing this.

The Last of S-IK

It's been over a month now since my last post. A lot of things had happened. I never got to share what we've gone thru on judgement day. I hope I can still remember everything.

February 27,2009

We went to work as usual but the difference of this day was that we we were expecting something bad will happen (There were a lot of signs already). Upon arrival at the plant, we were surprised to see a lot of security guards positioned on different parts of the plant. There were also unfamiliar cars parked inside. I went inside QC room and found my boss with swollen red eyes. She had been crying the whole night thinking. We tried to comfort her, telling her that everything will be alright.

Around 9:00 AM, everybody was asked to proceed to the conference room. When we got there (QC people), the long table was placed in front of the room with chairs facing the employees. Then came the management along with the company's lawyers.

Our President stood up, and told us that the mother company decided that they will close down S-IK Philippines for good. There were two reasons. First was due to low production quantity and the second was because of customs. Everyone was silenced. Some were crying. Then, our HR Manager explained that the company was generous enough to give us a 1.5% separation pay (Normally, you will only receive half of your salary for every year of service.). We were called one by one, talked to a lawyer, received our checques afterwhich we gathered our personal belongings and off we go. Nobody was allowed to stay too long, they provided a shuttle service to which brought employees home. As for us, BF asked his brother to pick us up.

We were saddened by what happened but we really can't do anything about it. We need to move on, find better oppotunities.

March 1,2009

Wilson and I attended mass then had dinner. I guess he noticed how sad I was so he asked me why. I told him that I still had a lot of things left to do in the office, and leaving it just like that felt wrong. That was when he told me that they were asked to come back again to finish their work. On QC side, it was my boss and emee who were called. Ok na rin for me at least we could finish our pending work.

March 2, 2009

I asked Wilson to inform me whatever will happen that day. The management spoke to them one by one regarding the salary that they will receive and the how long their service will be needed. As for Wilson, of course I don't how much he's salary was but he did not complain, so I guess he's satisfied with the offer. His contract is up to April 30,2009. I asked about our dept., he was so amazed with emee. She did not sign the contract unless there was another QC staff that will work with her. I tell you, we have a lot of work, one person will go mad trying to finish everything. That was when they asked me.

March 3, 2009

There was no other choice except me. All the other QC staff were unavailable already. When the management talked to me they said that they cannot provide a service car for me. They really need me so what they did was they adjust my time. I can go home by 4 and they will give me transportation allowance. I signed the contract, which will end on April 30, 2009.

My bros and sis sa QC. With Kuya Romel and Mang Lito

with our mommy

You can check out more pics here.

Judgement day

The company I work with is in danger right now. Aside from having low production due to recession we also encounter problems with customs. There were a lot of speculations over the past few days. We already had a meeting before and the management promised that they will inform us about the status of the company. We were supposed to have the meeting last Feb. 10, but due to unknown reasons it was postponed.

During the first meeting, the management was informed that there were some employees that would like to voluntarily resign as along as they would make them a good offer.

Today, there were more chismis in the office.

1. S-IK employees from our Makati office will be going to the Laguna plant tomorrow. (Considering we don't have work during fridays)

2. They have ordered a meal at Max's Restaurant for all employees. (Farewell party?)

3. There was a note on the planner of our Japanese boss that they have scheduled the date for the announcement.

4. There was going to be a general meeting, all employees included. (The memo was posted past 4 this afternoon.

BF and I will be meeting later to talk and plan things. If ever closure is the last resort, we all hope that the company would be generous with regards to our separation pay.

Stay at home

I'm staying home today. Since last week our work days have been cut off to four days only. This is due to low production and our problem with the importation of materials. I wasn't able to plan anything for today so I will just be staying home.

I started the day by fixing our bed and cleaning our room. I also washed the dishes (The chore i hated doing the most). Now, i'm eating my lunch. Chowking halo-halo and Braised beef. Perfect for the heat! Next thing to do? Arrange my clothes in my cabinet. It's so gulo!

a sigh of relief

I've been so worried this past few weeks because of delayed schedule of my period. I was supposed to have my period around the 4th week of January but it never came. Not that I was expecting pregnancy as the cause of delay, of course not! I had delayed periods before but not this long.

This morning I felt a pain in my abdomen and thought it was only a need to flush out a few human wastes. I was surprised to see that my visitor that I've been waiting for so long has arrived. I never felt so relieved in my life. Last night before I went to sleep I was praying that if my period will arrive, meaning that everything in me is normal, I will take my board exam review seriously. I will of course after the pain go away.

I have thought of so many reasons why i'm delayed. Miscalculation, stress, and the worst, I might have a tumor or something preventing my period. But I came to the conclusion that I just might be so stressed out because I actually am. I've been thinking about a lot of things. The future mostly. Now that I feel normal again because of my period I will have to relax and just go with the flow. To stop stressing out. Of course I need to thank God later for the good news he had given me today.

Photography Lesson

I have already scheduled my free workshop at Canon, but I still have to wait until April. A good friend of mine, Sir Orville, offered to give me a few lessons in photography just so I could have an idea on what to do and expect during the workshop.

We did the lesson at Huey Ying. Wilson also wanted to learn photography so he joined in the lecture. Sir Orville started by explaining about the different buttons and dials on the DSLR. He also pointed the three very important things that I should know about, ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture. After the lecture it's time to take shots. The first thing he asked me to try was a trick shot with lights. We positioned ourselves near a post on the street, adjusted the settings of the camera and away we shoot!

This was supposed to look like a circle *LOL*.

I did this by rotating the lens while capturing the image

The panning effect

We also did another lesson yesterday at Glorietta. Portrait was our lesson. I don't think we were really that successful with the lesson because our models, one in particular, was uncooperative. She was laughing the whole time but I still was able to get a perfect shot of her. Here are some of our pictures.

Beh!

It took me a lot of shots before I got this one

After this we had dinner at Sbarro c/o Sir Orville. He went home with Mam Winnie afterwards while the rest of us watched a movie.

Something borrowed

Eversince I got hold of my DSLR camera, I've been wanting to learn more about photography. One of my friends who also bought a DSLR already attended the free workshop. He's willing to give me free lessons and share his knowledge about photography, so by the time I will have my workshop I know the basics na.

Photography is really a very expensive hobby. I mentioned to Sir Orville that I don't even have my tripod and camera bag yet. I was surprised when he told me he would lend me his spare camera bag and tripod. He already have lots of gears so he bought a bigger camera bag. I was so happy and thankful! I don't know when I will get my cam bag from my aunt. Maybe this summer when she comes here for a vacation.

Now that I have the basic gears, we have scheduled the photography lesson on friday. I learn about portraits.

I'm so excited na....