Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

I haven’t had a chance to blog lately due to hectic workload on my new assignment.

But this week’s Photo Challenge is one of my favorite photography theme. I just can’t let it pass so I had to find a few minutes out of my busy schedule to share some of my photos. I hereby humbly share my amateur silhouette shots.

This is what the challenge says: SILHOUETTE. The proper definition of a silhouette is “the outline of a body viewed as circumscribing a mass.” In photography, often we achieve that effect by putting light behind the object whose silhouette we want to capture, effectively darkening out the features of the subject instead of highlighting them.

Do you reckon I was able to get the theme right? Please let me know… Cheers

Photowalk Along Rio de Janeiro

The sun finally shone yesterday and I had a chance to go for a photowalk along the busy streets of Rio de Janeiro. Street photography is challenging particularly when shooting strangers because you will not know how they will react. Being discreet is one of the technique from what I read. Therefore, I set my 75-300 Minolta zoom lens on my camera and here are some of the candid snapshots I had.

I took this shot of these guys waiting along the pedestrian lane at the junction of the shopping center.

This next one is along the canal crossing where people use the paddle boat to access the other side of the estuary to the beach front.

Then I spotted this teenagers kissing goodbye just before the boy embarked on the paddle boat.

After crossing the estuary, I headed towards the beach front. It was empty since it was windy and the waves was rather big. All I saw are these guys having a good laugh while taking each other’s photos.

Here’s the bus that goes towards the Copacabana

There is also a biking trail besides the main avenue

There are some benches along the sidewalk and I sat on one of them to discreetly shoot these strangers.

Only the birds I think will not mind me taking their photo so I was able to aim properly

I was also able to take some view along the beach and I will try to share them soon so stay tuned. Thanks for dropping by and I hope you liked my amateur shots. Cheers!

Rio de Janeiro

I arrived here in Rio de Janeiro last night. I was imagining the place to be warm and sunny with the beaches filled with people. However, over a day had gone by but I haven’t seen the sun yet! I am currently staying at Transamerica Hotel which is just across the Copacabana Beach. It’s a shame that I can’t even walk towards the beach because it’s chilly cold here and windy with occasional rain showers. Anyway, I’d like to share some of the shots I have had so far. The following photos were taken from the terrace of my hotel room.

In the morning

Same view taken after sunset… although I have not actually seen the sun at all

I’m hoping that the sun will finally shine tomorrow and perhaps I will be able to go around. Stay tuned for some snapshots I’ll share here soon! Cheers

Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

This weeks’ photo challenge is really fascinating.

I would like to share this photo of a man I took at the waterfront. He was standing there alone with his fishing gear and doing so finds him solitude away from it all. He was standing along the rocky breakwater about 200 meters from where I took the shot. I’d love to experience this solitary moment once in a while, do you?

If you’re not into fishing, just hop on a boat and be in the water away from the crowd like what this man does. I also took this shot with a 300mm zoom lens so he is not very near from where I was standing.

So what would you do to be in solitary for a while… go fishing or boating? I’ll probably do both at the same time

The Arena

In the old days, an Arena is the main entertainment hub of people from all walks of life. I am not that old to have experienced that of course, but thanks to the movies like Ben Hur and Gladiator  that gave me a chance to have a glimpse of how people were entertained back then.

Nowadays, people are still entertained in the Arena despite of other portable equipment available like home theater systems and personal computers. The photo below is of the newly built Arena at the SM Mall of Asia in the Philippines with a full capacity of 20,000 persons. It opened to the public last 21st May 2012 for the “Born This Way” concert of 5-time Grammy Award Winner “Lady Gaga“. I have nothing against her but I’m not a big fan of her kind of music. Moreover, I’m not keen on spending Php 15,000 ( U$ 360 approx) for a concert ticket.

Anyway, I had the chance to take the photo of this Arena just last week. It was a Sunday and the parking building was full that I was able to find a vacant slot only on the 5th floor. While waiting for the lift/elevator, I chanced upon this view and took a shot with my camera. The first few shots were a bit dull because the glare of the sun was too much. I tried the auto-HDR setting where three shots with different exposures are merged and this is what I got. It’s not a brilliant shot but I think it’s good enough for a handheld HDR. What do you think?

 

SUNDAY POST : Reflection

This is my share for this week’s theme on Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post.

I have a few reflection photos on my archive but I can’t decide which is the best image to post. Anyway, I’ll post all my shortlisted photos here and I’ll appreciate if you can tell me which one of these you reckon is the best reflection image.

First on the selection is the photo I took last March while I was strolling at Fort Santiago inside Intramuros. The reflection of a high-rise building in Santa Cruz which is across the Pasig River is visible on the water of the Japanese Garden inside The Fort.

The next photo is a closer shot of the water-lily on the same pond where the first photo was taken.

The next photo below was shot last May during a weekend bonding with my family at Nuvali Park, Santa Rosa, Laguna. The reflection of the skies with the setting sun is conspicuous on the water of the man-made lake.

The last photo on this series was also shot in May but on a different day. This was taken at the swimming pool of The Lake Hotel in Tagaytay City. I spent a night on a honeymoon suite there with my wife during her birthday. I highly recommend this place if you’re looking for a romantic getaway and you want an unobstructed view of Taal Lake and Volcano.

So which of the above photos do you reckon have the best reflection image? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers all and Happy Sunday!

 

 

Capture The Colour

I’ve been nominated by a fellow blogger Alice http://alicethroughthemacrolens.wordpress.com/ to take part in the competition being run by Travel Supermarket http://www.travelsupermarket.com/c/holidays/capture-the-colour/

I just got the notification a while ago and today is the deadline! I hope my entry can still be considered.

The photo below was taken at my hometown during the Tabak Festival this year. My hometown, Tabaco, is a municipality in the province of Albay in the Philippines. It is famous for producing hand crafted jungle knife known locally as “tabak”, thus, the festival is named after it. There are different contingents that performs street dances during the parade, let’s say a Street Carnival like the one in Brazil.

The requirement of the photo competition is to capture the following colours: Blue, Green, Yellow, White and Red. Actually it says that those colors can be on five different photographs. However, I think my photo below captured all those colours in one image!

Did I really capture all those colours here? Let me know what you think… please click on the photo to see the full size.

Another requirement is to nominate five other bloggers to participate in the competition. I’m not sure if they can still meet the deadline but here they are anyway:

http://sillymonkeyphoto.com

http://smithiesshutter.wordpress.com

http://ceeslifephotographyblog.wordpress.com

http://efratadenny.com

http://2riversphotos.wordpress.com