FPC @ MoA? Ok!
i attended my first Flickrs Photo Club meet yesterday!
held at the Mall of Asia (yep, i'm there again!), the get-together was organized by pat (Hocchuan, FPC's founder and moderator). the purpose of the whole meet was to do a fireworks photo shoot and have a little bonding session afterwards. of course, my objective was to learn how to really shoot fireworks. i've photographed fireworks before but never with a tripod. i was really psyched because it was the first time i used papa's tripod for my digicam. alhtough i have my own tripod, it's too tiny for the photo session (my tripod's literally as tall as the whole length of my hand!)
we're fortunate that four members (siblings squarefoot and doy and their cousins, archie and aris) of FPC are part of Starmaker, the company who runs the fireworks show in MoA. thanks to them, we were easily permitted to set-up the shoot in the fireworks area.
although not everybody who confirmed were there, i got to meet some of the members of FPC: karen (angelynne), jen (Lady_G), ed (Ed's), robert (rareimages), shutterglass, janzedrik, mtxtremist, and Starmaker's aris and doy. i thought we were going to stay in the fireworks zone but they advised us that it was too close for photographing the show. so, the ladies, ed, aris, and i positioned ourselves in the Music Hall, right across the fireworks zone. we didn't have any idea where the rest of the guys went but i'm pretty sure they chose prime spots.
before the shoot, i asked for photo tips from doy (who also has a p&s camera) and ed. finally, i understood how some of the manual settings in my camera worked, particularly the shutter speed i adjusted my camera to Manual mode and set the shutter speed to 2 seconds with an aperture of 8. now, all that was left for me to do was to wait for the show to start!
as i looked at ed and jen's 350D cameras and karen's 30D, i realized that, more important than the fact that all of us are Canon patriots, i was the only one who has a p&s camera. hahaha! my A520 sure looked pretty "cute" beside their humungous SLRs! :D too bad my camera was screwed in place on my tripod or i would have snapped a picture. fortunately, ed was able to take a photo of my baby beside karen's 30D. :D
oh, did i mention about the photo contest? pat decided to add spice to the Flickr meet and organized the contest. celina_d was kind enough to donate Gift Certificates for Free Massage Treatments from Ceragem Philippines to the top 3 winners while Joel, a.k.a., From the inside looking out, offered to give the 1st price winner a flickr “pro” account. i really don't expect to win so there was absolutely no pressure for me. hahaha!
finally, after making small talk with karen and jen, the announcer's voice boomed over the excited chaos. the show was about to start! i quickly turned my camera on and waited to take my first shot.
in tune to High School Musical's Breaking Free, the fireworks display was a sight to behold. aris, who was standing at my right, told me that the whole show is choreographed according to the music. all they needed to do was to press a few buttons in their computerized switchboard and the magic begins. cool!
my excitement slowly diminished and turned into frustration as i waited for my shots to appear in the LCD screen. for the nth time, i wished for an SLR! the processing was slow but i remembered that the shutter speed was set to 2 seconds. i guess that explains the lag (at least i hope it did).
after about 4 shots, my finger accidentally brushed my lens and i realized that it was partially opened!! waah! my first few shots look like tilted panoramic photos.
thankfully, the song just started so i still had time to take more shots.
then, it was over.
i wasn't ecstatic over my photos but they're not too bad. at least now i have an idea how to set my camera when another fireworks photo opportunity comes up. thank goodness MoA holds weekly fireworks shows! i will definitely be back!
after poring over our shots, some of the guys bid goodbye to spend time with their families. meanwhile, karen and i joined jen's family - her husband, Lord Jaime (hehe) and their two teenage sons, who also serve as Lady G's all-around bodyguards, assistants, and photo directors.
during dinner at Teriyaki Boy, we talked about photography, their cameras (they're lucky i didn't drool over their babies. hahaha!), and their Flickr experiences. karen shared the photo workshops she's attended and explained a few of the technicalities in photography. jen kept us laughing with her funny comments and stories.
after dinner, i went along with them as they went to the Canon store to buy accessories for their cameras then headed off to Odyssey to look for the latest Evanesence album. after a few minutes, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
to the FPC guys, thanks for welcoming me! and to MoA, i'll be bahhhhkkk!
held at the Mall of Asia (yep, i'm there again!), the get-together was organized by pat (Hocchuan, FPC's founder and moderator). the purpose of the whole meet was to do a fireworks photo shoot and have a little bonding session afterwards. of course, my objective was to learn how to really shoot fireworks. i've photographed fireworks before but never with a tripod. i was really psyched because it was the first time i used papa's tripod for my digicam. alhtough i have my own tripod, it's too tiny for the photo session (my tripod's literally as tall as the whole length of my hand!)
we're fortunate that four members (siblings squarefoot and doy and their cousins, archie and aris) of FPC are part of Starmaker, the company who runs the fireworks show in MoA. thanks to them, we were easily permitted to set-up the shoot in the fireworks area.
although not everybody who confirmed were there, i got to meet some of the members of FPC: karen (angelynne), jen (Lady_G), ed (Ed's), robert (rareimages), shutterglass, janzedrik, mtxtremist, and Starmaker's aris and doy. i thought we were going to stay in the fireworks zone but they advised us that it was too close for photographing the show. so, the ladies, ed, aris, and i positioned ourselves in the Music Hall, right across the fireworks zone. we didn't have any idea where the rest of the guys went but i'm pretty sure they chose prime spots.
before the shoot, i asked for photo tips from doy (who also has a p&s camera) and ed. finally, i understood how some of the manual settings in my camera worked, particularly the shutter speed i adjusted my camera to Manual mode and set the shutter speed to 2 seconds with an aperture of 8. now, all that was left for me to do was to wait for the show to start!
as i looked at ed and jen's 350D cameras and karen's 30D, i realized that, more important than the fact that all of us are Canon patriots, i was the only one who has a p&s camera. hahaha! my A520 sure looked pretty "cute" beside their humungous SLRs! :D too bad my camera was screwed in place on my tripod or i would have snapped a picture. fortunately, ed was able to take a photo of my baby beside karen's 30D. :D
oh, did i mention about the photo contest? pat decided to add spice to the Flickr meet and organized the contest. celina_d was kind enough to donate Gift Certificates for Free Massage Treatments from Ceragem Philippines to the top 3 winners while Joel, a.k.a., From the inside looking out, offered to give the 1st price winner a flickr “pro” account. i really don't expect to win so there was absolutely no pressure for me. hahaha!
finally, after making small talk with karen and jen, the announcer's voice boomed over the excited chaos. the show was about to start! i quickly turned my camera on and waited to take my first shot.
in tune to High School Musical's Breaking Free, the fireworks display was a sight to behold. aris, who was standing at my right, told me that the whole show is choreographed according to the music. all they needed to do was to press a few buttons in their computerized switchboard and the magic begins. cool!
my excitement slowly diminished and turned into frustration as i waited for my shots to appear in the LCD screen. for the nth time, i wished for an SLR! the processing was slow but i remembered that the shutter speed was set to 2 seconds. i guess that explains the lag (at least i hope it did).
after about 4 shots, my finger accidentally brushed my lens and i realized that it was partially opened!! waah! my first few shots look like tilted panoramic photos.
thankfully, the song just started so i still had time to take more shots.
then, it was over.
i wasn't ecstatic over my photos but they're not too bad. at least now i have an idea how to set my camera when another fireworks photo opportunity comes up. thank goodness MoA holds weekly fireworks shows! i will definitely be back!
after poring over our shots, some of the guys bid goodbye to spend time with their families. meanwhile, karen and i joined jen's family - her husband, Lord Jaime (hehe) and their two teenage sons, who also serve as Lady G's all-around bodyguards, assistants, and photo directors.
during dinner at Teriyaki Boy, we talked about photography, their cameras (they're lucky i didn't drool over their babies. hahaha!), and their Flickr experiences. karen shared the photo workshops she's attended and explained a few of the technicalities in photography. jen kept us laughing with her funny comments and stories.
after dinner, i went along with them as they went to the Canon store to buy accessories for their cameras then headed off to Odyssey to look for the latest Evanesence album. after a few minutes, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
to the FPC guys, thanks for welcoming me! and to MoA, i'll be bahhhhkkk!
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