Lady Gaga + Rihanna = ???

Eva Simons - Silly Boy

A friend shared this with me a few weeks ago.
Some parts of the video remind me of Rihanna's Disturbia. I think it's the choreography.
Her outfit selections are the likes of Lady Gaga.
I hear Rihanna when she sings.
And oh! the hair.... Sanjaya Malakar of American Idol.

Eva Simons = Gaga-fied Rihanna or a Rihanna-fied Gaga.
What say you?

Very First

This was the very very first real-ish photoshoot I ever did. This was for the business project me and my group mates were running for one of our classes back when I was 4th year high school. As you can see, the focus of the photos are the products we were selling. We used flash lights to do this. These photos were used for advertising purposes. I can still remember this shoot. There was a lot of heavy lifting, sweat, etc. Cocenpt and lighting by me. Group mates were the models. We shot this in the basement/spare room in my house. I can still remember not knowing how to properly function my friends DSLR then. But I still managed to come up with awesome pictures. Don't you think? I mean, for a DSLR virgin not knowing how to function it, these photos are pretty good ey? :) And oh, if you haven't figured it out yet, those things you see on the wall... Crumpled newspapers + colored light from below.

:)

Are you that B*tch?

Livvi Franc - Now I'm That Bitch

New Artist I stumbled upon. She reminds me of Ciara, Cassie, and Solange put together. Especially the part with the multi-colored ribbons, she has the same look with Ciara in the music video Work. This could either work for her or against her. Despite that, I think this song is going to be a big hit. At least I hope it will be. What say you? :)

Colored Lights + Building = <3

Took these shots Feb 2009, 3rd term last school year. There was an event that night, so they pretty-fied the school or something. I don't really remember. Anyways... This is one of the nicer buildings on campus, the Don Enrique T. Yuchengco Hall. Isn't it pretty?

:)

Windows

"A picture is worth a thousand words."

This is a photo I took a year ago. When I look at it, it always makes me think of inspirational quotes. So I searched for a few that I thought would accompany this photo well. Below are a few. I did not include who said them because I'm not sure how reliable my sources are.

"Every wall is a door."

"There's always a light at the end of the tunnel."

"Don't waste a minute not being happy. If one window closes, run to the next window- or break a down a door."

"When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the one that has opened for us."

_ _ _ _

semi-random:
Bread's song If

Shadow Play

I took this photo last April 2008. Took this in one of the offices of my past org. Took this around 5pm. I found out that the light at that time there was really dramatic. I did another shoot there prior to this one (link). This photo is kind of dark and noisy, but I like it. I love the "drama" caused by the shadows. I've always loved shadows, and I'm hoping to do more shoots that involve using them artistically or at least giving them as much importance. I already have a few concepts in mind. I can't wait for my break! (Right now I should be doing my paper but I'm really just not in the mood to do it)

And oh, I took a lighting workshop last 2 Saturdays ago, I'm hoping to put to good use what I learned soon. Will blog about it in the next entries.

Sincerest Apologies

Haven't posted in awhile. I've been busy with school and when I do have free time I just want to relax. So that explains the absence of new posts. I'm tired from all the school work I've been doing. I can't wait to get it all over with! After September 1, I will be free as a bird. I can't wait! I promise I will make up for the lack of new posts during my break. And I'm sure you guys are wondering where the pictures from the 2nd shoot are. Don't worry, I will post them ASAP during my break and hopefully do another shoot then. To appease you guys, here is a picture of one of the looks we did for the beauty shoot.

Model: Isa Suarez
Make-Up: Gyno Ferrer
Photographed by: Andrew Dacay (ME)

Teaser for the 2nd shoot

I know, what 2nd shoot??? Well, I had my 2nd shoot last Friday (August 14) but I wasn't able to blog about it because I only had final confirmation the day before. Anyways, here's a little teaser I made for you guys to enjoy while I slave away selecting from the 600+ photos and doing a little post processing. We did a total of 6 looks in 6 hours. Exhausting but loads of fun. Can't wait for my next shoot!

:)

Is it never too late?

I came across this editorial last night and I thought to myself "isn't it a bit too late for this?" (referring to their theme). I mean, I'm all for tributes but the late great King of Pop died last June 25, 2009 (God bless his soul, may he rest in peace). If they really wanted to pay tribute to him, shouldn't they have done so last July? Or I'm guessing this is a marketing strategy? To have something different from all the other magazines? Cause as I've learned recently, September is actually the issue that is the BIGGEST deal in the fashion industry. Don't get me wrong though, I'm loving this editorial. Agyness Deyn + Terry Richardson = <3

And oh, the reason why I'm blogging about this is because I was supposed to a shoot with the same theme. I saw this other editorial months ago that paid tribute to MJ and I wanted to do one myself. But scheduling and other factors didn't allow us to do a shoot while it was still early. By the time we would be able to shoot I thought that it would be too late, so we didn't push thru with it. Harper's Bazaar didn't seem to think so. What say you?

Magazine: Harper's Bazaar
Published: September 2009
Editorial: Thriller Fashion
Photographed by: Terry Richardson
Model: Agyness Deyn (Women Model Managament)
Source

A (not so) missed opportunity

See that jacket Maricel Soriano is wearing below? Well, my bestest cousin Meme had one made for herself. Since the designer (Ralph Ng) is Manila based, she had it sent to me when it was finished, which I (or whoever was going to Cebu ASAP) would then bring to Cebu to give to her. She ordered this jacket when I was still in Cebu last month(?) and gave me permision to use it for a shoot. Unfortunately, I was not able to do a shoot with it before I had to bid it adieu :( One of our other cousins was going to Cebu earlier than I had expected. Darn you, Nica!!! :P

To have had a shoot with this jacket would have been so awesome. Such a missed opportunity or was it really? Meme finally got a hold of her jacket and tried it on. Guess what. It needs to be altered because it's not fitting well on her. I know I shouldn't be happy about it, but that just means it will have to be sent back here to be altered and it will be with me again for some time. Hopefully then I'll be able to do a shoot with it. *fingers crossed*
:)

When you fail to plan, you plan to fail

Ok, so maybe that's an exaggerated account of a summary of the 1st shoot. But we really sort of left a lot to chance saying that we'll just figure it out during the shoot or that we'll work something out.


Things left to chance:

1. The Wig. Thank God it even had bangs, because when my friend described it she was saying it was more Britney Spears or some other blond pop star and that it wasn't the right kind of blond we needed. But we were desperate and what was important to us was that it was blond. I think I only got the wig from my friend a few days before the shoot.

2. The Clothes. Sure (we thought) we had quite a lot to choose from BUT they weren't looking the way we wanted them to. They didn't come out Gaga looking when we put them together except for a few. And yes, we know they are no where near Gaga's level of fashion; we were doing a more wearable look of Gaga's fashion. And oh, if you noticed, we weren't able to use the visor thing because it didn't cooperate with the wig. It made the wig flatter than it already is.


Things I learned during my 1st shoot:

1. You must be able to effectively communicate your vision to your model. This includes orienting them with what kind of mood you're going after, poses to match the vision, overall theme, and etc.

2. Not just because your model is gorgeous he/she can pull everything off. One must be able to see if the model will really fit in well with the theme. That is why in the real real world, proper/appropriate casting is VERY important (for movies, fashion shows, TV shows, etc.) . The cast can either make or break everything.

3. Clothes don't always fit the models the way you envisioned especially when they aren't theirs. Planning the clothes ahead is very important for photo shoots. A fitting prior to the shoot is ideal.

4. Organization is key. We had a hard time looking for stuff after everything got scattered. That so did not help with the situation.

5. Having a connection with your Model is very important. If you don't connect with your model, the chances of having the best shoot you could possibly have is slim. Learning to communicate and relate with them effectively is a must. Putting on the right music, breaking the ice, all part of the whole shebang in making great fashion photographs.

6. The way you picture things in your head doesn't always turn out as is.

7. PLANNING IS EVERYTHING. Well... almost everything.

8. I'm sure there's more, I just can't remember. Will blog them if I remember.


Downside of the 1st shoot:

1. Wig wasn't right. Had to make do with what we had = limited resources.

2. Only came across this video (Lady GaGa Poker Face Make-up tutorial by Michelle Phan) few days ago when I was watching a spoof of Poker Face. This could have helped with the overall look. The Internet (almost) does have everything! :P

3. Wasn't able to use the visor for the shoot. It made the wig look even more flat.

4. The shoot wasn't exactly the way I pictured it in my head.

5. As you can see, we were only able to do one look due to the lack of planning.

6. A lot more.



I know my first shoot wasn't very good. I know I could have done so much better. I'll charge it to experience. Maybe it was wrong model choice? wrong theme? wrong style? bad photography?

Looking on the BRIGHTER side of things,
it was nonetheless a LEARNING EXPERIENCE :)


Special thanks to:

• Pilar of thepilarness.blogspot.com for the wig
• Isa for bringing her clothes, shoes, and accessories and of course for modeling for me
• Meme (my bestest cousin in the world) for lending me some of her clothes and accessories for the shoot.
• Gyno for lending me some clothes and accessories as well for the shoot.
  

**
And a little explanation for the concept of the shoot:

Lady Gaga --> inspiration for the styling
coincidentally, she has a song entitled "Paparazzi"
which happens to be the aesthetic of Terry Richardson (who's style I love)
so I thought the marriage of the 2 would be perfect
but then again, maybe not?
what say you?
:)

1st Shoot: PAPARAZZI

Here are the pictures from the 1st shoot. Enjoy! :)
Sorry if it took awhile to post them.

Related Entries:
Theme #1: Lady Gaga + Terry Richardson
Teaser for 1st Shoot

**DETAILS TO FOLLOW IN THE NEXT BLOG ENTRY**

Cinemalaya 09

For our INTFILM class, we were (sort of) required to watch two competing films in this years CINEMALAYA and write a one page paper on them. At first I thought it was such a hassle because he told us very last minute, but after watching the two films, I'm glad we were required. Our professor only told us on Tuesday (July 21) and Cinemalaya would run only until Sunday so we scrambled to schedule when we would watch it. I only had til Thursday (July 23) to watch as I was leaving for Cebu the next day. Luckily, the others couldn't or didn't want to watch on the weekend as it was a hassle for them as they lived far so we agreed to watch two films on Thursday which was ideal for me :)


Right after our INTPRIN class (we had free cut for our INTBROD) we went straight to CCP to watch any two films we could. We walked a little then took a jeep. And here we are.

Crossing the street.

We were starving after the first film so we rushed to Harbor Square to grab a bite. The next film was not til 9pm so we had about an hour or so to eat.

We were supposed to eat at Teriyaki Boy but we changed our minds, I forgot why.

Harbor Square at night.

We eventually decided to eat at Dencio's.

All smiles :)

Ice cold beer +

SISIG!!! = perfect combination for a heart attack but oh so gooood :D

Got back just in time for the 2nd film, there was an introduction that included the director, cast and crew.

Discussing the films we watched.

Pictures of the directors this year on the 2nd floor

View from the 2nd floor (where we were eating the free food)

Alfred Vargas, Pilar's crush. hehehe :P

The others had to leave early so Pilar and I were left. Since Pilar asked her driver to fetch her late because we were supposed to go drinking, we decided to take a few photos around the venue :)

Posters downstairs.

This was the 1st film we watched. Astig was... well... Astig. haha :D

2nd film we watched was Colorum. Very good movie.

I really wanted to watch this but tickets were sold out :(

This won Best Cinematography

Souvenirs

Can't wait for next years CINEMALAYA!!! :D