A dork. Short. Filipino-American, born and raised in Silicon Valley. With glasses. Night owl that loves mornings. Long, black hair. Head. Arms. Legs. 100% hearing loss in my right ear, and some hearing loss in the left. Straight. :D Blue is my favorite color. I am teaching myself photography from scratch -- it's been three and a half years so far. Yeah, my skill development has been kinda slow. I'm busy! :D

I like people photography, although nobody seems to understand what I mean. :( But I mean exactly what I say. :)

In order to combat Flickritis, I limit myself to one or two flickr postings per day. :D

Link to a great article from a Flickr member: www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/making-images.shtml

All photos are hand-held, using optical viewfinder, and uncropped/unprocessed except where noted. There's probably some global USM applied and bicubic resizing for web output.

Equipment

One (1) Canon 350D Rebel XT, silver body

One (1) EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Mk II

One (1) EF 50mm f/1.8 Mk II

One (1) fixed-five-times Canon PowerShot S30 3.2 megapixel digital compact (gone now)

One (1) set of all-natural appendages. (Just like mom used to make.)

Lots of food and water.

Toothbrush.

Teaching myself about...

* Previsualization

* Free angles (tilts, pitches, and yaw)

* Shooting hand-held in very low light with an S30

* Dramatic / environmental portraiture

* Cliched photojournalism style :)

* Visual story-telling and long-form narratives

* High key / sculpted blow-outs, in-camera and Tam-style

* Abstract

* Buck Forester-like ND filter skillz via emulation through a RAW workflow

* Stealthy pre-focusing tricks to combat S30 focus lag in order to take true candids

* Color key

My greatest photographic fears...

Using max ISO in full daylight at wide-open aperture.

Using P mode with flash.

Dropping my camera.

Forgetting to adjust settings in a new lighting situation.

Using Auto mode.

Not using RAW format.

Not reviewing my pictures every so often.