The last two months since my last blog entry have been busy for my family and I. We returned to Cebu City at the end of October after spending eight months visiting family and friends in the States. Its always nice to be back in Cebu and to see our family and friends here as well. We have been in the process of building a new house here for the past year. Construction continued while we were in the states, but the past two months we have been going full throttle trying to finish it. We are about two weeks out now from moving in and we are very excited to make the transfer. The house is not too big, but it is tall (four stories). We love the patio on the top floor and it has a great view of the mountains in Cebu. Watching fireworks on New Years from the patio was a family event and we could see them in all directions.
Panoramic view from our patio.
Aside from the excitement of moving into our new home, my wife gave birth to our second child on November 26th. Baby Amaya Mary. She is a cute one and her brother loves to give her kisses. She’s already getting big and before we know it she will be walking around like Liam.
Baby Amaya
This time of year is busy for photographers in Cebu with weddings and events in peak season. I have been fortunate enough with all that is going on to take a few assignments. I have posted some images below from two weddings and other events I have covered since arriving back to the Philippines.
Wedding at Maribago Blue Waters Resort
Wedding reception at Waterfront Hotel Cebu City
Turkish Ambassador to the Philippines with Guests
On another note, two good friends of mine from my Peace Corps days came to visit. It was great catching up with Matt and Alex and it was just like old times hanging on the beach, having some drinks and good discussions.
Matt and Alex with Dive Master Tata in Malapascua.
I’m looking forward to a fruitful 2009 and spending more of my energy on traveling and capturing beautiful images. I have spent a good portion of 2008 developing jacobimages.com and coming up with business ideas, etc. I am looking forward to getting back to more of the photography side of the photography business and doing what I really enjoy. I hope you will be patient and continue to check back to see what new images I am able to post in the stock gallery. Thanks for reading and see you back here soon.
I have recently come across two big photo contests that I would like to share with everyone. These are both free contests to join and they have really nice prizes. It seems like a lot of the bigger photography contests happen toward the end of the year. I feel it’s always good to enter a few contests a year (especially free ones) to see where your images are when compared to other photographers. The worst thing that can happen, if you don’t win, is you can improve your photography by seeing what types of images win these big contests. Submit away….
“To celebrate this enriching approach to travel, we are delighted to announce the CONNECTIONS Photo Contest, your opportunity to share your own connection with a true travel experience.”
The contest invites amateur photographers to submit one colour image of a destination anywhere in the world that shows us the following:
* A moment that captures the authentic essence of a place
* Composition
* Creativity
* Clarity and technical quality
*Non-Professional Photographers only
*One photo per person
*On-line entry form
“The Nikon Photo Contest International is open to all photographers, professional or amateur, from any part of the world.”
The theme for this competition is: “At the heart of the image”
* Freely express the emotions that are true to your heart through images.
Categories:
(A) Free subject: Works that convey the photographer’s unique perspective and creativity.
(B) My Planet: Works that express your feelings about your world, whether that involves the environment, scenes from your daily life, or people and other things that stir your passions.
Begins: September 1, 2008
Closes: November 30, 2008
I have not wrote a blog entry in over a month now and I thought it was time too once again. I have been on the road with my family for the past couple of months and haven’t found the time to write an entry. We have been traveling visiting family and friends around the US before heading back to Cebu City, Philippines at the end of October. Right now we are visiting my wife’s family in the Bay area.
We have had a wonderful time seeing family and friends we haven’t seen in a very long time. It feels just like old times when we all get together. I have also tried to squeeze in some picture taking during our trip, although it’s quite a challenge when you have a pregnant wife and a very active 11 month-year-old son. I have posted my images from Tennessee, the Outer Banks, and Colorado in the Stock Gallery if you are interested in viewing them. Also check out the Landscapes & Seascape gallery, because there are some new ones in there too. I am excited to return to the Philippines where I can start focusing more of my energy on creating excellent imagery once again.
What else is new? Well…we have had a graphic designer make a new logo for the website and business. I am really excited about the new look and I think the design fits really well with the current website.
We have also adjusted our prices for fine art prints and licensing while providing more options. Customers can now order fine art prints and have them professionally matted and framed by us. The result is a beautiful piece of artwork that is ready to hang on your wall. We now offer three different types of black frames for your fine art prints and they all look great.
As our stock gallery grows we are trying to make it easier for you to search for images. We are working on making it easier for viewers to browse by location/place as well as by category. We should have this function up soon. Thanks for checking back and seeing what’s new with us. We hope you will continue to return and see what new images we have.
1. My son Liam in front of the US Capitol Building, DC.
2. My friend Wally having fun on a zip-line, Colorado.
3. My friend Jolon and his son Logan in Colorado.
4. My son Liam and I playing in a river, Colorado.
I had the opportunity last week to photograph my new baby nephew while visiting my brother and family in Appleton, Wisconsin. Baby Rhys was three weeks old during this photo shoot and what a cute and growing young boy he is. We set up a mock studio in my brothers house using natural window light for all of the images. I did use some fill flash with my SB-800 to help compensate for light during the later hours of the day. We used a black backdrop and black sheets on the floor for the necessary shots. I love the way ambient light looks and prefer this method whenever possible.
Here’s an image I wanted to share because it doesn’t happen too often. During our photo shoot baby Rhys decided to take advantage of having his diaper off and fired a stream of pee over his head. The photo says it all.
I had the opportunity this week to interview Pedro Patrício one of the founders and developers of Photoburst.net, a travel photography daily contest. Pedro was kind enough to answer all of my questions, revealing a little more behind this new and creative contest he has helped start. Photoburst.net is a fairly new website that publishes a daily winning photo from their contributors. Then the best photo of the month is awarded a $100 B&H gift card! This is one of the bigger award winnings I have come across for a daily photography contest. If you take a look at Photoburst.net you will see they have a very professional looking website with a fancy world map and other unique features.
I have submitted some entries to Photoburst.net and today my second one got published (shown below). I have yet to win the monthly award, but maybe that will come in time. I think contests like this are a great resource for photographers, not only to see what others think of your work, but also to get a feel of what others in the field are doing.
Q: Where did the three of you Pedro, Pedro, and Gastao meet and come up with the idea of starting photoburst.net?
A: We met each other in Covilhã, a small city in Portugal’s highest mountain - Serra da Estrela - foothills (we all work in the same place). We decided to start Photoburst after emailing each other thousands of links to inspiring (mainly travel) photos. At that time, we almost reached a saturation point, our bookmarks were getting intractable! And, so, we thought it would be cool to have a website gathering so many talented and/or almost anonymous photographers whose work is spread around the Internet.
Q: Do you have a background in photography?
A: We don’t. Two of us, Gastao and Pedro Patricio, have a background in Mathematics and Pedro de Sousa’s is in Computer Science. We all have been photography enthusiasts for over 12 years and, between us, have had a dozen or so published photos in a couple of magazines and also some local and national contest awards… and that’s about it.
Q: What types of photos are you interested in receiving on photoburst.net?
A: Well, it’s a travel photography contest… we’d say that an everyday scene, a landscape, a portrait, etc, are all valid entries provided they are compelling images. Basically, we are looking for photos that either make you feel like you’re traveling or make you pack instantly.
Q: Can amateurs and professional alike submit photos?
A: Yes, Photoburst is an open contest.
Q: How is your website different from other travel photography related daily contests or sites like earthshots.org?
A: Some daily contest or similar websites end up publishing anything, making it difficult for you to sense, say, what Tanzania’s like without having to go through a lot of images. Earthshots is a more nature photography oriented website, although they publish travel related photos regularly. Overall, we highly respect and admire many similar websites and we try to learn from them while making some improvements. By the way, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank John Emmerson for his fantastic work with the world map and, also, Jay Soto for his great work with the simplicious template we have adapted.
Q: What is the current prize for each months winning entry?
A: The current prize is a B&H $100 gift card. B&H has been our choice from the very beginning for their great worldwide service and prices.
Q: I’ve seen some wonderful photos posted on photoburst.net, are images submitted from people all over the world?
A: Yes, fortunately, although there are more photographers from western countries submitting their work.
Q: Should photographers have to worry about copyright issues when submitting images on photoburst.net? Will the images be used for other purposes or print in the future?
A: Absolutely not, photographers retain their copyright on every photo they submit, either it is published or not. For the time being, we don’t plan on using Photoburst’s published photos for any other purposes or print. If we come up with some idea, we will obviously contact photographers for their consent.
Q: How do photographers submit an image for your daily contest?
A: Just click “submit” on photoburst.net or follow the direct link: http://www.photoburst.net/photo_section/submit/submit.php Photographers have just to fill the photo’s details and choose the file they want to upload. Alternatively, they may also submit their photos by e-mail to: submissions@photoburst.net
Q: What are your long term goals for photoburst.net?
A: First and foremost, we’d like Photoburst to be highly regarded by photographers and the general public alike. We also plan to significantly increase the monthly prize value by obtaining some sponsors. And, lastly, we hope Photoburst may soon feature a photo taken by you, dear reader.
I went to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga this past Monday with a good friend I haven’t seen in a long time. Wally Van Sickle and Sean Kelly from IDEA WILD were in town attending the Society for Conservation Biology annual conference. IDEA WILD purchased equipment for the winners who participated in the Conservation Leadership program. The Conservation Leadership winners were attending this conference and the reason why Wally and Sean came to Chattanooga. I’ve been living about an hour from Chattanooga for the past three months and this worked out great, because I haven’t seen Wally in over four years. The last time we saw each other was in El Nido, Palawan doing some diving.
We had a day to hang out and we decided to go to the Tennessee Aquarium to see all the critters there. We were all very impressed with the quality and design of the aquarium. One of the best aquariums I have been to. It was also nice to see on display many of the native species to Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau.
I thought I would share with you some images I took at the aquarium. I would recommend a visit to this aquarium if you are in the area.
I recently created a YouTube video with some of my portrait images from the Philippines. I thought this would be a unique way for people to see some of my images and of course get more exposure on YouTube. The quality is of course the best it could be for YouTube, but I think it came out alright. I plan to make some more of these slideshow videos if I get some positive feedback. Let me know what you think of the video by leaving a comment. Thanks.
After a few months of planning and organizing I finally sent off around 1500 slides and negatives to be digitally scanned. I feel relieved, but anxious at the same time to see the final digital images which will eventually be added to my stock gallery. These images are mostly from my travels to Latin America, the Philippines and Malaysia.
During the past few months I have been trying to locate all of my old slides and negatives from friends and relatives houses around the country. I have also been looking into purchasing a new Nikon ICE scanner to turn these slides into a digital format. After a lot of research and reading on-line reviews, etc. I decided to use a scanning service called ScanCafe, which is based out of California. I don’t remember how I came across this company, but I think I must have found them while reading a review or in Google. The moment I saw their professional looking website, I bookmarked it and have been reviewing their services and company for over a month now. I must say to this point I am very impressed with my interactions and use of their service. Not only do they have the most affordable prices in the industry, but they are very professional and customer service oriented. Their website is top of the line and shows you exactly what stage of the scanning process they are in for your order. Although, I have just today sent my slides to them, I can tell the next eight weeks will be worry free.
My wife preparing slides to be sent to ScanCafe.
How Scan Cafe works: Basically, you send them your slides and negatives and eight weeks later they send you a dvd with all of your images. Besides having great prices, the best thing I found was you don’t have to keep or pay for all of the images you send them. You only need to purchase a minimum of 50% of the actual amount you send in. This is a great advantage…you don’t have to sort all of your negatives and slides before hand. Just send everything in and select the ones you want later. They make all of your images available on-line for viewing and selecting. I’ve included a chart below to show the entire process.
The standard price for a 3000dpi slide scan is $.24 and $.19 for a negative. I opted for the professional scan which is $.09 more per scan and adds another 1000dpi to the resolution (4000dpi). These are the best prices that I was able to find on-line, by a long way. You may be wondering why they can have such low prices? Well, it’s outsourcing. They send all of your originals to Bangalore, India to be scanned. When I called their office in California, the women said they send everything over by Fedex in a large bundle, so nothing gets lost. They have 24hour security at the facility there with over 400 workstations. It seems like a good operation they have going and I’m not worried at all about losing my slides or having them be so far away. I’ve sent many international packages via Fedex and have never had a problem. You can see some more information about their Bangalore facility here.
Like I said, I’m still at the beginning of this process, but I look forward to seeing the final digital images and I’m excited to have found such a great service. Be sure to check back in a few months to see some of these images in my stock gallery.
A box full of my slides and negatives getting ready to be shipped.
I have been working on a project this past week photographing a newly built Log House in eastern Tennessee. The house actually belongs to my dad and his wife and is a beautiful home. The project manager asked me to photograph the final built house for advertising purposes, etc and I have had a lot of fun with it. It’s hard trying to be creative with a subject like this, but it is possible. I tried to showcase the house in it’s beautiful surrounding environment and focus on the details of the interior. I believe I have captured what the project manager was looking for and pleased myself in knowing I can still let the creative juices flow on a project like this.
I was able to use the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) for the inside of the house and I am learning more and more about the power of this system. There are many sites out there that have great resources for the CLS including the Strobist and Joe Mcnally’s Blog. I hope to blog more about Nikon’s CLS in the future with some tutorials, etc.
For now, I have included a few pictures here to show what I have been working on. A little bit of Photoshop, yes. Some NIK filters were used for the outside color image and I added the moon for the evening shot. Actually, the moon was there while I was shooting the image, however, I wasn’t able to get a sharp picture of it to use. I was borrowing a tripod and it was really shaky…invest in a sturdy tripod if you plan to shoot at night! I can’t wait to get my tripod back.
A group of 22 photographers met online sharing the same passion, sharing their talent in photography. Their relationship bud into a great friendship, which despite being miles away found time to discover, develop and master their craft through each other.
A global co-operation between the photographers from 5 different countries has brought “Borderless: Places and Indigenous Faces”
Country Organizers:
Philippines: Aly Reyes
USA: Donna Samonte
UAE/ KSA: Jeff Vergara
Organizer: Cez Jarlyn Young
Major Sponsor: Digiprint
Grand Opening: 19th of June 2008
Glorietta 3 (in front of Zara)
6:30 in the evening
Ayala Malls, Glorietta 3
Makati City, Philippines
In cooperation with:
CARD (Center for Autism Related Disorder)
Wired.com has periodic photo contests with a wide range of themes. Viewers can vote on all the submitted photos and the top ten rated will appear on Wired.com homepage. The current theme is summer.
“Summer is finally here, and we under-sunned desk turds want to see what fun looks like. Remind us what it is to be young and capable of joy again with a skillfully captured frame.”
When I checked my email this morning I had mail from someone in my camera club with a link to a Joe McNally youtube video. I took a look thinking it would only be a few minutes long. Come to find out an hour later I was still watching this and I couldn’t pull myself away. This is a great lecture/talk from one of the most accomplished photographers in the past 30 years. If you have an hour to watch this video and I’m sure you will take something away from it.
I have been a photographer for over eight years now, with interests in travel and nature photography. I live in Cebu City, Philippines where I enjoy photographing anything and everything interesting.
Tags: ambassador, cebu, house, newborn, update, wedding 
Entries (RSS)