Monday, April 20, 2020
Birthday on a Quarantine
This is my friend Nicole.
We are friends since high school. That's somehow 10 years of friendship already, from 2010-2020. She had her 23rd birthday yesterday and although, we are currently in an 'enhanced community quarantine' situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and there's no public transportation anywhere, luckily, she just lives nearby that's why I was able to go to their house.
This friend of ours does not have any plans at all to celebrate her birthday and she has been like that for years already. Though in reality, it is hard to make plans at this time of pandemic because you could not easily get the food you want, either stores are closed or it's hard to mobilize food. So, my friend Jai and I planned to cook whatever we have and we can with our resources at home to bring to Nicole's house. It was supposedly a surprise but it turned out that we were the ones that were surprised because Nicole had invited us to come to their house if we can and if we wanted to.
Fortunately, Nicole was surprised by her family with a celebration! So happy for her. <3
I was fetched by Jai and her parents and we went together to Nicole's house. (They have a car haha good for them.) Jai brought some homemade carbonara (super masarap!) made especially by her and I brought some cookies and banana cupcakes my mom and I made the day before. It was our simple gifts for the celebration. My stomach was really satisfied that afternoon! I gobbled up as much food as possible because I miss eating these kinds of food: humba, chocolate cake, Filipino spaghetti, carbonara! I was really full. Hayy, I am really happy like it's my birthday. Haha.
We spent the rest of our afternoon doing some goofy photoshoots like we used to do. We also tried to do some Tiktok (tried it the first time!) and laughed our asses out. I've never laughed that much ever since the quarantine started and my laughter's always that loud and carefree whenever I'm with them. I really had so much fun.
It has been raining in the afternoon these days but on this day, on Nicole's birthday, it ended with a nice orange hue of a sunset sky with a rainbow nearby. It's like the universe had finally favored us this moment and decided to give us a nice day.
Thank you Father God for giving my friend another year to celebrate life. To more years! ♡
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
How to Shoot the Moon
Hooray for my first moon shot!!! I am honestly ecstatic even with the under satisfactory result. I am just happy that I tried shooting it and was able to get the settings right.
I was into my Passion Projects lately because of all these online photography classes hosted by Fujifilm, Canon and Nikon. I've been actively learning about techniques and compositions on different aspects of photography. I've been productive with my passion and it really makes me happy.
And luckily, I was not late to join the #SuperPinkMoonChallenge. April 7 to 8, our night skies will be lit up by the April Moon aka Pink Moon. Also, it's the time where the Moon is closest to the Earth that's why it's a Supermoon. Articles on Internet say that this is gonna be the largest moon this year 2020. I am glad I was able to capture it even though my shots are really subpar.
This photo is the last photo I've taken of the moon. It's the furthest I could get with my lens. So, I used my Nikon D3300 (my first ever camera and entry level DSLR) and 18-55mm kit lens since it's the only lens I have with the highest focal length.
How to take Moon Portraits
First, you have to set your camera to Manual Mode and set your lens' focus to infinity. (By the way, the odds are in your favor if you have a telephoto lens.) Some lens don't have this feature same as my kit lens but check your lens if it has the infinity symbol, turn the knob until you get it. This setting allows your lens to focus all the objects on your frame no matter how far it is. It gives you a wider, in fact, widest depth of field your lens can handle.
Since I don't have this feature, I just tried my best to manual focus the moon until I feel like my eyes gouged out on the viewfinder. And then, I realized that I could use the live viewfinder and zoom in the view to prevent my eyes from getting strained. sigh
So for the settings, you have to adjust your exposure elements: ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed. Tonight, in shooting moon portraits, I've learned to do the Loony 11 Rule.
Loony 11 Rule = setting your camera at Aperture f/11 and the Shutter Speed is set as the reciprocal of ISO. Example, choosing to have an ISO 100, thus, set your shutter speed as 1/100.
As for me, I chose ISO 100 first, the lowest ISO in my camera so that there'll be less noise. You can opt to choose a higher ISO, thus, setting your shutter to a faster speed, you'll get crisper photos. It's also advisable to use a tripod to prevent any blur/shake done by your hand while holding on the button since slower shutter speed is more sensitive to any movements.
Here's my shot of the moon at ISO 400 and f/11.
Below is the edited version of the photo above. Post processing done in Lightroom. I just adjusted the Highlights, Shadows, Saturation and also the Temperature, that's why the next photo looks 'cooler' than before. However, I just realized now that the first photo looks more natural, like a real and bright Supermoon haha.
You can really just tweak it the way you like it but I prefer giving it natural tones and not some Pink hue because a literal Pink Moon does not really exist. 🤣😊
Go try these settings out! I was planning to add some other elements, like clouds, to make the photo more authentic, to make it look like it's mine and not look like it's just grabbed from the Internet, but the sky was so clear tonight. So, maybe next time. Haha. Still, I had fun!
With a camera or not, you should go try to see the supermoon! It's still worth gazing upon, something to distract us from all the problems we have right now in the world. It somehow reminds us that the world keeps going on with its routine and that we should, too, also keep going on no matter what. ❤
Tools: Camera, Lens (preferably telephoto lenses with max focal lengths of 200mm to 400mm), tripod, excitement and imagination
Exposure Settings: (sample) ISO 100, f/11, shutter speed: 1/100
I'll get back to you next time! I hope soon I can afford better lenses to give you better images. Haha
Summary:
Tools: Camera, Lens (preferably telephoto lenses with max focal lengths of 200mm to 400mm), tripod, excitement and imagination
Exposure Settings: (sample) ISO 100, f/11, shutter speed: 1/100
I'll get back to you next time! I hope soon I can afford better lenses to give you better images. Haha
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