Arnis with Ricky Aranza 4th Dan Black Belt Combat Arnis Hong Kong

I have been contemplating to do a photography in martial arts but didn't know anyone who's into the sports. I was talking to a friend about this and it was mentioned to me that I had a Filipino neighbor who is a 4th dan black belter in Combat Arnis a Filipino Style of Martial Arts. As soon as I was given the number I called him up to schedule for a shoot that afternoon and he gladly accepted it. His name is Ricky Aranza.

In this series of photos I have used 3 580 EX II, SpeedLight Pro Kit Diffuser, 3 Pocketwizard Flex TT5, 1 Mini TT1, Canon 5d Mark II and an intelligent tripod that determines where the main light should be brand name Mikey.

Here is the basic diagram:

Here are few of the photos I captured:

Models

This are some of the selected photos from my shoot this first half of the year

Iris Wong

Irene saw my profile on one of the photo community in Hong Kong and emailed me to do some test shoot. Here are some of the photos.

Natural Light with silver reflector on camera right
Strobist

580 EX II cam left lighting her face and another at her back (left) as rim light. Sun lighting her hair.



Please don't forget to leave your comments.

Margaret

Margaret was the first ever model that I shot back in August last year when I was in the early stage and exploring photography. She left Hong Kong and went to England to study and now she is back for a vacation. A fellow photog invited me to shoot her again and I was so excited.

Here are two of the shot I did in August 2008.

All Natural Light




And here is the shot I made August 16. Oh no I just realized its a little over a year! Its almost an anniversary :P

Natural Light


I used 580 EX II cam left bare and 580 EX II cam right on a portable beauty dish triggered with Pocketwizard Flex and Mini TT1


Hope you guys like it!

Water Droplets Tutorial

My wife went back to Manila for a vacation and to study make up artistry to suplement my hobby. Now I have more time to play around with the water in the kitchen without my wife nagging me about the pirex plate being played around. Don't worry baby ill take care of this :)

So this shot is inspired by the Strobist article a few months ago.

The equipments used

White transparent chopping board
White pyrex plate
Plastic for the water
2 580 EX II gelled
Canon ST-E2 to trigger my flash
Tamron 70-200 f2.8 Macro lens
Canon 5d MK II
Tripod

I hanged the plastic bag on top of the exhaust fat and check where the water is dropping. I placed a marker (tip of the spoon or knife) on the spot and pre focused the area. I turned the focusing on manual so that everytime I pressed the shutter it wont find a focus again. Oh by the way my exposure was 1/200 and f8 and had my ISO at 50. I was shooting on manual mode as well. I chose to used 1/200 to slightly kill the ambient light.

Here are some of the results.




You can visit my flickr set here as well.

Executive Shot

A good friend who works at a Financial Wealth Magazine in Indonesia approached me to take an executive shot for her profile in their magazine.

I have decided to take her portrait at LEGCO Central Hong Kong because of the majestic pillars that surrounds the building.

I used my Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 24-70mm F2.8 Lens for this shotand one Canon 580 EX II on a reflector umbrella triggered by Pocketwizard Flex TT5 and Mini TT1.