The Dubai Chronicles
about dxb chronicles
The saga of Jeff living in the City of Gold. Presently living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, unravel his journey throughout the city with memoirs and everyday life stories.
archives
- June 2004
- July 2004
- August 2004
- September 2004
- October 2004
- November 2004
- December 2004
- January 2005
- February 2005
- March 2005
- April 2005
- May 2005
- June 2005
- July 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- May 2008
blogroll
- a citizen on mars
- a dialogue with knoizki
- ang anino ni abaniko
- airwind
- balikbayan box
- enfocada
- fire in the gut
- ironwulf - en route
- mahryska online
- manilenya
- my sari sari store
- no smoking joint
- orly arcelao
- photographic memory
- punzi's corner blog
- purplegirl's kitchen
- six things
- tet bautista
- the evolution of jeremiah
- warmstone
- watson.online
- wish you were here
- xphotography
Monday, June 25, 2007
what have i done?!
gee, it's already past ten days since the dubai chronicles was conceived. now on its third year, i still haven't changed my layout! anyway, even if i didn't changed the design, the site was still nominated twice in the finals of philippine blog awards. the reason of not changing is still i haven't decided on which engine to use and i'm having doubts of migrating. anyway, hope when the summer ends, a new skin for tdc will be out.so what you been up to? last week...
hostage vid. we did our dpp south eb greeting video with a style representing the all the members based here in uae. an impromptu, one take vid and a lot of laughter along the way on the last minute. it's my first time doing the editing of the vid since i'm not into motion picture.
f16, 2secs, 10mm, iso200, auto, tripod mount
daily routine. work as always has been busy for us. recently, we're conducting a conference at burj al arab and covered the event.
an expensive breakfast at ikea. yen and i went on a thrifty breakfast at ikea last friday spending less than dhs20 but splurged more on "window shopping" instead. we bought a lot of stuffs because it was a sale offer and we looked like newlyweds shopping stuffs for a new home. i got myself a new cool wardrobe, picture frames, cutlery and plates, plastic boxes and scented candles.
egg bashing. i was chosen to be the judge in the next photo challenge (the theme is all about egg/s) by our online buddies. there were more entries but this time only a handful of them are good ones. together with the toughest critiques, an organized ruling and convenient judging process, picking the finalists were easy.
f6.3, 1/60sec, 18mm, iso200, auto
birthday parteee. we celebrated japs birthday at home with kfc lunch and a bottle of bacardi with bob. later in the evening, we went to karama and attended the son my friend's birthday.
f22, 8secs, 70mm, iso200, tungsten
nightscapes. first time visit and meet here in dubai with ryan rios, an architect, airsoft sniper and avid photographer. eager for a gig around town, my buddies and i met with him and mounted our tripods and set long exposures around the deira clock tower.
last but not the least, i updated my personal portfolio and sign up to multiply for my photos.
discoursed by jeff @ 8:59 AM |
4 comment(s) |
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Sunday, June 17, 2007
hot and humid getaway
b a s t a k i y a
last friday, the dubaiers (that's what do they call themselves) and i went out for another outdoor shoot in the old bastakiya district near bur dubai. we didn't last long that we had to cancel the next destination (which is heritage village). the tourism department renovated the place for tourists to visit.
h a t t a
the next day (saturday), we rode off to the outskirt town of dubai, hatta around 4:30 in the morning. located within the territories of oman, we paid a visit to hill park and one of the water dams built.
no more outdoor shoot in a while. can't bear the heat...i'm sweating like a pig. :P
more pics and stories to come...
discoursed by jeff @ 11:32 AM |
1 comment(s) |
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007
i b r a h i m
last friday, i had a consigned shoot for the local guy in a construction setting. he wanted his portraits/glamour in this type of location. prior to this shoot, we already asked permission from the contractors but once again, we were asked by the police on what we're doing. fortunately this time, we were allowed to continue......but this time the contractor refused entry to the setting due to the police's inquiry. we had no choice but to move to another place and we opted to go to the "ruins."
f2.8, 1/640sec, 70mm, iso200
f10, 1/250sec, 90mm, iso200
f2.8, 1/500sec, 170mm, iso200
f4.5, 1/320sec, 40mm, iso200
f10, 1/100sec, 14mm, iso200, flash fired
the last photo is his dream shot with having cds scattered while sitting under the tree. i used external flash as remote and bounced it upwards with silver reflector to serve as fill.
discoursed by jeff @ 8:44 AM |
3 comment(s) |
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Saturday, June 09, 2007
life begins at 30
f5.6, 1/160sec, 10mm, iso200, tripod mount, flash fired
a new place, new-found friends, a new career path and a new life. life's too fast... i might as well enjoy it!
thank you guys for the gifts, flowers (yeah guy being given a bouqet of flowers..), greets, smiles and laughter.
happy birthday to me at thirty! :P
discoursed by jeff @ 6:51 PM |
5 comment(s) |
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Thursday, June 07, 2007
stakeout
my colleague and i went to a construction site near to our office and made an ocular inspection for the upcoming portrait shoot. feeling paranoid to what happened last time when we were staking out a place, this time i asked the officer in charge to the site and asked permission for tomorrow.pillar builders
f2.8, 1/80sec, 82mm, iso200, cloudy
after the day's work
f2.8, 1/40sec, 70mm, iso800, cloudy
the tank
f2.8, 1/80sec, 16mm, iso200, cloudy
link
f2.8, 1/80sec, 200mm, iso200, cloudy
tracks
f2.8, 1/40sec, 95mm, iso400, cloudy
we have a "green light" for the location. all we need is the model to show up and a decent weather (there's a strong cyclone coming the arabian peninsula).
discoursed by jeff @ 10:03 AM |
4 comment(s) |
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Monday, June 04, 2007
white.room - aftermath
after the housefix and paintjob, an empty room was filled with stuffs and turned into a soho.
f4, 1/125sec, 10mm, iso400, flash fired
i retained the double bunk bed for unexpecting guest and hopefully i can replace it with a sofabed to be able to move things when turning my room into a mini-studio.
top view
f4, 1/125sec, 10mm, iso400, flash fired
neat, eh? :)
discoursed by jeff @ 1:14 PM |
5 comment(s) |
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Saturday, June 02, 2007
l e a f
in the previous weeks, my online photo buddies decided to put up another contest and the subject this time is about a single leaf. the prizes are much bigger (with $325 as first prize and $100 as second), more well-knowned participants in community and the pressure.so it gave us a week to come with the idea. i decided to literally freeze the subject by putting it into the ice. i called this cryogenesis.
i tried freezing the leaf between the container but all i got is hazy/whitish ice in between. i then researched on how to freeze a clear ice. after reading some articles, i bought a bottle of distilled water and boiled it. using distilled water has a reduced salts and by putting it to boil will release oxygen in water (that gives more or less clear look). after i picked a big and greenish leaf nearby my flat, i put it in front side of the hard plastic container, upside down position. the challenge here is to keep it still. i used sticks behind the leaf, staked up to the container's width for support. next was putting the hot water into the container slowly then instantly sealed. finally i put into a freezer setting it to a slow freeze.
after a day...
preset
i invited my friend to come over and asked to be my model. the concept here is some sort of a chic, villain-looking lab girl holding an experimental block of ice with a subject into it. i told her to wear something white, to clip her hair, put on her sunglasses, and gave her sanitary gloves. using my trusty dark blanket as a backdrop, i prefocused the subject, set the camera to manual, mounted on a tripod. next was setting my sb800 to remote setting, placing it behind the subject that caused backlight. i also used long flourescent lighting and served as fill in front of her and catchlights to her sunglasses. after i got the desired setting, i replaced the container and put on the frozen leaf into her hands.
cryogenesis entry
f7.1, 1/50sec, 50mm, iso200
the final stage of this project was the post processing. since i was contented with the preliminary shoot, i desaturated her clothes, removed facial scars and sunglasses' brand name, added a mist in the ice and adjusted the levels, saturation.
another version (cropped)
my leaf entry didn't make it to the finals but i learned a lot from this project. my guess here was it caused confusion on the subject with both the model and leaf in perspective. since the subject is directing his gesture towards the leaf, it made a little sense that the frozen block is the main subject. if i submitted the other version, it would have the chance (but the subject is oof) to make it. well, there's always a next time. :)
up next, leaf outtakes.
discoursed by jeff @ 11:29 AM |
1 comment(s) |
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