journeys of a starting photographer

the thing about bad days is, after that day is over, you learn that it's not completely a bad day. in fact, it can be seen as one very good day. because you survived, and you've learned a lot of new things.

like, for example, you learn that you can actually work under a lot of stress. and learn that you can prepare for a shoot in less than 10 minutes.

just like what happened yesterday.


to catch a prince

this photo is an outtake of a layout i had done for iGMA. i actually work there as a writer/producer, with photography as a sideline. but yesterday was a whole different ball game.

we had three photo shoots scheduled; three guys, two layouts each, and one photographer. i was supposed to be assisting. but our photographer had a migraine, so we had the shoots canceled. all good and well -- until we learned that not all three guys were told that the shoot was canceled.

i'm not belittling myself. i know i can handle shoots now--i've handled quite a handful already. but i'm not exactly the professional they were expecting. good thing our photographer has taught me well. but she still has a lot to teach me. and i still have a lot to learn, not just from her, but from a lot of people.

i learned a lot from the impromptu shoot yesterday. like, number one, i get more tired from shooting if someone else is directing. number two, i can only do up to three layouts without getting extremely tired. number three, natural light is really better than controlled lighting.

unless of course there's not a lot of natural light.

thankfully, for the first three layouts, we had a lot of natural light. by the time we reached the fourth layout though, everyone was tired. everyone just wanted to rest.

it also didn't help that we had a break right before we went into the last layout.

but that's all beside the point now. i learned one very important lesson yesterday: a bad day can turn out to be a great day: for learning, for experiencing, for getting better.