Last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend a free basic photography lesson with such names in photography like Jiggie Alejandrino and Noel Puyat. This session was sponsored by Canon, the brand of DSLR I’m using.
The venue of this event was Manila Zoo and this is the 2nd time I’ve been to this place (more of Manila Zoo soon). I was surprised to find a Canon Multi-Purpose Hall inside the Manila Zoo!
What I like about this Canon Photoskwela Plus session was their “Snapshots to Photographs” concept. They defined the difference between snapshots and photographs and that the latter is properly thought of, has proper composition and followed certain guidelines. Jiggie Alejandrino and Noel Puyat encourage us to create photographs.
They’ve provided us with certain guidelines that helps create wonderful photographs such as:
1. Simplicity – a snapshot may contain some clutters. We should take out these distractions on our photographs
2. Balance – one side identical to the other side. Symmetry
3. Rule of Thirds – they said that the human eye captures the Top and Lower Part of an image
4. Light and Shadow – silhouette photos are still very good
5. Recognizing Lines, Shapes and Forms – be observant of leading lines that leads to the subject
6. Using Geometrical Shapes and Forms – pyramids, triangles
7. Vanishing Points – like roads, railroads
8. Textures – walls with patterns and grains
9. Subject Placement – put the subject in the beginning and end of the picture
10. Positive and Negative – the subject being the positive and everything else being the negative space
11. Depth of Field – here’s where Boke comes in (Japanese for “quality of the blur”)
12. Perspective – camera angle, worm’s eye view, use of tripod
13. Shoot to Print – compose your photograph as if you intend to print it right away
They also provided other tips like never crop in the joint (elbows), having straight horizons (in landscape pictures) and to avoid over saturated photos.
There was also a product presentation from Black Rapid for their amazing straps. The main feature is that the weight is not focus on the neck but on the shoulder. Benro also presented their tripods and ways to maximize its use.
The last part of this Canon Photoskwela Plus workshop is the application of what we learned. We are asked to take some pictures of Manila Zoo and to submit one entry to the contest. We were given some chance to point out the things that can be improved in our photos.
The bad thing about this seminar is that, they intend to emphasized that the “other brand” (a.k.a. Nikon) produces photos that are “over saturated” and that having the “other brand” clean to a service center may take about a month. We’re all Canon users in this seminar so why such comments. Also, one of the attendees “accidentally” shot her subject wearing a Nikon camera and they made a few jokes about it.
Other than that, this Canon Photoskwela Plus photography session was good. They even gave away 3 Black Rapid straps to the top 3 photographs voted by us, the attendees. Unfortunately I didn’t win but I like my entry very much. It reminded me of their other concept saying:
“No one has the right to tell that your photography is ugly. The only person who can say that is you”
This was my entry. What a cute kid right?
- Full Name
- Contact Details
- Camera model with complete serial number
- Preferred workshop date
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