For the shot of Alucard in his box, you could prop the box upright, set up a seamless background and shoot it and just eliminate the shadows on the seamless in post. Or you could do what I did and get a big sheet of paper and lay it on the floor, and then place the box flat on it. That way, when you light it with a big diffused light source, there are less shadows to eliminate and the light is spread out more evenly. It helps if you have a tripod that has an invertible head (sorry, cheap tripods won’t cut it here).

Of course, if you have the cash to spare, then the way to make a dropout with small objects is to get a white acrylic and mold it like a seamless and light it all from below, and then set up your key light.

The shots of Dracula and Simon Belmont (above) are also fairly straightforward portraits. Used a large sheet of paper as my seamless and lit with one large shoot through umbrella camera left as my key. Since we’re using a fairly large umbrella for a small object, and we can also get the umbrella in close to our subject, the ratios really help to create really smooth, diffused light.

In the last shot, I opted to shoot with a bare flash to create more drama, contrast and shadows. The flash was positioned directly behind Simon Belmont and pointed towards him and Dracula so it would create lots of shadows. However, this left the unlit side of the figures too dark, and the point of this shoot was to provide details to potential buyers. So I used the built-in flash of my camera as an on-axis fill, dialed down to around -0.7 EV, which shows just the right amount of detail.

Total shoot time, around 15 minutes. Quick and easy.

After our mini food-trip around Laoag, we were now back in Balay de Blas. Some of us chose to rest, while playing Monster Hunter, and some of us wanted to…uhm…relieve ourselves. I had gone first, and partly due to the poor ventilation of the CR, partly due to the intensity of my power, it took Rhoy, who was next in line, a few minutes before he could acquire an immunity to it. It was very unfortunate to Rommel, the third person in line though.

After our little rest, we went out to find a great place to cap off our whole trip. And we went to one of the best places there is in Laoag. We had sinanglao, some insrabasab, and a few more dishes that I can’t now remember. For dessert, our resident cheesecake aficionado, Leon, decided he wanted to treat us all for cakes. He bought three kinds for us to share. The carrot cake was delicious. Sadly, it was the blueberry cheesecake that fell to last place. It’s not that it wasn’t good, but it was just mediocre.

Early next morning, we had breakfast served in our room (you have to order it the day before). It was delicious, but not extraordinary. Most of us had the longganisa. After that, we went through our final packing. And I would arrange my backpack for the last time.

Since I had neglected to talk about what my “light pack” was, I will explain it now. I brought my Targus laptop backpack, and naturally my Kohjinsha SH6 tablet netbook fit in the over-spacious laptop compartment. I had maybe six shirts, a few shorts, jogging pants, and a few other articles of clothing rolled up to minimize the air inside the pack. A towel was wrapped and strapped outside and under my pack where a tent or sleeping bag was meant for. My brother’s Manfrotto tripod, lightstand, and umbrella all fit in my Slik tripod bag, which I tied onto the front of my backpack. And my Lowepro Toploader 45AW housed my camera, flash, filters, flash gels, umbrella adapter, blower, flashlight, and harddisk and had bottle of water strapped onto it via my DIY velcro speedlight straps. So we checked out of Balay de Blas and got a tricycle to the Florida Bus Terminal, where our scheduled bus was waiting for us.

The previous day, we had a little bit of confusion as we got our bus tickets. After paying P550 for the 8:00 air-conditioned bus with CR, we were about to leave the bus terminal. It was a good thing Leon said “see you tomorrow” to the teller, because it was only then we all realized that we had booked for the 8:00 IN THE EVENING BUS on THAT DAY, instead of the 8:00 IN THE MORNING of THIS DAY. Any, she corrected the date and time of our tickets.

So now we were at the Florida Bus Terminal, and the bus we were (re)scheduled to ride on had no CR, and the ticket office was still closed. That just meant that we had paid P50 more for a bus without CR.

On the bus, still early that morning, we were subjected to a very gory movie called Masters of Horror: Imprint, which was about a man who was searching a mystical place in Japan filled with supernatural phenomena for a prostitute he fell in love with. Nice. Can’t beat bloody fetuses for breakfast… Joie promptly asked the conductor to change the movie. After that, they showed Jackie Chan’s Forbidden Kingdom, followed by Rush Hour 3! Cool, I wondered what was next…it was Vic Sotto and Dolphy…ok, I wonder what was up after this one….Fernando Poe Jr….damn.

There were a few stopovers on that Laoag to Manila ride, first stop was at Marsha’s Delicacies where I bought some longganisa and cassava cake for my family. Some of us bought the vigan bibingka, which was received with mix criticisms. Our lunch stop was over at a small carinderia, and on the final stopover somewhere in Tarlac, we found the last halo-halo stand of our trip. A happy and sad moment.

On entering Metro Manila, we had a quick meeting on the bus to decide where we’d be getting off. Some would be getting off sooner, while the others had to get off much further away. We decided since we were all hungry that we’d all stop at McDonald’s at Quezon Avenue to recharge before going our separate ways. After struggling with our heavy bags, navigating the no-walk zones, the pedestrian lanes, and the foot bridges, we found us a nice long table where we could lay down our cargo and relax a bit with our civilized burgers, a far cry from the delicious meals we had in our travels, but it was nonetheless nice to be able to bite into a McDonald’s McChicken again.

The original plan in 2009, as overlayed on a map of Luzon

Trip Details:

• 7 Days – 1 day in Hundred Islands, 2 days in Vigan, 3 days in Pagudpud, and 1 day in Laoag.

• Feb. 21 (night) – Depart from Manila
• Feb. 22 – A day in Hundred Islands
• Feb. 23 – Travel day to Vigan, nighttime relaxation
• Feb. 24 – Vigan tour
• Feb. 25 – Trip to Pagudpud
• Feb. 26 – Pagudpud tour
• Feb. 27 – Go to Laoag, take in the sights
• Feb. 28 – Going home

• Total budget per person inclusive of travel and lodging and BBQs and halo-halo and empanadas – roughly P8,000

• Average number of halo-halo eaten: 6
• Things Jeff dropped (but recovered): sunglasses in Dagupan, wallet in Vigan
• Distance travelled: MNL-Alaminos (182km), Alaminos-Vigan (250km), Vigan-Pagudpud (208km), Pagudpud-Laoag-MNL (615km) = 1,255km total.

Tripod curls using a heavy-duty tripod

As I mentioned last time, in a few days me and my buddies are off to our Northern Exposure trip. Since we’ll be travelling by bus, we’re going to be foregoing the luxury of trunk space and instead we’ll have to rely on our backs to carry all our luggage.

It’s important nowadays for photographer’s to stay in shape. This isn’t only for outdoor photographers to keep up with the rigors of on-location work, but also for studio photographer’s who might find it easy to just kick back and relax in the comfort of your studio. Fortunately, you can do these exercises without having to go to the gym and using equipment you might already have.

Disclaimer: I am a photographer, not a trainer. Do these exercises after consulting with your doctor or trainer.

Read on to start getting in shape.

For all the exercises below, I recommend going through them all with little or no break in-between. After going through the circuit, have a 2-minute break before repeating the circuit. Doing this, your body will warm up and burn more calories at a more explosive rate. While you will want to use heavier tripods/lightstands as weights, the general rule is to use weights as close or a bit heavier than the gear you’ll be carrying on your trip. Do this every other day or 3-4 times a week. And do the Brisk Weighted-Walking (see below) in betweens.

Crossover stepups to train your legs for uneven terrain

Crossover Stepups

When you’re traveling on foot, your going to have to give your lower body a lot of prerparation. Find a bench, stool, or in my case, a small trash can, or any other stable platform you can step on. Grab two light stands and hang them to your sides. Heavy studio-light light stands are best. Stand to the right of the bench/stool/trashcan and step on it with your right foot. Elevate yourself smoothly. Straighten your right leg but keep your left foot hanging. Step down by reversing the motion. Repeat this for around 8-10 reps for each leg.

Squats

Find a nearby wall, grab a medicine ball and put it between the wall and the small of your back. With your feet square with your shoulder extend your arms forward. Slowly squat down and then come back up. As an alternative to the medicine ball, you can grab a heavy-tripod or even your whole stand bag (containing your tripod and/or lightstands of course), hold it behind your head, and do the squats. Do 6-8 reps.

Tripod curls using a heavy-duty tripod

Tripod Curls

It’s equally important to keep your arms in shape, for those times when you’re going to be doing some lifting of your baggages getting on and off the bus. Find a chair to sit on, and with your tripod (preferably steel, carbon fiber tripods are too light. And you had better not be using those cheap aluminum tripods, for exercise nor for shooting!). Make sure you hold the tripod where it’s balanced in your hand. Start by letting your arm hang loose straight down then curl your biceps upwards. Do 6-8 reps per arm.

Camera Speed Twist

Hold your camera with both hands just in front of your chest and sit on the floor with your knees bent. Heavier cameras are best, which means no Nikon D40/50/60/5000 or Canon 350D/400D/450Ds. Raise your feet off the ground. Twist your body and cmaera to your right, then to the left, while maintaining your back-position and feet off the floor. Do 8-10 reps.

Other Exercises

Some other exercises you may want to include into the circuit.

Push-Ups

Chin-Ups/Pull-Ups – If you’re background stand can handle your weight, you can use that for chin-ups or pull-ups

Remember to go through the circuit with little or no break, and pause for 2-minutes before doing the circuit again.

Brisk weighted-walking to quickly build up stamina

Brisk Weighted-Walking

On days when you’re not doing the above circuit of exercises, go for a brisk walk around the block. With a fully-loaded light-stand/tripod bag, sling it over your shoulder. Walk briskly for a minimum of 30 minutes. The heavy load on your back should help you gain stamina quickly. Note, however, that this is not recommended for jogging or running because the weight would be an additional strain to your knees and ankles and could result in injury.

Conclusion

So there you have it, an exercise circuit that will quickly get you ready for your trip. You should start noticing results after 2-4 weeks of doing this.

I’d love to hear your opinions on these exercises, and especially your experiences after going through them. Hit the comments!

Front view of the Square Shooter 2

One good thing that came out of my flood experience, was that during the cleanup, one of the things from my grandma’s stuff that was washed out of her closet was a Polaroid Land Camera Square Shooter 2! It was a nifty little camera. I don’t know if it still works. When I got it, it was quite covered in mud. Upon opening the film chamber, the inside didn’t seem like any water seeped in. It was a bit dusty, as most old stuff do, but otherwise it was spic and span. The type-88 film that’s used for it has been out of production for quite some time now so unfortunately, I won’t be able to shoot with this thing any time soon. I’m considering getting one from PolaPremium or from The Impossible Project once their films roll out next year.

Polaroid Square Shooter 2 Land Camera

For those of you who don’t know yet, the Polaroid Corporation went bankrupt taking along the production of their films. Florian Kaps, an Austrian photographer rented out the Polaroid factory and equipment and is developing a new type of film for Polaroid cameras which will roll out by next year. You can read up about it in Wikipedia or from The Impossible Project website.