It all began with a simple idea.
A group outing that actually has productive results.
The planning stage took roughly a week, reservations were made, and on November 18, 2006, their plans were realized.

It started on November 18, at around 7:30 AM when all four members of the team met up. The drive to the location included pit stops for refreshments and gasoline. On our way there, we discussed our objectives, and the means to accomplish our objectives. The drive took about 3 hours. Four good friends, three hours of driving, three hours of solid discussion, 8 cameras, countless rolls of film, a stack of filters, remotes, and tripods. We still felt that we were underequipped, but we didnt let this stop us, at no point in the trip did we have any regrets.

Upon arriving at the resort, we unpacked our things, checked into our rooms, and started to repack our equipment into more managable bags. We asked the receptionists if she knew of any places that had huge rocks to shoot, and we were directed to La Luz; a good twenty minute walk from our resort nick-named "La Luzer".

High noon greeted us with great amount of light and a subtle breeze that made Infrared Photography possible for the crew. The team traversed a good spread of rock and sand to find their best frames. We all confirmed that we had what we came for and we took the 20 minute hike back to our cottage for some lunch. We were welcomed with a buffet that was fit for a king. The hike had drained what was left of us, so we took a much needed rest and sorted out what we needed to do during the magical hour. We planned tediously the process of capturing Batangas in a way never been captured before. We did all of this while injecting doses of laughter into the conversation to lighten things when it got too heavy.

Crunch time was nearing, and we were eager to shoot. We started the 20 minute trek way before sunset and the magical hours. We finally arrive at our location, our tripods mounted, and our cable releases drawn. We shot to our hearts content while walking on jagged rocks. There were times when waves would creep up to our toes and tripod legs and remind us that this is as far as we can go. We respected the sea and the storm clouds that drew nearer. The long walk back to the cottage begins and then ends quickly. Once again, the crew was greeted by a scrumptuous meal. We ate quickly and started to chimp. We chimped a good 2 hours and we sounded like a bunch of school girls on prom night. We were excited. No... Excited is an understatement. The night ends with beer and a good sleep.

Sunday morning. Pre-sunset, roughly 4:15AM, Nino and I are early birds as we take that long walk towards the rocks and I almost stepped into trouble... literally. There was a camp site with dim fires, I thought the ground looked funny, I just never realized that in a recess in the ground, lied a fisherman still slumbering. Let me take time off to thank Nino for reminding me that it is not very nice to step on people, and on this case, literally.

Once again, tripods out, cable releases drawn, multiple minute exposures of the lovely sky. The other two Cowboys followed after a couple of minutes. We gathered at our spot again and this time, Nino and I were more daring as we went as far as we could during low tide until once again the water started to kiss our feet.

The long walk back had Randy itching for more shots. He shot the locals while on his way back to the cottage. The stay at Laiya ended after a nice dip (and a great nap for me) in the sea.

Mishaps, Cuts, Photos, Ordering info for Photos (Our shots look good... trust me, you might end up buying a few prints) will follow shortly.

Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Cheers.
-Nino Carandang, Lester Callanta, Randy Tamayo, Sonny Thakur.
The Exposure Cowboys

hmmm.. your group sounds too familiar to me.. i guess you were the 4 guys.. that were at balai sa laiya.. and a guy.. i think was nino carandang, who invited me to shoot with your group.. hahaha. such a small world.. if you were the group.. i hope you didn't mind me taking your photo..

i was just amazed with a group of photographers.. carrying their own tripods.. 2 cameras each.. and when you were walking away from where i was.. i suddenly had the urge to take a picture of your group.. =)

i was pretty sure that was nino.. because when i went to DPP office the other time with a friend who subscribed to DPP mag, i think it was nino who entertained my friend..

i think Philippines is becoming a small country for good photographers.. hahaha. just kidding!

cheers to all of you!

does DPP organize an event? like to a resort?

Nino Carandang, Lester Callanta, Randy Tamayo, Sonny Thakur.
The Exposure Cowboys

Naks what is this? a new collective? :Dum:

Alright! :) Sonny-Boy! :) Rock-on Dude!!! :) Now this I gotta see...

^^ Hey, how did my name end up here? :D

@Sonny
You failed to mention that we literally needed pitstops sans the pitstop crew so we had to change tires (several times) ourselves, not to mention running the wheels flat a few kilometers.

One note: When you are 140+ kilometers away from Manila, "near" has a meaning really closer to "far" than anything else.

@Princess,
We had a feeling you were part of this forum. I wished you had joined us. And why did you guys leave so soon? ;)

The journey back home.

After a very productive landscape shoot, we packed our stuff and tossed them into Nino's car. We noticed that a couple of birds had decided to deficate his vehicle. We're talking bird shit. Not just bird shit; bird shit from a bird with a fucking hemorhoid.

We all thought, hey... this trip was awesome, nothing went wrong and we're thankful. All of us were using rubber slippers while standing on jagged rocks, yet none of us slipped and cracked a skull. We figured that nothing could go wrong anymore, and just when we thought that, we hear a small explosion. Yes sir, we pop a tire. The manong from our resort said that we could get our tire's fixed at a vulcanizing station that was less than a kilometers walk from the entrace to Balai sa Laiya. We should have taken that with a grain of salt. The nearest vulcanizing shop happened to be at least 10 kilometers away. Nino and I ran with flat tires, and Randy and Lester walked the 10 kilometers.

We reach a small town in the heart of Laiya and meet Mang Gyver. The man fixed our tires using a cloth, some oil, and nails. Nails that he said would keep the problem at bay till at least the major town near by where we could have it fixed up for good. Well guess what? It lasted till Manila; back to the story, Nino and I start looking for Randy and Lester and we find them at a convinience store, how convinient, yes, pun intended.

Couple more stops on our way home, including a McDonalds, and a couple of gas stations to check and maintain tire pressure. (The spare/Mang Gyvere'd tire didnt need to be filled up)

We proceed to Filinvest and leave Lester on his way. Great shooting with you mate.
On our way back to Manila, we had our tires changed (Brand new goodyear's) at a local store and it was amazing to see that Nino learned a thing or two about tires today. New tires, new pics, "Hey", we though, "Why not a car wash while we're at it?".

We stop by a small place where 15 men surrounded our car and washed it faster than you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. THAT fast.

Then we all learn the biggest lesson of our trip. Bird shit is acidic, as it left marks on Nino's car, but we figured that it had eaten through the dirt and brought out the car's original shine. This had prompted Niño to consider a complete wax job of his ride in the future.

We part ways, and that's that. We are currently post processing and we promise not to disappoint. Cheers!

Sonny

This is interesting sonny boy... :)

it will be a nice thread to watch out soon...Congrats Guys

can't wait...

i was pretty sure that was nino.. because when i went to DPP office the other time with a friend who subscribed to DPP mag, i think it was nino who entertained my friend..

does DPP organize an event? like to a resort?

That wasn't me. LOL That was Lester?? Seriously, I wonder what your friend describe me as. It might be also Nick that enterntained him/her. Wish you joined us though. We kept going back and forth to La Luz from La Luzer just to take the shots. I think we had around 3 trips to that area.

DPP organized event? That sounds like a good idea. But our misadventures were all organized by us. Randy and I always wanted to hit the beach since October of last year. I just can't believe it took 1 year and 1 month for it to materialize.

To Jay: You were always in our hearts during the trip. With or without alcohol.

Lester: Room Number 2.

To Rands: Thanks pare. :Grin:

Photos... photos please... ;-)

^^ Hey, how did my name end up here? :D

@Sonny
You failed to mention that we literally needed pitstops sans the pitstop crew so we had to change tires (several times) ourselves, not to mention running the wheels flat a few kilometers.

One note: When you are 140+ kilometers away from Manila, "near" has a meaning really closer to "far" than anything else.

@Princess,
We had a feeling you were part of this forum. I wished you had joined us. And why did you guys leave so soon? ;)
========



>> randy>> i wanted to join but we were getting ready to leave. tsk! the group was there since friday lunchtime.. i woke up around 5am to take some photos of the sunrise.. would post them once i decipher how to post them.. hahaha.

That wasn't me. LOL That was Lester?? Seriously, I wonder what your friend describe me as. It might be also Nick that enterntained him/her. Wish you joined us though. We kept going back and forth to La Luz from La Luzer just to take the shots. I think we had around 3 trips to that area.

DPP organized event? That sounds like a good idea. But our misadventures were all organized by us. Randy and I always wanted to hit the beach since October of last year. I just can't believe it took 1 year and 1 month for it to materialize.

To Jay: You were always in our hearts during the trip. With or without alcohol.

Lester: Room Number 2.

To Rands: Thanks pare. :Grin:

there you go.. the first picture of this thread.. hahaha. =)
after seeing these guys carrying heavy duty cameras.. i got excited and took their
picture..

would post more.. =)

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/3374/groupphotographers1yi3.jpg

Hi Princess, can you resize it to a wee bit smaller photo? It makes our browsers go really wide.

@Princess: You should have joined us at the rocks. We had a blast there.
@Niño: 17-30 2.8 :)

let sonny do the honors of posting the first photo. i cant post my pics, coz i have to develop it pa.

les: 17-30, ti 2.8 mo ba?

Sonny! Sonny! Sonny! Sonny! Sonny! :Grin:

hehehe :) im excited to see the results

nino!

am i the jay you are referring to? why??!! hehehe...

the 17-30 ti 2.8 oh so rocks!!! :D

Just got back from the lab. Here's my first shot.
Tri-X pushed 4 stops.
Long exposure with film

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o60/sthakurphotography/IRTEST.jpg
Note: Work in progress. Still adjusting curves.

COOL! film pa talaga ha :) astig!

would this shot 1 or 2 stops lower look like ansel adams '?


Just got back from the lab. Here's my first shot.
Tri-X pushed 4 stops.
Long exposure with film

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o60/sthakurphotography/IRTEST.jpg
Note: Work in progress. Still adjusting curves.

COOL! film pa talaga ha :) astig!

would this shot 1 or 2 stops lower look like ansel adams '?

sonny did shoot a lot of film. thanks to edwin. :)
since we just arrived late yesterday, i'll post my few shots later today. :Grin:

les: 17-30, ti 2.8 mo ba?

Oh yeah. Heard it was quite sharp wide open :Grin:

I'll bite:

http://www.randytamayo.com/blogger/laiya/otherworldb.jpg
In another world.

Note: The sunburn I got from that mid-day-blistering-heat-smog-free-clear-blue-laiya-skies still stings like crazy. Sunblock is usually applied BEFORE going out in the sun, NOT after.

you got me in the square format.

Just got back from the lab. Here's my first shot.
Tri-X pushed 4 stops.
Long exposure with film

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o60/sthakurphotography/IRTEST.jpg
Note: Work in progress. Still adjusting curves.


all i can say is wow~ nice shot sonny!

i really hoped i joined you guys.. ~ tsk tsk tsk.. :Sick:

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9647/groupphotographers2ec1.jpg


i hope this time it didn't make everybody's screen go wide... =)
exposure cowboys.. pictures please.. hahaha. =)

cheers to all!

Here is one more:

http://www.randytamayo.com/blogger/laiya/closeddoor.jpg
Behind the closed door.

Nice 6x6 randy ;)

Here's mine:

http://homepage.mac.com/lestercallanta/8316.jpg

Here's mine:

http://homepage.mac.com/lestercallanta/8316.jpg

This is beautiful. I love the transition in the light, the colors, and the predominance of parallel lines.

Hi Sonny,

I would just like to know the reason why you opted to have 4 stop push? With film, the rule of thumb is to only push 1 stop, anything beyond this, you loose some details already. Were you using the ISO 400 film from Kodak given at Studio 58? Hope you can still recover some of the details lost in your photo. Did you use a light meter? It looks like it was overexposed. Until then. Best Regards. I would appreciate receiving a reply only from you to avoid any fireworks here.

Eric,

I love experimenting :)
I was going for the almost-IR look.
Used film that was given to me by a friend. Also used the built in meter of my Canon A1. It is slightly over exposed but I can still salvage it using PS. Im actually working on it now, together with my other shots from the trip.

I would appreciate receiving a reply only from you to avoid any fireworks here.

Don't worry, you won't get shot at in this thread. :Grin:

Here's mine. I'm still editing my 6x6 photos. All BW. I don't like shooting colored anymore. A personal preference. Cheers! :D

Title: Patience
http://www.ncarandang.com/exc30.jpg


Title: Sonny
http://www.ncarandang.com/exc72.jpg

Here's mine. I'm still editing my 6x6 photos. All BW. I don't like shooting colored anymore. A personal preference. Cheers! :D

Title: Patience
http://www.ncarandang.com/exc30.jpg



Great shot Nino! Was this taken with film? Nice highlight details especially on the clouds. Exposure details please. :Dum:

Didn't shoot that in film. I used my Mark II for that. :)
EXIF Details
Shutter Speed: 30 seconds
Aperture: f22
Focal Length: 16mm
ISO: 50
Filter: ND4 77mm (which we all shared coz we only had one)

@Giovanni: Thanks. Think I even caught a shooting star there if you see the white streak line on top of the moon to its right.

And here's my silhouette shot of Sonny:

http://homepage.mac.com/lestercallanta/8303.jpg

Serenity:

http://static.flickr.com/111/302343619_c07eb8b7a9_o.jpg

Serenity:

http://static.flickr.com/111/302343619_c07eb8b7a9_o.jpg

Excellent capture Sonny. Excellent shadow detail especially on the mountains in the background. Did you shoot this with Velvia?

Serenity:

http://static.flickr.com/111/302343619_c07eb8b7a9_o.jpg

hi sonny.. i love your shot here.. can you give us the details? was it with film?

oh, i noticed that your favorite human subject was sonny.. =)

nice day to all!


cez

Bernard and Princess,

Details are
Nikon D70s
18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 at 18mm
f22
30sec

Thank you for looking.

He was our favorite human subject. He worked hard to take the shot, he located himself as far as he can go. So we took a lot of him during this time.

@Sonny
I love that SERENITY shot, you have a killer there!


@Nins
You were cheating - using ISO 50 and ND4, hahaha!!!!

Here is one more:

http://www.randytamayo.com/blogger/laiya/rockface.jpg
Rock Face.

Thanks Randy!
Post that group shot so people will see the faces behind the viewfinders :D

@Randy: Just saw your panoramic sunset pic at fredmiranda (http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/476594) and it's been getting glowing reviews :)

@Nins
You were cheating - using ISO 50 and ND4, hahaha!!!!


It's not my fault that was built in my camera. You also had the ND4. Now I need an ND8. The ND4 is not enough.

http://static.flickr.com/105/302696999_64137b0cae.jpg

The guys were leaving already while I was taking this shot. They were shouting for me to call it a day already :P

I like that one, Sonny... Ethereal... Horizon tilting a little, no?

David,

Whoops! Uploaded the wrong version :">

Here is another shot:
http://www.randytamayo.com/blogger/laiya/hut.jpg
Hut

And here's another one:

http://homepage.mac.com/lestercallanta/8300.jpg

Nice shoot guys.

I'm gonna back there for certain, this time armed with more gear :)

One more:
http://www.randytamayo.com/blogger/laiya/sunset4.jpg

Wow wow wow! Sir Randy, the last one is a dream! How I wish I was with you guys. :)

Sorry, forgot to give my comments. I fell in love with this photo because it is so much alive. The colors are jumping all over my monitor. The water looks like molten fire backdropped by a blazing sky. Superb composition. I am in awe.

@Lestercallanta - nice job with this photo
http://homepage.mac.com/lestercallanta/8300.jpg

amazing shots guys! :)

Nino, I love the clouds in Patience :)

@Sonny,

Good to know that you are now experimenting with film. Your Serenity shot is also captivating. Did you use a blue filter or edited it using photoshop? Canon A-1 is a nice camera, similar to FM2 of Nikon. What lens did you use?

@ Nino,

Thanks for your moral support. Hope to see you guys at Bella Luce soon hopefully next week just in case I get to be chosen as one of the lucky ones to shoot those five (5) beautiful women.

I also enjoy shooting landscapes, it reminds me of my monastic stay at the highlands of Malaybalay in Bukidnon.

@ Nino,

Thanks for your moral support. Hope to see you guys at Bella Luce soon hopefully next week just in case I get to be chosen as one of the lucky ones to shoot those five (5) beautiful women.


Join us in our next outing.

Eric,

I shot RAW and just played with my white balance setting. Nothing too fancy really, the exposure does seem a bit overexposed, but I think in a shot like that, it helps the image more than subtract from it. A-1 with a 50mm f/1.4. Looking for something like the 14mmF/2.8L, 17mmF/2.8 or the 20mmF/2.8

And here's another one:

http://homepage.mac.com/lestercallanta/8300.jpg





got lost of track of this thread.. anyways..
i LOVE the mixture of colors in this shot..
hoping to see more!~ =)

i agree, cez.

just joining this thread...

i want an ND filter too... cant afford it so... PS na lang