Published in Digital Photographer Philippines!

Good news to myself for Monday - I got my copy of Digital Photographer Philippines #9 and 2 of my photos got published in the Readers' Gallery! They featured Philippine Festivals for this month, and fortunately, they picked 2 of my photos from the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo! Woohoo!!! I am so happy! =)

Thank you, DPP (Nino, Nick, Pilar)!

Go grab your copies of this fabulous magazine to see my photos. Of course, the best things to see in the magazine (aside from the photos, of course), are my personal photo and write-up. I still laugh at myself for writing that down and submitting it! Hahaha!

The latest issue (pictured here) should be out in newstands later this week.

Here are the photos that were published (click to see the full version):

Lorenz & Vaneza - Prenup Shots

In case you want to see some pre-nup shots of Lorenz and Vaneza, here are some links from their photographer - Joel Francisco:

• Prenup photos
• Joel Francisco Photography
• Joel Francisco's Blog

Photo courtesy of Joel Francisco

Lorenz & Vaneza

February 24, 2007
Santuario de San Jose, East Greenhills
Oasis, San Juan

To Lorenz and Vaneza, congratulations and best wishes! Some of the pictures I took (click to get the full version):

Lightroom 1.0 is here!

At last - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 is finally shipping! I downloaded a 30-day trial yesterday to try out the new features.

Here is a summary of my experience with Lightroom 1.0:

• It took a little over an hour to upgrade my current library to the new one. My Lightroom Library was around 30GB in a firewire disk so I guess that explained it. Had to be patient when the process below was taking place.

• Considering the amount of pictures I have, I can say that the application is excellent in handling files/folders for organizing your photos.

• When it was over, I had around 3,000 photos with missing links (across 10 albums/folders). It took me around 20 minutes to get all links back together.

• My Beta 4 Develop Presets are also gone! Don't know how to get them back. I gotta look for articles to get those back!
  

• I noticed that it took some time to render pictures and I feel that the beta 4 was a bit faster. But maybe it was because the thumbnails were there already.

• 1.0 has a lot of improvements in the Web Module. There are lots of templates to choose from and they render fast!
  

One thing that still bugs me is this option under the view menu: 'Enable Mirror Image'. I don't know what it is used for! When I enabled it, all my images are flipped. Maybe I just have not thought of a use for it yet.

An improvement for the application that should come out in the next version is support for dual monitors. I think this is a must considering that photographers need the extra viewing property for large photos.

If you want to try Lightroom 1.0 now, you may download them from the Adobe Lightroom Site.

Get Well Soon, Ekky!

Hey Ekky, get well soon! Glad the operation went well...I'm waiting for you here in the hospital room and I thought I'd surprise you with a blog entry! :) hehehe!

From Hoops & Yoyo: "Get Welllll Soooooooooooooon!!!!!!!"

image courtesy of hoopsandyoyo.com

Flicker Flash Slideshow!

A nice way to share your Flickr photos to your website or blog - use Flash slideshow! Here's an example of a slideshow from my latest uploaded photos...

- Mike Lao's Flickr -

You can view instructions at this page.

It's Time - Jordan XX2

Teaser for the new Jordan XX2 Basketball shoe courtesy of jumpman23.com...

IT'S TIME 02/17/07

Melo: Going Vegas for All Star 07! (Updated)

Melo - Not an All Star in 07

Ugh - can't believe it. Melo didn't make it to the NBA All-Star this year. As the NBA's leading scorer, I think that would have increased his chances this year. Of course, we all know that the West has a lot of powerful forwards, and maybe that's why it's tough for him to be picked. But maybe the fact that he was in a brawl this year was a big factor on why he didn't make it.

Oh well, there's always next year, Melo! Just prove everyone wrong by leading your team deep into playoffs this year, or even to the Finals!

ESPN story: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/allstar2007/news/story?id=2751331
Image courtesy of nba.com

Update: 2/10/2007
Melo and Howard were named as reserves by NBA Commissioner David Stern. Woo hoo!!! They will both play in their first ever ASG!

Good luck, Melo!

NBA.com story: http://www.nba.com/allstar2007/allstar_game/injury_070209.html

iPod Shuffles - Put some color on!

Apple released multi-colored iPod Shuffles today. Colors are pink, green, blue and orange.


(Image courtesy of apple.com)

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v1.0 is here!

My heart stopped for a few seconds when I opened Scott Kelby's blog and saw that version 1.0 of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has been announced. To be honest, I have not been excited about a software launch ever except for this one!

Some of my favorite new features are:

• stacking of similar pictures together
• tools for removing spots/dust from photos
• having virtual copies of a photo

One thing that I have not seen yet is the dual monitor support (like Aperture). We'll see if they will have this in the future versions.

Some links you might want to check out:

• NAPP's Photoshop Lightroom Learning Center
• Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom Site
• Scott Kelby's Top 10 favorite features since the beta
  
• Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips
• Darkroom Magazine

Dinagyang 2007 - Hala Bira!

January 28. 2007
Iloilo City

Posting my shots from the Dinagyang 2007 festival at Iloilo...had to switch lenses several times, but I ended up using my new 85mm lens for most of the shots. It was a fun experience (despite the heat), and I got to meet a lot of fellow photographers. See you guys next year!









And, here's a picture of me, Michael, Arnel, Jake and Malvar... (from Jake's flickr)



More pictures to follow...

My New Lens - 85mm!

I finally bought a new lens last Friday! It's the Canon 85mm f/1.8. Here are some pictures courtesy of www.photozone.de. I couldn't afford the f/1.2 L version, so I just got this. Can't wait to shoot Dinagyang this weekend with this lens. Keep you posted on the photos I will get!


Btw - small world. I bought this lens from a fellow Ilonggo who also graduated from Sta. Maria, same high school I went to!

Mike Pangs & Pia's On-site Video

Sorry for the late post.

I actually saw this link a couple of weeks ago from Jason Magbanua's website. This is one of those videos that really captured the emotions of Mike & Pia during their wedding, and I'm sure everyone who saw the video during the wedding was touched by this. Enjoy the movie!

Links:

Jason's blog entry for December

Mike & Pia's on-site video: http://myweddingvid.com/videos/pia_michael.wmv

World Pyro Olympics - Team Philippines

World Pyro Olympics 2007
Jan 13, 2007

More pictures from last weekend's shoot. Click on the pictures to see a higher resolution version of the pictures. Also posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_lao

Ekky - thanks for being there and enduring our trip to Hidalgo for me to get the Canon Remote Switch! Hahaha!

Enjoy!

World Pyro Olympics - Team China

World Pyro Olympics 2007
Jan 13, 2007

My first ever successful fireworks shoot! It was pretty scary at first because I wasn't sure if I was prepared to shoot fireworks. Thanks to the people I met on site - Mon, Lloyd and Lino, I got to compare shots with them. Thanks to Tep for lending me his tripod. Tep - you need to have a ballhead! :)

Click on the pictures to see a higher resolution version of the pictures.
Also posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_lao

Enjoy!

Pet & Trixie

October 6, 2006
Christ the King
Le Souffle

Pet & Trixie, sorry for the late post. Enjoy the pictures!