My First Official Photoshoot

With my new Canon 40D in tow, I joined a group of photography enthusiasts (primarily from the Filipino on-line community Timog Forum) in an outdoor photoshoot. The venue: the forest and man-made falls in Tokuma, Yamanashi Prefecture – by the mountain range that proudly holds Mt. Fuji as a brother.

It was a tranquil place filled with lush greens and clear waters, a showcase of how Japan takes great care of its natural treasures. Undeniably, it was the perfect place to train ones hands in the challenge of capturing on lens the captivating beauty that the Great Provider has showered the earth.

But aside from nature shots, we also had the opportunity to take portraits of the members of the community who gamely undressed (opps!)/dressed up for the photographers, who pursued them as hungry parazzi would hound celebrities.

The newbie that I was, I tried as much as I could to learn from the Canonites (note: there was fierce competition with the Nikon-jins!). At the end of the day, I thought I already had great shots, good enough for my camera’s baptism of fire.

But transferring the photos to my laptop turned out to be a ”nye!” moment.

Disappointingly, the pictures didn’t look as good as they were on the camera screen. The images were smoky and the colors diluted.

Verdict? Some of my point-and-shoot outputs seemed better, he he he.

I really have yet to learn more on this stuff called real photography.

(Happy Note: I also met bloggers Scion and Totomai during the photoshoot-cum-excursion-cum-eyeball.)