Randy M. Santa-Ana: Photography

163/365: Winter Snow Fun!

randymsantaana — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:11:03 +0000

Danbo and Yotsuba racing down a snow slope for some Winter fun:

They are very daring, but I couldn’t imagine myself doing this stunt, LOL!

Quite a challenge composing this shot. I had to hide the fact that I removed Danbo’s legs so she and Yotsuba can fit the yellow cup.

I also had to resort to some “Photoshop Magic” to add that motion blur.

Hey, is that vignetting that I see? It’s been a long time that I added some vignetting in my images!

More to come; until the next time, have a nice day!

163/365: It’s A Snow White World!

randymsantaana — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:46:51 +0000

Danbo gets to show Yotsuba what snow looks like:

We had some overnight snow this morning. Winter has finally arrived in our neck of the woods!

Shooting images in the snow is quite challenging; all that white stuff confuses the camera’s metering, underexposing the image and making everything darker that it actually is and turning that snow white colour into grey.

What I do to get that real white snow colour is to use the Spot Metering of my camera.

I would meter off something that is not white, say, Danbo’s skin colour. That would then over-expose the scene a bit, turning what’s white into white. I then lock that exposure and shoot away.

I really love snow! Pity I have to shovel it off our driveway, because that chore makes me hate the white stuff sometimes.

More to come; until the next time, have a nice day!

161/365: Danbo & Yotsuba: Best Friends!

randymsantaana — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:27:23 +0000

My Danbo and my Yotsuba are fast becoming best buddies:

Not much to say after that!

More to come; until the next time, have a nice day!

160/365: Who’s Hiding Behind That Box?

randymsantaana — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:20:18 +0000

Curious Yotsuba wants to know how is hiding behind that big box mask:

I can tell you that there is someone there, but revealing who it is will have to wait until the very end!

More to come; until the next time, have a nice day!

159/365: Hello, I am Danbo! Hello, I am Yotsuba!

randymsantaana — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:09:56 +0000

Saying hello to the new girl in town:

Man, this Yotsuba figure sure is a cutie! I just love her colours! Her pink skin tone and green hair and white and red shirt is so appealing to me!

I am also loving this all white background that I have been employing in my recent set ups. It’s just my home-made light box with two desktop lamp positioned directly on top, with cool white CFL bulbs.

I am also loving the square format. It’s quite a challenge coming up with the right composition for a square.

Let’s see how long I can keep it up, though.

More to come; until the next time, have a nice day!

158/365: It’s Yotsuba Koiwai!

randymsantaana — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:16:03 +0000

Looks like Danbo has a new friend:

And what a totally cute friend indeed!

I can’t believe I only got this figure now; I should have gotten one when I first came to know about it.

For those who do not know, this is the character Yotsuba Koiwai from the Manga series “Yotsuba”.

She is in fact the main protagonist in that Manga series. Danbo is just a supporting character.

What I have here is the Revoltech version of Yotsuba:

The package arrived yesterday. I ordered it from an eBay store.

The one I got was the Summer Vacation version. This version has a lot more accessories than the first released version of the character:

Like I said before, I can’t believe I only got her just now. I should have gotten one when I first got my first Danbo:

I say that because after taking her out of the box and finally getting to inspect her, I find her totally darn cute!

Here’s proof:

Man, I can’t wait to see how she will fare in Danbo’s ongoing adventures!

I will try to do some more write up about her in the next following days. For now, I shall enjoy her cuteness!

More to come; until the next time, have a nice day!

157/365: Somebody New Wants To Join The Fun!

randymsantaana — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:42:53 +0000

Hey! Looks like somebody new came into town and wants to join in on the fun:

Who can it be? Is it who I think it is?

More to come; until the next time, have a nice day!

156/365: Dreaming Of The Perfect Photograph.

randymsantaana — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:19:48 +0000

If ever there would be a “perfect” photograph, then Danbo dreams of it:

Just a simple scene for me to showcase those 1/6 scale cameras that I scored more than a year ago. They are a perfect fit for Danbo.

If anyone is interested, I posted about it here.

Please don’t ask me where I got those cameras. Just read the blog post in the link.

More to come, until the next time, have a nice day!

155/365: Playtime With Yellow School Bus.

randymsantaana — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:00:39 +0000

I remembered finding this yellow school bus on sale at a bookstore. The first thought that came to mind was to get one for Danbo.

It’s funny how I sometimes find myself getting a toy for a toy.

On another note, I am finding myself using my home-made light box more often. I like the endless white background that I can achieve with this set up. Just two desktop lamps with cool white CFL bulbs pointed directly at the top of the scene. I used spot metering to meter off Danbo so that the white background would over-expose more.

One other thing was that I was puzzled by the huge number of views I got from my previous image. There was not a huge spike in the views on my Blog, so I am wondering what could have caused that. Oh well.

More to come; until the next time, have a nice day!

154/365: Have A Break.

randymsantaana — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:46:04 +0000

Nothing like a bar of our favourite chocolate to lift the spirits up:

Yikes, and nothing like ripping a popular commercial slogan!

I do love KitKat Wafer Bars. Had I not been watching my sugar intake, I probably would eat a box of them and more!

On another note, something funny happened earlier today. Somebody commented on one of my Flickr photos that it was not a real photo and was “rendered”. Huh? Tyrant that I am, the comment had to go.

More to come; until the next time, have a nice day!