Shutterbugs interested in taking on some competition will be delighted to know that Canon is hosting the national leg of its PhotoMarathon competition both for amateurs and professionals this coming Saturday, November 8 at the High Street of Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

The Canon PhotoMarathon is an on-the-spot photography competition designed to push the participants’ creativity by letting them capture photos following a theme under time pressure. The competition is already on its ninth year. Participants will be divided into two groups based on their equipment – Point & Shoot and ILC categories. All entries will be judged by the Canon Crusaders of Light.

Winning entry for 2014 Photomarathon University for the Point & Shoot Category by Agatha Albano. Taken with a Canon Powershot SX80. 

Winning entry for 2014 Photomarathon University for the Digital Camera with Interchangeable Lenses Category by Raymond Paredes. Taken with a Canon EOS 60D.

Over three thousand amateur and professional photographers are expected to join the event. Canon will be awarding major prizes to the winning participants. For the Point & Shoot category, Canon will be giving away a Canon EOS 700D, a dual-arm Foto Crane from Steady Tracker, a BlackRapid camera strap, a 32GB Wi-Fi SD card from Transcend and 1 international round trip ticket from Cebu Pacific.

On the other hand, those who will be joining the Interchangeable Lens category will have the chance to win a Canon EOS 7D Mark II, a dual-arm Foto Crane from Steady Tracker, a BlackRapid camera strap, a 1TB Wi-Fi SD card from Transcend and again 1 international round trip ticket from Cebu Pacific.

Winning entry for the 2013 Canon Photomarathon Philippines for the Point & Shoot Category by Luis Alexander. Taken with a Canon Powershot S110.

Winning entry for the 2013 Canon Photomarathon Philippines for the Cameras with Interchangeable lens category by Maricris Carlos. Taken with a Canon EOS 1000D.

The event will start as early as 8AM, so those interested in joining the event should adjust their alarm clocks accordingly. Moreover, Canon will also be holding a special sale in High Street from November 7 to November 9 to cater to photography enthusiasts looking to get some new gear.

For more information and updates about the Canon PhotoMarathon, you can visit the event’s website of Canon’s Facebook page using this link.

For most people, joining a group or organization can bring them joy and fulfilment by gaining some sense of acceptance and belongingness. But aside from the privilege of being in a group, there are some organizations and communities that also provide an opportunity for its members to showcase and improve their talents at the same time.

However, such groups are not always accessible to many people due to a number of different things. It can either be because these groups ask their members to pay a premium for membership, or it could be that such organizations could have some sort of restrictions or there’s also a possibility that natural challenges such as location and time that’s preventing people from joining these communities.

Location was also the reason why a certain group of photographers from the province of Batangas decided to form their own club to cater to the needs of people with the same hobby as theirs. The group was conceived by Raymond Guevarra when he realized that there aren’t many groups in Batangas that provides the opportunity to practice their passion for photography. And hence, Click Batangas Digital Photography Club was born.

Click Batangas was founded on June 2012 and initially was created of providing a way for aspiring photographers living in the province – both professionals and amateurs, to develop their skills and improve their craft by collaborating with other members of the group. The group was co-founded by Raymond Baradas, Jeffrey Javina, Victor Jose Luna and his wife Minky Avel-Luna. This number eventually grew through word of mouth and through the founding members’ joint effort in promoting the club’s endeavours in popular social networking site – Facebook.

From the initial 5 founding members, the club’s following now grew to more than 130 followers on Facebook alone. And from two volunteer models during their first event, their photo-shoots and photowalks now feature a number additional models and sizeable increase in the number of photographers.

Guevara, as well as the other administrators of the group admit that there were several challenges they had to face in order to keep the club afloat and functioning during its first few months such as coordination among members, models and makeup artists and of course the logistics of setting up a photo-shoot in different areas of Batangas. However, they say that it’s their dedication to the craft that is continuously pushing them to improve themselves and the organization to further meet the needs of its members.

At present, Click Batangas Digital Photography Club is open to anyone with the passion for photography. The only requirement they ask from people who want to join their organization is that they should regularly attend the club’s monthly events and of course they should at the very least have a point and shoot digital camera.

As members of the club, a person will have the opportunity to collaborate with other photography enthusiasts. The group is open for questions about photography and will help its members to find gadgets and accessories they need or want. Their Facebook page also acts as a market place where people can lend, borrow, sell or buy photography-related things such as lenses, batteries, reflectors and tripods.

 

According to its founder, their dream is to expand the group and build the “Click” brand to different provinces all over the country (e.g. Click Manila, Click Cavite, Click Laguna, etc.) and thereby creating a network of communities united with their passion for photography.

If you have any questions about the group or would want to contact them for whatever reason, you can drop by their Facebook Page for more information.

A few hours ago popular photo-sharing program and social network Instagram announced that they’ll be rolling out Instagram profiles on the web in a few days. This web profile will feature a selection of recently shared photographs. It will also show your profile photo and your bio and will give others a quick view of the photos you share on the network. Users will also have the ability to follow users, comment and like photos and edit their profiles easily and directly from the web.

Having said this, you must be pumped up after hearing that Instagram will now have a web version right? Well, to help you guys out to improve your photos on your profile, I’ve collected several apps that will definitely spruce up the photos that you will be taking with your smartphones.

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InstaCollage – Available for iOS devices, IntaCollage helps you combine multiple shots into one framed picture with caption. The app was developed by Mobile Click and features 17 irregular layouts, 46 adjustable regular layouts, 38 style of borders, 18 photo effects that can be applied to individual photos, 90 stickers and 40 fonts.

It can be downloaded for free on iTunes with a pro version priced at $0.99

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InstaPicFrame – Another iOS app, InstaPicFrame features 42 adjustable layouts, 46 border styles, 12 photo effects, 4 unique text effects and 100+ system fonts that are fully adjustable in terms of size, color, and border width. The app has a free version and a pro version that costs $0.99.

It also features easy sharing on various social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

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InstaEditor – For a limited time, this app is available for free on Apple’s iTunes. The app features a nifty one-tap magical enhance filter that corrects and adjust brightness, saturation and contrast levels. There are also settings for adjusting orientation and sharpness. A crop feature as well as red-eye removal, whiten and blemish features.

InsaEditor also sports support for stickers, drawing on top of the image and the addition of text. Ten photoeffects are also available at the user’s disposal to help improve and personalize photos.

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InstaEffect FX – Another free app for iOS users is InstaEffect FX. With over 70 cool photo effects to choose from and the ability to layer these photo effects, this app provides a very convenient way of providing a semi-professional look to user’s photos. InstaEffect FX also allows for adjustments in an image’s opacity and brightness.

Users can also rotate, move, scale and flip images as well as add erase and draw effects. An undo and redo function is also available which gives users flexibility when editing their photographs. Sharing images to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr is also made very convenient with dedicated sharing functionality.

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InstaFonts – For those looking for a more professional looking font to caption your photos, you can purchase InstaFonts on iTunes for $0.99 (for a limited time only). The app sports a collection of 38 fonts with 35 colors and 51 textures that you can mix and match for a unique look.

Users can scale, rotate and control the text’s opacity as well as its orientation.

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InstaCap – Droid users aren’t left out. Instacap is an app developed for Android that lets users add captions to their photos. It’s currently free on the Google Play store and features 300 random hilarious captions as well as custom captions you can readily put into your photos.

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Photo Collage – Photo Collage is another free app for Android to help improve your photos before you upload them to Instagram. As the name implies, this app makes a collage of your photos which you can customize with a number of styles, backgrounds, borders and templates.

Aside from the easy sharing of photos on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr, a nifty feature of this app is the shake functionality that allows users to easily change the photo template by merely shaking the device.

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So there you have it. Which app do you have in your device? Or which app are you planning to download? Tell us by leaving a comment below. Also, don’t forget to add TFL on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google Plus or subscribe to our blog for more Filipino Lifestyle stories. Till next time everyone!

For most people, the word photographer would usually conjure up images of a person clutching a fully loaded DSLR camera and a bag full of camera accessories. But rapid improvements in the tech industry have changed all that. Smaller, thinner yet more powerful image sensors can now be fitted in small form factor devices such as media players and mobile phones; and hence, gave rise to a new form of photography – mobile photography.

And today, we are featuring one of its practitioners – 23-year old, Reinald Daguio.

Reinald comes from Bacarra, a small town in Ilocos Norte where he has practised the art of taking pictures using his very handy mobile phone. According to Reinald, he started using mobile phones as a tool for taking pictures, around two years ago.

His weapon of choice is Samsung’s entry level droid – the Samsung Galaxy Y. He also says the he uses different apps to add image filters and enhancements to the photos that he takes. But before that, he says, he used to practise on other older phone models from Nokia and even Motorola.

Furthermore, he also adds that even though he owns a Canon digicam, he still prefers using his very handy Galaxy Y since it’s more convenient to carry around and it’s always there when the perfect scene comes along.

When it comes to his area of expertise, he says that he likes taking pictures of beautiful things in nature. However, he would also like to venture into portrait photography in the future. And for this, he aspires to own a decent DSLR camera in the future.

Here are some of Reinald’s works, which you can also find in his blog.

Our world is filled with artists. Reinald is one of those, who have proven that when it comes to art, equipment and technical know-how aren’t all that matters but the vision. 

                “Photography is Fun, do it as often as you can”

A boom in the number of amateur and sub-professional photographers was seen recently due to advances in the field of camera making and digital photography. This allowed ordinary people to experience taking professional looking photos without the need to buy super expensive equipment and advanced know how in photography.

Raymond Guevarra is one such individual. We sat down with Raymond and asked him about a few things that other photography enthusiast might find useful. Here’s the gist of our discussion.

Raymond comes from a humble town in Sto. Tomas, Batangas. Although a nurse by profession, his first love was art and photography. At a young age, Raymond was already joining art and drawing contests in school and has always had an affinity with subjects related to arts and creativity.

His love for photography and the arts didn’t end in teenage years. In fact, in blossomed even more during his college days. He recalls organizing photo shoots and joining photo contests with college buddies who share the same passion on photography. With his former classmates as photo shoot subjects and a DSLR camera borrowed from friends, Raymond was able to sharpen his eye for detail and widen his perspective as a young aspiring photographer.

After college, he saved some money and got himself an entry level Sony α DSLR camera. Although he practiced nursing right after college, his love for photography didn’t completely take a back seat in his life. During his day offs, he still practiced taking shots of people around him (like his friends and workmates) which paved the way for his discovery that he has a knack for taking portraits.

At present, he is an active member of several photography groups and clubs that do photo-shoots and art exhibits. And just recently, he, together with some other photographers in Batangas, created Click Batangas Digital Photography club. And as one of the co-founders of the club, he is partly responsible for some of the club’s activities such as organizing photo ops, choosing the location, contacting models and communication for the entire organization.

Here are some of Raymond’s works.

Although his expertise is in portrait photography, Raymond still aspires to know a little bit of everything.

When asked if he has any tips to give to people who want to have that perfect portrait shot, he says that it’s always important to make a connection to your subject and that practice is the key to success. He advises aspiring portrait photographers to learn by reading online and magazine tutorials, taking series of shots, thinking out of the box, altering one’s perspective and experimenting with lighting. But most of all, he encourages newbies to just be prepared for each shot.

Lastly, we asked him if he could leave an inspiring message to people who want to pursue a career in photography, and here’s what he has to say:

If you like Raymond’s work, he offers photography services such as prenup photo-shoots and other special events. You can contact him through email, using his Facebook account or at 09186965181. 

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