Steve Murphy Photography

Angel's Debut Party

2021-02-27T21:50:00.001-06:00

See the entire gallery here.

Here in the P.I., a girl's 18th birthday is a Big Deal. A coming-out, it's called a Debut Party and the girl is the Debutante. For boys, it is their 21st. This night was all about Angel.

We were invited by Angel's mother, Carmela (Elay, pronounced ELL-eye). You might remember Elay from a year ago when we were doing the Taal volcano refugee relief effort.

We had to park a couple blocks away but ended up in front of the house Joelet used to live in. The street urchins quickly gathered around because a foreigner in these parts - especially a white foreigner - is a rarity, a curiosity. I snapped a shot of them after we got out of the truck:

When we arrived at the venue (Pines & Palms - FB Link), the music was too loud for me (ears & hearing not quite what they used to be), so I hoofed it back to the truck to get my ear plugs. Right away, there were my street buddies peppering me with questions, asking my name. I said let's get another pic, they included a neighbor girl as well:

These things are called tricycles/trikes. They are a very common form of transport here and the bane of my existence. They are too slow, most drivers won't move to the right, stuff like that:

As in all other venues, the signs are posted for masks and social distancing but the layout of the place really made it impossible for distancing. I think they are required by law to post those. The theme for the evening was Bohemian - i.e., hippie. Here is my flower child companion:

Other than the 2-3 event photographers, I think I was the only person there with an actual camera not part of a cell phone. The entire affair was well done, the food was good although I wish the staff had made use of the chafing dish and lit them up. After dinner, the emcee took over and introduced one of Angel's cousins, who serenaded her & us with You Are My Sunshine:

Next came the dance, mainly her boy cousins, her Kuya (older brother), friends. It reminded me of a dollar dance at a wedding where the guys take turns dancing with the bride but, instead of money, a flower was given.

Next, each gift-giver was called up to say a few words to the debutante and pose for a picture. Here is Joelet's turn:

Our House Construction, Padugo & Bloodletting

2021-01-15T00:50:00.004-06:00

Play video

It's been an eventful past week. We have moved from the planning stages on our house to actual construction start. Backstory:

We bought 2 lots here in our subdivision, 120 square meters each. We engaged a contractor/foreman recommended highly by Joelet's dad and brother. Now, non-Filipino foreigners (i.e., me) cannot own land here. Period. But I need something to protect myself from unforeseen circumstances so we will consult an attorney to study options. I have heard of some doing a 90-year lease, for example, but also heard that might not be allowed. We shall see, Joelet is fully on board with this.

Cement work begins Bucket brigade

So construction begins on Joelet's birthday, 1/8, and good progress is being made. I would like to tell you about Padugo.

It is a concept that essentially helps ensure good fortune, the safety of the workers, appeasement of the spirits, whatever. You can read up on it at the link above but we did do the chicken sacrifice (they did it, I told her to call me when they were done with it). Note: the chickens were cooked and consumed by the crew. In addition, we did the coins (for prosperity in the house), cotton (for lighter burdens in life), rose petals for love in the house, salt is for expelling bad spirits, and of course the palm leaves and holy water we got from the church here for blessing/sanctifying. You can see Joelet and one of the workers placing these items in some of the corner posts in the video.

One of the workers helps us with the roses, salt

I learned early on that by commenting on "the crazy shit you people believe in" is rather, um, annoying to the folks here so I have avoided it ever since. The bottom line was that it was important to Joelet so that was good enough for me. Now, the fact that we have no running water in this subdivision is hampering things a bit. They have their own subterranean pump and it broke down. Parts are hard to come by, it's been 2 weeks and we are looking at a minimum of 1 more. Water is being provided by the local FD, thank goodness, so our basic needs are met. But the bulk of the concrete work on the house has already started and Joelet and foreman Mike have been scrambling to get deliveries of water there.

Winner, winner . . . Foreman Mike assists with cotton & coins Mike, Joelet, Abel discuss water delivery

I will provide updates here when there is significant progress or something interesting to say so stay tuned!

Zxandy's Christmas Eve Food Distribution Event

2020-12-26T00:18:00.007-06:00

Joelet's sister Joy Ann lives with us. We have cared for her daughter for 2.5 years now while she worked in Manila. Her daughter's name is Jann Zxavier, Zxandy (ZAHN-day) for short. A good kid, normal intelligence - perhaps a bit higher than average. But she is introverted, does not talk much. None of us are trained in such things but we try to give her opportunities to branch out without being overly pressuring.

This Christmas Eve, we pooled our money together and bought a bunch of cheeseburgers from a Jollibee franchise here in Balayan. For my US folks, I put Jollibee a step and a half below McDonalds or Burger King, but the people here like it. We negotiated a bit of a discount and also procured fruity drinks and candy.

At the barangay across town, preparing.

Balayan is not a well-to-do town, to put it politely. And being sequestered during this covid period does not help. Kids who go to public school do not have the opportunity for online distance learning. The moms have to go to the school each day and pick up the assignments. Zxandy goes to parochial school and does online learning.

For this event, we tried to have Zxandy lead the way as much as possible. She talked to Jollibee, handled the money, took delivery of the goods. You will notice in the video above that her Mom and Tita (auntie) Joelet are doing a lot of the driving, though. Hopefully this will lead to other opportunities.

Masks and social distancing are taken very seriously here. They have to, if the pandemic got out of control, the health care system here would be quickly and completely overrun. The barangay (translates roughly to 'neighborhood') officials in the pink shirts assisted us but some of these kids don't even have masks. I don't know all their situations but this was a good thing we were able to do for them.

Photography note: With the exception of the last image (taken with Nikon J5), the above video and stills were all taken with the DJI Osmo Action camera. It does not handle wide-angle distortion in stills as well as it does in video, so . . . .

Virgin Beach Resort, San Juan, Batangas

2019-05-19T03:36:00.001-05:00

Click to watch video

April 22-24, 2019

End of the school year, good report cards again so it must be time for another fun beach trip!
We booked on Agoda, the resort does not have its own website yet. We picked the Casita cabin, a step up from the bargain cabin - 7,810PHP/$153 per night, two queen beds. They want you to pre-pay for food, I've not encountered that before, I don't think. 1,750PHP/$35 per person, per day.

Locate on Google Maps.
So a quick review: The cabin was adequate, at least it had A/C! No WiFi anywhere on the premises except at the restaurant so we burned through some data charges. But the resort is nice, quiet, beach and water are clean and enjoyable:

There are activities available such as jet ski, banana boat and snorkeling (of which we partook). But the first order of business was to get the Phantom 4 up:

I had the same issues with EM interference and the aircraft disconnecting when getting a thousand or so meters out that I've had elsewhere in both the Philippines and in the U.S. Even with those gold-foil antenna extenders, which I don't really bother with any more.

At any rate, check out the video at the top of this article. This trip was also my first extended use of the DJI Osmo Pocket gimbal camera. All the non-aerial footage was taken with the Nikon 1 J5 mirrorless.

This was young Lady Z's first time snorkeling, she was a bit apprehensive, didn't want to let go of Joelet but calmed down after a while. She liked seeing the Dory and Nemo fish. Afterward was lunch and a long afternoon of beach and droning:

This pampered lady!

Of course I could not go away without another Philippine sunset shot. This was tough because the sun was behind those high hills. I waited until it was all gone but never got the look I wanted so this was the only keeper:

In the evening, they light up the trees so we jury-rigged a tripod for the J5. Using the widest aperture possible (f/3.5), a 1.5 second exposure seemed to do the trick nicely:

The next day, our last, we spent wandering the beach and using the resort's WiFi at the restaurant:

We had a good, relaxing time here. The resort was clean, well-run, and quiet (!). Would we go here again? Likely not, mainly due to lack of amenities such as cabin WiFi and a swimming pool. If you follow along in the video, the resorts along the shoreline west of Virgin Beach do have pools. We might come this way again, maybe even next. But our sights are set on the newly-renovated Boracay island (arguably the #1 destination in the P.I.) and Coron, in Palawan - even though we were there before, my drone failed and we got no footage of those picture postcard splendid islands there.

Pico de Loro Beach & Country Club

2018-08-23T01:50:00.000-05:00

Phantom 4 1/190 ISO 100. Drone has fixed aperture, f/2.8, used ND8 filter. Edit w/HDR Efex Pro tone mapping

See entire gallery here.

We decided to take a little holiday as the kids here had no class 8/21-22 due to Ninoy Aquino Day and also the ending of Eid. Canyon Cove was booked so we chose Pico de Loro.

Sidebar: Not a good experience booking with Agoda.com. The place we booked was a condo (truthfully, just a glorified hotel room) because we had 3 adults and 2 kids, needed the room. The problem comes because these units are owned by someone and normally you deal with them. There was no passthru of information between Agoda and the owner. When we arrived, they had no idea we were coming. I did have the email confirmation and attachment on my phone but it did no good. We had to start from the beginning. Moral of the story: In all cases, book directly with the resort rather than a booker (Agoda, Expedia, etc.).

Another stop for lunch at Kainan sa Dalampasigan like we did the last time we were in Nasugbu. I ordered chicken adobo but it was a different variety than I am used to so did not eat much. We had niece Zxandae (Zahn-day) for a few days and she went with us.

Zxandae and Nikko. Nikon 1 J5, f/4/5 1/60, flash.

Your photographer and his lovely assistant.

The whole fam-damily. Nikon 1 J5, f/4/5 1/60, flash.

It took over an hour to get the reservation straightened out. Finally they let us into the compound. When we get to the room, the caretakers hired by the owner said cash only, no card. Wonderful. Should we Western Union? No. PayPal? No. TransferWise? Yes. I use TW to move my own money from my stateside bank to here and the service is good, fast, excellent exchange rate.

First order of business: get to the beach!

Taken by Zxandae from our balcony, Nikon 1 J5, f/4, 1/500. Edit with LandscapePro

Nikon 1 J5 f/4.5, 1/1250. Edit with Nik Collection by DXO

While the crew scouted for an ideal beach spot, I set up for flight in a mini soccer field. We asked ahead of time, this is where they told us to go. Always do this at these places, never assume. There was always a threat of rain and the wind was very strong. If you said it was foolhardy to fly in these conditions, you would get no argument from me. I have heard horror stories of drones getting knocked out of the sky by strong winds. But I really wanted to get these pics and video so up we went.

Christian and his Mom. J5, f/4, 1/1000. Edit with Topaz Labs Clarity filter.

Birds eye, beach. Phantom 4, 1/170. Edit with DXO Nik Collection.

Over the hills to the south to see what we could not. Phantom 4, 1/115. Edit with Topaz.

Meanwhile, the boys tried all morning to get Zxandae to come in the water. She wasn't having it but did go in with Joelet and I later that afternoon.

J5, f/4.5 1/1250. Edit with Nik Efex, my custom recipe for a film effect.

The business end of a WWII Japanese Navy 120mm gun. Sign is barely readable, don't know where they got it.

A few more stills, the afternoon was probably more windy than the morning but I stayed with it.

Return trip.

I should see if Pico de Loro would like to buy this one? Film efex recipe.

Looking north toward the resort/beach.

Overall thoughts on Pico de Loro: Very nice place, we were happy with the accommodations. Especially enjoyed dining outdoors, poolside. They have a rec center, we played a few rounds of badminton, I strained upper bicep, hoo-doggies that hurts! Advil time.
A number of perks available for country club members (of which we were not) so we checked it out. 610,000 PHP ($11,400 USD) for a membership - pretty sure it's lifetime. If you buy a unit, the membership fee is included: 7,000,000 PHP ($130.8K USD). We took a pass for now.
Have a look at the drone video, be sure to set it for 1080p full screen:

Road Trip to Lian

2018-08-05T21:22:00.000-05:00

See entire gallery here.

Another quick trip to the coast, this time to Lian - which is still part of Batangas province but further south than Nasugbu (map here). We took Joelet's Dad along this time who showed us where to go. Basically, it was an abandoned subdivision - lots of streets and empty lots. No houses anywhere. The only structure was the "Activity Center":

Also abandoned, no running water . . . but at least we had shade in which to sit. There was actually an unarmed guard on duty who followed us, fascinated with the drone.

I think the best word to use to describe the area is 'bucolic'. Lots of farmland, vegetation. the odd cow and goat here and there. The beach is not one I would choose to frolic but the scenery is nice:

Following this, we drove back east toward home in Balayan to the home of one of Joelet's aluminum & glass business workers. The purpose here was to find the huge solar panel farm in Calatagan. Jo & I had a difficult time finding it but finally did. It is toward the end of the video. At the very end, you can see me handing my Nikon 1 camera to her to take pictures of the rooster & chicks walking about.

In both locations today, we had problems of the aircraft disconnecting from the remote control. Even out in this rural area. I cannot seem to escape this problem no matter where we go.

And here is the video:

2018-06-30T05:10:00.000-05:00

Nasugbu - Natipuan Cove

Our next journey took us to the west to Nasugbu, which is also a part of Batangas province. I had already droned over the Baywalk in Balayan, which is on the southern coast.

When we arrived in town, power was out everywhere. Power outages are a fact of life here in the P.I. - you just live with them. Other than buy a generator, there is nothing to do about it. The infrastructure is not keeping up with the population. We stopped at an eatery - Kainan sa Dalampasigan. All stills taken with my Nikon 1 J5.

The rough translation is: Beach dining room. One of the many things I have learned since being here is that there are many words in the Tagalog (Filipino) language that have no direct English counterparts. And vice versa, many times as well. Sit in on an extended conversation among the people and listen carefully, you will hear English words sprinkled in.

The Kainan is off a side street, a fairly long driveway to the dirt parking lot.

I am told these hanging vines on the way in are called Medusa's Hair:

The restaurant is typical of many others - wall-less or all windows open. It really is laid out like a dining room:

Joelet orders for us

On to the food. I ordered the pork adobo, garlic shrimp, fried tomato with bagoong (fish sauce). It is called Balot sa Dahon - wrapped in banana leaf:

Balot sa dahon

Balot sa dahon - unwrapped

Fried tomato w/ bagoong - I ate the tomato, only a bit of the sauce

Joelet got the shrimp (hipon)

I got this, was told it was ice tea . . .

Always willing to at least try new things.

Off we go for the shore. Very hilly country, thick vegetation but surprisingly the roads are freshly paved with asphalt. We picked a spot off the road that had a nice view:

We had to wait out a rain shower for about 15 minutes but it cleared up just fine. We did not get a great deal of flying in, EM interference kept disconnecting the aircraft from the remote controller. The surrounding area is somewhat reminiscent of Colorado. Sort of. Here is the video, it's 7:25. Watch it in full HD, if you can.

2018-06-18T22:58:00.004-05:00

Tagaytay/Lake Taal Flyover

Click above for the drone video. Click here for the image gallery.

Our first drone trip last January was cut short due to the Phantom 4 drone malfunctioning in Coron, Palawan. Words cannot express my disappointment but the silver lining is that we now have a reason to return!
For this trip, we traveled north to Tagaytay to the first restaurant we dined at in February of 2016, the Taalena:

Good food, ambiance, open air. We like to sit at the outside tables. This is one of the few places in the Philippines where you can get really cool breezes.

That dish above is called Sinigang_na_hipon. A soup made with hipon (shrimp), tamarind, tomato, okra, string bean, kangkong (swamp cabbage). I passed this time but will try it next time, in the spirit of Anthony Bourdain and learning new culture. For now, I had the pork & chicken adobo with garlic rice.
Joelet got permission from the management to fly the drone out back, in the area typically used for weddings, receptions, etc. She is a very lovely and capable assistant, btw:

Now here is a thing about this spot. It sits at the literal edge of a cliff, overlooking the coast below. So I send the drone up 30 feet (10 meters), according to the DJI app on the iPad, from the takeoff spot but we are actually hundreds of feet above ground, below. For example:

Town of Talisay

I did not dare take it below zero for fear that the drone would think it landed and fall to its destruction.
I love this view of Lake Taal. In the center is an island. On the right is a dormant volcano, looks like a mountain with its top blown off at an angle:

A stop at the Robinsons Market in town to see if they had ginger ale. They did, the Jamaican variety which is a lot more ginger-y than the stuff sold in the U.S.

Drone over the Mississippi

2017-09-24T13:38:00.002-05:00

Click Here

2016-12-21T21:45:00.001-06:00

Filipina Beauty

Shooting Feathered Friends

2013-08-03T15:13:00.002-05:00

With a camera, of course!
We like watching the birds at the feeder from our kitchen window, it's one of the reasons we got it. After months of thinking "I've got to get pictures of these guys", I finally acted on it.
First we break out the D2X, the old workhorse and put it on my studio tripod with the Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead:

This bad boy got me through my first few years of sports shooting. Unfortunately, it was terrible with low light situations, such as night games and indoor without flash. Very bad digital noise. At the time, Nikon had no alternative and all the top sports shooters used Canons, who handled low light very well. Nikon has since caught up, beginning with the D3 and the D700. Attach the usb cable:

Zoom, get focus on the feeder, as close to the prong on which they stand. Be careful not to let the distant background throw it off. Set focus to Manual, turn off VR. Set shutter and aperture. I used 1/200 as it was in shade, could have gone faster. f/5.6, which was as low as I could go on this lens with the zoom all the way out. Attached the other end to the USB port on the Dell Mini 10, sitting inside the house, just out of sight of our subjects:

Yes, I closed the screen. Here is the line of sight:

Fire up Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 on the Dell, make sure the settings are the way you want them:

And click the Shoot button when the birdies show up for dinner time. ViewNX captures the image (bypasses the CF card in the camera, I did not even have one in there):

Here is an image, right out of the camera. I shoot RAW format 100% of the time:

Some selective cropping, sharpening, and some enhancements using Nik Software Color Efex 4.
Here we used Tonal Contrast and Graduated Neutral Density (top down) on our goldfinch friend here to get the effect I like:

Now if only those jays and cardinals would show up!

Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 - Must Have!

2013-07-02T16:40:00.002-05:00

Click Here

I am hearing the Sigma Artisan version is sharper. And cheaper. I would probably use this more than the 50mm I currently have.
More Nikon stuff, including new releases of NX2 and Capture:

Nikon Rumors

Great Intoduction to Exposure and Contrast

2013-05-31T08:54:00.001-05:00

Glossary: Histogram: Digital Photography Review

A good rule of thumb is to get the image as correct as possible in the camera and not so much post-processing (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.).
If your camera has a histogram display, this is a good overview, check it out!

Nikon D600 Announced

2012-09-13T16:28:00.001-05:00

Nikon D600, Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 lens announcements | Nikon Rumors

A poor man's D800 but you won't find a cheaper DSLR with full-frame sensor.

Taking Fireworks Pictures

2012-07-03T18:41:00.001-05:00

So the first step is staking out a spot in the park or wherever that will give you the best vantage point.
Last year, at Central Park in Roseville, we and several hundred others were faked out by the show being on the other side of the park! Oh well, not all was lost and I will tell you why:
It is better if you have a frame of reference in these shots. For the above picture, it was trees.
The year before, it was buildings near downtown Minneapolis:

Maybe not the most ideal scenery but believe me, it's better than no surroundings.
Ok, the setup:

Use a tripod. Do not even try it without.
If you can, auto-focus on a very distant object otherwise just set your focus to infinity and change from autofocus to manual and leave it there.
Set your camera to manual shutter and aperture.
Aperture f/11, to darken the sky. You can go smaller to experiment (higher 'f' number) but probably no more than f/16.
Shutter 4 seconds.
ISO100 or 200
Auto ISO off.
Flash off

So now the key is to minimize vibration as much as possible when you press the shutter button. It can be difficult, maybe try the eraser end of a pencil. I have a remote control gizmo so it's not a problem for me, but this can be a challenge.
Practice makes perfect: I open the shutter when the rocket is most of the way up. With a 4 second shutter, you will more often than not catch all the trails like in the above shots.

You can check out my shots from last year here. Hold your mouse over an image and click the "I" icon to see what the camera settings were.

Good shooting!

28th Annual Midwest Mopars in the Park

2012-06-03T20:00:00.001-05:00

Gallery

This was our second time covering this event and I have to say the creative flow is a trickle now. How many different pictures of cars can you take?
Karen and I still came home with over 700 image files. 611 made the cut.
Old, rusty stuff has an appeal to me. There were a number of (highly) used parts and even whole vehicles that looked like they sat outside for years so I applied some filter magic to a few of them, for example:

Click on an image to see a larger size

The harsh sunlight provided a lot of exposure challenges throughout the day. I kept the aperture usually f/11-14, not that fast a shutter, 1/250, 1/320.
But shiny cars can be fun to "artify" such as:

It was an unpaid gig but at least we were given a golf cart to drive around in and a free t-shirt.

Karen used my old D70, she got some great shots that day.

Soon after arriving, we met up with my 2 buddies, one a co-worker (Kevin, a Dodge Challenger club member) and one a former co-worker (Randy - a Canon shooter but he's really ok):

(l-r) Steve, Randy, Kevin.

Randy has gotten good at catching motion/action shots such as car & motorcycle races. This is where you use a relatively slow shutter and follow the object with the camera. The object should be in focus, if you do it right, and the background should be blurred and look like it is moving.

The best opportunity for these shots was the Challengers parade. Most of mine ended up on the cutting room floor so hopefully Randy's turned out. Here is one of my better ones:

Look, up in the sky - it's Super Moon!

2012-05-04T15:31:00.001-05:00

I will try to get out there, maybe up on my roof. Maybe I can avoid killing myself, waddling around on a slope in the dark.

Here is a good article on shooting the moon:

http://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-photograph-the-moon

Hint: Low ISO, small aperture, f/11 - f/16. I will try aperture priority but will probably go full manual.

The Nikon D4 is Here!

2012-01-06T08:34:00.000-06:00

See the review here

It's here... Nikon has announced the 16mp D4 DSLR.

16.2mp Nikon-developed CMOS FX sensor
Dust reduction system
Dual slots (1x XQD, 1x CF Type 1)
100% viewfinder coverage, 0.70x magnification.
Carbon fiber shutter rated at 400,000 cycles, max speed 1/8000s
1/250s flash sync speed
10fps shooting speed with full AF, 11fps with no AF
91,000-pixel exposure metering system
ISO 100-12,800 (50-204,800 expanded)
Multi-CAM 3500FX 51-point autofocus, down to f/8 and -2ev
USB 3.0 interface
New EN-EL18 battery, 2600 shots per charge
41.6oz (1180g) camera body only
Illuminated function buttons

If you have an extra $6K or so lying around, you should get this. Peanuts compared to the Canon 1DX coming soon. Me, I am holding out for the D800 but, practically speaking, the D700 will have to do me for the near term. Not a problem, it's a great camera (doesn't do video, though).

New firmware out for D7000 and D5100, fixes issues

2011-11-12T09:59:00.001-06:00

New firmware out for D7000 and D5100, fixes issues | NikonHQ

Nikon issues 3rd Notice on the damage from the Thai flood, factory still under water | NikonHQ

2011-11-05T10:08:00.000-05:00

Nikon issues 3rd Notice on the damage from the Thai flood, factory still under water | NikonHQ:

I wonder if this is going to impact the release of the D800 . . . . not good.

Auto Focus Settings

2011-10-03T11:16:00.002-05:00

Good blog post about all the AF settings on the D700 and others:

http://prakashphotography.blogspot.com/2008/12/nikon-d700d3d300-autofocus-settings.html

Nikon 1 comparison - J1 vs V1 - what's different?

2011-09-24T10:48:00.000-05:00

Click Here

Nikon "1 Brand" V1 and J1 Mirrorless Cameras Announced

2011-09-21T09:13:00.000-05:00

Nikon "1 Brand" V1 and J1 Mirrorless Cameras Announced - New Mount, New Lenses NikonHQ

Nikon and Canon are jumping on this mirrorless market. Less moving parts.
Sounds exciting if for no other reason in that it would enable more folks to get into the SLR game without getting a second mortgage.
More later.

Metallic Prints

2011-09-09T22:39:00.005-05:00

Sunrise on the Carnival Liberty - Jan. 21, 2011

Click Here

If you have an opportunity to get prints made on metallic paper, I strongly recommend you do it. I ordered a 5x7 of Karen for my desk and two 11x14 ship photos and the color fidelity is staggering! Of course this would only be for images you really care about but this is suitable-for-framing stuff, folks!

Colored DSLR's?

2011-09-08T08:39:00.000-05:00

The D3100 Red – our first ever vibrantly coloured DSLR I AM NIKON Blog

Not sure what I think about this. Let's let it sink in a while before making a judgement.