A boudoir (French: [bu.dwaʁ], English: /ˈbuːd.wɑːr/) is a lady’s private bedroom, sitting room or dressing room. The term derives from the French verb bouder, meaning “to be sulky” or boudeur, meaning “sulky”.

The term “boudoir” may also be ascribed to a genre of photography. Boudoir photography is not generally a new concept and numerous examples including ones of Kathleen Meyers, Clara Bow, Mae West and Jean Harlow photographed in a boudoir style.
Typically shot in a photographer’s studio or luxury hotel suites, it has become fashionable to create a set of sensual or sexually suggestive images of women (and occasionally men and couples) in “boudoir style”. The most common manifestation of contemporary boudoir photography is to take variations of candid and posed photographs of the subject partly clothed or in lingerie. Nudity is more often implied than explicit. Commercially the genre is often (though not exclusively) derived from a market for brides to surprise their future husbands by gifting the images on or before their wedding day. Other motivations or inspiration for boudoir photography shoots include anniversaries, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, weight loss regimes, maternity, other form of body change or alteration (such as breast augmentation or reduction) and for servicemen and women overseas.

This is a collage of some of my favourite shots from a recent boudoir session with some local photo hobbyists. Our model “Lang Sapphire Sky”, as she preferred to be called was quite the natural when it comes to posing, albeit being relatively new to the local modelling scene.

Anywho, to my new readers and old…

By the power vested in me by almighty caffeine Gods!! …and the Galactic Empire.

I CLAIM THIS SPACE ON TEH INTERWEBS AND DECLARE IT A CAFFEINE INDUCED REFUGE OF TRAVESTY AND HOOLIGANISM.

And a place to share purdy purdy pictures of food, dollies, and figures… and the occasional bits and bobs of fiddly gadgetry.

YOU THERE!! PREPARE TO BE DEFENESTRATED!!

BLOG.COFFEEBUGG.COM

Well this is a rather interesting arcade game to play. Ever wondered what it was to be like a Danceroid, them cute dancing Japanese girls on NicoNico Douga jiving to J-pop? You find the current arcade dance games that have you stepping on pads, waving at sensors and swiping your fingers on a touch screen to tame for you? Then look no further. MaiMai appears to be working on the principles as the Kinect using a camera and sensors that read your movement and match it on poinrs set by the game. The games BGM selection still seems rather limited but other wise has some of the more popular danceroid covers including Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s Pon Pon song, Tsubasa Hanekawa’s Fuwa Fuwa theme and, of all things, Caramell Dansen. I might actually give this thing a whirl. Maybe some other time.

Just a quick look of some new doo-hickeys that have since piled on to my desk. Some hands on reports of these doodads coming up in the next few.

*Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG EX DG
*Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 EX DG Macro
*Blackberry Torch 9800
*JJC LED-48B Macro Ring light
*LVSHI Square Filter holder and GND Filter

Reblogged from NendoGamer:

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A rather unusual event and review for the site but the thing is this is the first gravure book in the country. I for one would not want to pass on such event not to mention if the model is one of our country's famous and hottest DJ in the metro, Jinri Park.

Read more… 533 more words

When I first heard of Drum Tao, it was during the height of my playing the game Osu! Tatakae! Ouen Dan! A Taiko Drum Rhythm game for the Nintendo DS. Ever since, then I have watched several videos of their performances on Youtube.

But it wasn’t until they were already a few days into their 10 day stint at Resort’s World Manila that I found out. I immediately scoured the internets for performance dates and ticket pricing to go see them, fortunately FlairCandy.com had it all conveniently documented on her blog.

I managed to get my hands on 2 Deluxe tickets on their last performance, and I had intended to watch it with a friend. Unfortunately, just a few days before the show, she had to back out for an important engagement she couldn’t afford to miss.  And so I went on contacting most of my inner circle of friends, and what luck that they either had other plans or had work. Seriously, I was texting and calling like mad up to the point I got my passes from ticketing office on the day itself.  As expected, it was a sold out performance despite the rather soggy weather. Even as the performance was already warming up, here were people coming up to the ticket booth asking if there were still tickets for that last show. While there I was, alone with a pair of passes. I inquired about their buy-back policy, which apparently they didn’t have. After me, this elderly couple was asking about passes, to no avail. The ticketing agent was quick to get my attention though and asked if was willing to sell them my passes after reassuring me that I can still go in to watch the performances. When they heard how much my passes were, they decided not to avail it, apparently they mis-heard my price as I was selling the tickets at cost.

Another couple was quick to snap up the tickets.

 Me? I ended up getting a single Premier ticket with a seat that was right at the foot of the stage. Pretty. Damn. Awesome.

I got in to the amphitheater as the Drum Ta crew was already a few minutes into their first set. Immediately, you could feel the beats resonating through you even from a good way back of the hall. Despite from being sold out, there were a few single seats that weren’t occupied, my guess is people who cancelled due to the inclement weather that afternoon. The usher leed me to my seat to which apparently was occupied. In turn he seated me to the next empty seat to where I was supposed to have been, which later on the owners arrived to much to their disdain. To any Resort’s World employee reading this, I believe the situation could have been handled with more professionalism simply by enforcing the seat plan. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Anywho, on to the performance. It was nothing short of exhilirating. Their performances ranged from the very enigmatic and grippingly emotional to the very vibrantly powerful. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve seen their performances on youtube, but seeing them perform upclose and I mean REALLY close was something that can easily overwhelm and enamor audiences.

Being a live performance, of course, there were segments which got engaged the audiences to participate. From their Kabuki skit which had them running around the audience section to a dub-step clap off with the cast. And their performance which mimiced that of the multi handed goddess Ashura was simply sublime.

Photo: from Drum-tao.com

There was this one song which really caught my attention. It had a sole drummer at the start where he performed with exceptional speed and later on, 2 of their female member stood at each end of the stage with large drums. It was such an enchantingly powerful piece that wasn’t fast and vigorous but had a firm dramatic atmosphere and tense tone to it.

I’m glad I got to watch, though I wish my friends could have seen it too as I know that they would also apprciate it too. I guess they’ll have to settle for the CD and DVD I got after the show.  Would I watch them again? You can bet on it.

To briefly surmise what transpired that afternoon, it was completely grounded and without fanfare. Pretty much just a well travelled, wise and free spirited creative mind who met up with 11 complete strangers over lunch in a quiet and quaint little cafe up in the hills of Antipolo.  The food was nothing short of a good ol’fashioned home cooked meal prepared with heart and love. We got to try the “Alagaw” leaves, gave a whole new meaning to the term ‘Salad’.  I particularly liked the Prawns in coconut milk. And the chicken which tasted a bit like caldereta was perfect compliment to the mildly chilly but fresh air. Aside from the on set of heavy rains, it was a perfectly home grown lunch with equally wise and good company

To Jim

If you’re reading this, it was a pleasure meeting you. And getting to know that there are people out there who live for the journey of life and living the moment with a level of openness that one would think to be ridiculous in today’s society is certainly uplifting and inspiring. I can safely say that this was one of those moments that I will gladly tell my grand children about.

Mark “coffeebugg/Salarayman_vader”

Unfortunately, due to the inclement weather that day, only 5 of us made it that morning alongside Dale and our model for that day, Floe.  I owe both of them greatly for coming in spite of the weather.

All in all, we still learned a lot from our Studio lighting workshop.  So much so that I feel like I want to re-shoot all the company profile pics I did a few months ago. Learned so much about the “lighting ratio”. How light size, intensity and distance affects how light is cast on the subject.  Dale’s lecture was very easy to follow, provided one was familiar with the camera’s “exposure triangle”.  He showed us how the camera’s settings controlled the light output.  As well as how light modifiers like soft boxes and umbrellas worked in affecting the light. It was such an eye opener.  As someone who relied mostly on wide apertures to take his photos, working with strobes at the other end of the aperture range was very new to me.  The narrowest I would usually take portraits with were at F4- F8 and that was only if we were out doors with oodles of ambient light.  Other wise, I would normally just be using F10 and up for my long exposure shots.

As far as application goes of what I learned, my DIY lighting will definitely have improvements. I have taken photos with some degree of creative lighting with my toys as subjects, but those were also mostly long exposures or used steady light sources.  I’m not saying my on-the-go product/food shots would be much better than something who used some Instagram filter, but at least I’ll have better control of how I want to achieve a certain light I’m looking for.  Just as well, the theorem and math involved in it would be something I could use when covering events rather than having to just rely on E-TTL on my flash gun all the time. The lecture was very brief and concise.

I guess the fact that most of us we’re pretty much on the same page about photography, Dale just had to gauge what we knew and was quickly on the level with us.  While it seemed very rushed, the application of the theories were very hands on and quickly got us up to speed of what adjustments were to be made.  Oh, and Dale’s lightmeter also helped a lot.  If anything, we extended our workshop 2 hours as we also got to start an hour and a half late due to the weather.

Another person we should also give as much credit to during our over extended workshop was our model, Floe.  A real trooper as she gamely posed for us despite being cold and shivering.  Real fun to work with. and even though she “couldn’t relate”, so she says, to our topic, she was every bit as curious.  I look forward to working with her again in future shoots.  Even wave and say hi at the events she’ll be gracing with her charm.

So… What have we got in store for our next workshop. The guys have been wanting to improve on their speed photography.  I’m no pro, but I think I’m pretty confident with my sports photography.  Obviously we can’t do motorsport photography on the fly, but perhaps something a tad slower but just as intense.

So you say you’re a photographer and have been wanting to take photos of the bustling metropolis that is Makati City but you can’t because of the restrictions imposed in taking photos except that is if you’re a tourist and the photo doesn’t include a building that houses an embassy. Well now your chance to get the opportunity that only happens once in a blue moon.

The Makati City Government, in conjunction with Ayala Land Inc., and PinoyPhotography.Org, Is, once again, hosting a contest that would showcase the finest the Philippines’ Commercial Banking District has to offer.  With 5 categories to take part in, participants can win up to Php75000, where in each category has a 1st prize of Php15000. Imagine how many trips to Starbucks and Krispy Kreme that is. Participants however can only submit one photo, with as little editing as possible, for each category. Categories are “Artsy”, “Green”, “Party”, “Sporty”, and “Techy”.  Also, to photographers are allowed to submit photos taken from as far back as January 1st, 2012, provided the photos are taken from within the bounds of the allowed shooting areas. Of course, having lived in THIS particular city, I wouldn’t pass this up as I’ve already missed the first one that was held 2 years ago.  The competition is of course open to all locals, but also foreigners are allowed to join provided they have been legal residents for at least 3 months.

I wasted no time taking photos as soon as I got my permit. Met up for a photo walk with some acquaintances from PiPho.org last Friday while I also scouted and gather inspiration for my entries. I’ve already got a few concepts in mind and hopefully within the one week of reprieve that I have I’ll be able to shoot my entries.  I’ll have to give my concepts a lot og thought as the contest rules state that only global enhancements are allowed. Meaning no shop jobs with glitters and flying pigs puking rainbows. Surprisingly, models are allowed so that means that one can put in a bit of effort into the production. Hence why I’m trying to get @flaircandy to maybe help me out in one of my entries.  I just hope I get finish all my shots as deadline is on July 23rd.   It’s also the best opportunity for me to bond with “Janus“.

Via Flickr:
It’s been a memorable and adventure filled 5 years since I got my Canon EOS 400D. Alas, it is with hesitation that I had to let her go and pass her over to an office mate who’s been wanting to learn the ways of the DSLR. I hope that my trusty 400D will be as forgiving and faithful to him as she was to me.

And as with the end of some relationships, new ones will be forged. And as bitter sweet to have my 400D to meet her, dare I call, replacement, I thought that they ought to get to know each other. Thus I introduce to you the latest member of my blogging armory; Janus. Janus is a Canon EOS 5D Mk II. Which is also why I refrain from calling her a replacement to my 400D but rather an upgrade.

Update: Since I’ve disposed of my Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC Macro,  here’s Janus with her new lens: Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 EX DG Macro.