I spent the better half of today wandering around the stalls over at the Glorietta Activity Center… I had been here early yesterday and found out about the Olympus OM-D being sold at an unbelievable rate and today I was hell bent on taking one home for myself.
The photo above shows about a third of all the participating merchants and it was pretty much all sales and mini activities until a few models took to their respective stations. Earlier however, I saw a Samyang MFT 7.5mm f3.5 Fish Eye and was allowed to try it out.. heres the opposite view of the photo above shot from the JT Photo World booth:
Just look at how much information is captured with a single shot from such a wide lens… the price was playing around at the 12,000Php margin and it certainly has its advantages over the Panasonic one albeit its manual nature.
Over at the Phottix booth, there was this model (above) dressed apparently as Sheryl Nome of Macross Frontier (information shared to me by the other cosplayer who has yet to make an appearance). Now I was still using my 14mm at this time but seeing as there was going to be some portraiture action I switched immediately to the 25. Not long after, this model was joined by another one right beside her:
Everyone was rocking their fastest lenses and preferred bodies as well as flashes of all shapes, intensities, and manufacturers:
Mine is respectable enough with outputs such as these (above and below and all succeeding photos unless otherwise stated):
Without a hotshoe, the most I can get from my GF3 is hard light from its built in flash or a short range bounce, but the 25 enables me to take wide open shots without relying too much on flash power.
It was an advantage for the people with a hotshoe during this shoot because anyone was allowed to use the remote trigger which controls a backlight and red accent flash for this particular model. It wasn’t long before one of the photographers in the event set up a huge black folding backdrop which allowed for photos with a pure background at first to showcase the capabilities of the Sony Alpha-99 that he was touting and then eventually left it there for the rest of us… Here’s a few with direct interaction with the model/s:
Over at the Olympus booth, which I was monitoring because of my interest in the OM-D, there was a model from persia, Glenn the YoYo Master, and eventually Erich Gonzales whom I almost missed because I ate:
This shot was taken with the OM-D itself set to manual at f7.1 with my 25 as the lens triggering two remote flashes at the sides; the camera was also positioned overhead framed appropriately using the tilted LCD. I cropped this because the background is so messy but even then you can almost feel the difference in resolutions between the GF3 and the OM-D.
YoYo Master Glenn challenging everyone to capture the brand of the spinning yoyo, something he says the OM-D can accomplish with the use of its 9fps continuous burst mode… and while I have tried it and am impressed Im pretty certain most cameras set appropriately can do what he had asked without using burst… it was a very good endorsement from him though.
Erich didn’t stay so long in the booth as there was a simultaneous ‘Juan Dela Cruz’ fan meeting event happening at the opposite side of the activity center. I was only able to get this shot from when she was about to leave as the Olympus space immediately became crowded when she made her appearance.
And then there was the Sony model:
Of all the models, she was easily the most ‘game’ – posing like how you’d expect cosplayers to do so with all manner of hand signs and movements. She was Cure Passion of the Anime – Pretty Cure (at least I think I’m remembering it correctly)… which according to her was akin to a more modern take of Sailor Moon which is pretty popular here and the design cues do lead one to the same conclusion.
Her area has a singular light setup which made taking photos from her right side almost impossible without some form of assistance.
The pose above was one that I had suggested and it is better lighted because of the presence of a reflector which I cropped out of this frame.
She was pretty convincing as a character even though I had no previous knowledge of the show from which her outfit was referenced from.
Canon, who had one of the largest booths out there and who occupies the elevated center stage also had a model but the location wasn’t very favorable for a shoot if at all:
During my final round of taking pictures I went back to the Phottix model and was able to again utilize the black background setup… she was quite tired but still displayed amazing consistency during the session:
She was nearer the light this time around and focus was better as well. Above photo has minor curve adjustment to darken the background and minor cropping for composition correction.
Towards the end of the mall hours I had once again revisited the Olympus booth with all intention of purchasing a kit but still I couldnt get myself to say yes. The OM-D is a unit that already is a year old and there is that very slight possibility that a successor comes out of R&D. A little patience should pay off… if not, I would’ve missed an excellent opportunity to get one for myself… not to mention utilize it already.
Well the tradeshow does go on until Tuesday so there’s still some time… let’s just hope one in silver is still present among the stock if impatience should get the better of me. A big thank you to all the models… even if I dont personally know any of you, the opportunity to take your photos is very much appreciated. Makes me wonder when the next photography congress will happen.
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