Ben and Beth on their Pearl Anniversary

It makes me smile to see couples last for as long as thirty years. For Ben and Beth Teocson, the mild-mannered couple held their first (!) church wedding at the Manila Cathedral on November 16, after being united thirty years ago in civil court. Thanks to Ben's son Bim Teocson who got me as one of the photogs (there was Kix and Ging as photogs too). Now Bim runs Playback Productions-a pro video studio for special events. I was impressed by Bim's AVP and on-site movie at the reception in the Coconut Palace. Impressive too was father Ben's humble children in organizing this momentous wedding anniversary for their beloved parents. May your tribe increase!

Mart and Reena November 11, 2006 Wedding

Thanks again to pro photographer Jomel Gregorio for tapping moi and Edu Cortes as his associate photogs for Mart and Reena's lovely wedding. I told Reena how fortunate she was to have three photogs on her special day! I used my Nikon SB-28 and SB-24 flash units for all my portable flash power with the Nikon D2x DSLR. This time around I packed my external SB-28 flash with a battery pack. When you have an external light source it's always convenient to hire a lightman to carry the light rig (and your other photo gears too). Muchas gracias for being so kind and generous to us, Reena and Mart! Have a happy one!

3-Day Cruise Ship Photography Workshop @ FPPF

Ahoy thar mateys! The Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation will conduct a Cruise Ship Photography Workshop for any Filipino intent to work abroad as a professional ship photographer. The 3-day workshop will be on December 4, 5 and 6, 2007. Joe Galian will conduct the workshop by helping prospective ship photogs increase their chances of being hired. For queries: 302A FEMII Building, Soriano (Aduana) Street, Intramuros, Manila. Telephone: (63)(2) 524-7576 and phone/fax: (63)(2) 528-0371. Look for Karen or Lito (email: fotoatwork@gmail.com). Visit http://www.foto-at-work.com/ too. Sea you thar!

Basic Photography Workshop Students

For those who don't know yet, yours truly teaches basic and advance photography workshops for corporations, institute of learnings, and of course, for private/individual lessons too. I personally find the latter highly personal and very effective in sharing the love of photography. The photo shows moi (on the left), Peach, Denise and Romano. My workshop takes two days to complete. Happy clickin' guys!

Arthur and Renee Olaño Golden Wedding

November 4 was the 50th Golden Wedding Anniversary of Arthur and Renee Olaño at the Diamond Hotel in Manila. Eric Diño was the main photog while Gilbert and yours truly played support. Special thanks for Bug Nieva for renting me his Benque laptop. Eric is certainly a jack-of-all-trades: he ran this celebration as coordinator, choir master and mass celebrant! Good thing he didn't replace the job of Fr. Reuters! You better take it easy Eric and just enjoy the next time around!

Star In A Million Nikki Bacolod Pictorial

It was a pleasure to shoot Nikki Bacolod. She was the winner in the ABS-CBN channel 2 show Star In A Million contest. I found her very beautiful, pleasant and wholesome. We at the studio forgot to request her to sing a few lines of any song! Next time we will be prepared Nikki. I guess that goes for any singer talents who will grace our studio in the future. I shot with three studio strobes. Getting the background to be perfectly evenly white can be daunting. For most of my talent shoot I use a large silver umbrella. The camera was tethered to the workstation. Judging exposure on a calibrated 21" CRT monitor is certainly more accurate than ordinary LCDs -IMHO.

Wayne and Adora October 2007 Wedding

Pro wedding photographer Jomel Gregorio tapped me as his main photographer for his client, Wayne and Adora on their October wedding. The lovely Adora registers well on digital camera. During the Manila Hotel pictorials we had difficulty taming the Philippine sunset as it was casting a very strong back light-leaving the bride in a dark silhouette. Jomel used his reflector while I whipped out my external flash secret weapon: the old Nikon SB-27 Speedlite flash! Because of the strong ambient light, you have to use RF triggers. I mounted the SB-27 onto a lightstand which I positioned near the window. The rites were held at the San Agustine Church and reception was at the nearby Tamayo's Restaurant. Congratulations to Wayne!...lucky man.

The Federation of Philippine Photographers Association at 20

The Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation (FPPF) celebrated its 20th anniversary with a on-the-spot (OTS) photo contest in the sprawling gardens of the Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila. I'm thankful for FPPF Project Director Lito Beltran for inviting your truly as a photo contest judge. And a special thank you to Ms. Eduviges Huang, the FPPF Chairperson for giving me two tickets for the Philippine Madrigal Singers' concert at the prestigous Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) that night. The FPPF is a noble force in the Philippine photography world, empowering any aspiring Filipino to become world-class photographers through its many workshops with the best local and foreign mentors and speakers. I think their workshop rates are the lowest in town too! You can check out: http://photoworldmanila.com/ and http://www.foto-at-work.com/. Hapi Bertday!!!

Farewell to Master Lenseman Victor Aquino

It breaks my heart to announce that my advertising and wedding photography mentor in Mr. Victor J. Aquino has just passed away last night. Mr. Bug Nieva gave me a call to annouce the sad news. Much of what I know about lighting, shooting techniques and coverages I owe to him and to Mr. Nieva. Despite personality clashes with Vic, he still bore with yours truly-watta guy! I first met Vic in 1993 when I was a junior in-house photographer of the defunct Imageworks International Inc. (formerly Haunting Images) under Creative Director Norman Castillo. Imageworks specializes in film AVPs! And Vic is a great teacher of photography of mine too. Friends know him for his passion, energy and mentoring spirit in photography. An excellent pro indeed: Vic can shoot anything in digital and film: advertising, architectural, fashion, industrial, portraites, special events, technical, 4 x 5 film, darkroom special effects, etc. And during film days he was one of the most in-demand photographers and film AVP specialist (when Adobe and Macromedia was in its infancy). Farewell master Vic and thank you for all the helpful tips and insights you shared with me!

Jhune Gemino Graces Elite Productions

A warm welcome for Mr. Jhun Gemino and associates for gracing our humble studio. Special arrangements were made with Mr. Gemino's talent agency with Elite Productions. Here's to a profitable and fashionable tie-up with you sir! Salud!

Buck and Dulce Pre-Wedding Video

Here is Buck and Dulce doing a pre-wedding video shoot with Shierdan. What's new with Shierdan is the utilization of the green screen. Such video technique enables Dan to change Buck and Dulce's background at will in post-production. 'Tis always amazing to see Dan at work-ever energetic and hefty. Stay tuned on December 17, when Dan will surprise the power couple with his unique video creation!

Filipino Champions On Ice-Can You Imagine!

Kim and Denise are our country's champion ice figure skating champoin both here and abroad. Both have won gold or 1st place for their respective category in Asia and America. The super siblings have trained hard since they were just children. During our photo shoot today we treated Denise for it was her 21st birthday! Feliz cumpleños Den!

PHOTO SHOOT AT GMA 7 NETWORK

Here is the bombastic and lanky K Brosas. Singer, actress and comedianne. She will paly the role of the Zsa Zsa Zaturnna heroine in a musical play slated to be shown in Cebu City. She easliy romances the camera and has slew of poses that she cranks out effortlessly. Here's to a successful musical play to come, K. Cheers!

Shierdan Goes Full-HD in Videography

For all my special events and corporate video coverages I work with Shierdan Pamintuan almost exclusively. Aside from looking a lot like Jet Lee, Shierdan or "Dan" for short, is a quiet yet very likeable artist. You see he has this funny side to his personality that really jumps out of him just to kill any awkward or boring situations. Did I mention that he is very sincere and personable with clients? Well his artworks are equally impressive as he is indeed very popular with clients with special events like : high-end weddings, debut, birthday parties, etc. Recently he upgraded his video camera into full-HD Panasonic. That means Dan can do TV commercials and digital movies now! I have corporate projects in the works for Dan. 'tis a pleasure working with him. You'll be posted here for any projects I did with him.

Fashion Photography with 4 Nikon Strobes

Joan Mazo challenged me to do her pictorial for her new setcard for 2007. She is a freelance model and can be reached at joanscape18@yahoo.com if your advertising campaign is looking for that exotic "look". For this project I intend to bring less gear without compromising on the image I had in mind for her. Now that found me bringing 4 Nikon flash units. One strobe had this 60" umbrella light diffuser while the backlight had the yellow gel. I used a green backdrop so I could "drop-out" Joan in Photoshop more easily. This is a technique I learned in videography in what they call "chroma-compositing". The backdrop had a flash illuminating it. I used an Nikon SB-27 to trigger all these flashes together. This project further instilled in me that you don't have to drag all your large studio lights. I picked only two impressive photos for her setcard-breaking the rules here! I then did the layout. Now Joan wants a 20" x 30" poster of her setcard.

Welcome and Hello!

Bonjour! This is Joe Galian's official BLOG. It's my intension to share with you all my life's artworks posted here in BLOGGER. Photography and the visual arts is obviously my passion, my profession and my life. Nothing gives me more pleasure that bringing my vision into fruition for the world to see. Please visit as often as you can and do stay tuned for more masterpieces of mine. Revoyez-vous tout!