mac centeno

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Hong Kong City Skyline

Hong Kong City Skyline / August 2009

Tsim Sha Tsui. The best place to visit if you want to see the great Hong Kong city lights. We witnessed the laser show that really blew me off in awe! Great music and amazing choreography. People in different skin color flocked the sea side and all you can hear from them is ooohs and wows! Its really awesome. Too bad i dont have the tripod with me. Most of my HK skyline shots are blurry. I placed the camera on the railings to lessen my inner-body vibrations :P Tsim Tsa Tsui - Put this on your checklist the next time you visit Hong Kong. I tell you...this will complete your Hong Kong vacation. More pictures to come.

Shenzhen China

Shenzhen, China 2009 © Mac Centeno

Shenzhen, China
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The one thing I noticed about Shenzhen, the place is so damn clean! As in over sa linis. You cant even find a single dry leaf scattering around the streets. The grass and the trees are well maintained. Freshly cut and all so green.Amazing! Thanks to Shelly, our lovely tour guide. She showed us the great sights of Shenzhen and enlightened us with the highlights of this town. We went to this place where they sell Jade and moonstones. Jade stones are really popular for chinese people for they believe it will bring good luck. Usually they are green in color but there are Jade stones who are colored violet that are very rare and expensive! Too bad photography is not allowed. I would have wanted to show them to you. We also tried this tea they offered which is really good for the body. Then we went to this pearl and silk factory where all sorts of pearls and fine silk are sold. Beautiful but very expensive. Then we had lunch at this chinese restaurant wer the food is really good and the girl who serve food is really cute :P Oh well. If the streets of Shenzhen enticed you, wait till you see The Window of the World in my next album. What a great place.

Discovering Hong Kong

Hong Kong 2009 © Mac Centeno

Discovering Hong Kong
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Simply amazing. Breathtaking sights. Great food. Clean surroundings. Hong Kong has it all. The image above is the amazing Lippo Centre. One of my favorite buildings in HK. But our next destination is far better. We went to IFC building, the tallest building in all of Hong Kong. I never imagined standing on the 88th floor of this building. Truly spectacular! The elevator going up is really fast! coz it only took us about a minute to reach the 88th floor! The view on top is unimaginable. The 88th is never a tourist area. Thanks to kuya's friend who sneaked us in. Because of him, we witnessed one of the most spectacular view in Hong Kong. He's an angel! After our visit to stratosphere, we rode a fastcraft and went to Ma Wan Island. We had a magnificent view of Ching Ma bridge that took our breath away. Way back home, I was just googling and spamming blogs about it and now, its right there above and infront of my face, waiting to be captured by my lens! Amazing! Thank God for the perfect weather. We had sunny skies all the way that made this day really special. More of Hong Kong in my next albums. For now, here are my top picks of the day. Enjoy! :)

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Puregold and Dad

Pansol,Laguna, Philippines 2008 © Mac Centeno

Puregold and Dad / December 2008

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This is probably one of the most dramatic photo I ever took. I took this when we were in Pansol Laguna. The man is looking at his kids (i think) while they are swimming. I was way afar from him. This is like a paparazzi shot actually. I used a Nikkor 200mm VR lens on a Nikon D40X on this one. I desaturated the color to add more drama. I dont know what this man is thinking. I dunno if he's sad or happy looking at his kids. Maybe he's happy for having a great family coz his kids and other relatives are having a great time. Sometimes when you're too happy., you tend to be emo and i think this sir here has his emo moments. What a great day.

Dog at the Beach

Siquijor Beach, Philippines 2006 © Mac Centen0

Siquijor Island / summer 2006

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I forgot when was the date that this picture was taken. I believe its summer 2006 when we went to Siquijor Island. We are so crazy goin to the beach that day and to our surprise, its low tide and swimming aint a good idea. We had a little picnic at the beach side and took some pictures. I noticed this dog walking along casting its reflection from the silhouette. I love this time of the day, just late afternoon. Photographers call it "The Golden Hour" where the skies seems gold and colors are warm and beautiful. I took this with a Fuji Finepix, point and shoot camera.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Single Light Source

Single Light Source, 2009 © Mac Centeno

Single Light Source / June 2009
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These photos are my top 3 choices for my assignment for Sir Nathaniel Salang's photo class in UP Diliman. I submitted the green glowing portrait of myself. The theme is "Single Light Source" - from the words itself., image lit using one light. My glowing frisbee is a unique idea of mine but too bad my face is not that sharp enough that somehow ruined the photo...

Solar Eclipse 2009

Manila Solar Eclipse / July 2009
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My shot of the Partial Solar Eclipse here in Manila. I woke up as early as 6am to prepare my gear. I even went on top of the roof to get a clear view because there were tall trees along the way and I cant get a clear shot. Then God played a little drama on me because he brought this huge cloud above me and even drizzled! I closed my eyes and said a little prayer to let me enjoy one of his greatest wonders. But then.., clouds blot out the sun and filled the sky gray. Sadness just drew my face coz i was really waiting for this one for a month now. I packed my gear and went down...

Then suddenly.., like a light switch turned on, the sky cleared up! And the sun was lit so bright! It was still early. Around 9am. Then tito walbert uttered " bakit ganun yung araw? parang may hiwa?" I wasnt looking that time coz i was sitting at the porch. As I heard what he said, I ran off to our lawn, grabbed my xray films and took a look at the sun. Boom! there it is! Its starting!!!!

I panicked a little coz I already forgot the settings of what shutterspeed and aperture to use. Took a deep breath and grab a hold of all the things I learned from Sir Nathaniel's class. Got myself a masking tape. Taped the X-Ray films in front of my UV filter and boom! There it is. An instant DIY filter. The 2nd shot, i used only 1 filter for that and the rest I used 2 of them, overlapped together. I played with the last parts coz there are lighter parts (where moms ribcage is., oh yeah., i grabbed mom's year 2000 xray results for this), to add a little effect on the shot. I should have submitted this to Sir Nathaniel's DIY filter contest.. :P hehe. And there! I have a pretty decent shot of the sun. Too bad i dont have the 300mm lens to have a good view of it but its all good. My friend Carl even told me, "Sana hiniram mo na lang yung Lens ko!" haha :P O nga sana nga :P but its ok. I just took the pictures with the maximum resolution as possible so I can crop it later. So there. My first solar eclipse pictures. I love it. Lord., thank you po for hearing my prayers. :)

1st Dkidnu Event

Lagro , QC , Philippines 2009 © Mac Centeno

1st Dkidnu Event / May 2009
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The first ever dkidnu event held at Lagro Park in Quezon City. This event was so fun that we mingled among the youngsters and almost forgot our ages! We played the traditional patintero and touching ball like never before. The sole purpose of this organization is to bring the oldskool pinoy games to the youth of today. In replacement of the undying counterstrike, psps and playstations. This is "funner" than all of those. I so love Lucky Super 200 films! I love the color it gives. Perfect on a bright sunny day. Thanks to Digiprint at Parksquare 1 Makati for processing my films. I could be rich by now if Digiprint pays me for their advertisments. Oh well.. just wanna thank them anyway. Love working with kids. They are so true to themselves. Real emotions right at their faces. I just love it. Thanks to Ayla and Jolly for inviting me to dkidnu.

Con-Ass Rally @ Makati

Con-Ass Rally Makati / June 2009
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June 10, 2009. It was a beautiful wednesday afternoon til I went out for lunch and saw this huge number of people!!! i just said to myself, What da!!! I grabbed my camera and started shooting. i didnt had much coz i still have a lot of things to do in the office. Its another first for me to participate in a rally and shoot along hundreds of photographers and media men.

Chili Fingers

Chili Fingers / October 2008

This is one of my favorite dishes in Gery's Grille. Its pepper wrapped in Lumpia wrapper. Stuffed with cheese inside. This really tastes good. Its not that spicy if you look at it. Its manageable and will not sweat you out. You got to try this one out.