• WHAT IS YOUR GEAR?

I use a Canon 5D Mk II, but for photos prior to October 2009, I was using a 40D and then a 350D since 2005. 

I have an Olympus OM-1 MD with a 50mm 1.4 Zuiko Lens

I have a Canon Speedlite 550EX II Flash

Speedlite Transmitter st-e2

Generic Fiber Optic Ring Flash

• MY DSLR LENSES ARE:

Canon 50mm f1.4 

Sigma 20mm f1.8

Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro

Canon 70-200 f4 USM

• MY FAVORITE LENS….

…would be the Sigma 20mm 1.8 because I like wide angles, but not to the point of uncanny distortion. I like it because it helps me get the big picture, get it? :)

• WHAT LENS WOULD WE NEED FOR CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY?

Anything that has a large aperture. A 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 is all you really need in my opinion, but if you want variation, having fast lenses are important. 

• HOW DO YOU TAKE PICTURES IN A VERY DARK SETTING?

Your lens must be fast. Get a f1.4 or 1.8 or f2. f3.5 is still tolerable to f4 but that’s only if your lens has solid quality and it gives good noise combined with your camera. As for shutter speed - If you go below 1/60 it’ll blur if your subject moves quickly. Normally I go as far as 1/30 especially if they’re standing still. but that’s just the lowest I could get. Sometimes I get away with 1/15, but I wouldn’t move nor breathe until I get it right. If it’s really dark, you see, there’s no choice but to raise the ISO.  It’s better if it’s lower, but sometimes grainy photos are good too.

Turn up the ISO of course and wait… I waited until I could get the musician to stand still for a moment with the proper amount of light on him.

• CANON OR NIKON?

Both are good, as I have friends, partners or even students who use Nikon. Even though I cannot help them with the controls, when we discuss the output of the photos afterwards I no longer consider it as coming from either Canon or Nikon. 

I really believe that it is the photographer who makes the photos and not the camera, although better equipment does help ease some of our woes in certain conditions, but not always. Skill is a human trait slowly developed, not something you get from an expensive tool. 

• HOW DID YOU LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY & HOW DID YOU END UP DOING MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY? 

I took up Fashion Design and Marketing at the LaSalle College International. I was a rock stylist for bands. I started out initially working for music videos of pop stars until I met Rico Blanco who hired me be Rivermaya’s personal stylist. After that I worked with The Dawn as their personal stylist. In between I would help out other bands in their photoshoots and music videos. 

In the course of my working with music and fashion I had to document my work. Taking photos of musicians performing isn’t an easy task, so I had to keep practicing and eventually bought a DSLR because if I don’t get a good shot, my portfolio wouldn’t look as good. 

Eventually I realized I could make this into a career. Essentially I was self-taught, but Francis Brew taught me the basics on how to use a camera being a photographer himself.

I started out as a Fashion stylist in the music industry in 2003 and so I have been taking photos eversince. Professionally it was in 2007, when I had my first international photography gig for MUSE in Hong Kong. In the same year I toured with Rivermaya in Singapore and was chosen to be a part of the Breakthrough Exhibit by JPG Magazine held at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. 

1. Refer to to this PhilStar article: Music Photography up close
2. and this note on facebook 
3. Why Music Photography Post

• AMONG ALL THOSE YOU’VE TAKEN, WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PHOTO?

I have so much, but SO FAR this one photo of Rico Blanco has brought me a ton of luck. It’s awesome and it sucks at the same time because I’m still trying to top that photo. I’m in constant search for one that can have so much emotion and at the same time a story behind it. A story behind the photo is most important to me and technicality is only secondary. Every year I try to have a favorite photo though, I’ll probably make a yearly selection. :)

• WHO’S THE COCKIEST BAND/ARTIST YOU EVER TOOK PHOTOS OF AND WHY? 

So far no one has ever really gotten as close to wild performance as Jay of Kamikazee. If you’ve seen them, you know why. Ian Tayao is a pretty good performer… You’d expect backflips from him even on a small stage. 

• DOES BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER EARN YOU A LOT OR JUST ENOUGH?

Hah… An age old dilemma, even with photographers in other fields. In my case, I don’t expect to earn, but sometimes it does pay. One of the reasons why I go out of the country, or shoot festivals is that I can wire my photos to different media. 

Just think, if you’re shooting rock and roll, you have to have a taste of your own rock and roll, right? I’ve been living like that since 2003 and I get my money from other means (I sell my soul - kidding!). I do other work for media, I write, I do work in fashion, among other things if the music season hasn’t arrived yet. 

If you really want to do something, you gotta find ways to make it work. It’s a seasonal thing and most events happen at night so my body clock I can say is the same as most artists. For now, I’ve got a ton of memories and a lot of the people I have taken photos of have become good friends, too. Those things are more important to me.

• WORST CONCERT VENUE TO SHOOT IN THE COUNTRY? 

Wala naman, depende lang sa lighting director. I always look forward to the event when Shari or Dennon are the lighting directors, especially Dennon, because he tells me where the good angles are :D

• HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH / HANDLE REJECTION?

I take these things as how some people take fate or destiny. If I’m meant to take photos of something or someone, then I get it. If I don’t then someone else is meant to do the job (or needs it more than I do). If I wasn’t there at a specific event, then I may feel bad for a moment, but there’ll be other times, other opportunities.

As Brian Duffy said, “One of the things we agree on photography is I can’t understand how you do it. That’s what defeats me all the bloody time. Because it’s the ONLY FORM that any numbskull, nitwit or halfwit can do with as much competence as we do it. You can’t do that if you pick up a violin.”

I don’t really look at myself in a special way that I feel bad if I don’t get the projects I want. Anyone can pick up a camera and shoot the way I do, especially in this era of technology. I’m just thankful for all the access I’ve been given and the ones that are about to come, whatever they may be.

• MY TAKE ON FILM AND LOMOGRAPHY:

I remember someone asked me about shooting in film and told me that it would be wasteful thing to do. My answer was that I told the guy to ask the people who started this whole trend in the 70s. They captured photos of Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and Rolling Stones using film. 

Using film is actually helping out film companies because if nobody buys from them they will stop producing them.

I had an entire roll of film and I knew nothing about concert photography then but I was able to take this shot in 2004 using a 70s OLYMPUS OM-1 MD

It’s not the best, but I was lucky (and thankful) to get it, much like waiting on how a roll of film turns out. I have more, but they’re better on print since my scanner kind of sucked 7 years ago (it was already 4 years old at the time). I no longer have the negatives but hopefully Rico didn’t throw them away, but he has large hard copies of it. 

I started out using a 35mm instamatic, which I sometimes put cellophane on the lens to make it more interesting. You can check out my photos of Kitchie Nadal here.

My first lomo was a Holga since I wanted to try out medium format. It wasn’t my thing, but I would take photos randomly with it before. 

There is a fisheye in the house but it’s Francis’. 

I’m not using film right now because of the very high demand of clients for fast output. Sometimes I give them photos within the day and then after that they demand even faster results. Shooting in film again is one dream of mine that I want the freedom to be able to do again without the pressure of delivering in such short notice. 

• ON EDITING:

To me editing can mean two things. Selecting and correcting. Selecting is a form of editing that I wouldn’t be able to put into words how you could do it, but it would rely on one’s taste. As for correcting, I would just color correct, but I don’t have the time to apply it to everything. Most of the time I would just tweak the contrast and that’s it. I learned to tweak the settings from the camera, like white balance, saturation, etc and then I get a good shot from it.  If the light’s really bad sometimes I do have to color correct. I had this wrong notion before that any photo with a majority of RED on it (like red lights) should be color corrected. The fact is - you shouldn’t always, if you just feel like it - and if it needs to be. You’re the judge of your own work. How is your perception of your individual rockstar. 

I’m a fan of classic music photography, so I’m not really much for overtweaking it. There weren’t tweaking in the old days except for old school dodging and burning and their filters and film we’re used for correcting the white balance, but they did produce some freakishly awesome shots and I want to achieve that. Also, concert lights are normally pretty cool on their own so there’s not much photoshop needed (except when placing watermarks).

• WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST SHOT AND WHAT IS YOUR MOST UNFORGETTABLE EVENT. 

i don’t remember the first photo I ever took because back in grade school I always had a camera with me taking pictures of my classmates for blackmail. 

My most unforgettable event would be taking photos of MUSE in Hong Kong. It was my first international gig and we were only given 10 minutes (or 3 songs) to shoot. 

• WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT EVER. 

If I tell you what my greatest accomplishment is, I’ll probably die tomorrow. That means my mission here on Earth is done, haha! I don’t think I will be able to reach a level and say, I’ve done it. It never lands, you see. When you finish doing something you always end up wanting to improve.  I don’t rest on my laurels, IF they’re even considered achievements.

You can read this maybe for the optional worldly specifics on accomplishments.

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