The Top 5 Photos of March 2022
by Emman Araullo
March had Zone V Camera Club members seeing double as the theme for this month’s contest was “Double Exposure”. It was double the effort for most of the members as there were a lot who expressed that they have not tried creating double exposures prior to the contest. This, however, also doubled the fun as members had to explore and learn new techniques in both shooting in-cam and post processing to create the necessary images.
The judges for this month are former Canon brand ambassador, current Datacolor expert for the Philippines, and first Dell Monitor brand Ambassador Jo Avila.
Multi-award winning contemporary painter and owner of Eskinita Gallery, Alfredo Esquillo.
Last, but not least, is Zone V’s own Tonnette Jacinto, who holds the distinction of being the first female ZVCC President in 2006 and the first female and 3-time ZVCC “Photographer of the Year”.
The top 5 photos for the month are as follows:
#5 “Inner Beauty” by Cha Pagdilao
Shot with Sony A7III with 18-200 lens
Double exposures aren’t new for Cha as she uses it regularly in her travel photography in order to share the “beautiful people together with the amazing places in one frame.” In this photo, she made use of a telephoto lens so she can “shoot from a distance” and still show the “candid smile of the subject”.
The only challenge that she encountered was having to “wait and click for the right moment for every subject”.
#4 “A World Full of Facemask” by Mac Omega
Both photos shot with a Nikon D500 with Nikon 16-18 f/2.8-4 lens
Lauded by the judges for its timely message; according to Mac, this was his very intent in creating and submitting this photo. He wanted to “highlight the importance of wearing facemasks especially in public places” as it serves as the “primary defense against COVID 19”.
Looking ahead to the end of the pandemic, Mac also wants it to act as a “remembrance” of his experience of living through a pandemic. The message was clearly received as Mac’s photo also garnered the most votes to be recognized as the winner for this month’s “Members Cup”.
#3 “Shadow of My Shoes” by David Lim
After initially creating double exposure images utilizing human profiles and foliage “a la wedding photographers”, David decided try a different route. His winning photo was captured in his own driveway and was “done in a few minutes… one photo with the shoes + human and the other just shoes in the same placement”.
Post processing was also done with relative ease, utilizing masks and the “transparency gradient tool” to create the final image.
#2 “Infinity and Beyond” by Cha Pagdilao
Shot with Sony A7III with 11-18 lens
With 2 entries landing in the top 5, it isn’t a surprise that Cha also bagged the title “Photographer of the Month”. In this photo she merged shots taken of the “Baclaran” corridor and “Libingan ng mga Bayani”. For Cha, cemetery shots have personal relevance because the “surrealistic image conveys the final journey to infinity”. Add to that a transformation from church to cemetery and it creates an image which opens up an opportunity for personal reflection, something even the judges pointed out. Cha says she made use of a wide angle lens in order to exaggerate the “converging lines on a point that seems to be infinite”.
She also made sure to “maintain vertical lines as vertical with no visible or minimal distortion”, a challenge that comes with the use of wide angle lenses.
#1 “Tranquila” by Fria Day Delfin
ISO 100; f/5.6; 1/60 sec.
Another probee making her presence felt in the monthly contest is Fria Day Delfin. She captured this month’s top spot with an overall score of 4.550. For her photo, she said that during conceptualization, she immediately “thought of inviting her niece and her boyfriend” as the subject to serve as the “base photo”. While on the hunt for another photo to overlay, what crossed her mind were the “dried up ornamental plants and flowers” in their own living room. It wasn’t until post processing when she realized that the photos turned out to be the perfect match for each other.
Day says that her key learning from this exercise was the importance of “using a plain background and that the overlaying effect will come through predominantly on the dark portions of the images”. Furthermore, she shared that she had fun learning the double exposure technique and that it is something that she will play around with in the future.
