My First Photo Shoot

I just had my first photo shoot in Dubai Heritage Village.

The group that I had joined is Lightform- a group of volunteer Filipino professional photographers who aims to help fellow OFWs in Dubai to learn photography and, if pursued further, the student can earn more money. We meet once a week in a two hour class, this will be for at least 3 months.

This group is still recognized by the Philippine Consulate in Dubai. So there is no question of legitimacy. Their projects and programs are also supported by the local government in Dubai.

It was our first project as photography students. We came in early as 7 am to the village. The aim was to know how to use our previous lectures on lenses, camera functions and exposures. The task was to shoot as many photos as possible with information of ISO, aperture, focal length, shutter speed and bracketing. Thus, each shot must be underexposed, overexposed, and rightly exposed. Composition was not yet discussed, so it was up to the student to set the subject of his/her photos.

Armed with my newly bought Canon 350D camera, I was limited by my sole lens of 18-55 mm, no tripod. Due to budget constraints, I have to do with what I had. Never mind my fellow students who carried their expensive tripods, cameras and bags of lenses.
I had applied theories and learned to experiment in taking photos.

One good thing that photography has imbibed in me is, I get to see everyday things in a new light. I always pursue angles in everything that I see even when I am in the bus, going home. I sometimes look in a soda and, look at it again, intently, with an immediate question in mind, "how will I take a shot of this soda can that will put meaning into it?"

With the sweltering heat, and, since it is Ramadan here, drinking water in public is not allowed, aggravating our situation more.
I did not use these excuses to give up, instead I used it to propel me more to take shots.

Above is a slide show of some shots I have taken. These were reviewed by our teachers and guess what?... for a beginner, I got the score of "EXCELLENT"! Hope I get to retain it till I graduate!