potato salad

© Joselito Briones

today's dinner: potato salad with mixed mushrooms, sage, pepperoni, white wine, parsley and shaved parmesan cheese. i did the traditional german potato salad the other day (one with ham and gherkin) so i thought i'd try something else tonight.


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chris

© Joselito Briones

last week was floren's, today is chris' birthday. photo taken when mati and i visited them in hong kong late last year. we had lunch in their balcony. chris flipped burgers for us. ha! (he grilled 'em in the balcony). happy birthday chris! 

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mannequin

© Joselito Briones

today's shoot went fairly smoothly, to the point that it was also a bit boring. same seamless paper background as the other day, and lotsa clothes changes. that he wears exactly the same clothes size as me (at least when i bought the clothes) was a big plus. model louis is a skaterboy whose facial features look so delicate. summer holiday for german students started this week, so he was able to do this shoot.


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more from yesterday's shoot

© Joselito Briones

i rushed some photos from yesterday's shoot because i haven't uploaded anything for a week, and i was able to do 4, here's one of them. another shoot tomorrow (if the model shows up). good thing josephine came in today and ironed the clothes for the shoot tomorrow, else i would've had to do it myself.


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today's photoshoot

© Joselito Briones

i finally decided to get one of them seamless background hanger, just so i won't have anymore excuse not to do studio-type shoots. it was delivered this morning. just in time for a photoshoot using a seamless paper background! today's model is Joel, who's swiss and who's just come back to europe from one year of music studies in the lala land.


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Where do you want me to look?

© Joselito Briones




*****
Any photographer who has ever done a shoot with models would have been asked this question at one point. It's easy enough to remember that your point of view will be exactly the same as that of the people who will see your photo. The answers:

"Look at the lens."
-(keyworded and disambiguated as "Looking at Camera (composition)")
Easiest and direct, this is where the photographer makes the most connection with the model. There is instantaneous feedback between the two, and both are immediately satisfied. Ads that use this kind of photos are direct and confrontational - hard sell. It says to the viewer, "You! Look here, you want this. Trust me." Needless to say, for this kind of images to work, you need trustworthy-looking models, or at least ones whom a viewer will not feel threatened by. Exception is when you deliberately want your message to be threatening.

"Look away from the lens"
- (keywords: Looking Away / Sideways Glance) Probably the most popular stock pose. The viewer is totally comfortable looking at the photo because he knows he is not being addressed, yet if the body of the model is still mostly facing the camera, there's still some sort of connection between the the subject and the observer. Like safely watching someone - there's a chance of direct contact but at that particular moment that the photo was shot, the viewer is within the comfort of anonymity. Add a hint of a smile and the ambiguity of connection between subject and viewer is enhanced. If the model's body is also turned away from the lens, the dynamics is lost and the viewer really is just an outside observer - even with an interesting expression, the subject is perceived to be reacting from a third person in or out of the frame.
- (keywords: Looking Away / Looking Up / Candid) The subject is mostly reacting to his/her own thoughts and feelings, or carefree and unaware of his/her body language, usually on the positive side.
- (keywords: Looking Away / Looking Down) Introverted and shy. It could be someone who's very personal or very sly. It also suggests that the subject is completely aware of being observed.

"I don't know, anywhere."
- The photographer is either very inexperienced that he doesn't know what to do, or he's very confident that he kows he can make it work whatever the model does.

"Let's try a few varations."
- The photographer has been making stock photos for sometime.




*****


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floren

© Joselito Briones

it's birthday greets time! this one goes to floren. photo taken of him in his seriously posh home office, something i'm so hugely envious of.


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clones

© Joselito Briones

ok, last ever photo from the uk, promise. this was the intended effect from the previous photo of michael.


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michael

© Joselito Briones

this is the only solo photo of michael i took from the trip, also in harthill hall.


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chris

© Joselito Briones

another one i haven't posted a photo of from the UK trip group, chris. this one was taken at the gherkin restaurant.


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jerome

© Joselito Briones

i've just realized i haven't posted a photo of jerome yet, so here it is, taken in baslow hall.


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wil in haddon hall

© Joselito Briones

and yet another one of wil. so by now you know why there wasn't many of him to begin with.


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one more of wil

© Joselito Briones

he's been complaining that there isn't enough photos of him from the derbyshire trip, so here ya go.


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i thought i'd write you a letter...

© Joselito Briones

one of marco's more inspired performances, photo taken in harthill hall.


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hoshi hoshi

© Joselito Briones

i had my hair cut today. i wanted to have it really really short, but chika decided to cut it little by little while asking if i really wanted it shorter. as always, she did a great job. the short length made my gray hairs more visible, which is fine. it's perfect for the summer.

photo above is of their poster in the hackescher markt s-bahn station, close to where their shop is.


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P.S.

i remember i did another post about having a haircut in their east village branch in new york... and waddaya know... it's the same haircut as i have now!

baked chicken

© Joselito Briones
fresh from the even


© Joselito Briones
ready to go

i made this last sunday. basically chicken breast filled with basil-butter, then wrapped in bacon, then baked with potatoes and cherry tomatoes, and capers. that leafy thingy in the photo is of course rosemary. the recipe was from some charity thingy back when we were still in london.


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the gayest usb hub of all

© Joselito Briones

i bought this one last weekend, made by LaCIE, because i can imagine the effort that the designer must have gone through. ha!. it also comes with a usb lamp and propeller at the end of those stiff cables. seems to work, if a bit difficult to set up. i can return it within two weeks if it turns out it doesn't do its job, so i thought I'd show you now, just in case. ah who am i kidding, i'll prolly keep it.


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vapiano

© Joselito Briones

I so wanted to like this restaurant. It's so nicely located in Potsdamer Platz, and convenient after watching a movie because it's right by Sony Center. It's even recommended by a friend. The decor is decent and yet friendly. The staff is nice.

The concept is also interesting. It's basically self-service. Upon entering, you are given some sort of a credit card that you present to the staff who makes the food, then when you go out you give back the card and they'll see how much you've eaten. Inside, you grab a menu, take your pick, and give it to someone behind a counter who'd cook the dish right in front of you. Okay, that's kinda pretentious in a it's-so-fresh-and-you-know-exactly-what-goes-in-your-food kind because let's face it, everything is ready-made and portioned just-throw-'em-in-the-pan ready, but at least it's different. In Berlin if it's different enough people are bound to at least try it. So try we did. So hmmm... maybe self-service and waiting on the counter for your food may not be the best idea after all, especially when you can be sitting instead of standing and waiting in front of the cook watching him throw everything in the pan. But wait, the serving actually looks pretty! So hey, this can't be too bad, right?

Then of course time to sit (communal sitting downstairs, didn't bother to check out the sitting upstairs) and do away with the food. And this is where it all falls apart. For a restaurant that serves mainly pasta and pizza, and boasts of having their pasta always freshly made, their pasta is just plain yukky. It would've done them better if they bought the usual boil-em in a big pot ready-made pasta, any kind, because any kind would've been better. Theirs managed to be both soggy and gummy at the same time (I tried two kinds, just to be sure). No bite whatsoever and the thing sticks in your gums! Hahahaha! It's just horrible. You know how when you bake bread or anything with a dough and some part of the dough doesn't get cooked, so it's all like sticky and ewwwy? Well, soak that part in some water and you'll pretty much get the consistency of their pasta. It's so bad that I wasn't able to finish my small bowl of pizza dish. I can't remember when's the last time (must be years) I didn't finish my plate because I always eat a lot, so this gives you an idea of how bad it was.

Can't wait to try their pizza! Ha ha!


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peonies

© Joselito Briones

The peonies we bought last weekend are officially dead. It's kinda disappointing because I was expecting them all to open up. I love fully open peonies. When we bought these two big bunches from the farmer's market we were told by the man selling it that we should put it in very hot water, almost boiling, so the stems won't go limp (who knew?), so in hot water it went, and the stems remained relatively stiff, unfortunately the flowers didn't bloom any further either. Ah well.


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ann and chris in hardwick

© Joselito Briones

more of the loving, camera-friendly couple. this one was taken in hardwick hall.


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ann and chris in dovedale

© Joselito Briones

more from dovedale, this time ann and chris again. was such a lovely day.


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david in print

© Joselito Briones

On a recent Air Berlin flight I saw this magazine advertising a man's bracelet using a photo I took of David. Always nice to discover my work used in such a way. Oddly though, I cannot find any web presence for the company advertised - "Rhino".


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