bloody catwalk show

© Joselito Briones
this one's from lleida, in catalan

busy weekend

© Joselito Briones

it's summer and people are traveling. a friend, rene (photo above), visited us this weekend overnight. it was a short visit on a short notice so i wasn't able to prepare anything to do a shoot - he's modeled for me before - and anyway it was too hot i didn't feel like doing anything but stay in and sleep. he went out shopping with mati. another visitor last weekend was marcus from london and his boyfriend, who dropped by on their way to ibiza. tonight it's mike from singapore, who's currently doing his euro tour (he was in london and iceland, and passed by berlin on his way to poland). i took an iphone photo of us at the restaurant where we met (tony roma's - for the simple reason that it was right there at our meeting place - the marlene dietrich platz) but when i switched phones (the new iphone arrived finally! and no hassle from delivery guy this time) - the photos were lost. it was actually the first time i met mike, but we're in the same email list that regularly gives updates of what everybody's up to, so we've been corresponding for some time already.


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A change of color

From shooting to being shot. Frieder and the Habbekrats team filmed a commercial video for a special line of Asics shoes that changes color when exposed to the sun, and decided to include me in it. The video includes MTV Deutschland VJ Patrice (ex of pop/soul/rock diva Anastacia) - he's the one riding the bike.


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donath

© Joselito Briones

it's becoming our regular thing to do dinner at donath cafe trattoria on a weekend. we like the place a lot. it's good home-style italian food, no frou frou, nothing fancy, the crowd is not the pretentious type, and the staff is very friendly. that it's a couple of minutes walk from where we live is a plus :)

the owner was also very nice to let me do a stock shoot there with another photographer a few weeks ago (photo, above, is from that shoot).


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p.s. the people from tineye dropped me a thank you note note for what i said the other day. there's no goodie bag, but they were nice to allow me to invite some people (it's by invitation only for the meantime while still under development) who wants to try out their awesome image search engine. if you're curious to try it out, give me a holler and i'll send you an invite!

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floren gallery

© Floren Caintic

remember i once told you about floren putting up his own gallery in hong kong? it is now a reality. he calls it floren gallery, and recently held a successful group exhibit of filipino artists based in hong kong, called "alternatibo".

and the timing of this post? his birthday, of course :)

happy birthday rene!


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holy macaroni! batman, is that you?

© Joselito Briones

did the ikea thing (buy useless must-buy things, eat tasteless food) last weekend. just about everything was available in black. is black back? i didn't get the memo. even the gloves i usually buy for dishwashing are now available (only) in black. ok it's latex and it's matted, so not really shiny black but more like lead charcoal. either they've finally caught on to the emo thing, or they're riding the barack popularity wave. and seeing how popular ikea is, don't be surprised if you find black in just about every household you visit, at least in germany.

i ran out of the old tangerine-colored gloves last night so i tore open the new black pack (even giggled a little: black latex gloves, hi hi). lo and behold, i like it! now i know how batman feels when alfred is out running errands and he's got to do the dishes himself. of course after nearly dropping the plate i was washing i just snapped back into reality. the magic was gone. some wise guy once said it's not the mask, it's the process of transformation. that process ended abruptly, unfortunately.

home dining tip #12: get yourself proper pasta plates. even mediocre pasta tastes good in one. it makes the food look special. it makes the serving look less (you'll feel less guilty in gobbling the whole glob of whatever trash you put in it), and it gives you a feeling of "there's something special in the air" which is, sad to admit, the only time we ever go to a restaurant that uses this kind of plate. the one pictured above (really big and heavy) is from manufactum, one of my favorite shops in berlin.


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image search technology

© Joselito Briones

thanks to tineye's ubercool search technology, i've recently found more of my imges in use, including the front page of msn.com's swiss site (unfortunately already changed to a different photo):

cosmogirl.com
zigonet.com
openroad.tv
healthtalk.coom
hubpages.com
hoax-slayer.com
real-restaurant-recipes.com

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models, inc.

© Joselito Briones

am now totally sold on using professional models, not exclusively, of course. it's just so easy. it's difficult to take bad photos of them, they know how to love the camera, they come all groomed, and at least here in berlin, they come on time. :) one even came with a viktor & rolf goodie bag for me when he picked up his copy of the photos. how cool is that? :)

photo above is of david , whom i photographed a couple of weeks ago.

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photos coming out

© Joselito Briones


Some of the photos I've taken are starting to show up in some online magazines, including the one above, in "Women's Health":

womenshealthmag.com
cosmogirl.com
boston.com
eurorizen.be
mcflight.de
voyageetbusiness.com
primus electronics



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Image of the Week

screenshot of iStockphoto.com website

Woo yay!!! A photo I took of Daniel made it to the site's Image of the week feature. :)


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Our Story Now Begins

© Joselito Briones

Yep. Finally happened. I got my copy a couple of weeks ago. Have a listen.


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Jane's, before

© Joselito Briones

Beautiful day. Mati and I decided to take photos of Jane's living room, where we'll be spending the next few days, before we completely mess it up. Sort of a before and after picture. I'll try to post an "after" picture later. I took photos, above and below, using the Olympus E500, while Mati used his Voigtlander with ultra wide-angle lens.


© Joselito Briones

I've shown you a photo of this living room before, of course, in case you're wondering why it looks familiar.


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Jason Bourne

© Joselito Briones

This is another photo from the "Bourne Ultimatum" premiere in Leicester Square in London the other day. My guess is that one wouldn't think him a celebrity if one bumps into him somewhere, he looks like your everyday nice guy next door. He's constantly got that almost-shy constantly apologetic smile on his face. It's a credit to his acting and on-screen persona that he can carry both art films and action blockbusters.


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Ha!

© Joselito Briones

Am still here of course, spending most of my time in Wil's kitchen (photo, above). I know I owe you quite a lot of stories already, but I'll try to do it little by little, or maybe not. Am not really good at backtracking. I'll just show you photos of things that I've been seeing here in London.


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Star appeal

© Joselito Briones

I was in Leicester Square to buy tickets for a West End musical and I stumbled upon the premiere of "Bourne Ultimatum" in Odeon Theater. The stars of the movie were there, including some other celebrities, so I was just happy snapping away.

Photo above is of Julia Stiles, who's now been in all three Bourne movies. She's very beautiful in person, and seemed nice enough to fans. Oh and her hair, perfectly set.


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And, jazz... feet...

© Joselito Briones

I spent most of the morning on my back, trying to get the perfect pose for a picture, a la "jazz handssss....", only with my feet. I can't even remember where I bought this pair of socks.

I also don't know which is more troubling, that I have such colorful socks, or that I have socks with individual toes, or that I can spread my toes like this.

In the afternoon we did our grocery shopping for the whole week.


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ROTFLMAO

Ann emailed this. So funny!!!

According to the poster: (byronfgarcia)
"1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice! This is not the final routine, and definitely not a punishment! just a teaser."


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The Fall of Bastille

© Joselito Briones

The photo above is of Ronnie and Jerome, taken during the Regent's Park picnic that followed "The Fall of Bastille" (a.k.a., their official partnership registration here in London). I've got way too many photos on that day, having had 3 separate events to commemorate the occasion... the ceremony itself in the city hall near their apartment in Baker Street, this picnic in Regent's Park, and a Boat trip along River Thames.

This was taken 14th of July, Bastille Day. We didn't tell either Ronnie and Jerome that we'd be able to make it to celebrate with them, so they were very surprised to see us during the ceremony.


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London trip confirmed

© Joselito Briones

Mati has been for sometime asked by his company to work in England again, but he hasn't really been agreeable with the terms they offer, so he's declined it (and it's in some other city, not in London). This time they offered him a short-term assignment instead (6 weeks) in London, so he took it. I've also got several things to do in London (Ronnie and Jerome's partnership ceremony, Wil's housewarming party, iStock minilypse), so I'm tagging along. So yeah, for the next 6 weeks starting Friday, Mati and I will be in London.

Photo above is one of my absolute favorite places to visit in London, the National Portrait Gallery, taken during my recent trip there. Okay, it's actually the building behind the ornate wrought iron street lamp and kiosk. I've always been fascinated by the human face as photography (and drawing) subject, and this place has a treasury of the different styles different personalities have been portrayed.


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Dark Room

© Joselito Briones

This time I made sure the film rolls are in my bag, before going to Frankenlabor. Managed to do a bit of grocery shopping too. Photo above is a building I always pass by on the way to the supermarket.

I had the apartment all to myself. I used the toilet as a dark room to process the Tmax 100 films that I used in New York and California, with Rodinal (I only brought the Ilford XP2's to Frankenlabor for processing, I don't have the chemicals for that).

I think most of them turned out well, they're now hanging in the walk-in closet. Can't wait to scan them.


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Green

© Joselito Briones

Eric phoned with a very exciting news. He finally got his green card! That was pretty quick, and he himself was very surprised, he wasn't expecting it until after he comes back from his upcoming trip to the Philippines.

Photo above was taken last time I was in New York, in Central Park, close to the Metropolitan Museum.


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