Gau in Bakewell

© Joselito Briones

This photo of Gau was taken in Bakewell in front of the snotty cafe.


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the one who refuses to go away

© Joselito Briones

Back in London. Wil and I went to Putney to look at the house that he's buying. It's a lovely semi-detached in a quiet neighborhood. We did the measurements, which wasn't very easy because the old woman who owns the house is still there - together with all her stuff - most of which are breakable.





© Joselito Briones

First thing that I thought of, since it's obvious that Wil loves having friends around, and everybody invariably gravitates toward the kitchen/dining room anyway, is to suggest to convert this garage, next to the kitchen, to an informal dining room. He's currently enrolled in a car-sharing program and has no immediate plan to buy a car, and visitors can always park in the driveway.





© Joselito Briones

Photo above is Wil talking with the current owner (not shown). At first glance she's the typical old lady, nice and gentle and proper, but when you talk to her it becomes obvious that she's always calculating and that she's rather cunning. All the time that we were there, she kept offering Wil stuff that she won't be taking with her (usually junk) and her effort in making everything sound appealing was just admirable, albeit ineffective. Wil was fuming when we left because she insisted to extend her stay in the house by a few days, at Wil's expense (he'll have to rent a place to stay those extra few days), and brushes Wil off with "Oh I'm sure you got friends who'll accommodate you! If not I've got friends who'll put you up." Shrewd, if not cunning.


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Wall Street Series

© Joselito Briones

This finance website from Poland used some of my photos.
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3

Thanks :)


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Wil at Harthill Hall

© Joselito Briones

This is one of the NUMEROUS photos I took of Wil and everyone else who joined the gathering at Harthill Hall. It would be fun to put it side by side with the original photo and play "spot the difference". haha!


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Duplicity

© Universal

Saw this movie tonight at Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz. Smart dialogue and great chemistry between Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Some predictable outcome (SPOILER ALERT!), i.e., when you see that Wilkinson's character became the moral one among the characters, and this being a holywood movie, you just know he's gonna be on top in the end. Over all tho a very entertaining movie.

Verdict: recommended.


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food stuff

© Wil

I've almost forgotten this, but since Wil is the only one who comments on my videos, i had to go check his videos too, no? done by Wil from another trip (early last year), this time in some posh restaurant in Chamonix.


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And the award goes to...

© Joselito Briones

Good news! My sister Irma, ("Neh" to the family) was awarded the "Global Achievement Award" in her company. She's an industrial engineer managing production in Africa and the Middle East of products distributed in mainstream U.S. markets (Saks, Target, GAP, etc.).

Congratulations, Neh! We're proud of you!

(Photo taken in Dubai)

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white belt tip - color adjustment

© Joselito Briones

In the latest issue of "Contact Sheet", the newsletter for iStockphoto contributors, a short tip/article I submitted was used:



*****
Color Adjustment
By: attator

Adjusting the colors of an image also changes its actual or perceived luminosity. If it's only the image's color that needs adjusting, this can be done without touching the luminosity (contrast, brightness) by instructing the software to limit the adjustment only to colors. RAW format processors, for example, usually have an option to apply noise reduction only to colors, thereby instantly solving the problem of chroma noise while preserving the texture of the image. In Photoshop, it's also easy enough to duplicate the main layer and assigning the new layer as "color" and do all kinds of color shifts and adjustments to this color layer. Still in Photoshop, just before saving the file in jpeg format, while still in the color layer, a simple localized gradual desaturation can be applied by running repeatedly (as many times as required) an action that goes:

* select - color range - out of gamut (to adjust only colors that are out of bounds, leaving the rest in their full colorful glory)
* select - modify - expand - a few pixels / select - modify - feather - a few pixels (to avoid banding)
* modify - image - desaturate - a few levels down

Repeat as necessary.


*****

Photo above was taken in Miami on a recent trip, I used the above process to push it to maximum saturation without going out of gamut.

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Back to London

© Joselito Briones

Today we drove back to London. On the way back, we went to Haddon Hall and Hardwick Park ("Lady Spencer's Walk" and the grounds full of cows and cow shit>. As it was when we went to the Peak District, Ronnie and Jerome (photo above) were kind enough to give us a ride. They dropped us by Wil's, then after some time to take a quick rest we met up again in their flat in Baker Street and from there, dinner. Indian.


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macathon

© Joselito Briones

This is what we usually do at night, after dinner. Curiously enough nobody brought a windows notebook.


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lovely dinner

© Joselito Briones

After Dovedale, we all went back to the house for the dinner that Ann's group prepared. It was most excellent. Salmon and vegies on bread and olive-filled mini pastries for starters, perfectly done roast leg and shoulder of lamb and potatoes for main, and Eton mess for dessert. This is what holidays should always be like.

Photo above is Jerome carving one of the two big pieces of roast. We finished all of it.





© Joselito Briones

Chow time!





© Joselito Briones

Ann and Chris making the dessert.


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Dovedale

© Joselito Briones

Today's outing is in Dovedale, to enjoy the beautiful landscape of the Peak District. It was all about leisure walks and setting up a picnic to eat and soak up the sun.

© Joselito Briones

It turned out to be a popular thing to do among locals and tourists alike as there were quite a lot of people there. Enough to give a very lively cheerful atmosphere but not too much to ruin the place.

© Joselito Briones

Another group photo. I'm sure there's a video version somewhere in my files. I've snapped too many photos to keep track.


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group photo

© Joselito Briones

After Chatsworth, we all went back to the cottage for dinner. The system was that the guests (everyone but the two birthday celebrants - Marco and Wil) were divided into two groups who would take care of food in the house. Today's group in charge is lead by Ronnie. For dinner we had pork stew with potatoes. I'm excempt from doing any of the cooking and serving duties as I was the token photographer.

After dinner, I asked everyone to put on the best clothes that they brought for a group photo in the living room, to commemorate the gathering. Left to right: me, Mati, Chris A., Michael, Ann, Marco, Ronnie, Wil, Gau, Chris O., and Jerome.

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Chatsworth House

© Joselito Briones

This was taken yesterday, with Ann and Chris, in Chatsworth, where we spent most of the day. The site was used for such films as "Pride and Prejudice", "The Duchess", and "Wolfman".


Next: Dovedale

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Harthill Hall

© Joselito Briones

This is the manor that we're staying in for the weekend. It's called "Harthill Hall". The fact that it has a huge functioning old kitchen that has an old country feel (solid wood table and bench that could sit 12, chandelier, the works) is already a wow, but that the whole place, including the two living rooms and 6 bedrooms, are done in the same way, is just great.


© Joselito Briones

Photo above is Ann working the kitchen.


Next: Chatsworth

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Bakewell

© Joselito Briones

Video above was taken in Bakewell, a small village-town that's pretty. Unfortunately, the cafe shown above called "Ricci's", whose outside signboard boasts of having "friendly service" was actually very rude. Half of our group went there first and occupied two tables, and ordered drinks accordingly, but when the other half joined us and occupied a third table (there's a total of 11 of us), they were asked to vacate the table because this is for customers who buy drinks for them, but without asking them first if they wanted to order drinks. Losers.

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Fischers Baslow Hall

© Joselito Briones

Today's lunch was at Fischers Baslow Hall, a one-star Michelin rated restaurant in Derbyshire.

© Joselito Briones

Photo above is the reception area where guests can have drinks while waiting for the table.

© Joselito Briones

And this photo above, in the main dining area, shows (clockwise from left) Chris A., Ann, Ronnie, Chris O., Wil, Marco, Jerome, Michael, Gau, Mati and my pork dish.

Next: Bakewell and Harthill.


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gherkin lunch video

© Joselito Briones

video version, just gotta show marco and mati too.

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lunch at the gherkin

© Joselito Briones

Lunch at London's Gherkin Building today. The very pregnant Pearl extended an invitation to us (dining here is not open to the public, only people working for Swiss Re, the building owner for whom Pearl works, and those they invite are allowed in). The view is excellent, as one can see all of London - and it was a clear day by London standard, and above us was only a spiral dome of glass.

Photo (L_R) Chris, Wil, Pearl.





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de-stressing

© Joselito Briones

More birthday greetings. Marco flew in to Portugal from Manila for a bit of R&R, and we'll be celebrating his and Wil's birthday in England this weekend.

Happy birthday Marco!

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No cat needs saving

© Joselito Briones

On my last birthday, having mentioned to him that I now want to make a full length film (ha!), supportive as he always is, Wil sent me a big box of books on film making - everything from screenplay writing, directing, story bording, and digital videography. I managed to read through the books in two weeks and was psyched to get started, so I thought what better way to practice skills than to try to shoot footages on our forthcoming trip to the English countryside. Guided by the screenplay writing book "Save The Cat", I started doing a screenplay, planning to use only the (would-be) available resources - friends to be in it, locations we're gonna be in anyway. It was gonna be a totally camp "Emma" (location, location), but it proved too much in the end. The project is cancelled and instead (as per Wil's request) we're gonna do a video montage to a song. It's his birthday, and the weekend trip to the English countryside to celebrate his and Marco's birthday, so yay! Should be fun.

Happy birthday Wil!


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poker face

© Joselito Briones

This was a test on focus pulling (shallow depth of field, focus shifting from one subject to another). This is a 400x300 crop from an HD1920x1080 video.

j'adore

photo ©Joselito Briones / design: Adapt/Ryan Gello

It's always great when a designer sends me a mail to say he's used one of photos for an ad/design. This one is for a fashion event. Thanks Ryan!


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execution

© Joselito Briones
This is what I get for being too cheap to get a steadicam. Ah well.

bewitched princess

© Joselito Briones
this one is also from lleida, in catalunya. the models were there to have their photos taken, so they were surprised when i asked them if i could shoot video instead. on the first two takes they looked at the camera a lot. then they eventually relaxed and totally camped it.

video taken with Canon 5D mark II, processed in Photoshop Extended.
audio track "revenge" by plain white t's, provided by youtube

bloody catwalk show

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