Photo by Aaron Manila, First Prize in Still Life – Glass. Definitely impressive. But wait till you see the rest of the Top 10 winners, they are all stunning.
Glass is a difficult subject to photograph. You have to 1) convey the shape of the glass despite its transparency, 2) avoid specular highlights because glass is shiny and 3) make your photograph of the glass interesting. To top it all, glass is inherently difficult to light.
Batch 16 of 2009, Sunday class, surpassed all expectations by turning out product shots of various shapes of glass that were simply stunning. Almost all of them (there were 42), with just one or two exceptions, submitted entries that were worthy to be published in glossy magazines. This trend has been noticed since Batch 13 and continued through to Batch 14 and Batch 15. Glass as a subject for still life has been assigned before, in previous batches, but usually only the top entries got it right. In Batches 13 through 16 though, most of the students got their glass photos right. Was it the instructors? But the previous batches had the same instructors. Maybe the instructors were teaching new stuff? Or was it the new crop of photography enthusiasts? But they displayed the same competence as the previous batches when it came to portraits…
And that is what’s perplexing. While glass is more difficult and product photography is certainly more technically challenging than portrait photography, more students are getting it right in product shots than in portraiture. Are people more difficult to photograph?
Whatever the answer, Batch 16 turned in a fine crop of photos, especially in the Still Life category with glass as theme. The FPPF heartily applauds their work.
The winners:
Top Ten winners in Still Life (Glass) at front, L-R: Maria Lenavi Barrion-Ramos 5th, Von Echaluse 4th, Joatham Pertacorta 3rd, Aaron Manila 1st and Gabriel Tanabe 2nd. At the back are Noriel Ricaforte, John Bejo, Rachel Ann D. Romero, Ivy Cacho and Trudeau Geron.
Still Life Category – Glass:
- Aaron Manila – First Place
- Gabriel Tanabe – Second Place
- Joatham Pertacorta – Third Place
- Von Echaluse – Fourth Place
- Maria Lenavi Barrion-Ramos – Fifth Place
- Ivy Cacho – 6th Place
- John Bejo – 7th Place
- Rachelle Ann D. Romero – 8th Place
- Trudeau Geron – 9th Place
- Noriel Ricaforte – 10th Place
Portrait winners, Batch 16 2009. Front, L-R: Noriel Ricaforte 5th, Jessa Manalaysay-Javate 3rd, Joseph Jay C. Javate 1st, Aaron Manila 2nd and Norman Sebastian 4th. At the back: Crissy Cruz, Peter Chow, Ciara Mae Yap, Beth Rondera and Christopher Allan De Guzman.
Portrait Category:
- Joseph Jay C. Javate – First Place
- Aaron Manila – Second Place
- Jessa Manalaysay-Javate – Third Place
- Norman Sebastian – Fourth Place
- Noriel Ricaforte – Fifth Place
- Crissy Cruz – 6th Place
- Beth Rondera – 7th Place
- Christopher Allan De Guzman – 8th Place
- Ciara Mae Yap – 9th Place
- Peter Chow – 10th Place
Again, congratulations! And because all Top Ten photos in the Still Life category were really outstanding, we intend to display all ten this time in the Gallery. So, please email us your soft copy (1st Place to 10th Place) ASAP, so we can put it up for all to see. Great work!
