R.Belela Photography

Mysteries of Belém

Belela-san — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:58:44 +0000

Belém is an area of the city of Lisbon which holds some of the most iconic symbols of the city, like the Tower of Belém, the Monument of the Discoveries, Jerónimos Monastery, museums and so on (if you’re travelling to Lisbon and you’re coming to this area stop at the place where they the pastries of belem, you won’t regret it). I often come to this part of the city but never with the intent of taking pictures, this time I made sure I spent a while there taking as many good pictures as I could.

This picture of the Tower of Belém is probably one of the best pictures I took since I started photography not so long ago

Tokina 13mm f/16 HDR

Tokina 11mm f/16 30sec

This is near the Jerónimos Monastery

Tokina 16mm f/11 HDR

The Monument of Discoveries

Tokina 12mm f/16 HDR

Filed under: Misc Tagged: Belém, Lisboa, Lisbon, Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Portugal, Torre de Belém, Tower of Belem

Sunset at Ria Formosa

Belela-san — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:32:40 +0000

Ria Formosa is a system of of barrier islands that communicates with the Atlantic Ocean through 6 inlets, basically it’s one big swamp area located in Faro and other cities (yes it is big just look at google maps), it houses hundreds of species. People normally come here for a quick run or a walk while enjoying the scenery, but this place also plays an important role on the local economy, it’s from here that some of the sea food comes from.
I rarely come to this place because when the tide rises it’s impossible to get closer to any sort of subjects, last time I was here I almost fell backwards because of the sludge hidden between the grasses, but it’s a wonderful place for wildlife photographers and to those that want some sunset pictures.

The first set of pictures were taken last summer

Tokina 16mm f/20 HDR

Tokina 11mm f/20 HDR

Tokina 16mm f/20 0.5sec

The next pictures are the newest ones

Tokina 16mm f/18 HDR

Tokina 11mm f/16 1.6sec

Tokina 11mm f/16 3.2sec

Filed under: Landscapes Tagged: Algarve, Faro, Landscapes, Ria Formosa

Walking around the hills… again

Belela-san — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:00:23 +0000

The sunsets this time of the year are quite gorgeous on the hills, even more on the seaside, unfortunately my short free time hasn’t allowed me to go to the beaches that I want. Hope I’ll get some sea sunsets soon but for now I’ve been coming up and down the hills around my house.

Tokina 13mm f/11 1/50 iso100

HDR Tokina 16mm f/16 iso100

This one was taken over a year ago after a rainfall

Tokina 11mm f/6.3 1/800 iso100

Filed under: Landscapes Tagged: Landscapes, sunset, Tokina

Raw Edition 1

Belela-san — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:20:52 +0000

Lately I’ve been doing some raw editing on other photographers pictures besides my own. It’s quite refreshing because they give you their raw files and you can do whatever you want, as long as you don’t use watermarks which is perfectly understandable, I wouldn’t want my pictures with some else signature. If someone wants me to edit their raw files feel free to send the files to r.belela@gmail.com
These pictures that I edited belong to Jared Polin from Fro Knows Photo and Adam Lerner.

Here is a comparison from the raw straight out of the camera and the final version I made

Some kind of cyborg edition I did, the eye is from Adam Jensen from Deus Ex: Human Revolution

This one is quite unique, when I saw the raw file I was like… the heck am I going to do with this. Let’s try b&w, oh nice and the rest is the final picture

Filed under: Raw Editions Tagged: Adam Lerner, Fro Knows Photo, Jared Polin, raw, Raw edition, raw files

Sunset in the hills

Belela-san — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:31:16 +0000

I return to this place every once in a while, not only to reflect on things but shoot some pictures too. A very calm and remote place, but it can be extremely cold this time of the year because of the wind.

I love shooting my “girl”

HDR Tokina 11mm f/10

Tokina 13mm f/13 ; 5s

Tokina 11mm f/10 ; 0.6s

HDR Tokina 11mm f/14

Filed under: Landscapes Tagged: Landscape, SBA, sunset, Tokina

Focus your love

Belela-san — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:57:50 +0000

“Focus your love” is a phrase used by Sony to promote their NEX system. Decided to use it on this sunrise picture taken from my balcony

Shot taken with Sony A100, 16mm f/13 0.8s (Tokina 11-16mm)

Sony commercial for NEX-C3, Beloved by JuJu and model Kitagawa Keiko

Filed under: Landscapes Tagged: Landscape, Sunrise, Tokina

New Year Fireworks

Belela-san — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:54:54 +0000

So 2012 is already here. To celebrate the new year some fireworks are always needed, I couldn’t take as many pictures as I would like, mostly because I thought the fireworks were coming from one place and in the end they came from another (damn!!!!11). It was a good new year’s eve, lots of fun (not going over top thankfully), let’s hope for a good 2012.

Filed under: Events Tagged: Fireworks, New Year

Welcome

Belela-san — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:48 +0000

Welcome to R.Belela Photography. This is my third blog, correctly it would be my second but let’s keep it at 3. Decided to create a new blog because I’ve been more dedicated to photography itself than collecting figures. Since all of the previous posts were imported from my previous blog they won’t feature some of the new wordpress features. Hope you enjoy my pictures.

Filed under: Misc

Tohsaka Rin the Magus

Belela-san — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:36:41 +0000

Tohsaka Rin from Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works comes from the same series of GoodSmile figures as Saber Lily, you could say that this is some kind of an elite set of figures due to the high quality of both sculpting and paint job. Unfortunately this figure is not mine and it was lent to me for shooting, so far I’m keeping her safe for the owner, still hoping for one day to return her so that he/she can enjoy her.
The figure is quite stunning and very photogenic, filled with energy and movement, these are the type of figures that not come very often. As expensive as Saber Lily but worth it, if you’re willing to spend that much that is.
On a side note, I’m thinking of “shutting” down this blog and start a new one, aiming the new one to both photography and figures/gunpla. As interesting as the name animestuff is, it simply doesn’t relate to photography and so I’ve been thinking on a new one, will probably have something to do with my real name than a fictitious one. For now enjoy the pictures, more after the jump.

As you can see on the bottom right corner of the picture I started using my real name on the photos instead of animestuff, this is also visible on the previous posts.

You’ve probably noticed by now that her shirt colour is different than usual, that’s because it received a special treatment digitally.

This one was a special fan service, I think she’s really well made back there, you can also see her underwear shape, enhanced it with both light and digital treatment.

I just had to do something to those four balls on her hand, they were so bland I decided to create some energy around them, added it as well to the heart shape rosary. The energy balls are better used on a large scale than on small objects, used it on my facebook profile picture if you’re wondering.

Here you can see the progress of the previous picture, well not the entire progress of course, that would require a video but it gives you an idea. The first picture is the direct raw file, previous to any sort treatment. The second picture is after some treatment on lightroom before exporting to photoshop. And as for the last one, it was entirely worked on photoshop, burning hair, skirt, socks, dodging swords, photo filters, the whole “schebang”.
As soon as I change blogs I’ll post it here, if you’re interested in seeing the pictures I took this summer you can check them on my flickr page.

Filed under: Figures Tagged: Fate/Stay Night, Figures, GoodSmile, GSC, Tohsaka Rin, Unlimited Blade Works

Low-Key 1st edition

Belela-san — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:11:58 +0000

Yo, guess I still haven’t killed the blog. Well I’ve been very busy with studies and stuff so no time for blogging, but I’ve been active with photography, well from time to time that is. Those that follow me on flickr know that I’ve been taking loads of pictures, be it of figures or landscapes. Anyway, this time I decided to try on my figures a technique called Low-Key. Low-Key lighting is a style of photography which often uses only one key light, direct light to the subject or reflected on a reflector. It’s not easy to achieve the effect directly on figures, unless you have a huge table with the source very far away from the subject, otherwise you have to enhance the darks/blacks of the picture on editing programs.
Word of advice, if you are using Chrome you’ll notice that the colors of some pictures are a bit weird. That is Chrome/Picasa fault because on Photoshop or any other program or browser they look nothing like this.

Jo from Bakuten is back after a long period of absence. Here the light was pointed directly at her. Black and White conversion with selective color.

Mirei-san lovely as always. Same as Jo above.

Always liked shooting Chou’un. Great model indeed, and low-key is perfect for her. Couldn’t decide which one I liked the most so I decided to upload both. These pictures I had the light point directly at a reflector and from there to the subject.

Couldn’t resist this black and white version so I had it printed at a shop with 30×45 cm and framed it for myself . Same technique as above.

Louise peek-a-boo? She also returns. Same technique as above and the same for all below.

This one turned out a bit scary but also very elegant.

Chua Churam returns also. Happy faces like this, not easy to find.

Also really like how this one turned out. Very tempted to have it printed, then frame it ^_^ .

I’ll keep taking pictures of everything I find interesting to my eyes, landscapes, figures, people, gundams, animals, whatever. If you are interested is seeing that I have besides figures you can click the link on the right bar under My Flickr or click here.

Filed under: Figures Tagged: b&w, black and white, Figures, low-key