Category: Vintage

Commercial Photography at GCC: California Spring Portraits

5/1/2026

My fav assignment so far, photographed over 2 days! Shout out to my stellar model, C. 🖤 Between the styling, set & lighting, I'm so happy with how these came out. Especially given that some of these were photographed during mid-day, which can be so challenging for the natural light, I gained some really valuable practice in how to use mixed lighting & flash for fill light, between a speed light & strobe.

Photos were made with my Nikon ZF, a Fractal prism filter, a Lightpix Labs Flashq Q20ii (speed light) & a portable Profoto strobe. I will indicate which photos used speed light & which used strobe.

Styling by me. 🌼

View from a computer for the full experience!
Click any image below to enlarge.

Played around with a Fractal prism filter for these 2 photos. :)

All photos up until here were photographed with only the speed light.

These 2 photos used both a portable strobe, synced with my speed light via "optical slave" (hate that word, but there hasn't been another industry term made to replace it yet 😕). Wanted to continue using the speed light to create more fill, but with the direct sunlight shining right on it, it had a mind of its own & the sensor that is supposed to detect the flash coming from the strobe just kept going off randomly, or wouldn't go off when I needed it to! I managed to get these 2 shots, but decided to put the speed light away after this. I'll have to research & see about a radio trigger for it next time, but I do know that the trigger that comes with the speed light can sync with multiple units at once via bluetooth. I might have to invest in a second speed light!

All compositions below are photographed using only the portable strobe.

Rare photo of myself on the left, haha! The assignment required us to also make self-portraits, but I am just not a selfie kind of gal. However, I was comfortable at least getting in front of the camera for one shot if I was with my friend, & we actually really had fun with it! I also played around with a few other compositions, such as shooting through objects, as well as playing with the "freeze" mode on the strobe again to create the blurry effect of the flower petals dropping in the frame. I also got to practice my compositing skills with that one. 🤠

This photos came out even better than I envisioned, with some of my classmates describing them as a "vibrant fairytale" & giving "Studio Ghibli vibes" — both compliments to the highest degree. 🥹

If it weren't for time constraints & our energy running low, there's a lot more I would have tried or changed. But for something photographed over 2 days & the amount of compositions I was able to create, I'm still soooooo happy with the results. Somehow I managed to make my friend look like such a movie star! 🤩

To view the rest of the work I've made during my time at GCC, please visit the tag:

NICA GOES [BACK] TO COLLEGE

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Taiwan Travel: Art, Ritual & the Everyday (A day of Art & Culture, Part 2 of 3)

12/30/2025

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Welcome to part 2 of this photo blog series, Taiwan Travel: Art, Ritual & the Everyday. If you are just hopping on, I recommend scrolling to part 1 below!

National Center for Traditional Arts

We got to spend a day exploring local Taiwanese art & culture in Yilan County! We started off the cloudy day exploring the National Center for Traditional Arts. Visiting at this time of year (late October/early November) was such a difference from the last time I visited in 2018, which was in August, when it was humid & hot as hell. And this was certainly a big difference, after having been traveling in the Philippines (where it was still hot & humid) for a month before hitting Japan & Taiwan.

The National Center for Traditional Arts was fascinating. Not only was it surrounded by massive art sculptures, it was also filled with vintage & antique ephemera that celebrated the region’s heritage, along with shops & places of worship.

At the temples throughout the site, my friend taught me some of the practices & prayers. Since people were praying, I chose not to photograph the spaces out of respect. Instead, I focused mainly on the art & vintage culture of the complex.

Images were photographed using my Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens.

Click on an image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.

Misc photos from our phones:
LOL, my friend asked me if I wanted to wear some traditional Taiwanese cultural attire. I said sure! She took me to a vintage-forward photo studio located inside the National Center for Traditional Arts, where they dressed me up & did my hair. We were laughing when they did my hair, because they took so much longer on me. They said they wanted to go all out because it was my first time there. My head felt like it weighed 5 kilos heavier. Anyway, if you ever find yourself here, check out the Photo Studio of Youth. They lent us the clothes for the day, so we explored the whole property wearing these clothes, haha!

Luodong Cultural Working House

Next, we got to visit the Luodong Cultural Working House. Since rain had arrived, it was the perfect place to stop next because we got to be indoors, check out some of their art galleries & rotating exhibitions.

I love, love, looooove oil painting textures & of course had to get some close-ups.

Ending the Day

We ended our outings with some really amazing vegan Taiwanese food — actually, some of the best vegan food I've ever had in my life! Not only were the flavors very authentic, but the food was also very affordable & high quality. We were so impressed by the food, we actually ended up going to eat at this restaurant more than once during my trip.

Pictured below on the right is the owner of the restaurant & chef. I can't remember her name at the moment, but she started chatting with us because she wanted to know how we found out about the restaurant. We told her we happened to be driving by & saw their huge sign outside that said "plant-based restaurant", & we explained to her that it's my diet & I was curious about the restaurant.

We had a language barrier, but my friend was kind enough to translate between us so we could communicate. She asked if I'm vegan & I explained I'm not actually vegan, but have been eating a mainly vegan & vegetarian diet for a decade (over a decade now). We exchanged stories on why we've made these lifestyle choices for ourselves. She shared that her whole family is vegan & that she decided to change her diet, because at one point she was very ill, & changing her diet healed her. She then showed me some photos she keeps at the restaurant to share with folks, from the days she was once ill with lupus & other diseases.

As you can see from the very bad auto-translate below on her Facebook post, I also shared that bad health runs in my family as a result of poor dietary choices. And also because I just care about the environment & hate capitalism. I also shared with her how impressed I was with her food, how flavorful it was, how generous the portions were & how affordable the food was, & explained to her that vegan food in the US is very expensive & the quality isn't anywhere near as nice.

She said I was the first foreigner to visit her restaurant & asked if she could share about my visit on their Facebook page. I said sure! Her restaurant has over 10,000 followers on FB! So if you are on FB, make sure to give Hao Ma Plant-Based Restaurant a follow & definitely stop by for a visit if ever find yourself at Yilan County in Taiwan. And as you can see from the photo below, these were the portions!

To learn more about their story, visit their website. The website is not in English, but if you're on Google Chrome, it should give you the option to translate to your preferred language. I hope I can visit again one day & enjoy her amazing food again!

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If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.

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Commercial Photography at GCC: California Spring Portraits

Taiwan Travel: Art, Ritual & the Everyday (A day of Art & Culture, Part 2 of 3)

National Center for Traditional Arts

Luodong Cultural Working House

Ending the Day

NICA AQUINO

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