I was planning on seeing the sequel to the Iron Man blockbuster movie this weekend with my wife, but all the good seats were booked solid. And I don’t want to compromise the experience of watching the movie from the perfect vantage point just because I want to be one of the first to see it. So without anything to do on a hot summer weekend I decided to compile this Iron Man illustration set to get it out of my system until I can finally see the movie (hopefully before this week ends… please, please, please). I hope you guys like them. And without further ado… continue reading

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Professional photography is one of those self proclaimed titles, theres so much gray area on the subject matter its like an out of focus photo. With practice and a lot of passion plus the right equipment anyone can be a professional photographer these days. All the resources you need are literally at your fingertips. The web is full of resources that would help you get started and help you get better. We have a community of professionals and enthusiasts always willing to lend a hand to those who would be interested in taking up this visually rewarding skill and they are ready to share the knowledge they’ve accumulated through experience that you will need to turn this hobby into a full time career if you want to. continue reading

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As a Photography newbie I find it really challenging to take photos at night, my first issue is focus. Getting a clean shot is really hard, capturing that right amount of focus on a subject when it gets dark, especially if your trying to shoot using natural light. Then my second handicap at night is exposure, since exposure requirements changes dramatically as soon as the sun goes down. So why do I even bother to shoot at night anyway? continue reading

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30 Grunge Themed Prenup and Wedding Photography by Mango Red

Wedding photographs are almost always set in a romantic mood, always fun, sometimes mushy and borderline boring, but sometimes we get real lucky and stumble upon exceptionally interesting ones that literally jumps out of the box and get’s in your face. Like these wedding and prenup photos I compiled for you continue reading

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Unleash Your Potential

This is the description header you will find at the web site of www.nikonusa.com – D90 page “Fusing 12.3-megapixel image quality and an exceptional 24fps D-Movie Mode, the Nikon D90 exceeds the demands of passionate photographers.”

This article will cover how and why we decided on getting the Nikon D90 from the vast array of choices of DSLR’s available in the market today. continue reading

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8 Easy Steps to Fake an HDR Look in Photoshop

In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. – wikipedia.com

A real HDR photo is composed of 3 images (I hear some takes up to 7) of the same exact scene but each having a different level of exposure, then using an image editing software like Photo Matrix or Photoshop you will combine these 3 images into one dramatic photograph. It’s a bit tricky to accomplish especially if you’re a noob like me. An amazing skill to add to your belt and if you get the hang of it you will definitely deserve those bragging rights. Read More @prodigalconcepts.com

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Say hello to my new website “slash” portfolio “slash” my personal online playground. I have been trying to get my feet wet in the freelance business for some time and now I’m ready to get more serious. It was really hard picking a domain name, I wanted to incorporate my name on it, never thought branding would be a big task to undertake. I tried anagrams and found some really cool ones but the problem is they were all too long because my full name has around 16 characters with limited vowels and repeating consonants, after a lot of trial and more frustrating errors I came up with “xzykho.com” my earliest choice, pronounced as “psycho” a bit juvenile I know and it should, I came up with this name during my late teens as a moniker for myself if I would be in a band, kind of like “The Edge” or “Bono” or “Flea” or “Sting” I could go on and on. The good thing about it is that it’s one of the few short domain names that is still available, maybe because it only has meaning to me and no one else can appreciate the coolness factor of xzykho.com, the downside is that it sounds negative and some people can’t grasp how to pronounce it or remember how to spell it. Then there’s also the “X” factor, some firewalls start blocking websites that starts with X. So I had to drop that one.

Then I played awhile with the idea of ROaDworks.com I was even considering a one liner that goes “as ROD work” or “a RODs work” something to that effect. (“*&*^ you Dan Brown and your anagrams!!!”) but still it didn’t feel solid and the one liner was losing it’s magic every time I said it out loud plus my wife was raising an eyebrow when I presented her this idea. So back to the drawing board, after doodling for a few more days with the words like rod, radical, and words like concepts, design, ideas etc… prodigalconcepts.com was born, I tried to secure prodigal.com but someone else was already using that domain.

My header is made up of composite images I found all over the the web, I would like to thank the authors but I forgot where I got these from, I got them a few months ago just because they look inspiring I didn’t think I will be using them until now. So if you guys are around thanks for putting these images up you do great work (*thumbs up). As a big fan of surrealism I thought I will take a whack at it so I made this dreamy piece to crown my new site. Added a few elements here and there, nothing significant just some stuff that caught my interest and I hope it catches yours too.

I would like to thank kwikphp.com for hosting this site for some time now absolutely free! And I’ve decided to keep this site here since I’ve had some great memories here and somethings are just hard to let go. If you need a free hosting that feels like a paid hosting then try kwikphp.com

And if ever you’re on the lookout for a web design helper you can drop me a line at zegirdordr (at) yahoo (dot) com or through my contact page here and let me know how I can help you out. Thanks for dropping by and be sure to swing around www.prodigalconcepts.com for more updates.

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It has been a whirlwind of an existence since my last post, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night wondering what I’m doing. I’ve been working on my first vector project on and off, it’s really easy but tasking, reminds me of cross stitching that my sister loved so much that was a fad a few years back. Now that my vector project is a bit ready for “show and tell” so I figure to just go ahead and show it off even if a bit rough around the edges. But it’s really been a crazy 3 months and I don’t know when I will be able to update this site again so here it is my “Grax Vector Fantasy”.

Grax Vector Fantasy by Rod for GPX

Original image of Grax was taken when we first traveled to Malaysia last November 2008

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In preparation for my big move to Singapore next week, I’ve decided to re-imagine my background for the 6th time, (second time this year). I moved out of the black and glossy theme background that I’ve developed for this site originally and went with colorful and clean instead. I figure that since this move is a big deal I might as well go beyond what I’m used to and leave my comfort zone. The same goes for myself, I’m leaving my current job and the people I got to know very well to take on the unknown hoping to find a better life I guess, and maybe learn something new along the way. Who knows maybe I’ll go back to the old theme or not, but for now whatever awaits me on the other side will be another adventure that I’m sharing with Grax. Here’s one last look at the “Mariposa” background that I designed before this new one which I’m calling “Into the clouds”.

Saying goodbye to something familiar is never easy, but it helps to know that nothing really is… and that life is too short for second guessing.

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I find pride to see exceptional Pinoy (- street coined term for Filipinos) talents on the web, after my article about the graphic illustrators of komiks (- Pinoy Term for Comics) who incorporated the 3 stars and a sun to their work. I decided to search the web to find my top 3 favorite Philippine based web designers who could jog me out of old ideas and inspire me to be more creative.

The first two sites I commend for having a high rank on Philippine google search for “freelance web designers”. Let me start with http://www.tsoknat.com/ by web designer Allan Anova, his style is very contemporary and hip, he makes vector art and meshes it with things that he finds interesting. What I like most about his portfolio design is how colorful it is without being messy he made it all fit together and came up with an eye catching concept.

Next in line is the very Pinoy website of Keith Levi Lumanog http://www.keithics.com/. A true Pinoy artist from the land of Cubacub, Mandaue City he utilized vector lines and incorporated the Filipino way of life in his design. I like his concept of the rural barrio complete with bahay kubo (nipa hut), a man riding a carabao (water buffalo) just as the sun was rising with rice fields to complete the theme and has a city scape as a background. He used simple and minimalist color schemes for his lay-out the exact opposite of tsoknat.com. But you will find vibrant designs on his other works by visiting his portfolio page.

And last but definitely not the least is the only girl in the group MaryLuc Melgar of http://www.weevox.com/. It took me awhile to find the third member of my web designer power trio (Philippines) I just stumbled on her web site through http://www.bestpinoywebsites.com/ who featured her latest blogsite http://octwelve.com/ and that lead me to weevox.com… Another illustrator savvy web designer she creates cool character accents that would make your site recognizable on the get go. Her style is eclectic using traditional composites and incorporating original hand drawn elements, her site got a cool header although I find it a little outdated, her work portfolio on the other hand screams talent with very nice and clean designs.

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