Sony Philippines is the very first camera brand that organized a toy photography workshop in the country. It was also a great honor for me to be their instructor in Sony Digital Workshop that was held last August 15, 2015. Sony gave me an opportunity to experience Sony Alpha A7 Mark II for my toy/figure photography. And I was able to share them my amazing experience with the camera.

It was my first time conducting this training and I felt nervous and excited all the same time. Jv, Aby, and the rest of the Sony Philippines Digital Imaging group were very supportive of my work and helped me with the preparation as well. Not to mention, my boyfriend and my brother have helped me with all the things I needed for this workshop. My heartfelt thanks to those who have been a big part of it.

We arrived early at Sony headquarters to set up my diorama and saw two of my photos in large prints hanging on the ceiling of the room. I think it looks awesome in prints!

There are 4 diorama sets I made for this event, the first one is Miku Hatsune’s Project Mirai bedroom, Japanese Home, Mako’s background set, and Attack on Titan simple background.

While I have finished setting up the dioramas on the table. Sony employees displayed their Alpha cameras at the side table.

Another cool thing about it was they let the attendees use these cameras for the action demo, even those high-end alpha cameras.

They also printed some of my photos to be displayed! Wow! 😀

All setup!

I haven’t done any workshops before so it’s basically a new experience for me especially since it was marketed and organized by a big camera company in the country. I haven’t attended any photography workshops/seminars in my life as I have only learned digital photography all by myself (thanks to google-sensei). I thank Jv for giving me a few tips in conducting a workshop.

This is it!

I felt nervous and I could feel my hands shaking as soon as the clock ticks to 1pm. It’s about to start.
My nervousness turned to excitement as I tell them about this hobby. There was a certain joy inside me as I shared my experiences and ideas when I do toy photography. I think it’s really different when you are telling stories about your love for your hobby.
Lighting 101: All DIY! 😀

Teach them the camera settings I usually use and the framing.

There’s also an action demo after the presentation, in which they can take photos of the toys and diorama displayed on the table using the Sony Alpha cameras. Some of the attendees brought their own toys and took creative shots as well. Check out #SonyToyPhotography #SonyAlpha hashtags in Instagram and Facebook. ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ

Even the boss of Sony Philippines came to join us and took some photos of his favorite, Attack on Titan.

 Attendees were able to get their Certificate of Attendance, signed by yours truly. 😀

It was a wonderful experience to be able to teach fellow hobbyists about my love for toy photography and even introduced some to my toy collections. It was great to meet new people and familiar faces from the Alpha users group, SHFiguarts Philippines, Nendoroid Philippines (Figure Shutters Guild), and Toy Photography group. K-zone, an anime and toys magazine in the Philippines was also present at the event.

Thanks to Sony Philippines for this amazing experience! Thank you, everyone! (´ ▽｀).。ｏ♡

Toy photography is a passion. You will imagine yourself in your toy’s tiny world, just peeking into their lives, capturing their moment. It can be something dramatic, happy, comedy, or anything in between. It’s up to you. There’s no secret to getting a nice figure photo, just be creative, experiment, love your craft and have fun. If you love what you do and if it makes you happy, do your best to be good at it.

*Photos by: Jesper Ochoa and Ronald Abril