About Me

My name is Erik Josef B. Ladrero. You can call me Xef, 24 years old as of 2008. I hail from the beautiful city of Davao. I am your typical, everyday, white collar, struggling individual. I am not much to look at and not particularly interesting. I am the second of three children thus I am the middle child and you can only imagine how my life is.

I am a Registered Electrical Engineer, though not a practicing one. I will soon, though. I studied in Ateneo de Davao University for my bachelor’s degree. As for my elementary and high-school education, I went to Stella Maris Academy of Davao.

I am currently residing in Makati City. I am working for BayanTrade Inc. as an SAP ABAP consultant. I live with my sister and the bestest of  bestfriends. My life here is just so and so. It’s okay but it can be better.

I love taking photos. Back , when I was still Davao, I had a Nikon D60 to play with. I had the kit lens and an additional 55-200mm f/4-5.6 VR lens. I also had a simple SB400 flash. These were my tools. Unfortunately, I could not bring them along when I moved here so now I feel so naked. I also do not have much resources (read: money) to buy new equipment.

UPDATE: As of May 2009, I now have a Nikon D90 with a Nikon AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8 AF-S and a Nikon AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6D and a Nikon AF-S DX 55-200 f/4-5.6 VR lens that I can freely use (read: not mine). Most of the photos I will post will be taken with this camera.

I am a new comer to the world of photography. I am still learning the fundamentals. I can only do the very basics of composition. ISO, Focal Length, Aperture, Metering, Shutter Speed, Exposure compensation, Manual focusing are just some of the stuff I check and control when I take photos. I mainly depend on my eyes to find great photo worthy subjects and sometimes the not so worthy. I don’t know much about studio photography so I do more “outside” photography. That, and I didn’t have a studio. I am also learning how to compose a photo to get just the right light at the right angle. I also do (a lot  actually) post-photography processing for fun and to change things to make an “alright” photo to a “great” one.

DISCLAIMER

I am a very hard person to please. I critic almost everything around me even if it does not warrant any. Since there are about 8 billion humans out there, I would think that there’s another one like me. This is a note for critics. I can accept critiques very well, be it a good one, a bad one, a constructive one or a demeaning one. I will appreciate good and constructive criticisms and will frown on bad demeaning ones. Though I will welcome all criticisms, comments will still be screened. I won’t necessarily filter bad ones but I will have to delete insulting ones. If the comment contains profanity and will do no one any good, then I am sad to say that it will have to go. If you really have such a huge distaste to whatever is contained in my site, then leave. No one is forcing you to read this. Consider this as the first part of my disclaimer.

The second part of my disclaimer is directed to everyone. This is my site. I can do whatever I want with it. I can put whatever I want in it (so long as I don’t break any laws). I can say what I want with it. Obviously, everything said here is just my opinion unless otherwise specified. If, again, you find my content displeasing to you, then leave. Don’t put derogatory comments in it as I can always delete it. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything. It’ll just be a waste of both our times. If you insist on being stupid and uncivilized, I will take measures so that you’ll end up in a straitjacket on your way to an institution.

The last part of my disclaimer is to say that all products, logos, captions, slogans, quotes, brand names, websites, trademarks, posters, images, and linked files belong to their respective companies, owners, or manufacturers.