A figure in a blue cap walking away down a street of brick facades and orange autumn trees

Hobbies

Jon Arbell

Software Engineer

When the laptop closes, I'm usually still making something. There are three habits here: photographs, photo manipulation, and short films. The middle one is the oldest — stitching pictures together until something impossible looks real, like a tyrannosaur rearing up underneath a woman mid-leap off a cliff. The films are small productions I wrote, filmed and edited myself, mistakes and all, and they're on YouTube if you're curious. None of it is paid work, and that's rather the point: it's where I get to make decisions with nobody waiting on the result.

Hobbies

The creative side of my life — the activities that fuel my imagination and bring balance to my work as a developer. Each one reflects curiosity and attention to detail, and they feed straight back into how I approach problems as an engineer.

The crater lake of Mount Pinatubo photographed from water level, ridged green peaks enclosing the far shore

Photography

Mobile photography, shot on my phone in daily life — documenting moments as I encounter them and experimenting with techniques and perspectives.

View the gallery

A thunderstorm over Manila Bay at night, forks of lightning striking behind a lit shoreline

Photo Manipulation

Transforming ordinary images into something unique through editing — adjusting colours, blending elements, and adding effects that go beyond what the camera captured.

Title card for the short film 'Baclaran', showing shoppers and vendors crowding the market beneath the overpass

Short Films

Filmmaking lets me tell stories through motion and sound. From planning shots to editing the final cut, every step is a chance to bring creativity to life.

Photo Manipulation

A photographer silhouetted against the sun setting over a crater lake, framing the shot on a phone — Golden Hour
A silhouette against a rebuilt sky — the sun, its flare and the reflection down the water all painted back in.

Poster artwork for the documentary 'Paang de Ruweda', a cyclist seen from behind riding down an open highway — Paang de Ruweda — poster
Poster artwork for the documentary — the rider isolated from the plate and the road graded warm behind him.

Composite of a masked figure taking a selfie from the very top of a skyscraper, the city laid out far below — A ground-level selfie composited onto a rooftop plate so the city drops away underneath.

Four silhouetted figures on a ridge looking across a crater lake as the sun breaks over the far rim — Two frames blended — the group in silhouette against a sky rebuilt for the sunrise.

A figure in a bright patterned jacket standing on snow-covered railway tracks, checking a phone — Snow, haze and cool grading dropped onto a local railway to move the scene somewhere colder.

A figure in a cap and face mask reaching toward a glowing winged light among dark green leaves — A hand-painted light source added among the leaves, with the glow and falloff matched onto the subject.

Composite of a woman in a bucket hat leaping from a cliff edge over a forested valley while a giant roaring tyrannosaur rears up below her — The Drop
A leaping figure and a roaring tyrannosaur cut into a cliff-edge plate, both graded down to the same hazy evening light.

A young man in a cap and face mask at a beachside table looking at his phone, silhouetted against a sunset over the sea with palms and lens flare across the frame — Beach Resort
Pushed into silhouette against the sun, with the flare and the light spilling round the cap painted back in by hand.

A selfie of a young man indoors with a black-and-red rooster's head blended over the right half of his face — Rooster
A rooster's head masked onto a selfie and blended down the cheek line so the two faces share one.

Mock film poster of a face split down the middle — one half plain against an asylum corridor, the other in white clown makeup over a night cityscape — under the title 'Joker' — Joker — mock poster
A fan poster built from one selfie: the face split down the middle, half into an asylum corridor and half into makeup over a night skyline.

Composite of two young boys sitting astride a large crocodile resting on a muddy riverbank — Crocodile
A riverbank plate graded warm, with the two boys seated onto the crocodile's back.

Composite of a boy in an orange shirt standing on the cratered surface of the moon, Earth rising in the starfield behind him — Moonwalk
A standing frame cut onto a lunar surface, with Earth added behind and the cast shadow drawn to match the light.

Composite of four people in hats crowded into a group selfie on the surface of the moon, Earth rising behind them — Selfie From the Moon
The same lunar plate, this time with a whole group selfie lifted onto it and cooled to match.

What I do outside the editor

Photography

Photo Manipulation

Short Films

Photo Manipulation

Short Films

Blind

Baclaran