IN some ways, Tricia Gosingtian is your typical 19-year-old.

An Information Design junior at Ateneo de Manila University, she makes studies her first priority. She enjoys reading and is a fan of Haruki Murakami and Neil Gaiman. She collects toys and nail polish in different colors. She?s passionate about music and graphic design. She loves video games and plays Final Fantasy, Crisis Core, DJ Max 2 and Tekken 5 regularly.

?I?m a self-confessed gamer girl. I never leave home without my PSP,? she said.

But in many ways, Tricia isn?t typical. Armed with a Canon 350D and her three lenses (Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, Canon 50mm f/1.8 II, and Sigma 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 DG Macro), Tricia regularly does creative photo shoots with friends.

The results are amazing? worthy to be published in today?s glossies. And her photos, which she uploads to photo-sharing website Flickr, have earned her fans the world over.

Flickr users from South Africa, Germany, Spain, Venezuela, Canada and the US wait for her new uploads and leave comments in different languages.

?I am quite overwhelmed,? Tricia said.

Rewind

It all started with Tricia?s interest in Japanese fashion when she was a high-school junior.

?I was very fond of looking at pictures on the Internet for fashion inspiration. After a while, I grew a certain fascination with Japanese-style photography and how ingenious their concepts always are.?

Soon, Tricia picked up the camera and started holding regular shoots with friends. Though Tricia and her friends want to shoot as often as they can, they know their priorities.

?Our studies come first, so even if we want to shoot every week, we can?t. But we do try to shoot once a month.?

While some costumes worn in the shoots are custom-made, a lot of times they raid their own closets.

?It?s a really awesome thing that most of my friends have good taste in fashion,? Tricia said.

Tricia doesn?t just take pictures. At some shoots, she plays multiple roles?photographer, stylist, makeup artist, even model. When she models for her own shoots, Tricia relies on her camera?s self-timer function, which leaves her with just 10 seconds to pose.

Model friends

One regular participant in her shoots is her friend Alodia Gosiengfiao, who models, styles and also does makeup. The two met two years ago when Alodia and her friends needed a photographer for a school project.

?Everything started from there. We?ve been an inseparable model-photographer pair ever since. My other models are mostly friends from Ateneo as well.?

A lot of Tricia?s shoots continue to be inspired by Japanese culture. No big surprise since Tricia and her friend Alodia are celebrities in the local animé and cosplay scene.

?I love looking at Japanese fashion magazines such as FRUITS, Kera, Popteen, Cawaii, Gothic Lolita Bible, JJ, Seventeen, Non-no, etc. I am also influenced by cosplay, animé and video games,? Tricia said.

Her favorite shoot is a cosplay-inspired one. ?We did the ?Death Note? cosplay photo shoot May last year. ?Death Note? is a great manga-animé and it was such fun to reenact our favorite scenes.?

Self-taught

?No one really taught me how to use a camera so I?m pretty much self-taught,? said Tricia. ?I started with digicams, until I got my Canon 350D before I went to college. Starting small taught me many valuable things such as improvising and not depending on expensive equipment to take good photographs.?

And although she uses Photoshop to enhance some photos, Tricia doesn?t like touching her models? faces.

?I am pretty much against Photoshopping faces drastically,? she said.

Different publications like Meg, Bounce, Mangaholix and Taiwan?s Idea Photos have spotted Tricia?s talent and have published her photos.

?I never thought my pictures would end up getting published and being featured in different places. I owe a lot to the people I?ve worked with in shoots such as my models, stylists, makeup artists and friends,? Tricia said.

As to her future, ?I feel like I?m married to photography. I don?t think I can ever choose a career path that isn?t related to it at all.?

E-mail the author at ppastor@inquirer.com.ph

Check out Tricia?s photo stream at http://www.flickr.com/dollipoptart/ and her main site at http://slumberdoll.deviantart.com/