This would also be the first time that I was be able to use extensively the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 that I bought from my fraternity brother a few years back. I post processed the pictures using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom before reducing them using Light Image Resizer.
I was recently asked by the faculty of the Communication Research Department to take portrait photos of their newly renovated rooms. I have not taken any interior-design type photos but I guess there is always a first time for everything, so I said yes. This would also be the first time that I was be able to use extensively the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 that I bought from my fraternity brother a few years back. I post processed the pictures using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom before reducing them using Light Image Resizer. Aside from the Tokina, I also used the Nikon kitlens 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 G VR with a Nikon SB700 for the pictures below.
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A fraternity brother of mine challenged me recently to the 5-days black and white photo challenge. The challenge is simple. I would post one black and white picture for five days and on each day I would nominate a friend to do the same challenge. It does not matter if the picture is recent or an old one. It may even be a really old black and white picture or a fairly recent one processed as monochrome. So here are my black and white pictures. Most of the pictures were taken in the evening at the University of the Philippines. In June of 2014, I suffered a mild slipped disk, a very painful back injury that prevented from doing even simple things like walking around. Luckily for me, after two months of therapy, I am able to walk with very little pain. I do hope to get back to running again after a few more months. In the meantime, I need to strengthen my core. To do this, I have to get back to walking, at least. Luckily for me, taking my camera and macro lens, walking becomes less painful and interesting. I do hope to walk more often, and hopefully also get back to taking pictures.
It is in the best interest of politicians to keep taxes high and the people poor.
Really, after all these revelations about PDAF, DAP, and Binaygate, how much change are we really expecting after these are swept under the rug by another Kris Aquino antic? July 12, 2014 was the first supermoon of the year. A supermoon occurs when the moon is at its nearest to the Earth, called perigee of the moon. There are be 5 supermoons for 2014 - January 1, January 30, July 12, August 10, and September 9. This "bigger" than the ordinary fullmoon is what often fascinates people, including me, enough to spend a great amount of time staring at and taking a picture of it. Despite its bigness, however, a full moon is boring because it is flat. What I would do is to wait a day or two after the fullmoon when the slightly slanted sunlight reveals more details such as craters and valleys. The result is magnificent as it is breathtaking. I have a folder of moon shots in my FB page which somehow details my ongoing journey and fascination with the brightest light in the night sky. I see some magnificent moon shots throughout the Internet such those with buildings and towers and a big moon behind them. Slowly but surely, I hope to be able to take such pictures soon... The tragic death of UST ROTC cadet Mark Chua in 2001 signaled the decline of the country's citizen home defense program. Amidst the fury of the people on the senseless loss of life, lawmakers passed a compromise law that appeased the call for the abolition of ROTC but severely failed to account the need for a national self-defense force. The NSTP was born and implemented in 2003-2004 which revised the whole concept of citizen nation building into voluntary ROTC, Civil Welfare Training Service (CWTS), and Literacy Training Service. While these three components of NSTP are laudable, their implementation is poor. Dozens of disasters later, it is only the ROTC component that proved to be organized and reliable in responding to disasters and able to give a meaningful and relevant training for young men and women to become strong citizens of the Republic. I have below just some of the pictures I took for the UPOTC. More pictures and description of UPROTC can be found here: http://www.uprotc.org/ "Poverty" is a controversial aspect of street photography. There are those living in palaces that despise images that reflect life outside their gated minds. Still there are those that say this is mere "poornography," or that of romanticizing poverty as a subject of photography. Yet there are those that say the lens merely capture reality, and that the image is the story. I belong to this group. For me, the pictures (I took during the 17th Lopez Jeana Community Journalism Workshop field work at Sitio San Roque and Kasiglahan Village in Montalban) shows both the state of decadence of our society, made worse with the realization that taxes that could have been used to uplift living conditions through jobs and services, were stolen through PDAF and DAP. The victims that are affected by this man-made disaster are children, yet it is their resilience that also gives us hope that someday things will get better. It is however up to us to work extra hard to make our government more accountable. As with regards to the pictures, I like what William Forrester in the movie Finding Forrester said: "Writers write things to give readers something to read." In this case, at least for me, pictures taken are meant to be seen. The rest, is up to you. Tutubi, tutubi, tutubi sa gitna ng parang Huwag kang pahuhuli sa batang matapang Roughly translated, this Filipino rhyme is about urging dragon flies to avoid being caught by daring children. As kids, we used to sing this just before we fan out into the field to catch ourselves some dragonflies. We thought of ourselves as those "batang matapang" or courageous and daring children that could catch the elusive dragonflies. And indeed, catching the was sort of a badge of honor as only few could really sneak up from behind a "tutubi" and catch them by their tail or wings. Sadly though, the rush to urbanization and its consequences such as disappearance of open spaces and pollution have resulted to diminished numbers of dragonflies, even in the few open spaces left in the city. Children of this generation no can longer enjoy catching dragonflies, or perhaps even know what these are. Is this what we mean by progress? The rainy season came early (I think) this year, and it was a welcome change. Summer was so hot with temperatures rising to more than 36 degrees Celsius. The rains also brought along some very interesting subjects, particularly raindrops and mists. Here are some pictures I took after the first rainfall.
Life is teeming under the bush! Some macro shots taken with a Lester A. Dine 105mm mounted on a Nikon D5100. Quite a challenge since the Lester Dine is a full manual lens and it doesn't meter on my cam. I'm still learning! I always look forward to trips outside Metro Manila as they always present an opportunity for me to explore nature and the environment. My recent trip to Balisong, Batangas for the annual fiesta is one such trip that I really enjoy. Below are some macro shots I took last May 2013 at Nuvali, Sta Rosa in Laguna and Balisong, Batangas. With the rainy season starting late in April, plenty of interesting bugs start coming out. Some plants that rested through the hot summer have started to also grow again and bloom in approval. Walking to and from the office everyday, I am always on the look out for interesting finds along the way.
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This is more of a personal gallery of things that interest me. If you like anything, write me a comment. If you liked it so much that you want to share it, that's OK with me too. And if you liked it so very much that you would like to purchase it, just PM me and I can send you the high resolution picture.
I would also appreciate criticisms particularly tips to improve my photography. Gallery
April 2015
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