Expect Heavy Turbulence

I got half a smile and zero shame

2012-02-15T19:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, these photos were taken last year, and yes, Lee is at long last, now employed. I am not going to tell you that Lee cried in front of me when he heard some company signed him, and that he secretly whitens his teeth. Even though I just did.

Lego snow man

Gino went to Korea for a short vacation. When he came back, he gave us these long chocolate-coated-sticks. He said these could only be found in Korea. While I was eating it though, pretzel never came into my mind.

Marie and Santa having coffee

Melo and CJ tied to a post and were being scolded

News paper art

Salgee and Candice got married last December. As good friends of the now Mr. and Mrs. Sumulong, we were all there. Except for Sam who was dreaming while the wedding was going on. Though I must say, I have never seen a groom laugh his way throughout the wedding. I was actually surprised that the priest didn't hit Salgee with the microphone.

I let Sid take shots with my camera during the wedding. Unfortunately, he only knew two light settings, 'dark' and 'black', and to make matters worse, he took pictures from the other end of the church. Thank you, Sid. Still I managed to take some photos that I', quite satisfied with.

Marie

Sheena

And the other love birds, Gino and Lee.

This one was taken by Lee.

Edge of desire

2011-12-03T18:58:00.000-08:00

I'll be honest, this isn't my best set. I expected something, let's say "better". But they're still satisfying (in my mind). Now it kind of makes me want to go out on the streets again.

Our good friends Salgee and Candice will tie the knot later this month, and I thought that it will be my first time to shoot a wedding on film. But to make matters worse, Salgee made me part of his entourage, so thinking of it, it's kind of difficult to take good photos of them while also walking down the isle.

Marie

This kid was jumping around a restaurant. She liked being photographed, too bad I suck shooting at low light.

These photos were from the last time we went to Intramuros months ago. It made me think I haven't been taking photos very much lately.

Tito Fred

Melo

Shannen with baby Pia

Enzo

Ralph and Derick

Andre

Ramona

Kuya Paeng and baby Pia

Courage, eating something.

Sam and I went to UP to see their observatory. We were supposed to be there earlier that afternoon because I wanted to take photos of the streets of UP, but Sam was late, as usual, and always will be, as we all know, until the end of the world.

And because I suck shooting at low light, this was the only good photo I have of UP.

Our purpose was to try our camera's bulb mode. Again, I had expected results better than the two photos below. My settings were f1.4, 50mm fixed lens, and the shutters were open for 60 and 90 seconds. So if you have suggestions and tips on how to do this right, please let me know. Else I will cut Sam's leg off and beat him to death with it.

The people at the observatory were nice to us and the other visitors as well. They have 2 telescopes which gave us a good look at Jupiter and it's faint narrow rings, a first for me, since I've only seen Jupiter and the other planets on the internet and encyclopedias.

They also have this 500mm zoom lens and they let us use it to have a better shot at the moon and stars. Unfortunately, those photos are not ready yet. So in the end, it was a good thing we went to UP. We plan to come back here soon.

The end.

Stop this train

2011-10-25T02:10:00.000-07:00

This morning, I saw a dog crossing a highway. I was amazed because it looked to it's left and right before it walked forward. Usually, I would get nervous watching the dog run for it's life while crossing, but I wasn't. This dog was composed, even if it wasn't using a pedestrian lane. I bet that if it was Lee crossing the highway, he would have been killed immediately.

I'll start with photos from when Zang invited us for dinner at her place in Taguig months ago. I went out for a walk the morning after and took some photos. I'm glad I did that.

Franco and Pau, dead. Dead-tired I meant.

Cat

JC and Marie. This was before JC left for Singapore.

A computer shop in Alphaland mall, creepy.

Marie's birthday. We had a simple dinner at Hap Tian.

Ate Joy and Marie

Wendy, Lee, Sam and I went to UST one Saturday. Gino said he would join us, but got scared when he heard about an incoming tropical storm, which never happened. Hence, he was a no show. Thank you Wendy, for making this happen!

Lee playing songs about Hitler.

The fat Sam, reloading his F2.

Sam and I wanted to take pictures inside the buildings, but we weren't allowed inside of them anymore. Luckily, the guard on duty was slacking so went straight inside UST's main building unnoticed. It was also the first day of sembreak so the hallways were empty.

I had to switch to color since I ran out of monochrome film. I wasn't expecting to be inside here again so I didn't bring extra films with me.

Daufuq is this?

Dafuq is that?

I wish I had more film and more time that day. But I would gladly come back for more of this nostalgia.

And it goes like this

2011-09-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my colleagues and I had a proper shoot. The last time we went out, it rained hard. And we all blame it on Lee's mole, and the fact that he is now happy because he got his 1.4 lens back.

As I have proven this past few months, my camera develops a tantrum whenever it is not used for some time. It just sits there inside a camera bag, waiting to be used. Thinking it just feels uncomfortable in the bag, I even tried buying a new box for it. This, of course, is stupid and did not work.

One good thing about not using my camera for a while though, is when the day comes that I know for sure that I will use it, there is this excitement whenever I unlock the shutter release button. It gives me this flustering sensation, as if someone just gave me permission to set fire to Samuel Phi. Then I rub my hands like the villains in cartoon shows and laugh "mwahahaha bwahahaha".

And yes, when you press the shutter button, the shutter sound is just the best sound in the world at that moment. Really, the only sound I can think of which is better than it, is Gino being eaten by bears.

Speaking of Gino.

We went to Fort Santiago inside Intramuros. This was my last shoot with my friends when the rain fell hard.

A cat sniffing it's own.. something.

Wendy, Lee and Gino in a tram, waiting for the rain to stop.

Sam, also waiting inside the tram.

Horse.

Mr. Pogi 2011, Gino Quetua.

Our friend Arrabelle got back from Canada after 2 years of staying there. I knew her while she was still abroad, so this was actually the first time we met in person. Too bad she wasn't here for long, but I hope you had fun here, Belle!

Neth, Marie, Mitch and Belle.

Kirby.

Dog.

My cousin, Jaymee, is regarded as the most handsome of the Espinosa cousins. (Which of course is a ridiculous notion)

Tita Nora, surprised and teary eyed after knowing she was to be married again.

And Tito Fred, as she kisses the bride.

Zang, who also came back from Canada invited us for a dinner at Italianni's. There I met Maya and Gina. It is always fun being around people whom you haven't seen in a while, which always shows on Marie's face whenever she's with these guys. I was a bit sad though, Zang forgot to bring me a wolf.

Maya and Wyn with Marie.

Marie, Gina and Zang.

My Dad was hospitalized for a few days. But all is well now.

Here he was talking to his doctor.

This one's my favorite.

Zang again invited us to her place, days before she would fly back to Canada.

Zang and her boyfriend.

As you may notice, these are all colored photos. I still have plenty of monochrome shots loaded to the F2, but I'll have it developed and scanned once I've used all 36 shots. That's it for now. Thank you for reading!

Drinking old cheap bottles of wine

2011-08-03T02:37:00.000-07:00

As you may know, I have always loved Digital SLRs, in much the same way that I have always loved Samuel Phi, Kobe Bryant, dengue, Gloria Arroyo, Mike Arroyo, cockroaches, metro buses, Philippine politics, flood, jejemons, Ateneo Blue Eagles, climate change, Rajon Rondo, open wounds, SLEX toll fee, rallyists, the smell of Jovan Musk, girls carrying chihuahuas and, ultimately, the feel of a cat's tongue.

In other words, I have always rather disliked Digital SLRs. So here I am, posting photos I took over the weeks using my FM2 and an F2 which I borrowed from my good friend, Machu.

Makati underpass

I told Sam I wanted to take photos in Baclaran, but he insisted he wants to visit Manila Zoo and take pictures of the goat's testicles. I told him how mad he was to say such things, and convinced him to go to Baclaran.

Since my work required me to go to Baguio City, I grabbed the opportunity to take photos with as little time as possible.

With Sam endlessly begging to me to come with him at Manila Zoo, we visited the place a couple of weeks ago. Prior to this, I've read some news about how the zoo was badly keeping the animals, so I didn't expect anything good until we got to the place.

This elephant, named Mali, greeted us first. It was lonely and was looking sick.

Some places in the zoo looked good though, not all animals were looking sick. It was actually a surprise that there were still a lot of people visiting here. When I saw where they kept the tigers, I felt a sudden urge to push Sam down into the pit, he would be a very heavy meal for the poor, little kitties.

So I end this post with an Anbu at Rizal park.

Stirring in my soul

2011-06-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

My camera does have a mind of it's own. It's shutter blades lock up when I want to photograph something really nice, but then would work fine when I accidentally press the shutter button. It is very annoying, like the time when I wanted to take a photo of someone being eaten by a dog. I was so annoyed that now, whenever I see a dog, I just wish it would try to eat Lee, or Jaymee, or Justin Bieber. Specially Justin Bieber.

Maybe this is a way of my camera telling me to use it more often. For months, I haven't been on the streets that much. And if I were, there's nothing that interests me. Whenever I try to take a portrait of someone on the streets, they tend to make gang and peace signs with their hands when they see a camera. I love peace, don't get me wrong. But I bet it would be better to take pictures on the streets where no one really cares if you have a huge camera, if you are blind, mad, or a giraffe.

Yesterday I had three rolls of film developed and scanned. Here I am posting two of them.

And so last month my family went to Subic.

Matmat, the fish.

Kate with her instax, cool camera this is. And Jaymee the photo bomber.

Patrick and Squidward.

Momon the fruit ninja.

Marie and I went to MMLDC in Antipolo to see their aviary. We were surprised not by the birds but by the food they served.

Parrots, they greeted us with "hello" then asked questions like "kamusta ka?" and "kumainka na?"

Marie at Starbucks Intramuros

I still have a roll of black and white film, but it is still being rescanned as of the moment. The people at Fujifilm Alphaland had them scanned wrong. Which is also annoying.

Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs of 2011

2011-06-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

Right. The 2010 - 2011 NBA season just ended, so now I have all the time in the world to focus on my blog. And I made a list of blogs that oftentimes gets my attention.

1. RizalPark.org - (Jhong Medina) What better time to than 150th year of our national hero

2. Echusera.com – (Leira Bhagwani Pagaspas) Not a gossip blog but bits and pieces of people in the limelight.

3. Fashionclothingforwomen.com – (Page San Juan) As the link implies, fashion clothing for women.

4. Shygirlsown.info – (Carmela Tanaquin) Shy girl’s debut.

5. Shopsowee.blogspot.com – (Sire Arevalo) Shameless plug, but this baby is more personal than my www.sirearevalo.com and shows a different facet of myself.
6. Bloggermanila.com – (Jonel Uy) Last year, I voted for nomnomclub.com and still Sir Jonel is part of my list this year!!!
7. Veggiecircle.com – (Carl Valenzon) If we say vegetarian, it's Carl!
8. CertifiedFoodies.info – (Mhel) Influencing people to go back to their kitchens and whip up homemade dishes.
9. BLOG-PH.com – (JayL Aquino) Anything under the sun of an event goer.
10. SLEEKINTHECITY.com – (Mark Joseph Delgado) Guide for Sleek Folks for the Best of Manila + Beyond.

And there you have it! Chow!

This writing project will not be possible without the support of sponsors such as Cyber Monday Deals, TRIbeca Private Residences, How To Videos, Palawan Beaches for Sale, Green and Natural Lubes Philippines, Philippine data center, Philippine online shopping, Singapore Jobs, and Pinoy Party Food. Thanks to Ms. Janette Toral - http://www.influentialblogger.net/p/join-top-10-emerging-influential-blogs.html

Heavy turbulence on Rizal Park

2011-05-10T03:08:00.000-07:00

As we know, Rizal Park is overrated. People hear it from everyone then they decide to visit the place, only to find themselves bored and thinking "This is it?" It's a 54 hectare park, the largest urban park in Asia and this is just it?" Of course no one would blame how people would think.

It's extremely hotter than usual nowadays, families would rather bathe on resorts. The only way one could convince another to choose a walk on a park over a beach is to, well, put a beach in the park. Security was always an issue, with all those pickpocket blokes roaming like vultures. And most of all, there's nothing on the park itself, only old statues of persons whose nameplates were stolen and animals that children of today won't even recognize. Your kids will likely choose their computer or game console than go to parks.

I know this because I go to Rizal Park. I was here a month ago and many times before. Yes, there are still people and families every time I go here, plenty of them. And yes, it puts a smile on my face because of the thought that others still know we have Rizal Park. Certainly, some people still think "malls are stupid, let's go to the park". Its also nice to see people from other countries walking around, gazing at the statue of Lapu-Lapu, saying "ooh, so this is Rizal".

Then I was invited by National Parks and Development Committee last Saturday for a Luneta tour. Surprisingly, a month after my last visit, Rizal Park already made dramatic changes. The relief map of the Philippines for example, which was in drought in years, is now in the process of being fitted with board walk, so everybody would have a closer look of the country's topography. I'd have to say, even if it's not done yet, this would be stunning, and even more with a cafe on the side of the area.

Prior to the board walk, UP students repainted the children's playground's dinosaurs with staggering colors. Of course, you wouldn't have noticed this, but CNN did, they actually featured it.

It gets better. After the short tour, we were entertained in an open forum by NPDC director herself, Juliet Villegas, at a cozy place called Vin. I was glad I came to this event but not because of the food. The Philippines is about to commemorate our national hero's 150th birthday, and no, not Lapu-Lapu's, so NPDC thought "why, obviously, it is right and proper that the best place to celebrate Rizal's birthday is in Rizal Park!"

The board walk over the relief map might be a good preparation for the upcomming event. Fitting the dancing water fountain with more colorful lights and more pumps would surely attract people of all ages, including me. But this would be effortless for Rizal's 150th birthday. If he was alive, he could have just done the boardwalk and fountain himself. Except for the boardwalk obviously. And maybe the lights on the fountain. The pumps would be tricky for him too. Kidding aside, NPDC needs to do more.

So they thought "why don't we have entertainment on our parks?". With that in mind, they have invited Cirque du Soleil to perform here in Manila. No big deal, not to mention Cirque du Soleil has performed in places we barely even know, like Vegas, Montreal, Macau, Los Angeles and many others.

You might think "No, this isn't a place for a computer geek like me", but the chaps at NPDC thought of that already, that's why they are planning on having the whole park WIFIed. Yes, it's for people who cant get enough of Facetube, or MyFace, and Beebo. Sure, NPDC isn't satisfied with just that, they already anticipated the volume of people visiting Rizal Park soon, and the more people, the longer the queue in the wash room. So they've improved it very, very well, good news for my friend Sam. They also have 100 police men and women watching the park at their disposal, 50 more than what they usually have. Including policemen who knows how to speak to foreigners who think Lapu-Lapu's statue is Jose Rizal.

So back to my point, I was glad I attended that Saturday, not just because of these changes on the parks, but because now I have something to look forward to. As you might notice from my blog, not that it is as unattractive as an open wound, I like photography, and Luneta, Intramuros, UST and the other urban parks and a few places were I find it most interesting to take pictures and capture moments, places that are underrated-covered-overrated.

Quiet superstitions

2011-04-26T23:53:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Sam, who is fat, insisted we go to Rizal Park to take pictures. I said no. I was adamant, there's no way we would take pictures there. I told him "this is my line in the sand, I WILL NOT GO".

Here it is, Rizal Park. These guys won't do wacky pose.

Birds, reminded me of Salgee.

Cat, Sam fell in love with it, he used 8 frames for this cat.

We then decided to visit Pambansang Museo, but sadly they do not allow cameras inside, "specially professional camera" as the receptionist told me. We still went in , since that was my first visit at the National Museum.

Then we went to Ocean Park which was just a few minutes away from Rizal Park. They have a nice view of Manila bay at their mall.

We then met up with Lee and Wendy for a walk along Roxas Blvd. Switched to Fujifilm Superia because I wanted a photo of the sunset in colour, but I don't know if it's just me or this is not a very good film.

There were people fishing that afternoon, though I did not see any of them catch a fish. But it would be fun to try fishing, I'll use Lee as bait, I'm sure sharks would love him.

Yes, this is weird.

After a long walk, we had dinner at Harbor Square and called it a day after tossing Sam into the sea.

Heavier things

2011-03-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

For all intents and purposes, these pictures were taken to help me get over from the loss of my iPod. And they did.

First, a few random shots of kindness before my iPod got stolen.

Marie,

someone walking down the street

and stylish rubber bands.

We decided to go to Intramuros to take some pictures. It was my first visit to the place built by Spaniards in the 16th century. My good friends who shares their sentiments over my lost iPod where with me, Lee, who was already alive when the place was built. And Sam, who is fat.

Gino decided to help by not coming.

I still had a roll of color film in my fm2 when we got there.

This cat was fast, it tried to run when I pressed the shutter.

Lee

Sam

Peeping Lee

There was a wedding ceremony being held at San Agustin church, too bad I'm not confident shooting in low light.

On the way to Manila Cathedral, there's an empty lot where skaters, uh, skate. Cool place. It however reminder me of Jegrameel.

Manila Cathedral

Look at this fat bloke.

Guardia Civil and motorcycle, we actually saw one riding a Wave 125. Awesome.

Trigger happy Sam insisted we go to Mall of Asia sea side for the sunset that afternoon.

Lee with his hot dog.

Girl and her mom having a bite on a sweetcorn. I think this would be my best frame.

And there we had the sunset.

Marie said there were still places in Intramuros where we hadn't been to, so with that in mind, I'll be back there very soon. Many thanks to Gino for the scans, if you wish to have your monochrome films scanned, email him at gino_unleashed@yahoo.com

Though I'm not colorblind

2011-02-16T01:44:00.000-08:00

Finally tried shooting in black and white. Four rolls of film and these are the results. Must say I find it difficult to shoot with this film and I'm still getting used to it. Mathew and Gino made it look like it was easy. Those bastards.

First roll was in Quiapo, I used Lucky film brand, didn't like the film but had some shots that I'm quite satisfied with.

Street vendor

Then with Marie and her nephews. These two were the only photos that looked good out of many that I took.

Switched to Neopan 400 from then on, thanks to Machu. Quite a film, this one.

Banchetto, Emerald Ave

Salbee and Master Machu Wong, still at Banchetto

Marie at Starbucks Rob Galleria

Aunt Grace and Egay

Lee

Lee's FM3, taken by Lee himself

Janice, taken by Marie

Bus terminal on our way to Clark for the Hot Air Balloon fest. Click here to see my pictures of the festival.

This one was taken by Sam, so were the next 5 photos.

Sam has a thing for comfort rooms, I think they're his second home.

Wendy and Marie at the Hot Air Balloon fest

Hot Air Balloon Festival

2011-02-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

Went to the Annual Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark with Marie and my friends. Despite leaving Manila at 4am, we were still late, thanks to the long line at the ticket booth. Nevertheless, we still had an hour of hot air balloon show. One fun day, this was.

Upside down

Since we're late, most of the balloons were landing already.

One up

Abominable Snowman on it's way up

Abominable Snowman

Wendy and Lee

The balloons were up only until 7am, but the event lasted the whole day so we stayed for a while. We watched a car drifting on the runway, which was actually crappy. Kite flying was nice too, though we didn't fly one, hundreds of people did, and it was nice to watch them get their kites tangled with others. Too bad I haven't got a photo of a single kite up in there.

Marie

Beep beep

Chloe and Jem

Wendy, Chloe and Marie

They had souvenir shops so we got this miniature hot air balloon

I enjoyed taking photos of kids around the place, and it was fun watching them gaze upon those flying objects. I hope to come back here next year!

Jaymee's Beerday

2011-01-28T19:05:00.000-08:00

Some shots during my cousin's beerday celebration at Malabon. I knew I wasn't nearly drunk when I took them but most are just out of focus. Actually, you can say all of them are. I think I have to avoid shooting while drinking.

This one was taken by Kuya Paeng with his flash device attached to my FM2

The beerday boy Jaymee Talag

Wut?

Shot pa!!

Taken by Jaymee

"Who cares" - cat.

Jowen AKA Neo

I promised my self I'll have a better roll next time.

Feast of the Black Nazarene

2011-01-25T19:33:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago, out of nowhere, Gino (aka Mr. Pogi 2011) and I realized that we didn't have anything to do on a Sunday. So we decided to ready our cameras and witness ourselves the Feast of the Black Nazarene.

We found a spot with a superb view of the procession, which was actually on top of a waiting shed in Lawton, there we watched replicas of the Nazarene and devotees en route, while waiting for the Black Nazarene to pass through.

We were told by some devotees that the procession was moving slowly. And they were right. We waited for roughly 2 hours until the Black Nazarene arrived at the scene, and it was worth every second of it.

Rope fight

Let me out

Circle of friends

It was really an overwhelming experience, especially when the Nazarene was in front of us and everybody was cheering "Viva!" while they wave their white towels.

It was hard to get a good shot of the Nazarene since it was surrounded by the precession's marshals, who's task were to eliminate those who dare to climb their fortress, catch towels thrown at them, then throw the towels back to the wrong people.

After that, we were in for a treat at Golden Fortune's eat all you can Shabu-shabu which Gino said was a bad thing for it's a kind of drug... Nevertheless, thank you Sam for this very heavy meal.

And that's about it.

The first one's the hardest

2010-12-28T22:27:00.000-08:00

Influenced by my good friends Gino Wong and Mathew Quetua, I now own a Nikon FM2 which I will use to kill time. Unlike those bastards who shoots mostly in black and white, I like shooting in colors. So please, bear with me.

And to Marie, thank you so much.

Here are some shots from my first roll.