[Click BGC] Specific Gravity

[Click BGC] Specific Gravity
Originally uploaded by akumach

I thought of freezing the water to illustrate "gravity". This is just to move away from the usual long exposure shots I see online. To achieve this, I placed my SB-900 inside a Reynold's resealable bag and triggered it manually using my D90's CLS . My initial plan was to really shoot this sculpture alone. While I was testing for correct exposure, however, a bunch of Caucasian kids came running into the water. I snapped on impulse and got this "destiny" shot.

[At the Okudas] Okasan

[At the Okudas] Okasan
Originally uploaded by akumach

t's always a joy visiting my colleague Jesse's friend, Mrs Okuda. She prepares a feast every time we pay visit and I always enjoy the stories she has to tell. It was only from her that I became aware of the reality of the "baby boomer" problem in Japan. She complained that the pensions they used to pay when they were younger are being taxed and they couldn't do anything. She pays almost four times the tax that I pay here despite her age. Of course she tells lots of stories about her kids, all mothers do I think.

Coincidentally, I had my grandma tell me stories about her life during World War 2. Mrs. Okuda finely detailed what was it like on the other side of the war back then too. She remembers so well the 500+ airplanes that hid even the sunlight as the US air force napalmed Tokyo and Yokohama. She lost a couple of friends during that time. Perhaps it was only in the anime "Graveyard of the Fireflies" that I saw it but Mrs. Okuda vividly described that during the bombings burned cadavers were everywhere. She recalls that she even rode the Yokosuka line with dead bodies inside. That's horrifying for a twelve year old.

Hmmm....I've been dwelling on the tragic part of her stories. Anyway, she thinks I'm only 23 years old. That's something to be happy about because I'll be turning 26 this year...;;)

My 2007 In Photographs, Of Photographs

These 12 images best describe the kind of photography I'm interested in. I call them "environmentals" because usually these are photos of people in their environment - usually the normal things that happen everyday - that with a simple isolation, dramatic lighting, playing with shapes, tilt of the camera, bending of the knees, shooting from God's perpective, and/or patience for that right moment, they gain art-like form and tell a story which may really be happening or not. Of course they are inspired by one of my great influences, Gianni Berengo Gardin, whose works are in the same league as those of his French counterpart, the great Henri Cartier-Bresson. I visit Shibuya a lot to read books about them in Tower Records but I'm not into copying their works, I just try to extract from the images the forms that they used and most especially their motivation of making their pictures and how they saw them. This principle, making the shot before you even click the shutter is, I think, the most essential part of photography. And for this genre, you have to see quickly. The use of the camera, whether you are using the latest bad ass DSLR or a "masochistic" mechanical film one, is merely technical that once mastered, it will be how you saw the shot with capabilities of your camera that matters. A very big part of capturing everyday scenes depends on luck or that intuition to click the shutter at the right moment. It is this luck that makes creating these pictures very exciting, it's this luck that makes them 'destiny' for the photographer immortalize that exact moment. On that note, these are the 12 photographs in 2007 that was destined for me to make (taken away by words again...these shots are really not that great but I enjoyed making them, haha):

12. "Luglog", Rinkoh Park, Minato Mirai, Yokohama, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200mm
PP: toned, saturated, sharpened

The freezing of the water and the playful feet of this child makes this one of my best this year. The cold-warm mix of colors was also applied with a little help of saturation. The long zoom better isolated the kid's feet and the playful water. This was taken as I was just resting in one of the park's benches as this kid played on the water.

11. "Strength", Hundred Islands, Alaminos, Pangasinan, Philippines
Sony DSC-T10
PP: toned, saturated, sharpened, vignette


I forgot to recharge my batteries and so I borrowed my cousin's point and shoot. This is sort of one of those cases that the harsh mid-day sunlight helps aesthetically. I had to dash into the dock to get this top shot and capture the labor of this kid with the shimmering waters caused by the harsh sunlight.

10. "In Solemn Prayer", Mt. Takao, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned, sharpened



The right moment was waiting for the prettiest girl to bow and pray...hehehe.
I used basic foreground and background bokeh here by zooming at 200 mm. The foreground framing bokeh is caused by the hanging good luck charms. I had to bend down to get this.

9. "Loving Fall", Mt. Takao, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned



One of those shots (the previous one also) as I was "power tripping" with my long zoom. Actually, it is not 'Gardin' to use long zooms because back then he only used fast 35 mm Leicas. I still like this for its 'candidness' and the irony between the sheer fun of this kid as leaves are starting to fall and wither to welcome the winter.

8. "Funtain", UST Campus, Manila, Philippines
Nikon D80 50mm f1.8
PP: warmed


The frozen and shimmering water blending with the candid laughs of these kids make this photo. They had just graduated from college. The fast f1.8 and the flash has a lot to do with the freezing.

7. "The Manly Way", In transit, Espana Ave, Manila, Philippines
Canon Powershot A620
PP: toned



Still part of the on-going 'Viajero' series, I tried to capture the impression of this man hanging on the jeepney's, a local Philippine transportation, 'estribo.' The highlights that trace the man's hanging figure makes it. I remember I just visited Hidalgo canvassing for a D80 when I shot this one.

6. "Electric Fans", Marikina Sports Complex, Marikina City, Philippines
Nikon D80 18-55mm
PP: toned


This is one of those better-composed photos I had. I like how the fan and the electric fan were isolated despite the crowd. The idea was to use the industrial fan as a composition element. I played with words and had in mind that these are actually GMA network star fans. A fan and a fan...I just waited for the right moment for this young fan to look back. The smile, which makes him 'electric' somehow, was just a bonus.

5. "Not so Posh", Kagurazaka, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned

I like this shot because I captured the essence of Kagurazaka as I see it - a relatively older and downmarket area in Tokyo. I remember that Gardin once said that zoom lenses are too isolating of the subject. This shot is an example that zooms do not always isolate. When shooting a long and narrow walkway like this, zooms compress it into an illusion that it is short and hence showing all the details of the path...the stoned walkway, the hanging wires, the roof's gutters, the fence, the street light etc. The person scales the size of the pathway and is included to puzzle the viewer that he's the subject when in fact it is the 'framing' environment.

4. "The Leader of the Pack", Shibuya Crossing, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80, 18-200mm
PP: BW, toned


This is again another application of compressing perspective with a long zoom. This costed me a drink at Starbucks just to have front row seats of this perspective of one of the world's busiest crossings. The crazily stacked umbrellas and the pedestrian lines made the environment element. Why "Leader of the Pack"? I was actually referring to the lady in the front most. I placed her in one of the "rule of third" points. She's also the only one who has stepped out of the yellow warning line and she seems to be the only one paying attention to the traffic lights. one viewer suggested to selectively color her umbrella but I did not do so simply because, as far as I can see, I have already applied enough isolation components.

3. "Not Even the Rain", Meiji Temple walkway, Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: BW



Perhaps the least hidden secret in photography is capturing light. This one is just light play and the display of persistence to make a photograph even under the rain. I just waited for someone to do something interesting under this beautiful light. Luckily, this person showed up with his umbrella, he was also photographing the scene. One great thing about this shot is that I could have been this person had someone shot me from the back.

2. "Rainbow Bridge, Lovers'Perspective", Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned



This is one of those efforts to capture something that is already often photographed. Of course I also shoot those 'tourist' shots (I'm never good at it), but I tried including elements to make this more dramatic and maybe romantic. Rules in books wouldn't consider this a good photograph because it doesn't tell right away what the subject is. Well, that's my point exactly here. Am I shooting the bridge, the trees or the lovers? I was shooting all of them.:)

1. "Monk and the City", Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned



This is my personal best for 2007. Ironically, this monk, usually seen in old temples in Japan, is in Ginza...one of Tokyo's upmarket districts where vices of vanity (500,000 yen suit anyone?) and night life are much prevalent. I shot this from 4-5 feet and tiptoed to hide the monk's face. I used 18 mm to show the buildings of Ginza as the environment and to create an exaggerated vanishing point which the monk covers. The center composition couldn't have been more effective without the symmetry caused by the vanishing point. Hopefully I have shown the irony and the enigma of this scene by using my camera effectively. This shot was a milestone for me because I think I was starting to be one with my camera and my lens - that controlling the settings isn't that much of a hindrance anymore. Also notice that it's unique from the eleven others I have chosen because it was shot at the wide end of my lens.

As a recollection of my 2007, I'd just like to mention my firsts this year and other notable photos:

Smiling Omiyage, Mt. Takao, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned


This is my favorite macro shot for 2007 if this qualifies as one. Notice that I selectively focused (NOT in picassa or photoshop) on the figure with the most notable smiling face and then the wrapped them up in this slanting pattern. Maybe one tip I can give, although macro isn't really an interest of mine, is that even when you are doing a macro, composition principles still apply. It's not like you can just macro on everything without observing and thinking on how you can present the subject first. (And, this doesn't have a "great depth of field " (DOF) as many would comment. "Great bokeh (or blur)" is the appropiate term for it. "Great DOF" is when everything is sharp from the foreground to the background.)

The Last of the Momijis, Mt. Takao, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned


Climbing Mt. Takao was my very first autumn foliage shoot. This one's I consider the best although I just realized that after rotating it 180 degrees. I just love the red-black combination and gradation.

Under the Narra Shower, UP Diliman, QC, Philippines
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned


I also attempted a pre-nup shot of my sister and his husband last summer. This is my favorite of that series because the golden shower was my concept.

Signs Galore, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned

Buying my DSLR and a lens with vibration reduction (VR) had enabled me to photowalk along the streets of Japan without having to worry about setting up a tripod. This is my favorite of those tripod-less night shots.

The Failure in Blue, Minato Mirai, Yokohama City, Japan
Nikon D80 18-200 mm
PP: toned


It's cartoony but I still love this. The exaggerated blue was caused by setting my WB to tungsten. Contrary to the photo before, this was a long exposure so a tripod was necessary.

I'm the King of the World, Mt. Fuji, Japan
Nikon D80 18-55mm
PP: toned


This was perhaps the most dangerous shot I have taken so far. I actually had to balance myself an rocks off-path to get this angle as the slopes of Mt. Fuji this time was already so crowded.

The Bird Portrait, Ueno Zoo, Tokyo, Japan
Nikon 18-200 mm
PP: toned



This was actually my very first time to visit a zoo and shoot animals like crazy. This is my favorite bird shot. It's pretty noisy because these birds are too naughty to shoot...they move all the time. The lighting is great because someone in the zoo knows about exhibition lighting. This was shot through glass but it looks clean. All I really did here was to exploit my cameras fast response, the subject and the lighting were already taken care of.

Gutom Man ay Marikit Pa Rin, Bahay Marikit, San Juan, Batangas
Nikon D80 50mm f1.8
PP: toned

My favorite portrait for this year is of course that of my bebs! The reflected mid-day sunlight was topnotch and so I couldn't resist to shoot bebs with my likewise favorite 50 mm. She just turned 25.:-*

[Astra Jologs Party] The Kids from 22-27

[Astra Jologs Party] The Kids from 22-27
Originally uploaded by akumach

If I were home for Christmas, I would have shot a bunch of kids from our neighborhood in our yearly Christmas party and thanksgiving at my grandpa's in Pangasinan. It was my first time to spend Christmas away from home and there weren't small kids...only big kids from ages 22-27. More pictures here.

With their smiles and laughters, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!!:)

Dan and Olay's apartment, Nagayama, Tokyo, Japan

Bagged Away

I really find it difficult to stay with bebs (or my mama or my sister or my few girl friends) when it comes to shopping for stuff especially the fashionable ones. They really have this habit of checking every store of every mall and then most of the time not ending up buying anything while I end up buying on impulse something from every store. Tonight, however, I may have been a bit 'bagged' away in looking for a 'messenger' bag my bebs had told me to buy her. I don't even know if what I bought was indeed a 'messenger' bag but I'm in full confidence that it is 'kikay' enough for her taste. I have scouted every store in Kawasaki the past two days to find something what I think she'd prefer but they weren't 'kikay' or 'blingy' enough for bebs. So I thought maybe I'd look somewhere else. Fiinally I found the bag which I think she will definitely like. When I saw it I knew it was the only bag for her and it's really the one I should buy...that 'stupid cupid' in that area really has a way of enticing buyers especially those who buy for their loved ones. I don't know but I find it weird and surprising that I couldn't stand bebs when she shops but then I pretty acted the same as I bought for her a messenger bag- the very first time without her choosing and completely relying on what I know is here taste. It was pretty challenging and exciting!:D

Earthquake?

Was it just my head for not having enough sleep or was it the ground slightly moving? This happens frequently...

Train Blunders

More than two months now in Japan but it was only tonight that I had my fist AND second blunders in riding the very complex Japanese train system. I normally ride the Tokaido Line from Shimbashi to Kawasaki because it's so much faster than the Keihin Tohoku (7 stops vs. 2 stops). Tokaido is the (Rapid Express or Toukyu, that train whixh skips 'minor' stations) in the Tokyo area of the two lines. What I didn't realize is that there is such a thing as a 'commuter express'. The train made a stop in Shinagawa as a Toukyu would normally do but then when I heard the driver the next stop was already Ofuna!!! The damn train skipped the cities of Kawasaki and Yokohama!!! When I arrived in Ofuna, I immediately transferred to the Tokaido train in the adjacent track thinking that it will go to the opposite direction but then the train turned out to be a local train to the direction of the one I just rode on! I ended up in Fujisawa then caught a train back to Kawasaki there. I traveled a total of 80 kilometers or more than an hour inside the train! Just imagine going to and from Calamba, Laguna in one night. It's good the Tokaido line is fast though. Man I like it when it sings for speed!

Beck: Reliving My Rock Star Dream

This should be my favorite anime ever. Alvin had told me about this 26-episode series about the beginnings on what will become Japan's next big rock band almost two years ago now. The best thing I liked about it is that it is fictional but it has so many references to rock stars and rock bands. It also has lots of parodies of places in Japan that the characters almost seem to have lived in the same streets that I stroll along here. No stupid fantasy stuff...just good characters, guitars and music. It's really a great relief as I was already bored with Bounto episodes of Bleach.

I really did appreciate the series very well because I used to have rock star dreams which I believed could be started by mastering the guitar. At one point when I was 14 or 15, also the age when the main character Koyuki starts playing, I'd strum my uncle's Yamaha folk guitar in our terrace which overlooks nothing but greens of mostly sugarcanes. I don't even remember making school homeworks way back then but I remember mastering chords and breaking them. Like Koyuki, I played rhythm guitars and vocals way back. I guess this was a result of idolizing Ely Buendia. And so way back I wanted a Fender Telecaster badly...perhaps as badly as Koyuki had worked to earn enough money to buy his yellow Telecaster.

Now I have my Telecaster, Castro, but my rock star dreams have already faded. This doesn't stop me, however, into going into the next stage, as in this anime, in learning the guitar: is scaling. I don't know if I would ever be able to write songs but maybe if I'd renew my love affair with Castro then it might just work. I'll try scales a little bit and learn the blues like the band's lead guitarist Ryusuke. His story with the blues in the series is one good sub-plot. Ryuusuke is the romantic when it comes to music, he's very skilled in guitar but he considers technicality as only secondary to the aim of music which is to express feelings. As Dying Breed's Eddy Lee (a fictional band in the series) puts it, "A guitar is the human soul, speaking with just six strings."

I don't know if this series can be appreciated by someone who can't empathize with the youthful romance with rock music, playing in a band and dreaming to become a rock star but if you did or thought you did at one point in your life, this series is a mandatory watch. I'm now spending more time with Castro and I intend to be with him more often because of Beck. When the theme, Moon On the Water, was first aired, I grabbed Castro and slept with him trying to learn the chords by ear. I'm still with my old methods of learning songs but that night I realized that Youtube is the new Song Hits. This video below is the one I liked most. I loved this song the first time I heard it. The lyrics and melody kills me:

Full moon sways…
Gently in the night for one fine day
On my way
Looking for a moment with my dear
Full moon waves…
Slowly on the surface of that lake
You were there smiling in my arms for all those years
What a fool…
I don’t know about tomorrow
(what is like to be?)
I was sure
I couldn’t let myself to go even thought i fell… the end
Old love affair
Floating like a bird resting her wings
You were there smiling in my arms for all those years…

Sleeping Pills Needed!

It's already almost 4 AM yet still I couldn't sleep. My bio-clock has been severely affected by sleeping really late the past two weeks. I have to revert to my old sleeping cycle back...my next project is already pretty serious and I'll be starting out next week in another office.:( I have so many things I'd like to especially for self-growth while I'm here in Japan but I haven't started anything for them yet. Discipline, Eric...you're losing it.

Sayonara Summer, Take Two!

I had dinner at KFC along Mizonokuchi highway tonight. The ten-minute walk to and from the place was already a bit chilling. My aircon has suddenly become useless because the air in the corridor is almost as cold as the 24 degrees I set in my room. It seems that summer has gone all of a sudden a lo here's autumn! I'm actually more happy than sad that summer is over; to be walking a total of an hour to and from the station is not the nicest thing in the world when it's so hot and humid at the same time. If there's one thing I'll miss during the hotter seasons here, it will probably be playing tennis. However, I'm also looking forward to wearing at work the suits that almost made me broke before going to Japan as the 'coolbiz' (read: dress down to polo/long-sleevs season) season is now over. I'd probably look nicer but the dry clean charges here are pretty high so I'm pretty torn between budget and vanity now. Moreover, I have to buy a new pair of nice leather shoes because the one I have now couldn't seem to stand against the torture of walking an hour a day...the cut of my pants also seems to look better when my shoes are a bit slimmer-looking and shiny!;)

I let the pictures speak as I bade 'Philippine summer' goodbye last time. I'm doing the same thing here. It's already been two months since I arrived here and I can say that it has been so much fun so far because all of these parties.


Celebrated Khen's 27th birthday with my former colleagues in Astra. We dined in a traditional Japanese diner and had met up with more people in Khen's apartment.

(Taken by Alvin) My first taste of night life in Japan with Astralites in Club Pure, Shibuya. I was cheated 2000 yen because ladies were charged 1500 but men were charged 3500. It was drink all you can so I had to try all of their liquor mixes. Of the 13, I tried 10 because I was too busy impressing the ladies, especially the Japs and lots of caucasians with my dance moves. Five people hit on me that night: one Australian, one British and three Japanese. Too bad they were men.:(( I also experienced my very first 'first train' ride via the Tokyu Toyoko line. I never realized that Shibuya is just a mere 190 yen from my place. I should go here more often. Being in Shibuya though is pretty dangerous to my budget as there are lots of stores for shoes. For example, I bought a Nike Zoom trainer shoes on impulse while strolling along some duty free shops. Visa and Shibuya don't go so well for my budget.

After a five hour rest, I had to go straight to Yotsuka in Yokohama as one of our managers in Weserv, Ms Nila, hosted a party at her house. Her mongo (this one I personally requested), beef caldereta, chicken wings and spaghetti is the best! Doumo arigatou mam! And as if I haven't had enough alcohol, we had sake and jinro (it's some brand of a Korean alcohol). I could only take a glass of each though, drinking them pure isn't to my taste. After arriving at the dorm at 11 pm, I washed away all hard liquors I drank that day and the night before with 2 cans of Kirin original brew!

Notice the contrast between my former and present company.I was one of the seniors back then and now I'm one of the youngest. It's pretty weird how 'young' I am treated in my current company when basically I have already been through, or even more, what seniors do in the past. I just realized that it's already September and I just turned five years in this industry.

Too Much Drama Can Kill You

I'm still recovering from lack of sleep. I have been sleeping just five hours maximum because I had an eating and drinking spree last Fri PM to Sat AM(with Sabistas) and Sat PM-Sun AM(with Astralites in Khen's birthday). Sunday night was alcohol-free but I gave in to 'puyat' because of this nice Japanese drama series I copied from Khejuts (KJ), the very first I have ever watched for the sake of ear training in Nihonggo. Bjuts says that I'm even worse than the some of our female ex-officemates. Thanks to my very low EQ, I watched all of the 11 episodes in one sitting! I started watching at around Sunday 9 pm and finished it around 6 am the next day. Syet, that's jdrama baptismal by jetlag!

The series is called 'Proposal Daisakusen'....I looked up what 'daisakusen' means and it translates to 'tactics' or 'strategy'. And this is what it was all about...about a loser guy (Ken-zou) who never told his beloved childhood best friend (the heart-melting Rei) that he loved her all along in the 14 years that they were friends and he had just lost her to her college teacher. A short story, it got its twist when during the slide show of the wedding ceremony, he sees the photographs of their young friendship and regrets not having made her happier in the pictures and that during all those years he never confessed his love. Then a fairy suddenly appears and offers Ken to do a time-flip to the time each of the slide pictures was taken. An episode was devoted per slide and each was filled with funny moments and, especially, hamida wo nagashisou (lit. seems like tear is flowing if my grammar is right) ones (drama nga pala itoh!) as Ken attempts to change the past and finally tell Rei of his love. The loser never got to directly confess but at least he made Rei look happier in each of the slide except the last. I spent each episode trying to cheer (using my mental powers) the loser guy into finally confessing,

"Tangna kung ganun pa ba naman kaganda ang gelbespren mo e matotorpe ka pa...Sabihan mo na ayan na pagkakataon..ayan...sige na...naknang...me istorbo na naman tuloy...Para lang magsabi e...ayan naunahan ka na...haaayyy...ururu (ulol in Japanese) ka kasi e!"

It was like this per episode and after five episodes, again thanks to my low EQ, it already got a bit boring. What really kept me going was seeing Rei's beauty (Nagasawa masami) as a high school girl, a kolehiyala and a career woman. To exaggerate, I could have have watched this even without the subtitles or even in mute as long as Rei is in the scene! Rei in Yukata made me, qutoing the subtitle, "lost my mind for a moment." God, she's just gorgeous!

I won't spoil by giving away the ending but the series almost didn't give an ending too...a realistic one much less. But then it's already too late for realism considering that it's about time-flips and a profoundly-speaking male fairy. The series was all about cheesy things like 'fate' and 'destiny' and not about building chances or graceful exits after a failure.

I completely agree with Rei's grandpa when he said that there shouldn't be waiting for the next day to tell you love someone. This completely supports that one line repeatedly mentioned towards the end of the movie about taking the risk of telling you love somebody no matter the odds, "Everyone expects you to fail but if you succeed, you really are a man", or something like that. I'm not sure of manhood but I guess if it's the risk you are taking is not having a happy marriage for the rest of your life then there is no reason not to seize every chance you have. It is only when taking, or even making, these chances that you will know the full extent of what 'fate' or 'destiny' can offer. And only after knowing this offer, whether favorable or not, will we have the luxury to not regret and move on.

The loser exits the wedding ceremony after his speech, cries his heart out, takes a taxi and wakes up the next day with no regrets but only the happy memories of his pursuit of Rei who is now happily married. A bittersweet ending could have been nice too.

Pahabol:

Don't get me wrong, 'Proposal Daisakusen' is my first and seemingly last jdrama (Well, maybe for the next few weeks at least...hehehe) . It's so good (the cinematography, acting and all) I couldn't stand watching another series with a production that is at par or without a looker like Rei. I wonder when will another Nagasawa Masami series will come out?

To my surprise, it wasn't only me who watched this last weekend. My body builder colleague watched it too:

Colleague (in a really deep voice with all his muscles bulging out of his fitting sando): Uy pare nanonood ka rin pala ng drama na nyan?
Moi: Ah, nahiram ko lang dun sa mga barkada ko...pang Nihonggo...nakakaiyak nga e...pinanood ko nga ng 9 na oras e...mag-isa ako umiiyak dito sa kwarto... hehehehe...
Colleague: Oo nga...ganda 'no...ganda nung chick jan!(kunwari pa, naiyak ka rin e?!)
Moi: Oo nga...sya nga lang pinapanood ko e...ang ganda kasi ng ngiti...panalo!
Colleague: Meron na akong mga naka-bikini na picture nyan!
Moi: A talaga?! Nasan?! Nasan?!

The moral: Kahit drama sa bikini pa rin pupunta. Hehehehehe.

'Ironing Room' Shocker

I still don't have my internet connection but it's good that the 'ironing room' of my dorm has a stray wi-fi signal. I have been pirating wi-fi signals for 6 weeks now and they are more than enough to check my email at the least. In fact, the one I'm using now is even 6 times the speed of the ADSL I have back home and it's free! I was supposed to iron some of my long sleeves but I got stuck into surfing the net with nothing in particular to browse except to upload some flickr photos and read some group posts. Anyway, I visited Minato Mirai in Yokohama last weekend and here's the set of that shoot. The picture above is my favorite and perhaps I can use it to skin this blog once I can manage to. I curved this a bit in Photoshop to exaggerate colors and especially to emphasize the contrast between the water and the boy's skin.

Hhhhmmmmm....I'm not even supposed to blog tonight. I brought my notebook to this room so that I thought I could listen to NU over eradioportal while I iron my clothes. I've been missing the Philippine alternative scene...Sandwich has new single in the stairway to Heaven countdown and I'm dying to listen to it. Apparently, you can only listen to NU if you are in the Philippines and if you are a subscriber of any of philippine ISPs. This portal is almost...err..pointless.

I'm all alone now and all I can hear is the sound of air from the aircon. I browse some friend profiles in friendster and....Yael's (of Spongecola) voice fills the room...WTF! Nagulat ako dun a! this is why I hate browsing friendster....I closed mozilla right away...I never got to see whose profile was it...

(My Lagalag Story) Mt. Fuji: Beyond the Camera Could See

My fifty-thousand-peso camera failed me.

I almost didn't push through this feat because thick clouds had already covered Kawasaki City when I woke up.According to the net, Mt. Fuji would be cloudy in the afternoon with scattered rains in the evening but would then clear up when morning comes. The plan was to start late in the afternoon, climb leisurely through the night then reach the summit before the sun rises.

And true enough, it rained while we were half-way through. The timing, however, couldn't have been better as we were having a rest in front of a lodge in Station Seven. Had it been different, we would have faced the needles of the cold rain drops and our hyaku-en(hundred yen)-furnished rain coats would have risked us into hypothermia at the higher levels where temperatures are nearing zero degrees. The rain we overcame was the peak of the danger of our climb and from there my worries went downhill. Whether I would make it to the summit or not was just a matter of beating some tough night-time-hold-for-your-dear-life rock climbing and an attack of sinusitis.

The rain turned out to be a blessing. It cleared the sky so that I could catch that spectacular sunrise Mt. Fuji climbing is famous for. There was this scenery, however, that was as captivating as the sunrise that I never had a shot of. During our rests along the rocky trail, I'd turn off my flashlight and the most beautiful night scenery I have ever seen in my life reveals:

The stars seem to have been gathered in one silver screen. I can vividly see the Big Dipper to my left and the Orion above to the right. I have seen these constellations countless times before but I get thrilled like I did when I was nine when I first traced them in the night sky with my fore-finger. The city lights 3000 meters to the sea level backlight the thick rain clouds below us and outline an image like that of the Horse nebula. The army of climbers swarm in blue and yellow light along the Kawaguchiko trail as if they are Chirstmas lights zig-zagging and entangling Mt. Fuji.

There's no hobby camera to my knowledge powerful and portable enough to capture this scenery. Perhaps there are subjects in photography that can't be caught simply because they are reserved for one's life 'prints' - experience. And there is no battery good enough to power our 'bodies' than the will of the spirit to persist beyond where the legs and the lungs start giving up so that we can take a click and run away with awesome memories. With a stroke of luck (an arguably big aspect in photography) in our gamble against the rain, I had a very beautiful shot after all.



Special thanks to my climbing partners, Jess, Ms. Nila and Joane. Dedicated to all Filipino overseas who have their own mountains to contain. Some of you I spent my first journeys with: Rolland, Jericho, Adonis, Mark and Joed.

About the author

The "Viajero" is a very bored IT professional. He almost lost his mind to boredom last year that he went to the brink of stop showing up in the office. He then drew interest into making interesting photos from the everyday things he encountered and so was born the "Viajero Series" set. This dextrosed him from losing his mind and eventually he was able to accept the reality of his job and gained his sanity back. He's with a seeemingly more boring assignment in Japan now but he but the yen he receives motivates him to survive ...or enjoy his stay more. He can now buy more camera stuff to play with, go to more places Japan's trains can take him to and make pictures he'd like to believe worth sharing to flickr. He is looking forward to that 'viaje' where he can be with his "dinengdeng"-eating Ilocano family he misses a lot and make pictures (AND BABIES!) with Gladys (Twistedhalo in flickr) again. He has his journey in cruise control mode by the IT industry which is heavily involved in outsourcing and staff augmentation. He hopes he would be as lucky as his Mt. Fuji climb in this resolve....that eventhough he doesn't know what the future holds for him in his, hopefully, just a few years stay in a foreign land, he would eventually be able to turn off that cruise control and drive to his dream of raising a Filipino family in the Philippines and be active in the IT innovation sector. He hails from Pangasinan and is a town mate of "America is in the Heart" author Carlos Bulosan.

Kapusolympics Side B

No Angel. No Katrina. No Jennilyn. I had to give myself a consolation and revert to documentary type of photographs. This is my favorite shot of the whole series, celebrity shots included.

After two years of flickring, I have also finally wrote (and bragged) something in my flickr profile.

A Kapamilya Shoots Kapusolympics

I wasn't supposed to shoot the event because I had to go to the tailor that Saturday morning. I already said no to Ate Bing's (thanks very much Ate Bing, fellow flickrista and the ever realiable 'konek' to big opportunities like this) but then three names came into my mind... Angel Locsin...Katrina Halili...Jennilyn Mercado...I think I'm a 'Kapuso' by croc...heart now!

This is actually the very first public event I photographed. I was quite reluctant because it was going to be a sports event but I didn't have the optimal equipment for it. I'm also not really into shooting famous people (I have leanings to social and travel photography) in action but what the heck...Angel will be there. Besides, I have been trying to understand my D80's matrix metering and I thought that this event would be a very convenient ground for practice. And so I went without any idea what was going to happen...I just thought that I'd like to shoot some nice women portraits, some wide shots of the stars in light moments, and of course action shots.
Now with the shots...
This is the only portrait shot I liked. I love how Rhian Ramos and Bianca King did a comical here. I remember there was this picture of Bianca King torridly kissing another girl in the internet. If you knew this, you'd see this differently. Rhian even jokingly said to Bianca, "Kaya ka natsitsismis e..", after this shot. How did I make them do this? I didn't, the girls were just having some fun.
















Joyce Jimenez beautifully lies down as the Yellow Team take their break. I snapped this and then attempted to shoot Joyce from the front...I pushed my luck too hard that she sat down immediately when she saw me. I got this fairly nice environment candid instead. Star-struck as I was, I think I scared Joyce. When I saw her the first time I just kept following and taking a snap of her. I just kept snapping that I actually forgot to reset my exposure compensation and white balance as it started getting really cloudy.


















Shooting sports should have action shots mainly. My lens, however, was quite slow. This is only problematic, however, if you have a shallow depth of field. What I did is to stay as far enough so that I'd have a deep DOF (though i still miscalculated the shutter...Mark Herras was still blurred) or shoot actions that aren't fast for my lens...

















You should know who you shoot. In events like this, a photo sells more if you have photos of more significant people. I failed in this aspect in covering this event. I didn't know who to shoot. Except for a handful of shots like that of Rhian and Bianca, I actually ended up shooting like a paparazzi. I was so close to the stars that a call of their names could have made them give me a smile or a comical pose. The problem was that I was too shy and I didn't know their names. I shot paparazzi shots and I had f***ed the settings of my camera most of the time. I had really bad exposures and blurs most of the time. Yep, it was a very frustrating shoot. When I shot with my P&S, I thought having a DSLR would make things less frustrating. This is the most stupid thing I ever thought. DSLRs give you control to almost everything that can be controlled in pre-processing the shot. It's basic Math...the more parameters for you to control, the more likely that you can be mistaken. The last photo is a classic example of this frustration. I don't know who this hottie up to know...that out of focus blur is actually one of those rookie mistakes you will have most of the time when shooting with a DSLR.


































It was a very bad shooting day overall but still I had so much fun. I just watched Kapusolympics and I saw myself in some of the shots. I looked like a pro actually as I followed the actions in the virefinder like a robot...cool!

PS

I'm technically more of a 'Kapamilya' because I always get to watch (or just listen to or have glimpses of) 'Walang Kapalit' or 'Maging Sino Ka Man' or 'Deal or No Deal' every time my sister or Papa prepares dinner. Note that I can only watch locals because I don't have cable TV, I don't watch TV much...not even those series DVDs from Quiapo. Seriously though, I think the 'teleseryes' from ABS-CBN are of much better quality.:D