just this image

The woman with the R2M

Aperture 2.1

I have been very excited to use Apple's aperture for a long time since hearing about it, but when i tried the version 1.5, I was turned off.The learning curve was too much for me and i found the interface not too intuitive. When i used Adobe's Lightroom for the first time...I got hooked. The workflow was perfect for me, and I found it very easy to import images from my cf card, rate my photos, and quickly batch edit the images for exporting to my target sizes and burning it for submission to my clients.Color corrections and global enhancements was a breeze. The Aperture program just lay there on my hard disk like a fat lazy something...when the 2,0,1 came out I installed the 30-day demo version and renamed my licensed version. I started enjoying it more because it adopted my favorite tool, Lightroom's vignette, highlight recovery, etc.

When I stumbled on the featured video of Nat Geo's Jim Richardson explaining his workflow using Aperture... i was really amazed! I didn't realize that it was the tool I'll ever need in doing photo stories. i will be using it more from now on.. especially since the 2.1 version came pre-installed with a dodge and burn" plugin...Awesome!!

A food chain

A cat patiently waits for a share of the food that a street kid had foraged from the trash.

the fields

When I was a kid, i always looked forward to the afternoons when after school, my neighbors would play "agawan base", hide and seek, camping and all konds of games inside a vacant lot in front of our house in Quezon City.There we hid among the talahib... ran after hundreds of dragonflies, and made small huts where we lit-up bonfires and exchanged tall tales with the elders. The vacant lot was a paradise filled with Santol, guava,Avocado, star apple, Aratilis and other fruit-bearing trees. It was really fun while it lasted.We soon grew up and the other kids slowly vanished as more and more of the neighbors started moving elsewhere.That was yesterday
Today, I spent a few days in Iloilo city on a documentary assignment, I came across this kids playing near the sea. I learned that every afternoon, they would play in this patch of land by the sea, a virtual fishpond for the community,,, sadly in a few months , if conditions permit, a huge coal-fired power plant would take it's place... right beside the existing Diesel power plant in the far background. Soon after the kids happy memories of their childhood will be wiped out by dark clouds of dirty coal exhausts and toxic heavy metal by-products of the future.

"So real"

Images of the daily life of the people living in Happy Lnd in Tondo Manila and a patch of land called "Ulingan" where they make charcoal from scrap wood salvaged from the adjacent garbage dump. The landscape may be surreal but the faces and the smiles are real.

South Cotabato: Hot Days, cold nights

I spent a few days in North and South Cotabato chasing KC Concepcion, US Ambassador Kenney, and the MILF brothers.Being a predominantly muslim province, I literally spent cold nights inside my hotel hugging my cameras for company. The days were really hot and humid . I ate a lot of Deep-fried Dalag with rice and Tolang dalag for breakfast and fresh kinilaw na isda, seaweeds, shrimp and sometimes fat crabs for lunch.The MILF politburo on the other hand never failed to bathe us in piping-hot native brewed coffee even under that raging hot sun.

The WIld Wild West

About two decades ago, these children playing without a care in the world wouldn't have been possible. These kids live in a mining community on Mt. Diwalwal which in the not too distant pasr was populated by denizens of the underworld, lost commands, and anybody who in some way have lost their will to live among us and chose to search for gold elsewhere. In the 1980's a gold rush in Mt. Diwalwal gave birth to a town where guns and gold ruled. Gun duels were everyday fare and the death toll kept rising. It was a survival of the fittest.
Today , there is peace and women and children need not live in fear.There is a schoolhouse. a health center, and an economy built on gold revenues.
The only real problem is with iver a 100,000 population and without a real eco-government policy, Mt.Diwalwal might soon become an ecological nightmare.

Quiapo Sunday

Fresh vegetables for a salad, DVD's for an afternoon couch potato session. I found "I 'm Not There".A really good movie about and not about Bob Dylan's life and works.

Lumix in the streets

At first I was so frustrated because my timing was off...the shutter took a longer time to capture the images as I walked the streets of Quiapo. After a while...the world around me seemed to slow down as I reversed the process. I remembered the movie "Matrix" as I consciously weaved in and out of the hustle and bustle that was Quiapo. As my sweat began to break so did my fear. This camera is fantastic!!!! Very stealthy because it makes no shutter sound at all, the body is all black and the lens has a HUGE opening at f2.0-2.4 and with the 28-90 mm Leica Vario-Summicron lens...the DMC LC-1 is perfect for street photography.hehehehe I found a jewel at last. But of course...the little M4 on my other shoulder is still the king!

A Slice of Life

Christmas Past

I ususally hate when Christmas comes... for so many reasons that I can't pin down. But if you really want to feel the spirit, look around you and give...anything. Giving makes us see those subtle signs of happiness.

The RF gang

Rangefinder cameras: a perfect companion for shooting the streets.
(L-R) Leica 1G (loaned from Angie De Silva, Leica m4-2, Fed-3 , Fed-2, Zorki-4K

WHERE IS THE LINE?

Row four images #01

Langistik Man: A protester attempts to put a comic twist to the already twisted economics of skyrocketing prices of fossil fuel.


NO TO OIL PRICE HIKE: The militant women join the protest



DEEP "TOTS" .This young child learns the realities of life from the protesting public utility drivers.

Coming Soon: ROW 4 Images

It's been quite a while since I have last posted new images on this blog directly.I got bitten by the multiply fever and then the facebook apps. Nothing beats this blog, it's quiet and has an air of calmness to it.
I noticed that when you make some small adjustments in multiply and facebook...the whole world is roused from sleep.

The good news is, I have gone back to school to learn about photojournalism.

One score and seven years ago...I was hurled into photojournalism because I needed to work and be the breadwinner of the family.Photography was the only other skill I know next to drawing editorial cartoons that I felt would be a good dayjob. I (was) am really passionate and obsessed with photography and I felt that I can really visualize and present my ideas better with photographic images than I can with my drawings. Not that my drawing sucks but I am not really the better artist at home...my younger sister is.

It was the heyday of picture agencies and photojournalism...The Marcos regime was on the very edge of collapse.One breaking news led to another in a vicious whirlpool which sucked my tender years,until it spewed me out like a projectile into the present.

My kids have grown up to be emerging artists too and I realize that I have nothing concrete and structured to teach them...only experiential knowledge.

Looking back, I know I have learned the ropes of photojournalism out in the streets, infron and behind the picketlines, up on the hills, and deep in the urban ghettoes. It's time to go back to school, wipeout my pre-conceived notions, and start with a clean slate.

Photojournalism, it's responsibilities and moral obligations have evolved a lot. I am positive that I will relearn it with got a timely scholarship from the Asian Center for Journalism which works closely with the World Press Photo.

In the next postings, you will see the output of a year of my studies via online and on-campus learning sessions.

Hopefully, this won't be a view from the fourth row.

Mere propagenda or truth?

Is this truth or mere Propaganda?

Link

inside the dressing room:Amazing Beauties 2007

details will follow....

Bureau of Internal Refugees

This are images taken during a photo visi with Tudla Productions to the railroad tracks where demolitions and relocations are ongoing. The people living in small houses alongside the railroad tracks are being driven away to various relocation centers outside the city to find themselves trekking back to the city on account of poor living conditions, lack of jobs and services. These people may be squatters but they it is disheartening to know that they are part of the growing number of Internal refugees in our homeland,

These images are part of the documentation using a Fuji GW670 medium-format rangefinder camera and 220 size Porta film and scanned