High school high

After a long day of shooting in Moro Lorenzo gym, I decided to walk around the campus of my High School. The last time I was there was about a year ago when I was shooting for the promotional material of the school. Anyway… I couldn’t help but overhear the certain problem of two clueless teenagers.

Guy 1: So ano ginawa mo? San ba bahay nya?
Guy 2: Yun nga eh, wala. Sabi nya basta punta lang ako sa small party sa bahay nya.
Guy 1: So wala nanaman nangyari?
Guy 2: Wala.
Guy 1: Pare naman, may Red Ribbon naman sa commonwealth! Kahit cake lang.

me: *walked away before it actually ended*
daym. the problems of a high school student.

Silk

Remember the band named Silk?
Obviously these are not the same girls when they started nearly a decade ago.

From the stash

Due to the rains, my shoots got cancelled and I forced myself to be organized and fix my archives. This process uncovered a lot of great photos and even more photos that got me thinking, what the hell made me take that photo!

Anyway, ill spare everyone the growing pains and just present my work before I went professional

This was taken using my pentax film camera during the 2002 season

Boracay, march 2004

This was taken early 2004, ateneo soccer fields

the on-campus sessions; a review

The last time I saw an old school slide show was when I was in elementary, viewing photos of the geological formations of the Philippines. That was more than a decade ago. The last time I was viewing slide film however, was more recent. Two years ago I used to work in Mabuhay Magazine as an in-house photographer and photo-assistant. My job description was to do anything to help the non-existent photo department. I was the one-man team. I would receive the submitted slides by the likes of George Tapan and Bien Bautista. Then I would scan them and catalogue them and choose among the files which ones would be shortlisted for the magazine. Then after a week or so, the esteemed photographers would return, and I would give back their slides; and that was it.

I learned from them vicariously. There was no one on one critiquing or exchange of words. Just the unsaid respect for their talent and pioneering efforts they did for Philippine photography.

A couple of weeks ago, my classmates and I had the priviledge of having Alison Morley, department chair of THE ICP in New York in our on-campus sessions in the Photojournalism course we’re taking. She has 25 years of experience behind her eclectic eyeglasses and she graciously shared it with us. Between the frustrations of using Lightroom and the joy of finally figuring it out on the last day, between the name-dropping of James Nachtwey and her other foreign photographer friends… It was an experience most photographers will never get to have.

Photoeditng here our country is used in a different context. We choose the best ones and trash the others. We don’t look for transitional photographs to tell our stories. There are even ethical issues as it was shared by Rem and his experiences with his paper.

Later that week we had a lively discussion about ethical practices and Atty Jo Imbong was surprised by the actions done by some photo editors.

I just find it ironic that photojournalists can have photos that can change fate and lives. But we can’t find the right photograph to revolutionize and improve the newsroom.

Hold that pose!

A sneak peak into fashion photograpy

para maiba naman….