Edge Of Light Shoot w/ Princess Elle

February 25, 2010

Ah yes, time to step back into the studio with the TD40 guys. This time, we worked with Xander Angeles in his personal place, Edge Of Light Studio. 

It was a great Saturday shoot, and would’ve been greater had I not been drinking the night before, which gave me a bit of a hangover to contend with while shooting. Our model this time, Princess Elle, has had some experience in-front of the lens with Kuya Alex in a previous shoot. Anyways, here’s my set, a mixture of ambient ’sundot’ shots, and my turn with the Pocket Wizard. Weeeee!

 

 

 

5th Backdoor Ventures (day 2) : Uber-due Post

February 10, 2010

My friends and I dropped in on the last day of the 5th Backdoor Ventures Arts and Music Festival over at the usual Megamall. I haven’t really gone there before, but then, for the sake of all things artsy and possibly discover a few things, I hatched this plan to cover the event with my friends. It was also a neat way to test out my Canon A1 [Sera] and it’s array of lenses, like the 50mm f1.8 and the Vivitar 28-210 zoom.

photo by : Regil Golez

 

 

Beforehand though, I was already talking to a few friends of mine, Gelai and Franz, about seeing the event. Gelai was there from Saturday til Sunday because she was organizing their club’s activity there, which was to provide live music to the cosplay event. And rock the place they did! Although I didn’t really remember the names of the bands correctly, at least someone reading this might know about these guys so please, tell me about them. I mashed all the info in my brain that afternoon. Here are some photos from the event…

 

 

 

 

 

**more pics for upload…check my multiply for more**

Vivitar 28-210mm f3.5-5.6 Push Pull Zoom w/ MACRO

February 9, 2010

 

I got this lens from Reds *ho-hum* and it’s actually something more of an all-around lens than a specialized one. I’m still waiting for my rolls to be processed because I shot an event [5th Backdoor Ventures] with this. Now I haven’t shot this in broad daylight and in other contexts, but that will have to be seen. Interesting to note though, is that it’s not the locking kind of type - rather, you twist the base to lock the mount. And it takes 72mm filters - which makes it looks awesome. I hope it will also perform as well. 

 

 

~

Ah c’est la vie! 

Facing Home Truths

February 6, 2010

A friend of mine, Mick Perez, who is now a famous blogger with his earth-shattering post stated… 

 

 

“Why do people get angry when they read the truth?”

 

 

Hmmm, quite an interesting point to ponder on - right. 

 

Politicians curse and throw fits when they read the papers allegedly pinning them to the latest massacre, or tax-payer’s-money-evaporation scheme. Your neighbor who has an affair with the other neighbor’s dog gets mad when people ask him if he’s into bestiality. A close friend of yours might have done you wrong, but exploded in your face when shown the evidence of the offense. 

 

This is an all too familiar scene. 

 

I have experienced this on a fine morning I tell you…

 

Some would say that it’s the truth, and they should accept it. Others would jeer at the defensiveness people show in the face of the truth. 

 

I believe that it’s not a question of bring true, or not, but rather it’s accepting that truth as the truth. 

 

Back in my MANALOG days, I learned that truth is relative. That means that truth is what we experience, pretty much like reality. Truth revolves around us, and what we believe in. For example, terrorists justify their killings based on ‘their truths’. People go to war because of the ‘truth in liberty’, which most of the free world adheres to. An alien on a planet, say in Andromeda, might subscribe to the truth that they are alone in the universe - which is quite the same truth subscribed to by Creationists. They all accept and believe their truths. And when people stick to their truths, they stick like glue.

 

Let’s put this in a more realistic perspective. 

 

When we were kids, we had favorite superheroes. We thought that our favorite superhero could trounce our friend’s favorite superhero. All in all, it is just a case of defending our truths. It is not about debunking and spreading the truth, but rather how that truth would be taken by other people. That is why people become mad as balls when faced with their truths. 

 

Some people corrupt and steal, and they brag to their compadres about how they took away this guy’s pie and so on. Then they start becoming mad as heck when the local tsismosa spreads the vile deeds to the townspeople. 

 

There are truths that we refuse to accept. It is these truths that people get mad about. If it’s a good truth, will you hide it? Of course not. I myself have experienced and known truths that I wished I never knew. But it’s all a part of life. It’s how we grow with our personalities. The truths we can’t accept now will always be there. What we can do is live with it. 

But I personally don’t want to hear nor remember these kinds of truths. And that is why people become mad. 

 

When the embers are stoked, fire will surely start.

 

Ha, it’s useless. 

 

People will stick and defend their truths.

 

 

 

~

Ah c’est la vie! 

A Long One For My Comrades In Strata

February 3, 2010

Alright!

After putting this off for the past two weeks, I finally got down to sit and write a little. Let me start by saying that the past few weeks have been hmm very interesting. Last January 11, I went back to school to get enrolled, and become a responsible student again. I was told to come back on the 14th for encoding, and on that fateful afternoon, I found out that I cannot find my needed stubjects in the morning. All they had available was from 1800 onwards. The night school, CDP as we Benildeans call it, is where the professional people go for classes. It was all good til I realized….

…that I have to leave Wephone.

That wasn’t quite a shock though - I was actually quite mentally prepared to go gung-ho on work just to get back to school.

So I went back to Ortigas for the PM shift. With EAF in hand, I immediately arranged for my resignation. After a ton of crap that was my discussion with the higher ups, and the intervention of my much beloved HTC, I was allowed to go on terminal leave. See, I was supposed to go on forced leave on the week preceding, and I thought it was awesome that I would still get my salary while working it up outside.

Sad to say, that part of the agreement didn’t hold up, and when I visited on the Friday after that, I was told that my last day is on January 29 instead of February 15. My terminal leave has been shredded. But that didn’t matter - what mattered was I was already back in school taking my classes. The catch was I had to report for a half-day’s work for five days til my last day.

I JUST DIDN’T CARE.

Because of my friend Gelai’s suggestion, I went to apply at Sitel, spent two days bored stiff in a chair with some occasional activities to be done. Despite coming in with i-didn’t-have-breakfast syndrome for the first day, and getting interviewed at 2300 the next day, which was a little of a major hassle, I got accepted for training.

I’ll start on February 8 at Sitel.

~

For the past three years, I’ve been working in Wephone. Back then, it used to be known as Edunara Inc. Back in April 2007, right after going to Polilio, Johanne and myself went to apply there for a ’summer job’. Little did we know of all the life-changing experiences we’d have there.

I’d really, really miss that place.

I know, the place is a little crummy. But the factor that made me stay there for a long time, is without a doubt - the people. I had friends who I was stuck with. Of course, people came and went, but it was still that revolving door of people that made me cry, learn, humbled and of course, happy. It is they who I will miss the most. Most of the people from my time in Edunara [known amusingly as ‘Jurassic’ or ‘Dinosaurs’] have gone away, leaving just a handful of us old, battle-worn EIAs. I can safely say though that I kept way from the people before because I had this single intention of just working to earn - I thought I didn’t need friends. But then, one by one, I became close to them, shared my stories with them and I learned of theirs.

Of course, some friendships didn’t last and I am always sorry for the wrongs I may have done to these people. But on a happier note, most of them accepted me, and though most didn’t understand me as a select few have, they still treated me with kindness and respect, and recognized me for the good things I can do, because I am admittedly pasaway.

~

And it was not just the people who I worked with, of course there are some that I would always remember among my students. Some were just forced to take ESL, but the most of the lot were enthusiastic about learning. I would miss my student Nina, who’s been with me since I was still a greenhorn, and all my other students who have been very much instrumental in making me enjoy my otherwise routine job.

photo by : Mick Alsan Perez

So it is with a heavy heart that I have to pack up and leave. Then again, they say that good byes are just for now, but friends are always forever.

~
kamsahamnida

 

[reposted from my Multiply]