The Things I Do To Keep Myself Distracted
Friday night was a hot night. It was also one of those times when I wanted to do something, and I didn’t have anyone to ask out. Boredom, impatience, and the need to be sociable was gnawing at my face. I was at a gig already the previous night, and I wasn’t so eager to go to another one. Earlier that day though, I spotted a boxing ring at the Eastwood Central Plaza, literally a 3 minute walk away from work. Since I did have my camera with me, and no texts were being sent my way from anyone, I went.
See, I have no interest in sports, moreso boxing. However, I’ve been in the state of wanting to try different things I would still deem, well, reasonable enough. So I went, and am now glad I did.
Shonen Knife Live in Manila!
Before I write about the gig of the year (for me, anyway), two things. One: this is very, very late, but please welcome me to the already long list of LCD monitor owners, since my LG CRT monitor conked out mid-week, after a pretty dismal 3-4 years. Got myself a Viewsonic VX1932wm-LED the day after. Two: took a 5 hour commute to Tagaytay for my college best friend’s wedding last Saturday, and settled on the idea that I will spend the entire day there, since no one else from our circle of friends could make it. All it took was a cheek-kiss, a congratulations, and a hand-in-hand gesture after the church ceremony saying, “I have to go.”, and I was excused.
See, I had to be at the Shonen Knife concert.
Shot A Model, Again/A Salty Dip At Laiya
Backlog post, here you go.
Bam and I have one common goal these days: learn how to photograph models. It’s not that we had any ambitions for ourselves re glamor photography, but it was just something that we think we should get into, and at least know how to do. How Bam and I got together for this, I don’t know, but having had a shoot or two before involving non-pro models, it helps that you’re with someone who has roughly the same aesthetic, and none of the BS one would usually see nowadays.
The Thursday before last, I told Bam its a now or never situation, when we both know it’s not. The shoot did go through, though, and since it was a last-minute sort of thing, we got Tif:
On Carna Manila 2010
I ditched a Mishka Adams gig last Saturday for this, and that gig was in Eastwood City, hence it was the easy option. However, I was in the mood at that time to party. Wait, correction: to witness and cover a party.
Cynthia Royo, from Escola de Samba de Manila, in what’s probably my favorite photo of that night.
Carna Manila 2010 started with me trying to warm up to the event: set at the Rockwell Tent, with more than a hundred people, the type who’d spend weekends out (read: not the crowd I belong to), were there. To fit in, and maybe because I was at the event with RF dude Wam, I had a plastic cup of red wine in one hand, and my camera on the other.
Oh yes that is news: my perpetual NO answer to a shot of this, a bottle of that, will now be on a conditional basis. Wine is fine, but don’t expect me to gobble it up like water.
Large Format View Camera Portraits
I just wanted to look for a lens cap I lost last night, and I ended up being in a group of not very handsome dudes taking pictures of each other with a large format wooden view camera. One of my portraits can be found after the post cut, but let me share first the photo I took with the view camera of a lovely friend of mine I invited to the studio, since we were already dicking around anyway.
Han. Lit with Studio Strobes, shot through a 5×7 large format wooden view camera with a Industar-51 210mm lens on Ilford Photographic Paper.
Ahh, you are mistaken if you think I made a booboo here. Ako pa! You call this soft-focusing, this is not out-of-focus.