Singapore, lah!

Written on the airport to Singapore:

I’m going to Singapore. Surprised? The chances of me actually taking this trip was brutally slimmed downed by the DOST-SEI exam that I should take this coming Sunday. We decided the DOST Scholarship was minimal compared to an untimely getaway to a nearby Asian city-country.

I will be returning early next week, the specific date depends on my mother/travel companion who is plotting to extend our stay in Singapore until the next millennium. For the meantime, let me sip some cheap brewed coffee on this local coffee shop WHILE I fascinate myself with visions of Singapore, the nearby Asian city-country. 

Now I'm in Singapore and I feel like I'm in some show. Singapore is too perfect to be true. I feel like I have been living in the garbage bins then suddenly, I take a dip in holy waters. It is not impossible for one to be racist and imagine Singaporeans sweeping every other hour because microbiology couldn't have sprouted from here. Seriously? A city with concrete sky ways, city-wide rail roads and an extremely diverse population can co-exist with tree-lined highways, serenity and hygiene?

My mother/travel companion and I road a skyline tree-top swing. The whole
time we were frozen with regret. "Who's idea was this?!?!?!"

I've been busy with what I love

The exams are over and tomorrow will be a new week! Third quarter is going to start and I'm looking forward to whatever is coming. You can tell that I am in a good mood.

First things first. Its October 10, 2010. About three days after the last post so sorry for sleeping on my blog, I was really preoccupied. There was the exams that pulverized my biological timetable, there was my incredible liking of making videos and photographs to add to the to-do-list and I had to go back to school during the two days of break every week for lab work. 

Click Read more to...well... ermmm... read more! :) And I have a video presentation down there, I remember.

A Video

So, hello everyone. Sorry that my blog went into a little comatose (do you need to be sorry when you go comatose?). I have been busy lately because, as I have said in my previous post, its exams week. I don't study much but it takes a lot for me to cope with the stress (extreme exposure to entertainment and multimedia productions are my favorite coping mechanisms).

So down here is a video project I did to relax and promote myself.

"A Day Full of Running"

I am relaunching myself as both a photographer and a video maker. The blog for all my works is leolutero.wordpress.com.  I just started so don't expect a lot of content there already.

PS: I'm considering getting an HD camera. My current video camera isn't HD and a little bit beaten up although the quality of the footage it produces is impeccable. For the meantime, I try my best to do video jobs and probably, I will realize along the way if I really do want to be a filmmaker.

Examinasyon

Exams week is back and my blog will go on to a little hiatus. Its so little that it might not even exist because in times where stress is at maximum, I blog to relax.

I have been using my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens lately. I missed its perfection. The tiny mass of it, the feel and the very classic bokeh. I'm falling in love with photography all over again! For the meantime, I need to study about dissociation of acids and bases and such....

Photos taken with the nifty fifty:
[Done a day before the quarterly exams. We arm ourselves for exams in weird ways.]

really happy about the weather

nice weather, stupid face

in the bushes lie a fraction of humanity.

Kruhay and a few other things

Last week, my internet became picky and would only work with my phone's WiFi. Just today it realized my only method of fixing things is by hitting them with stuff. I pounded my modem with my equally sized WiFi router and the next day, traumatized, they started cooperating with my laptop again. I do not suggest my method but I guess everyone should have tried it once.

Our school just spent two days on our Humanities Celebration which is held annually. On the first day, we had a mass and a film showing of "Pisay", complemented by a Pisay Diliman Batch 1986 (the batch that inspired the movie) speaker. After that, we had a lunchtime food festival and being engrossed by all the calories, I forgot to take my camera out of its bag. I don't have pictures but fragments of what I have eaten will surely stay in my system for a long time. After the lunch, just before sunset, the Humanities department prepared a concert of local artists. The theme was after all "rediscovering our local culture".

A school choir. The San Agustin "Troubadours"  who originally performed

the celebrated piece Kruhay. See it performed by the Madrigal Singers here.

 

Infamous composo singer "Pirot (extreme right)". He brought

along two kids (girl and boy right next to the heart) who sang a

playful song about love and patience.

The second day (a Saturday) was spent on visiting several places. We visited the Miag-ao Church which is magnificent inside and out. I have to note that two out of the three churches we visited had burial masses going on. Miag-ao Church was having one for a baby. :-(

 

Occasional vanity:

Taken seconds after I hopped off the bus. Look at the background. I can actually fall a fatal 25 feet to cobblestone and hardwood trees and I dared to flash a smile. 

I bought a Griffindor-inspired scarf from a traditional cloth making house we visited for 250 Pesos.

Zambonga (First 8 hours)

Photos from my quick trip to Zamboanga.

Awkward

I'm friggin brave. Dated: August 6, 2010

Soon, I will put up more photos on my Flickr and I would be giving out a link. Don't forget to subscribe to my blog posts (delivered by Google so no spam here). You can do that by filling in you email address on the box upper right of this site. Kiss kiss!

I Went to Church !?!?!

For the first time in a long time, I went to church. My mother is a die-hard fan of religion so every time she is around, we need to go to church. Just to be clear, I am not against the church, I just don't go to church once every week.

The golden light emitted by the sun

during near sundown

For this week's Sunday, my mother decided we go to church late afternoon because the temperature is extremely hot. Walk around the city without protection and you will return home a big block of charcoal. The sun is just so extreme. So we waited for the cooler afternoon before flying off to churchland.

The city's church named Jaro Cathedral, was our church of the week. The church, although still under renovation, looks very beautiful and glamorous. Its like a mix of the antique and modern architecture. All these courtesy of the donations handed over to the church. Its amazing how much people are willing to give for religion, I hope they give the same attention to our nation. If we treat the state of being a Filipino as a religion, the Philippines will be a gold mine.

No giant cathedral will be complete without LCD

television sets to show lyrics and video feeds of

the proceeding mass. :-) Classy, eh?

This is only about 1/16 of the church.

After church, where I had to get squeezed sit between two strangers, I suggested we eat at Carlo's. Carlo's, according to the stories of my friends, is a fine restaurant. 

If you have heard from the news, Carlo's was bombed about two weeks ago. The picture below shows the exact point where the hand grenade landed(you can actually see the dent on the concrete lot caused by the explosion):

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Photoshoot Tomorrow

I hope I can take something like this for tomorrow. A natural pose, a nice DOF and diffused light.

Tomorrow I’m going to take portraits of the scholars who made it into the Director’s List for the Recognition Program (there would be around 40 to 50 of them) and to prepare for the event, I researched on tips and simple guides from professionals who have put up their own helpful websites so I could come as professional as possible:

AF-D 50mm f/1.8 on Nikon D40

Just recently, I bought a 50 mm f/1.8 lens from SM City Iloilo that sadly could not do AF on my Nikon D40. I was pretty scared because I did not trust my capability in manual focus mode but my friend from the Team D40 said you can never go wrong with a nifty fifty.

Spitting out rain

Well, nothing has changed for Iloilo. The weather is still teary with showers boring into skulls and umbrellas.

The rain reminded me of Barney, "If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh, what a rain it would be". So I went outside with my mouth opened wide and gobbled down all the rain I could. A flashback of factories depositing smog in the air, cars raising dust from the road, the particulate matter ever present around me caught in the rain drops happened.

Why I Love Photography

I have my own DSLR equipped with two lenses and a tripod. I also have a minimum of three imaging related application on my computer. Many people I meet ask me how I developed my love for photography. Actually, I did not develop it, I discovered it. I did not learn it, I had it me but it took me 15 years to find out about it. I might not be the best or even good at the field but I have the passion that keeps me going.

Every time I hold my camera and I move to peek through my viewfinder to capture an image, I become happy. It might be temporary but its still happiness. And every happiness is priceless. When I press the shutter button and hear the mirror inside flick, I feel high. I just captured a frame of memory that can last forever.

I take photos of everything. Myself, animals, plants, inanimate objects, etc. I always have one or more photos of the things I would like to remember in my archives. Viewing it a month or so pleases me.

For those who would like to buy a camera and start their own photo sets, go on. Sooner or later you will surely get what I mean. You don’t need expensive equipment in this field. A film camera will do. Even I who uses digital imaging wish I can have a film camera.

Photoshop 1

Its boring all day long inside the room so I decided to use my camera again. I took some pictures of myself and I tried to edit them using Photoshop.