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So I Spent Four Days In Bangkok Last September With These Guys

They’re Kring, Faith, Coy, and Rick. While I shot the scene and them, they shot themselves. As I went home with hundreds of photos of them and the scenes, they collectively ended up having about five shots of me with them. Story of my life.

I’ll show off more of Bangkok in my next posts. Meanwhile, I present to you the “crazies” in a collection I styled to look “tabloidal.”

*sigh* I miss Bangkok already!

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Being Watched Over

Some believe them to be angels while others, spirits. They are the Meliads, Naiads, Oceanids, Mahadryads, Dryads, Nereids, Epimeliads, or Heliads for those to look up to Nymphs. Shamans believe them to be spirits taking on animal form. Others trust that they are in the hearts of some who walk the earth as people. Faithfuls claim saints as theirs. For a few, they are everywhere and without form.

Generally, they are called guardians. The protectors.

I am feeling only dread now for my country at the wake of the great storm Ondoy. So many people lost their homes (although most did not even have homes to begin with), properties, and family. It’s rather comforting that we only got rains and not rains + strong winds. Thinking about it makes me shiver so I stopped and just got thankful. I was lucky enough to not get hit hard by the calamity and this being the case, in what little way I can, I made myself very vigilant during the past two days in monitoring the situation and passing on helpful bits of info and messages via the web. Been calling up some, too. I was up until 9 in the morning today waiting for updates and helping in making them known and checking on friends and how they are. We’ll do some more of this tomorrow at work, we were told. Looking forward to it already.

Photos below were taken during our trip to Bangkok, Thailand earlier this month. I deemed it fitting to show, first, my shots of the guardians scattered all over the city. (Looking at them again, I’m at awe at the talent of those who made these ancient sculptures. And they are all well preserved, too!) Some of them are in animal form while others look like very angry, no-nonsense, and strict father figures. Makes me wonder what my personal guardian looks like. If I were given the choice, what would I want him/her/it to look like? A very sturdy, fog resistant bubble, perhaps? I wonder.

To know how you can help victims of Typhoon Ondoy, visit MLQ’s site, mirrored here via tumblr. Be safe, Philippines!

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes (look out you rock ‘n rollers)

For years, I have restrained myself from getting a DSLR and yet I managed to live, just let my N82 capture the instants, and still rather effectively tell a tale with my shots, humility aside. However, as days turned to months, moreso after Sony had so kindly let me use some of their flagship cameras earlier this year, I began to crave for more shooting equipment power.

You see, for me to produce a decent collection of photos, I will have to compose with the mobile phone’s camera limitations in mind (very limited “manual” tweaks available, a rather slow response time, no optical zoom function, etc.), making sure that I compensate the shortcomings of the instrument with well pieced together elements within my control, pre-shot. After I transfer the files into a PC, I look at each photo closely, scrutinizing the littlest details, and, if I’m lucky, I will only be daunted to do minor crops and saturation adjustments before I can show the final output to the world.

Since I’m a sucker for toy photography set in the dark, using only an LED caving lamp most of the time, I’d have to suck all my frustrations up and live with the digital noise infestation. Post processing then is a must rather than a luxury I could do without. Doing the composing in-cam (for me) may have been next to impossible, but I’ve done it. That so-called SOOC. Once. The photos may not have lived up to even the lowest of photography standards but when I got a flickr comment from a person I do not even know which read, “You gave it a soul. Great job,” I felt I got it made. LOL

After three weeks of asking around, reading internet reviews, and a very helpful phone-in dialogue with Drew, I gave in to getting my second point and shoot camera (after the Canon Ixus i5 I bought in Taiwan around 4 years ago). Behold, the Panasonic Lumix ZS3: made by voyeurs FOR voyeurs. Er, not really, but with its 12x optical zoom and Leica lens, that, too, can be possible.

Let me share with you one great feature of the ZS3 and one that I had been wanting to have for a while, too. HD video capture with optical zoom operation baybee, yeah!

Camphone, you have served me well. I’m still taking you wherever so I think we’ll still be doing some sweet projects soon, although not as often as before. You see, I’m just a lowly human answering the nagging call of grandeur. I know you’d understand.

More photos from my recent trip coming very soon.

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Recent Fritzparazzi ^TM shots of Caleruaga

Getting married way down south is a chore to pull off (logistics wise) moreso when (I’ve heard) going home to, say, Las Piñas on a weekday could take comuters and private car owners up to 4 hours on the road during the past week. That’s owing to the Skyway being extended to Alabang plus the heavy rains. it is in times like these that I’m glad I’m living near where I work.

Still, the Caleruega Church (or is it a chapel?) in Nasugbu, Batangas remains a popular venue for weddings even for those who do not live anywhere near Tagaytay. I’ve college friends who flew in their relatives from Iloilo and Surigao for a Caleruega wedding. Ah, the torture! Those who are lucky to have witnessed a Caleruega wedding, though (granting the weather cooperates), would recount how it’s so much worth their while to share the moment with friends who chose to get married on that church atop of that hill, the long drive aside.

I have recently been in one, my fourth, for the wedding of friends Carlo and Cay. They won’t be in the photos that I’ll be showing below, but here’s their wedding video as shown during the reception,for those who are curious.

Since I was tasked to be one of the groom’s men who luckily had absolutely no role to do during and after the wedding ceremony, I made use of my time by taking shots of the church, inside and out. Photos taken using the Nokia N82 camphone (surprise, surprise. Not! LOL).

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McDonald’s menu’s nutritional information

When I was in Singapore, I grabbed a quick bite at McDonald’s one mid-afternoon after I did my customary rounds of the shops along busy Orchard Road. Customary because, lest we all forget, I’m also almost-model, yo, aside from being rockstar Paparazzi extraordinaire. Come on, if you are dead tired from all the walking around, the mere sight of those golden arches will draw you in like the welcoming arms of your mother. Or maybe not, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, said McDonald’s branch was conveniently located in front of my hotel (Orchard Hotel) and, heck, I was hungry and I needed fast food and fast.

While I was seated and wolfing one McNugget after another with some weird tasting supposedly-barbecue sauce dip, I noticed some indications written on the paper covering the tray. Nutritional Information. Hmmm, I haven’t seen one of those locally so, voila, I took photos of the sheet even if I won’t ever use them for future reference. I reproduce them here so you, unlike me, may think twice before downing a daily serving of those large fries and soda.

Do note, however, that although the data here is from McDonald’s, the ingredients used in similarly named items may not be the same across countries and may thus make this listing inaccurate in McDonald’s Philippines menu’s context. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

To guide you, in chronological order (since the succeeding photos do not have headers on them), they are: (1) Energy, (2) Total Fat, (3) Saturated Fat, (4) Cholesterol, (5) Sodium, and (6) Dietary Fibre.

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19^th Philippine Travel Mart happens this September

ATTENTION: Travel junkies and nature-scape Paparazzis!

Please block off the dates September 12 to 14 on your calendars. This one’s for YOU.

Get ready to experience a different side to the Philippines when the 19th annual Philippine Travel Mart opens on September 12 to 14 at SM Megamall’s Mega Trade Hall. Organized by the Philippine Tour Operations Association (PHILTOA) in cooperation with the Department of Tourism, the yearly three-day event is the country’s largest travel fair and features showcase pavilions of the regional tourism offices, tour operators, hotels, airlines and transport services, plus other usual stakeholders of the local travel industry.

With the theme “Triple X: Xtreme Adventure, Xtreme Wellness and Xtreme Leisure in the Philippines“, this year’s travel mart will feature on sale a wide spectrum of adventure packages, ranging from low-impact activities to high-intensity tours, at discounted rates exclusive to the three-day fair.

On its 19th year, the Philippine Travel Mart continues to help boost the tourism sector by drawing international traffic to our shores and continually revitalizing domestic travel.

For more information on the 19th Philippine Travel Mart, please call the Philippine Tour Operators Association (PHILTOA) at 812-4513 and Global Visions at 635-0350

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Manila Ocean Park fishes get Paparazzied

When I went to the Manila Ocean Park in April, I thought it would have been better if they had more fishes and if it had been bigger. At the time, there was news that only 60% of the park and it’s attractions were available for public viewing because construction of the entire project isn’t finished yet. Soft Launch was the term they used when they sort of “opened.” At the rate they were going then, it wouldn’t surprise me if the entire project is already 80% done by now.

I was expecting whales and big fish or at least a lot of exotic creatures. Hopefully,the trip back would be more worthwhile.

Manila Ocean Park admission fees are still at P400 for adults and P350 for children 4.5 ft. and below. It’s just behind the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta in Manila (Philippines) with telephone number (632) 5677777. For more info about the Manila Ocean Park, you may visit their already very comprehensive website.

Photos below were taken from both my Canon Ixus i5 and teh penultimate camphone.

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