Winning by Inspiring: Lessons in Photography

Just last September and for the first time ever in my photography (non) career,  I joined a photo contest. Well, actually, I was prodded by no less than Joy Villareal. Yes, Joy Villareal. She is the talented photography protege who got hooked to photography largely because I forced her to.

The Prodding
“Join tayo”! She thought there will be a shortage of entries to Talakudong Festival 2013 Igpat sang Kamera Photo Contest. “We should be ashamed of ourselves” she said. “This will be our third year of covering the festival yet we haven’t joined the contest ever “!

Confident Joiners
So we both joined, panicking at the last moment. We went through the hundred plus photos we took, arguing and clashing ideas which pictures to print and submit. But we were able to submit on time, thanks to the holidays. What’s interesting is that she is more excited in the results than me. In fact, she predicted and knew 99.9% who will be the winners.

Us. (Akalain mo yun?). Until she saw the awesome contest entries and recanted her predictions: We will just land in maybe the consolation prizes. ( Grabe pa rin ang powers! )

More than Winning
I wasn’t around when the winners were declared so when I received an SMS from the organisers, I was really surprised. We won the contest in the festival category, oh yeah!

1st Prize: Stretch and Bend by Remo Aguilar

1st Prize: Stretch and Bend by Remo Aguilar

But what’s more interesting (and heart warming) for me is that Joy, yes my Joy Villareal, won the second prize! That is a sure triumph for me more than the winning!

2nd Prize: Cherubic Chant by Joy Villareal

2nd Prize: Cherubic Chant by Joy Villareal

Like and Dislikes
While I got Joy Villareal hooked to photography, our likes and dislikes are diametrically opposite. She hated my landscape photography but I love her portrait photography. I hated her compulsiveness to “model” me and take my photos (glamour shots?) but I really love to take her photos candidly, without her looking. She’s a strict Sony user, I’m a brand prostitute-Canon, Olympus, Panasonic, and so on and so forth with our differences.

Despite those, I’m so happy she developed a style of her own and got confident with her talent. I never really wanted her to copycat my style of photography, because I’m pretty sure she will hate it. Instead, I wanted her to discover her own niche that fits her personality. That one in which she will be happy most and be passionate about.

Like what the great Peter Adams will say photography:

photography

The obvious is quite not obvious. Photography will always be subservient to those who master their own talent. It will always fit the personality of the person behind the camera. And, its that the twelve inches that (gray) matter.

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Emergency Investing

(Note: This article originally appeared in the March 2010 issue of Physicians Practice, where this author was quoted in the article. I’m republishing it here. Read more at: http://www.physicianspractice.com/articles/emergency-investing)

Emergency Investing

March 01, 2010 | Finance, Financing Technology, Hiring Firing, Personal Finance, Staff
By Janet Kidd Stewart

You’ve handled plenty of medical emergencies, but could you manage a financial one?

Young professionals are often urged to begin building an emergency fund of six months’ worth of expenses in a nonretirement account. But it strikes some as counter-intuitive to park money in a low-yield savings account while paying off medical school debt at rates of 5 percent or 6 percent.

And once established with a growing net worth, particularly after getting a late start saving for retirement, others can’t justify keeping a large chunk of money out of the financial markets when it could be invested.

Remo-tito Aguilar, an orthopedic surgeon in his third year of practice in the Philippines who writes a blog about his own and other physicians’ finances, says he was one of those debt-averse professionals. “I paid my debts before I even realized I needed an emergency fund,” he says.

Creating the blog as a way to educate himself on financial issues, Aguilar has since built cash reserves to the six-month level. It sometimes shrinks to three to four months, which he says he’s comfortable with because he’s single with no dependents and feels confident in his ability to stay employed.

Financial pros acknowledge the reluctance to stash away cash when it could be put toward reducing higher-interest debt, but many say the absence of an emergency fund is a bigger risk. Physicians are often urged to keep even more money in an emergency fund than their counterparts in business and law, because of their higher incomes and sometimes longer hiring processes. “Particularly in the earlier years in your career, I’d be very wary of exclusively paying down debt,” says Joan Crain, senior director for BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s Florida offices.

Building toward even the basic six-month rule of thumb is a fine strategy early in your career, says Crain, but there are different ways to get there and beyond, depending on your risk tolerance.

Starting out

The early years are when emergency funds have the least flexibility, says Crain.

Don’t succumb to the notion you can do without one and simply rely on a home-equity loan or even credit cards in an emergency, she says. The mortgage and credit crisis wiped out that easy money for all but the most stable credit-risk customers.

Instead, create a budget that includes paying down the minimum payments on your student loans, credit cards, and mortgages. With the income left over, prioritize any high-interest card debt and getting those reserves built. If you’re comfortable with those amounts and still have income left over, put down extra payments on the student loans next, experts say.

What if you actually need to use the money? These are the years when you begin to define how sacred the emergency fund will be. Nearly everyone underestimates what they’ll need for living expenses, so these funds have a tendency to disappear, says Scott Munkvold, an adviser with FSA Advisory Group in Chicago.

“We try to get a dialogue going with clients that gets them thinking about planning for the worst-case scenario,” says Munkvold. “When you’re starting out, you’re more susceptible to emergencies and have fewer resources should something come up. At this stage, most people need to worry a little less about paying down debt so they can keep some liquidity. If you pay down the house, you may not be able to get it back with lines of credit being pulled away.”

Where should you stash the money? Both experts recommend strict cash accounts, preferably protected with FDIC insurance. Certificates of deposit are an option, but keep at least some of that completely liquid for smaller emergencies to avoid early-withdrawal penalties.

Mid career

By mid career, you’ve hopefully built your savings beyond the emergency account and are now investing those dollars for growth. How should you think about the emergency fund now?

“At this stage you should be socking away as much as possible for retirement,” Munkvold says, not to mention college and other big expenses that crop up in the peak earning years. So you may actually have less in actual cash reserves than you did before. Not to worry, he says, because your higher level of assets provides you with some options.

Now your career and other assets likely will put you in a strong position to have a fairly large home equity line of credit, at least $100,000, he says. And your income can also be a cushion, because (again, hopefully) you can redirect fewer paycheck dollars into savings if a true emergency does come up.

At this stage there are also some alternatives to traditional savings accounts and CDs. Munkvold’s firm uses funds such as the Eaton Vance Floating Rate Fund (EABLX), which invests in loans and other debt securities, and exchange-traded bond funds that invest in municipal bonds and other credit markets. The instruments provide a dividend yield that typically exceeds the cash markets without taking on large amounts of risk, Munkvold says.

You can also explore cash alternatives such as CDs linked to a stock market index, but advisers recommend extreme caution about these complex products. Among their drawbacks are often penalties for early withdrawal that actually reduce principal, which is exactly what you don’t want in an emergency fund, advisers say.

Late career

Heading into the home stretch of your career, hopefully you’ve amassed a portfolio large enough to withstand an emergency, even if it meant selling some stocks designed as long-term investments. And as you approach retirement, more of those assets will be in fixed income-type investments such as bonds, which can act as your emergency fund, advisers say.

Even clients at this stage need to keep some powder dry, however, Munkvold says.

“We always keep some cash available, if nothing else than for having some on hand to take opportunities in the market,” he says. “It’s maybe $50,000 to $100,000 on a portfolio of a couple of million dollars.”

Sound like too much — or too little? Crain says spouses frequently disagree on how much to keep in reserve, with women typically wanting a bigger safety net and fewer stocks. Having a conversation about how much to put in the fund — and why it fits your current life stage and overall investment plan — can help, she says. “At the end of the day you want a figure that lets you both sleep at night.”

Janet Kidd Stewart is a freelance writer based in Marshfield, Wis. As a contributing columnist for the Chicago Tribune, she writes a weekly, syndicated retirement column called “The Journey” that appears in Tribune newspapers across the United States. She holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached via physicianspractice@cmpmedica.com.

This article originally appeared in the March 2010 issue of Physicians Practice. See more at: http://www.physicianspractice.com/articles/emergency-investing

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ShutterBlog: A travel photo blog workshop with Ms. Jojie Alcantara

I can’t hide my excitement for this event not only because I’m one of Ms. Jojie’s fan but also because she was instrumental in teaching me the basics of photojournalism.

Ms. Jojie Alcantara is an engaging writer who dabbles in the arts- painting, photography to name a few and travels incessantly around the country “to promote her hometown to the world”. She is a lifestyle and travel writer for national dailies like Manila Bulletin and local newspaper Sunstar Davao. She writes about her travels at Dabawenya.me.  She has this penchant for funny signs she encounters during travels and blogs about it on her now defunct but very lively website witerary.com. Her travel photos and photography portfolio is astounding to say at least and some of her photos are published in known travel magazines like Mabuhay (of Phil. Airlines). You can view here photos in flickr or in her pbase galleries.

Of course we had our past with dabawenya Jojie Alcantara. She was our  resource speaker in previous photojournalism workshop with the SOX Bloggers at The Farm in Carpenter Hill Koronadal City last 2009. I still use a legendary and prehistoric Powershot A20 point and shoot camera  that time but I really enjoyed the workshop so much I got hooked in photography since then.

So on Tuesday, June 12, 2012, about 25 active members of the Soccsksargen Bloggers Mindanao’s Funnest Blogging Circlewill be converging at GenSan View Resort, one of the city’s famed inland resorts for another travel photo blog workshop- The ShutterBlog. This is an exclusive workshop for the Sox Bloggers by Project O! Consultants together with CameraHaus, the #1 dealer of cameras and camera accessories in the city located inside KCC Mall of GenSan, and GenSan View Resort, the Official Venue.

Ms. Jojie Alcantara will have a meet and greet event at the Camera Haus inside KCC Mall, this June 11, 2012 at around 5:30PM.

For those who were invited to attend this workshop, here’s a driving direction I made out of Google Map, from GenSan Rotunda to Gensan View Port. Click the picture for a larger view..

Driving directions to Nursery Road, Lagao, General Santos City, South Cotabato, Philippines (Gensan View Resort)
Starting from National Hwy/Pan-Philippine Hwy

  1. Head east on National Hwy/Pan-Philippine Hwy
  2. Continue to follow Pan-Philippine Hwy
  3. Turn Left on the Asian Highway with Soccsargen Hospital as landmark
  4. Take the 2nd left onto Nursery Rd
  5. Continue straight to stay on Nursery Rd
  6. Turn Right at an Unknown Road to Gensan View resort

Total: 9.7 km – about 16 mins

Comment here for the kml file should you want it “loaded” in your smartphones with GPS capability.

 

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Best place for travel…

The best place to travel is your own place. If you haven’t done that yet, you won’t find it in any other place.

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