Photography Tag Archive

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.

By • November 4, 2013

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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 Circle, will 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.

 

By • June 11, 2012

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