Category: The Ride

April was the month we started visiting the bar almost every day; the month we spent three days in the outskirts of a distant land called, Zambales; mother turned fifty and still looking young; new people came along and introduced themselves to my life. I ended this month lying in front of the house in a drunken stupor.

Blues. I think I died this afternoon as I experienced flying at will to the top of our neighborhood.

Big Brother. This is a classic setting of an 80s house where the owner never dared clearing the living room off his precious possessions. Or better yet, some gifts just have really big sentimental value.

Training Day. I usually see people cleaning the windshield of a car in gasoline stations. The kid popped from nowhere as soon as the light went red.

Blind Man. He may be the old chap who asks for help at the footbridge but he is all right. He counts the coins after the long day.

Balde And Bugsy. The two puppies did not want to stay with us; took the opportunity when the small gate was swinging wide.

Graduation Mass. What the hell were we doing here? We do not have the slightest idea.

Fire Drill. Ten minutes before the intended time for fire drill, we received a notice to evacuate the building using the elevator. How bad is it to use the fire exit from the twenty-first floor?

Over The Bakod. When we were kids, we used to climb lots of trees, namely: mango tree, bayabas tree, balimbing tree, and macopa tree. Of course, some left unconquered because the branches were too high for us to reach. I remember them, but those trees are gone now – the duhat tree, santol tree, and mansanitas tree (which was full of thorns).

Spell. She is happy today and will forget about the whole jumpy emotion.

Model: Canon EOS 350D Digital
Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 II

Anne Frank must have been really steamy one afternoon:

“Peter didn’t say another word about his parents; we just talked about books and about the past. The boy has such warmth in his eyes; I believe I’m pretty near to being in love with him. He talked about that this evening. I went into his room, after peeling the potatoes, and said that I felt so hot.” – Friday, 3 March, 1944

Gap. This is how she lays her hand on matters. She only dares to feel the superficial situation. I demonstrate to her how she does it by showing this photograph. She smiles and vanishes.

My Noisy Neighbor. Budoy wakes up and scolds me about the grungy guitar noise that I was making. You see, he is the landlady’s nephew.

Quack. You can bet that somewhere across this island there will be some fresh duck dumplings.

Grooving To The Groove. We dance in the afternoon sun. We remember the times when we were forced to take a nap. We are free.

McDonalds And The Black Hole. Seated at the left side of the bus, I saw this large patch on the window with cracks surrounding it. Then there was McDonalds in the background. “Is this not a good image to capture?” I asked myself.

Etchende’s Amigo!!! In short, “Do you understand that you must not pretend to be a student to save P1.50 of gruelling jeepney fare?” That was what I did when I found out that I only had P7.25 in my pocket. I was glad that was a Friday.

Plumeria. Everybody thought that the Plumeria trees died after the typhoon. They shed all their leaves and flowers. But then, the damp soil was fuming with this particular scent. A scent that was popular among cemeteries.

Old Hag Syndrome. This is the point where everyone can fly out to space, meet his guardian angel or plainly run away from a beast who likes to sit on people’s chest.

Reversing Roles. “So how does it make you feel? Well, I really think you should quit smoking.” – How Does It Make You Feel by Air

Model: Canon EOS 350D Digital
Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 II

Paper-heart cutouts. Valentine cards. Red roses. Cherry-flavored condoms. It is the Love Month we all waited for. To those who were lucky enough to snag a partner, did it remind you of Junior-Senior High School Prom? Or were you single your whole life?

Anyhow, this series has nothing to do with love or even the hint of it.

Sweet Sunset. It was just another day that gone by. Outside the glass window, I noticed that the sky exhibited a vast scatter of cumulus. It almost seemed like chunks of clouds would swarm towards our building.

Together, Side By Side Here inside the train was a concoction of pungent body odors and weird-smelling perfume and cologne. I woke up after spending a day at a construction site. I did not brush my teeth. I did not take a bath. I did not even change my clothes. As the sun began to swelter, my armpits began spewing uncontrollable perspiration. Did I mention that I was a walking stink? Well, I did mention that I rubbed elbows and arms and shoulders with pretty yuppie girls. They are not in the picture, though.

Sisterly. From the pit bull breed come two of the most offbeat-looking puppies, Liit-bull and her evil sister. You have to dismiss the idea that I am fond of disparaging puppies by putting them in a bird cage. It was converted to a puppy cage a long time ago. So…

Spooning. Quesong-Puti just got out of bed. She was awoken by her lazy-ass stepmother to be a prop for a mini-charitable institution. She was too clean for a street kid (or baby).

Holdup! To those who agree that I am hopelessly handsome, turn your head to the right, raise your left hand and clench the safety handlebar. Five out of six – not bad.

The French Jazz Crooner. Anjeline de Dios, a famous jazz singer, with her band played at Stir-Crazy Bar & Restaurant. Before the gig, they were given Tinolang Manok and iced tea for dinner. After the first set, a bucket of chilly San Mig Light whammed on our table. It was through the courtesy of the band which I will now call, “Anjeline and Friends”.

Finger-Stylin’. Jordan Hilario started out his musical career in a recording studio working as a janitor and messenger. Through the sounds of the guitar that leaked out of the booth during sessions, he was inspired. Now, he is just bumming around every Starbucks, playing instrumental guitar music seasonally. For more information, http://www.jordanhilario.com.

Kundiman. Some blind guy makes fun of the songs he is singing by changing certain lyrics into his own sadistic choice. He was not this blind guy. This one was too emo-serious and dead-stiff – sang songs by Coldplay and Hoobastank. More like “sank songs by Ice-coldplay and Hoobastink”. Get it? Heh. I am so funny.

Moka. This hyperactive Dachshkal was not asking me to open the swinging door… because he can actually fly and land over our two-meter high stone wall.

Model: Canon EOS 350D Digital
Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 II

Predictably, this was a beginning of something repetitive; boring yet productive – it was kind of bland. Unfulfilled resolutions and the like were bound to happen and I blamed it on my superficially mature consciousness where the fondness of thinking out of boredom arises.

Here are nine images I nitpicked from thirty-one folders of daily photojournalistic preoccupation:

Gambling Mommy. It was past 2PM when poor Boggsy was not able to bear the tiredness of her whole day’s restless play. As her mother cradled her, she quickly sank into a deep slumber. A regular lullaby like Tong-it fuss futilely bothered her.

Orange Alms. I was expecting a change in view while going down the stairs of an MRT Station. As I was hoping that the generosity of new year people would collaterally reach the poor, I came to my senses.

Le Tigre. I photographed a blue sky and had it printed on a ten by ten meters of tarpaulin. In my makeshift studio, the roof was built like that of a hangar. I opened it for a natural cast of the afternoon light. The blue sky as backdrop and my stuffed toy, Le Tigre, as subject, I ignored the Rule of Thirds and clicked away.

Couple of Vendors. Why not wander around PHILCOA and document the night’s activities? Why not hangout with the public during my free time? Why not? These were the questions that pushed me to take my camera down PHILCOA one ordinary night.

Early In The Morning. The sun was casting a blinding light as early risers strode their way to wherever. As early as 7AM, the Metro Aides are already scattered along San Miguel Ave. doing their daily cleaning tasks.

Seabreeze. At any time of the day, the seabreeze never ceases to relax and stir good mood on people who visit Samonte Park. Just located at the back of Cavite City Hall, the seawall serves as a sanctuary even for distraught teenagers and penniless balot vendors.

Commonwealth. I asked my younger brother to watch my back as I set the camera to a 30-second exposure at the PHILCOA overpass. I took several images back and forth and fortunately, nobody tried to mug me.

Off To Work. Traditionally, it is the father who works for his family’s living. The mother, a housewife, stays home and plays mahjong or yaps about showbiz gossips with her neighbors. What is the children’s duty? Their duty is to make sure that all the walls are covered with crayon drawings. The more it is abstractly executed, the better.

The Homo Hunt. I observed the security guard at the left and the carpenter at the right. They were hunting each other but to their own exasperation, they just kept on tripping like that cat-and-mouse chase, Mappy.

Model: Canon EOS 350D Digital
Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 II

Located on the Cavite National High School grounds, the Montano Hall and Stadium was one of the most sought-after sports venues in Cavite City. But now, it is forsaken; taken for granted due to budget constraints.

Treading round the oval was a rather gruff experience. What was once an agreeable track for athletes is now a shelter for wildlife.

During weekends, kids used to fly kites in the clear field. Even from kilometers away, people knew that kites buzzing up the blue sky were rooting from Montano.

It has almost been seven years since Southern Tagalog Regional Athletic Association (STRAA) organized a meet here.

In the grandstand, we were required to watch and support our classmates participating in different sports competitions. We squeezed ourselves in only to get seats at the front portion where teachers clearly saw that we were just goofing around. Everybody wanted the privacy of the outermost seats entailed.

Rooms underneath the grandstand were already inhabited by ghosts.

There were sweet canopies of trash.

Lastly, my all-time favorite – the graffiti on the walls; the love struck moments of high school life forever inked on temporary surfaces.

Model: Canon EOS 350D Digital
Lens: Canon EF Lens 50mm f1.8 II

Additional Information:

From the original camera files, I edited the photographs using Adobe Photoshop CS2 in these following steps:

1. Background Layer converted to Layer 0
2. Straighten using photographic horizontal / vertical references (this is optional)
3. Canvas Resize to 460 x 306
4. Image Resize (equivalent to image cropping)
5. Crop – Cropped Area: Delete
6. Auto Contrast
7. Shadow / Highlight (default settings)
8. Fade 50%
9. Unsharp Mask (default settings)
10. Fade 50%
11. Neat Image – Preset: Remove Only Half of Noise
12. Auto Contrast
13. Save As JPEG – Quality: 12, Format Options: Baseline ("Standard")

After these, I edited the JPEGs using Adobe Lightroom Public Beta 3 in these following steps:

1. Develop Module – Linear Contrast Preset
2. Develop Module – Lens Vignetting – Amount: -75, Midpoint: 25
3. Export – File Format: JPEG, Quality: 100, Resolution: 72