Sometimes I don’t use up all the film I have in my camera, so when I have them processed, they’re a jumble of adventures and mishaps. It’s fun looking through them, especially when enough time has passed between the events. I took a Sproket snapshot of The National’s Singapore show, but it must have been too dark (even with the flash), that I won’t even post the outcome. I wish I took more shots. Oh well, lesson learned.

Manila, Philippines: December 2011

I’ve come to realize that a) I don’t really like Lomography film (except for the X-Pro Chrome and Tungsten variants), b) I’m not very good at film photography, and c) I need to learn how to read light.

Manila, Philippines x Mayoyao, Ifugao, Philippines: December 2011 x January 2012

It’s hard to make film photographs not come off as snapshotty. I guess that’s my main goal, after everything. It’s funny, but usually, when I’m not good at something, I drop it like a hot potato. It’s not a trait that I’m particularly proud of, but there you go. Funnily enough, this particular failure has made me very persistent. I won’t quit until I get good enough at it, or if I run out of money, spending it on seemingly frivolous things like film (read: things that are expensive that I don’t even earn from).

Stick; Manila, Philippines: December 2011

Hong Kong Disneyland: October 2011

October 2011
Hong Kong

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December 2011
The Grim Repat x Ang Bandang Shirley:

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Mayoyao, Ifugao
January 2012

Last weekend, I went up to Mayoayo, Ifugao with a group doing a thesis on them. If you know me, then you’d know that I’m not really an outdoorsy person—even when it comes to going out into the city. I like being relaxed and cozy at home. Still, it was a great experience, even for a hobbit like me.

Our trip began at 8 in the evening, where we boarded a bus to Santiago, Isabela. Believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve boarded a public bus with strangers. We reached our destination at about 4 the next morning, and went on a four-hour drive up the mountain in the dark.

And then, the sun came up.

Gracie’s “Tampon Face”

Gasoline rainbows!

Sprocket Rocket images from Hong Kong! Featuring: Stanley Park, Disneyland, The Peak, and the view from thousands of miles up in the air. Lomography CN 100.

Got these prints today. They suck. I have to get better~ at taking film pictures. One, because I like it a lot, and two, because I think it’s a good skill to have (knowing proper techniques, etc). Truthfully, I was way better when I started out, although I used to use a Nikon FM-2. It’s broken now, so I’ve been using a Nikon FE. I’ll have the FM-2 fixed one of these days.

Lomography Tungsten

X-Pro Chrome

If you haven’t seen the video it is here:

I’m having a lot of trouble with this film. I think it works best on bright, sunny days, but I’ll be sad if I end up with another roll like this.

I have other shots on this roll, but not from this day. If anyone can help, that would be awesome.
(I shot at ISO 64.)

Some of the photos from my “film challenge.” Films used: Kodak Gold 400 and Fuji Velvia 100. I think you can tell which is which. If not, click through for photo descriptions.

Molo church, Iloilo.

Breakthrough

The Ruins, Talisay

Art District, Bacolod City.

I also like Nick Zinner’s “Beds” series, where he took photos of beds he’s slept on when he was touring with the rest of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I suspect that this aspect of sameness-but-not is what drew me to the Roberto Chabet show in Galleria Duemila last month. There’s just something satisfyingly whole when it comes to collections and series. You see connections and similarities, and also differences.

A lot of people have also been asking me to share a few of my favorite local blogs, and I figure that this would be a good start! Here’s a list of some of the local projects and series that I enjoy quite a bit.

1. ANIK ANIK LOVE
by Mitch Mauricio • http://anikaniklove.blogspot.com/

Anik Anik Love is a series that I stumbled upon when my friend linked his other friend’s feature on the site. Mitch Mauricio goes around and photographs creatives from all walks of life and their sacred space. I’m kind of a nomad (I share a room with my sister), so I just work wherever, but it’s inspiring to see where beautiful things are made.

Right now, Mitch’s own space is featured in Real Living Magazine (October 2011). She’s a photographer, and I met her about a month or so ago. She’s really nice, on top of being quite talented. Also! Isn’t this one of the best projects? I made a few attempts at it a long time ago, but Mitch captures space in a pretty extraordinary way.

2. SPACES
by Zet Diaz • http://spaces.withstrangers.com/

Newly launched by Zet Diaz, Spaces is a look into “spaces” all over the world. Unlike Anik Anik Love, this isn’t limited to workspaces or living areas, but explores what the personal idea of “space” is.

It’s not simply a show and tell of “this is where I work,” but a telling of the story of these spaces, and what it means to these people. I think her goal is to sort of find a way to make each base in the world covered. So far, she’s gotten pretty awesome people to be a part of the project. I’m so excited for future entries—for one in particular—and this is definitely a project to watch.

3. DISPLAY
by Sarie Cruz • http://vimeo.com/sariecruz/

Sarie Cruz likes making films and looking at art. Merge these two interests together and you have a pretty genius project that I’m surprised no one I’ve heard of has been doing yet. Display is, essentially, a series of films that showcase art shows, exhibits, and events in Manila—in video form.

I document shows with pictures and words all the time, but that doesn’t quite capture the “thereness” one feels when going to an art show. Display is a step closer to that. It’s awesome because it captures part of the feeling of being there, despite the temporariness of exhibits. Because of the fleetingness of these shows, Sarie wanted to make the viewer feel somehow a part of it, despite not having been there or being far away.

There are, so far, only two up right now, but I know that she has a lot of footage she’s working on piecing together.

4. THE GRIM REPAT
by Mara Coson • http://thegrimrepat.wordpress.com/

I don’t know if you guys know this, but I had short-lived dreams of being a vlogger. If I did manage to make that work, I’d have loved it to have been like this. The Grim Repat is Mara Coson’s approach to repatriation, after being away from Manila so long. Three episodes are up now, and all are pretty fun to watch, despite the general vlog rule of “3 minutes and under.”

Part of what makes it interesting is the format. Typically, vloggers just set up their desk with a webcam and sit and talk in front of it. Sometimes, they go outside. Mara puts together videos of her day and her environment, coupling them with other tidbits and clips from films and videos. Then, there’s the good writing. I like that her videos have a theme and a point. It’s just a refreshing change, with a strong, overarching idea to back it up.

5. THE HANDY-DANDY MAP PROJECT
by Kasey Albano • http://kaseyalbano.tumblr.com/

Kasey Albano has always been one of the designers in school that I felt “had it.” The Handy Dandy Map Project is one of her design series that I love. Currently, there are about three entries, and I sincerely hope that she pursues it.

She has another series up called the 30 Day Song x Design Challenge. She is barely halfway, which excites me a lot because it means that I have more to look forward to.

Other local projects I love and enjoy:

• Missed Connections Manila
• Drunken Dispatches
• Daylight by Gabby Cantero
  

  “Cause in the daylight anywhere feels like home.” — Daylight by Matt & Kim

  Portraits on a Saturday. Why? Really, nothing. All for fun. For hanging out with friends under the sun!

I’m just naming some off the top of my head. So, if you have any series or projects, or even blogs, that are dear to your heart, please know that I would love to hear about them.

I’m working on a series right now, with Cat, which I’m hoping will take off by this month. It’s exciting, and we both love it—which is why it is puzzling as to why it’s taking so long for the both of us. We’re both busy, but it’s sort of like a passion project, so we’re pretty excited for it, too. Hope you stay tuned!

Anyway. A few snapshots of the last few days!

1. MY DUMB FILM CHALLENGE.
I went to an Iloilo-Bacolod trip for ten days. We were supposed to go to Concepcion, a nice beach three hours away from Iloilo’s city proper, but the rain fell down in drizzles. The sun beat down by the time we reached Bacolod, and it’s still following me here, over in Manila.

Stupidly, I brought only film cameras (save for my iPhone), so not everything I wanted to capture translated the way I saw them. I suppose that’s the risk! But sometimes, nice things turn up, too.

I have a wonky face.

A more complete post coming up. Saving a lot of the nicer ones for later. I’m trying out a lot of different film, and so far so good. A pretty expensive experiment, but what can you do. So far, I am in love with slide film and the LOMO color negatives, but I am not a fan of the 800 ISO, which I got a bunch of. Oh well.

2. YSTYLE COLLABORATION

For October, I collaborated with YStyle, which is the style section of my favorite broadsheet. I added my stuff on top of their logo. They do it every few issues (not sure if it’s a monthly switch), and it’s awesome to have been a part of that. Pau made the one that came out before mine!

Bea Ledesma wrote up a super nice feature here, too.

3. I WROTE FOR ROGUE!

It’s always been my dream to get published in a magazine. I don’t think people know this, really, but before I made a living off of art and before I even considered going to school before art, I have always wanted to be a writer. So far, I’ve only had my work in three local magazines, but it was absolutely thrilling to have gotten a call to write one for one of my favorites, Rogue. I have had my graphic work published there before, but getting a call for a writing assignment was—excuse the extreme fangirling—a dream.

I was just asked to write about food, which is truthfully not my forte. But hey, it involved three things I loved: food, writing, and Rogue!

It ran in the October issue (Anne Curtis explosion), so get a copy while you still can. Personally, my favorite is the black-and-white one.

4. COFFEE

While walking around Bacolod for a Bong Bong’s, I stumbled upon a stall that sold nicely packaged local coffee. I bought two bags (because I’m a sucker), but I’ve only tried the Mt. Kanlaon roast.

For a medium roast, it tasted pretty dark to me! I’m kind of dreading tasting the Negrenese blend. Not because it wasn’t good, but because I’m a coffee wuss. I like coffee a lot, but I haven’t reached barako levels of reverence. Although, I’ve tried civet coffee. It’s pretty good, considering it literally comes from shit.

I admire the venture, though! It’s a project that aims to promote sustainability. I’ll talk more about that in another post.

5. A DESIGN STALKER’S DREAM.

I came upon Dribbble first when I was perusing Melanie‘s portfolio. I was hooked on the idea immediately. In the vein of the hyper-updates of social networks, Dribbble revolves around the question: What are you working on?

Users update other users with 400px x 300px screenshots of their WIPs. You can also do “rebounds” where you update previously uploaded work with edits, etc. It’s great, and awesome, and I love being a part of it. (Thanks to Dan Matutina, infinitely.)

———

My brain is muddled and such right now. My site stats are depressing me, and yeah, I still do feel quite like butter. I got back in from Bacolod last night, and I’m flying to Hong Kong two days from now. I’ll be in Singapore the week after. A part of me is celebrating because of all the fun I’ll be having (hello, The National!) but another part is also dreading the intervals in which I work like a dog.

But, speaking of dreams: I’ve come to realize that you really need to push and stretch yourself to get to where you want to be. I don’t think it’s bad to have lofty dreams, but I think I do need to touch base with myself every once in a while, so I remember what those dreams require of me.

Right now, when I look at my to-do list, my heart just crumples up into a little ball. When I sit down and start working, though, I feel like I can maybe actually make it work.

I’ve taken a lot of photographs over the years—back when I didn’t have Nothing Spaces yet—and I always feel compelled to share them, without really knowing how. Digging up photographs from 2008 seems kind of out of place, but I loved these places back then, and I still love them now.

Cities I Love is just sort of a travel diary, where I post about beautiful and interesting places. I suppose you can also kind of see it as a backlog dump site, but I hope you see what I see in these cities, and why I always want to share them with people, years after I’ve been to them.

Today, I’ll talk about San Francisco. I’ve always said that if New York doesn’t work out, I’d love to be based in San Francisco instead. Despite my body’s disagreement with the hilly terrain, I love this city because it’s beautiful, exciting, and full of so many different sorts of things, people, environments. Rounding a corner can take you into a completely new place.

Diner.

Breakfast.

What I’ve come to realize, though, is that I didn’t use to pay enough attention to my experiences, and I didn’t use to tuck away these little bits and pieces of information. I got to know the city by walking through the streets and taking the cable cars and buses. I couldn’t tell you what to do or where to go or what to try and go see. What I can tell you is that I love this city, and I hope these photos make a part of you want to love it, too.

Chinatown.

Sleepy kitty in a window along Haight Street.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

SFMoMA, part II.

Fisherman’s Wharf.

Pier 39.

About a week or so ago, I tagged along Stick’s shoot. It featured a few of the Azkals representing a sports brand, and I was told it was for school. I know very little beyond that. I went along because I thought I would be able to get in a few shots of these people in a nice studio setting. But a bunch of things happened and I got there pretty late, along with Sarie and Bia.

(These photos have no captions because I have no idea who’s who. Lessons would be most welcome!)

The shoot was wrapping up by the time we got there, and I couldn’t really get much on my camera, as I brought the 35mm. In any case, I got in a few good pictures (in my humble opinion) anyway. Not of the Azkals, but of the people who were behind-the-scenes.

It turns out that the owner of ACME Studios, Sir Ocs Alvarez, has been into photography for quite a while. We were admiring his collection of vintage cameras, when he slowly started bringing out his babies.

And then we were introduced to one with a Polaroid back attachment and all hell broke loose.

(This was the first one taken.)

(This was the last shot.)

It’s kind of funny to take photos with people you don’t really know. The polas I did manage to smuggle out of there (to scan, not to steal!) are of me and people I do actually know, though, so it’s OK!

The following photos are of me, Sarie, Bia, Stick, Chiara, and her boyfriend, Jack.

Worst at synchronized jumping.

Worst at conga-lining-up.

It was a fun afternoon. We had dinner at Pancake House after and I tried their fried chicken for the first time! This is one instance where I actually enjoyed meeting new people (including a Karina with a “K”!) and getting to know some of those I already knew a little bit better. I also had fun taking photos and looking at the cameras people used to use for photography.

Did it make me feel small? Maybe a little bit. But more than anything, it just made me want to be better at taking pictures. To really learn what it means to understand light and how to react to it. I am no photographer—I get by with loads of guesswork and intuition. I think it’s about time I learned how to be better at it, though. Not for any reason other than me wanting to be.

Anyway, what I am saying is that: it was fun. It was fun & I’d like to do something like that again.

Hehe.

Chiara & Sarie.

:)

Makeup by Chiara Daez ™ (heh)
Like her Facebook page here!

I was, unfortunately, a pretty hopeless case.
Stay classy, San Diego~

Not-So-Fun Fact: I have extremely uneven eyes!
(I did you that it was not-so-fun.)

The thing with using film to take photos is that you have to be patient and diligent, and I am neither of those things. These photos were taken with a disposable black & white camera (Rollei Retro400) on March 9th this year. Cat and Macky spun~ at Future in Cubao X. I don’t actually know what made me go to this thing, because aside from being a hermit, I am also kind of wary of new and unfamiliar social situations. Alas, I went and I am glad I did!

Here are some photos. So much has changed since then, but I’d like to think that the switch in velocity was a good one.

About the camera: it’s OK! Some photos looked a bit washed out, but it’s good for what it is. I ordered it from the Lomography online store, which ships to pretty much anywhere. It was easy to use, but there was not a great range of things you can do with it. It really is just a fuss-free, point-and-shoot, black & white camera that you can forget about after you’ve used it. I would get another one if I manage to get another chance to.

More photos under the cut!