You know that part in The Lord of the Rings where Bilbo tells Gandalf how he feels like butter spread over too much bread? That’s how I’ve been feeling. The meaner part of myself is quick to say: “You brought it upon yourself.” After all, no one is really making me do anything I don’t want to do.

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.)

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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.

The rest of San Francisco, under the cut

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.

Click for more fun photos!

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! Continue reading BLAST FROM THE PAST: CUNNING LINGUISTS….

When news broke out that poachers destroyed a reef five times the size of Manila, I was devastated. It’s so sad to me that the Philippines is blessed with so much biodiversity, and we wreck and ruin, instead of nurturing and cultivating what we have. I am mad that people thought they could do such a thing, and a little frustrated because I can’t really do much to stop them.

When I was younger, I didn’t really consider myself a “sea person” up until the last few years, when spending time near the water really gave me peace of mind and quieted my soul. My best friend, Isa, wrote about how one cannot help but falling in love with the ocean. I love being in the water. After I get over the initial panic of being in a body of water with creatures can’t sea swimming beside me, I embrace the feeling of somehow being one with the earth.

I missed Blog Action Day, which calls people to band together and make noise on June 8th, on behalf of the Philippine seas. But, just because I am lazy and forgetful, it doesn’t mean that I don’t care. It’s a little bit sad for me, knowing that at the moment, this is the most that I can do: declare how much I love the sea. I plead to the people who have more power than me to move and do something about this.

Here are some photos from Bohol. I am not very good friends with the ocean yet, and Sarie is urging me to give diving a try. I’m hoping there are still places left for me to see. (Tubbataha and Coron, I’ve got my eye on you.)

Continue reading MARRIED TO THE SEA….

We got a negative scanner! I have a few rolls (and some more!) from the Bangkok trip, so I decided I would try my hand at scanning with these. They’re OK. I used a bad batch of film, though, for the Sprocket Rocket shots, so they turned out a little… yucky. In any case, it’s sort of oddly exciting to scan negatives. I can’t explain it, but I love it a lot. Enjoy the dumpage! I’ll be back with part 2. Fuji didn’t process my roll of slide film, so I’ll bring that over there tomorrow, with the LC-A+ roll I’m still working my way through. 3 shots left!

I’m also still getting the hand of the focal range of my LC-A+. STILL! I can’t seem to get used to it. Of course, my estimation is naturally shot, but even so, I EXPECT MORE FROM YOU, SELF.

More under the cut! I’m so excited. Next stop: developing my own prints! Continue reading LOMO DUMP: BANGKOK PART I….