Day 090: Miniature I

Day 090:

Break from the mindfarts and reflections. :) An exercise in post-processing photographs.

A few days ago, I got curious. I browsed through a Canon shopping primer. In the lenses section, after the Zooms and Superzoom lenses, there was a special section for lenses they called "Tilt-shift" lenses. These were specialized prime lenses (17mm, 24mm, etc.) that had special knobs you used to shift the plane and path of focus, or tilt it. This is used for certain effects. I did a quick search on wikipedia and youtube. I was amazed. Look at this tilt-shift video. or maybe this explanation as to how it works. I was filled with geeky glee... until I saw the six-digit peso price on each one. No way man. A lens like that... I'll probably only use once or twice.

So I opted for an alternative. Graphic alterations via photoshop. With enough youtubing... you'll learn everything. I spent today, between the errands I had to do, looking for an appropriate "miniaturized" photo. I tried, in this photograph, to mimic how it would feel to shoot dioramas or models. Of course, it isn't perfect, but... hey this is the first try.

Day 089: Under Construction

Day 089:

[edited to reduce noise]

I couldn't sleep. I had a lot on my mind. Not so happy thoughts. As semi-catharsis. I did the brave thing. I took my camera, a tripod, and a warm hoodie. I stepped outside the house for a short stroll. I went to the college and back. I snapped a few night shots, of the streets. Total time... 10 minutes, tops. I was afraid someone would notice me and take interest in the stuff I was lugging around. So I took what shots I could, then I scurried on home. This shot was one of my shots tonight. [Note: Tripods are a blessing from God.]


Under construction.

There's a field in pediatrics, named developmental pediatrics. Come to think of it, there is a subspecialty of psychology also called developmental psychology. They're very similar, often dealing with pre-adult individuals, marking milestones and growth, whether physical, social, cognitive or emotional. But this field, especially with the nomer of the MD specialty may be misleading. It gives the impression that childhood or pediatric patients are in the "Developing" stage while adults would fall under the "developed" stage. But come to think of it, we make most of the mistakes that actually matter (and therefore become anecdotal life lessons for us), as we get older. The older we are, the more we are "developing" into who we ought to be.

Erikson made so much sense.

Day 088: Texture

Day 088:

Before I went into medschool, during the time when most of my world revolved around Quezon City, Pasig and Makati, my dad said, "Alam mo, kaiba ang Manila... May iba siyang texture na sa Manila mo lang makikita." (You know, Manila is different. There is a different texture that you will only see in Manila.)

He was right. I went to divisoria today. I had the balls to bring my precious camera with me, wrapped in a towel, hidden in my old, falling-apart bag. After a short shopping spree, I took out the camera. Snapped the first scene in front of me. BAM. This was it.

This photo is genre. It is the normal everyday look of Manila, Divisoria. I took the camera out. Snap. there is no more normal-er than this. But, even here, there is a distinct feel to it. Urban. Dirty. Gritty. Rough. Tight. It's as if the texture is something that jumps out to you, and captivates you. It rubs itself across your face, such that you can't ignore its presence.

I find the feel of Manila, tremendously draining to be in. Walking along the streets is a constant sensory overload. everyone is moving. every car and bus is honking. you must be vigilant against thieves. you must move quickly. But the feel is also immensely rich, in its own sense. After less than 5 minutes of taking my camera out, I realized that I will not run out of subjects. There will always be some story to tell, or some image to be seen. Kaiba talaga.

I should arrange a photowalk sometime.

Day 087: Celebration

Day 087:

Today, March 28. Today is my parent's 24 wedding anniversary. Congratulations to them! 24 years of a continuously amazing relationship, that has flourished into a great family, with developmentally-advanced children. Hahaha!

I went home today, unlike my routine of weeks-in-manila would be. Of course, to celebrate this momentous occasion with my parents and family. my sister surprised them with a cake (or rather cakes) she baked herself (with the younger ones). I couldn't let that one pass by.

Chocolate fudge. So good. So sinful. Why do good things have to be so detrimental to our health? :( Chocolate. bumming. food in general. ice cream. SIGH.

Day 086: Words

Day 086:

A scene at the dinner table. My youngest brother (2 y/o) is conversing with my other brother (17 y/o). Well. sort of.

My brother is at a wonderful age. For himself. For everyone. It's a time of discovery. You'll hear him fumble at words. He says my name in syllables "Kuu-yah". He says a few often used words flawlessly, "'yaw ko." (I don't want to). He's learning words left and right. This is a plate. This is your nose. This is my ear. This is a pencil. This is a car. As a bystander to this amazing stage of growth, I celebrate with my family every whole semi-sentence my brother says. "Open dor.

Each word he says is happy. honest. true. a moment of celebration. a moment of grace. Words.

Somewhere along the way, we lose it. Thinking about conversations I've had as an adult. I think words are horrible things. We use it to lie, to decieve, to hurt. to get what we want. Devoid of trust for the utterances, I hear some words, and I cringe. We are no longer in a stage of discovery and wonder. We are in a stage of disillusionment. Lost is the cheering. Lost is the happiness.


Childhood beats adulthood by far.

Day 085: Darkness

Day 085:

Today is the day of Earth Hour. 60+. From 830-930... probably onwards, people are implored to turn off all electronics, all electrical appliances, all lights. At least, let's become aware of our dwindling and crumbling natural resources.

Of course, children don't really like the dark, do they?

Day 084: Sprint

Day 084:

Disclaimer: Do not try to take a shot like this if you are driving. That would be silly. Drive safely always. Please please. Stay safe.

If you've run or sprinted 400m or more... provided you took the sprint seriously... there comes a point where, you're floating. Somewhere after the 200m mark, before your legs collapse under you, you see the finish line ahead. You're out of breath but your hyperventillating. You can't feel your legs, but you're moving as fast as you can. Your body can no longer keep up with your indomitable spirit that continues to push forward.  Your peripheral vision blurs. That seems okay. At that point, it seems like it doesn't matter anyway. Nothing else does. Keep your eyes on the prize. The finish line is near. You're running on sheer will power. Sprint.

Day 083: Backgrounds

Day 083:

Today, we had our year-ender class party. One wild night. Among the more-than-a-few photos i took that night, this is one of my favorites. I'm particularly happy how I was (more out of luck) able to capture the right background light (these were flickering like they wanted someone to seize), with the right position of the performer. I actually have a couple more shots, some yellow, red, white or green. But I like this one best. Wonderful. Very happy.

A bassist.

I don't play the bass. But I love looking for the bass line whenever I listen to a song, whether it be orchestral-classical, rock, R&B or other genre. There's a special nerdy-giddy feeling when I actually find it. They're my favorite part of a band. I think they work with the most subtlety and finesse. They provide texture to music without drawing too much attention to themselves. They stay in the back, nodding their head to a slow beat they keep, shifting bass notes or chords as the melody steals the show. They rock.

Day 082: The Game

Day 082:

I am happy with this shot. No explanation needed.

Day 081: Intensity

Day 081:

Reasearch work never ends! It's our research presentation tomorrow. We are tense.

Day 080: Cramming Level Up

Day 080:

I haven't done a cramming stint like this, since my thesis draft submission. Bring a printer to school. Lots of paper. Laptop. If the pass deadline is at 3:00, you can work until 2:45 if your paper is less than 75 pages. hahaha. Push to the limit!

Day 079: Spinning

Day 079:

Sometimes I feel the world's moving too fast. Or maybe I'm scurrying the world to quickly... That even when I take a moment to breathe. to stop. to rest. the world still spins around me.

Dizzy.

Day 078: Bloods

Day 078:

Bloodletting technology is amazing. Blood is collected, processed into various products, and distributed to patients. Blood is used in operations, transfusions, and other highfaluting-jargon-technical-terms. Lives are changed. Lives are saved.

Look at bloodletting as a poetic element.

You lose a part of yourself.
Someone becomes of your blood.
You share a bond.
It lasts forever (or at least until the blood cells are destroyed).
A life is saved.
You become more than you are.

Isn't it a beautiful process?

Blood brothers. Blood sisters. Blood siblings by choice.


Love it. Live it.

Day 077: Unlimited

Day 077:

Unlimited rice. This is a common marketing sell for restaurants around manila. Mang Inasal. Chic-Boy. Tokyo-Tokyo. They all promote rice-all-you-can.

Imagine.

Rice all you can at a 24-hour restaurant! That's chic-boy (along UN Avenue). You could theoretically live your life there. Start at 7:00am. order CB5 (Cebu Lechon Chicken). Ask for rice. Bring books to read and things to study. At around 10:00am. ask for more rice. Put chicken oil (that's free), and garlic (that's also free). Eat. Repeat forever.

If you think about it, the promise of unlimited rice is the promise of unlimited energy. (Rice = carbs) In so long as you're a customer of chic-boy, tokyo-tokyo or mang inasal, you shall not experience hypoglycemia (provided you're normal) even if you stay there forever!


Now reality.

I ate there with my batchmates. We started very late, but stayed there for more than 2 hours, talking, laughing, planning silly stuff, getting emotional... and othernots. I got three servings of rice that night. Others had more. We walked out of that restaurant, around 1am, feeling happy, energized and ready to face the next day. We had a lot to do, lots on our mind. But we were driven to do all we could, the best we could.

Unlimited energy. Not so much the rice, but the people you share your rice with. Friends. Batchmates. Classmates. Peers.



[personal note: Hmm... I'm getting cheezy.]

Day 076: Balance

Day 076:

Balance is an agonizing thing to accomplish. Whether in a photo, in neurological examinations, in academics, or in normal everyday life.

Take this photo, I took this standing in the approximate midline between two towers. This was my 8th photo in a series of 13 or 14 shots. I kept on reviewing the photos, and every time, I noticed some inconsistency. Even this one isn't perfectly symmetrical, but it's the closest I've got.

Student life, isn't particularly different. Unlike a photo, you usually only get one shot at it. You also don't have a review button. Neither can you delete things you've done. But, the same rules of balance apply. Never too much of anything. Always know what you want in the end (what "life-photo" you want to take). Try and try. Begin with the end in mind.

They say you can only hold so many things on your tray. The amazing people don't have big trays. They just know that the most important items should be placed first.

Day 075: Contrast

Day 075:

This photo works because the plant in the foreground gives up its details and its colors in order to accommodate the bright colors of the setting sun. It becomes a bare outline, jutting out against the characteristic sunset. That way, both the plant, and the setting sun become part of an aesthetic whole. Should we take a picture of the plant, or a picture of the sunset alone, we would find the photograph lacking or incomplete.

Likewise, there are aspects of... life... I guess, that work best through juxtaposition and contrast. Pleasure-pain. Hot-cold. Lethargy-inspiration. Anger-happiness. You know what you should become by seeing what you don't want to be. You realize how high you can fly, by seeing how low you are at the moment. You realize what you want, by someone almost taking it away from you.


Contrast.

Day 074: One... Two... Three... Smiling!

Day 074:

This is my class. 2015. My contemporaries and peers as I move up the medical ladder. For the first time in the year, we were able to mobilize everyone for a fairly decent class shoot. We have other more wacky shots. :P This is the only one I'm actually in the shot (being caught running to get into the frame doesn't count). Cheers! Go UPCM!

I wonder if we take a serial shot of ourselves. Once every year... will we see any difference at all? :p oh well, to be seen.



I had to borrow a 17-85mm lens to get this. (I wish we had a 10-22mm, but alas. no.)

Day 073: Impressions

Day 073:

As not to spoil the post. Impressions. Enough said.

Day 072: Heroes

Day 072:

My little brother is in the phase of his life that he's all about superheroes. Among the few words he can say, he says "Batman" flawlessly (when he can't even pronounce some of my other siblings' names properly! hahaha!). In the Sunday I was home, there wasn't a moment I did not see him holding either a superman action figure, a batman action figure, a spiderman action figure, or any two of the three. He's in that wonderful stage of childhood, when we still have heroes.

Heroes.

A little bit of philosophy from undergrad. In Plato's construction of ethics, what is good and imperative is known only through the revelation of IDEAs, those perfect constructions that exist beyond this world of "light and shadows." We only have guidance about what is really good, what is really real through insights about this world that tell us about the perfect IDEA.

One way of identifying these IDEAS are through IDEALs... which are embodied by Heroes. Heroes are often embodiements of IDEALs in an untainted, straightforward, pure manner. Superman, Batman, Spiderman. That's why we need heroes... they guide us in finding ourselves. They point to what is "right". Questions like "What would Jesus do?" help. Children know this. That's why they play with action figures with all the joy in the world. At least, somehow, they find a way to play out their ideals.

We need our heroes.


[personal note: I feel fortunate to have met more than a few this weekend.]

Day 071: Remember, remember...

Day 071:

I wasn't able to take any picture today because... well... I ran out of time. I spend the day scurrying between a medical mission, and studying. This is therefore, an old photo, one I took... when I visited the Katipunan area last week. This is a part of the newly(ish) renovated Kenny Rogers/SBC! The place is so study-friendly.

I kinda miss undergrad life. If only because (although it didn't seem so then) I had so much damn time... to do anything I really wanted. Be with friends, get things done, study, sleep. Everything was manageable and bearably placed. Sayang. I hope I maximized that part of my life somehow. Because based on stories I hear, medical education doesn't give a student much breathing room (for the most part). :P

We move forward. Go west! hahaha.

Day 070: Night Lights

Day 070:

This is me being experimental. I try. Hahahaha. While covering an event along Roxas Blvd. (With a pending "threat" of a tsunami within the hour.) I got my 24-105mm lens, put it to the longest focal length, F/4, and blurred everything out.

I like the circles and the colors... but it just seems dirty overall. I need tips.

Day 069: Strength

Day 069:

Today, I cried in class. Well, not cry, cry. Just some tears. Just a little bit of my emotional side slipping out. Couldn't help it! Our module was focusing on palliative care (in line with human development). And in the middle of the 4-hour lecture, CHILD House, a halfway house for children with life-threatening diseases came and gave us a short presentation. These kids were amazing. Stressed by CA, leukemia, and otherwhatnots I can't spell, they manage to smile and laugh. It makes me feel ashamed of bickering over the upcoming exam. Children shouldn't be facing issues like this.

These smiles are prime examples of inner strength. Amazing. 

[personal note: maybe I am a frustrated kyther. hahaha] I think CHILD House is actually facing a problem (at least according to the news). They welcome any help you can offer. Contact them at (+632)4142421.

Day 068: Getting Older

Day 068:

This is Picoy, a housemate and good friend of mine. Today is his birthday. Last night we spent some time just having fun (his treat of course :p). Good friends, drinks and food! Awesome.

Getting older is funny. As a child, we long for it. "When I grow up..." or "When I'm older I'll..." We associate the birthday with being able to do more, see more, go more places. Being older is becoming more able, more agile, more empowered. We'd love to get older. Of course the constant barrage of gifts help! But there comes a point (I think it falls somewhere between the ages of 16-21) that we stop. Getting older becomes passe. It's a statement of fact. I am X years already. We look forward to birthday parties not because of gifts (because they become less imaginative anyway, often clothes, or money tokens from relatives. No more toys or fun stuff.) but because of company. There probably will come a point when we wouldn't want to get older at all... after 30? I don't know yet.


But birthdays should always be like this. Happy.

Day 067: Reach

Day 067:

We hosted a basketball tournament today. Fun as anything, with four teams of friends struggling to reach the next round. Not much philosophical shiz today. Just fun.

Medical school, or maybe schooling in general, isn't not just about books, grades, exams, or numbers. I believe it's about growth. Growth in a determined direction. As we get older, that direction becomes clearer, and more productive. But somewhere along the way, let's not lose our persons to our dreams. We are still ourselves. We make the dreams happen.

Day 066: Plastic

Day 066:

I'm part of a group who was holding a food fair yesterday. We sold sandwiches, nachos, juice, and a unique filipino refreshment known as skrambol (scramble). [sidenote: Scramble/skrambol is a slush of crushed ice, milk, colored sugar, topped with powdered milk, rice crisps, nuts and chocolate syrup.]

We use plastic cling wrap to protect our sandwiches (whether because we'll be delivering them or because no one has bought them yet) from dirt, microbes, and other harmful elements.

Interestingly enough, looking at this photo, we see another use for the plastic. Plastik is another term used by filipinos, referring to pretentiousness, or the act or habit of putting on a facade. Someone is plastik if they act one way towards a select group, and an entirely different (often opposing way) in another group. They play their cards completely according to what is advantageous to them. They disregard sincerity and genuine relationships. 

This is, though a form of exploiting others, I believe another form of protecting one's self from latent insecurities or perceived vulnerabilities.

We are all sandwiches. Yum.

Day 065: Sunset I

Day 065:

I realized at this point, that after 64 days of 365 I had not published any skyscape pictures... considering it's one of the most potentially easier sights to capture. I say easier because the sky is predictable (we know that sunsets will happen around 6pm, and sunrises at around 530am), it is also readily present (we only need to look up at the sky to see it). The challenge is finding the right foreground and shooting the right message. Of course, I say these things, not to belittle the skyscape shots (because some are tremendously beautiful) but only as a note of experience, comparing shooting skies to shooting people.

I shot this on a trip to Alabang this weekend. We went there to go to a special mass, because it was a priest-family-friend's birthday. The power lines and lamp posts were just too irresistible to me, as the jutted out against the orange sky.

Day 064: Tampo

Day 064:

I went home this weekend. Among the several photos I managed to capture, I caught this one. One of my younger sisters was having an argument with our brother. She was "making tampo" (for lack of a proper translation).

Tampo. I can't be sure if my knowledge of the filipino-english lexicon is lacking, or if I'm just experiencing a mental block now... but I cannot think of a proper translation for this word. Maybe english-speakers don't tampo. Maybe only Filipinos tampo or give importance to tampo.


Tampo is a behavior often elicited during conflict. When you are nagtatampo, you purposefully ignore or shun the person you are in conflict with. You can choose to address everyone except the object of your tampo. However, the objective of your pagtatampo is not to ignore the person per se, but to elicit a response from the other party. The goal of pagtatampo is to make the other person cajole you, or sweet talk you to take them back into your graces.

It's a very strange, non-confronting, means of settling conflict. It involves a very strong power struggle. And it will only work if the person (nagtatampo) has a significant emotional or relational tie with the person of conflict.

Day 063: Drunkard

Day 063:

Without further ado... the drunkard cockroach!

Day 062: The Joy of Learning

Day 062:

Learning has always held a special place in my heart, since I was a child. I'd always get giddy when I was faced with something new to learn, whether it was basic science back in grade school. 1984 in high school. Postmodernism in college. Abnormal Psychology. Neuroanatomy. Physiology. Economics. Whatever. I loved that heart-pumping feeling of being on the intellectual frontier.

Today, I found another side of learning in this photo. Among our pedia modules were cognitive aspects of development. In order to concretize this, our consultants brought children to our class. We had a 3-day old neonate, a 6-mo infant, an 18-mo toddler, a 2-yo, and a 4-yo. We were guided through several tests that showed their development, from reflexes to motor skills, to recognition, to language and whatever else. 

This particular boy is 18 mo. He is advanced for his age. He is showing the skills that could be attributed to a child older than 2 years old. Although he doesn't speak yet (maybe he was shy), he learns new tasks extremely fast.

What I like about this photo of mine, is that I see the genuine joy and pride of the mother (who is a pediatrics fellow) behind him as he solves his shape-cutout puzzle. This is another aspect of learning, I believe teachers, mentors and parents would be more familiar of. It is a special feeling to learn something for yourself. It is an entirely different special feeling to see someone you care for learn something new. 

Day 061: Variety

Day 061:

Laptops teach us... that even though we are different. We can work as one.

Day 060: Spirit

Day 060:

We are bigger than we are.

(of course I don't mean that in the literal sense.)