Laiya, Batangas

went to Laiya, Batangas with friends and their friends. t'was fun meeting new people who loves spinning. new poi friends for me

PS this is my first attempt to shoot a video. bear with my shaky hands. lack of equipment. hehe Click here to view full entry...

Life Onboard as a Crew

Working for a cruise ship is a lot different from working at land. I am now considering my ship as my new country; a moving island, a different view from your porthole (cabin window) everyday. We all know that a country has its cultures. Being with different races, I must say that "my country" is very rich in culture. You'll learn a lot everyday; customs, traditions and even different words and phrases. But... you really have got to be a verrrry good listener here. Its very hard to understand a lot of people, well, basically because of the different language accents.

Apparently, all countries have rules and laws too. "My country" has a lot and people here are very strict in enforcing the law. One big mistake and it will cost you your job. As a new crew, you have to undergo a lot of training on your first weeks onboard and take an exam after. If you wont be able to pass the exam, you will be given another two chances and if you still won't pass it, then you'll disembark the ship in the next port. P-R-E-S-S-U-R-E!

Being in a ship as a crew, well, after working here for a few weeks, without a doubt, is not easy. Everyday, I'm missing my family and friends back at home. Its like starting over here; yes you'll meet new friends but it takes a long time for me, and I'm sure its the same with most of you guys, to really trust someone. It's a good thing that there are a lot of Filipinos here, its part of our Pinoy culture to be nice to fellow Pinoys. and with our number here, sometimes I feel like I never left home.

Ericson and Edgar, my Pinoy Colleagues

Another thing is the work hour. People here, well including me of course, work 11 hours a day 7 days a week. But as a photographer, my work sched is lighter; my workplace, the photoshop, is usually closed when the ship is docked.

me in Yokohama

Everyday, I am expected to smile as I am working now in the hospitality industry with my ship, being considered by our guests a hotel... a "moving hotel." Earlier this morning, I looked in the mirror and noticed some small wrinkles in my cheeks... talk about over smiling.

spell EXHAUSTING... Click here to view full entry...

The Jellies

Last Friday, March 26, 2010, I did a shoot in Manila Ocean Park, again, for my hometown. This time it's for the Rosas ng Santa Rosa Pageant. I had a hard time setting up the lights for flash photography is not allowed in certain areas of the park.

What I enjoyed the most in our shoot was the "jellies" part of the park. I was again with Anton and we were soooooo GV (good vibes) with the jellyfishes that we did a lil video thing.

Will post the photos soon...


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Sunburned... again

just got back from my Caramoan beach hopping trip with friends... will post photos and stuff soon...

a little preview...
thanks Tom Villanueva for taking this photo for me

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Be My Dangerous Muse

'been terribly busy these past few weeks. won a bidding for a project in my hometown. i'll be shooting 14 guys for this contest thing. i've been organizing the photoshoot these past few days; been looking for assistants etc. we did a pre-prod meeting and the director told me what concept he wants for the shoot. i found it a bit tacky though so i'm gonna be tweaking it a bit.

a couple of days ago, i chanced upon this video in youtube and it hella inspired me to do the shoot asap. the video is by Dangerous Muse.

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Pure Sores

Last weekend, I joined my cousin, Mina, on a trip to Anangawin, Zambales with her husband, Jake and a couple of friends. The night before the said trip, I stayed in Jake and Mina's place in paranaque. We left early, I think around 5am, to avoid heavy traffic in North Luzon Expressway.

To reach Anawangin, one must take a 30 minute boat ride from Baranggay Pandaquit to Anawangin beach but if you prefer to experience more adventure, you can choose trekking instead. it'll take approximately 4 hours to get there. The boats there are a bit small. A boat can accomodate 5 persons, including the bangkero and his assistant but since my cousin and her husband have a contact there, we were able to rent a bigger boat which can accomodate 6 to 8 persons.

Anawangin beach has pine trees instead of coconut trees which makes it different from other beaches here in Pinas. There are no hotels and resorts (the loo? just a toilet bowl covered by sawali) and no electricity, just pure outdoor experience. Unfortunately, after a 3 hour drive going to Pandaquit from Paranaque, we've learned from our bangkero (the boat guy who took us to the beach) that a lot of people were going to Anawangin for the weekend so we decided to go to Nagsasa Cove instead. Nagsasa Cove, which is an hour away from the Pandaquit, is much like Anawangin but it has a longer stretch of beach and a waterfall (30 minute hike from the beach).

We did things in Nagsasa any camper group would do in Anangawin... put up tents, cook, swim, trek around the place and of course, take a lot of photos. Being a first time camper, it was kinda hard for me to adjust with the idea of going back to basics (especially their idea of the loo back there), well almost... but i must say that the place is simply divine! Here are some photos and snapshots ...

Nagsasa

The size of the boats

Our camp site

Mina and Jake

Jake taking photos

Where the river meets the ocean

Our camp site at night

The girls preparing our dinner

The long walk to Nagsasa falls...

Mang Pepe, guiding us to Nagsasa falls

i enjoyed swimming (practicing things i learned from my SOLAS training... hehe) and taking photos a lot of photos out in the open sun... well... spell sunburn. Now I'm experiencing "pure sores." My skin hurts like hell. But it's worth it naman.

I also took a few shots for HDR processing... will post them as soon as i finish post processing the photos.

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Love, Fashion and Everything in Between

' helped Anton in layouting his blog last night... Click here to view full entry...

Tina D. for PFW S/S 2010

'Went to SMX last saturday to watch Tina Daniac's collection for Philippine Fashion Week S/S 2012. 'Was supposed to watch but it was too crowded (congrats Ms. Tina D.!!!) so I just decided to help backstage and stay there. Saw a lot of friends and familiar faces.

Anton Belardo

Lotho

Shahani Gania

RCXY

me

more photos in my Facebook Account

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@bar0s... where have you been?

I've been very inactive here for a long time...

not just here but also in almost all of my accounts... facebook, twitter, etc etc.

my online social life / identity has suffered a lot... but I guess... it's gonna be worth it =)

A few months ago, I received a text from a company called Magsaysay, asking me for an interview, a job interview. I went to their office a few days after, went to a series of interviews and ta-dah! I got hired as a Cruise Ship Photographer for Costa...

The following months, I must say, was pretty uneasy. I had to complete a lot of requirements and pass a series of medical and dental exams (and I'm damn scared of needles) which required me to have some teeth extracted (ugh... I hate the sight of blood). Going through these, I met new friends... my batchmates and fellow Costa photographers.

After completing the medical and dental requirements, we went to a lot of training in MIHCA (Magsaysay Institute of Hospitality and Culinary Arts) and Magsaysay Training Center. We were taught on the know-hows and know-whats of the Cruise we will be joining, Costa, a refresher course on photography and how we can shoot faster since we will be required to shoot a lot of people and events onboard, and some basic marketing skills since we will also be manning the photo booth of the ship and of course, SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) or BSC (Basic Safety Course) for seafarers.

Now, me and my batchmates are all just waiting for our assignments, which ship we're gonna embark... I'm pretty much excited for this new job... meet a lot of people of different nationalities, experience different cultures and see new places.

So I guess I'm not gonna be online that much when I start working onboard. All my trainers told me that it's terribly crazily uber busy onboard... But one thing's for sure, I will do my best to find time to still post photos here, photos of about everything onboard and the places I will be able to visit... =)

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Hope and Wonder

Knikkolette Church, one of my twitter friends, an artist and a full-service interior designer, transformed one of the photos I took during the street children's party in Hidalgo a few years back to an artwork in a canvas for her "faces" collection.

checkout Knikkolette's blog or follower her in twitter =)

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Finally...

waited for more than an hour for the programme to start. good thing i have a camera with me. took snapshots with college batchmates.

with heidi, one of my college friends I love getting annoyed the most. hehe

with Rigson, one of my thesis groupmates. Our thesis was awarded best thesis last year

with Rigson and Joum


with sweet lil CJ
with one of my favorite professors, Mr. Dizon


with crazy guy Joum. Smoking was prohibited but look... lol

with dianne

the "diploma"
I got bored... the programme was soooo long.

with my bro, mom and dad

with highschool bestfriends

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