***EDIT: Added a few more shots***

For a long time I’ve been telling myself that I DON’T want to shoot weddings. Well, I’ve grown to realize that when I DON’T want to do something, its because I’m scared of it. I don’t like being scared.

So yesterday I shot my first wedding. I was actually more excited than nervous. There’s a point where your fear turns into excitement. For me, it’s when I’m faced with a new challenge. You’re left just having to rely on your skill and experience to get you through whatever is about to come. I’ve gotten pretty good at turning fear into excitement and in the end it really is just courage.

Prior to the event, I spent a couple days referencing wedding photography; not so much technique but just straight up reference. I needed to have an idea of what I wanted to accomplish. I filled my brain with as many visual references as possible. The final plan was to just keep everything simple, be confident in my lighting techniques, create art but don’t try to reinvent “the wedding photo” and don’t forget everything I’ve learned about posing models.

I couldn’t ask for a nicer couple to work with. Garret and Aki were awesome! I wish them the best. It may have all seemed very hectic to them, but in my opinion, everyone was very well organized and punctual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not much to update since I’ve been back in Florida. I haven’t even been fishing yet. I sent my camera off to Canon last week. No word about when I’ll get it back yet. I hope its before the end of the week because I’m shooting my first wedding on Saturday.

Anyways… I didn’t win anything in the ANPW Photography contest. I entered the following photo. I took it last February at the Skyway.

I’m in Detroit! 

I went straight to a cafe with wifi and ordered a mushroom swiss burger, heineken, and kiwi strawberry vitamin water. I feel like an American again!

Anyways… I wish I had time to do a final post before leaving the Philippines. I spent the last night hanging out with Angelica. She gave me a couple paintings as a going away present. We hit up the casino one more time to burn off the rest of my pesos. That was pretty fun even though we didn’t win! We headed back to the hotel at about 130am, we said our goodbyes and went our own ways. sad.

I ran upstairs, packed, and was off to the airport by 230am. She’s going back to the states next week for summer vacation. Maybe I’ll get to see her… but if not… I’m going back to the Philippines in June so I’ll see her then. YUP! I’m going back.

wow… best day of my entire trip. i spent the whole day with Angelica.

We met up in Makati at the Ayala Museum. It was 4 floors of Filipino history and art. I  told her a little bit about looking at abstract art and trying to understand it. I wish we got to the museum earlier, by the time it closed we were still 1 floor short of finishing.

After the museum, we were trying to figure out where to eat. I’m sick of Filipino food, I didn’t think that eating Italian in the Philippines seemed right, and I kind of wanted to eat at a really nice place. Angelica mentioned a few places but none of them sounded that good to me. I said, “Let’s eat at a really cool looking place.” She knew exactly where to take me. JohnAndYoko… a Japanese restaurant inspired by John and Yoko. 

Its pretty posh. We ordered beef yakinori, seared tuna sashimi, and fried tofu steaks. I had a Lychee martini. Food coma was setting in soon afterwards and we needed to get on the move. After dinner, we walked around Greenbelt for a bit and ended up at a cafe for more drinks (more Lychee martinis). We talked for a bit and decided that this night needed to be a little more adventurous.

A cab ride later and we were at Casino Filipino. Hours had gone by and we were both down around 1500 pesos ($30) between poker, black jack and roulette. By about 2am, Angelica still hadn’t tried roulette, so we sat down at another table and started playing. My 500 pesos went quick and i changed another 1000. Angelica was still on her first 500. Another 700 go by and I’m down to my last 3 100 peso chips. I ask Angelica to pick a number. She says, “35″ and I let all 300 ride on that number. Angelica threw down the rest of her chips (200) on Black. The dealer throws the ball and I turn away to not look. I hear the ball stop and I glance over, it landed on 35!!!! I started jumping up and down and hitting Angelica! The dealer was like O_O …. and I was like O_O … Angelica had no idea what was going on. We both won and walked away 10,000 pesos richer.

Awesome way to end an awesome day.

The last couple days have been kind of depressing without being able to use my camera. I feel like my mind has turned off because I don’t have to be constantly looking for a shot or wondering what this and that would like as a photo. You would think its a relief but when you’re used to doing it for so long, you really get used to just seeing EVERYTHING a certain way and being ready to capture it at any moment. 

Here’s a shot I neglected to post earlier. I had to do some photoshopping to fix a few things that were the fault of an ultra-wide angle 17-40mm lens. This was taken from behind Hooters at the Mall of Asia.

Today is going to be a long, but very exciting day. I’m going to the Ayala Museum in Makati and then I’m going to spend the rest of the evening there. More pix to come!

Its been a couple days. I finally met up with an old friend, Mike. He moved out here about 4 years ago to play basketball. After he left, I never heard or saw him again until this passed Saturday. I always wondered how he’s doing and if he’s actually surviving. First thing I asked was if he likes it out here. He loves it! I told him that things are just ok back in Florida, the economy is really putting a hurt on some people, and that he’s got it real good here in the Philippines. He makes enough money by just playing basketball and he’s still in the minor leagues! After all the years here, he still can’t speak Tagalog! That shows how much the Philippines has really changed in the past 10 years… its become so westernized that everyone speaks good English now!

It was alot of fun hanging out again just like back in Florida. I was expecting to hang out with him the rest of this week but he called me yesterday to tell me that he got signed to a team in Cebu and he was leaving the next morning. I probably wouldn’t see him before I leave. Neither of us were really excited. In fact, I don’t even remember congratulating him. 

My Sunday was AWESOME ! I took Angelica out to dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Cafe. It’s this small cafe right next to the Manderin Oriental in the center of Gateway mall, but its OUTDOORS inside the mall! It’s like a cyclinder of glass that cuts through all 4 floors of the mall. Inside (outside) are tall palm trees and foliage, umbrella covered tables on elevated wooden decks, a little koi pond and waterfall… pretty classy stuff! There’s only around 10 or so tables and we had a table on a deck to ourselves. We had about two hours to kill before our movie so it was nice to take our time at dinner. She ordered the chicken and I had the swordfish and a vodka tonic. The bill was $22. I love the Philippines! We had a little extra time so we stopped by a bar before the show for a Pina Colada and Mojito.

We watched Watchmen at the Lazyboy theatre. At this theater, you pay 350 pesos ($7) per ticket, you get free soda and popcorn, and you get to sit in your own personal lazyboy recliner. You even get to reserve your seats when you buy the tickets. The theater is average size and there was probably 36 or so seats. I really like how it’s not crowded at all (the number one reason I don’t watch movies in theaters). I’m glad I went and bought our tickets before dinner because the seats sold out. We stayed through the credits to see if I recognized any friends from Ringling… Congrats Jarred!

Today (Monday) was bad bad bad news….. 

I was in Tagaytay today taking photos of a Volcano when all of a sudden my shutter made a clank sound. As I was still looking through the shutter, I noticed that half of the frame was black. First, I thought that one of the shutter curtains was stuck. I snapped a couple more shots and my camera froze up and blinked ERR on the LCD. I could hear that something was loose inside. I took off the lens to find that the main mirror had broken loose. Soooo… seven days left and no camera. I’ll just have to send it out when I get back to Florida.

(One of the last shots I took. You can see the volcano in the distance.)

(The LAST shot I took.)

Oh well, it happens. I’ve seen just about everything there is to see. Now, I just need to enjoy the rest of my vacation without worrying about having to shoot every place I go. 

The past few days have been rough! Lots of driving around. From Vigan, we went up into the mountains to Baguio City for one night. The next morning we left for 100 Islands and were back in Manila by evening. Vigan was fun. I met alot of family I had never seen before and learned a good bit about my family history as well as the history of Vigan. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the comments everyone! I’m glad all of you can see these photos as I experience everything. I’ve learned ALOT about shooting everyday. The most important thing I’ve learned is that some moments just can’t be captured by the camera! I’ve seen alot of cool things but the photos just don’t show exactly what was going on at the moment. I’ll get better though.  

I’m a day behind in my blogging. I lost my connection in Vigan for the past 2 days. Vigan was pretty cool. I learned not to eat anything with a cool name… like Addidas (chicken feet), Jurrasic (grilled chicken head), or One Day (one day old fried chick). But I did eat just about everything else. The seaweed here is so much better than back in Florida and it looks different too. I’m now way up in the mountains in Baguio City. Finally got to a mall with wi-fi at the Starbucks. More blogging later. I’ll be back in Manilla in 2 days if I don’t get a chance to update anytime soon.