Small streets call for small modes of transportation. 🙂
Where I come from, the more popular mode of public transportation are these “pedicabs” (others refer to them as “pedibox” just because) and they are likened to “taxicabs”, because they bring you to wherever you want in the city, for the going price of 8 pesos per trip (or a little bit more if you want to go someplace farther).
They are convenient, breezy, and fairly cheap mode of transportation, in a city that has 1-2 taxis in service. 🙂
The full moon on a sunset plane ride. The Philippines, July 21, 2016.
 When one looks really hard, and is patient enough, one sees colors and light in the way one wants to see it.
I took this photo while in the plane to a city a couple of hours away from where I live in order to attend the conference. Traveling alone, I was able to enjoy my precious few hours of silence and not being bothered by anyone for conversation. (I love my solitude when I want it.)
What I love about this picture is the ethereal quality of the vivid pinkish hues in the sky, in stark contrast to the dark blues and blacks of the ground and the sea below, punctuated by a silvery white full coin of a moon.
The white house near the Bian Yek in Dumaguete has always held a mysterious air.
When I was in grade school, someone told me that there were “White Ladies” who lived there, and that they were really old and frail.
I remember one time late one after whilst riding a pedicab, and looking up, I saw them, three ladies sitting out in the terrace… The deep set eyes looked menacing to me, the bones of their face were so high and prominent and they made their features appear hook-like and menacing, and their hair was white and buffeted by the breeze.All this made them look more menacing… Than they should have been. And although I mustered up the courage to stare, I couldn’t…and I had to turn away and avert my eyes.
(I did that every time I passed that place…which was almost every day.)
Nowadays, I’m not sure if it is occupied by anyone, but the childhood memory of the elderly ladies and an overactive imagination had me pegging those elderly ladies unfairly as scary beings, when in fact they were just elderly women being cared for by their caregivers.
It’s been raining all over the Philippines these past few weeks, but my hometown has only had its share (and it has been quote continuous). It let up a few hours ago, so I was able to test my new GoPro Hero 4 (Silver) outside.
I had won it in a raffle, and although my first reaction was one of…calm, because I had my biases against it. You see, most of the people I know who’ve used it, use it for selfies, or for group shots… I’ve never really seen people use it for anything else. Also, it didn’t have a lot of information with regards to my favorite genre of Street Photography.
However, because things happen to me for a reason, I decided to shut my mouth (effectively) and try to explore what it could offer. I’m definitely glad I did.
The GoPro Hero 4 Silver is one powerful little camera stored in a hard, almost indestructible case (ok, I exaggerate, but there is a reason why people use it for underwater shots and extreme sports…it IS that durable.)
I know that most people would mount it on a monopod (or selfie stick. :-)) and take pictures with it while viewing photos on their phone. I didn’t want to do that, of course. It just wasn’t…ergonomic for me.
Boy and Girl on the motorcycle. August 2016.
What I did instead was to take it out of its kit mount and put a cord through the remaining holes and put it around my neck. I did that because it made it much easier for me to keep my hands free and to “shoot from the hip”. 🙂
The pictures on this post are some examples. I’m not all that good yet, but I think that the GoPro’s compact size, powerful capabilities and adaptable settings give it a considerable edge for a photographer, when it comes to those shots were you have to do some quick thinking and carpe diem. 🙂
(Also, I shot using the 7MP medium format. It lessened lens distortions and allowed me to tweak considerably during post-processing.)
One of the reasons why I take public transport is the bevy of interesting characters that I encounter. She, the lady in this picture, Â was one of them.
This picture strongly reminds me of the person who introduced me to #StreetPhotography via Chris Weeks and to the freedom of #Snapseed work, for some reason…
Thank you for inspiring my love (and compulsions) for this and to constantly want to be better at it. It has been really fun.
I had an Afghan Girl moment earlier during the commute.
Allan, 30, sat across me and went unnoticed until i looked in his direction just in time for the light to hit his eyes and make me realize that they were not the usual brown, but instead a shade of hazel and green with flecks of a color resembling sienna. I commented about the curious nature of his eyes, and he told me that his grandfather was a foreigner and was neighbors with his grandmother.
He asked me my name and shook my hand. He was a simple guy, and was very shy. He would answer in short syllables and would ask me to repeat constantly, flashing his gap-toothed smile, much like a child. I asked him what he did for a living and he looked down at his plastic bag full of plastic bottles, and shrugged.
The driver apparently knew who he was and called him by by his first name, asking where he wanted to get off this time. I offered to pay for his fare, as it was the least i could do. I only got to talk to him for a few minutes, but it was enough to make him feel comfortable enough with me to oblige.)
