people you meet on the streets

i often catch myself staring at people on the streets. wondering what kind of lives they live.




grabbing my camera and stealing their souls. perhaps for later inspection to find the answer to my endless questions.



do they take weekends off? do they sleep well at night? do they have someone to go home to?

and on the streets i ride through, i find people working on the rice fields lining its edges...


where and how do they spend their weekends?


what do they drink in the morning?



can they have seconds?




what's their retirement plan?




ever since all these self-help books found their niche in the market, we've started asking ourselves "what is the meaning of life?" "where do we fit in?" "how do we fit in?" "do we have to fit in?" "am i doing it right?"

when some people just push their wares, use their hands, bend their backs and do what must be done.

little nudges in the right direction

on the night i made this self portrait of me, the katips cafe i was having dinner in was almost empty. two tables inside and one table outside out of maybe 15 tables all in all had guests having dinner. the rest was empty. so my friends and i took this opportunity to play studio! i mean, what else do you do when you are having dinner with three very gay friends, right? you primp and you pose and you take photos of each other doing crazy stuff. well, you do that even with non-gay friends, too, right? (98)








so i take a photo of one of my friends. set him all up with ciggie in hand looking like some hot piece of testosterone.
ha! testosterone indeed. he likes that you know... i mean in other people. so i think it's a good one but very raw and needed some post prod work to get it going. did a little microsoft work on it to make it black and white. results were ok but not as dramatic as i wanted it to be. so i leave it alone and think... one day i'll learn how to photoshop and then i'll create wonders with this one. (106)







and so one day i learned how to use photoshop. used desaturate (real basic, i know. =P) which i stumbled on when i was looking for another tutorial. cropped it and then ortonized it. i was quite happy with the result. a bit of drama, i thought. much better than a straight out black and white. so i posted it on my Flickr and sent it out to a group i really like for them to admire. haha! admire, right. turns out this wasn't as good as the pic could get. received suggestions and tried to follow them. (98)












so i went back to original and started to play. transformed into black and white, tried to use creative focus. hmmm. wasn't really what i wanted to do with it. saved that and played again.

change depth of field... looking good as the pitcher and glass weren't so much of a distraction. cropped it again... looks good. needs something else, though... and then toggled with the light. and viola! i think i finally did the image some justice. so went back to group and reposted the pic.

sent some mail to the people who initially commented on it, and got good feedback on repost. (94)





now i have to go and get ready for this interview for a teaching post in east timor. and i still have to read the website. sigh. (27)

waiting for the mail to come

That's the thing about pictures: they seduce you.
David Byrne

I have succumbed to its enticements. Went in serious search for accessories like some explorer on a quest for pearls. Found them lying beneath some rock in the next island. Now waiting for the winds to turn so they can fly my way.

Also delving into some serious Photoshop magic. Learned to ortonize and to place watermarks. (All props of hidden boxes and secret rolls of cloth stashed inside the sleeve.)

And wondering at what all the ruckus over Explore is about.

Then again I'm on 3000mg of antibiotics. So I guess I'm safe from any risk this new attraction has for me. Or maybe not.

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