Soup Kitchen and the Kids

Yesterday, I went to our parish church because SFO (Secular Franciscan Order), from which my parents are part of, had its monthly soup kitchen for the street children here in Sta. Maria, Bulacan. We've been doing this every month but yesterday was the first time I brought my camera. I realized that this would be great to shoot since last time, when I was in the medical mission, I was not able to bring my camera, and I can tell you that there were some amazing shots that could've been taken.

Anyway, when I arrived there to assist, there were no children. Then it dawned on us, they might not be able to go to the soup kitchen because most of them lived in Tabing Ilog, which was submerged when the floods came.

Fortunately, there were at least 20 children who came. It was really a blast and it was worth it to see the faces of the children. I shall post photos once I get them developed.

The Solid Gold 200 Film

Since it would take a long time before I go back to Hidalgo, to buy Lucky 200s in bulk, I decided to settle for the Solid Gold 200 Asa, which I got in the Mitsubishi photo store in Ali Mall for 60php/24exp. This was the film that I used when I went Batangas, with my girlfriend's family. It produced really good results in daylight and fairly well results indoors.

I'm very pleased with my tripod as it let me take a photo at 1sec. lol.

Anyway here are samples of photos taken using this film.

This one's a bit grainy, but then again, who does not like grain? (Ok, I know I know. There are people who do not like grain. As for me, I love it, just as long as it does not cover the whole photo and takes away the focus from the subject.)

This would've been better, in my opinion, if the shadow in front was not there. Oh well.

But as you can see, the colors look pretty good in daylight, outdoors, compared to the paler ones in the indoor shot.

Wanted: Creative Output

This weekend was a kind of a torture for my creative side. What I mean is that I've been restless the whole weekend because there's all this creativity, that I know I can channel into photography or skating, that's locked up and I don't have the means to release it. I've been on the psp/laptop, even the snoozetube (my snazzywayofsaying sleeping), the whole weekend - well, whenever I'm at home.

Sucked 'cause I forgot to buy film today and my tripod stayed in my room, contracted, and looking at me. I could almost hear it asking me where my laptop is.

Well, during my "uncreative" period, I managed to think of a 'cool' shot that I wanted to try. Since I have a tripod now, I thought, "it might turn out great if I took a picture of swaying trees in extremely slow shutter speeds. I kinda got that effect in this photo to the right. I shot this with my very first roll of film. If you take a look at the farthest arc of leaves, you will notice that they look like they are blending, like they were painted or something.

Well, that was when I knew how to mix aperture and shutter speed. Now, I wanna try to capture the 'blending' of the leaves in a closer range.

Anyway, I'll stop with this first. This is the only creative thing that I did this week, lol.

Lucky Color 200 135 film and a Medical Mission

Today, I came from a medical mission, that consisted of various doctors here in Sta. Maria Bulacan, nurses, newly graduated and old, and a group of doctors from UST, that aimed to help those who were hit by the flood caused by Ondoy.

It was about 2pm when I decided to go there to assist in guiding and keeping the order in the tents. The first thing I noticed was that thre were so many people who needed our help. They needed medical, and I think, psychological, help. Everywhere, you could hear people coughing, children crying, because of the hot weather and/or any sicknesses or injuries that they had.

I saw this small kid who had a large gash on his foot. It already had puss coming out and it really alarmed me. How many people must have experienced the same thing?

This was a very touching experience because by merely guiding the people to the vital sign stations, I was able to help them go closer to much needed help.

One thing that I also noticed that amidst all that was happening, I realized how great the photo opps can be. I regretted leaving my camera, and my last film, the delta 3200, in manila. Oh well.

Anyway, I've been scouring the net for a nice film to use. I needed something that as cheap but which produced good results. I did not want to get expired films anymore. Anyway, I came across this cheap film named Lucky Color 200. I'm currently for the lookout for this type of film. I've heard they can go for as low as Php65 (1.sumthing dollars)

Here are a few examples of photos from this film. From merelyok, jamaican_jazzer, and bnoman in flickr.

Photography, I'll be there in a bit!

It's been too long since I have touched my camera. It's been too long since I've fiddled with the settings, since I've loaded up a fresh roll of film. I've been really busy with school and I really needed to catch up on some things before resuming my hobbies. It sucks but it's how things are. Hopefully, in a few days, or in a week, I'll be up and running again.

In the meanwhile, here are pictures from the most recent roll of films. I haven't updated my flickr yet so these are the only photos that you guys can check out. I'll upload everything soon, so just sit tight.

Oh yeah, If you have any thoughts about my photos, drop me a comment! :)

** Lastly, I'm happy to say that I now have a tripod. My mom found her old tripod when we were cleaning the house, from the flood that occupied our house for a day. It was the Ondoy storm that sent the flood water rushing into our home.

Before I post the pics. I'd like to give a short intro. Basically, the photos came from rolls that I shot during the Makati Photo Trip, The UP Diliman trip where I used the Kodak Bw400cn. The rest are random pictures, with me taking a shot at portraiture. I used some pics of my niece for here birthday gift. The fujicolor 400 ASA films, which I thought were not expired, turned out to be expired so yeah. All the colored photos were shot with the fujicolor film. I was also able to borrow a 50mm 1.8 prime lens for some shots. Anyway here it goes.