I’m alive!

Personal

Oh boy, am I so glad to be back blogging again! So sorry as I got caught up with some demanding issues lately at work and had an unfortunate and unforgettable experience with the authorities recently where me and another friend of mine (name withheld) were seized by civilian clothed police authorities while we were out taking some photos in the street and by the shore.

It sure was a scary experience for the reason that I can barely understand what they were trying to say about us. We were still lucky though as one of the officer on duty was fluent enough to translate to us and to his co-officers our answers to their queries. He also said that he was once a photography enthusiast when he was about our age which is really good and just in time as his co-officers had doubts already as to why I had to go down to the pile of rocks near the shore and shoot from there. They probably had it known the way I was shooting as we saw a coastguard interceptor boat and a helicopter hovering above to the scene where we were shooting from.

As I was trying to explain to them that I needed to have a nice reflection of the water and those rocks on the sea-shore are distracting my frame, I could see their faces cringed as they were trying to picture what I was saying then this officer from another room heard us and gladly came and helped us translate everything on why we are in such a place that is currently restricted which by the way we were totally unaware of.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to get the name of the officer who have helped us but I was able to say how grateful we were having him there and helping us with the translation. I could still even remember him saying in between the interrogation proceedings that his SLR camera was placed into an auction by his son somewhere on the internet for a couple of hundred dollars. He shoots film and does this while he travels which he does a lot on cruises back in the day. He was even proud to say how he enjoyed and loved seeing our country the Philippines about 20 years ago and as he fondly recalls some historic places and hotels where he stayed, I just couldn’t help but only wonder on how these places looked like as I’m not familiar with them but my friend does and lives close by to these places…

Now, the question is, what was I really doing in a place that most photographers even seasoned one’s wouldn’t even dare going to? Here it is, the main reason why we got into this trouble in the first place…

Weeks before we were held in custody, my dear wife saw some ads on Facebook about a photography contest. Little did I know she had the whole website printed already in an A4 size paper and carefully placed them on my desk where I saw them the next morning while I was having my coffee.

I just smiled… but it wasn’t about the contest but more of the sweet sticky note that came with it that my wife wrote 😉

While I was reading the details of the contest I already knew that it was going to be a landscape kind of work which I have not been doing for quite some time now, as I’m more into portraiture these days. And besides, I already had my share of bad experiences in the past doing landscape work and so it kind of didn’t appeal to me much in joining 😦

If it weren’t for that sticky note that my wife made I wouldn’t have given this a second thought. And so I came up with a mindset that if I were going to do this, then I might as well do this in an approach that would be more appealing to me. Since I’m into portraiture, I need to have some actual people in my frame and probably shoot in a way what a photojournalist would do. To me, this sounds like fun and it sure did boosted my willingness to join!

However, given with the situation this country is currently been facing and the heightened security imposed on almost everywhere. I realized that it would be an impossible thing to do and since I can’t do the kind of vision I had in mind, I again lost interest in joining.

And so, that’s what I thought…

With just a week left before the submission of the contest entry ends, I personally saw the ads on Facebook and followed their Facebook page. I even read some streams on their Twitter too but even if I kept reading their posts and streams I just couldn’t find an inspiration to do it anymore… Then it finally came to me that my wife’s birthday is coming soon and so I thought that the 1st prize which is a BD500 (US$1,300) shopping voucher is more than enough to buy her the iPhone which she really liked 🙂 That’s if, if I do win of course.

As the end date of submission drew closer each day, I’ve learned that some of the country’s top and well-known photographers locally and internationally was selected to judge the contest entries. I personally like Mr. Ali Rifai’s work in some of the billboards that I saw scattered all over this country. And when I saw the Twitter feed of the contest that Mr. Ali Rifai is indeed one of the chosen judges and another well-known Italian photographer Loredana Montello. I got into this thinking that this would be a great tool in my opinion of having my photo/s get to be critique by these well-known panel of judges, that even being included in the shortlisted category should be an honor already.

On that same day and after a day’s work, me and my friend went off to find the perfect spot to shoot for the contest. We basically have no idea where to go as most of the places we found are heavily secured by security personnel. Simply put, we just couldn’t find a place where there isn’t any security forces around. Be it on sea, land and air. That’s how the current situation here looks like.

After much persistence, we eventually found a place to shoot but unfortunately we were caught when we were about to leave the scene. Next thing we knew we are already being escorted on our way to a nearby precinct.

I remember praying so hard that night while we were heading over to the precinct they are bringing us. I remember to have been praying and praying every time I couldn’t understand anymore what they were saying about us. I didn’t know what else should I do as I can hardly speak their language and so I just kept praying. Soon enough, my prayers were answered! There’s the officer who came and have helped us with the translation, my boss and my friend’s boss too came later on. With our bosses arriving to the scene, we were temporary released after signing some release forms. It’s just that our camera gears and our car stays until the investigation is over. Technically, we could be in jail for the next 10 days until our case gets it verdict and if we were found guilty of a crime then we could be there for a much longer time…

Days passed and another officer from the precinct handling our case called me and informing me that we can already pick up our cameras as our case was dropped! I won’t get into further details anymore of how we were able to resolve our “case” but a LOT of people (and literally they were a LOT!) whom I have never met before have helped us get through with it. Through our families and friends, we were able to approach these people and they gladly lend their help to us strangers.

I’m just so grateful to our dear Lord that it is over by now and I thank Him more that He never ceases to listen to our prayers and kept us far from harm while we were in this ordeal. To all of my families, friends and the people whom we have sought help, thank you so much for all the help you have extended and the prayers you have given to us.

That basically ends the agony that I’ve been through recently and the main reason why I was in the loop for a while without shooting.

Up to this moment, I still couldn’t help but just wonder God’s work bringing all of these people to us together that even with our differences in religion, culture and beliefs and aside from the fact they were perfect strangers they still did everything they can in helping us. Whilst, most of them I haven’t even met personally and yet they were all doing these great things for us without asking anything in return. I don’t know how am I supposed to pay these guys back for what they did for us and I truly am grateful for all the acts of kindness and the experiences that these guys showed us, it truly changed the person I am today…

In summary, I won the contest although I didn’t get the 1st prize, I was able to take home the 2nd prize which is an Ipad 2! Yipee! 🙂

I didn’t get to shoot again after the incident… I didn’t even bother sending that photo I made that night that got me into this trouble. And so, how was I able to win then?

A day before the submission ends I was frantically thinking on how should I get the chance of joining still as I was on home arrest 😦

Then I remember in one of the guidelines. It says, images of entries can be from the year dates of 2010 up to the present. hmm… 🙂

I then kept thinking of any images that I have probably made in the past which I think qualifies. I smiled like having a day-dream as I recalled having a handful of images that I have made in the past which I think would fit the contest theme. Now, all I need to do is to run them down into just 3 which I know reflects my style. Unfortunately, I was able to find only one. Although we were allowed to send 3 entries, I went to the less traveled road that most contestants wouldn’t go and just gladly submitted a single photo entry.

Here’s my winning PHOTO:

Most of you might have seen this already but this is actually not the same as the one you’ve seen before (technically) as the one you saw before have a bit of post-processing work done into it. But this one doesn’t have any edits and it’s one of the shooting style that I mostly do and which I really love doing. This photo came straight out of my camera. Although post-processing was allowed in the contest to some extent. I didn’t go with that one since it just doesn’t reflect much of my style. Just to add, I saw this view while I’m on my way home from work. It was just before the bridge coming from Hidd. I came back to this place and brought along 2 of my fellows from GPN (Gulf Photographers Network) Kim and Red to shoot the view that I saw.

Here’s some of the images I took from the exhibit wherein our works were showcased in Seef Mall along with the other winning entries. Boy, I was so glad seeing that one of my co-fellow from GPN to have bagged the first prize! Congrats Ferdi 🙂

– My surname was erroneously replaced by my middle name. LOL. It’s ok, my mom would surely be so proud! 😉

– nice ceiling ornaments! 🙂

my wife thinks that this shot looks like a prenup photo 🙂

My wife was more than happy to have the Ipad 3G that I’ve won as her birthday present instead of the iPhone which she originally liked 🙂 So I gladly gave it to her the very same day it was awarded to us. As she’s mostly into novels and after finding out that reading eBooks on the iPad is more convenient because of it’s larger screen size compared to an iPhone, she fell in-love with it at first sight! She loves it more these days after I installed the apps she mostly use on the PC and now all of them can be found and be accessed with just a simple touch of her fingers while she’s crumpled on a couch or in the bed.

1 lucky winner, 1 happy birthday celebrant and most importantly, case closed!

and our little bonus from our prize:

Izzie loves it too! 🙂

To my surprise, I just found out that our winning entries was published in yesterday’s newspaper! It’s actually one of my first! *blush

I’ve just known that there are about 500 entries that joined, it was then narrowed down to 100, down to 29 and finally, only nine of us was left as Gulf Weekly said.

Here’s some photos from my phone that I took while reading yesterday’s publication of Gulf Weekly 🙂

—chriscarinophotography.wordpress.com—

Muriel ♥ Morena

Pre-Wedding / Engagement

Muriel & Morena are both active members of Singles for Christ (SFC)-Bahrain, it is also the place where they initially met way back in 2008.

Muriel & Morena do share many things in common and aside from the fact that their names starts with the letter “M”, their nickname almost rhymed well together too 🙂

Their prenup shoot is I think one of the most challenging to date I’ve done so far (for them too! xD), as I work full time with another type of job. I do photography with what’s left after that but since it’s Ramadan season currently over here, I mostly reached home at around 12am everyday… with the “time” factor already in question, I could have just said no easily in an instant right after reading their email about their interest in having me as their photographer for their prenup…but my answer instead was a yes with a big smile on my face 🙂

Aside from that, I was informed too that Muriel will soon leave the country in the next 4 days. So, that gives me only 3 days to make this shoot happen! without a theme in mind when I called them, I remember him telling me not long ago that their shoot should include some scenery of this country. That would be easy as I’ve thought, however, how would you find a location or a spot to shoot if most of the places I can think of are already taken by their previous photographers?!? Yep, you heard me right! Why is that so? It’s because Muriel & Morena, have been making a series of prenup shoot already from different photographers each month for a 12 month period until the time of their wedding! Sweet!:) and I believe I’m the 8th photographer already. Pressure much?!? Aye! 🙂

I believe, I’m the only photographer currently among their previous prenup shoot given with these lovely blessings of impossibilities 🙂 and even though I was given these circumstances, I’m still in no way backing down on this one! 😀

And so, off we went the very next day to a quite popular but a hard to find heritage site in this country— “The Tree of Life.” I’ve heard so many stories about this tree and up to this date no one can really explain how this lone tree in the middle of a desert grew and survived in a country that experiences just a handful amount of rain in a year? It is believed to be a hundred years old. Problem is, no one from among us really knew how to get there! And so, from the time I came home from work which is already midnight by then, I’m still up searching and analyzing photos from Google map on how to get to this place. It’s really hard as the Google map doesn’t show roads leading to it which in fact in reality none really exist! xD

Even without a clear direction and just a few knowledge we gained from internet forums on how to get there, we are still set to meet at 4am and do a sunrise shoot with this mysterious Tree of Life 🙂

Guess what? We got lost! xD and the sun rose so early like 4:30ish! 😦 We gave up looking for it around 6am since we all need to report for work that day, so we headed back north to our respective places… I promised to them not to give up and we will try to look for someone who knew or have been there already and who is willing to come with us too. This is where a good friend of mine joined in for this shoot- Thank you Mr. Dexter Garcia! 🙂

Without much sleep since yesterday, and the fact that the sun rises early during summer in this country and all of us still got work to go to, we are left with no choice but do what was originally planned instantly the following day 🙂 and by this time we should meet earlier than before! I think most of us would agree that it is really hard to wake up early if you come home at midnight and expect to see the sun earlier than usual and do a sunrise shoot…

But I do strongly believe that any circumstances that imprison us cannot limit God’s work through us.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness”. – 2 Corinthians 12:9

I once heard a story of a boy that was stricken by a polio, making him unable to use his legs. But he compensated for that loss by devoting himself to his violin. In the years that followed, he delighted multitudes of people with his music. He lost the use of his legs but his music gave him wings…

– chriscarinophotography.wordpress.com –

S H O O T O U T

Personal

I won—again, yey! the photo posted above is a portrait of Rodz that I took and my winning entry for bagging the 1st place in our shoot out 🙂

note: sorry for posting this late, my pc crashed when I was about to post this…

Last Saturday – July 16,2011, is the day of our shootout! It was a day of reckoning for us students as we get to apply all the theories we’ve learned hands-on for the past 6 weeks and choose one photo unedited or non-photoshopped that is to be printed and submitted on our graduation day which is to be held on July 23.

We all first met at Imagine Nation Studios to discuss the things we need to do and divided ourselves into groups then off we go to have our lunch 1st at the nearby and ever famous Alob-Alob restaurant! xD

I personally find the six (6) themes that was given to us to be challenging as I don’t or haven’t tried doing those kind of shoot yet but I liked them anyway 🙂

One more thing, we were all shooting in manual mode… it’s daunting at first but we soon got the heck of it. Being in a team does help a lot in setting our exposure right as we share and discuss to have the right exposure tailored for our theme. We were given 15 mins for each model. And 15 mins is just too short so we need to work fast, really fast! There were 4 models that will pose for us during this event
and I should really say this, that they were all really patient and cooperative, thanks to all of u guys! 🙂

The place:
– Wildlife Center in Quezon City

Time:
– We started shooting around 2:30pm I think and the sun was really overpowering that time. What makes it more difficult is the passing of some thick, dark clouds every now & then. And because of that, light values was very unpredictable. One minute its too harsh and by the time you got your exposure right then here
comes the cloud/s and now, you are just left with a itsy-bitsy quality of light 😦 but it eventually turned great as the time starts hitting almost 4pm 🙂

Whew! I think we were all physically drained as we finished the shootout. I personally would like to thank my classmates for being such good samaritans in having us in their cars 🙂 Thanks Steve, Joedel and Doc Nenel! 🙂
and of course the rest of the PDP Batch 10! I hope we still get to meet, shoot and pass on the word of God even though we are almost at the end of our class.

Lastly, to the rest of the staff of Imagine Nation Photography most specially to Mr. Derrick Lim, Mr. John Mateos Ong, Ms. Shayla Sanchez-Hembrador, Ms. Arlene Briones and Mr. Toto Villaruel. In behalf of PDP Batch 10, I personally would like to thank all of you for having us in your class and sharing your God given talent to us be it photography or not. You guys are just awesome! Wishing you a thousand if not millions of batches este weddings and shoots to come! ^.^

Update: July 29, 2011

I honestly didn’t know that the photo we would submit would be an entry for another contest! and my photo of Rodz’s won 1st place! yey!:) thanks a bunch PDP and Imagine Nation Photography for the prize you gave me! 🙂

below are some additional photos I took from our shoot out:

besides working full time in an office. Rodz does part time work as an image model. if u guys are interested in working with her let me know so I could hook you up.

this last photo is a portrait of Ina from which I almost ended up submitting. but after knowing that no-photo editing/enhancement software’s should be used it ended up sitting on my desktop 😦 and so I’d thought I’d share it here so you guys could see it 🙂

Joel ♥ Olive

Pre-Wedding / Engagement

It’s been almost like a year since I was planning to work with Ms. Ian Lipa as my make-up artist for a shoot. Through God’s grace we finally got the chance to work together! I was personally worried as she just came back from London just 2 days before our prenup shoot with Joel and Olive. Ian is a very down to earth person and very professional to work with and I should say she’s really an amazing person inside and out 🙂 Working with her was just like a breeze. She really knows what to do and what I have in mind. She really cares about her clients on how they’ll look like and for this she keeps an eye for every detail even during the shoot. She’ll excuse herself even before when I was about to call her for a re-touch! WoW! I rarely see a person who is so passionate of the kind of work they do, and Ian just blew me away. Thanks Ian!

Here is my latest couple who are soon to tie the knot on September this year in Boracay! WoW, beach wedding!:) Too bad again, I won’t be able to cover their wedding as I’m 4,588 miles away from them 😥

– o0o –

Joel and Olive are both lawyers. They were together for like 11 years already. They’ve met in their pre-law years in University of the Philippines while taking up B.A. Political Science and were inseparable ever since up until their Law years with the same university. Sweet! 🙂

Aside from being lawyers, they did some modelling for a print ad. Joel, did model for Shell V-Power and Olive for Rogin E. If I’ve only known this earlier I swear I would have let them do the poses for me 🙂 haha! xD

Joel and Olive were such a lovebird, they keep laughing and joking around before, during and after our shoot! 🙂 Few of their friends came over to witness their shoot and I’m so glad to have met them! With the whole gang around, it made the day–a day of laughter and joy even with the hot and humid weather we had that day 🙂

The day ended soon enough but everyone is still bursting with adrenaline and as I was packing my things already, I was informed that I should join them for dinner. Good thing, my class was moved from morning to evening! without thinking twice I gladly said yes with a smile 🙂

Joel and Olive brought us to Uncle Cheefy in Global city and oh boy the food was superb! from the steak, to pasta, pizza’s and even the wine was genuinely awesome! I couldn’t even lift a finger as I was so full already and all I thought we are done with the dinner, Olive quickly invited us for a coffee! haha! I didn’t know that Starbucks serves one of the best Red Velvet Cake ever as Joel puts it. He said, he had 7 servings of this when he first tried it. I would really love to have tried it but I really am full already and I can’t even finish off properly my coffee, hehe. Now, I have a new reason besides coffee to visit Starbucks soon
enough to try them! 🙂

make up by Ian Lipa

shot together with Alfie Lipa

– http://www.chriscarinophotography.com –

and it all ends with a blue hour 🙂

some behind the scenes shots of Ms. Ian and their F.R.I.E.N.D.S. 😀

the make-up artist! i really love that spray 🙂

they

I won! Yey! :)

Events

my winning entry!

Last Sunday (July 10, 2011), me and my classmates went to Mercato Central in Bonifacio, Global city to have our outdoor photography class there while we cover the event being held. It so happened that there is also an on the spot photography contest that was themed as “The Joy of Eating” all of these are exclusively sponsored by Clara Ole’.

We the class of Purpose Driven Photographer (PDP) were lead by one of the most promising photographer of Imagine Nation Photography and Boudoir Dolls — Ms. Shayla Sanchez. She also happens to be a disc jockey for FM 94.7, cool! 🙂

We were told that we do manual photography while we shoot! It’s kinda hard because we were used to the semi-automatic modes…hahaha! I complied and oh boy it was hard! I’ve experienced a lot of problems like a downcast sky on a outdoor event, a LOT of people and photographers alike… and not to mention that I came very late and I’ve got only about less than an hour to submit a photo.

I actually find photographing food very hard because seeing the food makes me water! and makes you water more while you see people actually eating it! LOL but good thing I was full even before I came to this event. hehehe…

To be honest with you guys, the food showcased by Chef Eugene was really superb! I personally love how the salad was presented and how it tasted! There’s nothing really special about the ingredients used but after tasting it for myself I could really taste the difference of how premium products and ingredients that were used plays a big role. For this, my hat goes down to you Clara Ole’ 🙂

It was indeed a day fun at Mercato Centrale amidst the gloomy weather and non-stop rain! I personally would like to thank the two lovebirds that I took photo of. I really owe you big time guys! 😀

Up to this moment, I’m still ecstatic of winning the 2nd place of the on the spot photo contest, I really can’t believe it! For all I know, I was struggling in doing the manual settings instructed to us :D. For the prize, I took home Php 5,000 and a bag containing P2k worth of Clara Ole’ products! 🙂

While on my way home, I bought the largest pizza I could find and gladly brought it home and celebrated my winning prize with my wife’s family! As if we weren’t bloated yet, I voluntarily cooked for them a penne pasta the very next day, by using only the ingredients from the bag of Clara Ole’ products and applying what I saw during the event 🙂 Luckily enough, all of them said that the food I cooked really taste so good! haha! Thank you Clara Ole’ !!! 🙂

great food + great music 🙂 what could you ask for more?

Ms. Shayla winning the 1st prize! 🙂

Ms. Shayla Sanchez and Chef Eugene

some participants and guests of the event

if the theme of the contest was "the joy of shooting", I would have entered this as my entry 🙂

Pyth ♥ Kaye

Pre-Wedding / Engagement

Pyth is a college buddy of mine, dorm-mate and a band-mate way back then… He’s very good friend to all as he is often called “friend ng bayan” 🙂

Since he is going to be wed soon and unfortunately for me I won’t be able to attend and cover their wedding 😦 but I get to make his pre-wedding photos 🙂

I was so afraid that it would rain on the day of their prenup shoot since it has been really raining for almost a week now but amazingly enough through God’s grace, the sun stood still and shine bright as ever 🙂

It was a day of laughter, fun and eating! yes, eating?! We kept eating in between shoots and in the actual shoot! haha! from fishballs and squidballs to “sorbetes ni manong” and to some very rare and authentic Filipino recipes of Adarna Food and Culture restaurant along Kalayaan Avenue, Q.C. We gorge upon the spicy “Gising-gising”, the Batanes yellow rice which I think is a Filipino version of the Yangchow rice and the ever famous Adobong Batangas ala Adarna 🙂 wohoo! the perks of being a photographer indeed 🙂

Pyth ♥ Kaye – July 3, 2011