Nope. I didn't loose it to thieves. For a split second, I questioned Murphy's Law and paid the ultimate price. I dropped my 16-35mm ultra wide 2.8L lens while shooting a bride clutching her father entering the church. I was using my 70-200mm lens doing a detailed shot of them just before they entered the room because the father of the bride was so filled with emotion he was trying hard not to reveal. I knew I would be in trouble working with just one camera body for this shoot, but I had no choice. I had to sell my other body back in the Philippines so I could have additional pocket money coming here.
I was in the process of changing lens so I could take a wider shot as they came nearer so I could capture the crowd as well. I didn't see it coming. I mean, who does? For a moment, as I dismounted my telephoto lens, laid it on the floor on a kneeling position (there was no time to place it in my Tamrac waist case hanging on my waist) and went for my wide lens in my left blazer pocket while getting back up, my wide lens, filled with beautiful memories together, suddenly fell off the damn pocket! All 600 grams of delicate light refracting equipment went free fall at the rate of 9.8 meters per second squared from that short distance of my pocket to the floor!
Relax, I assured myself. I dropped this lens before. Not really that high from above my waist, but I dropped it before. Had a slight dent on the dust filter because of that, but no harm done. No big deal, Ed. Besides, the floor was made of wood. Yes Ed, it was wood with some shock absorbing characteristics with probably just a 2.0 on Moh's scale of hardness. (Talc is 1.0, window glass is 5.5 and diamond is the highest at 10). Past impacts were on solid concrete, tiles or polished hard and cold marble flooring.
Who was I fooling? Aside from the imagined reaction of the Iglesia congregation behind my back who emphasized on solemnity of the occasion with an earlier lecture of unobtrusive photography by the officiating head, I knew something was wrong. It's this flashback feeling, the thing you see in movies when you have a car accident and everything flashes right by the victim's eyes. After about two years of shooting with this lens, I actually felt for this lens. Find me over reacting, but its funny how time can also freeze for inanimate objects close to your heart in near death experiences.
My lens didn't exactly die that day. It was more like it was in a state comatose. There was still some life left in it as far as I knew. I peered into it from both ends and knew, there was still life in it. While I couldn't find any data on how much Gs (shock) my lens could actually withstand, it was enough to give my camera body a flatline reading.
Err 01. Communication lens error. Please clean the contacts of your lens.
I did try cleaning my injured lens during the rest of the shoot. Nothing. Took off both batteries from the battery pack to give it a cold reset. Nothing. Let it rest for an hour and hope it heals back itself before the entire wedding ends so I can get a few more important shots. Nothing. It was there, but then again I wasn't sure. I was in a survival mode myself during the past few months and was hoping me, my camera and my lenses would pull it through. One day at a time.
My heart sank that day. My lens let me down. Or was it me letting my lens down? I knew one of these days I needed to be extra careful with my equipment because they were all I got left. With more shooting commitments up in the next couple of days, I went blank myself like my lens.
I shut down. With still a few more hours left in the wedding, I couldn't shoot. My new friend Clark who was also covering the wedding tried to console me and told me to shoot with my other telephoto lens. Nope. It didn't work. Yes, the 70-200mm is my favorite lens and was at least working. But it didn't make any sense. I usually thought of myself as a highly rationalizing being. I work with logic and valid reasoning. The most logical thing to do now was to work with what I have, just like what Clark said. Aside from my favorite lens, I still had with me my fish eye lens.
But no, I couldn't shoot. It felt like a part of me just died.
I did manage to finish shooting the wedding that day. Improvised. Made use of my two other lenses. My heart wasn't in it. But, I had to. It used to be, I loved to. Clark had to leave prematurely and I was the only choice left for the bride and groom who were expecting me to take a post wedding reception shoot for them. Made several shoots later at the reception's garden. Later, I found out it was a damn pretty good garden. Beautiful. Almost heaven like.
It was a long night.
(A few days later, after trying my best to forget my wide lens and get on with it, I checked my shots. In particular, I checked my shots after my 16-35mm was gone. Not bad. Some pretty good shots, actually. And then suddenly I realized the beauty of it all. My wide lens never left me. It helped me see things with a different perspective. It helped me see things from a far perspective.)
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Reunion
Francis Santiago. Finally, after almost a year, I got to meet the subject of my winning shot during the 2008 Bangus Festival photo contest. (Don't get me wrong but exotic is not a sexual preference of this photographer.)
His group was supposed to be the guest performer at the street dancing competitions of the Hundred Islands Festival in Alaminos City this year. Even before any group could perform, however, word spread out that this group, Tribu Pandan, the winners of the recently concluded street dancing competition (open category) of the 14th Panagbenga Festival in Baguio City last month would join as an entry. Not another competing entry dared show up. Not even the juicy first prize of P75,000 could make them change their mind.
Me and my mentor good friend Raymund Sto. Domingo were so disappointed since we had to rush all the way from Dagupan in my rusty (yup, not a typo) pickup at six in the morning after a hasty breakfast of our official pink salmon sandwich and coffee, only to discover we had to contend ourselves with one streetdancing group. Not exactly our idea of fun.
Anyway, since there was not much we could do about the whole thing, I decided to make the most of whatever was left of the morning and engage the handlers of the guest performers in a small talk and hope I dig up some interesting facts I could use for this blog.
I first met the group earlier last year during their local Mapandan Festival of which they were champions. A few weeks later, the same group won again during the Festivals of the North street dancing competition of the 2008 Bangus Festival.
Choreographed by Jonas Dizon and handled by Josefina Landingin Soriano both of Mapandan in Pangasinan, the group shows a lot of promise because of the details of their distinct costumes, a variety of new and original props, their dance routine and above all their catchy original music. I learned the music was produced by the town's mayor, Jose Ferdinand Calimlim, written by Vincent de Jesus who composed the soundtracks for Baler, Pisay and Crying Ladies among others and peformed by May Bayot, Lani Misalucha's older sister. The music has been used by their own Mapandan Festival as its official dance score since their local festival started five years ago.
According the Jo Soriano, they already have their eyes set on the Pattaraday Festival in the province Isabela which they have been invited to compete in May this year. The festival has traditionally invited winning entries of big names in the national scene of street dancing like the Dinagyang Festival and the Sinulog Festival. Here's to hoping this kabaleyan group continue to inspire other local groups to improve on their otherwise ecological friendly costumes and historical performances by winning once more. (Ecological and historical since local streetdancers tend to recycle and repeat last year's grand idea.)
And Francis? He tells me his photo has already graced a calendar of a prominent mall in Dagupan City.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
So Far Away: My close encounters with the Taong Grasa of Dagupan
A Photo Exhibit by Ed Sevilleja
Exhibit Notes by: Kaye O'yek, Manila
Ed Sevilleja’s collection of photographic images in SO FAR AWAY portrays different images of the street vagrants of his hometown, Dagupan City. This assortment of candid portraits, called Mga Taong Grasa ng Dagupan by the multi-awarded photographer, started in 2006 as a side project that centered on these oft-neglected personalities mocked or ignored in the peripheries of functioning society, providing close encounters that common passersby rarely ponder on. They are there, and they are smelly, filthy, and out of it, and so what? We see them and we continue on our way through the humdrum rhythms of our daily lives.
Finally presenting his Mga Taong Grasa ng Dagupan to the public in SO FAR AWAY, Sevilleja exhibits the personalities he encountered roaming the town streets with his favorite lens. In doing so, and choosing the most striking pictures that create a visual narration of poverty, hunger, detachment and deprivation, he forces us to take a second look, evoking not pity but empathy, grabbing a few minutes of our attention and letting these images burn indelible imprints on our consciousness before we go back to our collective apathy.
By focusing his viewfinder on these individuals, the photographer captures various characters in their natural state, freezing un-posed instances with his camera. In Takeout, the taong grasa seems to be beckoning, offering scavenged food from a popular fast food chain. Kama depicts a grease man lying on bare cement, apparently resting from exhaustion or as an escape from reality. Kodak is a picture of a playful mirroring of the photographer in action. Istrol shows us a woman walking the streets in broken rubber sandals and utter nonchalance, comforted by a cigarette in her hand. In Buyangyang, easily the most revealing portrait of the lot, Sevilleja chooses to print his image in wallet size and let the audience peer through it a few meters away within the exhibition space and see the details of the picture through a telescope, defining the concepts of distance and intimacy.
Using a telescopic lens to capture most of the images, Ed Sevilleja keeps his distance from these seemingly unstable subjects because of the risk of physical harm, but his interest for his Mga Taong Grasa ng Dagupan nevertheless fuels his passion for pursuing the project and being on alert each time for that click-worthy moment only determined by a sharp eye for irony and aesthetics. With these portraits on photographic paper, Sevilleja affords us a way of seeing things from different perspectives, from realities close but still so far away from our own. In introducing these characters, he lets us dip our toes into their proverbial vessel of consciousness without total bodily immersion, creating visual confrontation against our own sensibilities without going into hyperbolic dramatization or psychology. The lines in the faces are enough, the images speak for themselves, and we are mere witnesses.
Exhibit Notes by: Kaye O'yek, Manila
Ed Sevilleja’s collection of photographic images in SO FAR AWAY portrays different images of the street vagrants of his hometown, Dagupan City. This assortment of candid portraits, called Mga Taong Grasa ng Dagupan by the multi-awarded photographer, started in 2006 as a side project that centered on these oft-neglected personalities mocked or ignored in the peripheries of functioning society, providing close encounters that common passersby rarely ponder on. They are there, and they are smelly, filthy, and out of it, and so what? We see them and we continue on our way through the humdrum rhythms of our daily lives.
Finally presenting his Mga Taong Grasa ng Dagupan to the public in SO FAR AWAY, Sevilleja exhibits the personalities he encountered roaming the town streets with his favorite lens. In doing so, and choosing the most striking pictures that create a visual narration of poverty, hunger, detachment and deprivation, he forces us to take a second look, evoking not pity but empathy, grabbing a few minutes of our attention and letting these images burn indelible imprints on our consciousness before we go back to our collective apathy.
By focusing his viewfinder on these individuals, the photographer captures various characters in their natural state, freezing un-posed instances with his camera. In Takeout, the taong grasa seems to be beckoning, offering scavenged food from a popular fast food chain. Kama depicts a grease man lying on bare cement, apparently resting from exhaustion or as an escape from reality. Kodak is a picture of a playful mirroring of the photographer in action. Istrol shows us a woman walking the streets in broken rubber sandals and utter nonchalance, comforted by a cigarette in her hand. In Buyangyang, easily the most revealing portrait of the lot, Sevilleja chooses to print his image in wallet size and let the audience peer through it a few meters away within the exhibition space and see the details of the picture through a telescope, defining the concepts of distance and intimacy.
Using a telescopic lens to capture most of the images, Ed Sevilleja keeps his distance from these seemingly unstable subjects because of the risk of physical harm, but his interest for his Mga Taong Grasa ng Dagupan nevertheless fuels his passion for pursuing the project and being on alert each time for that click-worthy moment only determined by a sharp eye for irony and aesthetics. With these portraits on photographic paper, Sevilleja affords us a way of seeing things from different perspectives, from realities close but still so far away from our own. In introducing these characters, he lets us dip our toes into their proverbial vessel of consciousness without total bodily immersion, creating visual confrontation against our own sensibilities without going into hyperbolic dramatization or psychology. The lines in the faces are enough, the images speak for themselves, and we are mere witnesses.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Painting workshop and trying to achieve an alpha state of consciousness
Ed: Pipol. Cut d crap, cut d niceties! Just get your ass at nepo b4 12:30 2day! If u cant or dont even know y, btr think again if ur in the ryt group! Gudam!
And so there goes my wakeup call to my art buddies via my celfone. A painting workshop is just hours away and I just want to make sure today is November 10 on their calendars as well as mine. As festival director of the 2nd Dagupan Arts Festival, I feel like it has become my obsession to spell T-I-M-E-(space)-M-A-N-A-G-E-M-E-N-T in the conscious part of my art buddies' brains -- c-o-n-s-i-s-t-e-n-t-l-y.
Franz: Uhm, ok. Did u rili send dt msg to evry1. Whoa!
Ed: Yup, hehe. Dats how i show my love n concern 4 dem! Im telling u franz, dis bunch is diffrnt. Dey hav a hard time staying in d conscious part of der brains, hehe.
About 25mins later, my old photography buddy Pipo who lives in Mangaldan (some 20mins away of easy driving) replies in a protesting tone..
Pipo: Pano yan boss, inaspalto nila daan namin.
And so there goes my wakeup call to my art buddies via my celfone. A painting workshop is just hours away and I just want to make sure today is November 10 on their calendars as well as mine. As festival director of the 2nd Dagupan Arts Festival, I feel like it has become my obsession to spell T-I-M-E-(space)-M-A-N-A-G-E-M-E-N-T in the conscious part of my art buddies' brains -- c-o-n-s-i-s-t-e-n-t-l-y.
Franz: Uhm, ok. Did u rili send dt msg to evry1. Whoa!
Ed: Yup, hehe. Dats how i show my love n concern 4 dem! Im telling u franz, dis bunch is diffrnt. Dey hav a hard time staying in d conscious part of der brains, hehe.
About 25mins later, my old photography buddy Pipo who lives in Mangaldan (some 20mins away of easy driving) replies in a protesting tone..
Pipo: Pano yan boss, inaspalto nila daan namin.
Ed: Sy*t, i ddnt know ur ass was connected 2 d seat of ur car..
Aba, humirit pa rin..
Pipo: Sory dats my get up. R u nt readin my profile? http://www.mousehousecafe.com/DAC/Profiles/DomagasPipo/profiles-domagaspipo.htm
Dude, I did your profile. But, ok, ok... lets try to be a bit democratic today...
Ed: Onga naman. However, did u knw asphalt has (practically) no curing time or ur not in your conscious part of ur brain again..
Damn, can't help it buddy...I wanted to be nice today since we need every bit of muscle if not the thinking organ of everyone for today's activity. Kaya lang...
Some 2 hours later, Pipo still didn't reply back. Guess he's googling on his laptop (another part of his so-called get up) on smart bro for the characteristics of asphalt and its effect on his Honda's mags...
Damn, Raymond's not answering...he's facilitator for today's workshop and his line's dead. How good can it possibly get...
To top it all, Boni, our exhibit's curator at the same time who's supposedly in the same workshop venue isn't answering my calls. Wonder if nepo has gas leaks at its basement or something...
(to be continued)
Note: This WAS my first ever blog supposedly posted on November 10, 2007 at 10:05am during one of our better days when our 2nd Dagupan Arts Festival was staged. Haha! My adrenalin was rushing back then and from then on I promised myself never to write again when in deep stress. For some reason, I'm deciding to post this blog after all for all of my art buddies and hope they are all in a better state of consciousness, enough for a good laugh.
For those of you who wonder what ever happend to our painting workshop, we pulled thru. Raymund's phone had his usual perpetual lobat (even to this very day, he uses the same alibi), Boni claimed he never received any text and Pipo claimed he had a 2 hour detour + traffic problems. As a consolation, everyone showed up just in time and we had 11 happy participants in the workshop!
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