imagery of kinit

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

man's place in the universe

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

Stephen Crane, War is Kind

They care not any whit for pain or pleasure,
That seems to us the sum and end of all,
Dumb force and barren number are their measure,
What shall be shall be, tho the great earth fall.
They take no heed of man or man's deserving,
Reck not what happy lives they make or mar,
Work out their fatal will unswerv'd, unswerving,
And know not that they are!

Grant Allen, Magdalen Towers

my faith has been making that slow sorry slide toward doubt for some time now, which is probably why i stumbled on to this concept.

one afternoon, i had positioned myself on the second mactan bridge to shoot exposures of the old bridge, which i was planning to use for HDR, when this supercat fastcraft arrived. passing through the mactan channel on its way to the port of cebu, it created an almost regular pattern of waves on the channel.

then i noticed this man sticking out in the water, with the waves just going by around him as if it didn't really matter if he was there or not. but that didn't really occur to me. i just thought, 'hmmmm, this looks interesting', so i took some shots, not knowing what to make of it.

i downloaded it on my pc, stared at it for a while, and after some tweaking, here it is :)

*****

it would be nice though, to be proven wrong. i mean, for the concept to be proven wrong. for it to be established, once and for all, no ifs or buts, 1 + 1 = 2, that all we are, all we've been doing, it really does matter. for the alternative just seems to terrible to grasp.

come to think of it, maybe it's just our egos finding the fact too terrible to grasp...

*****

photos taken sept 2008. comments highly appreciated :)

better viewed large. click here for more :)

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Northern Exposure: San Agustin Church, Paoay, Ilocos Norte

my first stab at hdr :)

the san agustin church in paoay, ilocos norte, is one of the four baroque churches of the philippines that have been inscribed to the unesco world heritage list. the location of the philippines along the pacific ring of fire called for their unique architectural style to put an emphasis on the buttresses and foundations of these churches, with some being seriously damaged, but eventually rebuilt after an earthquake, thus called earthquake baroque. the most imposing of these buttresses could be found in paoay church.

construction of the church started in 1704 and was completed in 1894 by the augustinian friars led by fr. antonio estavillo. large coral stones were used for the lower level while bricks were used for the upper levels of the church. the walls are 1.67 meters thick and are supported by 24 carved and massive buttresses.

the bell tower near the church, dating from 1793, served as an observation point of the katipuneros during the philippine revolution in 1896 and again by the guerrillas during the japanese occupation.

*******

i was surprised by how noisy it came out, until i later realized that i was using ISO 800. lesson learned: don't be an idiot and use ISO 800 with a tripod.

photo taken may 2008. comments highly appreciated :)

Thursday, August 14, 2008

heliographic experiments

lighting setup only using dappled sun light streaming in through the trees and a gold reflector. thanks to master jaggy for the invite and the demonstration, and master joel for the free barbecue hehehe. jaggy's pictures here. part 1 here. part 2 here. part 3 here.

taken at d' family park, talamban, cebu city, 8/10/2008, around noon and early afternoon

comments highly appreciated :)

some samples

Thursday, July 17, 2008

enduring the darkness

going down from the 7th floor to the 6th floor every evening, with the building's floodlights streaming in through the windows, i am always struck by the "poetic" potential of this particular room: the dichotomy of the darkness inside and the light outside, the loneliness of the empty room and its empty chairs, the silence inside and the noise of the street outside. i thought, if i take a picture of this room just in this state, it would be boring. then it occurred to me: what if i put a person there? so here's the result :)

she could be someone brooding in the darkness over a broken heart, or maybe a girl enduring the loneliness of having a boyfriend gone to work abroad, or maybe even a ghost missing the pains and pleasures of earthly living. if only she was wearing a white dress no? hehehe

but then... pagtanaw nako sa PC, wala diay nako mabantayan pag shoot nga nagsuot pa diay gihapon sya sa iyang bigfoot ID! AAAAAARRRRGGGGG!!!

should i reshoot?

comments and suggestions highly appreciated :)

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

juress, uno, and the line divides @ outpost

taken during itzamatch's after party for the perfect campus couple awarding at outpost last saturday, 6/28/2008

click here for more pictures of juress, uno, and the line divides

comments highly appreciated :)

Monday, June 30, 2008

what is the truth?

in a world of changing perspectives, what is the truth?
in a world of rewritten and invented histories, what is the truth?
in a media given to half truths, what is THE truth?
when the people are blind, what is the truth?

Monday, May 26, 2008

the disk jockey: a zoom burst experiment

aside from resizing, no post processing done here :)

photos taken during bigfoot's summer outing at the pacific cebu resort, may 17, 2008

to get this effect, a zoom lens must be used. shutter speed was set to around 1-2 seconds, flash mode was ordinary fill flash to keep the initial image well defined, pull back your lens to its widest, then fire. once shutter has opened push you lens to its telephoto end to create the blur.

click here to view all photos

here are some samples :) comments highly appreciated :)