Scooter Girl

Pre-registration is required to be eligible in the contest but registration is free! There were total of 1111 registered groups and over 33,000 registrants. But in reality, I think there may be more participants than those who registered. Since this is more of a social gathering, people who do not make it to the registration were also invited to walk with the group.

The event is on its 3rd year and the group gets bigger every year. Last year, I walked with the group in Tondo lead by FPPF’s Tristan Yap. This year, I lead my own group in Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City.

Quezon Memorial Monument

The month of July is the beginning of monsoon season in the Philippines. While the news reported low level of water in Angat Dam, rain had been falling incessantly in Metro Manila the past weeks. The afternoon before the walk, buckets of rain threatened me to cancel our walk. But I emailed the walkers that the walk will push through – rain or shine – and suggested they be prepared with sunscreen and raincoats.

There is indeed a photo god!

July 24, 2010 at 7am, my friend Beth and I arrived at the Quezon Memorial Monument greeted by blue sky and sunshine. There were already a small group of photographers by the foot of the monument. We did our small introductions and shortly went ahead to take advantage of the shining sun. By 7:30am, our friend Denise arrived and the 3 of us started our photo walk. By 9am, I saw more photographers shooting around the Elliptical Circle.

Living in Quezon City for almost 20 years, I’ve never been to Quezon Memorial Circle for its shady reputation as drugs and prostitution joint. But I’ve heard about the clean-up made by the mayor and decided it is a good place to have the photo walk.

Quezon Memorial Circle is a national park in Quezon City built in memory of former commonwealth president, Manuel L. Quezon, the popular landmark being the 66 meters tall monument of 3 vertical pylons. At the foot of the pylons is a 2-storey Quezon Memorial Shrine and Museum that houses some artifacts and a mausoleum for the remains of President Quezon.

Catafalque of President Quezon

Taking photos around the monument is a refreshing change from last year’s Tondo walk). Here our subjects were happy children, runners, people playing sports, ballroom dancing folks, beautiful flowers and smiling security guards.

Young Photo Walker is a Nikon Girl!

Push It Hard

By 10:30am, the group converged at Serye restaurant to have late breakfast and exchanged stories. It was a perfect laid back place with very good siphon coffee! I was happy to count over 20 people and see them became friends because of this walk.

It was noon time when we bid goodbye to the group as we have another event to catch. 5 minutes after we got into the car, the ocean fell from the sky!

White Flower

Bulaklak

Bike

Mamang Sorbetero

Flower with Fly

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for one i couldn’t even lift it off the baggage carousel. fortunately, a chinese guy helped me out. it’s a wheeled bag so shouldn’t be a problem even if i had to make a lot of detour to use elevator and escalator, the problem is it wasn’t stable and kept falling on one side. so i couldn’t even leave it alone for a bit even while waiting for the train. so at one point, i put the camera bag on top of the luggage while waiting for a ride, they both fell. damn.

i was told that i could take the shuttle for $2.5 from JFK to the center. I was to meet Vangie at 3p.m. but was running really late because the immigration took a long time, and also took a while for me to figure out the airport, bus, subway, sky train, and LIRR. and when we finally met, we were so full of bags that we couldn’t really move! we ended up sitting outside the post office near Madison Sq. for a long time. Although it was alright for I got to shipped all the stuff I’m supposed to make my bag lighter… although not any more stable.

so as i finally start to take in the city and admiring it, while still on the post office step, my shutter bug caught on and i took out my camera.

LO and BEHOLD! I found broken glass inside my bag! My polarizing filter was broken into a billion pieces! My stomach turned and I felt sick! Flashback to my camera bag fell with the luggage earlier at the sky train platform! I couldn’t see if the lens is broken or scratched or broken. gulp.

!@#$%^&*()_|!@#$%^&*(){}!@#$%^&*()

It was a good few minutes when i saw a man walking with a shiny new Nikon plastic bag. I wanted to run and asked him but Vangie was out buying water and i was the manning our billion of bags at the steps. so finally vangie arrived and she went to asked the guy.

we walked toward the direction of the camera shop. we saw more and more people with this nikon shopping bag and we asked one of them. then we saw it. B&H Camera. Halleluja! It’s a huge building of Camera stuff, much like BIC Camera in Japan. We walked directly to the DSLR help. I showed the guy my camera and told him of my sad tale. The thing is, i couldn’t get the broken filter out of the lens (Nikkor 18-200 @ $800). He couldn’t too. He then offered to have the technician do it, BUT no guarantee – do you understand? No Guarantee on the Lens, ok??

“ok” i replied meekly.. what can i do?

After 15 minutes, felt like 15 hours, he came out with my lens sans the broken filter! I checked the lens, good as new! BIG SIGH OF RELIEF! they didn’t even charge me for service or anything. he just directed me to where i can get my new filter.

Later that night, we met up with our host Brian for dinner at Hell’s Kitchen – this part of town so called due to the massive concrete buildings around and during summer, it gets hot as hell. Now, it became a quaint little place with plenty of nice restaurants and bistrol We were at HK, one of those little nice places. I guess I was so happy that my lens didn’t break that we ended with $200 bill of martinis!

Needless to say, with over 15 hours flight, 12 hours time difference, no sleep, fatigue… martinis just doesn’t mix well. the next day i woke up with a f@#$%^ hang over. Dammit!

Welcome to NYC.

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wow, sunshine.

Time check: 7am. *groan* if only I can peel my back off the bed.

I checked my mobile and saw Beth’s message that she will pass due to gloomy sky. I messaged back that I have sunshine outside my window but think it will not hold. She said Suzette, the original promoter of this photo walk, will pass too. No word from Vanj which can only mean she’s still in snooze land. Ram asked last night if the walk will push through despite the weather.

Typhoon Isang had been terrorizing Manila, dumping ocean loads of water into the metro the past one week. And the day before the photo walk, weather bureau PAGASA officially upgraded her to Tropical Storm.

I texted Ram to ask if he still feels like photo walking, half hoping he’s still asleep. I said I am gearing towards not going because I thought the rain is going to fall any minute, (but we all know the real reason why). He was awake and persistent. So after a hundred message exchanges, at 10 o’clock, we met outside Sto. Nino church in Tondo, along with over 50 enthusiastic photographers!

Sto. Nino Church, Tondo

The worldwide photo walk, on it’s 2nd year, is now an annual thing. It was the brainchild of American photographer, Scott Kelby who had the idea of capturing the world in one day. To be achieved by the help of photo enthusiasts around the world. This year, on July 18, 2009, there were over 900 groups and 32,600 walkers.

In the Philippines, we had over 30 groups and 1,500 roving photographers. I was originally signed up for the Quiapo-Chinatown group, but then later found the Tondo group in multiply. As I’ve done the former loop by myself before, and Tondo I could never walk it by myself with a DSLR, I decided to join the later.

It’s as if there was a photo god for the weather actually held through the whole morning. And we even had good part with sun. I am really happy that I ended up doing it.

Here are what I think are my best work. :)

kalesa

tulog sa kalye

bata

taho

pedicab drivers

buko

jeep

And the rain finally fell at 2pm, few minutes after I got home.

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