FPPF Batch 14 2008 Basic Photography Workshop Portrait Photo Contest Winners and Finalists

 The top ten out of 41 entries:

1st place    Denise Cheng (4.123)

2nd place   John Robin G. Lucido (4.013)

3rd place    Rossana Tiu (3.975)

4th place    Francis C. Jose (3.828)

5th place    Atty. Emmanuel Anthony L. Vera, Jr. (3.811)

6th place    Mark Anthony L. Ducay (3.735)

7th place    Eleazar A. Caoile (3.709)

8th place    Ronald A. Santiago (3.688)

9th place    Gerard Victor O. Dello (3.643)

10th place  Roberto A. Dela Paz (3.639)

(more photos to follow soon)

I Vote for Virtual Smoking!

Just a thought. Since practically everything’s gone virtual (like virtual pets, etc.), why don’t we add smoking to the list? Hmm. I like this idea! That way, us non-smokers finally get to breather cleaner, fresher, non-murderous air!

:D

Aging is a Frame of Mind

Our house is practically a home for the aged, with four senior citizens living under one roof. But then again, sometimes it’s not that easy to think of them as more than half-a-century old folks. 

First, there’s my grandmother Ina. At 95 years old, she’s still into Word Find Puzzles, Dominoes, and Connect Four. I just bought her two more games to play with yesterday: Checkers and Chinese Checkers. I’m hoping both will keep her entertained and sharper than ever.

Then there’s my uncle Armand. He’s 88. Recently, he just couldn’t stop himself from asking about my DSLR. I found out later that he wants to buy his own and get into photography, too. (He’ll be back tomorrow from the US. I’ll see then if he bought himself a camera.)

Next is my dad Levi. He’s 69 years old. About two weeks ago he borrowed my old harmonica and played it at church on Sabbath. Then just last week, I saw him tinkering with a clarinet and the music sheets that came with it, trying for the very first time to play the instrument. My mom told me he borrowed them both from my sister’s father-in-law, Mr. Ramon Lijauco Sr.

Finally, there’s my mom Loida. She’s 64 years old. She’s been hanging out on Yahoo! Messenger for a while now. She enjoys chatting online. Her motivating factor to learn was my youngest sister Yayi–she left for Thailand after gettitng married last June 8. 

Well, they may all be senior citizens, but they sure are all young at heart. And I guess I’m blessed to have their genes. Hopefully that means that when I’m nearing their ages, I’d still be trekking the planet taking beautiful photographs. (At least, I wish they’d be beautiful.)

Stuck on Chuck

Yey! Chuck’s back!

Finally, season two has begun!

Chuck is one TV series I never heard about nor had any plan on watching. It was all completely by “chance” (or should I say “destiny?”) that I found it on my sister’s portable hard drive and got curious enough to “try out” the first episode. 

Well, the first few scenes got me hooked for good!

It’s a great show. With a great cast. All hilariuosly funny and all complementing the show.

Check it out sometime. You just might like it, too.  

History-Making 101

History is history no matter how much we attempt to change it. 

We could write a book and change the facts–creating an alternate chronicle of actual events and the roles that people have truly played in them. We could even have a movie written and made to give credibility to the history version of the book we write. And sooner or later, with the people who know the actual truth growing old and passing away, we are left with only the younger ones who will believe the new truths we create. 

Possibly so. 

Just don’t forget that there’s an everyday chronicler of events who doesn’t lie–who doesn’t change facts to suit one’s taste and for one’s purposes whether political, personal, or otherwise. This true and accurate version of history as it actually happens will be forever engrained in heaven’s own history book, for all the worlds and universes to see. 

So let’s not fool ourselves by trying to falsely change things that have already happened in the past. Past is past. There’s nothing you can do about that except to learn from it. Let’s bravely face our future and make our soon-to-be-written history as we would want our heavenly chronicler to forever write it. 

0.09

0.09.

That is by how many points I lost to get second place in our Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation (FPPF) Basic Photography Workshop Still Life Photo Contest yesterday in Intramuros. My final total score was 4.106.

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