I heard about this upcoming seminar for the would-be photography enthusiast or someone who simply wants to make use of their point and shoot camera.

Its aptly titled Photography for the Rest of Us, and is going to be conducted by the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging (PCCI) this month.

Since there have been a number of inquiries thrown my way regarding a seminar like this, I lifted some relevant content from PCCI’s website for my reader’s benefit.

This workshop addresses the needs of the layman to squeeze the most out of his digital camera without dealing with technobabble. That definition covers most businessmen, students, housewives, and other technologically challenged laymen.

Who should attend

• Anybody who threw out his camera manual in frustration.
• Anybody whose blood drained away from reading the course descriptions of most photography workshops.
• Anybody who wants to maximize his camera for work, home, or school use.
• Those who skip the science pages of your paper for the entertainment and sports.
• Anybody who thinks photographers are from Mars.
• The beginner who intends to graduate to “serious” photography but needs to start somewhere, gently.

What will be covered

• The only two rules of composition you need to get out of trouble
• Goldilocks and the Three Bright Bears
• Four faults every beginner makes
• Five ways with flash
• The only six picture settings you will ever need–three if you can’t count to six

Prerequisites

• Come as you are: we don’t expect previous knowledge or experience with photography or cameras
• A point-and-shoot camera
• SLR’s will be tolerated, but will be treated as point-and-shoot

The instructor
Ed Yap understands cameras and photography well enough to write about them in i-Mag Photography magazine, but he could never program a VCR either. He knows the mathematics behind the apertures, but can’t figure out the new cell phones. Out of all this experience he knows one thing the camera-makers haven’t figured out: cameras are just too complicated for the man-in-the-street.

Class hours
June 4 to 5 (Thursday to Friday) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Course fee
The course fee is P 5,300, inclusive of handout materials, lunch and snacks.

Inquiry & registration
Phone: 759-3087, or email inquiry@pcci.com.ph

I really hate it when photography enthusiasts like myself get reprimanded for shooting at public venues or events.

For anything private, I understand and respect the rights of the owners, organizers and even those arrogant security guards. As a matter of fact, I personally try to veer away from shooting anywhere near something regarded as private.

Some of the things I’ve been prevented to shoot can easily be deemed as ridiculous. The more “memorable” ones would be landmarks at public parks, stained glass windows, open-air events for the public, food that I actually ordered, garbage dumps, oh- and my special favorite… Manila bay sunsets!

As hard as it would probably be, I could try to understand and comply with this preposterous prohibition system. If only it applies to everyone! What really bothers me, is that this peculiar system seem to exempt foreigners and those using point-and-shoot or “smaller” cameras. Well, this is at least how most security personnel ignorantly implements it. But really now, can somebody please explain to me… what IS the difference?!!!

Never the less, being the relentless hobbyist — I will again give it another try and do some practice shooting next weekend. The event (click poster below) I stumbled upon should provide enough interesting and hopefully exciting action shots to capture. 

Hopefully, this event turns out to be a “photographer-friendly” one.

Anyway, for anyone interested to join, just let me know if you want to meet up before the event.

Its been raining almost everyday that week. So everyone was expecting it to be a wet Sunday. But somebody must have offered a lot of eggs to the Sta. Clara convent and help keep the sun up that day. It was bright and sunny from morning to early afternoon.

I arrived later than my previous visits to the Aliwan Festival this year. The traffic rerouting and impending rain (seems the eggs were not enough after all) kept me stuck for a good hour and a half inside a cab. It was almost 5pm and the sun was already going down when I arrived at the starting area. I did get the chance to meet up with some old friends and fellow photographers as well.

Aliwan festival is an annual event where different contingents from cultural festivals of the Philippines gather to participate in dance parade and float competitions. So if you missed going to Sinulog of Cebu, Ati-atihan of Aklan, Dinagyang of Iloilo, or other famous Philippine festivals, this gathering offers the best chance to still catch a feel of it.  

Here are just some of the few shots I managed to get from this year’s activities.

I’ve been noticing a lot of my friends are posting their summer vacation pictures on the web. Since most of the photos I see are pictures on the beach, I remembered this online ad for a contest I saw a couple of weeks ago. The contest theme is about “Sun and Sand”, so I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be that hard to find snaps that will fit that requirement.

The prize for the contest; among others is a trip to Boracay and a brand new Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera from Sony.

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