I like reading interviews. I have always dreamed to be interviewed by someone – and trust me, I have answered a bunch of those surveys/memes that have been going around in the web. Right here, right now, I am making one of my dreams come true. (Or maybe, One of many.)
Why Photography?
I would say, this stems from the fact that I don’t have
very many photos of myself growing up. There’s a bunch, but not the same amount
as my cousins did. Some time when I was about 12 or 13, I asked an aunt for a
point and shoot (It was a Minolta) and I took a lot of photos of me and my
friends. I would like to say that it
started there, but growing up in the Philippines where film processing was a
bit pricey was not economically sound to me.
Originally, I got admitted into the Journalism program of
the University of the Philippines – Diliman. I shifted to Film and Audio Visual
Communication upon realizing these two things:
a. I don’t read the newspaper or watch the news
b. I can write anyway.
I fell in love
with the program due to odd reasons like
a. there were less students in the film program, hence enrolling
into classes was easy
b. I don’t like to take exams
c. I originally wanted to get into advertising and
d. I took black and white photography and fell in love
with it.
Between then and graduation, a lot of things happened. I
became producer, television travel writer, graphic designer, administrative
assistant and photography went digital. I couldn’t afford it back in early 2000
and I went back to it because I had to decide for a 29th birthday
present. It was a contest between a Louis Vuitton purse and a digital SLR.
The Digital SLR won because my friend, Manny said this to
me over a round of drinks in their apartment.
“I am perpetually broke because I spend money on
computers/musical instruments because it gives me the ability to create.”
What kind of Photography do you do? Do you make money
off of it?
I do a lot of wedding/people, jewelry and of course, food.
Wedding because it is great fun, everyone is in good
spirits and there really is just too many emotions to capture. I do a lot of
jewelry photography because I work for a jeweler and a lot of my jewelry work
has been published in trade magazines. Food photography because I love food! Asians also have this predisposition to take pictures of their food!
My bread and butter is still being an administrative
assistant, but I’m planning to change that by taking Communication Design. I am
still waiting for an admissions decision from the Fashion Institute of
Technology. That’s mostly the reason of the long hiatus from posting for my
blog. Their design test for admissions is brutal and it took a lot of time to
conceptualize and execute.
Are you leaving photography completely?
Yes and No. I don’t think I will leave photography
entirely. I
like that I have the background for it (I have a Film Degree) and it will make me a good designer and a better photographer. It
goes hand in hand. I can effectively take better pictures if I know where
exactly is going to be on. It really
isn’t just about pressing a button and hoping for the best or leaving all the
adjustments to Lightroom and Photoshop.
That’s one cool photo. Who took it?
I did. It was one of the hardest things to do because at
the time I took it, I did not own a remote shutter release. I put my camera on
autofocus and it could barely focus on all that white background. I think this
was photo #37.
I also took this because I wanted to keep a record of the
way I looked at the age of 30. (well, the facial truth, at least. My beer gut
does not lie.)
Your blog used to look a bit different, why?
For now, I haven’t done much change as I don’t really
know how to design for the web. All I did was change a template which is
similar to the old design and I created a Corporate Identity for myself – I
think it looks a bit more professional this way.
Truth is, I used it mostly as a loose portfolio, you
know, to make of a web presence. Mostly to talk about the lessons I learned
from the experience of photographing and the end results. Now that I look back,
it seems a bit too much talking (like this interview is) and I finally feel
that I need to “grow up.” (I think.)
Then something hit me. My blog should look good. It
should showcase that I do GOOD WORK. Although I do good photography, where I
show it off is not as good as I want it to be. Not yet, but it will get there.
What do you expect from yourself or this blog?
I expect a lot. For it to look better, for my projects to
come into fruition, and maybe I will change the blog’s focus entirely. We’ll
see what the future holds. Like everyone else, I believe that 2011 will be a
good year.
