Death By Heatstroke

I sat beside a woman of Eastern European origins. Her features were strong, minus the brownish gold hair color common in that region. She doesn't offer an explanation, knowing that it simply would have prolonged the conversation in a direction she did not care to pursue. Instead she pulls out a camera from a rucksack on her left. I point to the window behind her. A man with a fishing pole had just started to walk back along the breakwater towards the shore; seemingly unaffected by the 40-degree heat of the summer sun. His right hand clutching the end of an empty fish basket. And that seemed to affect him more. Death by hunger was always more tangible than death by heatstroke. She glances in the direction of the window and sees the man. Perhaps she did not see the photograph of the silhouetted figure that was taking shape as framed by the window. Either that or she already knew that the image would be lost within the five seconds it would take her to set the camera to the appropriate settings, so she doesn't bother to react. Eventually she stands up and makes her way towards the window. It is her window now. I see her bathed in orange sunlight and she replaces the silhouetted fisherman in my mind. Her nationality is of no concern now. She is right after all.

A man picks up where we left off. From the table, he sees me glancing at the window to his right. He has his camera clutched and ready, anticipating the moment when my eyes would sparkle as I recognize another photograph unfolding. I see a tern, flying in the direction of the sun, and just above the horizon. He is a step ahead of me, racing toward the other window. I hear a single shutter release. He glances at me and I see the sparkle in his eyes. He pulls out a cigarette. I reach for my lighter in anticipation.

The lady in front of me has just finished assembling her camera. Although she seems to have seen the two photographs unfold, she nonchalantly takes her time. Eventually she works her way to the starboard side and I follow. She waits till the sun has dipped halfway below the hill far far away from where we were before she takes her solitary shot. My eyes do not sparkle, not quite sure of what she had just seen. She says she had just documented the death throes of the sun, at least for today. Poetic justice is what I read from her face. She had watched the moment that the sunlight died that day. Barely three days after the sun had taken a friend of hers, away.

Death by heatstroke.

Jesus Paul C. Yan

for The Paul Yan Chronicles, 2010

acknowledgements: Dol & Janneth Tenorio, Ed Casilao, Ana Murillo.

Sunset photo by Ana Murillo, April 10, 2010.

Cruising with Prestige

El Nino has its advantages.

Coming from a storm-wracked season of simply massive proportions last semester, it was the first time I successfully got the Paul Yan Experience class to do a sun-kissed sunset tour in the past six months.  It was also the first time I actually took photos of Manila's world famous sunset in this decade.  What a difference the lens makes, indeed. Instead of the usual ultra wide angle I preferred to carry, I opted for a long tele this time, and it paid off.  Lucky me.  I've actually already used one of the sunset photos as a background in a glamour ad I recently did..  The participants, all 16 of them, also had their own memorable photos.  

El Nino will also probably have been a significant part of the decision-making process for the "Class of 2010" of my favorite ladies school, St. Paul's College in Quezon City, when they also decided to "go take a cruise" that day.  And because I had 16 photographers with me (all raring to photograph anything that moves), they'll all end up with some mighty nice souvenir shots as well.

Another thing that I also attribute to the El Nino was that for the first time in the history of doing this cruise, Abba's "Dancing Queen", korean version, wasn't sung live this time.  Oh life's simple pleasures...

  

credits:  Thank you to the captain and crew of Prestige Cruises for always being very accomodating with regard to the special needs (and wants) of my phototour participants, most especially with the blocking of vantage points exclusively for us.  

Chasing The Light (Fantastic)

Chasing The Light (fantastic) On the constant prodding of Emil G., regarding neutral density filters and their photographic applications to which I replied that “there were hardly any use for it, except to reduce the amount of light in a given scene”, he called my attention to a series of landscape photographs that have been fascinating him due to their apparent complexity over the past half a year or so. These water landscape photographs were mostly done with the assistance of what I surmise to be ND8 strength filters, which will enable the photographer to use shutter speeds three stops slower at the minimum ISO and lens aperture settings, thus resulting in beautiful motion trails for moving bodies of water. As jaded as I have become of photographic styles such as these (you might as well include glamour portraiture, motion-trail night shots, water drops captured on the rebound, sunsets & mystical moons, and the ubiquitous panning shots) there apparently are quite a lot of enthusiasts who are just “discovering” a fascination for images that are never seen in real life. Never, because of the way our brain and eyes perceive the images, such as water coming out of a faucet. Now everyone knows that when photographed at a fast-enough speed, faucet water never really is a continuous “stream”, but rather is just a series of drops. The opposite effect is attained when using a slow-enough speed, at night, on a busy road full of passing cars. Motion trails of yellow (headlights) and red (tail lights) will eventually adorn the scene, such as what was inadvertently photographed by Grace P., along the stretch of the North Expressway. Water trails have their own specific concerns, although the photographic technique still remains the same. Here is what I would do.   1)look at the water movement; assess how fast (or how slow) it takes for the water to get from point A to point B. 2)decide how many “movements” or “cycles” you want to capture. As the movement of ripples and waves are usually repetitive, the effect has a tendency to “build up” or “overwrite” the clarity created by a single cycle. This “building up” results in the “smoke” effect. 3)Number 2 will already dictate what shutter speed you will have to use. Meter on shutter priority using that preselected speed to get the corresponding aperture. Keep in mind that the aperture given should be treated as a “recommendation”, and may be changed by the photographer to suit their “brighter or darker” preferences. 4)Having a failed reading in step 3, first choose the appropriate ISO setting (usually the lowest), or having failed that, then finally use your ND filter to further reduce the luminance. 5)now, already knowing the choice of exposure, take a closer look at the scene, and then choose your vantage point. Motion trails work best when “there is a visual anchor that is still, over which the water gets to flow around”. 6)Level your camera. Whenever possible, use a spirit-level (the one with the bubble and the circle where you align it to) indicator to assist you in leveling. A leveled camera ensures that you do not humanly “add to the distortion” of the scene, and will correctly maximize the plane of focus. 7)Press the shutter button, in the softest manner you can. There are 2 ways I would do it. Number 1, I would trigger the shutter using the self-timer button or through a wired remote or infrared trigger. This is to avoid the physical weight of your finger actually pressing the shutter at the moment of exposure. Number 2, I would, on certain very critical occasions, first lock-up the mirror, and then trigger the shutter in the same manner such as number 1. Mirror-up shots was the norm during the medium format days especially for those who had the Mamiya RBs which had a tremendously strong mirror action. Those of us who were fortunate to use the Hasselblads had the benefit of a very good mirror damping system already which was why we could actually shoot the 'Blads, handheld, in the field. Most (I actually am tempted to say “all”) digital SLRs have very soft mirror mechanisms already owing to the redesigned mirror mechanisms that only move halfway, so I don't think there will really be a need for mirror lock-ups with DSLRs, unless you are doing microphotography, but that is a totally different discussion altogether. Oh, yes, there will always be purists who will “notice” a tiny tiny movement in their photographs whenever they don't lock-up their mirrors. But those guys really need to justify their $9,000 cameras and their $3,000 lenses, even though their biggest print has only been a badly cropped 8x10... One final word. As I have already promised Emil and his PYE batchmates Janneth, Val, & Adrian, that I will help them “chase the light” (even when the technique requires that you actually let the “light go away”) please then consider this as an announcement and an invitation for everyone in the Paul Yan Experience alumni directory to join us sometime immediately following this holy week, as we explore the technical side of photography, in a trek to wherever. Suggestions to destinations are welcome. Just make sure the trek isn't longer than 15 minutes though. :) special mention to Lhor S., for rekindling an interest in all sorts of filters, Cokin and otherwise, that might have nearly found their way into oblivion. Through Lhor, everyone else has had an opportunity to try them out including Gemma, Emon, Ines, Geoffrey, Ayan, and Louie.

Intramuros

Intramuros has always been very consistent as a shooting venue.  ever since I first came with my camera and two of my high school buddies, intramuros always had lots of good shooting opportunities.

from left to right: Janneth, Emil, Geoffrey, Janice, & Val.

Cuba Libre

The Montecristos came with a 50-cigar humidor. Although quite unexpected, it was indeed a very pleasant surprise when I got the phone call last month from a long-time friend, that he was in town, and carrying something that he hoped I might like. He was of course referring to the Montecristos; a boxful of individually wrapped habanitos which arrived in lieu of the torpedos he had ordered for me. And how did I like it? Very much! Although I have now progressed to longer and bigger cigar sizes from the robustos I originally favored such as the torpedos, pyramids, and double coronas, these habanitos were so packed with cuban goodness that I felt it was also a good time to go back to superb quality short smokes. Thank you, Ruel Algas, my fraternity brod, photo buddy, and one-time food splurge gangmate. And oh ruel, the habanitos are "just like a fantasy..."  The fat Cohiba came with two other robustos, also handcarried for me, but this time by Brian Jacobs, husband of my favorite saturday student, Lourdes. Although I never mentioned any cuban brand, Cohibas have always been aspirational for me. And as I was hearing Brian's side of the cigar story, I couldn't help but laugh when I found out that Lourdes had reminded Brian that he either showed up with the cigars or skip the Philippines altogether for valentine's! I lit up the first robusto on March 20 after fully conditioning it on my new humidor, an hour before taking my students out on the"paul yan experience sunset cruise". And even though the heat was around 34degrees celsius, I puffed that Cohiba with a contented smile on my face; a cup of starbucks coffee keeping me company through that hour, while all the time facing the bay where Spain, Cuba's colonizer too, was dealt their last defeat in Philippine soil over one hundred years ago. I bring my camera out and attempt to preserve the moment. But I opt to take another long puff instead. Ill just remember the moment in my mind, like all the other photographs in my life. Photo credit: photographed on frame 15 of a canon 7D, with a 70-200mm f4 non-i.s. lens, handheld, artificially lit, iso 3200 setting, sometime close to midnight. Thank you Ana Murillo for the super-sharp equipment. It shows. :)