Illustrated Diaries Of James

Creative Director James Banal tasked me to digitally "preserve his unique, illustrative diaries with my Nikon DSLR. Between 2001-2004 he had this creative "urge" he knew was very rare and temporary: to illustrate daily entries in his diary. So watchout for an exhibition of his private masterpieces in the future! Kudos James!

Tita Lita At 60 Years Young

Thanks to John Delos Reyes of Fisheye Studio, yours truly was privilege to shoot her auntie Lita's 60th birthday at Tamayo's Restaurant in the World Trade Center. A select few students of tita Lita is testimoney of her quiet way as a teacher when it comes to propelling students to new heights. Keep up the good work ma'am!

South African Independence Day

Before I forget, yours truly covered the South African Independence day celebration at the Dusit Thani hotel in Makati city last month. South Africa is now the apple of the world's eye as they host the world's most popular sport: soccer. I think Filipinos can be truly world class in sports that don't require height as an advantage. Soccer and baseball holds us the promise of an Olympic gold, along with boxing, of course. Kudos to South Africa!

Mian On The Sweet Life

It's great joy when a teacher sees his student succeed in life. Ms. Mian Sta. Cruz (lady behind the bi-spectacled Mr. Foo) has been chosen and featured as a fashion photographer for Lucy Torres-Gomez's TV show Sweet Life. It has been my personal mantra to help all my photo students in all their photo projects-as long as yours truly is physically able. Mian invites moi to witness the shooting in the GMA studio. Congratulation Mian! Just keep on shooting.

Mr. King Villamor Passes Away

I pains me to announce that my former, and very young production assistant in King Sebastian Villamor passed away. He drowned in Ipo dam working for another company. Truly a happy, quiet and industrious worker, King is always a pleasure to work with. All friends and relatives can testify to his honesty, great attitude and work ethic. May our Father God show him favor in Heaven. Goodbye King! We shall meet again someday, man.

Toch Arellano's 1st Death Anniversary

May 18 was master Toch's first death anniversary. He is known for high-end high school/seniors' graduation pictures. Even my college batch in 1989 chose Toch over other famous film photographers then. When Toch had several strokes, his posh Glorietta shop closed and the digital revolution swept in, he was relegated as a "has-been" film photographer. But yours truly was lucky enough to have worked for the master in 2005. Little do people know that Toch has mastered digital imaging. I was witness to his digital workflow in his Antipolo home as as he works with both Mac and PC (LAN networked!) platforms, with action scripts that speeds up his work. He can even do backgound compositing in batch, conduct digital portraite workshops and desktop publishing. Impressive. He crossed the digital divide that some of his famous contemporaries failed to conquer. Truly a master of Philippine photography.