DPP 4th Year Anniversary: UNLEASHED

On July 3, 2010, amateur and professional photographers gathered in Bonifacio High Street (BHS) in Taguig City to celebrate the Digital Photographers Philippines 4th Year Anniversary. The event included different workshops by renowned photographers and a couple of live shoots. It was also in this event where the D60 Krew decided to do our live judging for the 50mm Challenge that we did in Intramuros weeks ago. I arrived at Bonifacio High Street at around 10am because I had work the night before and needed to sleep for at least 2 hours. It was my first time to attend and the long queue was overwhelming. The line started at Fully Booked and snaked its way up to Coffee Bean. There were at least 1,500 photographers that day. I already knew that my chances of getting into a class was small. After about 15-20 min of standing and waiting, a lady with a whiteboard was approached. She raised the board and yelled "All classes are full". Bummer. Oh well, next year I'll be early. The D60 Krew met up after the announcement and we proceeded to the live judging of our 50mm challenge. There were only a total of 5 entries that day because some forgot theirs and some were unable to attend. Tita Bambit Gaerlan invited her mentor Sir Rolly Magpayo to be one of the judges and he brought his fellow photographers Alford Ronduen and Ryan Sigua. One by one they judged the each photo.

Alford Ronduen in stripes, Ryan Sigua on the laptop, and Rolly Magpayo standing at the back. Photo by Bambit Gaerlan

After entering their scores, they gave their comments and insights on each photo. The photos didn't have names to keep the competition impartial and free from biases because according to the Krew members (core group), Sir Rolly already knew how some of the members shoot. Honestly I was reluctant to submit an entry because the 50mm challenge was a real challenge for me. I wasn't comfortable in shooting in a single focal length. But, it was only a fun competition and I would love to hear comments so that I would know where to improve. When they were holding my entry, I was really surprised when they agreed that it was their favorite among the 5 entries. Surely, they were being nice and not really harsh but hey, it's not everyday that skilled and talented photographers would praise my work. In fact, that may never happen again hahaha! I won my first competition and it was fun. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to win. My bets were the photos of Xander Solis and Art Topacio's portrait of Ate Bangs. At then end, I won a Nikon Shirt (courtesy of Rolly Magpayo) and a USB.

My entry: A crippled man selling rosaries. Sir Rolly Magpayo said I could have cropped it a little more because there were still too many space on the left side.

After the competition, we had out lunch at Brothers Burgers. I suddenly felt hungry after I typed that. Anyway, after lunch we changed to our D60 Krew shirts to be in uniform. We went to back to Fully Booked to check out the classes and yes they were all full with people standing at the back. Since it was still hot outside, we decided to rest by the 2nd floor escalator area of Fully Booked. I would look at the people passing by, checking out their gears. Man, some had these huge camera bags.

A snapshot I took while we were resting.

The Krew deciding what to do next.

Photo by Bambit Gaerlan, that's me at the far end.

After around an hour of rest and chit-chat, we decided to go for a merienda which is a very common Filipino practice. What's the best merienda when it's hot? Of course another Filipino favorite, halo-halo! We walked to Market-Market to have a halo-halo at Chowking. At around 4pm, we decided to head back to BHS for the group hug (term for group shot). After the group hug, the live shoot with a model was up next. Photographers rushed to the fountain area of BHS where the live shoot was about to start. It was headed by Pillar Tuason, the editor-in-chief of DPP Magazine and a leading portait photographer in the country. Due to the numbers of photographers, I wasn't able to get a shot at the model. My next stop was the live shoot for sports and action photography. It was headed by Mark Dimalanta, a photographer who recently moved back here in the Philippines. He previously took shots for Surf Magazine in the US. Our subjects were local skateboarders who were kind enough to do some tricks for us.

My attempt at sports photography. Skateboarder doing an "Ollie" over a trash bin.

It was almost 6pm. Amer was to celebrate his birthday that evening. I had to leave early. Others stayed for the live judging and real party. It was a successful event in my opinion. People came there to learn and have fun and people left the event having both. Hopefully, I will be there for next year's party.