I'm writing this now as I sit outside our house with my dog and the warm, sweet air breezing through.
I haven't seen you that much since the lockdown, so that's me saying I miss you very very much. Although I have a pretty good view of you from our house and I still occasionally walk my dog outside (we're lucky to be settled right in front of our subdivision's park), it's not the same as experiencing you, breathing you in.
I miss the bigger parks—the way the trees sway along with the wind, the cute moving shadows they cast against the bright sun, the clear skies, the clouds, the lake, the people enjoying it all. I miss the beaches—the waves washing back and forth, the sand, the seashells, the palm trees, the occasional monkeys! The people enjoying it all. But I'm sorry we enjoyed it all too much.
I'm sorry we abused all your goodness when we're supposed to help keep you together. I'm sorry for the all the trees we cut out of your lungs and replacing it with concrete instead. I'm sorry for the pollution that keeps you from breathing easy. I'm sorry for the abuse on the wildlife that runs through your veins and brings life to your soul. I'm sorry we can't bring ourselves together to keep you together. You've given us sustenance and beauty, we gave you greed and selfishness. And maybe everything that's happening right now to mankind is rightly provoked, deserved, and a long time coming. I'm sorry we pushed you to your limits, and I'm sorry we've led things to the way they are now.
But are we too late? Is there still fixing in all of this? Or are you so fucking sick of us that your patience and tolerance has ran out of room for the likes of humankind? I'm so so sorry. I love you. Happy you day.
Before quarantine even started, I have been so preoccupied by (and focused on) design work that I've completely forgotten to practice my photography. Truth is, I was getting ready with my creative plans this 2020. Before the new year rang, I organised a list of various types of goals for the year, including personal photography projects. That really got me excited for the year, but here we are.
Truthfully, I haven't been feeling that good with my photography skills for quite some time now, which kinda sucks. It's actually kinda ironic how I've found such a wonderful spot in graphic design when I went into the Multimedia Arts track for photography. I guess it's the love of system and design in me. But I really do want to foster my photography skills still, I just find it harder to organise it (well, mainly because even during this quarantine period, my design work is never done).
ANYWAY— I was glad my sister, my forever muse, was down to do a small photoshoot at home (she's just got over a rough break up so a photoshoot is an obvious activity at this point lol).
It's the usual thing—catch the golden hour, set up a decent backdrop, and shoot with a minimal outfit and makeup. Literally the easiest and most basic shit there is LOL. But I guess I'm at least working those photog gears. It's been a while since I have.
We were actually supposed to go to Taiwan last February, but the 'Rona has been out and bout by then, so there were travel bans and eventually, our flight got cancelled (we were scared to push through anyway by then). So we changed our plans for something closer to home so we can just take a quick weekend getaway and then go home right after its over. But just the day before our planned trip, Luzon-wide lockdown was implemented, and so we never got to go to ANY of our planned trips. I miss travelling (it's my go-to thing whenever I get creatively stuck on photography), I miss the beach, I miss the earth! I miss experiencing it. :(
Finally able to work on this post after a whole month of busy!
We finally took a leap and jet setted to another country this time (we haven’t traveled internationally since…..I think 2012 2 years ago. It’s a little trickier when you’re from a third world country–all the visas, and fees, etc.)
It’s been a long dream of ours to be able to see and experience Japan—the busy streets, the city lights, the ramen, the Sakuras, Mt. Fuji, everything! Best believe, we prepared like hell for this trip lmao. (Also was STOKED for the cool weather. PH is just a giant oven toaster now)
An unfortunate event happened though just as we were navigating our way from the airport to our Airbnb: My Pentax slipped through my hands and fell. It seemed like it was functioning fine but when I checked it again when we had settled down in the apartment, the winder was not working. SIGH. I have yet to have it fixed. But for the meantime, I used my DSLR for the majority of the trip (brought my Autoboy too, so there are some photos on film, but it was mostly my sister who used it—I was trying to introduce her to film photography (status: successful!)).
SO ANYWAY. I haven’t used my DSLR for travel since……I think 2014/15? It’s been a long time, and it really threw me off of my comfort zone shooting with it, so there aren’t a lot of pictures (except for Disneyland/Disneysea (because duh and more of this later) and photos of my mom and dad, since this was actually their 25th anniversary celebration, too!)
FREE PRESET
That being said (and me missing my Pentax very very much huhuhu), I created a preset that emulated the feel and coloring of a semi-expired Kodak Gold. I tried studying it as much as I can, and basically, all the photos I’ll be posting here are edited with that filter! I also created different versions of it (for landscape, for portrait, and few for night time), so if you want a copy, please like this post and leave me a message on the comments section with the sparkle emoji! ✨
Like I said, having my DSLR for travel with me threw me off my comfort zone. So since there aren’t much photos from our whole trip (we stayed there for a week), I’ll just post photos randomly and not chronologically as I would normally do (although I will do my best to keep them as chronological as possible).
My sister always hate it that I always take a picture of her (yes, I’m that sister lol). But there isn’t anyone else that I can nag to take a photo of than her! Lol at least you have nice pics, sis! lmao
2 major highlights of our trip for me was Mt. Fuji and Disneyland. Of course there are a lot of other things that I loved during our trip, but these places were the ones that made my heart soft and warm like butter on fresh toast.
I think almost 70% of my photos are from Disneyland/Disneysea. #sorrynotsorry
It was our first time going there and while I’m an avid Disney fan, I’m also a Scorpio, so this bitch WILL NOT cry in public. I made sure that going here, I’ve completely killed of any feelings so that I don’t burst into any big emotions like crying. At first it was successful. I’ve been distant from my Disney side for a while too, so I was pretty sure I got it right in the bag. But as I walked through the gates….the music, all the Mickey ears…..
I sobbed.
Tears fell like waterfall.
This bad bitch couldn’t handle it.
It was too magical.
Now all I want is to be in Disneyland. All those months (could be a year or two, too) of repressing my Disney side has now crumbled and all things Disney are the only things that can calm me down right now. (It’s gotten pretty busy lately)
Now I don’t want this to be a complete Disney post, so I’m gonna hold myself off before I slide the slippery slope of spilling every photo we took in Disneyland. So I’m gonna move on to city park things now. Hahahahahha
To be honest, some of the truly best parts of the trip was just sitting down, no phones, and just appreciating the whole experience. Taking it all in. The walks around the cities and parks were great too. We saw dogs (one looked a lot like Comet!! huhuhu), learned systems and cultures, we were also fortunate enough to visit a family member there who toured us around the city and took us to a spa! It was great because I had no photos whatsoever. Just in the moment.
Ok so i think I’m ending the post here. There’s a shit ton of photos but maybe I’ll save those for a rainy day.
Japan was magical.
The cleanliness, the discipline, the common curtesy, THE WHOLE SYSTEM OF LIVING, the parks, DISNEYLAND…. ugh I could go on and on, and thats just Tokyo! We’re planning to go to Osaka soon so prepare yourself for a shit ton of photos of the DEERS (WITH ME).