“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” Such is one of the very famous photography quotes by Ansel Adams. I started taking photographs back in 2008 when I got my Sony Ericsson mobile phone. Way back, Sony Ericsson was famous for having good quality photos. What I thought was just taking photos of myself (the word ‘selfie’ was not born yet that time) and of my friends for keepsake, however turned eventually into a hobby. At work (school), I took photos during events and turned them into a musical slideshow, and got presented during meetings. That surely made all the members of faculty and our principal delighted looking at them.
Just months after having my mobile phone and my desire for photography raised on the next level, I bought my first camera, which was a very simple Kodak digicam. As I learned more techniques, my discontentment on the digicam grew because there are those styles in photography that cannot be done by a simple digicam. So I asked my cousin from the United States to buy me a Sony camera, however I didn’t know that that model whim I asked him to buy also was a digicam, just a bit higher in specs as compared to my Kodak. Until a friend who is a photographer by profession suggested me to buy a DSLR – it was then I got my first Digital Single Lens Reflex camera, my Nikon D40.
With my Nikon D40, I was able to do a lot of things, and so my passion for photography even further raised to a higher level. I joined the Sinulog Photo Contest on 2010 upon the suggestion of my boss at work. It was my first photo contest, and voila, I won 8th Place in the Sidelights Category (see first photo). When I knew that I won, I was happy, but was never elated, because I never knew that Sinulog Photo Contest in Cebu City is a prestigious one. I even did not attend the awarding ceremony because I prioritized a Bohol field trip with my students and fellow teachers. Since then, every year I joined the Sinulog Photo Contest, and took the competition somehow seriously, but with more fun.
Year 2014 was another year of harvest in my photography. This time I won 10th Place in the same Sinulog Photo Contest, under the same category – the Sidelights (see second photo). What made me very proud is that it was the only black and white photo that made it to the list of winners in that year’s photo contest, all the rest were colored.
By 2015, the heavens were again so good. For the third time, I won in the same photo contest however this time, under a different category – the Higante (see third photo). I consider it a happy photo because aside from Ben 10’s comic pose, his smile entices whoever looks at him.
Above are so far my accomplishments in photography as far as competitions are concerned. However I have photographed many events, did some glam shoots, travel and food photography, photowalks, and phoneography most of the time.
Al Fresco 