Photojournalism Workshop 2009: It's the person behind, not the camera...

My first post for 2010, and it is about an event of a year ago (and I mean it only because it happened in 2009!)

It was on December 21, 2009 (a month ago today) when bloggers from all over Soccsksargen gathered to do mainly two things: (1) take lessons on basic photo-journalism and (2) exchange Christmas gifts.

The event was initiated by world-famous Gensan blogger Avel Manansala and was made possible through the benevolence of Orman Manansala of Asia United Bank and the inspired contributions of other Gensan bloggers like Sheng Dumalay and Sir Gilbert Tan.

The Farm @ Carpenter Hill, a hotel-resto garden resort in Koronadal City, provided the food and venue for the 1-day event; and served as an excellent subject and backdrop for the blogger-participants' practicum during the photojournalism workshop.

The workshop (which intentionally did not delve into the technical side of photography) was handled by veteran and renowned photojournalist Jojie Alcantara who ably provided input on several key guiding theories and principles on taking good photos (e.g. rule of thirds, looking for patterns and leading lines, using perspectives, etc.). With Ms. Jojie were co-photography artists Joyce Mariscal and Bogsy San Juan.

Here are some of the blogger-participants' raw photos taken during the workshop (mind you, only two of these photos were taken using a DSLR, the others were shot from a point-&-shoot cam, a China phone, and an early P&S model with a 16MB memory card):

by Hecky Minoza

by Van Almeria

 

by Remo Aguilar

 

by Kristan Franco

 

by Rabsky Villanueva

  

The above output along with the gigabytes of other photos brought home by the participants after the workshop once again has reaffirmed the perpetual photographers' dictum "It's not the camera, it's the person behind the lens..."

The Farm's Asst. Manager Mr. Jovic Ferrer

 

I got a coffee mug and a t-shirt as Christmas gifts :)

 

The Pax

Pvt S. Ryan, Dog Green Sector, Omaha Beach

Pvt S. Ryan, Dog Green Sector, Omaha Beach
Originally uploaded by Ariel Marco

I am trying out a new (or shall I say, a newly-found) feature of Flickr , which supposedly allows me to blog about a photo in my own photostream and have the post fed directly into my site in Blogger.

So let me share something about the photo posted here. [I think the photo is going to be posted above this text, if I am not mistaken].

This was taken from a famous beach resort in Samal Island, Davao. It is an original (as opposed to a Photoshopped) black and white digital photo I took using a point-and-shoot Canon. I took the opportunity to play with my cam and shoot while waiting for our swim as there was a four-hour low tide ahead of us when we visited the resort.

The photo shows my 9-year old kid Ivan playing out his fantasy as an Allied soldier in World War II; this time as a fallen US Army Ranger in Omaha Beach during the 1944 invasion of Normandy. Ivan himself titled the photo. If you have seen Spielberg's masterpiece Saving Private Ryan, then you know who Private S. Ryan is. No, he is not the one played by Matt Damon in the movie.

The prop that is a GI helmet in the foreground is an authentic Korean War-vintage; given to Ivan as a gift by his Ninong Lom Barranco. On our way to Samal, two Korean tourists took notice of the headgear and, when told of its history, one readily wore it and posed for a photo with Ivan. The Korean then smilingly told us he is from the North of the 38th parallel.