Let’s Go Outdoors!

Skonehem, I love you. Look! Some awesome ideas for the outdoors. I think dad would’ve made a project of our outdoors had he seen these. Or okay, he would have talked about starting a backyard/outdoor project.

Or, if you’re lucky enough to live by the river or the sea

And if you had work, or is the type to being working at home, then wouldn’t this be perfect???

It’s nice to dream, no? I’m dreaming it’s the weekend already—or better yet, it is still Thursday but I played hooky—and because I had either of these, I’d be hanging out here.

Pretty

It enables me to breathe more freely. Also,

Nice yellow details. Me like! As always, everything from the beautiful skonahem

Happy Thoughts

(photos from youaremyfave)

Sorry for the lethargic posts. My dad’s been in the hospital since Saturday, and the four girls (mom and three daughters) have been playing nurse. It’s been very draining, to say the least. I can feel a fever marinating in my body. I am hoping it doesn’t push through because dad needs as much care as possible, the other girls have become emo, and by next week, I’ll need to be back in the office.

Thankfully, I found these photos from youaremyfave. Smores never fails. And right now, a nice bed in a cool room and a j would be fantastic. Because Manila just hit the 37.5 degree mark and the AC, while it is highly highly appreciated, can be cruelly cold. I swear, there isn’t like natural cool.

Hoping you’re having a better week. (:

A Calm Summer

This is a delayed post. I reckon the following photos are best consumed as this song plays on:

Two weeks ago, on the first weekend of May, I went with my friend to her beach house in Batangas, a four-hour drive away from manila for a three-day trip.

Luckily, her dad’s yacht swung by, for a most welcome retreat. We sailed in the morning and then again, in the afternoon, just as the sun was setting.

It was during that three-hour long sunset sail that certain stories crystallized in my mind. Finally, I am writing for myself again. So relieved.

While they’ve come to knot themselves again, I console myself with the thought that at the very least, I got around to writing an outline.

My mind is kind of full again and all those stories are jumbled in my head again. Normally, I would’ve sulked and give in to bad mood. But I was looking at the pictures and how can you give in to ugliness???

The original photos would’ve sufficed but I wanted to show what I saw during the sail exactly as I remember them. So I went ahead and played with them on photoshop. This is exactly as I remember them, the rays of the sun reduced to a a tickle of a pinch.

Bahagski

Bahagski, or Bahaghari (Rainbow in Filipino) is a Filipino photographer based in Tokyo, Japan. He finally has his website up. And, wow. Look at those photos. They say so much, without overcrowding the message:

These are from his ongoing projects. From the website, it seems Bahag is working on three projects simultaneously. “Sobrang daming ideas,” (There are so many ideas in my head) he tells me over Facebook chat. He tells me he wishes he could also write so that he could convey whatever it was he wanted to say. I told him, that was unnecessary; his photos say it all.

When he was still based in Manila, I was lucky enough to have worked with him on one of my most important assignments, professionally and personally: We worked on the Pinoy Rock story that required us to go up Baguio to shoot and interview Pinoy Rock Icon Joey Pepe Smith. It was sweet.

It was during the trip that I got to know him. We don’t talk much nowadays, I didn’t even see him in Japan when I went there to visit. But I’d like to think he’s a friend; someone I can talk to when my head needs a bit of clearing, you know?

Anyway, the first time I saw his photos, I was inspired spot on. Reckon, I want to be able to write the way he takes photographs.

And since then, that is what I have been doing, or trying to do. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I have been engaging in sulat sarili (personal writing). Last Friday marked my first obstacle. I am at a standstill, trying to clear the fog and straighten a few things up before proceeding.

That’s the kind of clarity you can get from viewing Bahag’s photos.

(photos by Bahaghari, via Bahagski)