Cliché: Hello World! It's me! :P

Oh hi! This is my first post obviously. Been a while since I wrote something this significant so bare with my awkwardness maybe? :P Seriously. I don't really know why my mind goes haywire for these "first" thingies. But anyways, here's an obligatory self-intro just for you guys.

I'm Julian Carlo Barbadillo. Filipino. 19 yr-old college student. An Electronics engineering student, to be precise. A self-confessed-self-proclaimed street photographer. I'm still learning  the craft, though (and this might take an eternity). In fact I just shoved myself into the Street Photography genre* (read: method*. more about that on later posts) a couple of months ago. But I got so addicted and hooked that I strived to absorb as much info about the method as possible and tried to apply my learnings within that short period of time to achieve, oftentimes nothing, but sometimes some pretty nice photographs. Well, for me, at least. I hope that would also be the case for you, too. *wink wink*

I'd like to think that many are intrigued as to why I chose Street Photography (SP) as my field of specialization (gemays). Specially in these times when Portrait-Wedding-Fashion Photography and Landscape Photography are on a *boom*. I'll tell you why, and I'll be dead honest with this. 

First reason: I'm a poor guy. I can't really afford expensive telephotos, flashes, triggers, strobes, light stands, filters, tripod (HECK. I don't even own a tripod for real), and what not. All I have is my 500D and my handy-dandy kit lens (my kuya's birthday present for me last yr) which are just enough for a street photography set-up. Rangefinders and primes are the perfect gear for SP, though. So I'm gonna start saving for a Fujifilm Finepix X100 maybe. Talk about a long shot saving spree.

Second reason: I developed a hate repulsion to repetitive, brain-stagnating, heavily-gear-relying photography stuff. Maybe as a natural defensive mechanism to compensate for my photography "handicaps". I have worked for a shirt shop as a product photographer for a short time and I dreaded shooting models. It's the same thing over and over. Have the model dressed and made-up, find a location, think of a pose, *ka-chak*, another pose, *ka-chack*. Not to mention my lack of gear. Pop-up flash only beybeh. Whew. Yes, I have also tried landscape. But I never really got what I wanted. I drooled for long exposures and I tried to make my own too. But then again, I figured that one needs filterssssss to produce those magnificent piece of art. Filters which cost more than my yearly monthly allowance. And then again I tried macro. My kuya got me a lens reversing ring for my kit lens. Instant macro lens! Well, macro is a bit different to the previous two that I've tried. I still quite love and shoot macro. It's just very relaxing to do. But I still get bored easily.

Third reason: I walk always. I mean, I rarely commute. Only if it's necessary. Ugh, what an absurd reason, you might think. But walking exposed me to the streets. I have seen oddities, humors, nuances, patterns, geometries, and characters in my walk-a-thons. I have developed an innate relationship with the outside because of walking (and also very nice calves. haha). It was and IS this interest which finally made me a street person and consequently, a street photographer. 

Fourth and last reason: My brain loves stimulation. I find SP very spontaneous and hella difficult, to say the least. I had to deal with mental tasks continuously like: finding ways to compose shots while being discreet/invisible/unobtrusive to my subjects; recognizing patterns and geometry in the crowd; anticipating what happens next just by observing subtle clues about the subjects and the environment; reading tons of SP articles and hand-picking ideas which I think match with my personality and my goals; and many many many more. SP has been a brain workout for me. Very different from schoolworks and shit. It's just very mind-sharpening 

and zen-like at the same time. And the fact that what I see once will never unfold the same way again -ever- just makes me indulge myself to SP even more. Makes me wanna sing, "I don't wanna miss a theeengg~"

Sooo, yea. :D This post is getting longer than expected. I think I'll just tell more on my next posts. :)

Thanks for reading until this very sentence! You rock! Keep in touch okay? More posts and photos to come!

*PS (yes, postcript, not Photoshop you camera-head!) I'd like to thank my one and only Celine for helping me push through with this blog. She's an interactive media design student in Canada. And I so love her. :3