Rain + Umbrella + Camera + Streets

For most photographers, rainy days are no-shoot-just-stay-at-home-and-browse-9gag-days. But for streetogs, rainy days are days-to-shoot-and-die-for. Or something close, like cotton-candy-on-sundays-under-the-golden-hours shizzle. 

Seriously, shooting the streets during rainy days are almost zen-like. Well, at least for me. The rain brings about both advantages and disadvantages to the streettog. Let me enumerate some, okay?

Advantages:

1. Invisibility. 

Most people are too busy/concentrated/irritated on their efforts to ward off the rain from their precious bodies that they don't really pay too much attention to strangers taking photos of them face-to-face. Really. I swear no one gives that much attention to me when I shoot in the rain. I feel most invisible during these days. *smug face*

©Julian Carlo Barbadillo

2. Characters. The rain seems to be nature's open invitation for unique characters to go out and roam the streets. You can encounter a variety of weird and funny-looking rainwear fashion, faces with stories that complement the rainy mood, etc.

©Julian Carlo Barbadillo

3. Mood. Rain and fog provides a full-landscape makeover which proves to be a temporary cure to overfamiliarity to a place. The mood that accompanies rainy days are so much fun to exploit and to play with  to create some pretty interesting photographs.

©Julian Carlo Barbadillo

Disadvantages:

1. Camera-Handling. Unless you have weather-sealed cameras, this won't prove to be too much of a problem. But for us low-enders, extra care must be given to prevent our cameras from being soaked and rendered useless. Well for me, an umbrella does the job. But it limits my handling. An umbrella on my left hand means that I can't use manual focusing, or I can't brace my camera well to prevent camera shake. I normally rely on autofocus in these situations. Pre-focusing just won't work for me in these handicapped times because subjects do tend to pop out in every proximity possible - without my left hand on the focus ring, missing money shots would really be a pain.

2. Camera-handling. I just have to make sure I made the point. :))

So yeaaa. Shooting in the rain is a must try, and must be a habit for streettogs. Promise! ;))

*Check out works of Danny Santos II, a Singapore-based Filipino street photographer. His Bad Weather Project won so much acclaim in the international Street Photography scene! I'm a fan of his. :D

8th of July Streetwalk

After two long weeks, I finally had time to shoot! Woke up early and finished my laundry before scouring the streets. But when I started my walk, that dreaded feeling of over-familiarity with places that I've always been covering started to manifest. Seriously, that's one of the direst enemies of streettogs. 


Over-familiarity with a place hinders the ability to perceive and recognize interesting patterns, scenarios, and moments that would rather be momentous for one who is not as familiar with the place. I wandered for almost an hour on my regular route and got nothing. Dang,  I just wet my armpits (I was even wearing grey! Talk about greyscaled armpits. Haha. Gross. Sorry). 


With no inspiring scenarios in sight, I decided to go and grab some breakfast at Jollibee first. There I tried to do the Zen meditation technique which Sir Luis Liwanag had taught me. The technique supposedly clears your messy brain (due to overthinking and what not) and lets your it work faster afterwards. Something like a Cache Clear in internet browsers. So yea. And not so surprisingly (as I have already tried that for so many times), I finally got rid of the over familiarity and got some pretty nice photographs. Yey! :))
But not for so long. I really felt the urge to get lost. I mean to wander off track, to places I have never been. So I decided to brave the city market's alleys and found rather nice scenarios. I even felt invisible as the vast number of people busy with their own businesses weren't paying attention to me. Hoho.


So the following are my picked photos from this photowalk. Hope you like them! :)

"Light the way!" [no offense meant. hihi]

Life Event: A humble recognition from the OES forum

It has been a very busy and tiring week! I'm just being sneaky enough to steal some time to write about some pretty awesome stuff that happened in the past few days.


So there is this facebook forum/group called On Every Street (OES), a street photography forum with members/street photographers all around the globe. And there is this contest held by the group called the "OES Hall of Fame". Every month, photo entries are submitted by uploading them to a container album and are deliberated upon by the administrators of the group (who are experienced international street photographers). The best for each month is granted a spot on the Hall of Fame itself.


I joined the June HoF contest. And luckily...

My entry for June's OES HoF contest. My personal favorite as well. 

Man, this is my first award/recognition in the field of Street Photography! I felt so humbled and overwhelmed when Marco told me the news. I dunno, after all the efforts on learning and practicing SP, things like this would really prove to be a pat on the back, a reward and an affirmation that I'm on the right track Baby I was born this way. Though I don't really see myself as an awesome street photographer still. I feel that awesomeness in SP can not be measured by a single photograph, but by a consistently high-quality-jaw-dropping-knee-melting body of work. And that's my goal. :)


So yes. Just wanted to share the news. Hihi. Thank you all! Thank you again, OES family! And most of all, a big thank you to the Almighty. :)