Sunday, August 19, 2012

A break from solo shooting: New photobuddies

I might haven't said before that 90% of my street time, I shoot solo. Call me forever alone, but I don't really care. :P 

Shooting street alone is my regular dose of Zen. It leaves me tied to my thoughts and passions at the same time, thus giving me a very special sense of satisfaction afterwards. (More like the feeling of giving out that long burp after downing a bottle of Coke, or vinegar perhaps if that makes you happy.)

But then, it is undeniable that there would always be this urge to spice and jumble things up once in a while. So I decided to have an open invitation through Facebook for a street photowalk here in Baguio. And luckily, there were some who responded.


From left: Cyril, Daniel, and Gevenlie, that face-implanted column, and random strangers pretending to text so as to keep things less awkward. Too bad Darla wasn't able to come.

Cyril is a fellow engineering student. Daniel, a fellow photojournalist in the school paper. Gevenlie, Daniel's friend, a Legal Studies student. (Yee. Haha. Intriga. Sorreh. XD)

The walk was pretty much fun. We started around 7 with a short introduction to street photography by me. I was pretty excited to share my thoughts and stuff I've learned in SP from months-worth of readings and forum experiences. But nonetheless, I don't see myself as a so-called-"mentor", just so you know. SP is an endless learning process - we're always students. :)

Unwavered by rainshowers, we scoured the streets of downtown Baguio in search of photo-worthy scenarios. But as Alex Webb has said, "Street Photography is 99.9% failure", It seems that I have indeed got my mere .1% out of the 4-hour photowalk. I have gotten only one image which I like very much.



Copyright: Julian Carlo Barbadillo

So yea. It turned out that shooting with buddies is really quite a different experience. At least you get:

1.) BRAVER - with buddies, you can gather enough courage to explore places you might be too afraid/intimidated to go to when alone.

2.) More confident - you really don't have to worry about what others say when you're with a buddy/ buddies shooting. You know what I mean, those voices of strangers seeing you shoot streets that you imagine in your head. (or maybe it's just me)


So yea. I'm looking forward to shooting with them again. And with new photobuddies too. Perhaps, you. ;)