Serendipitous moments rarely happen these days. I think because given the modern times, there’s always a cloud of doubt in our minds about meeting strangers. The only time we probably put down our guard is when we visit a place with well-preserved values and untainted with commercialism.
Over the weekend, for our documentary photography class, we went to Taal, Batangas. Though it was my third time to visit the place, it was my first time to explore the town by foot and on my own. As I explored, I realized that it was like Batanes – locals were warm and welcoming, everyone knows each other (a relative of a friend, a classmate of a relative, a friend of classmate…and all the other iterations… haha…) and locals are very honest. Case in point - I bought a bottle of mineral water from a sari-sari store but they didn’t have change so I left a 100 peso bill and said I’ll just come back to get my change later. I almost forgot about it but a couple of hours later, when I passed by the store on my way back, the vendor called out to return my change!:)
Anyway, while I was still thinking of a story for my documentary, I decided to hear mass first at the Miraculous Church of Our Lady of Caysasay in Labac, Taal, Batangas. I sat on a pew behind a row of kids. One of the kids, about 4 yrs old, was pointing at my camera so I signaled if she wanted to have her pic taken and she nodded so I took her photo.
Three more kids were signaling me for more pic-taking but since the mass was about to start, I just said that we can take more photos after the mass. So after the mass, I asked the nun if I can take more photos of the kids and she invited me to the orphanage which was just right beside the church.
I got introduced to another nun (who must be the mother superior) and she got excited that I would take photos of the kids. As she explained, they are about to celebrate their 50th anniversary and they wanted to have a streamer made and are decorating a bulletin board with the kids’ photos. I think she got overly excited and thought I was a professional photographer because she asked me if I can make the kids’ portraits appear inside a flower frame! Haha… In as much as I wanted to help, I only know how to point and shoot! Haha… In the end, they asked me to take some group shots and a full body shot, half-body shot and headshot of each kid – so that’s 3 shots x 20 kids = 60 shots minimum. I really don’t have any background on portraiture but I just had to trust myself as I was non-stop clicking my camera! Haha…
As a thank you, the kids sang for me. I’ll have their photos developed and sent via courier this week and I hope the photos are worthy of their song! Haha…
No matter how limited my photography skills are, I was so happy to have them put into good use that day. With a brush of luck and serendipity, a third-class photographer (even fourth-class if there's such thing! haha....) ended up shooting first-class subjects.
