How to be child-like

I was recently organizing my photo library when I saw these interesting pictures of kids I randomly took in past trips.  It reminded me of child-like traits which we should preserve (if we still have any trace of them) or re-adopt if we’ve already forgotten them.

1.  Curiosity.  When we were kids, we’re always curious and we’re not afraid to experiment.  We don’t think about succeeding or failing.  We just do it even if sometimes it takes several attempts.  The most important thing is - it’s no big deal if we don’t get the result we’re expecting because in our simple mind, there are so many other things to do and explore.   As grown ups, when we try to do something and fail, we think we’re not cut out for it and begin losing confidence in ourselves, preventing us from trying other new things.



I remember passing by this kid along a side street in Taal, Batangas on a mid-afternoon.  While everyone was having siesta, she was out in the street trying to burn a hole into a leaf by using a magnifying lens.  I actually remember doing that too as a kid!  Haha…  What else do I remember doing as a kid?  Tracking ant trails in trees in search of the queen ant (it usually resides in a cocoon made from dried leaves), cutting a lizard’s tail to see if it really has its own life (haha!) and making giant red and black ants fight (the blacks always win!) among many other crazy things.

2.  “I can” mindset.  As kids, we think we can do anything and everything.  We  don’t get easily intimidated.  We see a ball in a court and instinctively, we’ll try to shoot the ball into the ring without thinking if we have enough strength and force to throw the ball given the distance.  As adults, before we do anything, we usually process the pros and cons – not that we shouldn’t -  but not up to the point of analysis-paralysis.

I saw this kid in the plaza while waiting for the town procession. He can barely reach the pedals and the handle bar but look at how serious he was trying to drive the bike!



3.  All out in having fun.  As kids,  when we play, we run as if there is no tomorrow.  There’s adrenaline rush everytime the “it” runs after you.   The feeling is a weird combination of exhilaration and fear (of being tagged by the “it”).  At the end of the game, if you get tagged or you lose, you’ll tell your playmates that you’ll beat them the next time  but  you never hold grudges against them.  You know it’s just a game and more than winning,  it’s the togetherness which makes it fun.  For me, nothing, not even an expensive toy, can beat the fun of playing with other kids. 

As adults, we sometimes forget to have fun.  We treat our activities as obligations.  We think that we need to spend to have fun.  But guess what?  Fun can be cheap and it can even be free. :)

I also saw these kids in the plaza while waiting for the town procession.  Look at their faces – their raw emotions – it’s as if they’re trying to beat each other for some chance of a lifetime.  But look closely, it’s just a toy plane they’re chasing after! :)



As we grow older, I think all the more we should embrace child-like traits.  Life shouldn’t be too complicated if we only think like children. :)

A chance encounter with Orphans

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.

I noticed that some of the kids were wearing the same dress so out of curiosity, I asked the nun sitting beside them if they were from a certain school.  The nun said the kids were from an orphanage.

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. 

A short history of Travel Photography

Sometimes, I am guilty of not maximizing the use of my DSLR because I am lazy to carry it.  I’m still very much attached to the point and shoot since it’s much more convenient to bring it around.  But nothing beats a DSLR when it comes to low light conditions and shutter speed that’s why I’m still hanging on to it …until I probably admit to myself that it I’ll never overcome my laziness. Haha…

Anyway, after reading a few pages of Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Photography by Richard I'Anson, I realized that I don’t have the right to complain about carrying a DSLR when traveling.  In fact, at this day and age, we’re extremely lucky.  

Did you know that the first travel photo which was taken around 1826 in France by a guy named Joseph Nicephore Niepce required an eight-hour exposure?!  Yep, 8 hours and considering it was taken at daylight!  

Then around 1839, a guy named Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre introduced what is now known as daguerreotype.  It allowed people to travel with cameras and produce photos except that you had to carry a portable darkroom tent and containers of chemicals! (And here I am refusing to buy a tripod because I don’t want to carry anything on top of a basic camera!)

In 1851, a guy named Frederick Scott Archer invented the wet collodion plate.  The process reduced exposure time to 2 seconds and allowed reproduction of photos but this time, photographers didn’t just have to bring a portable tent and chemicals, but also glass plates, plateholders, tanks and  water containers! 

By 1860, a lot of the popular travel spots like the Great Wall, Nile and Grand Canyon were taken in great detail using the wet collodion plate.  The photos created public interest and as tourism increased, the demand for photos as souvenirs emerged. Postcards which were previously hand-drawn were eventually replaced by photographs. (How big was the photographic postcard market?  The world's mail systems processed 7 billion postcards in 1910.)
 
In 1888, George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, invented a camera using a roll of film.   The first ever Kodak camera came with a memo book so you can track the count of the photos you’ve taken.  And the rest is just history. 

In 2009, The Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Photography cites that over 500 billion digital photos would have been taken! Whoa… Photography has indeed gone a long way.

So no more complaining about lugging around some heavy DSLR.  I’m just so glad we don’t have to carry tents and chemicals these days.  But if that were the case, I would just probably be one of those buying postcards. Haha…