THE JOURNEY BEGINS.....

A Handshake with the First Gentleman.....



My mother influenced me a great deal in my passion for photography. I do recall that during my growing up years, she would often take pictures of me and my siblings, nothing serious or fancy, just the normal shoot of the family during vacations and during special events like birthdays. I was my mom's favorite model as I would instantly ham it up in front of her camera. Equipment of choice during those days was a Kodak Instamatic, a rectangular box shaped camera that used flash cubes as an added light source. The funny thing about the cubes was that it emitted smoke after the shutter was released and the flash fired. The subjects usually get blinded by the strong flash of light that one has to sit momentarily, to get his bearings. This same smoke was eventually discovered to contain mercury vapors and was proven to poison people hence it was discontinued from the market. Eventually the camera suffered the same fate, that of being discontinued.

My mom then bought a 110 pocket camera. These cams were slim and lightweight that it fits into a man's front polo pocket. It used a 110 film cartridge. My mother would take the camera to school and she would ask me to take pictures. I studied in the school were she taught English at grade school level. She was my English teacher in the first until the second grade. If she was involved in the school program, I took her pictures. If my brother had a school presentation, I took his pictures. If my mom had a new hairstyle, I took her pictures. If my father had his own activities at the Billing Section of PGH, I took his pictures. If I had a school outing or a field trip, I would take the pictures. Soon enough, I found myself more behind the camera than in front of it, unlike what I used to do. I became fascinated with the idea of capturing a person's likeness and transferring it to a photograph. I was hooked, no turning back.

I continued shooting through my high school years. The 110 pocket cameras were still the current rage. My photography was funded by my parents who often requested me to go to this affair or this event with them, so I can photograph them as I listed above. At times, I'd saved enough money from my allowance and buy film for the camera, leave something more for the processing and take snaps of friends at school. Developing charge during those times was around 10 pesos. A single 3R print cost 50 centavos. Armed with the money given by my parents and living within the Sampaloc area of Manila, I'd go to Recto to have the cartridges processed. I can't recall though if the camera shops in Hidalgo existed, perhaps it already did. Having been able to go to Recto on my own from the age of 8, it didn't occur to me to go as far as Quiapo for processing the films, until the costs started to climb up and I was shrewd enough to go shop hopping until I finally reached Hidalgo in Quiapo, the Mecca of photography here in the Philippines.

During one of my trips to Recto, I started to notice these odd looking and bulky shaped cameras as they started to appear along the photo shops. These cams used a 135 film, which was considered to be a professional emulsion back then as only professional photographers who own film SLR's use this film size. However, camera manufacturers saw the potential that the market had, thus produced point and shoots using this film type. And once the trusted pocket camera failed to work, it was time to upgadeto the 135 point and shoot. My father gave me and my brother the money to buy our first 135 film camera and that further fueled my passion for photography.

And the journey continues.....