THE COLOR OF MONEY TWO.....

As I continue my quest to produce some images based on the theme "complimentary colors" with the local currency as my subject, I decided to interpret the phrase "paperweight". The orange takes the place of a paperweight. Lighting was provided with the aid of my led lenser k3 since my flash does not have its slave function working.

Eventually, I grew tired of the pictures that I was getting since I could not decrease the light from my led lenser down to a small beam (which can only be achieved with a honeycomb or a snoot attachment). I then resorted to playing with the images in CS5 afterwards. The above pictures are the fruits of my impaired imagination!

THE RETURN OF THE CHEFS.....

An Ongoing Competition At The Professional Level.....






Chef Bruce Lim As He Prepares His Workstation.....






Preparing His First Dish.....






About To Lay It On The Table.....






Preparing The Second Dish.....






The First Dish.....






The Second Dish.....





As far as I can recall, I have always loved eating good food, a certified foodie. And good food to me does not necessarily mean steaks, although I love a good steak and all those posh entrees at Michelin star restaurants. Hmmm Michelin star? Does Manila actually have one? Going back, good food can be as simple as tuyo with champorado or even the typical burgers and fries from any of the fast food chains that the city has. And the locale of these places range from the malls to the neighborhood hole in the wall eateries.

But part of eating is also knowing how to cook good food since dining out can burn a hole in one's pocket most of the time. Hence I always try to remember the flavors in a certain dish that I really love, allowing me to come up with a version close to what I experienced in a restaurant before whenever I cook.

Both of my parents are good cooks. And my mother always made me prepare the ingredients as I helped her cook when I was younger. Talk about junior master chef, that was me. As I grew up, my mother would ask me every now and then to cook the family meal. My travels overseas have broaden my palate that whenever I cook a dish nowadays, my mom would comment para akong kumakain sa restaurant.

This love for food has also led me to the world of cooking shows. Stephen Yan's Wok With Yan was the first cooking show that I have ever watched. He obviously specialized in Chinese cooking and his easy demeanor, wit (which can be viewed as embroidered sayings on his apron) and charm made me follow his show as it aired weekly. The BBC in London has a lifestyle channel and it airs cooking shows most of the time. I now am a fan of Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay as a result of my exposure to this channel.

Here in the Philippines, Nora Daza and Sylvia Reynoso-Gala are the women who used to have their own cooking shows. Heny Sison soon starred in her own show and then other up and coming cooks and chefs followed. Some of Daza's and Reynoso-Gala's children got in the act too. It just proves that cooking is hereditary and also a way for parents and children to bond together.

A yearly event that showcased the talents of our local and also international chefs titled "Chefs on Parade" was soon started. From the adverts being shown on television, it mentioned that the event "was back". What was not clear to me was the year when this event was scrapped and just how many years was it not held. It did mention though that the event was 35 years old.

I checked the event out on its last day as I wanted to get into one of the free lectures on food photography. To my shock, the seminar area was packed full! I then decided to roam around the exhibit hall to see the other activities. Indeed, the hospitality business is thriving. Gone were the days when being a cook was considered a job which equals that of a housemaid in rank. Cooks are now called "chefs" and many seem to view this occupation as glamorous! I was able to check out a free cooking demo by Chef Bruce Lim, he of "Tablescapes" his cooking show at Studio 23. I didn't line up to taste his dishes though, as I had to go check the stalls selling some wares. But based from the photos I took of the dishes, it looks appetizing enough.

People might get curious and ask me the names and recipes for the two entrees. I do have the names and the recipe for each dish but as of this writing, I can't find it. I shall update this blog and post the recipes once I find it, Sorry! My bad!

THE COLOR OF MONEY.....

The Succeeding Frames.....





























The First Frame.....







My flash isn't working properly. It accidentally fell off the light stand just as I was about to raise the height of the stand during one of my strobist experiments. Strobist is a photography term coined by David Hobby to describe the use of off camera flash as a main source of light while shooting. The flash is used like a basic studio light or strobe. Light modifiers in the form of soft boxes and umbrellas are used to shape the light just like its big brother. Other accessories like barn doors, snoot and honeycombs can also be used.

Since my flash won't fire when I attached my Flashwaves wireless trigger to it, I had to device a plan to introduce light to my subject which I can also control. So I resorted to the painting with light technique. In this case, my mini led changer became my source of light for this experiment. My problem was how to control the amount of light that shall hit the subject since the torch did not have a dimmer function. What I did was place a white plastic in front of the torch and somehow occlude the light it emits by partially blocking it with the palm of my hand.

Seldom do I have this inspiration of doing some experimenting and I was on a roll. The theme for the club competition was complementary colors. In simple terms, it was just taking a picture of subjects whose colors complement one another. These combinations are red and green, blue and orange and yellow and violet.

It crossed my mind that for this theme, I shall be "using" our local paper money! And why not? If there are man made items that are colorful enough to be photographed, it is our local currency. Though my friend did mention that doing so is prohibited. I asked why and he could not give me an answer. Perhaps this has something to do with counterfeiting activities. But I am not into that. I guess this is one of those personal projects then.

The concept was to literally interpret the phrase "pocket money". I used the 20 peso bills and my jeans pocket to represent the colors orange and blue. The photos show the degree of trial and error that I had to do before I came up with decent images.

My apologies for placing the wrong year in some of the photos. I can't correct it anymore because of the way I placed the watermark. I really have to get some adequate sleep!

A SESSION WITH THE JOY LUCK CLUB.....

The Mothers Of The Joy Luck Club.....
















And Their Daughters.....















The Moon Lady And Houyi, Her Archer Husband.....






Stealing The Pill Of Immortality.....






Heading Towards The Moon.....







It came as a surprise to me that Repertory Philippines' initial offering for 2011 will be scheduled this February. The stage group normally opens its calendar year with a performance in January and not this month. Checking out their website for the line up and schedule of their performances, it seems like they have another play to stage on March (Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps), a different one on April (Shakespeare in Hollywood) and a musical for August until December (Seussical). All of these are going to be performed at Greenbelt One in Makati. They also are going to perform at the Meralco Theater from September to October as they present Peter Pan.

Back to the present though. For the start of this year, they are presenting The Joy Luck Club. Written by Susan Kim and based on Amy Tan's novel of the same title, The Joy Luck Club is the tale of 4 women who all come from China then moved to the US as immigrants and their 4 American born daughters. In 1949, the elder women meet one time at the First Chinese Baptist Church in a mah jong session and became friends, calling their mah jong group The Joy Luck Club. Each mother recounts her past and the kind of relationship that they have with their daughters and reveals the events that shaped up what they are now.

The play is directed by acclaimed Filipino professor in the theater arts Anton Juan and the cast includes Pinky Marquez, Rebecca Chuaunsu, Jay Glorioso and Frances Makil Ignacio as the mothers with Lily Chu, Ana Abad Santos, Jenny Jamora and Cris Villonco as their daughters. The play runs from February 4 to 20, Fridays and Saturdays, 8 pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 3:30 pm at Onstage Greenbelt One in Makati.

One thing I noticed about the cast is I am not familiar with the 3 elder female leads. Pinky, Ana, Jenny and Cris belong to a stable of Repertory talents who I am quite familiar with. Part of Ms. Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo's thrust is to make the cast more "open". Perhaps being open means employing theater actors outside of Repertory Philippines' pool of actors.

Repertory Philippines is ongoing a sort of transition at present. Ms.Lauchengco-Yulo is the new associate artistic director and has replaced Ms. Joy Virata. Her vision for the theater company is to make it more up to date by presenting newer plays that has never been shown to Philippine audiences and increase the number of stage play performances, reasoning out that Repertory did start as a stage play ensemble.

I am looking forward to these subtle changes that Ms. Lauchengco-Yulo has done for Repertory. And I do hope that more and more Filipinos will come out, will appreciate and will enjoy these performances.