TOTUS TUUS.....

A Portrait of Pope John Paul II.....






Outside the Basilica.....






St. Peter's Square.....












The Caption Tells It All.....






Double Exposure.....







They say photographers will go to any length in order to get that perfect shot. Who "they" are, I do not know. But come to think of it, perhaps the statement came from photographers themselves, as an affirmation whenever a photographer faces staggering odds in doing their jobs.

I encountered my own "do it or else" situation early in my photographic journey. It was 1994 and Pope John Paul II came to Manila. It was the last day of the pope's stay in Manila and I wanted to get a photo of him using a Canon A1 film slr. I got into serious photography with this camera a few days earlier and I did not even own a dedicated flash gun. But my desire to take a photograph of him was so strong that I had to call my parents that day and told them I was not going to come home that night since I was with a few other people who camped outside of the Apostolic Nunciature (the Vatican's equivalent of an embassy) to catch a glimpse of the Pope in his place of stay. I was still unfamiliar with the camera though as I was used to using the film equivalent of a point and shoot digital camera. But this experience of talking to complete strangers as we sat on that closed to traffic section of Taft Avenue, of foregoing sleep and of waiting for the right time to take a photograph (what I call the stalker mode) as I sat outside made me realize that I had a photographer's trait in me. Was I able to get a good picture of the pope? No, because what I thought would happen did not happen when morning came, which was the pope opening his windows when he sees the crowd outside. Was I disappointed for not achieving my goal? A little but I got to see the pope! How cool was that during those times?

May 1, 2011 will be known as the day of his beatification. This is the second step in Canonization which he revised and made more precise into three steps in 1983. Just as I witnessed his proclamation as a pope, his journeys to this country, his slow decline of health and his eventual death, I watched his beatification ceremony. I felt compelled to take a few snaps of the tv screen, which would serve as a reminder for me of this day.

It was rather tricky to get the photos as I was not sure how digital single lens reflex cameras react to television screens. I applied any knowledge that I acquired based on experience of shooting slides off computer screens and these were the results that I got. Photos were then fixed with Photoshop to improve contrast, remove the television screen borders and flatten the photos a bit. The lines on the pictures are the light rays that the television screen emits when it is turned on. Now try this technique!