Angono street art (relief sculptures)

Instead of graffiti, Angono artists decided to adorn their street walls with various relief sculptures.  Well, they do have some walls adorned with creative graffiti art, but that's for another post.

This street, I believe, is the one that leads to or is Lucio San Pedro Street. You can't miss this street it's near the town proper, just look for the bust of Lucio San Pedro at a street corner from the main road, enter that street.

This, obviously, is a scene depicting Jose Rizal's moment of martyrdom, when he got executed in Luneta.

This one seems to be depicting the exultation of the Filipino family, its values and culture.

I love this one, merging different famous Filipino mythology stories. Can you identify the characters and/or symbols used?

This looks like a depiction of village life and camaraderie of a neighborhood.

(I have failed to take note the names of the artists who made these beautiful creations. I could update this in the future to include their names.)

Angono is a nice town to be lost in. You can just take a long walk, be lost and be surprised on what wondrous artwork you'll see round the corner. I advise you all to go out and explore, too.

That's it for now. Four days left before Christmas. :)

Intramuros in light-leaky images

I have mentioned several times on this blog that I have an old Yashica FX-D film camera. It is not in good condition, its joints are covered in black tape, film inside has a propensity to get stuck often, among other things. Most of the prints taken in sunny conditions get lots of light leaks.

Despite all of these drawbacks, I still love using it. Instead of seeing an image that is a close approximation of the real thing, I get to see them in a surreal light.

Here's some photos taken using my (not so) trusty Yashica. I used redscale film (or is it expired film?).

The film did give this vintage structure, a very vintage effect, without using Instagram or other filtering programs.

The light leak looks like a blob of light that's about to enter the darkened church.

For vintage, worn photo-looks, redscale film really does deliver.

I held the cam still for about a minute (or did I use a tripod? I forgot.), slow-shutter mode thingy (no, not HDR) to allow more light to expose the film, it then gave the image color even if the film is redscale. (Or, it could just be a freak accident that this one got color-y) 

I will sleep after I finish writing this post, and this photo made me think that it could be a great setting for a dream sequence, as long as it's not a nightmare.

Finally, this sculpture, for me, is just so moving. The subject is heartbreaking, dying of poverty and hunger. I guess, the film and the light leaks made the image a lot gloomier as it is.

What have I learned with this? Well, using a cheap, ready-made redscale film gives unpredictable "filters" on your photos. If you want a vintage, warm, worn look on your images without PS, this could greatly help in your project.

Redscale film by Lomography is one of my favorite types of film to use. The results on each frame, on every roll developed, is very varied, it surprises you.

That's it for now.

Balaw-Balaw

Balaw-Balaw is a restaurant/art museum in Angono, Rizal. I lived for almost two years in Angono, and this resto is one of my favorite places in town (the other one is Nemiranda's Art Camp). I took lots of photos of this resto, on different occasions, but I'm not in the mood to upload all of them here. If you want to see this great art resto, you have to come in person.

Yummy Filipino dishes in generous servings + great artworks = HEAVEN (for me, at least.)

This photo is one of my favorite shots of my favorite artwork in Balaw-Balaw. The sculpture is very realistic. When I first saw it, it made me break a tear, I can't explain the feeling, but I had a melange of emotions upon gazing on this wonderful piece: calmness coupled with heartbreak and longing and other emotions that I can't put into words. I know my photography isn't great, but I hope you get the gist that this is a great work of art.

I could almost see her breathing.

Vivitar Point-and-Shoot Test Shots

We bought the Vivitar P&S film camera for only 500 pesos buy-one-take-one from the local online deal store: cashcashpinoy, our local Groupon. If you are Pinoy, chances are, you've already heard or used that site.

It comes with a false panorama slide that you have to insert inside the cam's body. What it does is it gives the image a black border at the top and the bottom, fooling the eye into thinking that it's seeing a panoramic shot.

These were taken in Angono and Antipolo City, both in Rizal Province, Philippines.

First five photos are from Angono. This town offers idyllic spots, perfect for those who are tired of the city life. We just walked around and took photos of interesting subjects.

Here's a restaurant area, where you could choose your preferred "kubo" (nipa hut) to dine in. I don't know the name of the resto, it's closed when we went there, but their specialty are duck dishes, specifically, roasted ducks.

Since Angono is considered as the country's art capital, there are lots of places where art is their business. This one is the entrance to a factory of world-class sculptures. Again, my memory fails me in remembering the name of this place. You could easily spot it though, as it is near a prominent landmark in the town, the Iglesia station.

We walked further and spotted this huge carabao carving at a waiting shed. Each barangay in Angono have epic sculptures, but we weren't able to take pictures of all of it using this camera.

Finally, we went home to Pao's parents' home in Antipolo and strolled in the park within the subdivision. We spotted this old water tower, which looks like a UFO for me.

That's it for now. :)