Its Blocked Again

Just came back from a month vacation in the Philippines. When I went online to check on my Flickr Gallery to my dismay when I found out that Flickr is banned again in UAE after they lifted the ban few months back damn just uploaded some of the pictures i shot during my vacation I just upload it before leaving Manila.
I just hope that they will lift the ban again in the near future for the meantime just looking for alternative.

Regatta

rowing
Originally uploaded by mondp.

Shot of the Philippine rowing team during their afternoon practice at Manila Bay. I intentionally included the barge in the picture to give you the Manila Bay environment.

Quiapo Church

Been planning/trying to shoot this church for quite sometime (4 years to be exact) have a chance to do it recently during my vacation and I make a trip to Hidalgo St. to get some photography stuff (for those of you not from the Philippines Hidalgo is the Photography haven in the Philippines which incidentally have its Facelift last year more on that later).
this is my version of the Quiapo Church its one of the oldest church i the Philippines it just celebrated its 400th year last month I make this in B&W which is my concept for this shot. I was able to take a couple of shots and this one of the picture I came out which is my favorite for this series of shot.

Taal Volcano

taal volcano 002.jpg
Originally uploaded by mondp.

Shot this during our trip to Tagaytay recently while having my vacation in the Philippines. This view is from the viewing deck juist outside Starbucks.

Fisherman

fisherman 002
Originally uploaded by mondp.

I shot this late in the afternoon at a Fishing Village in the province of Batangas 2 hours south of Manila.

Janel

janel 002
Originally uploaded by mondp.

A portrait of wife's Niece.

Trying to finish all the stuff I have to do at the office before I'll go on a month vacation back to Manila. I'm quite excited about this break it means seeing again my Family, Friends and got to dine in some of the resto I missed while I was here in UAE.
Everything is all set. Bulk of the things I will carry will be mostly gadgets I'll be bringing both of my Film and Digital SLRs plus couple of lenses, my laptop and even the dock for my iPod. Plus the barage of cables, chargers and storage device that will go with this. I will post some of the photos of this trip till then.

Welcome 2007 (Better Late than never)

Well Better Late than never Happy New Year to all may we all have a fruitfull year ahead of us.

Breaking the Record

Ten Years ago it was Kuala Lumpur with the Petronas Twin Towers . Now its Dubai turn to break the world record in having the tallest building in the world with Burj Dubai (photo above). I have the oppurtunity to witness the construction of these two skyscrapers.
I was involve in the Construction job of the Retail Podium of the Petronas Twin Tower. Just working below this building so I have the oppurtunity to go to the top floor.
I always see Burj Dubai since its near to where I workk so i passed by that structure everyday so I took time to take a snap of it and hoping I will have an oppurtunity go to its top level oneday. Currently the Construction are on its 93 rd level what is rumored to be 180 floors well till now they haven't confirmed on how tall this skyscraper will be. Lets just wait and see.

Seasons Greetings

Wishing you all a Blessed Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
Thank you very much for taking time to visit my page.

Caroling in the ME

One scenario I missed during the Christmas season here in the Middle East is children singing Christmas Carols (Caroling) in front of your house or in your car during traffic stop in exchange of giving them loose change.
Well I didn't missed it completely as the next door kid together with his cousin go in every room in our place to do some caroling there are only four rooms iin our place so they sing in every room like 4 times.
Suddenly feels like your home again. Well before giving them my "Aguinaldo" as they say it back home I took a couple of snaps at them.

I just want to greet everyone who have time to read my blogs for the past year a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

My Top 11 Photos for 2006

Shot in a Desert in UAE

I started it last year where I show my top 10 photos of thr year now I'm showing you my top 10 Photos in 2006 actually its 11 just having hard time till the final minute to choose on which photos I will drop so I decided to post the 11.

A view of Dubai Creek by night

One of the many Mosque in UAE

Creek Park, Dubai

Somewhere in our neighborhood

Most of the photos here were shot in the UAE with a photo shot in Manila. Photos here are a mixture of Digital and Film (Yes I still shoot in Film even in the Digital days ) shots. And these were from my personal project and arrange in Ramdom order.

Portrait of a Friend

Portrait of CJ

Burjuman Plaza, Dubai



A street kid in Manila Bay



Somewhere in Dubai


In a Desert somewhere in UAE

Honorable Mention:

I also included a couple of picture though thay don't rank in the top 10 or 11 but they are pictures that are shot using my Cellphone so i thought to include them as honorable mention.

Macro this time

My first crack in Macro photography in years. Well I didn't even used a Macro lens (shame,shame,shame) but one of my Mentors told me before that he was able to do Macro photography for several years using a Close up Filter. So I used one to give it a try for my first subject I use what most of Macro Photographer used a "Flower". I have to photograph this flower early in the morning (on the way to work actually) because this flower wilt in the afternoon and have some fresh one when morning comes don't know the name but its similar to the Yellow bell but obviously its not Yellow so for sure its a different name har har har.
Well what do you think?

Now its Cricket

After shooting Rugby last week now its the turn of Cricket. Used to watched this sport in Star TV but even I watch it for hours still couldn't understood the game.
Last Thursday was our company annual cricket tournament. I have a chance to watch the game live and since I'm already in the area its time to bring out the long lenses and switch on the 5FPS mode of my DSLR. While I have a chance to shoot the game I begin to understand the it even just a little bit.
Here are some photos I shot.

Rugby

Just want to show some picture I shot during the Dubai Rugby 7. Its my first time to shoot a Rugby game as its my first time to watch a live Rugby game as I watch the sport every now and then in Star Sports when I was still in Manila. I seldom shoot sports and on that rare times I shoot a Basketball game. Well late this week I'm looking forward to shoot another sport which is Cricket as our company will held its annual Cricket tournament. For the now here are some Rugby game pictures.

Lately I started to enjoy listening to Podcasts. In my iPod I actually listen more to podcast than to music I always download even the past episode of the few podcast I subscribe in iTunes which ranges from Photography podcast to some Tech news and podcast about Mac. I enjoy listening to "Mac Geek Gab" have some news, useful information and tips about Macintosh a must for a new Mac user like myself. Right now I'm catching up with my listening . What I enjoy about podcast is I have something new to listen evey week.

Its raining

For the first time in my stay in UAE it rained.So whats the big deal well its the first time for this year that I experienced rain. Its just a minor drizzle but it lasted for hours so theres mud all over the project site. Traffic was much worst. Then late in the afternoon Power went out in the office. Suddenly feel like I'm back in the Philippines.

Update of previous post (What will happen to this??)

Just attended the awarding ceremony of the nationwide photo competition without expecting anything. Just went there to see my entry being exhibit in the hall and to chat with my photographer friends. Seeing the other entry makes me think if my photo did make an impact to the guest and judges.
As the awarding goes underway all the participant were presented with a certificate well at least theres something I got. Then when they called the top 20 finalist out of 200 entries well to my surprise my entry was one of the 20 finalist whooaa didn't expect that my photo did make an impact. We'll it will always be that way. Whenever I don't expect anything when wentering a competiotion I always got away with something.
(See the photo of my entry on my previous post.)

Zager

Zager001
Originally uploaded by mondp.

Its been weeks since I got hold of my Camera and did some serious shoot. Its not I'm lazy maybe I'm not into the groove of shooting pictures. Every now and then I just want to post some old pictures which does not yet appeared in any my galleries/blog.
This is one of them (I think). A portrait of a Colleague. Shot mid this year supposedly for my project submission when I took up Black and White Developing and Printing.
I did not submit this picture in favor of another picture. But this one is worth posting because its one of my Favorite Black and White portrait.

What will hapen to this??

This will be my entry in a Nationwide photo competition sponsored by our Camera Club. The theme is "Green Desert" the way I interpret it it should show trees in the desert. For the duration of the competiton I didn't have time to go deep in the desert again to shoot some pictures for my entry. So the logical thing to do is to look in my stock photo library and here's what I got that that will go with the Theme at least. Judging and awarding will be less than 2 weeks from now. Not to sound pessimistic I'm not really expecting my entry to win but for the record everytime I submit an entry for a competiton that I didn't expect to win I always come away an award (one of them First Place) but if I submit an entry with confidence expecting with an award I always get empty handed. So what will happen to this entry??? We'll find out in less than 2 weeks.