Those who know me know I'm not really a very good housekeeper. I do a reasonable job of keeping the studio presentable, but my office at home, well, it would take Hercules and a navigable river to clean it properly. Therefore, it should be no surprise that I lost the instructions for updating my website. Since I couldn't sleep last night, I ended up taking the photos in the site, and figuring out in Photoshop exactly what sizes everything was supposed to be and such.
Long story short, for the first time in 9 months, the main website for my studio is actually up to date. Three of the galleries feature new weddings, and gallery 5 includes engagement photos as well.
At every point in the process, if you asked either of us what Kristina's first pregnancy was, we would have told you we both felt it would be a girl. Caroline Grace proved us right.
This time, from the very beginning, we have both felt we were looking at a boy and a girl. In fact, Caroline always said she wanted a brother AND a sister. Well, we're getting pretty good at this prediction thing.
The lower child (who will be born first if delivered naturally) is a son, and the upper one is a daughter. We're overjoyed.
Now all we have to do is agree on our son's name... (See last post.)
When Kristina and I were expecting our little Caroline Grace, the name was a state secret. Even though we knew she was a girl, the potential boy's name (since discarded) was closely held.
I don't have that luxury this time. We definitely have a 1st choice girls name. No problems there. But we have very different ideas about boys' names, and she's told me in no uncertain terms, that she needs to know that my first choice name for a boy is not too outlandish for words. Even if it's going to be one of a pair of twin boys.
As you can tell, I don't have the most common name in the world. I like it that way. I know that when someone calls out, "Hey Ian!", they're talking to me. I want that for a potential son. I also like Irish and Scottish names. No matter what we pick, you can be assured that all of the names we are discussing come from either Ireland or Great Britain.
While we are not Catholic, my first choice name is a saint's name, and it means "full of goodness", although there is also an alternate meaning out there of "man of prayer." I like both qualities.
Depending on whether or not the other twin is a boy or a girl, we have two major options on the middle name to go with it:
Declan Samuel (other twin is a girl)
Declan Spencer (other twin is a boy)
Please share your thoughts in the comments. Kristina and I both really would like to know what you think.
..."What compact digital camera should I get so-and-so for the holidays?"
And the sad truth is, I don't know. The funny thing is that even though it's my profession, most photographers I know don't use point and shoot cameras a lot in real life. My walk around camera when I'm not toting my Canon 5D... is the iPhone. I'm probably more qualified to give you a recommendation on something I use regularly, like a GPS (I couldn't work without my Garmin Nuvi 360 with the bluetooth and the voice prompts with street names).
We have two digicams in the house. My wife has a Canon Powershot SD600 I got for her for her first Mother's Day, and we also have a Leica D-Lux 3, which is a little on the pricey side and isn't exactly a great value, to be honest.
And what do we use those digicams for? Video. My Leica has less motor noise than my camcorder, and I can put it in my pocket, so that's what I do with it. (This is the part where you're supposed to roll your eyes.)
All that said, I can give you a few pointers on buying a camera these days:
1. You really don't need all those megapixels. No, really. In fact, we're now getting to the point on digicams where some of them (I'm looking at that Leica on the shelf right now) have too many for their own good. Because they're trying to pack so many pixels on these itty bitty sensors, image quality is actually deteriorating on some of the newer models. If you're not going to print bigger than 8x10 (and most of you will never print bigger than 4x6), there's no need for more than 8MP.
2. Smaller is better. You know what makes a camera useful? When you carry it with you. If it's too big to bring somewhere, what good is it? Most people are best off with a camera no bigger than a deck of cards.
3. Look for simple. Now that I think about it, I end up having to help buy one digicam a year. You see, my father ends up replacing his annually. It's not that he's a gear geek or anything-- he ends up giving one away about once a year when he goes overseas on medical missions trips that he leads. Dad happens to take great pictures completely on instinct. He doesn't know an f-stop from a bus stop and he has no idea what the rule of thirds is, but he knows what looks good. He's looking for something that he can focus and shoot with. For Dad, face recognition technology is great, because he gets the focus right nearly all of the time. The Olympus cameras he prefers also have a little menu where he can look up what he wants to do, and tells him how to set the camera up for that type of shot.
4. SD cards rule. Dad actually got away from the Olympus cameras this time because he found out the hard way that the xD cards that Olympus and Fuji like are hard to find, and as a result, pricey. Sony's Memory sticks are a little easier to find, but nothing beats the good old SD card for being cheap and easy to find. Especially good when you're on a trip and need to run to Target or worse yet, some store in a foreign country. It's better to have more cards than you think you need than to run out of space during a once in a lifetime trip like your honeymoon.
5. CNET.com has great camera reviews. They're written for normal people, and many of them even include video to illustrate their points.
***
"OK, but what if I'm buying a camera for someone a little more advanced, you know, a camera that looks like yours, Ian?"
We've finally gotten to the point where DSLR's (the cameras with the interchangeable lenses where you can look right through the lens) are getting affordable. Like between $500 and $750. And the two big manufacturers (Nikon and Canon) both make great cameras where you'll get great features at low prices. Sony has also made some interesting cameras that work with old Minolta lenses, too.
If you had a SLR film camera made in the last 15 years, you might want to stay with the same brand of camera. The lenses will probably work on a new DSLR from the same company. I use lenses from my old Rebel G film camera on my newer Canon equipment all the time.
One of the best investments you can make, by the way is an external flash. The pop-up flash built into your low-end DSLR's is hardly better than the one built into a point and shoot. Anything that will let you point the flash at the ceiling makes a world of difference.
The most common question I get in my e-mails off the website is about package pricing. Of course, I have a natural aversion to the idea that someone like me should be telling you what your needs are. You know better than I do what items are most important to you and your family.
Today, I talked to a bride who had a modest budget-- not an overly small budget, but not the type where money is no object, either. In short, she's like a lot of people. She didn't think that it was going to fit, but one thing I knew from previous phone conversations is that she really liked my work a lot, and I really want to help someone like that out.
So, first off, I laid out what the items we'd talked about would cost a la carte from my pricelist:
Shooting fee: $1500
9.5 x 13 inch album, 30 sides: $1200
11 x 14 print: $56
2 8x10's: $50
Assorted smaller prints and wallets: $75-100
(All prints in a package are added up to one lump sum print credit)
Basically, we were looking at $2900 or so. A little on the high side for her. But she wanted to make up a pre-paid package, and since I'm getting paid up front on that, I can work out a discount of 10%. That got us down to $2610... still a touch high.
Now if you've gone to http://www.ianlozada.com/pricelist.pdf recently, you know that the pricelist expires on Saturday of this week. The only major change I'm anticipating is that I'm adding one smaller sized Graphistudio album, at 8x12 inches. We're going to slot that in at $900 for 30 sides, with limited choices on covers and paper style.
We swapped that in for the medium sized album (with an additional discount for prepackaging) and we were able to make the numbers work. In fact, I was able to show her that if she asked people to give her Pictage gift certificates as wedding gifts, she could drop the print credits and get a gallery wrapped canvas instead and still end up in her budgeted range.
The point I'm getting at is that I want to work with you to help you get the things you want within the constraints of your budget, but I also want you to have the freedom to make your package fit you, not what I say you should want.
So enough of you have commented on my recent lack of blogging that I felt shamed enough to get back to it. Actually, my attention has been commandeered a lot as of late by our two upcoming arrivals. I have a roll of sonogram prints next to me from my wife's last 3D sonogram-- those two little 'uns have cute little faces! Just no names. Partly because we don't know genders yet (Dec. 6th is the big day!), but mainly because we can only agree on one girl's name. Everything else is... difficult.
With that in mind, maybe it's best that I go back to showing you wedding photos instead. In fact, it's time to unveil some from my first Bluegrass area wedding, a couple of weeks ago in Georgetown. Heather and Patrick got married on the family horse farm, and you could not have asked for a nicer setting.
One of my favorite moments is that one where it suddenly hits the bride that this is really happening...
Many thanks to Mackenzie Spalding of One Fine Day Wedding Consultation and her staff for all their help!
I just put up my new fall pricelist, good for weddings booked by November 30th. You can see it at http://www.ianlozada.com/pricelist.pdf . The most significant change you need to know about is that we've dramatically lowered our prices on gallery wrapped canvas prints, the type that really define a wall space in your new home. The vendor who prints them came out with new pricing for pros that significantly lower my costs, so I wanted to make sure you get the benefit of that.
Here are the changed prices for Gallery Wraps:
16x20": $250
20x24: $300
24x36: $400
30x40: $525
36x48: $750
40x60: $1050
In addition, I'm honoring this price for anyone who had booked under the previous pricing plan. I'm really excited about this, because I think this is far and away the best way to display in your home that one image that says everything about your wedding.
Well, kinda sorta. Let's just say that I have the power to end central Kentucky's drought woes. All I have to do is reschedule Heather and Patrick's engagement session enough days in a row to refill the reservoirs. Because so far, we've tried twice to get their engagement pictures done, and twice all we've had to show for it is thunderstorms and downed tree branches.
In the meantime, all the local farmers can make their checks out to Ian Lozada Wedding Photography...
***
New pricelist coming out next week-- one of my vendors lowered their prices on gallery wrapped photo canvas printing, and as a result, I can offer some significant price cuts. More on this on Monday.
Since my talents don't extend to web design, I use a template to run the IanLozada.com website. Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to change all of the content tabs. Until I figure out how to change the "raves" tab to "pricing", I've just uploaded a copy of my pricelist in the background files to the website.
Long story short, you can find my current pricelist at http://www.ianlozada.com/pricelist.pdf at anytime. Or at least until I figure out how to alter that template.
As a select few people know, Kristina and I found out that we were expecting at the beginning of August. Well, we've had a bit of a wild ride since then.
About nine days ago, we went in for Kristina's first sonogram. At the time, we believed her to be about 9-10 weeks along. What they told us was that they found two sacs in her uterus, but one appeared to be empty, and the other had fetal tissue, but was showing no heartbeat. Clearly, this was not good. They ordered some blood tests, and told us that the levels of pregnancy hormone would tell us if we still had reason to believe that the pregnancy was still continuing. They also said that in many cases, people conceive two, and only one survives the initial few weeks, but until sonogram technology got to a certain point, most people knew nothing of the other child. In other words, we were iffy to have even the one child out of this pregnancy at this point. The one hope we clung to was that the original physical examination had us much further along than we anticipated, and perhaps they had the wrong conception date down, and the increased uterus size was from the fact there were two embryos. It wasn't a lot of hope, but my, how we clung to it.
We did a LOT of praying over the next 24 hours. The hormone levels kept going up, so they were cautiously optimistic, and scheduled us for another sono, this afternoon. Kristina had some familiar symptoms from when she was pregnant with Caroline, so we were hopeful to see one pregnancy continuing, but we were still praying hard for both children.
Kristina didn't want to look at the screen this time, so that was my job. I didn't say anything, but immediately, I saw some familiar shapes in both sacs. Sure enough, the sono tech changed the number of fetal pregnancies on the machine from 1 to 2. Soon afterward, the sono tech told our midwife, "I hear two heartbeats."
Sometimes, God rewards your faith and your prayers in an amazing way.
When Caroline was born, we put a Bible verse on her birth announcements, and it's pretty appropriate right now:
"The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy."--Psalm 126.3
... and something's gone horribly wrong in the basement, I suspect. It smells a little musty down there, and there's evidence of water on the floors. Ugh.
I miss my Lexington apartment already.
***
Of course, I'd be much happier to be home if Kristina and Caroline weren't still in California, but they're coming home on Monday. In the meantime, at least Maggie, my Jack Russell Terrier, is happy to see me. However, Dorothy, Caroline's goldfish (named after Elmo's Sesame Street goldfish, of course)... well, there's gonna be a new Dorothy when Caroline gets back home. And this time, I'm not letting my mom put the fish in a goldfish bowl. I know that's how Elmo has his Dorothy, but fish need more water surface than that if they're going to live. The aquarium's coming out of storage this time.
***
As I walked home from the railroad station (I took the JFK Airtrain and the Long Island Rail Road to get home), I passed a Burger King restaurant, and it dawned on me that I've never seen a BK in Lexington before. I don't think I've seen Wendy's here, either.
You see, I have an ironclad rule of traveling... don't eat anywhere you can eat at home. It's a great rule, and it means I get to try a lot of food I'd never have otherwise, but it also allows me into most chain restaurants. Long Island is one of the least chain-saturated places in America. Folks, we don't have Denny's here. No Cracker Barrel, no Waffle House and no Bob Evans. No Sonic, and no Hardees. Chik Fil-A isn't open on Sundays in New York... or on any other day of the week. WE DON'T EVEN HAVE DAIRY QUEEN. If I'm lyin', I'm flyin'.
But here's the thing... While I've done a good job of staying out of McDonalds, Arby's (which just came back to Long Island this year), TGI Fridays and Moe's Southwest Grill, at what point do I finally say, I've been in Lexington long enough that I can have a John Coctostan at Moe's? It's a real conundrum.
I need some help here. Somebody give me a good reason for either keeping up my stance, or ditching it. Leave your thoughts in the comments. Best reasoning gets dinner at your favorite Lexington restaurant on me. Contest open to anyone who isn't related to me and lives in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Winner announced first week of September.
(Pretend I inserted some lawyer talk here.)
Saturday's wedding was very special for me. Long before they were clients, Gwen and Jeremy were already friends of mine. To be such a big part of their happiness was really an honor. They were married at the Taj Lounge in Manhattan, and while it's an awesome venue, lighting the photos was a little tricky because it's so dark in there, and there aren't any neutral colored surfaces for me to bounce light off of. I have to say, however, I'm thrilled with my results.
Some early highlights:
Gwen and Jeremy are both involved in a company that provides medical anatomy artwork, so it was natural that they found a way to involve art in their wedding, replacing a unity candle with a unity painting, which they intend to display in their new home.
In the wake of the Lexington Bridal Show, I've been fielding a lot of inquiries and have already booked one wedding off the show. As a result, I thought I'd pass on which dates have come off the board over the last three weeks:
2007:
September 8
October 6, 7, 20, 26, 27, 28
November 2, 3, 4, 18
2008:
January 6
May 10
July 12, 18
Since Brian and I talked to over 200 brides on Sunday, I would recommend you don't wait to make sure you lock in your wedding date! In addition, if you book over the next two weeks, I am booking Lexington area engagement sessions during the week of August 13-16th. After that block of time, I don't project that I'll be doing any Lexington engagement sessions until October!
***
This weekend, I'm shooting one wedding in New Jersey and one in Manhattan, then flying out to Memphis for a conference Sunday through Thursday.
...and meeting so many of you at the Lexington Bridal Show today definitely falls under the awesomely tired bracket. I'm still amazed that I got my booth back into the minivan after assembling the table and sofa.
It was great not just to talk to so many brides in one place today, but also to see how many of you really get what my work is all about. I can't wait to give you ladies some gorgeous images for your albums. I sense my calendar is about to fill up very quickly.
(Special note: Thanks for finalizing your booking today, Sarah! I can't wait to shoot your wedding!)
The only thing that was not so great about today... I've got about 300 pieces of Ghiradelli chocolate and Lindt truffles I've got to find a home for. And my able associate, Brian, somehow managed to skip out without taking any of it home with him!
It's Friday night and I'm sitting in my hotel suite here in Lexington, with stacks of Chinese food containers around me, and everything smells like really good chocolate.
Come by my booth at the Lexington Bridal Show to find out what I'm talking about! (You can still sign up at http://www.Lexington-BridalShow.com to get your coupon for $2 off admission.)
10 years ago, on July 12th, this bride 
saw fit to take this man
to be her husband, and since then, I have lived happily ever after.
In other words, my July 12th's are booked in perpetuity. Happy 10th Anniversary, darling.
The less photographed females of the Lozada family...
Once upon a time, my future wife was a drama major in college. Like every other would be actress, she went and paid to have some headshots done. Now, Kristina's a bit of a blinker. And clearly this guy wasn't a very good photographer, because out of 100 frames he took, only 6 of them didn't feature her eyes shut. And those 6 were half-blinks.
Needless to say, she's had a mistrust of studio flashes ever since. So it wasn't without some trepidation that she sat down in front of my new octabox last week. Let's put it this way-- she wanted the dog to be part of the session, too, just so it wouldn't be all on her.
Well, she's finally got her headshot.
My, I'm a lucky man.
Got to spend time with one of my favorite couples today. Often, my clients become my friends over time, but this is one of two weddings I'm doing this summer that are friends who became clients. (The other set has their E-session next weekend.) Jeremy and I used to play together on our church's worship team back when I had more time for my bass, and Gwen takes care of our little Caroline in the nursery at Crossroads Christian Church in Brooklyn. They're perfect for each other, and it really shows on camera.
I met Gwen and Jeremy up at the Cloisters, a great old church/castle up in Fort Tyron Park up at the northern tip of Manhattan. Today, the Cloisters houses the Metropolitan Museum of Art's medieval collection. We shot there for 90 minutes, then went down to Little Italy for some more photos and dinner at a sidewalk cafe. It was an absolute blast, and I can't wait for their big day!
Here are a few of my favorites:
I've been splitting my time equally between wedding and editorial work recently. Got home at 3AM early Saturday morning from shooting a wedding at the W Hotel in Manhattan's Union Square and was back out the door by noon to shoot at the Belmont Stakes. It was a really exhilarating day as some of the finest horses in the nation were competing in the six graded stakes races, topped by Better Talk Now's last gasp finish in the Manhattan on the grass and then Rags To Riches becoming the first filly to win the Belmont Stakes in 102 years. There was no doubt she was the best bred horse in the race, and to make it even more impressive, she stumbled to her knees at the start, basically giving the boys a head start. Her connections have her pointed to at least two, possibly three, of the remaining shooting days on my New York horse photo schedule, so I'm looking forward to seeing her in my viewfinder a lot this summer!
...can be seen here.
http://www.drf.com/covers/052507.pdf
I've never had a cover before.
Today, on the Daily Racing Form website (http://www.drf.com), a photo I took of a Nick Zito trainee, Sun King, appears on the front page, illustrating David Grening's article (http://www.drf.com/news/article/85148.html, free registration required) about the former Kentucky Derby starter, who will be one of the favorites in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, a race he lost last year by a nose.
Always fun to have some of the other work come to light...
Just got back from a week in Lexington, meeting brides, attending a meeting of the Kentucky Bridal Association and doing some house hunting. Unlike, my most recent trips to the Bluegrass, however, I had company! Kristina and Caroline flew in Friday night so Kristina could make the Fayette County Public Schools job fair and talk to people about special education teaching positions.
In every category, the trip was an unqualified success. Kristina's feeling good about connecting with some of the principals, I met with one absolutely beautiful bride who really enjoyed my photos, we managed to narrow down some of our ideas about what we want in a home and where we want it, I hit the superfecta on the Preakness, and Carrie even tolerated the airplanes well!
But the highlight of the weekend was unquestionably taking our little girl to the Kentucky Horse Park. Caroline loved loved loved all the different horses, and she kept calling out, "Come here, horse! Here, neigh!" 
You can start the clock now on how soon until she asks Daddy for a pony.
Arrived back in New York yesterday. Severely jet lagged... I woke up at 330 PM today.
Internet connections during the second week of the trip were a lot harder to come by, so I'll be assembling the remaining videos over the next week or two.
In the meantime, here's an Engrish.com posting just waiting to happen that Dad and I found in the marketplace in Leyte...
(You may want to make sure you watch the video podcast first.)
Well, the first thing I found out when we hit the road this morning was that we were staying in Cebu Province/Island, but NOT going to stay in Cebu City. In fact, we went over the mountains clear to the other end of the island, to the village of Lamak (yes, I mispronounced it on the video), where a church in the neighboring town of Balamban is trying to plant a second church.
This was the second clinic Dr. Titus Bantiles, our lead doctor, had done in the area recently. By the time we arrived, there was already a large group gathered. We ended up seeing almost 300 medical patients, about 50 dental, and 50 vision patients. We also had a station set up to provide daycare for the children of many of the patients, who sometimes had a considerable wait.
Despite the numbers, it started off much like the other clinics. Our team did a little program in the beginning with music, preaching and various health lectures. The local church leaders participated. The doctors went to their stations, and it was time for “Riders up.”
I started doing the usual photos, filmed my usual opening piece for the video, and a couple of amusing spots on the vendors who started showing up to hawk food to the patients as well as having my dad doing some errands for the dental staff. I laid out the first few minutes of the video by the time we broke for lunch, at a church member’s home. The lumpiang was particularly delicious, and I had some time to talk with our host, who is one of the many overseas workers (oil refining) and was home while waiting for a visa for his next assignment, plus the pending birth of his child.
When we got back, however, something was different. Various people on the counseling team kept calling me over to shoot video of unusual cases, not all of which made it into the final podcast due to YouTube’s 10 minute maximum length.
Quickly, it turned into an emotional afternoon. Suddenly my own daughter’s little upset stomach I heard about this morning didn’t quite seem so serious, especially since Caroline had kept down her crackers at last report.
As I continued to add each piece to iMovie (I still haven’t gotten the hang of Final Cut Express yet), it became obvious that if we added the right follow-up pieces, we could have the defining piece of our team’s time together.
You could feel the team’s sense of wanting to be able to help, but not knowing if there were enough resources to help, and in the case of Brian’s patient, the added frustration of knowing that even heroic measures weren’t likely to help.
We’re seeing a number of needs come together at once—an amputee who needs a wheelchair so that she can continue to run her store now that her husband has left her. The woman who needs cataract surgery from two days ago, who doesn’t have the government health card that would keep her surgery to a manageable $200 USD. A child whose unusual vision problems will likely require hospitalization as well. The list goes on, and we haven’t even gotten to the particularly troubled areas yet.
But as I watched the local church members in action—it’s not an accident that Pastor Ben took responsibility for that mother and child’s goiter medicine and baby formulas—I realized that there’s a lot of support in place for them if we can get them a little more help.
***
When I decided to go on this trip, I knew I was going to mainly take still photos, since that’s my expertise, but I also wanted to do a series of videos in the style of Dane Sanders’ SimplePhotoMinute (http://www.SimplePhotoMinute.tv). A couple of weeks before I left, Dane, who’s also a Christian, aired a piece on the short term missions trip he was going on to India. That’s when I realized the type of impact that something like this project could have. And mainly I mean on me. If it impacts you or the supporters of Dad’s missions organization as well, that’s just an added benefit.
God’s put a lot of opportunities in my hands lately. It’s clear that he wants me to use them for more than just my own family, or even my own community.
***
Catching a boat to Leyte this evening for tomorrow's clinic. Back soon.
Here's the video for the second of our trips, the one to Bohol I described in the last post.
Tomorrow, we're doing a clinic here in Cebu City, and then we're in Leyte for the following day, coming back late at night.
Today was largely a day off, with some sightseeing, and travel back to Cebu. We also shipped the medicine for the final leg off to the team of doctors who will meet us for that clinic, which is on the main island of Luzon. Since we'll be leaving the central islands, we'll switch to a team from my Dad's childhood church, the Cruzada Church of Christ in Manila. They'll meet us for a clinic in an area devastated last December by a typhoon and the eruption of the Mayon volcano.
Here’s the first in a series of video podcasts I’ve been putting together for the medical missionary group that my Dad heads up:
***
Yesterday, we conducted a medical clinic here on the island of Bohol, a two hour ferry ride from Cebu. The local pastor whose church is affiliated with our visit met us in his jeepney, which is basically a mini truck that’s modified to carry about 10 passengers in the back. Jeepneys, incidentally, are everywhere. The vast majority of them are brightly decorated because they act like private buses that run regular routes. (It’s advertising to have them brightly/garishly decorated.)
Unfortunately, this jeepney broke down in the town center, about 2 miles away from where we were supposed to conduct the clinic. Our lead doctor quickly hired three tricycles—not the kid’s toy that you and I think of, but rather a light motorcycle with a lightweight sidecar frame that holds two people facing forward in a canopy, and either their baggage or two people in the back. For those of you scoring at home, that means we’ve got a total of 5 people, including the driver on board.
In a related story, the tricycles ended up having to stop about 100 yards away from our destination because the hill was too steep for them to carry that type of load. Still, after the hikes the last two days, this was nothing. We saw about 120 people—I’m told the clinic this weekend ended up serving 170 people—mainly children. Our optometrist saw one adult, however, who needed a level of care beyond what we could provide onsite. This woman had an advanced cataract problem that will require surgery. The missions organization will foot the bill for her transportation to Cebu and the cost of the surgery, which works out to about $200 USD, but in this rural region of the Philippines, that’s nearly three times what the average worker makes in a year, according to our lead doctor.
After our clinic, we stayed here in Bohol, getting rooms in a local boarding house, and eating across the street at one of the local grilling stands. And if you know how I feel about grilling, you know I was in heaven. Some of our younger team members spent the time asking me about the various sports Americans enjoy, and we had a great time.
Afterwards, as my Dad and I went back to our room, I got my first chance to watch Filipino TV. First off, let me say that the state of Filipino acting is far better in their commercials than it is in their telenovelas, which make the Mexican soap operas on Telemundo look like the Royal Shakespeare Company. Especially when you consider that they incessantly switch between Tagolog and English, which is not too far from normal around here anyway.
The thing is, the Philippines I’m seeing on the TV shows and especially in the commercials has absolutely nothing in common with what I’ve seen here in my four days, whether it be the rural areas, where you expect it, or the urban areas. And I’m realizing that I’d forgotten is that the major industry of the Philippines is what they call balikbayan—which basically means returning workers, but actually denotes Filipinos who take jobs (most often as nurses and also as doctors) in other countries like the US and Dubai, and send money back home. Their economic impact is so great that they keep the right to vote even after becoming citizens elsewhere.
I wonder if I’ll see the same discrepancies next week when I finally get to Manila.
Just got back last night from taking pictures for a free medical clinic in Asiotes, a village high in the mountains above Cebu City here in the central Philippine islands. The village is inaccessible by roads, and it takes a 90 minute hike to get there-- the last 15 minutes is at a 45 degree angle, and on the way back down, it was a muddy, dangerous mess. My dad fell once, but luckily didn't slide.
The villagers were wonderful, opening their homes to the 15 people on the team. It was a little difficult for me, as the one person on the team that didn't speak Tagolog, since only 1/3 of the adults and none of the kids spoke English. That said, as soon as I started showing the photos (to be posted soon) to the kids and their parents, I had a smiling parade following me everywhere.
Asiotes has no running water or electricity, so we had to bring in our own supplies, including drinking water and toilet paper, in addition to the medicine. I did not envy the porters on the team.
The medical team served over 100 people from here and the surrounding villages-- Asiotes is only about 30 people, including children. The optometrist was especially busy, as they'd never had an eye doctor come up before.
We conducted the Easter Sunday service the next day-- it switched back and forth between English and Tagolog, so I could follow a quarter of it or so. My dad and the lead doctor both gave sermons.
We're off to another island in a few minutes, so I don't have time to upload pictures. I found I forgot the DV cable for my camcorder, so I'm now taking all my video on SD cards, using both the camcorder and my little Leica point and shoot. The Canon 5D was too bulky to bring to Asiotes, but it will go on today's trip.
...And no, I don't mean an amusement park in Jackson, NJ.
Late on Wednesday night, I'm flying out on the first leg of a trip that will have me in Cebu, Philippines by Good Friday. This is the first time I'm ever going to use my passport. That's right, kids, 34 years old, and the only time I've left the country is to go to Canada. Which isn't much more out of my way than going to Philly, in reality.
My father is already abroad on the trip, in Myanmar (formerly Burma). My dad has used his retirement to coordinate logistics for short-term medical missions trips, getting doctors and dentists to free medical clinics in countries such as India, Pakistan, Egypt and Thailand. I'm going to document one of these trips as we go to Cebu and also to an area just outside of his hometown of Manila that has suffered damage from a volcano and from a typhoon over the last year. On the way back, I get a tourism day with Dad in Hong Kong, where I've made arrangements to go to Happy Valley Race Course to shoot some pictures.
The toughest thing about the trip, of course, is missing my wife and daughter, who will be hosting my in-laws while I'm gone. Thank heaven for videoconferencing. There's also been a lot of vaccinations and things like that, too.
I'm going to try and update the blog from time to time while I'm out here, including pictures and maybe video. Keep checking back!
I do miss my wife and my darling little girl. Thank heaven for iChat video conferencing.
There's a funny thing about working out of a home office: Sometimes you actually have to abandon the office to get anything done. I'm out in Lexington, Kentucky for tomorrow's meeting of the Kentucky Bride Association, an wedding vendors group serving the Bluegrass region. I flew in this afternoon, settled in to my hotel room, with the full intention of eventually going downtown to scout out locations for future engagement shoots.
Instead, I ended up opening my MacBook and finally bringing my new website live, which meant new photos, music, and a new logo. Unfortunately, I need to work some bugs out, so I need to talk to the authors of the web template I'm using, but I think it'll be a good look. I also got a chance to play with the trial version of Adobe Lightroom, which is an awesome workflow/editing program. I have no doubt I'll be ditching Apple Aperture shortly.
I'm really tired. I did a second shooter gig for one of New York/New Jersey's wedding photography firms, and had to rush my edits back sooner than they normally require just so I could come out here without it hanging over my head. That meant 4 hours of sleep Saturday night, 2 hours Sunday night, and then with packing for this trip, 3 hours last night so I could hop the AirTrain out to Kennedy Airport. But I feel energized again being out here, and I'm looking forward to meeting people in the industry tomorrow night.
Anyway, let me know what you think of the new site!
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