Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
First of all, thank you very much to all who joined my Facebook Group Page and those who participated in the contest. I filtered out the list and there were 54 names I included at Random.org list. And the winner that came at the top is Jamie Tan! Congratulations! You’ll get the National Geographic Expedition Journal and a copy of Mango Magazine. I’ll contact you later regarding the details on claiming your prize. And now for some important announcements and another contest.
They are heavier than 25 adult elephants. They have a heart the size of a car. They are larger than the biggest dinosaurs. They can move at the speed of 32km/h. They are the largest and considered one of the most intelligent mammals on earth. And they have existed for 18 million years. They are the Big Blue Whales and they are endangered.
The much awaited annual sky spectacle is back, the World Pyro Olympics 2009, officially launches and will be shown on November 21, 28, December 5, 12, and 19. The event has a new bigger venue at the Open Grounds of the Fort Bonifacio Global City, exciting first full Pyro-Musical performance from the top pyro-teams from 8 countries. There are also day activities at the venue to keep spectators occupied while waiting for the main events.
I know we came to Singapore for BEP but we’ll not ignore the last act of the night Beyonce. It took two hours of waiting under a new DJ spinning some house music. But this lady just entranced the audience the minute she appeared on the stage. She’s just an amazing performer and I really got a kick when she did a cover of Alanis Morrisette’s You Oughta know in between her song “If I Were A Boy”. Her tribute to Michael Jackson was also moving. Of course she capped off the set with her famous “Single Ladies” with all the youtube videos of people doing their own versions at the start to lead to her actual performance.
We never expected Typhoon Ondoy to be as devastating as this. It was September 26, 2009, Saturday and I was on my way to Singapore at that time. There were heavy rains on my way to the airport and thought that it was just a natural rain. When we arrived in Singapore, news from Manila came pouring in. Flood waters were rising all over the metro and it got really serious when we heard that flood waters were also rising on places that don’t usually have floods. We found out later that Typhoon Ondoy ravaged Manila pouring a month’s worth of rain in less than a day.
Department of Tourism Philippines and MTV Asia has a joint project soon to be launched first thing in October. We were fortunate enough to get an exclusive preview of their collaboration with renowned Filipino-American Apl.de.ap (Allan Pineda Lindo) of Black Eyed Peas called “Take Me to the Philippines”
Digital Photographer Philippines, the premiere photography magazine in the country will be celebrating it’s 3rd anniversary this June 27 2009 at Fully Booked High Street It will be a whole day event starting from 10am to 12 midnight. There will be free workshops on several topics throughout the day. I will be conducting a 1 hour lecture on Improving Your Travel Photography at the venue. Other lecturers would be Jo Avila, Ben Chan, Nick Tuason, Pilar Tuason, Nino Carandang, jay Jallorina, jay Tablante to name a few. Check out below for details.
