Travelers, that's who we are. We move, we breathe, we wander, we get lost. We walk until our soles hurt but it doesn't matter. We are in our element.
She isn't what the world thinks she is. They all see her happy, silly, and strong most of the time. But she is scarred, lonely, and afraid at times.
'There's still sadness in the way she looks and the way she moves, but the way she danced and communed with the sea... It's as if you did not leave and break her heart.'
Healing
***
It was a gloomy, slightly rainy day. I mostly shoot when there's good sunlight, but here, the weather was just perfect for the mood and setting. I used Zooey and my kit lens just because I can't find my better lens.
We try our very best not to be cliches. The normal, standard, and just simple enough to be called good. But then there comes a point that we what we do becomes normal, standard, and just simple enough to be called good -- then we feel like the cliches we are afraid to be.
Waking up for something that you love is one of the greatest gifts this unfair life could surprisingly give. To want something in your mind to just manifest itself before you, the simple magnificence of an idea coming to life. It just makes me sigh, a deep, long sigh, with a smile in the end of course. All these pictures and words jumbled up in your head. It just produces so much joy -- the silent type -- to see them take a coherent shape, something you think you know exactly, but ending up stunning you all the way.
Last April, my friend Ross and I shot a very simple yet colorful wedding. The bride and groom were surrounded by their closest friends and family making it intimate as possible. The flower bouquets were handcrafted by the bride's mother and it was the most sentimental gift one could ever give. The ceremony was short and sweet giving hope to a lifetime of silent, enduring love.
I've been on a writing hiatus for some time now. I really dig the summer vibe, maybe that's why, but I've just been putting it off. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to tell, nothing to share, really. The summer months have just been one big rest for me. Or maybe that's just what 23 is about.
I don’t know why, but He loves me. I didn’t do anything or said anything, He just decided in time that He loves me. The idea of me, my voice, the shape of my eyes, the number of strands of hair in my head, my past, my present, my future. He is infinitely into me, and I just couldn’t – CAN’T – ever understand it. What did He see in me? Why? Why me?
Ever since I was little, I've been mesmerized by sunlight. Its warm, yellow rays that I couldn’t catch no matter how hard I tried. I remember when I was seven or eight, there was a moment when I just sat on the steps of the stairs facing the window before it. There, I let my face warm up with the morning light. I always wondered why my fingertips glow red whenever I put my hand against the rays, or why I can’t look directly at the sun and all its glory. My mood has to do with how sunny the day is even until now. I love how it warms me up and fills me with hope that today is a new day. I love how it feels against my skin and how it makes everything seem light and cheerful, nostalgic.
I can't believe it's March already. It's officially summer here in the Philippines and people can't wait to go to our paradise beaches, including me of course. But before that, my family hit the road and went up to Tagaytay to celebrate Mama's birthday. It's a different approach this time; usually we just go up to eat while gaping at the admirable view. Here, we kind of toured the kids and had sort of a school field trip. After this day, I think I was bankrupt. But of course, you gotta pay for the view which photos make you happy while editing. ;) And of course, it's my mother's birthday. You just can't pay for the time you spend with family. It never really equates.
I feel like I haven’t been in the road in a while. Four months without a trip seems too long, but in a way, I still have my calendar full. I haven’t been writing too, just scribbles here and there, and every time I get this urge to sit and just write because I just can’t not do it. It comes with photographing too. I decided to rest last month, catch up on my reading and finish on my watch list. It’s a breath of fresh air, a resurfacing from when I was drowning myself in my schedule, but all the while I just wanted to hold on to my camera, look through the view finder, and look for something magical to put still forever. But the rest was much-needed, to recharge and rethink, a necessity to move on with a clear mind, so that’s what I did.
It was an easy, casual shoot especially when you're with one of your closest college buddies! We had our fifi date (from Fifi Lapin, the fashionable bunny) and we just had to have a shoot. This happened. She said her boyfriend is tired of seeing grass, (and so am I, a bit, but I still think it's pretty!) and this lady over here remembered this awesome graffiti place that she passes by on her way to work. So we had to do it. This. In a public area, along the busy main road.
A throwback of our first shoot ever. A few months after our graduation. I was on caffeine the other night and I was so inspired when I saw these old photos. Drunk in nostalgia, I tried a new twist.
Determined, before my first shoot for 2013 (and ever, with a friend-convinced to be-model :)) |
I wanted to say THANK YOU. To all of you who visited, read, and took the time to click on the http:// text underlined in blue that took you here. Thank you for the glimpse, the patience to wait while my page or photo loads, thank you for being a part of this blog. Of being a part of the story I’m creating with my photographs and writings. Thank you.
Hello, I'm Ira.
There are three things that have become constant in my life so far: my love for taking photos, my penchant for traveling, and my utter need for writing. Welcome to my little notebook of dreams and daydreams.