Fête de la Musique in Kagay-an 2011

Kagay-an Festival is an annual fiesta celebration in honor of our patron saint San Agustin, every August 28th here in Cagayan de Oro City. The occassion is second to Christmas celebrated by Kagay-anons. The whole week was flooded with events like the most anticipated league of beauty and brains "Miss Kagay-an 2011", Kumbira, the 5th Golden Float Parade, and many more.The Last week's celebration was well prepared and fun-filled compared to last year (kinda boring). Once again the roads, malls, the carnivals, almost everywhere, were like mosh-pits, can't even drop a needle. Even at night, the celebration never stopped. So an idea cross my mind to cover events at night because hypothetically most of my classmates will  be on the road early in the morning. So who else will cover at night? So I slept early til 10am because most likely I'm gonna be out until dawn. Almost every night was a feast of music, of course no celebration is complete without music, right? Luckily me and my band (Salvar) received an invitation to play in a one hell of a metal concert - The Dahong Palay Live in Cdo.

Manila bands and those who were hailed from CDO were like thunder and lightning hitting the grounds. Friday night was a blast! It's been a long time since I saw the 90's bands such as Iron Clad and Black Widow, and of course the main band Dahong Palay. It was an honor to open for them and be part of the huge metal family at that night. We were blown by the cumbersome of their music, specially with their face melting guitar solos. Hoorah! Moving on, the next night I went to Touch Mobile's concert. I was waiting for Spongecola but it was kind of late already so heading back to Dvsoria was my next move. But before I left, I got Playgirls photos already. That night, another band from Manila "KJWAN" was in Dvsoria. I tried to get a closer shot but it was like surfing in a tidal wave, too risky. Almost midnight, finally in the place where I've rested, boozed a bit, met old and new friends - the most awaited come back of PUNCHBOWL resto-bar. After almost 6 years they're back in business with live performances of Gasulina, Tabularaza, KBC with Champ, XU Soundtable's Banda ni Papet and Powerspoonz from Cebu. The rock show ended almost 4am.

The celebration was like a music feast too, different genres can be heard and enjoyed everywhere.
We may have different tastes when it comes to music, we may have all come from different places and speak different dialects, but we all come together into one big happy celebration. Lets just enjoy life with our music even in the midst of a grotesque world. It's a whole new thing to enjoy fiesta here in CDO, music music music. Enormously accomplished.
 This year's celebration was not just a festival, it was an awesome experience!

Trip to Paradise (Medina)

After a series of tactical trainings, the troops were deployed to the battlefield, where the only place to engage real war. It's time for us to carry out all the fundamentals we have learned for 2 months in this exciting activity. Last August 15, 2011 DC 89 sections A and B went to Medina for our Photography exercise.  I only heard that the place is so like paradise when it comes to beaches. When we arrived, I was amazed when I saw the place clean and green. This is it! Everybody was too excited to fire their guns - camera. That kind of place was not new to me but one thing for sure, I knew it's going to be fun. It was like hitting 2 birds with one stone, both the business and  pleasure will be enjoyed.

Mayor Jojo Pupos warmly welcomed us at the Municipal hall before going to the gym where everyone will rest for our first night in Medina. The place was peaceful, the locals were very nice to us and welcoming. No traffic jam and the places were very accessible for us in just one ride of a "motorized sikad". Rides were kinda bumpy, filled with 8 noisy classmates jamming along with the driver's coolest 1 song marathon "BUDOTZ". We went to our designated community to capture the topics shared by groups. I hate to crash their quit ambiance, but it seems okay after I saw them smiling for the cameras. Most of the families were poor yet they live happily and contented. They were accommodating and very easy to get along with. After the photo-shoot, we went back to barracks (gym) and were getting ready for the most anticipated  part - dinner and swimming at Alibuag spring. The following day we went back to community and immersed with their poverty situation like how they lived their everyday lives, what they do for a living and for fun. We enjoyed our last night at Duka Bay with the lechon donated by the DC Alumni, swimming, be friend with Section B and of course the fellowship party (games and drinks).

Most the locals in the community we visited may not live base on the standards we have here in a highly urbanized city. But I don't consider them as less fortunate than us because they live their lives worry-less from bills and responsibilities we have here. They sleep soundly with the comfort of the cool sea breeze. They can just find food from the vast of natural resources. In short, life in Medina is not complicated, its like living in a paradise were everything is easy to enjoy. The activity was a success and memorable. We successfully took pictures of our subjects and applied all the things our teachers taught us. We really enjoyed the food, the activity, the beach, the people, the fellowship, we had fun. A trip is without a glitch, but of course it is something to be experience and learned. What matters most is we have absorbed a lot of new things and despite the shortcomings we have encountered we still enjoyed the whole trip at Medina.

Composition

 

In this activity (exercise 5) we have to look for subjects with different types of composition like patterns, textures, shapes, forms etc. This one isn't that hard compare to the previous exercise and it's kind of fun while looking for interesting subjects. There were lots of things to choose from, its just that it always rains. Getting drenched while taking photos was not that easy, considered as obstacles and challenges to be met for newbies like us.

Catch me if you can!

It's exercise 4, and the hardest so far using DSLR. We have to catch a moving subjects very clearly, with a blurry background. But instead, most of our shots got steady background and the moving object was blurry. It took sometime when I finally got the correct one, 5 pics left. Luckily I got 3 good shots after hundred attempts and that's it, I got stucked. Doing this exercise was like "To Hell and back"!