A new chapter in this life journey
Starting tomorrow August 19, 2013, I become part of a U.S.-based advertising agency. The company president invited me to join her team of creative professionals to do work on a full-time basis. The job includes writing online content and designing blogs and websites – things that are right down my alley. I’ll be a remote staff, doing work from home. This post is not about saying goodbye to blogging. Previously I was doing online freelance work so I had more time in my hands, enabling me to do multiple posts a day early on when I started this blog October last year. By tomorrow I may not be able to follow my habit (yes it has become a habit) of daily posting. This blog will continue but not on its frenetic pace, it will slow down a bit. I still have many pictures to share together with experiences, stories and learnings. I thank all of you my blogging peers for making this online activity for the past 10 months very worthwhile, enjoyable and meaningful. But, probably like every one of you, blogging is just one chapter of my life. There are others, and for me a new one starts tomorrow which requires my undivided time and skill. I will have to focus on that. For the meantime this is JJ saying “Take care my friends and keep on clicking!”
Weekend Inspiration 40
Wishing all of you a splendid weekend! Thank you for the visits, likes, follows and comments during our Islands Week. Keep on clicking my friends!
Photo Quotes 171
It seems positively unnatural to travel without taking a camera along…~Susan Sontag
Island life
With over 600 posts, all of them with pictures, I have quite a number of island images. Some of those images used in this blog as well as those from my collection are featured in Junsjazz Digital Magazine Issue #3. Now here’s where I curate myself, I went over these previous postings and picked some of the best island pictures (which may be familiar to you if you have followed this blog from early on). In keeping with this week’s picture series I present them again. Here are personal picks. Enjoy!
The photographer and his story
A picture will always be a story, in a single shot. Without words, without explanations, without definitions, without captions, it is the aim of the photographer to tell the realism of the moment as he saw it, as he interpreted the scene from the time of capture. Unlike film or slideshows and moving pictures which, more or less, convey the gist of the story or a narrative of the story itself in elongated form, a single image tries to encapsulate it all, and attempts to give an account, a chronicle of the instance.
What does it mean for us photographers? It means we have to be definitive and conscious of the images we take. It may not be earth-shattering or headline-grabbing pictures, unless you’re a photojournalist. Images of everyday life, of nature and landscapes, or of common things must represent a visual narration, a chronicle, a record of the moment, a second of time as the photographer captured and envisioned it. It is the heart of the image, the story conveyed in that one shot. One becomes a photographer in the truest sense of the word when he can capture images that are narrations, commentaries and descriptions of themselves. The picture itself tells the story.
Heaven on earth
There are pieces of it here, nature in all its wondrous glory. Sort of a showcase for us while we are still mortals inhabiting this earth, we are able to glimpse all those paradise-like vistas and sceneries, the charm of the countryside, the lore and poetry of a rustic, rural environ. When we see the grandiose and spectacular, and are awed and amazed, we seek answers and solace in our mind’s metaphorical corner to find there ideas and concepts to satisfy us, hence, the fantabulous becomes “bliss”, “shangrila”, “nirvana” and of course “heaven”. It is our natural inclination to wallow in bliss, engage in the euphoric. We are sensualists; we like to overload our senses with delight and pleasure and peace. Which is probably why humans evolved with such faculties of sight, smell, hearing and touch, that they could physically experience pieces of heaven on earth. Moreover, they were created with heart and soul, that they may feel emotion and be able to rejoice at the natural blessings around them. (Photo location: Dinagat province, Mindanao)
Junsjazz Images & Inspiration 