Police Operational Tactics Training

Camouflaging after crossing a river

Yesterday, I had a chance of watching police trainees of Region 8 in action doing their quasi-tactical operations inside the PPSC-RTS 8 camp at San Jose, Tacloban City. There are different stations that the trainees will have to pass through like the rope course, ambush and the night navigation. Its very awesome how this young men and women were able survived the hardships and all the challenges just to become a public servant.

On the way to the ambush site

Future police officers trying to cross a river

When I was watching them, I realized that police officers are not really as bad as what people believe. They have been very accommodating and very patient to the people watching them. Though there have been a lot of anomalies that involved policemen but let us not forget that they are the people that we call when there are criminal activities happening in our area. They are the one who protects us from evil minds at night when we are asleep.

HDR Photo Using Dave Hill Effect

HDR is one of the coolest arts in Photography. I have posted HDR photos before but not really satisfied with the results but was just trying to show you all my work. Anyway, when it comes to HDR, Dave Hill is the name. He’s been doing well in HDR and still creating great results in his post processing technique. I tried Googling some articles and tutorials about the Dave Hill effect and learned a few tricks on how to do it in Lightroom. So, for those who are trying to develop their HDR using Lightroom, here are the settings I found that can make your HDR a Dave Hill Effect type.

* Recovery = 100

* Fill = 100

* Contrast = 100

* Clarity = 100

* Vibrance = 100

* Saturation = -75

* Adjust the black/exposure

* Add a lens vignette

Fisherkids

Four fishes for dinner

Poverty is one of the great problems our country needs to overcome. In Biliran province alone, major population is in the poverty level. I have an Aunt who's a nutritionist in Region 8 and said that Biliran Province is at the top 5 that has the most number of malnourished children.

When I had a week vacation in Naval,    I went to Red Stone Ville to have some lunch. It’s almost Sunset when I saw some kids fishing on the stony part of the sea shore. I approach them and asked if how was the catch. They said that they were already there since 10AM and hasn’t caught any promising fish for their meal. They only got few small fishes probably not enough for most of us but enough to complete their meal for the day. While talking to them, I never thought that they would be very enthusiastic in sharing their stories to me. One kid told me that this day is not a very lucky day for them but still they will strive for more catch.


Life is really hard for them and but still they are eager and willing to survive. At a young age, they already started to work for their food. One good thing is that they don’t lose hope and they have the courage to stand in their own feet.

Naval Central Elementary School Celebrating Buwan ng Wika

Buwan ng Wika was celebrated by the students of Naval Central Elementary School last Friday, August 27, 2010. My cousin is a student from that institution and is in Grade 3 now. She and her classmates will be dancing a Batangueño Cultural Dance that afternoon. Prior to the program, I took a chance of taking pictures of the kids at the school. Some are wearing tribal costumes like that in Ifugao. That afternoon was full of fun for the kids who's celebrating the Buwan ng Wika. Some groups are dancing, there are kids modeling the different costumes of localities in the Philippines and some are singing Original Pinoy Music (OPM). Almost all of the kids there are in their colorful costumes and I thought that it might be a great chance for me to practice capturing pictures of people. The picture on the left is a photo of two kids trying to fix their Barong Tagalog, the National Dress of the Philippines for men. The picture below is my cousin performing her dance moves on stage partnered by my other cousin.

Kids at work

We were on our way to Tacloban City when we stopped at a Comelec Checkpoint. I was standing at the back of the multicab when I saw this two kids struggling to carry this woods that I suppose they'll be using for fire.

Portrait: Julianne

I know I don't have my cousin's consent in putting this picture into my blog but I think this is an art of portrait photography. This is my first "guinea pig" in making portrait shots. I am still on the process of shooting portrait photos and still needs to practice. Even the post-processing part. I hope I'll learn a lot in this photo-journey.