The Top 10 Manila Photowalk Photos

Okay, after going through 300++ photos 4 to 5 times, I’d have to say that it’s not an easy task to pick the winner. If you read my previous post (see below), I used the CoolIris plug-in to view the photos from the group. This allowed me to scroll through the gallery quickly as well as view them in a large monitor (and full-screen). Just to let you know, they look awesome on an Apple 23″ Cinema Display! Okay, eough with the boring stuff…

I don’t think it will do justice if I just mentioned the winner outright because there are a LOT of great photos. So, I thought I’d like to share with you the TOP 10 photos that I picked and they’re displayed here in no particular order.

Before I begin, ‘What’s the criteria?’, you may ask. Well, I really have a simple criteria – I picked the photos that I felt had an impact and either told a story, or captured the scene of Manila. I also had some inputs from various friends, but at the end, I had to come up with a list of my own. I know you can’t wait much longer, so here they are:

Veinte Tres by Ricky Ladia:

Calamansi Lady by Sam Rosales:

Newspaper Lady by Sam Rosales:

Fly On by Stephen Lavoie:

5 Kids by Dindin Lagdameo:

Binondo 2 by Jared Posion:

Photo by Chris Yu:

image 3 by Ma-Anne Roque:

Long Day in Binondo by Joel Garcia:

And finally, the WINNER – ‘My Manila by Joel Garcia’!

Joel – Congratulations! You will get a free copy of Scott Kelby’s Lightroom 2 Book!

The details here are also posted in the Manila Group Page (including the winner).

To all those who joined – thanks so much! Looking forward to see you all again in next year’s photowalk! Again, I just wanted to let you know that it wasn’t an easy decision to make.

More Manila Photowalk Photos

More photos…

Cross-Lines

Bikes & Styro (trying out panning here)

Firetruck, Anyone? – I wonder how they will operate it since everything’s in Japanese!

‘Tenshun! – check out how the security guard is holding the umbrella!

Ongpin

Manila’s Finest

Short-Time

Binondo Church at Night

Manila Photowalk Photos

Sharing with you some photos from the Binondo Photowalk:

Homeless

Chinese lantern:

Bike? (for lack of a better title)

Binondo Church in Black & White

Chinese Ornaments

Smiling Buddhas

No Parking – Good Luck!

Announcement To All Manila Photowalkers

To all the Manila Photo-Walkers:

Thanks once again for participating in the worldwide photowalk. From Scott’s blog, it seems that this is going to be held ANNUALLY! Yup, you read it right, ANNUALLY! So, watch out for one more next year!

Here’s his post:
http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2008/archives/1845

Since the deadline for the submission of photos is nearing (it’s later, at midnight), here are some reminders:

1. Sign-in to Flickr and Join the Manila Group

• get a Flickr account (if you dont have one yet); it’s so simple to sign-up.
• Once you have your Flickr account, click this link: Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk: Manila
• There should be a link there that says ‘Join This Group‘. Click that and it will send me an email so I can approve your membership. Make sure to include your full name in case your Flickr name isn’t obvious to me

2. Submit the photos that you have taken from the walk to the group

• Upload the photos that you took from the event to Flickr
• Pick your “TOP 20″ photos and then ‘send them to the group’.
• You can do this by clicking on the photo. On top of that, you should see a link that says ‘send to group’.
• Once the drop-down appears, click the Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk: Manila Group (the exact name is found above)
• If you don’t see your images immediately, be patient, I will approve them

3. Make sure to do all the previous steps before midnight later (Aug 26)!

4. Share your photos to the various discussion boards we have here in the Philippines. There’s already a thread in Digital Photographer Philippines where some photos have been shared:

• 
  http://www.flickr.com/groups/scott-kelbys-worldwide-photowalk-manila/
  
• 
  http://digitalphotographer.com.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=16443
  
• 
  http://digitalphotographer.com.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=17131
  

5. Make sure to wait for next year’s Photowalk!

Finally, if you want to see the posts/reactions from the other Photowalks, check the following links out:

• Scott’s Blog Entry: “A Glimpse at Some of the People and Places From the Worldwide Photowalk“
• Jeff Revell’s  2 Photowalks last Aug 23 (yeah, he’s a pro – he did one in the morning and one in the afternoon )
• David DuChemin’s Photowalk in Vancouver
  
• Paulo Jordao’s Walk in Fort Lauderdale
• Terry White’s Photowalk in Detroit
• Photowalk Groups in Flickr

It was fun meeting you all!

Hope to see you all again soon (live or in the forums)

What A Day – Manila Photowalk

What a day – it was a tiring walk but a lot of FUN! Thank you to ALL of you who showed up earlier. I’m glad that the weather was great. It was great to meet all you guys and complete the Manila Photowalk with you.

Here’s our group photo at President’s Tea House! I laugh every time I see Ricky in the back with his flash! Hahaha

Btw, if you look closely, there’s a ‘Scott Kelby Photowalk’ sign in the middle.

Before I end the post and go check out some of the photos, I’d like to thank the following:

• ALL of you guys who joined the walk! It was great to meet you and share this event with you.
• Scott Kelby – for thinking of this World Wide Photowalk as a way for him to launch his new Lightroom 2.0 book
• LeAnn McDonald and Kevin Ridgway (of NAPP) – for all the help especially when I was fixing the list of walkers
• The Weather – for cooperating with us; it drizzled for some time but it eventually died down
• Ekky Magno – for all the support and for volunteering to hold up the Scott Kelby Photowalk sign while we were waiting for everyone earlier! See photo below.

Watch out for the photos of the Manila group here…

Photo Walk Tips (For Aug 23)

First of all, I would like to thank ALL of you who have signed-up for the walk. I can’t believe that the 50 slots were filled in around 2 hours. Before I proceed with the tips section, I would like to clarify something – Scott Kelby isn’t going to be in Manila on Aug 23. I know a lot of you have asked that question, and it has probably lingered in your minds. So there, he’s not going to be in Manila on Saturday. But, he will surely be looking at ALL of our photos once we submit them in our Flickr Group! Watch out for more instructions on this.

Okay, down to business…I thought I’d like to share with you some tips and reminders for the walk:

• Wear comfortable clothing – we’re going to WALK, so wear something comfortable (i.e. shorts, rubber shoes, etc). Okay, I’m being redundant here…

• Watch out for the weather – I know it’s been raining on and off in Manila, so be prepared to walk even when it rains. Bring an umbrella, a raincoat/jacket and of course, something to cover your camera and lens in case it rains. Sometimes, an extra shirt to cover the camera or lens doesn’t hurt. I’ve seen people use plastic too to cover their cameras.

Our weather reports in Manila aren’t really THAT accurate because they usually just say ‘scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms’, so it’s best to look out your windows and judge the weather. You don’t believe me? Check this 10-day forecast for Manila from weather.com.

• WHAT TO BRING:

First, your camera. That’s the most important thing. Don’t forget it. Don’t have an SLR? That’s okay! Just bring whatever camera you have. Make sure your batteries are charged and you have enough memory.

Lenses – Bring 1 or 2 lenses… generally a wide and a zoom lens would be good so that you can cover a lot of things. It really depends on how you usually shoot, but as much as possible, I’d advise you to travel light.

Bag – If you have a bag that doesn’t scream ‘Hey, I’m a camera bag’, use it. That way, it doesn’t draw too much attention.  What if you have camera bags like Lowepro that has a rain cover? I guess that’s an exception to the rule, especially if it rains. Packing tip: you may wrap your extra lenses in extra shirts so that they are protected while inside your bag.

Tripod – I leave this up to you. There might be some nice scenes around sunset so it’s good to have this. Don’t forget to bring your cable release if you will bring your tripod. I’m not sure if it’s okay to use a tripod in Binondo, so it’s a risk. Just make sure your tripod is light enough so you won’t be carrying something heavy.

• Food / Snacks – You might get hungry during the walk. Don’t worry, we have a lot of options in Binondo! See my post below on what you can eat. Just remember that we’re still doing a photo walk, you might end up eating and not shooting anything.

• Water – While I would recommend to bring a bottle of water during the walk, Ongpin has a lot of food stalls and restaurants, so you can easily buy a bottle of water there.

• Think Safety – I can’t stress this enough, watch your gear all the time and be sure to secure your cellphones and wallets. That way, you still have some money to buy food after the walk.

• Remember to walk in pairs or in groups – This is a social event. Get to know new people. We’ll definitely see some familiar faces in the group, but it doesn’t hurt to go with someone you don’t know and get to know them.

• Help others – We’ll be having a mixture of experience during the walk. There are some experienced/professional photographers, so this might be your opportunity to learn from them. For the experienced/professional ones – it’s always good to lend a helping hand.

• Shooting Reminder: Make sure to watch other photographers. Don’t get in their way while they’re shooting.

• Finally, HAVE FUN! That’s the most important thing. Mingle with the group, get to know everyone. It’s going to be a fun day and we’ll all have a chance to share our photos after the walk.

To get to know more about Photowalking and the event on Satuday, check out the following links:

• Jeff Revell’s Guide to Photowalking
• Jeff Revell’s Blog Entry on Photowalking in Scott Kelby’s site
• Scott Kelby’s Q&A for his Worldwide PhotoWalk

What happens after the walk? We’ll all post our photos in a Flickr Group that I have setup. More instructions to follow later.

See you on the 23rd!

Binondo Info

First time in Binondo? Here are some links that might help you. The links contain everything from food to a bit of history of Binondo… Enjoy!

• Dumplings, Siomai and Siopao (from Wish You Were Here)
• Chinatown info (places, history, etc) (from Wanderlust)
• Where we’ll be eating dimsum… President’s Tea House @ Salazar Street (also from Wanderlust)
• What else you can eat in Binondo – I’m sure you’ll get hungry while doing the walk , so a Hopia from Eng Bee Tin would be great!

Scott Kelby’s Photo Walk in Manila!

Save the date – August 23! It’s Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk and yes, it’s here in Manila! I will be the Photowalk Leader during that day. Details are still being finalized and I will keep the site posted.

Slots are only limited so hurry and sign-up now.

What’s in it for you? Tons of prizes for the grand winner chosen by Scott, plus of course, the best photo of the day will get a free copy of Scott’s Lightroom 2 Book!

See you there!