My Dear Mr. James,

Oni & Libs

2012-01-17T21:17:00.000+08:00

finally got to process photos from when i visited oni and libs in wellington - and basically just going through folders and finishing them up one by one so i won't have to go back to any past shoots wondering if i left out any unprocessed photos. have finished and archived 10 folders never to return, currently doing the beijing photos, but have to stop to prepare for move and travel to myanmar. next time i process photos i'll be in california already.

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royce' - what i did christmas eve

2012-01-06T03:05:00.000+08:00

courtesy of eric and mals! super yummy and silky dark chocolate. finished the box and did marathon viewing of lord of the rings trilogy.

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sp2 christmas dinner at gaddis in peninsula hotel, hong kong

2011-12-21T11:35:00.001+08:00

the occasion: 2011 office christmas dinner of sp2

the place: gaddis at the peninsula hotel, hong kong

in attendance: mr. joseph fung and his guests: francis au, douglas young, benjamin lau, nicholas wong, and sk kan; me of course, and the rest of the people who work at sp2: carl, john, david, karen, raymond, wing, danielle, ligaya, eric (with wife sally), and lorenzo.

all photos © Joselito Briones

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photoshoot: rowing with jorma, daniel, eduard, and ulrich

2011-12-19T23:08:00.000+08:00

i finally finished processing all the photos from this shoot (after more than 2 years). I guess that still isn't so bad, considering i've got even older photos that i have yet to process

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mae and carol's gramma in msn.com's splash page

2011-12-16T11:29:00.003+08:00

screen shot of msn.com's splash page 16 December 2011

jane, who helped me do this photo shoot of mae and mrs. castillo (we always refer to her as carol's granny), told me about this find on today's splash page of msn.com. the article is about projected new jobs for 2012

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p.s.
oooooops! carol is so gonna kill me. haha! she practically put the shoot together - sowwy carol, and thanks again :)

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rooftop christmas party

2011-12-14T09:00:00.000+08:00

pics from the christmas party at the rooftop of my apartment.

left to right: mikee, d.a., ogie, benjie, rene, chris, josen, jan, jomel

filipino food catered by rommel (center)

all photos © Joselito Briones

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champagne dom pérignon, vintage 2000

2011-12-09T18:38:00.021+08:00

ha! i'll finally get to pop this baby.

am having friends over for dinner sunday night and we'll get to enjoy this. was also thinking of making mulled wine but maybe i's a bit to much. we'll see. i just thought maybe it's a good idea because it's supposed to be a pre-christmas meet-up and it's gotten sorta cold and all and it's gonna be outdoor (rooftop of my apartment). anyway, someone's taking care of food, so i don't have to worry about that. i announced in the invite that the dom pérignon champagne will be served at exactly 7pm to entice everyone to come on time :)

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jane, ruth, and eric in astoria park

2011-12-05T03:55:00.000+08:00

random photo time! reminder of good times with friends in new york.

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rowing team photo series

2011-12-04T04:53:00.000+08:00

i've had this series of rowing photos in my hard drive for a while and has already amassed tons of dust that i've decided i should put them all out before the year ends. unfortunately all the indoor shots, including the one above, can't be used as royalty-free because i wasn't able to obtain a property release for the boathouse.

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weta cave

2011-12-02T02:30:00.002+08:00

these are photos are from the weta cave, from when i visited wellington. just posting now because they're doing a new movie, "The Hobbit". weta is the production company co-founded by Peter Jackson, famous for "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "King Kong", "District 9", and weta cave is a mini-museum at the corner of the workshop. it's actually quite small, a sort of mom-and-pop gallery/store with a video room. it would've been much more fun to see their actual production room and meet the people who do the awesome visual effects and characters. photo above is of the life-size model of gollum, from "lord of the rings", displayed in the mini-museum. don't know which character or from which movie is the one below, but he sure is scary.

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congee

2011-12-01T10:38:00.000+08:00

Photo: Joselito Briones

this is the congee place on the street where i live - always useful on those days when i just want something quick, hot, and filling. everything they sell here is basically starch - from the congee (rice porridge), fried noodles (chow mien), rice rolls, deep-fried bread sticks, and deep-fried bread sticks wrapped in rice rolls. so basically if you wanna catch up on carbs (after all the time that you've been on a carb-free diet), you can have the bredsticks wrapped in rice rolls, dip it in congee, and have fried noodles on the side. must-try.

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i was going for the white horse

2011-11-30T04:39:00.000+08:00

but then all i had was a wide-angle lens and the horse was across the puddle. bah.

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skull biker and his harley

2011-11-29T02:26:00.003+08:00

no idea what this was all about, just saw it while doing a walkabout sunday night in central.

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peel bar, hong kong

2011-11-28T00:45:00.000+08:00

this was a few weeks ago, i meant to show it to you but i got too busy i forgot. pictured are benj, ogie, and rene. we went to maxim palace dim sum place in city hall, and afterwards we went to this bar, peel at the corner of peel and elgin streets in soho. jomel joined us for dim sum but left early because he was dj'ing in this same bar later that night. anyway, it was still early and there was nobody else there, but mikee, the guy in charge of the place was so much fun.

this is what it looks like inside. we were told this is gonna close early next year and move to a different location.

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floating village, siem reap, cambodia

2011-11-26T00:43:00.000+08:00

still in cambodia, this is a series of photos i took of the floating village in siem reap. you can either scroll down to see the rest of the photos, or click on the first photo to launch a slide viewer.

i spotted a striped snake in the water, and one of the houses shown above keeps several alligators, and as you can see from one of the photos, they use the same water to bathe. i had a coffee in the community shop, by the time it occured to me that they might have gotten the water from the same source, it was already too late to cancel it, i didn't want to embarass the shop owner. anyway, it was safe, they must've used bottled water.

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me in angkor wat

2011-11-25T01:10:00.003+08:00

photo: charles george

charles took this photo in angkor wat, cambodia. (he did the post-processing too)

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tourists watching the sunset from bakheng hill, cambodia

2011-11-24T01:15:00.004+08:00

the highest elevation among the temple groups around angkor wat, this was the best place to watch the sunset

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sunrise in angkor wat, cambodia

2011-11-23T01:33:00.002+08:00

woke up extra early for this and it was truly beautiful, unfortunately there were scaffoldings (photoshopped out of this photo) so i didn't bother to do proper photos of it.

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this is charles doing his best robert mitchum impression

2011-11-22T08:11:00.008+08:00

he also did an impression of smoking marlene dietrich and bette davis, but let's stick to this one.

we spent the whole day walking about so we decided to do an evening dip in the pool. prince d'angkor hotel in siem reap, cambodia. the staff are sooooo nice (well, the cambodians in general) and helpful.

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rice fields in siem reap, cambodia, devastated by flooding

2011-11-21T08:03:00.003+08:00

this is the rice fields near siem reap in cambodia that should've been a blanket of vibrant green this time of the year but is instead submerged in flood water.

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afternoon drinks

2011-11-20T12:27:00.000+08:00

rene, ogie, benj, and josen (l-r) decided to come over for afternoon drinks at the rooftop of my apartment after we had dim sum in wanchai. the half-frozen dark bottle is hendricks.

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more flowers

2011-11-19T16:06:00.000+08:00

awwwwwww! another bunch. i hope i don't get used to this.

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panoramic photo of halong bay

2011-11-18T03:38:00.000+08:00

just another photo of beautiful halong bay, vietnam. you can click to see the full size of the image (you'll also probably have to maximize your browser window to see the entire image). can't remember how many shots i stitched to get this panoramic view, but it was all automated in photoshop, so no biggie.

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scene from a cafe serving dog meat in hanoi, vietnam

2011-11-17T11:05:00.007+08:00

i almost got robbed in hanoi. while walking around the lake near the historic district, a guy touted a cardboard sheet with some photos printed on it, offering something i didn't care to know. red flag! a cardboard with print, a newspaper, a menu, a petition list, or a photo being shoved in your face for attention is (almost) always a decoy. while you're struggling to see what's printed so you can vehemently say no, the guy's other hand is probably very busy picking your pocket already. if you're sitting in a cafe with your stuff on the table and someone shoves something on your face offering something, you can be sure that the guy's (or girl's) other hand is already swiping your things from the table. it bears repeating: anything being shoved in your face to grab your attention is ALWAYS a diversion so a thief can take your stuff. anyway, i saw the sign so i politely said no and walked on - but this one's pretty persistent. at one point, where there was a bigger crowd, he blocked my way so that i can't walk forward, still showing me his pictures. this was, i assumed right, step two. while he blocked my way, someone he works with was already busy trying to unzip my backpack. as i was aware of the play, i instantly noticed the guy behind me at work, yanked my bag, and walked away. at this point the guy with pictures walked even faster so he's still ahead of me, the other guy who was opening my bag ran a few meters ahead. when i saw that they haven't let go, i yelled and warned everyone to be careful because the guy's a pickpocket. at this point the thief closer to me stopped walking, so i just looked him in the eye and walked past. the other thief also stopped, stood with his back on the crowd, like he was looking at something from a distant, feigning innocence. when i walked passed him i felt the energy - conscious control of excitement, unnatural stillness.

so anyway, why let such an encounter ruin your trip, right? the photo above has nothing to do with the failed robbery - other than that it was taken in hanoi on the same night. this is supposed to be a popular cafe - on the menu, among other things, are grilled or boiled dog meat. i read somewhere that dogs can smell whether or not you've eaten dog meat before. is this true? if you know for sure and have an explanation for it, please drop me a line.

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p.s.
i forgot to mention that the above warning isn't just for hanoi - it's for any city when you're travelling. i remember once while in fisherman's wharf in san francisco (a tourist trap if there ever is one), amongst the thick crowd a youngish couple suddenly had a yelling row and a very public breakup. only the whole thing was so fake and staged (they really should've taken acting lessons) - everybody's attention turned to them for a couple of minutes. i wanted to yell "beware of pickpockets" but i was afraid there might be one near me holding a knife (they sometimes do, tho not usually)

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halong bay, vietnam

2011-11-16T00:32:00.000+08:00

wow. i really should travel more - halong bay is (relatively) close to hong kong and yet it took me all this time to visit. so beautiful and peaceful and relaxing.

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