f o c a l m a t t e r

stefanie

mike — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 04:51:09 +0000

My first real memory of Stefanie is of acting beside her in a Federico Garcia Lorca play, The Butterfly's Evil Spell. She played the butterfly. I was the beetle that was hopelessly in love with her.

lex & tina

mike — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:49:21 +0000

Had my shoot this weekend with Lex and Tina (from the last update). We met up at their apartment in Bay Ridge and visited some of their favorite local haunts where they told me about the neighborhood as I photographed them. Apparently a lot of mobsters live in Bay Ridge. Who knew?

the internet is for scorn

mike — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:37:03 +0000

Internet forums are interesting places. There are few other places, either real or online, that are as effective at gathering like-minded individuals into one place to discuss everything from the brilliant to the banal. It's like being in a college classroom with thousands of other people from all over the world, all different walks of life. One of the biggest perks about internet forums is that they're a great place to go to for free advice from experts who are there because they love to share knowledge. The downside, of course, is that on the internet, everyone's an expert.

life begins at 234

mike — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 04:34:51 +0000

Yesterday was the 4th of July, my first since moving to New York. Naturally, we decided to do it up right—by going to Jersey.

saturday in the park

mike — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:40:09 +0000

So Fourth of July weekend is upon us, and for some reason that made me feel extra-compelled to go out and do something than any other Saturday. Go figure. In any case, I promptly hopped on my trusty steed (the Manhattan-bound N Train) and galloped (commuted) my way into town,

endtimes square

mike — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 04:35:52 +0000

Sometimes I think I'll never be a "real New Yorker" because I actually kinda like Times Square. It seems that more often than not, simply mentioning the words "Times Square" to a New Yorker will elicit responses of "Dear god, why?" (a coworker actually said that to me once) and a disdain normally reserved for Hoboken, L.A., and the Red Sox.

the sadness of pets

mike — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:36:38 +0000

My entire life, I've been surrounded by animals. When my parents took me home from the hospital thirty-five years ago, there was already a happy German Shepherd pup waiting for me. When we first moved to the Philippines we stayed with my grandparents, who had on their very large property (among other things) twenty dogs, twenty cats, a pen of geese, a coop of doves, turtles, a parrot, and three macaque monkeys. Yes, monkeys. Other kids my age were lucky if their parents let them have a goldfish. I got to hang out with monkeys.

the air up there

mike — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 03:00:23 +0000

Shot an engagement party for a lovely couple on Friday night. It was held on the rooftop of a building in the Lower Midtown/Koreatown area. The shot above is the view from the south side of the rooftop. You can actually see the Brooklyn Bridge, a good three miles away. I can't begin to imagine what it'd be like to have that view waiting for you every morning.

ounce of prevention

mike — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:47:48 +0000

Updates have been few and far between lately on account of me still wrestling with my library of over 36,000 photos. I'm hoping to use "this photography thing" to help supplement my main income, or at the very least bring in enough money to pay for itself. God knows photography is no cheap endeavor, and it'd be nice if it pulled its own weight once in a while.

old school

mike — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:43:50 +0000

Just before the weekend, Scott Kelby—photo guru, Photoshop whiz extraordinaire, and all-around swell fella—posed a photo challenge: spend the weekend shooting like it was 1999. In a nutshell, go out and shoot with your digital camera like it was a film camera: no reviewing shots on the LCD, no more than 24 or 36 shots for the whole weekend, no looking at any of the shots until the day after you "finish the roll."

bay to breakers

mike — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:21:35 +0000

In the eight years I lived in the Bay Area—three of which spent living in the heart of downtown San Francisco—I never once attended Bay to Breakers. Friends and coworkers often participated, to the point of thinking up fun and crazy costumes (usually group-themed), but I never did. I wish I could provide some valid excuse but really it just boiled down to laziness. Weekends were my sleep-in days, Sunday the holiest of holy Days of Sloth, and I'd be damned if anyone was gonna get me out of bed before ten or eleven in the morning, let alone at seven o'clock.

there and back again

mike — Wed, 12 May 2010 00:01:45 +0000

It's funny how the brain, out of its need for order and structure, "compartmentalizes" our lives. You can spend five weeks in a place, working, sleeping, socializing, and otherwise maintaining the semblance of a normal life, then the second you leave that place, it all disappears into the ether. One minute you're on a plane and still in that sort of "limbo" between lives; and then as soon as you step off the plane, everything that came before feels like it was in another life, almost as though it never really happened.

the streets of makati

mike — Thu, 06 May 2010 10:17:36 +0000

On the home stretch of the trip. Hard to believe I've been here almost five (!) weeks already. Despite spending most of my time here either working during the night, sleeping during the day, or running around in-between, I managed to snag a fair number of photos. Just under six thousand at last count, though of them maybe only a quarter made the cut. Still, I'm happy with those numbers.

legacy

mike — Mon, 03 May 2010 22:07:37 +0000

The main reason for my return to the Philippines was to pick up my grandmother, who has been living in Cebu for the last year or so. We had sent her back from the States to escape the Winter, and illness had prevented us from bringing her home sooner. Said picking up has hit a bit of a snag, as apparently her being in the Philippines for over a year (due to aforementioned illness) resulted in her Green Card being invalidated.

pilipinas kong minumutya

mike — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:24:58 +0000

Being back these past few weeks has been a bit of an experience for me. Some of the things, I expected; the thrill of seeing old friends again, the nostalgia of revisiting my old haunts, the surprise to see how much everything had changed. What I hadn't expected, however, was how much I'd realized I've missed this place.

neil and kayen

mike — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:30:15 +0000

Two old and dear friends recently asked me if I could reshoot their engagement photos. They had tragically lost them in a hard drive crash (protip: it's not enough to back up, you gotta do it often) and were hoping to have new ones for their upcoming vow renewals.

boracay

mike — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:12:34 +0000

In all the years I lived in the Philippines, I'd never been to Boracay—considered by many to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the Philippines. Between the airfare to get there and the cost of lodging and food for your stay (plus other things), I never really had the money for it.

the campaign trail

mike — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 03:50:11 +0000

As though in testament to just how small Manila really is and how bizarrely interconnected Manileños tend to be, the brother-in-law of my good friend and stalwart traveling companion, Iñigo, is running for president. Of the Philippines.

the look

mike — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 03:38:55 +0000

One thing I'd forgotten about the Philippines is that many people—especially the masa, those below the poverty line—aren't self-conscious about staring. In fact many will continue to do it even after you meet their gaze (which is usually the point where even the most brazen starer will turn away).

quiapo

mike — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:14:47 +0000

I found myself with some downtime earlier today and took the opportunity to visit Quiapo, known for its sprawling markets and back-alley bazaars, and explore Hidalgo street, itself known for having a ton of camera stores and bargains galore.

the other half

mike — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:02:27 +0000

Today presented an interesting situational dichotomy as I spent it hanging out with different friends. In the morning, I met up with a good friend of mine, Iñigo (in whose spare bedroom I'm crashing while in Manila) and some of his friends for lunch. We ate at a nice upscale Japanese restaurant before retiring to one of the friends' houses for sangrias.

adjustments

mike — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:26:25 +0000

Day One of my trip is officially over, and I think I'm no less thrown for a loop for it. Partly because, as expected, the landscape has changed so dramatically in the last decade, but more because I have. I've been gone so long, I've forgotten all about what it's like to live here.

homecoming

mike — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:45:42 +0000

A little over an hour or so until we reach NAIA; part of me still hasn't fully grasped that I'm on my way home. I know it, of course, the same way you know that the childhood home you revisit isn't going to be a hundred feet tall. But you don't really know it until you actually see it and your brain finally puts it all together.

Hit the road, Jack

mike — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:14:58 +0000

Tomorrow begins my sojourn back to the Philippines, the first in almost a decade. Half the time, I can hardly believe it. As much as I hate the term "Developing Nation" (there's nothing wrong with calling it a Third World Country), the moniker is incredibly apt. Metro Manila has been developing at a near-exponential rate, and in the past nine years, the topography of the cities has changed drastically. It will be a homecoming to an unfamiliar place.

conEd

mike — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:05:22 +0000

No accompanying text tonight. I've had the longest day in recent memory and I just want to go to sleep.