The 37th Milo Marathon

“I run because if I didn’t, I’d be sluggish and glum and spend too much time on the couch. I run to breathe the fresh air. I run to explore. I run to escape the ordinary. I run…to savor the trip along the way. Life becomes a little more vibrant, a little more intense. I like that.” – Dean Karnazes

Another marathon was held once again in Manila: The 37th Milo Marathon (Manila Leg Elimination). I’ve been participating the event ever since I started running, not that I really intend to religiously participate in this race but I was just lucky that I was here in Manila every time the race takes place. As expected, the execution of the race is awesome! The organizer, Rio nailed it once again. It’s quite overwhelming to see people cross the finish line. Some were screaming, some were on the verge of tears, some were chanting and crawling to reach the finish line. Of course there were a few disappointments of runners not achieving the cut off or the PR but it looks like everyone is on a runner’s high!

As for me, it’s another time to reunite with good old friends. It’s great to see new bloods participating and the old one’s still running and still striving to beat themselves (Too bad I missed the takbo.ph aid station as I only run 21K and not 42K).

As so I thought I felt home… 🙂

RESULTS ARE OUT

Thanks to Running Photographers, Wesley Orana, Jessie Tiu Laurel and Tong Pasqua Photography for the snaps!

On Chasing Lights

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams

busy — City Lights in Fintas – Settings 20 Sec, F16, ISO 200 on Nikon D40

I love taking photographs of basically about anything. Nowadays, people are into it and I joined the bandwagon long back (2008 is still new though). On the things that I have learned about photography, one of my favorites is shooting at night and trying to catch the light movement.

whirl — Low Shutter Speed, Low Aperture and Low ISO settings could also catch the water movement.

At first I was asking HOW? Whenever I see a photo of the beams of the car without the car itself, I’m quite puzzled on how could it be captured like that. Until I realized that one needs to have a tripod to successfully do the trick or at least a place where in the camera will never be disturbed by any force that will make it move.

Of course aside from the movement of the camera that needs to be avoided, proper setting should also be adjusted. Tip #1: SET IT TO MANUAL MODE. Friends say that it’s ideal to have the minimum ISO possible to evade unnecessary noise in the composition. Next is to have a somewhat low aperture and lastly to have a low shutter speed. Balancing these setting should be up to the photographer depending on his taste.

In this exercise I’ve learned that high aperture can make the lights unequally scattered; hence it needs to be adjusted to properly disperse the light. Fast shutter-speed of course will make a photograph darker and the ISO on the light adjustment as well as the noise as I have mentioned.

I have some of Doha Shots in the Past here

Maybe this will also help —> LINK

I’m sure many photographers have their ways and could share and explain better than what I’m saying. Okay, I’m off to shoot my next favorite photo! Cheers! 🙂

Nostalgia: Chautauqua

It was May 2008. Chautauqua Park in the heart of Boulder, Colorado is one of the most relaxing places away from my home country that I have visited; back in that year, I was totally a home buddy and enjoyed hanging out with TV and gym, but my trip in this place made me realized that there are far more better things to do. Maybe I was just to bored or just get tired of being a couch potato.

I can’t remember how good the trail is but I bet it was totally easy. We were actually walking in jeans and cargo pants at that time and we actually thought it was comfortable. Lol! What a total newbie!

Anyway, this place inspired my to move, to pledge that I will be more of an outdoor person when get back home. I felt guilty of only realizing it late, but as the saying goes, better late than never. So here I am looking forward to explore more. 🙂