“In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19)

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

Ladies and Gents, welcome to a place where you can find blue skies, white cross, green grass and peaceful silence all in one. Welcome to Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

Just a brief info about this place, the Cemetery Gates are open from 9am to 5pm. Make no mistake about it folks, the guards here were really strict on implementing the house rules, specially the operating hours, which turns our normal shooting plan into a 30-minute photo walk challenge. How? Here’s the story (really boring and nonsense but I’ll say it anyway)…

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

We’ve took a cab ride from Ayala MRT Station (just to assure our destination since we don’t know how to get here) and tell Manong (the cool driver of the cab that plays a Bon Jovi track) that we need to get here to this beautiful, peaceful place for shooting. Good thing he knows this place so everything is smooth and easy for us.

We’ve arrived here at exactly 4:30 pm, relaxed and quite lazy. Upon entering the Cemetery Gates (my favorite cut from Pantera), Manong, who wears a cool, black sunglasses (who’s also one of the Security Guards of this place) approach us and handed out a laminated yellow paper which states the rules and regulations/ do’s and dont’s of the cemetery. So cutting the crap out, it’s clearly stated in the paper (which is also displayed at the gates which we didn’t notice)  that the regular operating hours is from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. – end of story!

So enough with the chit chat, here are some of the shots that I’ve come up within 30 minutes; and let me tell you, it ain’t easy shooting under time pressure. Hope you guys like this one. Check this out!

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY
A COMRADE IN ARMS
KNOWN BUT TO GOD

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

The Tree of Life Dead

–((S))–

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

Isolated: Away from the Dead

–((S))–

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

White Cross. Black Shadows.

–((S))–

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

White Cross. Black Shadows. Repeating Patterns.

–((S))–

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

Shape defined. Subject undefined.

–((S))–

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

Cemetery in Black Beauty.

–((S))–

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

 Walk the faded line.

–((S))–

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

The Other Side.

–((S))–

Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Photos

Peace in Shooting.

–((S))–

That’s it folks! Hope you had a great time viewing/reading this blog o’ mine. One piece of advice though, just a personal thought… Never leave a photowalk without having a self-portrait. (even if it’s suck or not, just do it!)

And by the way, shotnroll.com (this website/ photoblog/ portfolio/ gallery of mine) is turning 2 years old today; And personally, I just wanna say thanks to you guys (yes I’m talking to you, darn it! Hehehe!) who keeps on visiting this site and understanding what I’ve been doing for the past year. Let’s cheers and have a drink for another year to come… You guys were truly legendary! Thanks, thanks… \m/

- The End

–((S))–

Thanks for dropping by to my Manila American Cemetery and Memorial gallery! By the way, if you like this blog post, you can click the Facebook’s like button, drop some comments or just rating it by simply clicking those stars above. \m/

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Gears Used:
Canon EOS 1000D
Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM Lens

OST
Track: Cemetery Gates
Artist: Pantera

Opening ceremony. Let’s all look to the flag and show our patriotism.

UST Philippine Flag

Path to Righteousness… The photowalking journey starts here…

Path to Righteousness

Let’s sit for a few minutes here. Band at Rest, a shot taken while having a quick break. \m/

Band at Rest

This one will catch your attention. A statue with a fountain on her feet. Very nice subject to shoot from.

Heavenly Statue

Clock’s ticking, night is coming.
Unload those shots to the beautiful spots.

UST Clock Tower

The monochrome UST Clock Tower.

Looking back to the path you’ve taken, here’s what it leads…

Path to the Arc

Facing back from the clock tower, a diferent view, a different direction and a different effect.

Reaching the end of the opposite direction, you’ll find the famous UST Arc of the Century.

UST Arc of the Century

Feel free to pass the arc, nevermind the rumors! Go see and test it yourself. Your future lies here… \m/

The lens-catchin’ colors that dusk brings. My favorite time for shooting sceneries. UST on dusk scenery… A shot that you definitely don’t wanna miss.

UST on Dusk Scenery

And after a long hours of shot n’ rollin’ on the most interesting spots of the campus, time to get the souvenir shot. A self-portrait on the UST grounds. Thanks to Apollo, God of the Sun, for casting long shadows. \m/

Self Portrait #1: Tree is a Crowd

One is enough, two is too much and Tree is a Crowd! My self-portait #1 what I’ve called Tree is a Crowd.

Self Portrait #2: Shadow Spiral

My 2nd shot, another self-portrait what I called Shadow Spiral.

That’s it folks! Thanks for dropping by to my UST Photowalk Gallery. Just a little personal thought…

You know what’s cool about this school? Well, aside from it’s reputable profile (as we all know), this is a nice place for photowalking. Just have your UST buddy along with you and that’s it. Shot n’ Roll, all day long! \m/

By the way, if you like this post, you can drop some comments and rate it. Just click those stars and gimme a hell yeah! \m/
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Gears Used:
Canon EOS 1000D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm kit lens

OST:
Take a Picture – Filter

With the performance of Grace of Brutality, Tubero, Mortal Fear, Blasphemous Cremation, Subculture, Rex and more.

Since we’re done introducing the 2 other bands on my earlier post, I now bring you the last set of shots and remaining bands with blast performance on this metal fest.
Ladies and Gents, the 4th band is up they’re ready to crush the stage…. Let’s give it up for Mortal Fear! \m/

Mortal Fear

Mortal Fear’s Guitar on solo… \m/

Mortal Fear

Blast beat, melodic licks, crushing riffs and a high-pitched screams. F#ck! this band is packed with technicality that will make you watch ‘em like a hawk. If your looking for an extreme music with a death metal tune, look no further, count ‘em in and play it loud! \m/ \m/

Mortal Fear

Our next band… Blasphemous Cremation!

Blasphemous Cremation… 2 Vox in 1 metal band? F*ck Yeah!

Blasphemous Cremation

Blast beat, death riffs and death solos will nail your asses down on your seats! Let me say this one…
Don’t judge the book by it’s cover, coz this band will bash the book to your heads by the music they create! Let’s give our horns for this great metal band right here! Death Metal or Grindcore? Be the judge, go see and hear them for your selves! \m/ \m/

Our next band… Rex!

Rex

As you can see, obviously, she’s from another country and not a metal band, but she rocks! Why? coz she enjoys performing at this metal fest regardless of her different music and the metal heads here. Let’s all give her a round of applause and show our horns for this rock band… \m/

Rex

Rex’ guitar on the solos… \m/

Rex

Our next band… Subculture!

Subculture

No ifs, no buts, this metal band right here is unique. Like the old Sepultura days to Soulfly, they also uses such instruments for creating their own unique music.
This band has more to give you than you think it is. Just check out their shows and see it for your self, and I bet your heads will be bouncing up and down on their unique tunes. Let’s give our horns for this metal band right here… \m/ \m/

Missed the first part? Check out the Thrash Post Here! \m/

Thanks for dropping by to my Blast Beat Metal Gallery! By the way, if you like this post, you can drop some comments and rate it. Just click those stars and gimme a hell yeah! \m/
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Gears Used:
Canon EOS 1000D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm kit lens
Canon Speedlite 580EX Flash

Press Menu button, go to the first tab/selection, then go to Quality. You’ll notice there’s a lot of qualities to choose from like S, M, L, RAW and RAW+L.

At first, I’m using RAW+L to see the difference between them. But then later, I’m switching from one quality to another since using RAW+L quality will eat a lot of space on your memory card. Just do remember that using RAW type consumes approximately from 8-10mb max on your memory card per shot, while L (jpg) consumes from 2-4mb max.

Many photographers prefer using RAW because of its clarity, image quality and post processing capabilities, compare to JPG types. Below are the illustrations and actual shots when I’m still using RAW+L quality, so be the judge ladies and gents, compare and conclude! To start of the judgement, I bring you my first shot, taken at the grounds of The Fort.

1st Shot: Skater Boy

Picture Style
User Defined 1: Monochrome
Filter effect: Green

L (jpg) image quality from Canon 1000D

Here are two images generated on a single shot. The above image is L, while the image below is RAW. Here’s what happens when you open the RAW file on Adobe Lightroom. The Picture Style is discarded and retains its original format and colors. So if you’re going to use the Mono Style on your cam, you should use the L(jpg) format.

RAW quality image when opened on Adobe Lightroom

Doing a little post-processing on this one, like increasing exposure, brightness and contrast, here’s the output:

Post-processed Raw quality image on Adobe Lightroom

Applying the same adjustments here on L (jpg) quality, here’s the output:

Post-processed L (jpg) quality image on Adobe Lightroom

Setting the Saturation on both RAW and JPG types to -100, here’s the output:

Applying Black and White colors on both Raw and JPG quality

Applying saved preset on both RAW and JPG image quality using Adobe Lightroom, here it is…
Preset used: Creative – Antique Light

Creative - Antique Light applied on Raw image quality

Creative - Antique Light applied on L (jpg) image quality

2nd Shot: Lonely Coffee just for One

Here are the two coffees generated on one shot.

Coffee on RAW quality image

Above image: Coffee on RAW quality.
Below image: Coffee on JPG quality image
Spot the differences?

Coffee on L (jpg) quality image

Doing a little post-processing on this one, like the ones we did before on the Skater Boy, here’s the output:

Post-processed Raw quality image on Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom has this cool tool in which you can rotate and crop the image. It’s like rotating the image but the position remains. Check out the image below.

Rotating (Crop Overlay)

Crop Overlay Tool on Adobe Lightroom

And for the final touch, the Watermarks. This will serve as your identifier, signature and the owner of the product or media. Watermarking can also be used for a wide range of applications such as Copyright protection, etc, etc…

Coffee on its finished product

Skater Boy on its finished product

Already made your conclusion? Either of the two image qualities that you may use is fine. It will only depend on your shots and how will you use it. If you lack in memory space, you can use the L (jpg) and other image quality except for RAW. My suggestion? Buy a higher memory for you to store more shots, and it’s not that expensive by the way.

Thanks for dropping by to my Raw vs. JPG Gallery! By the way, if you like this post, you can drop some comments and rate it. Just click those stars and gimme a hell yeah! \m/
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Gears Used:
Canon EOS 1000D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm kit lens

No tablatures, no effects and no feedbacks! Let’s bring out the clean tunes and relaxing melodies.

Mono Piano Gallery

Wondering what these hands are playing? Just a good old McDonald tune. I’m damn sure that no professional piano or keyboard player didn’t play this tune, so give your selves an applause and give your hell yeah to McDonald! Hahaha! Hell Yeah!

Mono Piano Gallery

Speaking of keyboards, I’ll give you 5 ass-kickin’ metal bands who dominates the scene along with their keyboard melodies.
1. Dream Theater
2. Nevermore
3. After Forever
4. Type O Negative
5. Moonspell

Mono Piano Gallery

Now in contrary… I’ll give you 5 ass-kickin’ bands that I will call keyboard smashers! I’m not saying they didn’t like keyboards at all, but their music will be suck if they use one!

1. Slayer – Top of the list! I’m damn sure most of you metalheads out there will agree!
2. Cannibal Corpse – Imagine their death metal music with a keyboard… F**k! Sentenced to Burn!
3. Lamb of God – Now they’ve got something to smash for!
4. Earth Crisis – All out war! Smash or be keyboard Smashed!
5. Motorhead – Yeah! They are born to raise hell without using keyboards!

Mono Piano Gallery

Well that’s it man! See you next post, same time same channel… \m/
Just go ahead whatever instrument/s you play or you may play, coz it’s not the instrument that counts, it’s how you play it! \m/

Thanks for dropping by to my Mono Piano Gallery! By the way, if you like this post, you can drop some comments and give your ratings. Just click those stars and gimme a hell yeah! \m/
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Gears Used:
Canon EOS 1000D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm kit lens

Stairway To Heaven

This is my third and last part of Shot n’ Roll at the La Mesa Ecopark. If you look at the stair on this spot, it will looks like it will lead you to nowhere… But it’s not! This stairway will lead you to La Mesa Dam. Let me tell you something shot n’ rollers… The stair consists of approximately hundred steps, so it may require your physical endurance to reach the top.

I’ve titled this one Rodrigo y Gabriela’s version of Stairway to Heaven. Why I chose this one instead of the original Led Zep’s version? Coz my subject was a plain stair without anyone stepping on it. Just like the Rodrigo y Gabriela’s version of Stairway to Heaven, this one has no vocals, no lyrics, just pure as* kickin’ mariachi style classical guitar.

(3/3)

Gears Used:
Canon EOS 1000D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm kit lens