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On Composing Photos by Paolo Dala

Keep that picture simple. Don’t get too complicated. Let see one dominant subject, layer the composition. Maybe your gonna have something big on the for ground, maybe something repetitive in the middle ground and the background. But whatever it is, limit the number of elements in the picture. Keep it simple . Simple has impact. Cluttered doesn’t do anybody any good.

Also with composition, especially with landscapes, don’t split the picture in the middle. Think in terms in thirds. Either horizontally or vertically. If you cut your picture, your rectangles in thirds, that’s where your intersecting lines are. That’s where your subject should be placed. Off course all of this rule is made to be broken, but a general rule think in terms of thirds.

Michael Yamashita

Art of the Photographer

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The Ayaas River/Waterfall Trail by Paolo Dala

07 August 2015 Entry:

I climbed twice Mt. Ayaas.

When I first climbed Mt. Ayaas, it was during the summer time and it was a walk in the park... Then, I climbed it again during the monsoon season and It was a completely different story. As different as night and day! The trail became a water trail. We had to walk in (not along) the river and had to climb the Karugo Falls and several other falls to reach the summit.

The rainy day hike was 10 times more difficult and more dangerous, but as Vincent van Gogh puts it: 

“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk on, but no flowers grow on it.”

...Monsoon season Mt. Ayaas was 10 times more beautiful and more fun.

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Making My Own Map by Paolo Dala

I've been looking for Philippine Maps on Lazada, on Shopee, and in malls. Every map I saw was subpar... So, I decided to draw [and print in the near future] my own 1/5,000,000 scale map of the Philippines.

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Laughing Weather by Paolo Dala

There are some days when the weather just laughs as you. That was today. Windy, cold, muddy and completely joyous... it pushed us off the road. Those moments make you revaluate life for a second. All in all it was a good day filled with a lot of laughter and big muddy smiles.

Chris Burkard 

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Freeing The Camel? by Paolo Dala

Do not free the camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.

G. K. Chesterton

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Good Finds At UCM's Free Library by Paolo Dala

There is no such thing as attainment in this life; as soon as one arrives at a long-coveted position he only jacks up his desire another notch or so and looks for another achievement -  a process which is ultimately suspended by the intervention of death. Life is truly likened to a rising vapor, coiling, evanescent, shifting. May he Lord teach us what it means to live in terms of the end, like Paul who said, ”Neither count I my life dear unto myself, that I may finish the course with joy...”

Jim Elliot Through Gates of Splendor (1956)

One of the most life changing books I’ve read as a grade schooler was Elizabeth Elliot’s Through Gates of Splendor... the story of the five missionaries (Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Younderian) who gave their lives to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Ecuador’s Auca Indians. I’ve and wanted to get a copy because I wanted to read it as an adult. I’ve visited a lot of bookshops here in the Philippines through the year trying to find a copy, but I was unsuccessful...

One Sunday after church, I went to see our church’s (Union Church of Manila) Little Free Library. You see the pre-COVID times, our church’s library would set this small stand called the Little Free Library every Sunday at the Legazpi Sunday Market (in Makati). It was some kind of a book barter system in which you take one book and leave one book. Anyway, while I was browsing it, I came across a copy of Through Gates of Splendor! After years of searching, I finally got one and the best thing about it is I didn’t spending anything on it. Haha...The Little Free Library always makes me feel like some one finding a gold in a dumpster. I had some many great finds here.

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Mt. Susuong Dalaga Assault by Paolo Dala

Circa 2014, a photo of our assault on Mt. Susuong Dalaga  in Lipa City, Batangas... This was a tough climb. I didn’t enjoy this. Haha.

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Self-Portrait, Not Selfie by Paolo Dala

The advent of the selfie had left me with some misconstrued ideas about how unoriginal it is to turn the camera on yourself. A selfie is one of the easiest images you can take - after all, many people have a camera lens facing them every time they check their phone. Selfies are a way to show off a new haircut or your favorite outfit. They are a way for a group of people to take a photo without having to talk to a stranger. Whether shot at arms length or reflected in a mirror, selfies have become such a common image for me to see each day that I almost forgot the beautiful and vulnerable place from which they originated… Self-portraits are not selfies. They are beautiful and revealing. The good ones are extremely difficult to make. Marie McGrory

The Un-selfie: Taking back the Self-Portrait

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The Giving Trees by Paolo Dala

Trees are sentinels Guarding, nurturing, protecting Bastions of dignity Breathing life Providing shelter Asking for nothing Sacrificing everything K. Earle

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At The Taj Mahal Of Negros Occidental by Paolo Dala

08 July 2019 Entery:

We finished our one-day work assignment in Silay City, Negros Occidental early than expected… So, we decided to have lunch and coffee/beer at The Ruins in Talisay City until our flight back to Manila. 

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The Most Important Rule Of Mountaineering by Paolo Dala

According to the legendary mountaineer Ed Viesturs:  “Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” This is the most important rule of mountaineering... You should always plan your climbs as two-way trips.

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Behind The Adventure by Paolo Dala

Outdoor adventures - hiking, kayaking, climbing, mountain biking, skiing, surfing, etc. - are rewarding because they allow us to explore the most beautiful places in the natural world, to challenge ourselves physically and mentally, and to build deep bonds with the friends who share these experiences with us…

We want to see photos that show what inspires you on an adventure. We’d love to see your glory shots - the moment when the mountaineer reaches the peak’s summit, the skier makes a perfect turn on a glittering slope, or the rock climber passes the crux of the route. But we also want to see images that show the behind the scenes of what it takes to summit that mountain, ski that slope, or climb that route. They could be photos that show the personal, transformative, uncomfortable, humorous, and even painful moments of the adventure.

Jimmy Chin and Mary Anne Potts

Behind the Adventure

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You Snooze, You [Don't] Lose by Paolo Dala

Changing the assumption that if you’re really smart, dedicated, and creative, sleep is for losers… “You snooze, you lose.” Look at all the language in our country.

So, all the evidence now shows that contrary to what we believe, sleep is not a time of inactivity, but a time of frantic activity in the brain. It’s the time when all the accumulative toxins and wastes from the day is cleaned up. As one scientist put it “You can either entertain the guest or clean up the house.” The cannot do both at the same time. That has huge implications for memory, for retrieval of information, and for also tapping to a dipper part of ourselves which is when we are most creative.

If you want to operate on the surface and be purely transactional answering your emails, cleaning your closet, or whatever it is, sure! You can do it and be sleep deprived. If you really want to create, you need to be able to tap into a deeper place.

Arrianna Huffington

On the Link Between Creativity and Sleep

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Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Choosing Love by Paolo Dala

I always choose the “Make Love” Option on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla... I let Eivor make out with NPCs as much as possible. Haha.

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Willy Loman by Paolo Dala

Death of a Salesman is the story about a salesman named Willy Loman. Willy was a man who lived a big lie. He made everybody believe that he was successful and rich. He pretended to be into big money, but he wasn’t. He pretended to have all the right connections in town, but he didn’t. He pretended that he had all the power that he desired, but he never really had it. He fooled everyone, including his sons. They grew up believing that dad was big shot and powerful. Willy was his sons biggest hero. Only his wife knew who he really was because the bills weren’t getting paid. All of a sudden, his son Biff, found out in a humiliating situation who he really was. That situation completely destroyed Biff’s life. Biff couldn’t accept his biggest hero’s true identity. The story ended with a suicide committed by a hopeless Willy Loman. At Willy’s funeral, Biff uttered these words which perfectly summarized which perfectly summarized what wen wrong with Willy Loman: 

“the man didn’t know who he was.” 

Willy didn’t know who he was. He tried to be what others would like him to be. He lived life with the motto: “Be liked and you will never want.” He lived a life that he thought others would like. His life purpose was to become what others wanted him to be and when he failed, he felt so unwanted and lost all reasons to live. 

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The Audacity Of Christian Art by Paolo Dala

Virgin and Child (Madonna and Child) Giovanni Bellini (1480 - 1485) Louvre (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

How do you paint figure who is fully human, and fully divine? How do you show, in paint, that the person in a painting is human like you and me, and also God? It’s an amazingly daring thing to even attempt. But artists working in the Christian tradition have done exactly that for nearly two millennia... My background is in theology and I’m particularly interested in these paintings within a religious context. What do they say about God, and how do they say it? 

...one of the greatest questions in Christian art: How do you paint Christ? Before starting, it is important to know that Christians believe in one God who is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is the Trinity and God the Son is Jesus Christ. Christians believed that he was simultaneously fully human and fully divine. The Incarnation - the way in which Jesus Christ came down from heaven, lived and died on earth, was resurrected, and ascended to heaven again - has prompted some pretty complex theology. It has also prompted some extraordinary art...

Once you know the story (Thomas, an apostle of Jesus Christ), it’s not hard to  sympathize with Thomas. He knew Christ was human. He knew Christ was dead. It took an encounter with the Resurrected Christ Himself to make Thomas recognize His divinity... the challenge facing an artist depicting Christ. In a way, using the story of Thomas is simpler for an artist painting for a Christian audience. They viewer can do the work if they know the narrative. But most of the time the artist has to treat the viewer a bit like Thomas...

The challenge of painting the united humanity and divinity of Christ is a uniquely complex one. In fact, there’s something extraordinary and audacious about Christian art. If we think of the historical context from which it emerged, it’s astonishing that it ever did. The Hebrew Bible has a prohibition against graven images and under the Christian communities developed in a pagan Greco-Roman World that was full of multiple deities who could change their appearance. But Christians believed that one particular man was God Incarnate. Not a deity who changes shape, not a man with magic powers, but fully human and fully divine. Now how on earth do you paint that? Christian art attempts to do something which no other form of art has ever tried to do and the Christian art is, in one sense, a history of artistic responses to this enormous challenge of painting Christ. It’s an attempt that which must, necessarily, ultimately fail. Neither words, nor images can fully describe God. Nor can they explain the human and the divine could be united in one person. Nevertheless, Christians have used both words and pictures to explore their experiences of God and their belief in the Incarnation. And just as some religious language explicitly acknowledges its own inadequacy, some painters have drawn attention visually to the paradoxical nature of attempting to depict Christ... The audacity of Christian art lies in this continued attempt to undertake a truly impossible task.

Dr. Chloë Reddaway

Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Curator in Art and Religion, National Gallery (London, United Kingdom)

The Audacity of Christian Art: The Problem with Christ

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All Things Photogenic by Paolo Dala

Everything is photogenic. Every person, place and thing has something extraordinary to offer a creative and resourceful photographer - it’s usually just a matter of capturing the shot from the right viewpoint, in flattering light or in an intriguing context.

…the focus is on finding interesting things and attractive ways of photographing particularly ordinary things - the kinds of objects you’re likely to find around the house, office or neighborhood.

Jim Krause

Photo Idea Index - Things