Height

"Silakbo", 2025

Taken in the middle of Cup of Joe’s Silakbo concert in Araneta Coliseum. The sea of crowd reflecting the red lights from above evoked emotions that I could only feel at that very moment. It was exhilarating and pure bliss to hear my favorite band perform live and to witness this many people sing along to the songs that I love.

I was already trying and experimenting with different concepts of photography during this time, but I only had my phone's camera, I only tend to play around the brightness around the area before I take the photo, focusing on the main subject and better angles.

I tend to click on which area is the brightest, then try to adjust the brightness of the photo from there. I lowered the ISO since it was already too bright, and the aperture was already set automatically since I was just using the wide lens. My camera does not have the ability to set photos like a professional camera, that's why most of the time, I do most on post-editing.

Patter

"Prayer", 2025

I was driven by the lines and shapes that I saw while sneering above the mall’s ceiling. I wouldn’t usually look above a mall’s ceiling because that isn’t the most interesting part. But looking from this angle below, and with my camera tilted, it gave me a new outlook on it. What I am getting from this picture is some religious and divine aura, like a cathedral or perhaps a pyramid.

Night

"Blended Burst", 2025

Nothing could show the beauty of the night sky more than a set of fireworks. Through these gleaming lights, the pitch black sky was given a zing. It was perfectly captured, and the darks of the sky complemented the lights of the fireworks.

This setting was a bit difficult, since I wanted to capture the essence of the fireworks, but not too bright. I focused on the fireworks itself and adjust the brightness from there. Finding the right angle was definitely difficult on this one, I wanted to show the school's logo alongside the fireworks as I thought that the color dynamic looks good together.

This was the type of situation where you see something beautiful and take a photo. It does not need much manual control because it automatically focuses on the subject. This angle is where I can see most of them while also focusing on the ones at the front. Lilies are already beautiful but I tweak some saturation, contrast, brightness and other aspects in post-editing just to make the colors pop more.

Flower

"Blooming in the Streets", 2025

Flowers only live for a short moment—after a while, they start to wither and lose their shape and color. Thus I think capturing their beauty is one of the biggest joys one could have. Along the streets of Dangwa lie bulks of flowers. Many are given to someone’s loved one, but a lot of them are also wasted. Through capturing them at their prime, I could look back at their beauty. I could relive the memories that I had when scouring the flowery streets.

Motion

"Multo", 2025

Multo is the biggest song of Cup of Joe as of right now. It had led me to associate it with this photograph. Something about this picture is ghostly. The way the motorcycle motions without a movement, looking like a spirit passing by. The empty spaces of España, which is eerie because it is usually filled with people and brimming with vast colors and lights. But on this very day, España felt empty, and I felt like a ghost, lingering around, too.

This is my favorite of all. It's truly difficult to capture an image with the concept of motion, as it should be done with the perfect timing. I wasn't familiar with the camera settings of this phone as it wasn't mine, and this was one of the trials I did. The shutter speed was just enough to keep everyone else steady while also accounting for the motion of the motorcycles and cars. The ISO level is enough to clearly see the colors of the arch, but since there was a lamp post, it was also a bit challenging. I tweak the colors in post-editing, to focus more on the arch and the motorcycle.

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