Shameless Plug: Urban Tranquility by Mark “Mungkey” Vicente

I love working in digital media, particularly working with video and photography. I’m passionate about it, and I make some sort of money with the work that I do around it. But it doesn’t really matter to me if I do get paid or not, in fact, I’ve done a lot of projects for free almost for free. I just love working in digital media, I love the creativity and the freedom (somewhat) that is allowed working in this industry, and I love most quite a few of the people that I work with. It’s just a great bunch of guys doing great things and creating great stuff.

I thought I had it pretty good until I found out what my good friend Mark “Mungkey” Vicente has been doing during his free time while working in Abu Dhabi. He sought out to buy a Canon EOS 7D and while waiting for it to get delivered he self-studied and researched his way into this masterpiece of a first project called Urban Tranquility. Watch and be amazed –

Video Montage: Urban Tranquility – Abu Dhabi, UAE (Canon EOS 7D) from mungkey on Vimeo.

To put into perspective why this is a topnotch project, this is Mungkey’s first ever video project. On a new camera. On a different system (Canon, he was a Nikonhead before.) The video quality and is amazing (saying something about Canon EOS 7D’s HD video techonology and Mungkey’s directorial and cinematographic eye), The editing is smooth and seamless, and the photographic skill and selection is perfect. We’re talking genius here. I hope someone in the industry sees this and gives him a deserving job. He is creative, passionate, and really good at what he does. I’m rooting for you, Mungkey.

After watching the video over and over again, I feel ashamed with how I’ve been so lax in nurturing my passion in visual production, at the same time I’m inspired and motivated to keep learning and improving in my craft. What worked for this type of output was passion and perseverance above all else. I am looking forward to Mungkey’s future projects. He has set a the perfect first impression.

40% Off Canon Products Sale at PBCom Tower Ayala

Here’s something for you Canon users, or you who just enjoy hearing about sales –

 

40% Off on Canon Items

I’m currently trying to get word if they’re including SLRs or lenses in the sale. If they are, then a 40% discount on a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens would be a pretty sweet deal.

I’m a Nikon user myself, but I will definitely be over there to see if I can get myself a Selphy printer, or a digicam. Sometimes my Nikon D70s takes too long to whip out of the camera bag for those quick capture moments. I cannot, for the life of me, stand taking photos using my cellphone.

Sweet New Toys from Canon (50D) and Nikon (D90)

Photokina 2008 is barely a month away, and camera giants Nikon and Canon (or Canon and Nikon, for my latter-biased friends ) have started pumping out new babies to hungry photography enthusiasts the world over.

Canon is said to be releasing the EOS 50D, a sister model of last year’s popular release, the 40D. Nikon, on the other hand, is set to release the D90, the world’s first DSLR with Movie Mode (at a sweet 720p HDTV quality, albeit forgettable Mono sound quality, so that they can still say, “hey, at least we still bothered.”).

I’m a Nikon user, and I love my D70s (which is now in danger of being replaced and moved into a DSLR nursing home if there ever was one), but I can appreciate what both brands have to offer.  If I had assimilated myself into the Canon family first, I would probably still be using the brand until now. I’ll let other people defend their brand advocacies and just nod along to each argument.

So here’s a quick look at some readily comparable features available in the upcoming Canon 50D and Nikon D90:

	Nikon D90	Canon EOS 50D
Effective pixels	12.2 mp	15.1mp
AF Points	11 points	9 points
LCD Monitor	3.0″ TFT LCD	3.0″ TFT LCD
ISO	ISO 200 to 3200	ISO 100 to 1600
Continuous Shooting	4.5 fps	6.3 / 3.0 fps, 60/90 frames
Damage to Bank Account	$1299 with 18-105 VR kit lens (or roughly around Php 60k)	$1599 with 18-200 IS lens (or roughly around Php 72k)

If you need more facts and specs so you can brag about how great the new Nikon is to your Canon-toting friends (or vice-versa), visit both hands-on previews at the ever-reliable Dpreview website (Or straight here for the EOS 50D review, and here for the Nikon D90 review).

Restless Wander Nominated for Best Travel Blog

The Philippine Blog Awards 2008

I had to interrupt my daily routine (of doing nothing) to deliver really important news — My good friend Trish Morente’s travel blog Restless Wander, has been nominated for Best Travel Blog for the 2008 Philippine Blog Awards! Way to go Trish! Everybody’s proud of you and rooting for you to get shortlisted among the finalists And although this isn’t as newsworthy, I’ve also added you onto my Blogroll (Now there’s two of you in there )! Woohoo! You’re not only being nominated for awards, you’re being added onto people’s blogrolls! You’re on a winning streak!

They’re posting the finalists soon, so I’ll be sure to check back, and I expect to see your fine blog in there, because you deserve it! Good luck!

Update: Another friend of mine’s blog, karlo rules the world without strobes, has also been nominated under the Best Photography Blog category. Congrats Karlo! Pa-Outback burger ka naman!

POTD – Waiting for Someone to Buy a Drink for

The bar is open... and so am I!

I was browsing through my hard drive for pictures that I could send to my friends for fun, and I dug this one up. This is my friend from way back in high school and best friend, Nathaniel (if he asks, tell him I didn’t use his full name), sitting at the bar, during one of our friend’s gigs at Dayo Bar in Quezon City.

So why post this? 2 things –

1.) I’m convincing Nat2x(as we shall call Nathaniel from now on) to use this on Facebook as his profile picture as a symbolism of his singlehood. Since he’s looking to be dating, why not advertise it right? So here you go, a complimentary bump for you on the photoblog.

2.) I’m trying to generate questions and conversation on the pictures that I post, and this one just made a host of questions run through my mind when I looked at it. If it does the same for you, please do share it I’m hoping to share this with Nat2x later on, and intend to have a good laugh over it.

Also, Every photo or series that I post will be called Picture of the Day (Hence the acronym in this post’s title) or Series of the Day. It just seemed cooler to be naming things this way, don’t you think? Later all -D-

Update: Nat2x just saw me putting this on the blog, and he approves of this message.

River

River, the Beach Lab.

This is River. He’s the star of the San Juan Surf Resort in Urbiztondo, La Union, aside from Luke Landrigan, of course, the other La Union women’s attraction and surf star (a shoutout to Luke and the good people of Billabong Surf School at the resort! See you guys soon!). This lazy, irresistable lab is the epitome of the surfer’s lifestyle. If this dog could talk, he’d sound like stoned surfer Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”), whose portrayal just stereotyped surfers everywhere (Surfers aren’t stoners duuude. Nooot coool.)

River here, however, has that same surfers’ demeanor. He just loves to hang out at the beach, loves the water, loves all the love and attention that the ladies give him. But to answer the lingering question in your mind, NO, the dog can’t surf. At least, not to my knowledge. I’ll be sure to watch out for that the next time I go back.

But he sure can sunbathe like he’s being paid to do it. Awesome.

There Are No Accidents…

… but there is this photoblog. Hi! My name is Don Manganar, and I am a freelance photographer and writer. This here is my first photoblogproject. I have blogged before, and have been shooting for 2 years, so I can’t really say that this is something new to me, but I can tell you for sure that I am very excited about this project. Let’s just say that I’ve made a commitment with myself to keep being immersed in the very things that I love doing — writing, photography, and the Internets.

The challenge in the past has always been to keep the blog interesting and updated, but now most of my excitement comes from the fact that I have lots of photos that I want to share with you, both old, current, and new (wait, I said both. Sorry.) No use for all my pictures to lay wasted in my hard drive. Might as well post them, and maybe you can tell me how the heck I got the shot to come out like it did.

I really hope to make the site user-friendly, interactive, and fun. I hope to see lots of discussion, criticism (constructive or otherwise), and advice, that will help me, and all other photographers or writers out there. So expect this site to be constantly evolving, as I also hope to evolve into a better photographer-slash-writer through our interactions.

I’m really looking forward to this! And I hope you are too See you in the next post!

Cheers,

Don