// Liberty

I died waiting for it for two months. Now that I have it, I died two times over. (How can you die when you're dead, silly?XP And die again when you're dead twice??) It's the Pentax Optio WG-1 with GPS which I've named Liberty, or "Libby" for short. It's Pentax's 12th generation of waterproof digital cameras--adventure proof and life proof and everything proof.:p

And it's GREEN!:D Now Cyclone has a playmate!

Features

• Waterproof to 33 feet, good for snorkeling and short dives.
• Shockproof, ruggedized design protects from drops up to 5 feet.
• Crushproof construction withstands weights up to 100 KGF (kilogram-force).
• Coldproof to sub-freezing temps of minus 10 degrees C (14 degrees F).
• Dustproof design protects the camera from dry, dusty environments.
• 14 megapixel sensor offers plenty of image detail.
• Wide angle 5X internal optical zoom lens (28-140mm equivalent) provides flexible capture of subjects near or far.
• Enhanced Digital Microscope mode uses 5 macro LEDs for perfect focus and smooth, even lighting.
• Pixel Track and Digital Shake Reduction ensure sharp, blur-free images.
• Eye-Fi for direct photo and video upload on the internet.
• GPS functionality allows for positional data recording with images for geo-tagging applications.

All features are screaming at you to go out and explore your, err, garage.XP I have yet to take it out later--up the rooftop, in the bright burning daylight of Manila--and test some shots on the city. Crappy buildings and pollution and so on. Also test the global positioning shidizzle.

Macro Shot Tests

Mosquito pornography I smacked on the bathroom wall.
They've been dead four months. I like looking at them every time I visit the john.:p

You can also shoot fingerprints in the dark.:D

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My Two Cents on Photography

One of my hidden entries last March.

I started studying photography last weekend (How can I be a graphic designer and not know doodleywink about photography??) and have been contemplating on buying a dSLR with my first paycheck as a writer. (Angas, writer daw.XD And by contemplate, I mean to reflect deeply, intensely, spiritually. I mean really.)

It failed.

The moment I learned the basics, I began to stop existing in the present. Whenever I see something I always imagine what it would look like as a photo. Viewing the world through the lens of a photographer, your sense of hearing is dead. So is your sense of smell and touch and taste. All you're ever left with is your sight--no different from living in a glass box.

In the eyes of a photographer, you can't help hunting for that split-second moment manipulated into the right angle, aperture, exposure, ISO, and so on. For instance, the perfect shot of that guard at Mercury Drug caught in the act gokgokgoking fast an energy drink straight from the fridge. Or a shot of that beggar who looks like Jesus Christ from across the street. Or that anorexic old lady in the jeepney, her tummy pulled tight to her spine.

Once you find that perfect shot, you hurl the bulky camera out your bag, turn it on, manipulate the settings, and snap at the scene. And right before you know it, the perfect shot has disappeared. Or even if you've got what you wanted, the lust is gone and you go on hunting for another scene to whambam your camera on.

Is fucking pathetic.

Hunters, after all, are not cooks; having a camera doesn't make you a bloody artist.

Besides, photography spoils that ephemeral moment by taking out that giant, bulky, black thing and firing it at the subject like gunshots. The thing is, everything only happens once and once only. And there lies the beauty of it: every moment only lasts about twelve orgasmic seconds, and then it's over. Never to happen again.

How exactly do you capture that on picture?

How do you capture that four-dimensional world with you in it in that same time and place in history, with all those same sensations and sounds and tastes and smells and textures?

Well, really, you can't.

You. Just. Can't.

Everything you capture on photo is just a ghost of the past. Framed. Manipulated. Embellished. Sure, it's pretty and you have all the camwhore zombies at Facebook to comment on it; sure, it's permanent and will outlive you long after your cells reorganize themselves into some other life form; sure, it captures the moment perfectly, if not, better; sure, sure. Before long, all your memories of that event are anchored to that photo. In the long run, all your memories are your photos.

All boxed up. Two-dimensionally flat. Weightless. Forgettable. Especially when they're all online.

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So.

That entry above: stupid me comparing photography with real life.XP But of course photography is limited to vision, just like music is to hearing. Nonetheless, photography and music are both a limited art form, unlike, of course, literature.:p

Just why did I squander my money on a camera? Say, it's not a dSLR. It's a cheap point-and-shoot in an expensive rubber suit (reinforced polycarbonate plastic and aluminum). I have no patience taking pictures, besides.

My real problem though is memory loss. I can't remember shit. Even the stuff I wrote in this blog, whenever I read them again, I can't remember they ever happened. It's like that movie Memento.

The worst that can happen to you in old age--after everybody is dead and all material things have lost their point and your body is ripping the space-time continuum for its last gasps of oxygen--after all that, all you'll ever have are your memories. When your memories are wiped out you're good as BLAH, living in a BLAH world and doing BLAH things, which happens to me most of the time.

In a book I just read, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, the author churned out an existential psychoanalysis of the Jews in the death camp. After their houses were sacked and burned, after their wives and children were gassed, after they were stripped off their clothes, subjected to starvation, exhaustion, and intensive labor for three whole years, the Jews were left with nothing but their ridiculously naked lives. What kept the survivors from suicide were their memories.

But that isn't the reason why I bought the camera. I just bought it because it looks cool and flashy.XP It will take crappy shots, yes, and cheapen the mountains I will climb, the seas I will dive in, but it's cool and flashy and that's all that matters.XD

10.06.11 //