“My Story” is a Filipino based documentary that I had started in April this year. It revolves around different lives of Filipinos that are here in the Bay Area, mostly people that I’ve ran into through networking, family or acquaintances.  It dawn on me that I’ve always wanted to do something much more than just photographs. There was something missing, a piece of a puzzle if you will to complete the entire picture. A photo is worth a thousand words, but how accurate are those words? So why not hear it from it’s main source in multiple ways in showing it all through photography and in their own words.

I went around interviewing individuals asking him/her to narrate thier story in it’s truest form. Minimal editing done to the voices then after I take photographs of his/her day to day routine or process. I compile all of the stories and present them through video. It is super easy to do, but the challenge is who will participate and when?

So in order to share these stories to people within our community, I had to get something done. I felt that I had to and this is the perfect time to do so. I found the best way illustrate ans share it. I am having a show of all of the stories that people have helped me compile. The show will open to the public on November 20th, 2009 at 6:30pm at the International Hotel in San Francisco. Please come by and check out my gallery and participate by learning and listening to what these people have to say.

Venue:
I-Hotel Manilatown Center
868 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94108

A new addition to the family is Zackery Garcia. Finally got to see him earlier this week and he looked very cute and good at 8.5 lbs.

So today I decided to finally take a trip to the nearby thrift store for some good deals on frames. I was pretty much there for almost an hour frame diving. Talked to an older Filipina lady who I tried to sell my project with her so she could be one of my subjects, but she wasn’t too interested. She did help me get a cart and tried to offer more discounts on the cheaply marked frames. I found some awesomely cool ones but were too big and a bit over my price range of less than $6 a piece…haha.  I found a ton at $2 and a few a tad over that. I ended up getting close to 15 frames. Then right after I took a trip to an A’s hardware to grab a couple of black spray paint {sorry not so green} and some sandpaper.

At home, I took them all out and went to town with these unique old frames. I started off by taking out all of the glass and photos that came along with the frames then to paint them. Though it was a pain prying off the old and rusty back supports, leaving my fingers extremely sore and tired, it was all worth it. As I finished painting a few frames I noticed that I had sprayed too much and too fast in some areas of the frame, so I decided to smooth it out with the sandpaper leaving a distressed looked on the frames. Guess what, I like how it looked and so I came back to all of the done frames and did the same thing. I went distressing overbored. So after 3 hours or so, I finished a good amount with a set of very dingy fingers. What a creative day away from the computer.

By the way, the other day, my brother Jeremy found me a set of 32″ Flat screens at a very very cheap price from Sears through Slickdeals.net. I love that site because we get so many things on sale there because of mispricing or family discount codes. So now it’s just sitting in the living looking pretty and ready to be used in November.

Judy came to me for a set of headshots and creative portraits for her work and personal use. She’s pretty funny, great personality and another person who I don’t mind to have more photography sessions with. Awesome person to work with who has a very cute and energetic daughter as well named Zoey {I hope I remembered it right.} If not Judy I’m sorry haha. thanks for hiring me.

Had another cool wedding this weekend. It was at the good old South Bay where Dynah and Paul tied the knot. The merry and excitement filled bridal party took over the beautiful day in the guy’s traditional Barongs {Filipino Suits} and the gals’ emerald green dresses. The entire day was planned out very well where it was less stress for me and Jeremy {2nd photog: He did an awesome job along side me working as a solid team} to shoot. Congrats again Mr. and Mrs. Barte.