Today. February 7, 2011. The final week to search for Joy in Ateneo.
Pressured yet I remain hopeful that the 'perfect' picture will just reveal itself to me and that my most-awaited DSLR will be mine at last.
The photo contest in search for Joy in Ateneo began last year, I think it was December 1st. Ate Dada Alarkon, our Mercury, was the one who encouraged us to join maybe because she knows and deeply understands our craving for an SLR. I can’t even recall when I started to have this inclination for SLRs, maybe it was during the time when we had our seminar-lecture on labor laws and the civil code and Ate Dada intentionally left us her camera for documentation purposes. Yes, I think my delusions and constant craving for an SLR started there. When I had the chance to hold and use it, it’s as if it never wanted to leave my small hands… it is like ‘Falling in love on a FIRST encounter’ (if there is such a thing).
Personally speaking, I love taking pictures. Pictures ranging from vanity shots, candid shots of the people I love to the different places that I have been to. However, I think it was only during my 5-day Directed Retreat in Jesuit Mirador, Baguio that I took ‘taking pictures’ seriously. Yes, Jesuit Mirador Villa is a place where it would be too impossible for someone not to find his/her God. What was clear to me then was taking pictures of everything that is beautiful in my ‘perception’ was relaxing and it became a source of comfort. I would usually show the pictures to my retreat director, Bro. Gil Donayre, during our individual consultation. Later on, it just dawned on me that I wanted other people to see the beauty of the earth, the beauty of creation and the beauty of the love of God through my pictures. I was convinced that the pictures were part of my story, a story about my relationship with my Creator and I wanted everyone to feel what I felt when I was taking pictures of my ‘subject’. I knew then that I had fallen in love with photography.
Then the photo contest was announced.
‘I have to capture the perfect shot’ was my daily mental note. I have to win this, I do. Every day, I endlessly searched for my subject until Herold (a.k.a.Pepito) and Errol invited me for a photowalk. I didn’t know then what people do during photowalks but the term seemed interesting so I joined them. Pepito and Errol were my friends even before we started searching TOGETHER for Joy (which later on we termed as LIGAYA). We began by talking pictures of Joel’s NSTP class, of Ms. Sapiera’s P.E. Class but would end up taking pictures of the library, the pillars, the church and even the Madrigal building. I don’t know but whenever I would photo screen my shots, the intended Ligaya shots would turn out ‘lifeless’. I had to delete them from time to time and eventually, I just grew tired. I just realized that I had the wrong motivation in joining the contest.
The photo walk continued and we were joined by Adee (a.k.a Chichay) and Joel (a.k.a. Geg). Usually, we would do the photo walk on a Saturday afternoon and despite the extreme heat, we’re like little children enjoying every bit of the sun’s rays. The sun became our source of hope, that for as long as there’s the sun, there is still hope for us to capture the perfect shot but the difference this time is that we were no longer thinking much of the contest, we were after the companionship while doing the photo walk.
Right now, I don’t have the perfect picture yet, I don’t even know if I would still join the contest but one thing is clear, the contest gave me something more than I asked for. If it’s not for my search for Ligaya, there would have been no rooftop ‘jumpshots’, no frisbee sessions at the soccer field, fewer lunch dates, no chance to comfort a friend with a broken ‘soul’, no chance to relax and unwind and most importantly, no chance to be this happy because of being blessed with companions.
Truly, I have found LIGAYA in Ateneo.
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