Baby Koi

Like I posted before, I needed to buy a new koi because one of my 9 koi died last week.  And according to feng shui, or something like that, one should keep koi in multiples of 9 (9, 18, 27…).  So having a small pond means I’m good with 9.  So finally I decided on a Sakai Maruten Sandan Sanke.  Sakai is like the brand (like for cars: Honda, Toyota. etc.), which actually is the name of the breeder.  Maruten means it has a Hi, or red marking, on the head.  Sandan means 3-step, or it has 3 hi markings all over the body (it could actually be a 4-step, or Yondan, but I can’t tell becuase of the sumi, or black marking, covering the Hi.

It’s so small and cute, that it’s dwarfed by the other MUCH bigger koi, but at least he’s not bullied around.  I chose this one because I really like the markings.  I saw other koi, but some were just way too expensive for my budget, so I went for something that fit more my price range.  One of the sublime joys in koi-keeping is buying them small and seeing them grow up and bloom into beautiful adults.  The experts say that the level of your koi-keeping can be seen by how beautiful your fish grow up.  The same koi will grow differently, depending on the quality of the koi-keeping.  They say it’s all about the water.  My koi guru told me that we don’t really keep koi; we keep water.  So, I hope my baby grows up nice and round-bodied, with the colors deep and rich.

The Best And The Rest 124

Obviously if you love someone, leaving is not the first thing you’d want to do.  It’s a contradiction in many ways, a soup of cognitive dissonance.  But for some unlucky few, this is a bitter pill that they’ve had to swallow, for some many times over.  I guess you just need a good reason.

September 12, 2009 → The Top Ten Reasons To Leave Someone You Love

1. Dru – If he’s too much like Rhianna’s songs – Unfaithful and Disturbia.
2. No name – If his “EGO” is too hard to swallow.
3. Terrybol – Because I found out that his nickname for me is, “his last resort”.
4. Wickedmarrionette – Because I got demoted from “girlfriend”, to “the girl he flirts with while the girlfriend is away”.
5. No name – I thought we were happy together until he told me that we were not.
6. McMaki – If she tells you, “I just realized you’re not Chinese…”
7. Paula – If he starts acting more like a parent than a boyfriend.
8. Astroboy – If you catch yourself pretending to be happy.
9. Loi Pogi – If you find out that he’s one of those guys who are, “Bi Now, Gay Later.”
10. AA – We’ve been together for 10 years and we’ve never had sex.
11. Rayakin – Nung computer na ang hinihingi niya. I’m gay na may jowang bagets.
12. Lonely Girl – When you can’t remember why you fell in love with him in the first place.
13. Chip – Because it was wrong to begin with.
14. Robjo – Because I wanted a boyfriend, not a baby.
15. Alien V – Mas mabuti nang mag-isa kaysa may pangit na kasama.
16. Gong – If I’m an option and not a choice.
17. Chun Yang – When you find yourself hanging on to something you’re better off letting go. “To have it halfway is harder than not having it at all.”
18. Irish – Pag naghihilahan na kayo pababa.
19. Maximo – Kasi gusto na niyang bumalik sa tunay niyang asawa.
20. Carrie Bradshaw Blvd – I had to leave him when he was terminally ill. His family brought him to the US & they asked me to let go and go on with my life.
21. KT – Because he chose his inheritance over me.
22. Marvinbez- Leave while there are still more happy memories than sad.
23. PrettyMe17 – When I found out he’s not only cheating on his wife, but he’s cheating on me as well.
24. PrettyMe17 – When the person you want the m0st, is the pers0n that you’re better off without.
25. Bapsdar – If you both go home to your respective families carrying a lot of guilt.
26. Chloe – If he drives a wedge between me and my daughter.
27. Chuchi Cua – If it becomes more painful to stay.
28. No name – I left my b0yfriend, a policeman, who was also my bestfriend f0r 5 years. Because he shot my brother in a police raid. I want to forgive him but I just can’t.
29. Espeks – When loving her costs more than your monthly salary.
30. Cha – So you can come back, and have great make-up sex.
31. Blue 4W – If he can’t stand up for you when you go against his mother.
32. Habibi – When the unintentional hurting becomes intentional.
33. Espeks – When making love becomes plain sex.
34. Bobcat – If you find out that your loved one is a professional escort.
35. No name – Because I don’t want to be a mistress forever.
36. Hornelia – Because I finally found someone who loves me BACK.

Caliraya (In Color)

The Caliraya photoshoot was quite a challenge for us, mainly because there was no wide range of choices of subjects.  On the first day, we went to a resthouse out on the lake, and we weren’t really able to get a lot of subjects to choose from.  At least we were able to catch the sunset on the “island”; it’s not really an island, but it feels like we’re on one.  We saw the beautiful huge sun, like an orange globe, slowly setting in the distance.  It was the perfect photo-op, so we ran from one side of the island to the other.  We were out of breath as we got to the best vantage point, only to be seconds too late, catching the last few seconds of a missed golden opportunity.  Oh well, we got some sunset shots, even if the sky gave us such pale colors to work with.

We did also see some bear cats in a cage.  Huge wolverine-like creatures that stare at you weird.  Striking.

Then the next day, we woke up at 4am, just so we can do a sunrise shoot.  we were on the road before 5am, in the dark, missing our destination because we couldn’t see anything on the road. I swear, times that those, we realize we really must love photography to go through that on a Sunday!

We went back to the resort, ate breakfast, took a short nap, then packed up by lunchtime to check out.  We returned to the Japanese cemetery where we first discovered infrared photography and it was nice to be back there.  We took a lot of IR shots mainly because the sun was so high and it would be so hard taking pictures without using any filters.

(Photo courtesy of Greg Galang)

We were sweating like pigs in a blanket, under the scorching summer sun, taking long exposures armed with filters galore!  The cameras were hot to the touch, our scalps felt like lechon skin, but we kept on shooting like the adiks that we were.

After a couple of hours, we had a late lunch, late enough to proceed to a sunset shoot after, back at that lighthouse-looking structure we went to that same morning for our sunrise shoot.  Same challenge: lots of photographers, one subject.  At least for us we got to shoot the subject with the sunlight in opposite sides.  The 2nd day’s sunset was a little more colorful that the previous day’s.

By the time we were done, we were pooped.  All 4 of us feel asleep the moment we got on the van, about to leave Laguna.  The next time we came to, we were in Ortigas.  We slept through the whole trip like logs.  We were completely spent, but it was worth it.  It was way cool to be joining our teacher again, and we got to indulge in our passion once again, landscape photography.

But one last. I’m especially happy about this trip because we got to practice something that we’ve always wanted to try: star trails!  It’s one of the trickiest things to shoot because there are so many conditions that it requires before you can be successful at it.  Of course it should be a clear, cloudless sky, it should be far from the city so there wouldn’t be too much ambient light, there shouldn’t be nearby sources of light, there shouldn’t be a too-bright moon, etc.  Everything was going well until dew started forming on our lenses! There was too much hamog that we had to quit before we could do further exposures.  We were sooo stressed out because our equipment got so wet!  So although we were only able to shoot about 16 minutes worth, it still came out pretty amusing!  So here comes my first attempt at shooting the elusive star trails: ta-dah!

Can’t wait for our next shoot!