View from the Rooftop

Walking around the vicinity of Bangplad, Bangkok at night shows no different thing from anywhere in Bangkok. The street signs, food vendors, folks eating pad thai or tom yum are sights seen throughout the metropolis.

I wanted some place different to point my lens at. This night was windy and a hint of thunderstorm was at the distant Bang Na area. Only one thing came to my mind: Lightning shots!

The perfect vantage point was of course, across the street from home, the place I go to everyday to earn my baht- the Hospital! Rising ten floors up and with the fifteen-floor building under construction, this hospital was like a giant compared to the buildings around.

I wasted no time and went up the the rooftop. The hum and vibration caused by the three giant water coolers was nothing compares to the wind blowing from the majestic Chao Phraya River which was 3 blocks away from the hospital. It was drizzling when I got to the top and I was having second thoughts because I knew thunderstorms in Bangkok were practically electric storms and all the steel frames over my head would surely attract a lightning bolt.

I decided to push on with my plan: to capture lightning in my camera's digital memory. The only risk I thought of at the moment was only being shocked by a million volts. Not that bad, huh?

I stayed for almost two hours on top, trying to catch that ever illusive lightning shot. Well, as the night slowly deepened, All I got were lousy lightning shots and a few city scapes and cloud shots that might be worth keeping just to remind me of that one boring, rainy night in Bangkok.

A Minor Room Shoot

I had worked in the Operating Room and Delivery Room for two years. It is a work area where one has to think twice about sterility before touching anything. The sterility of everything inside plays a big role in the success of the surgery performed and negligence can even end a patient's life.

Ever since I got into photography, I have always played with the thought of shooting in an Operating Room because the idea of neglecting the sterility of the area and equipment just for one time always lingered inside my head. Not that I wanted to cause harm to any of the patients, but just the thought that not everyone has the opportunity to do a shoot inside the OR.


Working in a prestigious plastic surgery hospital where patients come from all over the world has even made the idea of shooting more appealing to me. (just to me) I have resolved to do the shoot without the knowledge of supervisors because I knew that I would get a big NO from them. All I needed was the perfect timing and the right models who would cooperate and who knew what not to touch inside the room.

Alas, an opportunity to do my somewhat evil desire has come! One of the minor rooms in the ER was scheduled for general sterilization the next day and that meant that no cases were to be done in that room all night.
If an emergency case came up, it had to be done at the other room. My models? I got a registered nurse and a practical nurse who also loved the evil thought I had. Lucky me!

Plans were laid and at 2 am when the supervisor was up in the 10th floor and my colleagues were in their somnolent, drowsy mood at the counter, with my lookout (one of the models' brother who was on duty) in place, we snicked into the room and had our 30 minutes of shooting.

At 5 am, a team came in and started the sterilization process, leaving no trace of bacteria we brought inside.

That THING!

What's a "Volkswagen Thing"? Wikipedia says:

The Volkswagen Type 181 "Kurierwagen", It is known as the "Safari" in Mexico, the "Trekker" in the UK and the "Thing" in the US. It is a small military vehicle produced from 1969 to 1983 by the Volkswagen company. This vehicle was used by the German Military During the second world war. The name literally means "courier wagon".

This car was featured in Hollywood movies. Drew Barrymore was driving a yellow Thing in 50 first dates. It was lifted in a garage in one scene of Ranaway bride with Julia Roberts. The Simpsons, Hitchhiker, The Fog, Surf Ninjas are among the long list of movies with the Thing.

My cousin in Libungan, North Cotabato came upon an old, dilapidated Thing in one of the yards of a car collector in Cotabato City. It was for sale and he got it for a real steal.

Fast forward months later... The Thing is now a red buggy with chrome engine and a real eye candy, thanks to my cousins' efforts. Twice it was offered to be traded in for a Mitsubishi Pajero and twice the offer was denied. I hope to take more shots of this thing on my next visit.

Pictures in this blog are actual pictures of my cousin's Volkswagen Thing.

Million-dollar fiddle?

Stories of dusty, old violins found in odd places and turning out to be million-dollar Stradivarius fiddles have always amused me. The Stradivari family is known to have handmade the best sounding bowed instruments of their time. Violins are known to improve their tone as time slowly plays its magic in the wood and varnish. That is why old violins are more expensive than new ones.

Imagine the sound of one Stradivarius violin that time has worked on for centuries. Would it be awesome to hear one played right in front of you? Would it give justice to pieces written by the legendary composers who lived during the same era the violins were made? How much does a four-century old violin cost? Millions.

Now, here's one story of a "strad" that sounds too good to be true. read on...

It was 1985 when my dad was taking up his MA in Mass communication at the University of the Philippines at Diliman, Quezon city. He had this dormitory room and when he started cleaning up the room, he saw this old violin on top of his locker gathering dust. Apparently, no one owned it, so he claimed it for himself and decided to buy strings and a bow for it. He then enrolled in violin class at the same university. When his violin teacher saw this old work of art, he wanted to buy it from dad for a handsome amount. Realizing that this might actually cost more than the offer, dad decided to keep it. It bacame our family's violin.

This masterpiece had "close calls" in our possession. My sister left it in the car for 3 days and most of the time, the car was parked under direct scorching sunlight. We discovered a crack at the back side of the violin! Dad carefully applied wood glue to save this violin. Since then, it never sounded the same. We kids got a good wigging for not caring for the instrument as one should.

It is not uncommon for violins to be labeled or branded "Stradivarius", as the name has been used by other manufacturers. However, it is generally believed that there are less than 700 genuine instruments extant, very few of which are unaccounted for.

One can trace their whereabouts at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradivarius.

The label in our violin says: Antonios Stradivarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno 1713. There are a lot of knock offs around and we have no clue if ours was genuine or not, but the thought that MAYBE this one is real and costs a million dollars always intrigues me.

Pictures in this blog are actual pictures of our violin.