Betwixt A Virus & Volcano: Two Losers Wed, The Seandra Story (or How To Get Married On A Budget in the Before-Times)
Quarantine Diaries
On the creation of the self-portrait project X Days Later in the midst of a global pandemic and economic crisis, as well as some outtakes from the project.
On Weddings
I’ve decided to finally sit down and write about why I’m shooting weddings & couples again. This has been a post that’s been on my mind for almost a year now, since I started posting my work again as Off Kilter Studio. It’s been a long road, one that’s found me at my wit’s end […]
Stretching, 2019 Q2
It has been a slog of a quarter. I have been tired and I have been cranky coming into July, and it’s probably why it took me so long to write this post. I have a lot of words. I know on this blog I’m 100% a photographer, but my day job for the past […]
Pivoting, 2019 Q1
Where to begin with 2019? The year opened mercilessly, hitting our business hard with some of our first major professional hurdles after three years of running our little design studio. January chopped our butts off and handed them to us, in the least nice way imaginable. I suppose in a professional space with no mentoring, […]
Familiana, 2018 Q4
The year ended with something of an unremarkable denouement, but that was probably a good thing. I feel like it’s commonplace to people feel, as they get older, like the last chunk of the year feels less and and less holidayish. That was particularly true for me this year. Not that it was a bummer, […]
More Life, 2018 Q3
2018 doing its level best to kick my butt into high gear, and it’s working so far. Q3 was relatively quieter socially, punctuated by the birth of Leon Artus Wolfgang and certain D&D-related expeditions, but work got turned up to 11. I’m generally very tired but satisfied by the hustle. Allow me to begin with […]
Taiwan Ho
My first new city in a good long while, hello Taipei! Spent near a week wandering about with Sean and our friend Jesemy (a local? a foreigner? depends?). Thank you, visa-free entry for Filipinos! This could not have been possible without you. Or maybe it could have, but it’s nice to have one less layer […]
New Life, 2018 Q2
And just like that, it’s the end of Q2. The second quarter of 2018 just breezed past me without me even noticing. School was out for the summer so that certainly made it easier for me to unclench and let my bones turn to gummy worms. I’m sure that’s good for me in a lot […]
Beginning Again, 2018 Q1
One thing i want to get back to about blogging is doing actual documentation of my day to day. I’m probably not as interesting as people who actually, yknow, go outside, in general i like to be at home and curled up and thinking my thoughts. As a photographer that doesn’t tend to make for […]
Scavenger Hunt
I teach a weekly photography class at a local girls’ school. Been teaching it for about 2 years now, it’s a fun little side hustle that helps keep me sharp. Also teaching is the whole reason I went to grad school so hey, gotta put that degree to good use. Due to safety reasons, the […]
Double Vision HKG
Around the time I was doing weddings, I decided to stop lugging around a DSLR on a daily basis. Aside from the obvious weight issue (Nikons are heavy bishes), I was having trouble disassociating work from leisure, my own photography from my “brand”‘s photography, if that makes any sense. It just made everything feel like […]
Revival
Here’s some facts about this blog: 1. When I started shooting 13 years ago, I posted everything I photographed on Livejournal. It was easy, familiar, quick, fun. I had a community over there, so I would get pretty hearty feedback with each post. I also liked the format – the long scroll of images that […]
29
Well what do you know, it’s my 30th Name Day tomorrow! I’ve done a minor project over the course of the past year – the last of my 20s – shooting one second of footage everyday using the app (aptly named) (apptly named?) 1 Second Everyday. I divided the year into quarters because nobody wants […]
Aotearoa
After six months of sitting on these photographs I finally got around to editing them for posting. I’ve just not really known what to do with them until… really, last night. I’ve not really known what I’ve been doing with my own work lately. I think I worked so intensely in this medium for five […]
American artifacts
It’s certainly been an interesting past couple of days on this here planet we call home. Drumpf’s election might ring a few alarm bells for those of us living here in the archipelago, as it just feels all too familiar. That plus recent events here locally have got me feeling fearful, helpless and disconnected. That […]
NYC 2016
Spent some time on the east coast of the U.S. earlier this year to photograph a wedding, hang out with friends, spend time in Brooklyn and be sick all over my host’s living room. It was my first long haul trip by myself, so i got to do all the things i wanted to do […]
Tokyo, Osaka
Happy new year, everyone! Here’s the second wave of images from my trip to Japan in November. I felt like the character of these images was vastly different from my Kyoto images, which is why I decided to space them apart. I’m quite a moody editor when it comes to these blog posts: I’ll edit […]
Kyoto
Everyone’s in Japan, and so was I! Walked through Kyoto for a few days and filled my lungs with fresh-ish autumn air. Learned that you have to make sure when you’re buying a drink from a vending machine to pay attention to the temperature of your choice. Otherwise you just end up with a mouthful […]
Visual Diary: June to October
This post was fun to put together and I’m going to try to make these posts more frequently! I accumulate a lot of strange images on my phone. These are some of the more remarkable ones that have shown up since I moved back to Manila in June. Some of these you might have seen […]
hong kong sentimental
Some photographs that collected on my phone from the last six months of living in Hong Kong. I wasn’t sure whether or not I was staying in HK to work or moving back home (spoiler alert: I moved back home), so these were all born of me haphazardly trying to remember stuff. A note on […]
the lines of my earth
Here are some images i’ve collected since moving back home. They are kind of meditations on a homespace. I’m still thinking about Hong Kong, oddly and reacquainting myself with an introversion that hasn’t really been around since I was in highschool. But hey guess what, it’s back. I have been finding inanimate objects so much […]
Some still lives
I shot these as trials for a home lighting setup. They actually turned out to be more interesting than i intended for a test shoot.
Pre-stampitas
Here’s some of the experimental work I was producing before I actually came up with the concept for my graduate thesis. These are all just snapshots of my friends that i liked from my archives, deliberately offset, and then painted on to obliquely reference to Catholic prayer cards, a concept i later took in a […]
Woven photographs
These were some things i was experimenting with way back, in 2010. I hadn’t really seen any of Dinh Q. Lê’s work (who you should Google, and check out his images, because they are legiiiiit elaborately woven photographs) until i brought these samples to my seminar class in Hong Kong. From there, I pingponged into […]
the art of forgetting
Some oldish semi-melodramatic work that i did earlier this year while attempting to destress from my workload. I thought it would never see the light of day but I’ve decided I actually kind of like it. it’s like trying to level a city with an ice pick This work may require some degree of Photoshop […]
Old Manila
Some evidences of a trip I took out to Old Manila. I thought it made perfect sense to take an old technology with me. I would venture that this is the beginning of a larger project, especially since i just bought me a packet of them swanky Hello Kitty Instaxes.
I Radio Heaven
This is one of the first projects that I worked on when i moved to Hong Kong in 2013. It was a very spiritually tumultuous time for me, and i was very interested in the ways people found to physically manifest connections with what they valued spiritually – whether it was God, or ancestors, or […]
little mysteries
I found some images from old projects while doing some research on… myself. It’s not what you think, I swear it’s legit! Anyway, I’m going to be posting them over the next few weeks. Turns out i have done a lot of very random crap in gradschool.
Iconolatria: Installation views
I am so sorry that i’ve been dead as a doornail for the past couple of months, but i was definitely in the middle of completing my MFA. Recently, I managed to put together my first solo exhibition ever, here in Hong Kong! My thesis has finally turned into a thing, and that is really […]
Eggplant Harvest
Joined the Para Sa Aton participants in Madridejos one morning for their organic eggplant harvest. We decided to do a little photoshoot in the garden to show off the produce, so the ladies brought out their best threads, styled themselves up nice, and very kindly posed for me. Thanks to Nang Merley, Nang Gina, Nang […]
Bantayan
Over the summer, I did a field internship with a Dutch-Filipino video installation artist named Martha Atienza, who is based half the time in the Netherlands, and the other half of the time in a small municipality of Bantayan Island by Cebu, called Madridejos. I joined her in Madridejos and helped out with a fine […]
Mga Santong Kanto
Here are some of the images from a series i’m working on for my thesis. As this is my blogspace, I’ll speak here informally about the origins of the project, but if you want to read a more academic statement about the work (AND WHO WOULDN’T), my fine art portfolio is viewable at this link. […]
Macau
HOLY CRAP I’M STILL ALIVE I PROMISE. Gradschool is a deep dark vortex of artist’s statements and self-loathing and is in essence one gigantic (but worthwile!) timesuck, but thankfully i am able to occasionally step out of it and allow myself to photograph evil cats. Went to Macau on the quarterly school trip a couple […]
Bangkok
Visited Bangkok in October of last year with my good friend, Ann. It looked and felt suspiciously like Manila, from the elevated train (all the streets look like Taft) down to the delicious, reasonably priced food and the supernice people. And the traffic! And the doughnuts. Man. There are no doughnuts in Hong Kong, i’ll […]
Floragrams
May 2020 update: I have no idea why i left this entry word-free when it originally went up in December 2013. To be honest, I was going through quite a rough patch personally at the time that I made these, so i guess it was difficult for me to talk about. Let’s respect the Sandra […]
Summer 2013
Overdue, but better late forever.
Tokyo
I was in Tokyo for a couple days with my mother! It was my first time, and I made sure to go all over: Harajuku, Tsukiji, Ginza, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Daiba, Ueno, Ebisu, Akihabara, and snippets of other places. I really enjoyed myself! I tend to raid 7-Eleven when i’m in a big city because it’s […]
Studies in Sand
Transitioning from white coral sand to dark volcanic sand.
Breakfasts of April
Here’s a small, silly project i was doing for myself. Having lived on my own for the first time in the early part of 2013, i began to realize just how crappy my personal eating habits were. I’m a snacker, i like cheese and i like junk food, but i didn’t realize how much of […]
In Between
This project was done for my Photo Documentary class, taken in the Spring of 2013. I documented the walk from where i live in Hong Kong to where i go to school, a bus ride that i take every single day. I would always see things from the bus and think, “Damn i wish i […]
Wishes for Strangers
For everyone that missed our art show and book lauch, Day of Valor – here are the artworks! The framed works are for sale, for pricing information, please contact me at smfdans at gmail dot com. =) For purchase of Pauline’s book, you can email day.of.bravery at gmail dot com. The work makes much more […]
Nature/Nurture
The city interrupting nature,nature interrupting the city. Inkjet prints on watercolor wash, 13.75″x13.75″.Hong Kong, 2013
Transitions
Spaces between places.
Entropy Beast
Hong Kong is a great city to get lost in, by virtue of the fact that its sheer randomness gives its streets so much gosh durned personality. It is overrun with weirdness and i like it, and this post will make that evident, but it’s a disciplined entropy. The trains are seamless and efficient. I’ve […]
Things That Fly
I’m in the midst of a lot of new work, especially since my move to a whole other country, so my backlog for this blog is growing ever fluffier and fluffier. Forgive my lateness to the party which is the Lantern Parade 2012. I do my best to attend every year, and this year was […]
Homestacks
Never lived away from home before! I miss it already :/ Just piles of stuff standing in for people.
Singapore
Welcome to the new blog, everybody! This is where i’ll be relegating my personal, non-wedding/love/romance/loveydoveyschmoopy work. It is to encourage me to continue to create it! To kick things off, i’m posting some of my photographs from a recent trip to Singapore. I actually went over there to shoot a couple (wouldn’t you know!), and […]
A Day in the Life: Avilon Zoo
I was recently asked to participate in the Day in the Life projects. I had planned a day to attempt it before Rayson made a birthday call to go to the zoo, and that worked out marvelously because otherwise you would be subject to 23 photographs of my laptop.
Humans of Quiapo
Inspired by Brandon Stanton’s ubiquitous and wonderful project, Humans of New York, i walked around my own city and took my own portraits under the watchful eye of Mr Luis Liwanag. People are fun!
New York, New Jersey, Illinois
This post brought to you by the realization that reflections of buildings are more interesting than buildings themselves. The pictures were taken at various locations around Manhattan in New York, Long Beach Island, Atlantic City and Princeton in New Jersey, Chicago and the various little ‘burbs of Illinois, within a three-week stretch towards the end […]
BBC Photowalk
I got asked by the BBC recently to document the widening wealth gap in Asia for an online photogallery illustrating the subject. They only used nine of the hundreds of images i took walking around the city, but was really happy with the rest of my work from my shooting days, so i am sharing […]
General Santos + Montemar
I’ve been on some trips lately. All the way down south to Lake Sebu in General Santos to see the T’Boli weavers and a teensy bit up north to Montemar Beach Club in Bagac, Bataan. Here’s the backlog of my photographs from them. The panorama is clickable. Happy summer boys and girls!
Lantern Parade 2011
Spent the day at the alma mater last week for the annual Lantern Parade! It’s the most wonderful and sweaty and headachey and noisy and amazing time of the year. Though i did enjoy what floats and projects were on display in their own right, i must say i’m a little disappointed in how the […]
Jake + Cham + Maggie
My very first pregnant lady! I cannot wait to meet little Maggie. Shot early in the morning at their family home in the city =)
Jake + Bardo
Two of the most beautiful people i’ve had the privelege of working with, made doubly so because i got to shoot them together =) Thanks, boys! This is also the first shoot i went on with my new equipment, whatcha think? I’m incredibly happy with how everything turned out! For the curious, we took these […]
Easter Sunday
Photographs from my family’s Easter egg hunt. When i was younger, there were ten to fifteen of us running around hunting for eggs, but these days we’re all grown so there are ten to fifteen of us hiding them and five little kids running around doing the hunting. 300 eggs, 5 kids. Happy Easter everybody!
Sawako + Kazehaya // Kimi ni Todoke cosplay
Two very good friends of mine (who i think you’ll all recognize) agreed to do a little shoot with me and I, with them, out at La Mesa Eco Park and in adjacent areas. The park is beautifully lit and a great place to stroll and picnic and shoot. We also shot some cinemagraphs, which […]
The Luckiest
Here are some of my friends that have been single since birth. Shot at Indios Bravos studios.
Childlike Wildlife
Meg Bagadion, Ram Clotario and Niccolo Dans in the fields outside of UP Fine Arts in late 2009.
Puerto Princesa
Photos from Puerto Princesa in Palawan from the summer of 2009.
Gaye Ricolcol in Paco Park
A dear friend agreed to pose for me in a pinch. The last image in this set was used in the UP Iris Conception Exhibition in CCP in 2008.