Pahiyas 2010

Last Saturday I went to the Pahiyas festival in Lucban, Quezon.  Together with some Lomomanila friends (I was able to finally meet them in person!), I spent some six hours shooting under the scorching sun.  Wow that's a lot of s's.  Heheh.

It was my first time to attend the festival.  Behind me are Lakan, Erick, & Paul.  Lakan & Erick are Lomomanila members while Paul was a lone digital photographer we 'adopted' in our group. Hehe.  We got him interested in lomography!

Gearing up / comparing cameras before the parade.  Aside from my Lumix FS4 (which was used to take the shots in this post), I also brought my Blackbird, fly and LC-A with me.  And five rolls of film.

This guy greeted me and made sure I had a great time.

Handpainted bayongs like this one can be bought for fifty pesos.  Lakan got one.

Kiping chips in a cup for five pesos.  I really regret not having a taste.  Well, there's always next year, right?

The feast is celebrated in honor of San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers. 

 

 And we got to eat pansit habhab!  It was really tasty and I enjoyed eating from the banana leaf.

There was a Deaf performer in front of the church.  He would dance if somebody dropped a donation.  I signed with one of his friends and felt a little sad I'm forgetting the basics (because I have no one to sign with).

We met up with more film enthusiasts (Vedicanation&Flowerpopgurl) in front of the church before the parade.  Cameras galore!

The karitons and floats were all elaborate and well-made, but the sponsor tarpaulins and banners kinda ruined and covered the pretty details.  "Masyadong commercialized," said Paul.  "Alam kasi nilang kukuhanan ng pictures."  Well, shame on them.

I like this pair's suman-inspired ensemble.

 There were so many people (with and without cameras) lined up along the parade route that I couldn't really get a decent photo, especially of the models sporting Pahiyas fashion.  Anyway, I was amused at the ruffles and loud colors on this dress.  Orange in front and pink at the back!

 

 My man Jollibee, and just about the cutest piece of upo in the whole planet.

The owner of this imposing structure also owns Batis Aramin Resort.  It had higantes...

...and miniatures!  Here's Lakan taking a shot using his Diana Mini.  :)

All in all the trip was awesome.  Exhausting too, but it was great to spend the day just shooting, getting to know people, checking out each other's cameras, looking around, getting lost on the way back to the van (hehe), and chilling out with like-minded photobuffs.  Sure we spent six hours in traffic on the way back to Manila, but we slept most of the time anyway. :)

Later I'm off to Digiprint to have my rolls developed.  So uh, expect more photos at the end of the week!

Next!