Surprise, surprise! What better to start my month of July than with my complementary copy of the World Press photo 2009 catalog that arrived early this morning, shrink wrapped and posted. In this year’s competition, 5,508 photographers from 124 countries submitted a total of 96,268 images. 37 of us are from the Philippines.

I woke up at around 6 AM yesterday morning and, as the place I was at was just at the edge of the sea, got fascinated with what I saw. These are some experimental photos that I took.

Early this afternoon, while shooting some antique church artifacts in Carmen for the book project Balaanong Bahandi, the said to be miraculous image of the Virgin Mary in Lindogon, Simala, Sibonga, a southern town, passed by on its way to Catmon where it will be there for the weekend.

As expected, people were lining along the road for the much revered image and school children were waving blue and white flags as the convoy passed. As it reached the front of Carmen Church, it slowed down for people to touch the blue cloth of the image.

Faith in the Philippines is very much alive and it is a very interesting subject for a documentary photography that i’m currently working on. Come this weekend, I will be in Bantayan Island for the book project as well as the town fiesta. Another great opportunity for images.

The whole day yesterday was spent on a religious heritage shoot in southern Cebu and while in Sibonga before the mass, sacristans were busy preparing and waiting for the priest. And this gave me an idea of a photo documentary topic which, I hope, will form part of my long term project on religion and spirituality of Filipinos.

It’s been a streak of bad luck the past two days as I grappled with a busted notebook computer, a busted hard drive and a shelved book project happening in succession. Is this a case of tripple whammy?

Two days ago, I woke up, turned my HP notebook computer and froze as I heard the dreaded three beeps: one long followed by two short ones. I didn’t want to hear it as it’s a sure sign that the video card has problems. Unfortunately, the component is embedded in the mother board and that just means that its big trouble for me. With my unit out of warranty, replacing the mother board will cost me more than $400. An amount that I’m not ready to part with at this time.

While my notebook computer had problems, I bought an external hard drive (SATA) enclosure to retrieve precious files for an important screening of images for an ongoing book project. To my chagrin, all I heard was the clung, clung, clung sound indicating that the internal arm of the drive is unable to move freely. God, this drive has serious physical problems! It can’t read and can’t be detected. Pufft! There goes my PSD files that I’ve labored to process and edit the past few days.

And then, I just received an email informing me that the U.S. based Pinoy publisher shelved the book project due to the bad economic condition in the United States. This was supposed to start this month.

Right now, dark clouds are swirling over my head as I’m pondered the coming months ahead. Busted gear will entail a big expense while I also need, badly, that book project.

Meanwhile, I’m wrapping up the shoot for the series of churches that was assigned to me here in Cebu for an upcoming book which is tentatively scheduled for launching this November while a preselling activity as well as photo exhbit will be held this 3 July. It’s a crunch for me at a really bad, bad time.

I need some consolation now.