Kangaroo shots in Baguio, Benguet, etc.

I really love photography… I am not a photographer nor did studied one, much less own a decent camera. What I mean is I do love looking on great pictures. Sadly our family lies somewhere between the Class C & D of the so-called “social class” whatever! And buying a dream camera, say the Pentax K-30 (or the Fuji X100) might be forever a dream, haha! After our film camera exceeded life expectancy, my wife’s sister gave her an iPhone 3GS, our first sort of digital camera.

I love pictures of the outdoors, and topping my list are photographs of my family in front of such backdrop. Whenever we need a family picture, I just approaches somebody to give a hand. One summer of 2010 in Calatagan, I saw a great shore background and decided to take a photo of my wife and the kids (in the absence of a human tripod) but the result is a bit blurred because of my youngest son Adrian. He didn’t want a meter of space between us!

My wife lost her iPhone before Adrian’s 2nd birthday in 2010. A weather-sealed Pentax K7 would have been a great replacement then, when Fuji’s X100 was still a buzz before Adrian’s birth-month of December same year. When I woke up on that fantasy, my pocket brought me to a Fujifilm, the point & shoot A170 though. There were better P&S available but I am into mountaineering so I preferred an AA battery-powered camera.

On Adrian’s birthday, we had lunch at Goldilocks SM Mega Mall. I have wanted to take a picture of him with his two brother and niece but this “joey” did not want to leave the ironic boomer pouch, I thought kangaroo’s pouch belongs to flyer.

BTW, thanks to Adrian’s birthday I found WordPress, this online photo-album sprouted from the trial & first post “Cheap Camera, Priceless Memories.”, the Preamble.

Fast forward to our summer stint in Baguio of 2011, Adrian cooperated on earlier photo-shoots 🙂 thanks to his kuya Aaron. First stop, at Burnham Park.

Next was at the Mansion. Tantrum of the baby kangaroo had just begun, succeeding shoots enlisted tripod into the war.

Then we proceeded to Mines View Park. In touring Baguio, I recommend that family should head first to this place early on the morning to have a better view of nature. (My mistake, I forgot my itinerary.) Besides, the park is crowded in the afternoon. That’s why I wasn’t able to use my tripod. That joey Adrian broke out from the pose with kuya Aaron and Jonmer.

From the Mines View Park, we went back to the Mansion because of another picture-perfect backdrop across, the Wright Park. Aided by the tripod, I set a family picture at the “Pool of Pines” where everybody smiled but Adrian. Even when the joey was with his flyer, his hand made sure the boomer’s face was near.

Adrian doesn’t stayed long with his mom, he returned to me on this majestic pine tree shot (setting the tripod was my only rest).

My memorable shot in Baguio was at this gazebo where we had that five (5) minutes of rest. Being a photographer and nanny was so arduous, the 20L bag on my back weighed heavier compared to my backpacking of 60L. Carrying Adrian made it much difficult, I wish I had a kangaroo baby carrier.

There’s a long flight of stairs from the gazebo down to the Wright Park Riding Circle that would have been a great backdrop but Adrian stayed on his tatay‘s pouch “my gulay”. He has no horse-back riding shot too. (A kangaroo above a horse sana!)

Before we called it a day, we went back to Burnham Park straight to its Children’s Playground. Adrian though fell asleep inside the taxi en route. That’s when the joey rested in the flyer’s pouch. (Or just recharging for our trip to Benguet the following day.)

It was the same scenario again at Strawberry Fields, Benguet (30 minutes from Baguio City). I carried Adrian on one arm, and the other hand held the camera. There’s no space for tripod on the farm but I managed to take some photos and video.

WE DO HAVE A FAMILY PICTURE HERE!

A video of the family too.

Adrian is now in Nursery. I compose this post when my wife called me at work telling me Adrian’s teachers surrendered incorporating him on their practice for the scouting investiture. Accordingly, Adrian just ran and ran and played around the basketball court. He’s no more a joey but a grown-up kangaroo.

I hope these two can trek their first mountain next summer.

…but it may take longer for I now have a new joey, my daughter Jodie Marie.