Black and White

by Jim Brandano

No this is not Michael Jackson's song...which is by the way a very inspiring song. This blog will be presenting images that will also inspire our members in spite of its lack of colors. 

   I've chosen the following images on this blog for one main reason...or let us say two, being Black and White. The images here I believe would lessen its drama when we dab color in them.

   B and W pictures always give to me that classic feel. I can't avoid not to think of my father, who as a camera man would crawl to his dim lit inner sanctum he called "dark room" and would not allow me and my sister to enter because of the said toxic fume. But maybe that depends on his mood because there were times I remember that he would let us in and allowed us to watch him perform magic.

   Those rare instances inside the "dark room" were sort of a mystery to me. Maybe until now. Of course I knew by now that those chemicals create reactions on paper after being expose by light. But the mystery to me was how those images came to life. Yes it came to life. I'm not sure how I would be able to express this vagueness...colored picture don't gave me this kind of chills and thrills. In spite of modern technologies attempt to create images that rival the human eye, I still admire photographs done in Black and White.

   Why? Maybe in B and W photos I can distinguished the shadows very easily. Actually, it was those shadows forming the images and eventually suggesting  some texture that made me the more baffled. Again maybe Black and white images triggers our brain to imagine more from the less. 

  It is to me I supposed more difficult to execute since you are given only two tone to work with. If its too dark, then necessary images will not be distinguished. If too white then we get very little of the subject. 

   Black and White photos in my opinion are the real photographs. It saves us from the malice of colors but Allowing our brain to imagine more...

   Colored photographs gave me that sense of finality in terms of realism. While Black and white on the other hand are mere suggestions...Am I seeing the truth or not? Is it mud or cake? Those kind of questions that arises which colored images already revealed. I hope you are following me...

   Anyway, I'll just let these photographs speaks where language fails.

by Hemant Kumar

by Aaron Offord

by Syed Alfandi Syed Mansor

by Mari Sterling Wilbur

Latest Images from Art Lovers

I've seen some pretty good artworks this past days and weeks...Oh maybe "good" is an understatement. Well, excellent art works and therefore worth sharing...I'll try to haunt them down, since our Facebook page run faster than my  laptop. I hope I can immortalized it here...that is, if blogger.com will exist farther into eternal life...

   Here are some of them...I'm not going to express in words why I like these collections...I'll simply let these pictures speak for itself. 

by  Syed Alfandi Syed Mansor

by Maheshwar N. Sinha

by Elena Peichinova

by Portia Burton

by Aaron Offord

    By the way, the above image I have downloaded a month ago but have forgotten who made it...sorry! Anyway, if anyone of you happen to know, please tell me so I can add the caption. I like it so much. 

   That's all for now...that's all my computer can handle at this time.

Crazy Pictures Fictions chapter 3 The Shadows

   Previously our dynamic duo Aaron Offord (disguised as Hemant Kumar) and Fher Ymas (disgusted as a story-teller) agreed for a journey to search for the mysterious disappearance of Melissa Tandoc...this is for the benefit of those bloggers busy blogging a blog so they could blog a blog, so this blog was not re-blog...(Blog!!!) That was Aaron hitting me on the head for some slapstick effect.

   "Shhhhh!!! Be quiet we are on a mission here." He said.

    Sometimes favourable things come under terrorizing disguises....!!! (line from Jerly Thinkingspace: Angels Carry Petrol)

   So they begin their search...in the Long and Winding Road (Jorie Pacli) when Aaron suddenly noticed they are being followed. He whispered to Fher "Stay calm..." he paused...looked around. 

   I noticed a little brown mound about a quarter mile ahead and a few mountains in the background. Then I noticed that the little brown mound was moving and as we got closer, I could see a head. It was our first grizzly sighting! (from JP Brandano: Photographing Alaska and Grizzlies)

   No don't panic it isn't actually a grizzly but a man with a high tech weapon...he was keeping an eye at the two of us...

by Linda Flagg

   "Now what do we do?" I asked nervously biting my fingernails...

by Melissa Tandoc

      Ohhh wait...what? The long hair? It's a wig for disguised you know...and I've just shaved my mustache for this episode. "Let's go in that Restaurant..." Aaron said. "Pretend we didn't mind him." So we walk to this place...

by Gavino Pascual

   It looks like a church to me but Aaron said it's own by one of the best food expert in town Wan Maznah Wan Mohamad and the place is called Cooking-Varieties Cafe...In fairness the interior was fantastic...we personally met Wan and told us this place was already featured in a Magazine...She even showed to us the article My Studio is Published by Lisa Schmidt

   So we had our meal...served. We both share Serena Flower's custom made cake...he took the northern hemisphere and I waited till the Pacific ocean burst with tornado and icing....

   "Hey waiter where's the Philippines? Could you tell the chef our cake doesn't have my mother land on it!" I lost my appetite, this could have been my only chance to eat all the Filipinos in one bite...

   "I think we lost him..." Aaron said softly...

   "Who the Philippines?"

   "Silly! The guy that's been following us." Aaron and I looked around...observing any suspicious character.

   Someone is descending from the staircase...she appears to be on a rush...

by Lawrence Tyler

   There's a lady waiting for her turn to use restrooms...

by Than K

   And a  mother feeding her child....

by Seb Chua

 They don't look suspicious to me...so we ordered some drinks...

by Maurice Dolezal

     So our character had a drink for awhile talking about their plans...

   "Do you think Mari Sterling Wilbur will give us some Tips before we go to Aabhisek Panda?"

   "Maybe..."

   Hours passed by while our investigator is enjoying their drinks they didn't notice a shadow lurking from behind...

by Aaron Offord

To be continue...

Who is the mysterious stranger that had been following them since chapter two? Will they be able to solve the missing Melissa? When will the lady in the restrooms have her turn? Will the reader make any comments? Or will there be a reader? Watch out for the next thrilling episode of this intriguing drama... 

Crazy Pictures Fictions chapter 2 The Search

   The mysterious disappearance of Melissa intrigue StreetogrOFFY Investigator Aaron Offord decided to "I didn't always want to be a street photographer.  In fact, when I took up photography a year ago I was more interested in parlaying the photography thing into a paying gig; I know the dream of most photographers" (a line from My Becoming a street photographer) but this is beyond money now he decided to look for the Depth in Melissa's story.

   So together with his sidekick Fher Ymas they set out an adventure. Fher an expert in disguises called The Art of Realizationism  made Aaron look like this...

 

   "Hey, I don't look like a street photographer..." Aaron contested. 

   But Fher stopped him "Shhhh!!! You look like Hemant Kumar don't you like it?"

   With lots of arguing finally Aaron agreed to look like Hemant to "blend in the field, so they would not recognized you." The handsome sidekick said. (Don't argue again, this is my story remember?)

   Where do they start? That's the first stage of this investigation. 

   "We will go to Aabhisek Panda." Aaron decided. "He had archives of known expert in We Have a Story maybe there we can find relevant clue."

   I heard whispers of many mysterious and great revelations can be found in the book...but some said it was just a legend and it doesn't really exist. There maybe danger along the way...

    

   Then they started to walk The Road Liz Traveled like Liz M. Derry but along the way he remember something...he hesitates...

   "Maybe we can take some Photography Tips first with Mari Sterling Wilbur We can't just go there..."

    

   So instead of going directly to Aabhisek's they take first The Long and Winding Road  similar to the one taken by Jorie Pacli...  

   But little did they know they are being watched...

(suspense sounds here!!!...don't have the gadget so just imagine Lady Gaga singing My Way)

   What would happen now to our adventurer? Will Aaron Offord be comfortable being Hemant Kumar? How about Mari, will she be willing to help them with some Tips? 

   Watch for this intriguing story of love, deceptions, and passionate blogging. Will they have the Sensitivity like Sancheeta Biswas? Stay tuned...

   

   

   

Latest Arts and Blogs

It's hard to keep track of what's happening and are the latest works from our members...lately we received very interesting paintings and even blogs  that keep our page rolling. Thank you guys for the unconditional sharing. I'll try to list here some of them, in case you missed them the first time. 

   Our members had been very supportive to other artist as they post works from other creatives too. Here is a sample of that sharing posted by Vince Roque, a work from fellow Filipino artist R. Alcantara 

Acid Swim by Rolly Alcantara

   "Langoy sa Asido" or Acid Swim is a mixed-media piece...this one may have been inspired by the recent fish-kill from various part of the Philippine Archipelago. This takes us to wonder if we are really good steward of our planet.  

   Now here's another work that is currently making some thread. Although we maybe united in our ideals of uplifting the arts, of course you can not discount the possibilities of some exchanges of ideas that are not totally aligned with each other...yet through it all we still meet in the end (I hope). 

by Maheshawar N. Sinha

      Let us also welcome our latest member Tahira Lobrano from Rotterdam, Netherlands...

 Hello hello everyone!! I'm new here, but I've already seen so many lovely work floating around. So cool! If you're curious at my work, just have look at my page. Looking forward to  see more of your work! Ciao Xx

baby mermaid by Tahira Lobrano

   Portia Burton show us her latest work that took her a month to finished. She said she was a bit somber creating this and Shakespeare's line is ringing on her mind..."All comes to dust..." 

by Portia Burton

   Also presenting to you some of nice blogs that I've found from our contributor:

Aaron Offord's blog streetogOFFY is taking us to a familiar path...

http://streetogroffy.blogspot.com/2011/07/afternoon-chat-in-park.html that's the link to a one particular blog with images that struck me most. Unforgettable....An afternoon chat in the park.

.

The Inspiring Aaron Outward

What would you do if you found out you had an acute Leukemia? Hit the streets, Take photographs and write an inspiring blog. That is exactly what you will discover on Aaron Outward: A Reflective Glimpse into my Ongoing Journey with Acute Leukemia , daily this blog chronicles street scene according to his very keen eye. The blog aims to do 365 days of photos that on my own opinion often taken for granted, but by having them caught on film caught our attention to take a deeper look. The same way Aaron photograph images in reflective detail of what is inside his heart in that moment.

   The blog is full of reflections and lessons learned along the way while capturing amazing composition of endearing photographs. There is also a page dedicated about his struggle as a Leukemia victim and some tips and link to assist people about the disease, like how to manage an active lifestyle during Chemotherapy and My Secret to beating Chemotherapy.  

   The amusing thing about this blog is how he manage to give us anecdote with a touch of humor. Aaron also able to clear some myth and fallacy by giving us medical detail on laymen terms. He was able to explain complex process and definitions in easy to understand English is an amazing feat. Perhaps, experiencing the pain almost daily will give you the enlightenment to at least know what it going on inside you. 

   Winning a "Bloscar" for Most Helpful Blog says it all.

   To follow Aaron Outward: http://www.aaronoutward.com/