Two hours of the day I love

The 4 p.m. sun comes through the translucent bathroom window and casts this kind of light on the beds in my mother's house. Photo by Babeth Lolarga

Foodie-food critic Ruth Reichl has been blogging lately about the things she loves, from New Zealand's extra virgin olive oil to Jacobsen salt. With the theme of light and shadow that I've chosen to get the composition of a daily blog out of the way so I can return to earning a living faster, searching for the images to go with said theme has become an exercise in serendipity. The images all call out to me; I hardly exert an effort to search for them.

Four in the afternoon, if I got it right from my informal photography classes under artist Tita Velasco Lim and from the photojournalists I've worked with off and on since 1976, is the golden hour for those who dare press the button and shoot with available light outdoors or indoors.

Eight in the morning in Baguio is also a treasured hour, especially when the sky is cloudless and wears the bluest of blue. This happens especially in December.

The leaves in our small garden create odd patterns--you can see them on the surface of the woman (she shouldn't have worn a printed sweater, but damn, it was cold even with the sun up).

When the next opportunity comes along, I shall put a white blanket over the chair or I shall wear something white to make the shadows more interesting. Here my husband caught me pretending that I'm sporting a full-body tattoo.

Soaking Vitamin D from Mr. Sunshine at 8 a.m. Photo by Rolly Fernandez

Thrown back on a Thursday

It only took a 30-minute break from non-stop, online, work-from-home work for me to be thrown back to the '70s yesterday. That was the period when my cousins, my sister (and I who's not in the picture--thank goodness! I might have been the one pressing the button on a defective point-and-shoot camera that couldn't center the subjects which is just as well because my photog teacher, Tita Velasco Lim, later told the class not to center the human subject too much) regularly summered in Baguio. And we were barkada each to each.

O, di ba? Fashionistas, take note of what Baguio's Lower Brookside babes of the '70s were wearing. Photo most probably by Babeth

Where was I before I got infused with nostalgia?

Yah, I had to rest my eyes from the glare of the computer, went down to sip water, to eat some banana cue (leaving none for my brothers--belat!) before I turned on the TV to HBO's "Clear History," the last third of it.

Oh man! Larry David, you're THE man. To even use Chicago (the band's) hits from my era! Man, you saved my day. I'm so happy I can kiss you on the lips. So here: Mwah!

The Larry David character is third cousin to all of Woody Allen's neurotic leads. I luv that Mr. Allen uses a lot of jazz, blues and standards in his movies, but I loved Mr. Bird more in "Clear History" for including, among others, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and "If You Leave Me Now."

Oooooohhh woh, please don't go, I just want you to stay. That was the music we grooved to.

From Rachmaninoff to Chicago, and without a snooze on a working Thursday. Not bad, huh? Addicted to music--it's a hard habit to break. Being without it takes a lot of getting used to. Chicago would know.

Without reason

"Be happy; without reason." - Tsoknyi Rinpoche

In my quiet moments today just before waiting morning light filled the corner where I do my thing, I scrolled down and looked for the image that could be paired well with the quote from a Tibetan Buddhist monk.

The picture is one of several I took on a morning stroll with the wee one, Kai/Butones. I remembered a lesson from my photography teacher, Tita Velasco Lim, who said to try things from different perspectives, even from a worm's.

I wondered what a flower would see, if it had eyes.


Yellow saw blue and green. Photo by Babeth Lolarga

On closer look

Home-bound by choice for much of this summer, I've looked for some activities with which I could fill up some minutes while waiting for the Internet signal to return before it goes off again after giving me a small window of 15-30 minutes. The customer service person/s of PLDT must hate the sound of this complaining customer who dials 172 (for DSL connections) or 173 (for landline service) at first light.

I figured why not start looking at the little things at our home office with new eyes during those interim minutes. These photos are partly inspired by my current interest in Pinterest and partly by photography professor's Ernie Enriquez's photo-a-day posts back when I was still active in Facebook. I also recall my first photography teacher, Tita "Tata" Velasco Lim, who motivated our class by insisting that  the true snapshot takers never run out of subjects.

I'm not giving these snapshots titles yet. Let me just tentatively call and file them "Still Lifes in a Home Office."

Photos by Babeth Lolarga