Bacnotan, La Union
04 March 2010
In 2008 and 2009, the fourth of March meant me traveling back to Baguio City to buy a bouquet of flowers for my dad's death anniversary. However, I seemed to have no other reason to go there (in 2008 I was with my sister and in 2009 I went for a day trip with my cousin Mhai), so I decided to stay home.
Whenever I am on a vacation, my feet would itch so bad that I truly cannot stay in the house. When my aunt came home after a shift at the hospital (she's a nurse), I told her I would go to Paratong Beach to watch the sunset. I had a little scare when a suspicious man followed me the other day (after I took out my camera to take a picture of a flower), so my aunt asked me to just take the tricycle to the beach and back home because it will be dark soon.
Fishermen. When I got to the beach, I was quite surprised seeing the fishing village wasn't where it was and that the beach seemed to have come closer. Blame typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) for that... but it's a good sight to see the people living with so much optimism.
"Trust in the Lord." The people didn't seem to mind that I was taking pictures, so I went to take more pictures. After watching the movie "Bruce Almighty" years back, I seemed to have taken much attention in the different messages in store for me, and when I saw this, I knew I just had to take a picture of it.
Off to Fish. Two fishermen about to start their day. :)
Where My Feet Took Me. There wasn't much subjects to take pictures of, so I just sat to watch the sunset. There was a group of kids in the water, and while taking shots of the sunset, I heard a kid talking about me taking pictures of them.
I sat near a fisherman fixing his boat, and when a dog came near me, I got scared a bit, and the fisherman shooed the dog away, which opened a conversation between us. I guess he wasn't used to seeing a person holding a camera, so he started asking me about why I was taking pictures of the beach. From there our chat led to him asking about me, it was amazing that he knew my family.
{whoops, wrong editing in the picture, it should be 2010 not 2011, sorry.}
Kiddos. The girl in pink (rightmost) went near the shore and started blocking my shot of the sun. I didn't want to scold her, so I just put down my camera and smiled at her. She asked why I was taking pictures of the sun and not taking pictures of her, so I turned the flash on to take her picture. When I showed her the picture she was so ecstatic that she asked the rest of her friends to come so they can have their pictures taken, too.
The fisherman asked them to stop pestering me, but I told him it was okay. I am not a big fan of kids, but I did love their gesture of making friends. They didn't want me to stop taking pictures of them, and since I wasn't going anywhere else, I just told myself I can take pictures of them as long as my camera still has battery juice.
Jump! The kids pretty much had their own take when it comes to posing for pictures, but when I asked if they would like to do a jump shot, they were just excited to do it. Directing them was a bit difficult, though, because whenever I would take a step back to make sure they would all fit the picture, they would take a step forward because they wanted to see their faces in the picture. In the end I was able to take three jump shots, and this was my favorite.
The sun has fully set, so I told them I had to go home because my aunt might be looking for me. Some of the kids went back in the water, and while walking away from the beach, one of the kids (the boy in dark blue, leftmost) shouted "Take care," to which I answered with a loud "Thank you." He shouted back, "God bless," and I just raised my hand to show how I appreciated the message.
*** Jenn ***
