Ibyang
Ibyang

Photography

An Afternoon with John Fick

One fine afternoon, I was blessed to have been picked up by the Husband and our friend John after work. John brought his car to work and they were fortunate to leave the office early, and so we all went home together.

John Fick is a photographer based in Sydney. I’m a fan of his work–not because we are friends hehe, I actually saw his work first before meeting him–because he is a born artist. He is creative and prolific. Other than skills he has acquired through years of experience, he has style and technique that inspired me to do better in photography.
That one fine afternoon inside his car, I learned more about his work, his passion for photography and his love for learning. All the more made me admire him. I’m so blessed to have spent an hour and a half listening to his words of wisdom. As in nakaka-inspire talaga. If only I had a videocamera with me, I would have taped his “mini-lecture” (Maybe I really need to buy that Sony Bloggie after all?) so I can watch it again and again. So you know what I did? I typed in all the key words of our conversation on my mobile phone to at least help me remember later.

Some thoughts he shared with us touched on topics of Light, Location, Vision, Technique, Action-Reaction (how a photographer engages his/her subject).

He shared how important it is for one to just keep on learning (no matter how long one is in the business) and to be open to new ideas.

He gave us tips on covering weddings and talked of some of his memorable experiences while shooting a wedding.

And the best thing he said that afternoon was this:
“You know, a good and successful photographer always has a supportive wife.”

Siyempre, kinilig naman ako dun hehehe.

The biggest bonus of all was that he let me touched his Leica M8. Ohhhhh la la!

I’m still dreaming of owning my first Leica one day and John collects them. How cool is that? Before I took it out of the camera bag, Chris warned me, “Be careful, that’s worth half a million pesos.” Freaking crazy.

I arrived home smiling and very very inspired to move further with my passion for photography. Since I’ve started learning photography, I’ve been taking two steps back all the time wondering if I should continue this or not. After my great conversation with John, I realized that God is making a way for me to really learn because for years now, God makes sure that I am surrounded by talented and creative people.

If you want to be inspired as well, visit John Fick’s website at http://www.johnfick.com/

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Our 3rd Anniversary

20 January 2010. 🙂

For this year, we chose a more relaxed and spontaneous anniversary getaway.  

On the morning of our anniversary, we started a 3-day road trip to experience the Grand Pacific Drive, a drive from Sydney’s Royal National Park to the south coast area of New South Wales. I will tell you more about it soon (with more photos!! hehe). For now, let me share with you snippets of the things we saw and enjoyed on the day we celebrated our 3rd year together.

Not-so-early in the morning, we drove down to Royal National Park to see Garie Beach. 

Then we headed down to Bald Hill and had lunch inside the car. Had an ice cream for dessert as we are mesmerized by all the beautiful scenery below us. It was beautiful. 

Next stop was Sea Cliff Bridge, spend a few minutes there to take photographs. 

Then off we went to Wollongong, our home base for two nights.

After we checked-in at the hotel, we just rested a bit then went out to have afternoon tea. We walked along the streets of the CBD and found this pretty boutique cafe called Lee and Me. We had a cake and coffee. There was a kebab place beside it and since I was pretty hungry from the traveling and heat (one of those hottest days in NSW that time) I bought a chicken kebab (a.k.a Shawarma)

After our yummy afternoon tea, we walked around some more looking for a resto to have dinner at later. We didn’t have any reservations anywhere–no idea whatsoever on where to eat. We wanted to play it by ear and just follow our senses (the way we mostly did when we went to Melbourne for last year’s celebration). After an hour and a half of walking, we found nothing–nothing that we liked. We went to the hotel and decided it was time to look online.

We decided to have dinner at Harbourfront Restaurant. We came in with no reservations but thank God, we were accommodated and even got a table with a great view of the small lighthouse and sailboats. We loved it! 🙂 And the food was delicious. I would go back here just for their rib eye steak (will share in a separate post).

After dinner, we sat by the harbour and enjoyed the serenity around us and the cool breeze that night.  We went back to the hotel and since it was still pretty early, we sat by the bar and had wine and talked some more.

It was a great day for an anniversary celebration: the roadtrip, the sunny weather, the amazing sceneries we saw, the fun drive, the restaurants we discovered, the delicious food we ate and the time spent together. We are grateful not just on “our day” but everyday that we are experiencing this wonderful journey called Marriage. 🙂

For more photos of our 3rd anniversary celebration, please check them all here: Our 3rd Anniversary

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Happy Australia Day!

It’s my first time to celebrate Australia Day as an Australian this year. My Husband and I stayed indoors today but we had sausages (for the first time at home) for lunch to honor the day.

Last week, we had a relaxing short summer/anniversary/birthday getaway. For a change, we decided to chose country areas to explore instead of a city where we usually end up exhausted from lots of walking around and shopping.


This recent 3-day road trip was a myriad of breathtaking sceneries: luscious forests, desert-like beaches at a park (take note: it was a park with a beach with desert-like sand! see photo above), pretty lighthouses and beautiful beaches.



It was such a great experience as we learned more beautiful places in this country–and there’s still a lot! So we’ll take it one travel at a time.
I’ll share more about the things we saw during our travel soon (I’m currently busy watching the Australian Open). In the meantime, I wish everyone had a fun-filled and safe Australia Day. To the rest of the world, hope you’re having a great week! Smile!
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Take A Walk With Me

When I moved here in Sydney and was nursing my broken heart from all the homesickness one migrant is plagued with, some Fridays I would go to some touristy place in the city to remind myself how lucky I am to be living here. I’d usually walk the streets of Circular Quay for a view of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge (para todo na sa pagka-touristy!) and whenever I’d see those amazing structures, my homesickness fades away. The lonely feelings turn into feelings of blessedness. As much as I love and miss my first home, I can never deny that this city, this country, is a beautiful place. And lonely or not, I will always be grateful for being here.

Nowadays, it is very seldom that bouts of homesickness strikes me. Nowadays, I walk along the streets of this city with just the need to explore and relax.

Today being a Friday is another one of those days when I walk around the metro. I started walking in the streets of George Street. First stop, St. Peter Julian’s Church.

First time to be here. I forgot to make three wishes. My mom always reminds me to make three wishes whenever it was our first time to visit a church. But then I realized, my prayer consisted of a lot of wishes, so I guess, I did more than three wishes.


From George Street, I made my way to Chinatown. I entered a building full of clothing boutiques that sells funky dresses, the ones we see actors and actresses wear in Asianovelas. Looked at the prices and some of them were a bit expensive.


When I got out of the building, I made my way to Darling Park. Great weather this afternoon. Thank goodness the sun came out as it was cloudy when we woke up this morning.


They’ve got a few rides for kids. The thing about places here in this country is that they make sure that there’s something for everyone. 

They even have these mini-trains around the Harbour for those who would like a tour or who are too tired to walk. I’ve never tried riding these trains. Since I live here, there are some things that I take for granted.


 This country has the bluest skies I’ve ever seen.

On days when it’s so hot, men take off their shirts. The women, they wear their bikinis. In public places, not just the beach. Very laidback and carefree.


Blue on blue. So beautiful, isn’t it? I just used my point and shoot Sony camera today and the photos turned out lovely. No tweaking done here, just resizing.


Since it was hot, I didn’t stay in the sun too long. I went inside Harbourside Mall to have a little bit of “me” time while waiting for the Husband to finish work.



I went around looking at bags, clothes, sunnies, shoes…stuff that a girl fancies. I almost bought a new pair of sunnies but can’t decide between two pairs I liked. Which one–the white or black?


Since I can’t decide, I didn’t buy any. But I was lucky enough to find boots on sale. It’s the best time to buy winter stuff these days because everything’s on sale. I bought two pairs (black and brown) because it was half the price each. I know it’s the same style but I don’t really care much for boots anyway. For me, the simpler, the better. As long as I’ve got boots to keep my feet warm during winter that’s fine with me. Plus, I need boots for our sweet November trip to *toooot*. Secret muna for now. 😛

When Husband arrived, we hung out at the Glue store because he needed a new pair of pants. All the pants there were on sale, 20% off. He was able to buy a new pair of Levi’s for a hundred dollars.


Ambushed photography while Chris was trying pants on hehe.

After that, we decided to go home. On our way out, we stopped by Movenpick Ice Cream because I wanted to try them. I had Hazelnut Ice Cream. It was delish.



HHWWEII = Holding hands while walking and eating ice cream. 🙂 Such a relaxing and peaceful afternoon at the Darling Harbour today. Love it!

Sunset today was 8:10PM so when we arrived home, the sun was still shining, the skies blue as these flowers welcomed us home.



Thanks for walking with me…happy weekend!

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The Moon on New Year’s

…was breathtakingly beautiful.

The great thing about staying home during the new year fireworks was that I got a chance to photograph the full moon.

This was a first time for me to capture the moon at its fullest form. Due to the location of our building, it is very seldom that we get to see the moon. I never really expected to see it on the 1st of January, I only knew of it. So when I took some alone time in our balcony after cleaning up our little new year’s party, I was surprised and amused to see the moon looking down on me. It was mesmerizing. Too bad, it was a very cloudy night. In a few seconds, the full moon was covered by dark clouds.
They say that a full moon on the first day of the year is good luck. I’d really like to believe that. After a challenging 2009 for everyone, so challenging that it seemed everyone was too eager for 2009 to be over, we need all the good luck we can get.

However, the universe may have given us a sign but it’s always up to us to make 2010 a great year. So let’s do it! Let’s make things happen in 2010.

Photos by Ibyang Sanchez, Copyright 2010.

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