el toro bumingo

Sunday, May 11, 2014

My First Time To Ride The Pasig River Ferry

I finally tried riding the Pasig River Ferry from Nagpayong (Pinagbuhatan Station) to Plaza Mexico (Intramuros Station) and back. It took me roughly 3 hours for the back and forth trip – so that’s roughly 1.5 hours one-way. The trip from Pinagbuhatan to Guadalupe is only 20-25 minutes – but again, you have to be in the right time for the ferry. Otherwise, the wait time will add big time to your travel time.

Out of the original 11 stations, only 5 are currently operational – Pinagbuhatan, Guadalupe, PUP, Escolta and Plaza Mexico (Intramuros).

This is actually the second Pasig River Ferry service that I knew. The first one was opened sometime in 2007 and it has air-conditioned boats. It also has a lot of stations. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to ride it since it ceased operations.

Now that the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) revived the Pasig River Ferry this summer 2014, I finally tried it – and I did enjoy it. It’s more of a leisure trip for me. I gained different point of view of the buildings located along the Pasig River. Too bad it’s not allowed to photograph the Malacañang Palace.

I do have one comment though – and I believe that a lot of people who tried the ferry have the same sentiment – the ferries don’t leave at scheduled time. I ride the ferry at Pinagbuhatan Station early this morning and the schedule was 6:00 AM but the ferry arrived around 6:45 AM. That’s already the 2^nd trip according to their schedule.

Other than that, the ferry service is good. The ferries are fast – although it’s no longer air-conditioned – and smaller (around 30 capacity), which is a good thing. We don’t have to wait very long for us to fill one ferry. Today, there were a lot of MMDA Summer OJTs and on PUP Station, there were more personnel than passengers. The personnel were polite and accommodating to criticism about the late schedule.

Right now, there were only 5 stations operating – Pinagbuhatan, Guadalupe, PUP, Escolta and Plaza Mexico (Intramuros). I asked for the price in the future and that would cost P50 from Pinagbuhatan to Intramuros. From Pinagbuhatan to Guadalupe it’s P25. I did some computations if I’m going to ride a tricycle from Pinagbuhatan to Pasig Palengke, then jeep from Pasig to Quiapo and another jeep from Quiapo to Intramuros, it would cost me roughly P92 back-and-forth, as compared to the more comfortable ferry ride at P100 back-and-forth. I really believe it’s feasible if only the public would support it.

I actually pity the drivers of the ferries since during the entire back-and-forth trip from Pinagbuhatan to Intramuros, we have to stop 4-5 times (briefly) because some garbage slowed down the ferry. The other hassle to the trip was the required “escort” from a member of the Philippine Coast Guard to accompany the ferry from PUP Station to Mabini Bridge (along the Malacañang Palace) and vice-versa. They also prohibit the use of camera in this area.

I’m planning to ride again the ferry soon, probably in the afternoon. I congratulate the MMDA for reviving the Pasig River Ferry and I wish them success with this. I hope the public would support this project and I hope that we’ll do our part in reviving the Pasig River.

I’ll post more pictures of my Pasig River Ferry experience soon. By the way, people have different levels of tolerance against the smell of Pasig River. I highly suggest wearing face mask specially for children.

I arrived at the Pinagbuhatan Ferry Station before 6:00 AM – supposed to be the first trip. However, the ferry arrived around 6:45 AM.

A woman telling the MMDA personnel about her last ferry experience – the boat was more than 1 hour behind schedule.

The new ferries are smaller in size and is open-air. So have your handkerchief or face mask ready. It also has less than 30 person capacity.

I’ve seen a lot of these huge depot along the Pasig River.

I love seeing construction on-going.

One of the ferry stations that are not in use – I guess this is the San Joaquin Station.

It’s a bit hard to take pictures since the ferry is fast.

I love to see tall buildings along the Pasig River.

I believe this is Kalawaan Bridge in Pasig City.

Guadalupe Ferry Station

The famous billboards of Guadalupe, Makati

Rockwell Center, Makati

All ferry personnel are wearing yellow shirts – with the words Pasig River Ferry Terminal 2014.

The Makati City Hall

Valenzuela Bridge Ferry Station. Not in used.

Depot Stations.

PUP Station. This is where a member of the Coast Guard will ride the ferry up to Mabini Bridge. It’s prohibited to take pictures from this Station to Mabini Bridge.

Mabini Bridge. I was advised by the Coast Guard that I should not take pictures not until I passed the Mabini Bridge. He pardoned me.

The iconic Post Office Building.

The Binondo District.

Plaza Mexico Station, Intramuros.

More Depots.

Makati Skyline.

Rockwell Area.

I missed the 8:45 AM trip from Guadalupe to Pinagbuhatan so I have to wait 1 hour for the next trip. I have to transfer ferry.

Fellow commuters/ferry passengers.

The Napindan Flood Gates?

This house is already in Pasig City.

More boats.

Homes along the Pasig River.

The Napindan-Pinagbuhatan Bridge.

I left Pinagbuhatan Station around 6:45 AM and arrived at 10:25 AM. You do the Math of my round-trip to the last ferry station, Plaza Mexico.

BuzzNet Tags: Pasig River Ferry,MMDA,Pinagbuhatan,Guadalupe

Street Photography 101 with Eric Kim

I missed the DPP8 the other day at Bonifacio Global City but fortunately, I was able to attend the free Street Photography talk with Eric Kim, a California-based street photographer (Los Angeles to be exact).

The event was sponsored by Fujifilm Philippines and CameraHaus Megamall and it’s fun and enlightening. Eric Kim is a great photographer and teacher. They even gave us some treats at the end of the talk.

This is the first time I’ve attended a street photography talked and Eric Kim explained the concept very well. He started off by having an activity of staring someone in the eye for a minute or so in a very close distance – it felt very awkward at first, but eventually, my activity partner and I got used to it. Same thing with street photography – strangers would find it awkward at first but as you spend some time with them, it eases the tension. Smiling at strangers while taking their pictures and explaining what you find beautiful in them (to take their pictures) helps a lot.

He also talked about taking chances in asking people to take their pictures. You will never know whether a person would say yes or no unless we ask. Treating other people as human (regardless whether you’re in California, India, Tokyo or Manila) is the general rule in street photography.

Eric Kim also explained the settings of his current Fuji camera and the logic behind it. He shoots mostly in P-Mode with ISO 800-1600 and with flash. The reason for this is because he keeps his shutter speed at 1/250 of a second to capture the emotion of the person. He shoots mostly in 35mm and with no zoom. His demo camera was the Fujifilm X-M1 and I also liked his video using a GoPro on how he did his craft in Intramuros.

He also gave a little-bit of information about some of the concepts of street photography like having “bookends” – people at the opposite side of the frame – and having an “anchor” in the picture (someone or something that’s not moving). He also explained about having the 3D effect on the picture by simply having different people within the same frame but on different distance from him, thus having a depth.

Eric Kim also explained the concept of having Contact Sheets – and that since we’re using digital cameras, we should never take a single picture of the subject. We should always take several shots from different angles. He showed some of the world’s famous street photographs and showed the Contact Sheets of these pictures. Some used 24 or even 36 shots to come up with a very good picture. The winning photo could either be on the start, middle or end of the Contact Sheets. Now, I’m going to Google more photos from the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Kalvar and Martine Franck.

Street photographer Eric Kim explained the difference between Editing and Post-Processing. Editing is choosing your best photo (from a Contact Sheet) while Post-Processing involves Cropping, changing pictures to Black and White, etc. He also gave a practical tip to decide at the beginning of your photo-walk whether you’re going to shoot in B&W or Color.

This is one of the two photos Eric Kim gave to the participants at CameraHaus Megamall. He’s literally giving his photos for free on his Flickr page.

Lastly, he gave some practical tips on how to be a great street photographer – like turning of the LCD of the camera so as not to avoid the decisive moment. He also emphasized the importance of having a clear background in the photo, always shooting in RAW and to treat street photography as a passion and hobby (not something that you can earn from), having no watermarks, and to use a camera that you feel comfortable carrying around.

Thanks again Eric Kim, Fujifilm Philippines and CameraHaus for this wonderful street photography talk. Today, May 12, 2014 Eric Kim will be in Quiapo for a PhotoWalk (6:00-9:00AM) and at Fully Booked (7:30-11:00PM).

BuzzNet Tags: Eric Kim,Fujifilm Philippines,CameraHaus Megamall,Street Photography

Monday, May 5, 2014

Firefox 29 Philippine Launch

The earliest Firefox version I've ever use was 3.2. I guess I've seen the banner of Firefox in one of the blogs that I was following. That was circa 2007 I guess. Ever since then, I've been a Firefox user & promoter. I find FF (shortcut of Firefox) as the fastest browser in the market today.

Now, I'm here at the launch party of Firefox at Alphaland Southgate Mall, Magallanes. The latest version of this amazing browser is 29 & it gives a lot of improvement. This event is organized by Mozilla Philippines -- the local branch of the Mozilla Foundation (US).

I'm glad that Mozilla PH is active in promoting the browser in the country. This is one of the several events organized by the foundation in order to educate Internet users that there's a better alternative to Internet Explorer.

In my job as a call center agent, I try to educate our US customers that IE are not the sole browser available. I also inform our customers that the best way to isolate a browser issue is to use another browser -- like Mozilla Firefox!

The party is about to begin. I hope that the organizers would talk about the status of The Browser Wars, the latest companies switching to Firefox & exciting prizes for being a loyal FF user & associate.

One of the key features and the future of Firefox is that HTML5 will be fully integrated into the browser. They even showed some shooter games that run on Firefox.

This event is not only about the official lunch of Firefox 29 but also about the status of Firefox OS -- the OS for mobile phones. It's currently at version 1.4 but version 2.0 is already in the works. Mozilla Philippines is also encouraging Pinoy app developers to create new apps for the Firefox Marketplace for the smartphones & future tablets.

Here are some of the things that Firefox & Firefox OS promotes (as noted by Aaron Cajes):