up lantern parade – The Skytreader

Lovely Lantern Lights

I expected rain to fall, maybe like last year, probably worse. The week was weird weather-wise after all. I made it a point to bring my umbrella, for Getsurikai’s sake. Thank heavens I had no need for it.

I arrived at UP late by my standards. For the past three years, I’d usually arrive before lunch then hang out for some hours, reading a book I brought, until my friends start texting me, asking where in UP am I. I’d do that to avoid being hassled by the traffic caused by the Parade. For some reason the traffic-hassle didn’t give me enough incentive to get-up early this year. I was late but it was a nice start to the adventure as I got an opportunity to get a before-the-show feel for the event.

This horse is too camera-shy. Everytime I’d point my lens at him he’d turn his head the other way. Maybe he’s proffering me his best angle? Maybe he thinks my lens is some kind of a laser cannon*? This is the best of him I got: snout complete with matching calesa.

I was happily shooting around Oblation Plaza when I saw our ROTC squad advancing towards Palma Hall. I remembered that they will be one of the first parties to parade. So I hurriedly ended my little photoshoot, reasoning with myself that I need to conserve batteries as I don’t have any spare.

But not long after, the beauty of the Carillion took me in…

We decided to station ourselves in front of Melchor Hall being that it is at the last leg of the Parade. Last leg == night time (eventually) == more awesome for the lovely lantern lights.

That said, with all my hurrying, we still had lots of idle time when our group was finally completed. Idle time + SLR/SLT camera =

…rotating camera men!

And the attention of cuteness!

The Parade started with UP Offices. I saw some personal acquaintances like…

UP President Alfredo Pascual

Okay. I kid. I saw some personal acquaintances like…

The CRS team, most of which are people from DCS.

Come to think of it, the deeper I got into the CS curriculum (and knew more teachers/people from the Department), the better my fate during batch runs became. Hmmmm….

And then came the UP ROTC in their distinct guardia civil outfit,

Inside their Ranks — I wonder, if a lightning storm ensues, will those hats act like lightning rods? Are the wearers safe from brain-frying and related phenomena?

Ironically followed by College of Arts and Letters float honoring Rizal and the Revolution,

Above pictured is Sir Wystan de la Peña, head of the Department of European Languages and my Professor in a GE coded European Languages 50 (EL 50). Take that course under him. I personally learned a lot from Señor de la Peña’s lectures. It is one of the most worthwhile courses I ever took.

The parade was scattered with awesomazing lanterns (duh!) and acquaintances that it is pointless to just blah on with words. Visual overload here we go!

Like last year, there were gaps in the Parade, most likely caused by people like yours truly who are so keen on taking pictures. And it was starting to get dark. Perfect for pictures like these…

At this point, I learned/realized a few things in photography.

You really can’t do much if a scene’s lighting is poor to begin with. Not unless you have your own lighting equipment. But (a) I don’t have that and (b) that looks too out-of-place, space-taking, and inconsiderate for an event like the Lantern Parade.
Unlike a point-and-shoot’s flash, which fires the lights straight at your subject, an SLR fires flash upwards, assuming there is a ceiling to bounce the light downwards, diffused. This results to a better effect/less glare. There obviously isn’t a ceiling equivalent in outdoors, Lanter Parade set-up. I had to use my hands to direct the flash to my subjects (hood it over the flash like a “ceiling” which will quickly catch the lights and bounce it towards your subject). Thank goodness I realized this quickly.

So, as it was getting dark at this point, it became harder to get decent shots. Lighting was no longer on my side as I was already relying on flash. Otherwise, it’d be too dark or too orange depending on where I decide to shoot.

Above pictured is Eng’g’s Wall-E, one of our lanterns, and the DCS/Cursor contingent of the Parade. Like last year, Eng’g scored with a particularly awesomazing lantern followed by a—wait for it—boring march of Eng’g orgs and banners. My sister, who majors in Broadcast Communication, likens it to dead air i.e., awkward and should-be-avoided pauses in radio productions. Unlike the last three years though, they, at least, weren’t wearing orange. Plus points for the fashion factor!

I took this shot from one of the torches of the Beta Sigma frat men. Their first number was the human chain/snake which I believe is part of their initiation rights. Even if it is my second time seeing this, it was still kind of chilling especially with their chant. I heard someone (was he from βσ?) call their second part kata which is the Karate equivalent of Taekwondo’s poomsae or forms. While their formation and synchronicity might look watch-worthy, it didn’t really catch my attention (maybe ’cause I’ve seen better during my TKD days). So, my eyes were wandering off to better photo-ops, their torch flames in particular. It, however, amuses me that Beta Sigma has their own blend of martial arts.

A few more lanterns and it was finally the turn of my most anticipated college ever. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the ever-fine stars of our lantern show, the College of Fine Arts.

Warning: Awesomeness follows.

And of course, the night wouldn’t be complete without fireworks. It is unfortunate that an untoward incident happened in this year’s fireworks. We were only a few meters away from the fireworks fence when it happened and we saw those wayward fireworks shoot. Here is the statement of UP Diliman’s Chancellor regarding the incident.

Judging by the number of pictures in this post, I’d say that I’ve really had a good time with my camera this Parade. I even exceeded my 300MB monthly upload limit at Flickr that I had to hijack on a new account to fit all these shots in!

That’s all for now. Hope you have a Merry Christmas! ~Chad

*This imagery was inspired by an episode of Pokemon, Bulbasaur-Charmander-Squirtle(-Pikachu!) era. Brock was making rice cakes when Ash noticed a camera lens (wanting to take a picture of Pikachu) appear from behind some bushes. He over-reacted, imagining it to fire a laser projectile of sorts, and ruined their little rice cake picnic. I’ve never been able to shake that episode from my mind since I watched it as a kid.

Year Three

So, Lantern Parade again. It wasn’t as funtastic as expected, I’m afraid, nor does it stand in comparison with my previous two. It rained before the parade started. Maybe there’s something with the water that broke down part of the spirit.

The Parade went as usual for the early part, with people crowding over this lantern and that. But as it wore the lantern lines broke in segments and it wasn’t very exciting anymore. And there was too much ideology involved. Not that you can wash that entirely away from something so UP. But, again, too much compared to my previous two.

But then I over speak. A post about the Lantern Parade is a post of pictures, of course. So here they are.

An early drizzle, which soaked the grounds as well as the AS steps, the effect being that those who opted to watch at the AS steps spent the night standing (or so my sister tells me). Which makes me wonder why…

…are they sitting down, here at the Engineering steps? Sure some of them had monoblocks and other what-have-you’s for dry sitting-down but most of them had none. And they sat down, monoblock or no monoblock.

Anyway, this was CSSP’s lantern/float before it rained. I don’t know what’s up with CSSP this year but they seem to be in a particularly celebratory mood; they even had sportsfests and pageants (a la Miss Eng’g, in my opinion) this year. Whatever the celebration may be, cheers to them.

See those crayons? They melted thanks to the rain, so unlike real crayons which melts with fire, not water.

Aside: This zebra is so cute. There were other balloons of this kind there, from SpongeBob to Dora, but I only managed to take the picture of this zebra. I’m not very fine with the lighting for this one but according to my sister, this shot is the cutest. Here are some more shots (whose lighting I like but are not very favored with my sister in terms of the cuteness factor).

An early show stealer is our very own Pep Squad. I can’t do their awesomeness justice just by telling you what. And no picture, even one worth a million words, can tell you what poetry their motion wrote. So here’s a video instead.

Another early show stealer is Architecture, with blocky costumes of architectural masterpieces.

This girl needs an award for the mere effort of standing through the whole length of the parade, keeping balance (with some help, I’ve been told) in face of road bumps.

It’s all white but with detail as fine as that, this, too, deserves mention.

None of the next handful of lanterns struck me in particular. I think some of them was more driven by ideology than by art.

Engineering—my college—was a big let down, I’m afraid. It started with a particularly crowd-whoa-drawing contraption which looked like a horse’s skeleton with a rider too small for it at the top. Then the rider pedals the bike and the contraption moves and the crowd is amazed. It was followed by electronic (read: Earth-friendly) jeepneys. And then a long march of Engineering organizations which didn’t display anything much aside from orange shirts courtesy of Meralco and org banners.

Upon entering UP, our Dean then told us the story behind our College’s Lantern Parade performance. There was a time when no one gave much damn on our lantern. Then she gave the ultimatum that, if our Lantern Parade performance remains lackluster, Eng’g Week* won’t be held next year. And the rest is, as they say, history. I don’t know how true this story is, me being unaffliated, but I think it is time to amend that order to something that will require the orgs to show something worth watching. Just my two cents.

Anyway, we jump to the show stealers of always, the ever-awesome College of Fine Arts.

I can’t help but feel that their parade is shorter than usual this year. I didn’t see any of the people I know in Fine Arts. But still, they’re awesome.

It’s not much of a shot on my part but this style of lantern is something I find so nice.

King Blastoise you’re so awesome and you’re waving at me!

I’ll tell you a secret and please make sure that King Blastoise here won’t know ’cause he’s so freaking awesome I wouldn’t want to anger him. Back in those days when I spent the day beeping on my high-tech Tamagochi that is Pokemon in the GameBoy Color, I’m not really a very huge Blastoise (or, for that matter, water-type) fan. I’m more the fire type kind of trainer. When Oak/Elm asks me to choose, I always chose Charmander/Cyndaquil which eventually evolves to Charizard/Typhloshion. And then my rival will choose the water-type, Squirtle/Totodile, which grows to Blastoise/Feraligatr. And you know what? I always beat my rival despite the type advantage. I always hard-boiled Squirtle/Wartortle/Blastoise in his shell. Even if he beats me, I’d turn the GameBoy off without saving so that my loss is technically non-existent. Then I’d turn it back on and train some more before having another go at cooking some hard-boiled pokemon. Now you know why I wouldn’t like King Blastoise to know.

You didn’t tell King Blastoise? Great! Hey who’s that Pokemon? What did you say? YOU TOLD GYARADOS?! That explains why he’s rushing towards me!

Close…

…Open

So far I’ve shown you my shots in more or less sequential order. However, I just had to save this one for last, as this is probably the loveliest sight this Lantern Parade. They actually appeared somewhere between King Blastoise and Little Mermaid in a Shell. Kudos to AV Com (which, I’ll take to be Audio Visual Communication?) for this fantastic piece.

King and Queen of the Sea lords over this year’s parade (and I like my shot too).

They’re such a lovely pair don’t you think?

And of course, fireworks…

We started the day with water rain and end with fire rain? Hmmmmm…

I actualy have some footage of this year’s fireworks display. The thing is, I haven’t much time to upload them as internet speeds here in the Philippines isn’t very fast. That’s also another reason why I’m two days late posting this, instead of the usual one (The Parade happened December 17). We’ll see.

Be like Fine Arts. Know how to stay awesome even if it rains.
~Your Skymeister 😉

*Eng’g Week, and here I lift from the Engineering Survival Guide, ay ang “pinakamasayang at pinakanakakapagod na parte ng taon!” I’m aware of the error in the construction of that phrase but it isn’t mine. I’m just quoting my trusty Guide.

Awesome Things

December 18 went to the Parade, to the Lanterns, to the Fine Artistry of amazing talents. I saw a lot of people whom I haven’t seen for quite sometime now. It’s nice to meet people, especially if by chance. They catch you off guard with a greeting or a smile and the next thing you know you’d be having conversations again and laughing. Then, their lantern moves, the parade goes on…

Not that it’s not nice to meet people in a planned manner. Much like adrenaline, they keep you standing. Later on, you sit in front of your computer and blog about the whole running-to-and-fro-to-get-pictures business and realize that it was such a tiring experience if not for the people-adrenaline that kept you up. People will never cease to amaze you, indeed. Surround yourself with them, in their own terms.

Digicams are also nice and amazing. In an age of instant things, this is one of the few that really piqued my interest. Fortunately, unlike last year, I did not forget to bring my camera along with me. And so words relinquish control on to pictures. See what beauty I caught of UP Lantern Parade 2009.

This picture is equivalent to 3.14159265358979323846… and so on and so forth

Peeking through, stepping through

Fine Arts, as usual, as expected, took the show. This guy is just one of the many. Fine Arts makes me drool with envy. You got talent I can only dream of.

Ever since I was kid I wanted to draw. I remember, back in the days when both my parents worked, they’d leave me with a sheet of bond paper and an 8-piece pack of crayons before going to work. I’d spend all those material resources drawing. I always ended up drawing circles, although in circumspect, with all my geometric/mathematical training, they were more oblongs than circles. Everyday I’d resolve to do something not so circly, to no avail. I think it’s hardcoded in my genes, drawing circles. My whole childhood art (self-)education ran in circles, with me drawing oblongs.

Eventually, I’d exchange pencils, colors and papers for computers and digicams. The photograph below looks so Dave McKean to me and it is posted here straight from my camera.

Even in the Latern Parade, I seem to be still carrying what I learned from lessons in abstraction eh?

And of course, the Lantern Parade won’t be complete without fireworks…

Enmeshed in green…

BOOM!

An Electrifying Shower

Awed by awesome things, I feel grateful. An awesome way to end an awesome year, I say. This Christmas is clearly to the awesome things…

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. It’s my mantra for the day. Have an awesome merry Christmas!