Saturday, August 10, 2013

The Magical Effect of Black-and-White Photographs

Dr Abe V Rotor
Black and white captures the true color of this dog. Tenten at home, QC
 Agoo La Union cathedral: architecture against cloudy sky
 B & W enhances sharpness
Microscopic study of plankton (30X magnification)
Takong, native sow, Agoo, La Union 
Epiphytic Drynaria fern on acacia
Rock promontory in Mandaon, Masbate
Sta Maria Beach, Ilocos Sur
Friendly eagle at Avilon Zoo, San Mateo, Rizal
Herons on the ricefield in Sudipen, La Union  

 Philippine Hawk, Avilon Zoo Rizal, is actually white and gray


 B&W is perfect for silhouettes. Children playing under a Calumpang 
(Bangar)  Tree, Tandang Sora QC; "I am Nature Crucified." Standing dead 
camphor tree, UST Campus Manila 
B&W tones down the aura of children at play and leisure 
Calatagan Batangas, and rural home in San Vicente Ilocos Sur (right)
   
 Horror is emphasized in B&W photos such as Medusa in the Garden
Bangkok, Thailand 
  
View of the crater of Mt Mayon on a Cessna plane
Old sampalok tree, San Ildefonso, Ilocos Sur
Break time, UST, Manila 
Pine tree skeleton, Baguio City
Dying camphor tree, UST Manila
Old tree and its shadow 
UST Main building
UST Pharmacy Garden 
Walking stick, UP Museum of Natural History, Mt Makiling Laguna 
Sea urchins at play in Camindoroan, San Juan, La Union
A pair of water buffaloes (carabao) beating summer in Agoo, La Union

Kids at play in Calatagan, Batangas
Sugarcane mill chimney at night, Calatagan, Batangas
San Juan (LU) parish church 
Tagaytay Zoo visitors
A group of cicada attracted by a singing male, topmost 
(females are dumb), former Ecosanctuary, SPUQ

Thursday, August 1, 2013

UST-AB Photography Assignment: The Death of Privacy

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM  8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Assignment for 3CA1 2 3 4 
1. Make a Reaction Paper regarding this article on one page regular bond, handwritten. 
2. List down in what other ways and means, can preserve or restore privacy. 


Loss of privacy is exacerbated by modern technology. 
Someone is watching your every move – at the bank, on the Internet, even walking down the street. Our right to be left alone has disappeared, bit by bit, in Little Brotherly steps.” Say Time magazine in a special issue on The Death of Privacy. We are headed for an even wired unregulated, overintrusive  privacy-deprived planet.  Privacy is dying.

Our letters are no longer private on e-mail dispatch. ID are also for time record, entry pass, emergencies, discounts.  We carry USP (removable disc) which contains a library of information indistinguishable whether for private or public consumption.  And who cares, if you too, get access to the same unsolicited materials?

Don’t forget to lock up your personal computer; even then, be sure no one knows your PIN (personal identification number). One moment every it contains is copied without your knowing it.  For hackers it worst; you can’t keep your own files anymore.

Go to the mall, drop at the Post Office, pick up grocery, visit an ITM.  Waiting for a ride, speeding on a highway, practicing in a gym, promenading?  Anything you do, even in your rented bedroom, someone is looking at you through the electronic eye, a n-generation of the conventional camera, complete with sounds, and special effects, versatility likened to Hubs telescope or Skylab’s.     

In fact your organs are monitored on TV during diagnosis, more so during operation.  I saw my kidney bombarded by laser.  “Oh, you are awake,” my doctor was surprised.  “See, the stone is gone, the fragments are being flushed out.” It’s me I was seeing. I don’t know if I passed out afterward that. 

Cell phone.  Yes, it’s a magnificent invention. You can be at any place at anytime. And with modern hybrids, you send and receive information to whomever without full control.  That is why clever people make a dummy of them and hide their reality.  This is your Second Person, your avatar, your clone, but you are soon to be discovered, and little by little your second person becomes your first person – you.

Good if it’s the real you as you would like put your best foot forward, so to speak.  Somebody did some anatomical experiment, putting your face on another body, doing a thing you don’t like in a place your find impossible to be, attired differently, if at all.  And your dignity? “Oh, it’s not me,” you deny, but it’s your face people see. And this monster runs on the wire and soon you find yourself an international figure (disfigure). You are lost.    

Melly asked me if it’s all right to have a digital ID system.  Why not, who does not have one nowadays?  Even a kinder child has one around the neck; college students enter the school premises by swiping their ID to show their face and number on the monitor, otherwise you are trapped and questioned. Remember terrorists are also in white.

But the worst and ultimate loss of privacy is in having a Personal Gene Map.  Since HGP (Human Genome Project was launched and published, there will come a time each of us will be wearing a mini disc that contains the map of our chromosomes and their corresponding genes, and each gene carrying a specific trait from the color of your hair to your temperament. In short, genetic cartography reveals all our traits which doctor, insurance companies, prospective employers and spouses are, and likely, to know. “Will the map also show loyalty, infidelity?” asked Melly.  I was speechless.  I was nodding my head in disbelief.  Why not? Hasn’t holism been re-defined by science and technology. Now what chromosome or chromosomes, and what gene or genes can we view the so-called inner self – conscience?  God, where is the soul to be found?

How are you spied on?

Bank machines – Every time you use an automated teller; the bank records the time, date and location of your transaction.

Prescription drugs – If you use your company health insurance to purchase drugs, your employer may have access to the details.

Browsing on the web – Many sites tag visitors with magic cookies that record what you’re looking at and when you have been surfing.

Cellular telephone – Your calls can be intercepted and your access numbers cribbed by eavesdroppers with police scanners.

Credit cards – Everything you charge is in a database that police, among others, can look at.

Registering to Vote – Voter registration records are publis and online – if computerized.  They typically list your address and birth date.

Making a phone call – The phone company does not need a court order to note the number you’re calling – or who is calling you.

Supermarket scanners – Many grocery stores let you register for discount coupons that are used to track what you purchase.

Sweepstakes –  In the US these are bonanzas for marketers.  Every time you enter one, you add an electronic brushstroke to your digital portrait.

Satellites – Commercial satellites are coming online that are eagle-eyed enough to spot you – and maybe a companion – in a hot tub.

Electronic tools – In many places, drivers can pay tolls electronically with passes that tip off your whereabouts.

Surveillance cameras – They’re in banks, federal office buildings, 7-elevens, even houses of worship; New Yorkers are on camera up to 20 times a day.  How about us in Metro Manila?

Mail-order transactions – Many companies, including mail-order houses and publishers, sell lists of their customers.  Why do you think you’re getting those catalogs?  

Sending e-mail – In offices, E-mail is considered part of your work.  Your employer is allowed is allowed to read it – and many bosses do.

1.      Protect Yourself

2.      Just say no to telemarketers. Say, “I don’t take phone solicitations.”

3.      Consider removing your name from many direct-mail and telemarketing lists.

4.      Pay cash whenever possible.

5.      Be wary about buying mail order.

6.      Give your Social Security number only when required by law.

7.      Think twice before filling warranty cards or entering sweepstakes.

8.      Be careful when using “free blood pressure clinics.”

9.      Avoid leaving footprints on the Net.

10.  Surf the Web anonymously.

If you can make it, disarm yourself of any electronic device on a weekend, and stay home. Take a vacation away from electronic devices.  It could be the best way of restoring a part of your privacy.  Set on mailbox, if not switch off,  your cell phone to enjoy your weekend or vacation.

 As people go to live in cities and high rise apartments, they give up privacy in the guise of freedom and modern culture. .
Advertisements break traditional customs, introduce a lifestyle that favors liberalism and consumerism.    


cctV camera

UST-AB Photography Session at the Zoo

  Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, evening class, Monday to Friday

Reading Assignment for Communication Arts - 3CA1,2,3,4

Lesson in Photography
A. The zoo is one of the recommended best  places to conduct photography session.
  • Natural Science
  • Social science
  • Media 
  • Fine Arts
  • Photography class 
  • Family Outing
B. Zoos to visit from Manila
  • Zoobic, Subic, Zambales
  • Avilon Zoo, San Mateo Rizal
  • Malabon Zoo, Malabon
  • Tagaytay Zoo, Tagaytay, and
  • Manila Zoo
  • Balaurte, Vigan (400 km north)
C. Presentation of Photographs
  • Photo Essay
  • Photo Release (print)
  • PowerPoint 
  • Photo exhibit
  • Research Photos (e.g. thesis)
  • E-Publication (e.g. Blog)
  • Poster, Bulletin, Book, Newsletter 
D. Themes
  • Wildlife Conservation 
  • Saving the threatened and endangered species  
  • Concepts of a zoo today
  • Parks and wildlife management
Here are samples of photographs taken at the zoo


Pony (Zoobic)
                                                          Ostrich (Zoobic, Baluarte) 
Guinea fowl or bengala (Zoobic)
Cassowary (Zoobic)
Iguana (Zoobic)
Boa Constrictor (Zoobic)
Albino Carabao (Zoobic)
 Baluarte 
 Camel (Baluarte)
   
 White Deer (Baluarte) 

  
 Replica of dinosaurs
 
 
 Bengal Tiger
 
Spotted Deer
 Pony ride (Baluarte)