Masks

Our city, Bacolod City, is known as the City of Smiles. But behind these smiles are a couple of tragedies. To hide the pain brought by the tragic events, the city decided to change the dark atmosphere into a cheerful one, thus the birth of MassKara Festival. 

The festival first began in 1980 during a period of crisis. The province relied on sugar cane as its primary agricultural crop, and the price of sugar was at an all-time low due to the introduction of sugar substitutes like high fructose corn syrup in the United States . It was also a time of tragedy; on April 22 of that year, the inter-island vessel Don Juan carrying many Negrenses, including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City , collided with the tanker Tacloban City and sank. An estimated 700 lives were lost in the tragedy. more here

2012

2013. 

How time flies. Since I am still on vacation, I was able to look back on the photos I took last 2012. Every place I go, I'll turn it into a photographer's paradise. Photography will always be a part of me and of this blog. And from thousands of photos I took last year, here are my 12 personal favorites (with blogs to some of it).

missed by naked eyes 

chorus of flashing shutters 

frozen forever 

YOKOHAMA. My favorite city and the first place I've lived in Japan. Got the chance to visit it again last June and it brought back lots of memories. Took this photo handheld. NikonD7000 high ISO didn't disappoint.

  

Update

Two days after I posted Unmasked, a blog entry / rant about not receiving my prize 5 months since the winners of a local photography contest were announced, I received an email from EPSON REP (ER) that my prize from NIKON is already ready for pick-up. I am not sure if any of those two firms read my blog that prompted them to do action or just purely coincidental.

April 14. Part of the email says,

I received a text message from Nikon yesterday stating that the check is ready for pick-up. Thus, he said that the winner should be the one to claim it. I informed him that you are not in the Phils.

Now, NIKON wanted me to claim the money personally. I replied citing that I already forwarded my bank information late last year to them (EPSON) since NIKON plans to deposit the money.

April 15. Got two emails from ER.

I just found out they will surrender the check to us here in Epson. Let me get back to you regarding this.
-------
I'm waiting for feedback from Nikon. They initially want someone to pick-up the check. We'll see if we can just be the one to do the bank transfer. FYI.

Everything was still unclear. I didn’t reply this time.

April 20. I received an email from another EPSON Rep (AER) stating that they already brought up the issue again with NIKON. I thought, it is not yet settled.

I was informed regarding the prize from Masskara Photo Contest.My apology on this matter.

The prize comes from Nikon(Columbia Digital) and not from Epson. I have already brought up the concern to them and in order for this to be settled immediately. We have asked NIKON to deposit your price today. Again my apology.

I replied, asking them to inform me if they have deposited the money already.

April 22. I received another email from AER

My apology for this incident sir.I will arrange it personally sir for this to be resolved immediately. I will accompany them to deposit your prize. I personally thank you for the patience you have given to the situation. I assure you that these things will not happen again.

I told AER that my brother informed me that an additional 16K were entered to my account. I asked AER to confirm if this money came from NIKON and to inform me if the prize money was deducted by some tax or something, and by how much.

April 23. AER told me again that the prize came from NIKON and not from EPSON. In the email, AER included NIKON REP (NR) for them to answer my query.

Dear NR,

Kindly ask your staff to email (me) re the details on how did you compute the deduction of taxes.

AER

No reply. Nothing. Last April 27, 2010, I followed-up again and told AER that maybe the tax deduction was 20% (4000 pesos) that is why I only got 16000 pesos. But no reply from both parties. Until now. Or perhaps they are still calculating it.

Anyway, I am still thankful to have received the prize money I fairly won five months ago. The hassles brought by this contest in claiming the prize money won’t be forgotten easily.

Of course, I would like to thank everyone for the support and for sharing my blog post to their personal sites / blog sites. I still believe that this not-so-immediate action done by the sponsor was due to the fact that they were able to read my previous blog as well as your comments.

totomai
05/01/10

Unmasked

I won a local photography contest, ranked 2nd out of 179 entries. Winners were announced last November 5, 2009. But until this very moment, I haven’t received the prize money of 20,000 pesos (equivalent to US$450 or 40,000 Yen).

behind smiling masks
inner colors dimmed and dark
emotions unmasked

Last October 2009, I went home to attend my brother’s wedding and at the same time, to experience the revelries of MassKara Festival. I saw a poster about a MassKara-related photo contest. To make the story short, I joined and submitted my entries and other requirements before my flight back to Japan. Bodyshot Photography is the contest organizer (though on articles it says PhotoPROS, Inc) and informed me that all entries will be exhibited at SM City Bacolod from Nov 2 to Nov 8. Judging and announcement of winners will be on Nov 5.

November 7, 2009. My brother went to SM to check whether the exhibit is still on-going. And then he thought that one of the winning photos was mine. He went home immediately, took his camera and sent me this photo. It was my shot. I told him that maybe the organizers will send a notification mail or will make a call informing that I won. Nothing. No call. No mail. For the past 14 days.

I started to think that maybe it wasn’t my photo after all. Perhaps somebody submitted a very similar photo to mine. Since I didn’t receive any notification, I googled the theme and lead me to this site, Winners of MassKara Photo Contest. This is the only confirmation I have. My only evidence even with my name incompletely written. It was my photo and made me wonder why I haven’t received any sort of notice.

Moving on, I instructed my younger brother to call Bodyshot Photography for confirmation. After asking my brother loads of questions, they confirmed that I won but advised my brother to wait for the official notice / call from the sponsor since they didn’t have the prize money yet. After three days, my brother called again to follow-up the status. This time they told him to check the Negros Daily Bulletin, a local newspaper, since they will be publishing the names of winners soon. Since then, my brother bought newspaper every day for two weeks. Nothing. Negative. I told him, just call them one more time and asked them about the status. He obliged. The organizer told him to contact EPSON, the main sponsor, for the said prize.

Next chapter. December 10, 2009, I sent an email to an EPSON representative (ER) and after some introduction, I ended my mail with

“In this regard, I would like to know how can I claim my prize? Or will EPSON send some notification to the winners?”.

And within minutes, I received a reply from her, thanked me for participating and congratulated me for winning. That was my second evidence. A good start, I thought. A little later, she informed me that she contacted NIKON for my prize money. Come again? From EPSON to NIKON through Columbia Digital. According to her, NIKON is in-charge of my prize will be contacting me as soon as.

December 14, 2009. ER asked me for my account number and bank information as required by NIKON guy (NG). She ended the email with

“Maybe I'll just email you once Nikon has deposited the prize already”.

I was still hopeful and sent the required details immediately.

December 27, 2009. I inquired about the update. The next day, ER told me that she’ll follow up with Nikon and will give me feedback ASAP.

Then it was 2010.

January 11, 2010. I followed-up the status again to ER. She was surprised that NIKON hadn’t contacted me yet. She thought everything was settled.

January 18, 2010. Another follow-up was sent.

January 29, 2010. This time, she gave me the email of NG. I told her I’ll wait for another week before I’ll email NIKON. Still no word from the sponsor.

February 10, 2010. I decided to email NG, summarizing what has transpired between me and ER since December 2009. But I haven’t received any reply from him. Zilch. I emailed him again last February 15, 2010 asking for some acknowledgment. Nothing. I am not sure if its too difficult for him to hit the reply button or he is just too lazy to do it.

Feb 19, 2010. I informed ER about this (although she might very well knew since she was included on those emails). I told her that I am already getting frustrated. The EPSON rep told me that even she transferred division already she still followed-up NIKON every time I sent an email.

March 8, 2010. I sent another follow-up mail to ER. No reply from her. Sent one again last March 22, 2010. A part of her email, baffled me actually

“I really don't know what's happening. Epson gave the prizes to the others (the ones we were supposed to give prizes to last year already)”. So, all winners received their prizes other than me. WOW! "

March 22, 2010. A friend of mine contacted EPSON via its website and was able to talk to ER. She reiterated that NIKON was in-charge of my prize.

March 23, 2010. ER informed me that her colleague will have a meeting with NIKON and will raise this issue.

March 25, 2010. A rather disturbing email came from ER.

“We followed-up with Nikon and they said it's being processed. No date was given still. :(“

April 3, 2010. I expressed my frustration and puzzlement about this. And last April 4, 2010 I received an email from ER.

“I'm honestly personally frustrated as well. It is truly surprising that they cannot award this right after the announcement of winners. Epson has done it. We have awarded our winners. I'm truly sorry for this.

I really have no means of doing anything more. All we can really do is follow-up with Nikon. I don't know what to say. They have been telling us since the first time you emailed me that they are processing the payment already. “

That's it. That triggered me to write this blog entry.

From here on I don’t know how to follow-up anymore as more or less I will be receiving the same replies. In 6 months time, Bacolod City will be having its MassKara Celebration again yet my prize money is still in limbo.

And as mentioned earlier it seems that I am the only unlucky winner of this event as everyone else received his / her prize.

This is my first win in any photography contest and thought it would be special. But it turning out to be the other way around.

Who is to be blamed here? I am really disappointed and frustrated about how this contest was handled. As a participant I have done my share and organizers as well as sponsors should do theirs too. First, the organizers should have anticipated issue like this and have done any counter measures to avoid it.

To the sponsors, this is one of your marketing strategies. Your names are displayed on the posters and I guess that’s one way of returning the favor from your sponsorship. Once you commit, have your word to it.

I am not yet sure what would be my next step in order to claim the prize. Yes, that 20,000 pesos which I won fair and square.

Any advice?

/totomai
04/12/10

MassKara

Last October, I went back to Bacolod City , also known as the City of Smiles , not only to attend the wedding of my brother but also to finally experience the MassKara Festival. The only time I watched this street parade was when I’m 4 or 5 years old. The next years were just in front of the television set. Bacolod City is synonymous to MassKara and vice versa. The theme of this year’s festival was “Celebrating 30 Years of Smiles”, after seeing this on numerous banners, I immediately thought, I am older than the festival!

After my brother’s wedding, my mind was set to capture the festivities. To be on the streets and be amazed by the flashes of colorful costumes and masks. To appreciate more the music I grew up but now with a different mix and flavor. To abuse Nikki until she complains. IT WILL BE FUN! And indeed it was fun! Non-stop shoot from Thursday to Sunday, and my mother started to worry if I am already obsessed with photography. I told her, not yet, but almost there. LOL! Personally, this is the happiest festival in the Philippines .

How this event started?

The festival first began in 1980 during a period of crisis. The province relied on sugar cane as its primary agricultural crop, and the price of sugar was at an all-time low due to the introduction of sugar substitutes like high fructose corn syrup in the United States . It was also a time of tragedy; on April 22 of that year, the inter-island vessel Don Juan carrying many Negrenses, including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City , collided with the tanker Tacloban City and sank. An estimated 700 lives were lost in the tragedy.

In the midst of these tragic events, the city's artists, local government and civic groups decided to hold a festival of smiles, because the city at that time was also known as the City of Smiles. They reasoned that a festival was also a good opportunity to pull the residents out of the pervasive gloomy atmosphere. The initial festival was therefore, a declaration by the people of the city that no matter how tough and bad the times were, Bacolod City is going to pull through, survive, and in the end, triumph. More here

Yeah, it was to hide all the gloominess of the Negrenes during those times. And I thought it was a clever idea to counter the mood. We all need to cheer up and face the future with a broad smile.

Thursday street dance parade was for the school category. I raced through the streets alone and pressured myself that I must get at least one good shot to show to my friends when I return to Japan . Since the pace is a little bit fast, there was no time to check the photos except at home. I didn’t wait for the announcement of results as I don’t want to be squeezed by thousands of people rushing to hail a jeep or a taxi. I enjoyed the first day of the street parade and the songs kept on playing on my mind even while sleeping.

Friday was a let-down. I expected a lot for the MassKara Electric Dance Parade but was just left craving for more. My reaction was, that was it? Earlier that event though, I went to Photographers’ Night. It was an indoor activity showcasing some fantasy costumes and sexy models. And how frustrating it was? I didn’t known how to use my external flash. Can somebody help how to explore the flash? The good thing was I met lots of photo enthusiasts and was able to have my camera clean for free.

Saturday was for the Baranggay category. The number of participants was larger than the school category, which means there will be lots of people (local and tourists) along the streets of Bacolod City as well as the City Plaza , the final performance judging area. With an official photographer’s ID, it was easier for me to access / enter the dancing area. I am not really comfortable in capturing action shots but I was hoping that my camera settings will be just fine. For this day alone, I took more or less 500 photos. The day was particularly hot but I didn’t mind it as I enjoyed every second of it. Lots of photo enthusiasts were there too and we agree that perhaps this is the most colorful event in the Philippines.

Sunday was for the Open Category. It is known to be the highlight of the festivities but this year was particularly different. Most of the participants were from Saturday. Actually I was expecting a lot because during the past years, only the winners of the first two categories are eligible to join and the other participants will be coming from establishments and/or company-sponsored. Sunday was almost a replay of Saturday. But still it didn’t stop the Bacolenos to go the city proper to be a part of the celebration. As for me, it was a great experience. Finally, I can say, I was there everytime I share or invite a friend or two to visit Bacolod .

The moment you hear “Kari sa Bacolod , Dala Masskara (Go to Bacolod , Bring A Mask)”, consider it as invitation to visit the City of Smiles.

See you all next year!

/totomai
11/11/09