UNESCO World Heritage Site, Vigan, Ilocos Sur.
This was photographed exactly a year ago while I was onboard a moving calesa.
Please see my travelogue here last year: http://travelogue.digitalrebel.ws/2006/04/vigan-historic-city.html.

Technorati Tag: Vigan, UNESCO, World Heritage

Taken last March 30, 2006 at Aguirre Street in Makati City after I finished with one of my job interviews. Photographed using my 24/7 photography companion, Sony Ericsson K750i mobile phone camera.

Technorati Tag: Makati, highrise, Aguirre

Geocities stopped offering FTP feature of their free services when it was purchased by Yahoo so I resorted to Tripod's free webhosting service. However, in February 2003, search engine giant Google purchased Pyra Lab. Pyra Lab originally charged its bloggers at blogger.com a fee, for those who had the premium features. But Google, after acquiring the blog company, offered this service totally free of charge. In addittion, it provided bloggers witn an avenue through which they could earn a revenue, by placing affiliates contextually-relevant paid ads (adsense) on their site if they choose to do so. It was until I get my subdomain at Blogspot, http://dodongflores.blogspot.com/ that I lost interest with blogging. It was not really that I lost interest in blogging but then I moved to another job and it was eating much of my time. Although there were interesting topics to be had and nice photographs to be shared, my physical body most of the time was already dead tired to materialize the blogging habit. It wasn't long being in a year of hiatus that my interest in blogging was rekindled after having seen Dennis Villegas' blog.

At some point, I tried to use Multiply but found out that there's no way for people outside Multiply to comment or view certain feature of your site unless they register to Multiply as well. Sidney can attest to this as he tried to see my posts at Multiply but cannot write some comment simply because he's not a Multiply user. I also wanted to get my own domain name but Multiply didn't have any feature to host domains. Incidentally, my brother, Marex Flores, open up a new webhosting service and made me a partner for the web design aspect. Part of the arrangement is his hosting my website for free so right away I decided to call it a shot. I right away register my own domain name and the hosting is provided for free by MarexFlores .Net®. For the blogging software, I reverted to the new Blogger which is where I'm very comfortable working with. When I was kind of getting active again it was then I realized that blogs expanded drastically, since blogs were now into the mainstream with millions of new blogs joining the blogosphere each year. Google upgraded the blog software system with lots of additional features such as better commenting feature, new blog templates, image hosting in post, posts by E-Mail and lately, topic category, just to name a few. Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to my old and trusted Haloscan commenting buddy.

On Digital Photography

My Islands Philippines had been instrumental into refueling my passion for photography. In fact, during those stages in my life that I stopped blogging, I was more focused in photography and was getting active participating in online photographers' forum, uploading photos and participating discussions. As for my photography profile, I am a 35mm camera buff since 1994 until I turned digital in 2005. When I made the big switch, I was coined digital convert. Truth is, I only open up my mind. I still remain a purist in my preference for traditional 35mm film camera. Yet, digital imaging technology being economical and versatile is simply one of the best thing to happen. I was an IT Specialist by profession but photography is my passion. For quite a decade I had been photographing landscape and people and had traveled across the country far and wide. I was once employed in a travel agency working as Internet Marketing Optimization Specialist by day and a travelphotography enthusiast days-off. Those days are gone... Presently, I am an unemployed individual addicted to photography. Photography is, unfortunately, a fairly expensive endeavour. Apart from my Canon 300D, I am blessed with a fiancée who is supportive with my chosen hobby.

For additional information about me, you may see my Blogger profile. Those who were asking about the kind of photography equipment that I had may need to visit this link: http://travelogue.digitalrebel.ws/2006/12/fundamentals_22.html. Puzzle aficionado may decipher this blogger code to know more about me: B9 d+ t k s u-- f i- o+ x- e+ l-- c-.

Blogging, Digital Photography, and Social Networking

I enjoy blogging as much as you do. And since my old website was taken down by the web host provider causing me to lose all my precious travelphotos, I swear to myself this will be my website and blog as much as blogging and photography is concern. Other than this blog, my online presence can also be felt from the following links: @ MULTIPLY · @ GEOCITIES · @ Hi5 · FRIENDSTER · Google · Yahoo! · · BLOG SEARCH · TREKLENS
I was baptized Isidro T. Flores, Jr. but is better known as dodong flores among my friends and in the blogosphere. The equivalent of my name in Japanese is 石丸 Ishimaru (round stone) 聖人 Masato (sacred person). I'm temporarily staying in a friend in Cavite City, Cavite, PH.

How I Design My Website

Since I am receiving numerous email about how I design my website (or how I design my blog template), so here we go. Website layout and design is a fork version of an AllWebTemplate.com product, originally the webpage layout of my website Infinity 8. Those who sent me email asking about how I design my template may freely download the source code fom here. Viewing the source code from your browser may not include SSI. I apologize for not having answered your emails individually. If you happen to see squares or questionmarks on this page you may consider reading this link: http://unicode.org/help/display_problems.html.

By and by, I'll try my best to overhaul this site. My goal is to make this site W3C compliant in the near future.

Publisher

Long before "blogger" word was coined to people who are posting online journals or weblogs, they are called "publishers." Finally, I decided I still would want to be called publisher other than blogger.

Technorati Tag: dodong flores, photoblogging, blogging, publishing, photography

Stuck in a friend's house in Cavite City since Maundy Thursday and suffering from an unstable PLDT DSL internet connection since I arrived here until last night, I was toying my laptop and found this photo at random inside my 2.25 in. external hard drive. I just don't have anything to publish (blog) about and I still felt like publishing (blogging). The photo was taken last October 7, 2006 during the MIP Taal Photoshoot.
Happy Easter Sunday, everyone!

Technorati Tag: photoshoot, Taal, Taal, Historical landmark

this photo was taken a Good Friday last year, April 14, 2006 in Montevista, Calamba, Laguna. This is just one of the few photos where I was included in - because it was my birthday as well at that time :-)

Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec
F-Stop: f/8.0
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 28.0mm
Flash: off
Support: Tripod (using self-timer mode)

Technorati Tag: outing, Laguna, Good Friday, hot spring

this is the huge cross at the Balaang Bukid in Guimaras Island, a pilgrimage site of the Catholics. Getting a better point of view for this photograph alone was very challenging. It was already the peak of the mountain and you can't move a little more. I was using a normal zoom lens then. Or there could also be a better point of view but then, with thousand of people here and there, that location could have already been occupied by pilgrims.
Balaang Bukid is a Hiligaynon term for Divine Mountain or Holy Mountain.
This was taken a Good Friday, April 18, 2003 (the same day as of this posting), closer to four years ago.
Film Used: Kodak Gold 100 with Canon EOS 750QD

A short description about the place can also be read from this link: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cove/2342/iloilo_city.htm:
Ang Pagtaltal sa Guimaras. Held every Good Friday. Ang Pagtaltal sa Guimaras, a Lenten presentation in Jordan, Guimaras Island, is fast finding a place for itself among the top tourist drawers for Iloilo province during the Holy Week. This annual affair has attracted thousands of local devotees, foreign and domestic tourists. They flock to the island to witness the celebration. The trip is climaxed by a visit to Balaan Bukid (Holy Mountain) which with a chapel and huge cross. It is a pilgrimage site of the Catholics. Ang Pagtaltal, similar to the worlds famous Passion Play presented every 10 years in Oberammergau in South Bavaria, Germany, is an experience that draws one to what is folkloric in the native sense without neglecting the thought that the faith for which it is celebrated is universal in dimension. The reenactment Ang Pagtaltal with the Filipino context of culture and tradition is a blending of faith and folklore.

Highly recommended reference site: http://www.iloilo.net/dot/r6/guimaras.html

By the way, I'm starting to repost some of my old photos that I had recovered from my old site (http://ww1.i8.com) which was taken by the webhost without my knowing...

Technorati Tag:Guimaras, Good Friday, Balaang Bukid, cross