Makati Park & Garden

On this third year, there wasn't any "big date" which is very unfortunate. With much workload at hand that I didn't even have time to spare for weekend DVD marathon or reading my favorite daily every morning, how much more for a date? Anyhow, we decided to just spend the day together at the Makati Park and Garden. Being new Makati residents (Jovy and her sister), we don't need to go that far. There are so much to explore around Makati. So, off we went to the park a Sunday, November 9.

Malou, the kid sister, joined with us. She wanted me to teach her about the basics in photography. The occassion was just so timely. We arrived at the park around 10:00am. There were not much people when we get there.

For our photography lesson, they alternately had to have posed in front of the camera and given explanations about composition technique. I only had taken a few photos though when I had to abruptly stopped what I was doing. You'll know about the reason later in this post.

Jovy and Malou at the entrance of the park. At the background is the Pamantasan ng Makati.

 Another pose at the park's landmark. A marker reads as follow:

ANG LIWASANG ITO AY INIHAHANDOG SA MAMAMAYAN NG MAKATI

Taong 1995, ika-14 ng Pebrero pinaumpisahan ni Punong Lungsod Jejomar C. Binay ang pagpapagawa ng liwasang ito.

Ang amphitheater ay pinasinayaan at binuksan sa publiko nuong taong 1997 upang ihandog ng pamahalaang lungsod sa mamamayan ng Makati at maging sentro ng mga gawaing may kinalaman sa pagpapaunlad ng kultura at sining. Ang mga punong kahoy, halaman, at bulaklaking halaman na matatagpuan dito ay sumailalim sa personal na pagpili at pamamahala ng kasalukuyang punong lungsod, Doktora Elenita S. Binay, bilang tagapangulo ng programang "Clean and Green Program" sa Makati.

Ngayong ika-7 ng Abril 2000, ang liwasang ito na pinangalanang "Makati Park and Garden" ay opisyal na pasisinayaan ng ating Mahal na Pangulo ng Republika ng Pilipinas, Kagalang-galang Joseph Ejercito Estrada.

I toyed with slow shutter speed to capture a silky spout of the fountain (just like this) but it simply didn't work without a tripod's help. I didn't bring my tripod with me.

We were prohibited with our photoshoot inside Makati Park and Garden!

The girls were in the midst of their best poses when a security guard named Barber RP interrupted us to tell taking photos inside the park is absolutely prohibited. I told the security guard that the photos we were taking are purely personal and of no commercial value whatsoever. I also told him that we are Makati residents who would just like to while the time away in our park. He replied saying he's just following order and if we insist, we need to secure a permit from a certain Rolly Medina from the office of the mayor.

I was disappointed but had to keep my cool. After all, the guard is just following his order and if I would want to confront somebody about it, it should be the person who invented such policy. Countless of times, In privately developed areas, I was accosted by roving guards not to take photos, but it is simply understood when the place is privately operated. But for a public park, it should not be that way!

This was just my third time having had experienced being not allowed to take photos in public areas. The second was at the Calaruega Church in Batangas during our MIP Taal Photoshoot. My first experience and the craziest ever being in Marikina Riverbank. I was using my 35mm film SLR and I was told to stop taking photos. I asked the Marikina park police why they had to stop me and not the other park-goers who were likewise are taking photos. I was told my camera is big and didn't explain much further. What was ironical is that some of the park-goers I saw there were using 7.2MP and 10.3MP Canon point-and-shoot, way much powerful than the "big" camera I was using. After the Marikina incident, I upgraded my mobile phone camera to one with higher resolution so I could use it in places where "big" cameras are not allowed (unfortunately it was stolen by bus thieves). I didn't blog about the Marikina incident here in this site but posted my rants at My Islands Philippines when I was still actively posting photos right there.

Phonecam Photos

We didn't allow the setback to ruin our day, we just decided to roam around the park minus the taking of photos. In some parts of the park, we could see park visitors taking photos freely using powerful point-and-shoots. That gave us the idea that we can still take photos if it's not the SLR camera. So, there, we started to take photos again using phonecam. A few result can be found down there...

I find it absurd when local visitors are prohibited to take photos around public places while foreign tourists are held free. (Discrimination against fellow Filipinos?) I'm afraid time will come when major tourist destinations here in our country would be off-limits for photography amongst Filipinos but free to foreign guests.

As I'm closing this post, I would like to share with my readers phonecam photos that my two companions had taken for their photography lesson. Please click the photos below...