Sinulog 2009 Grand Street Parade Part 1
And the most awaited day for me arrives! Yes, the grand street parade. Armed with my ID which I personally bought myself, and my puny camera (compared to those rocket launchers), I marched into the sea of death filled with things which they called…the crowd! It was very fortunate of me that a certain “idol” of mine from Multiply decided to come over and what’s more, do the shoot with me! Me, an ordinary noob photographer! And what an honor it was. We woke up around 5:30 am in the morning and we didn’t eat breakfast since we had to hurry up so we wouldn’t get caught in the traffic. We arrived around 8am and with empty stomachs. So we decided to eat at least two buns of Burger Yum. After which we proceeded to take our positions near the Fuente Circle. There we met with another master Photographer: Tim.
In the first part of the morning, Master Travel Blogger: Enrico Dee of Byahilo.com, just zoomed pass by us and didn’t even say hi… (Eric! Lagot ka sa amin!! joke. lol.)
It was getting embarrassing for me standing in the presence of these masters while I had nothing to show for. Master Rupert with his GINORMOUS f2.8 telephoto lens, and Tim with his super cool cam. Sigh, someday…. (Dreaming the impossible again) So we started shooting anyway and the parade started moving around 10 am. Before that we were just taking shots. Now compared to last year, I took RAW shots. And I had only 2G of memory. And guess what, it took me three years of shooting to finally realize, thousands of shots with no sense will not get me anywhere. So with a card that can only give me 192 shots, I was disciplined to be highly selective with my shots. And highly selective I truly was.
SINULOG
Sinulog has become a tradition for most Cebuannos as we celebrate one of the grandest festivities of Cebu. I personally call this the festival of all festivals as different contingents from different provinces come all the way here to Cebu just to present their share of the festival. Thousands of dancers dance their way to the grand stand in their bright flashing Costumes and lively smiles. They go on dancing the whole day, yes the whole day. From children old enough to dance to people who are fit enough to dance, they dance their way in the motion of the river.
The Sinulog Dance is famous for its celebration of the Feast of Sr. Sto. Niño. This is the child-like image of Jesus Christ. Cebuannos are are very fond of seeing Jesus in human form. They worship Him for He is God yet they do not forget that he became Man.
The strong belief of the Cebuannos and Filipinos of the Sto. Niño reminds me very much of what Jesus said about children. “Let the little children come to me, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”
Aside from just the religious experience of Sinulog, we also appreciate it for its culture and Aesthetics. Sinulog is one truly beautiful event as the different contingents do not disappoint you in their amazing costumes and superb floats. Of course we should not forget the “higantes” (giants) puppets. Sinulog truly shows the different talents of the Cebuannos and proves them to be world class citizens.
Sinulog also happens to be one of the most awaited photography event of the Philippines. Thousands of Photographers from everywhere hurry to the small island of Cebu and take a couple of shots. Shooting in the parade gives you a view of almost all kinds of lenses in a lens catalog from Nikon or Canon.
And so, pushing through the crowds of thousands, a certain myopic amateur trying-hard photoblogger and a prodigy Photojournalist made their way…
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having jollibee waling around sinulog is just plain weird…i dunno why…im quite bothered by it…
great set, ev.^.^
nice pics…waaaaaaa
wow nice shots….. galing
ayos ah! galing ng pagkakuha ng mga pics… Nice blog!