Si Tatang At Ang Kariton (Alvaro del Mundo)

Welcome to another year of fun and creative photography.

How about starting the year by designing your own perpetual calendar? The site Photojojo (http://photojojo.com/content/diy/perpetual-photo-calendar/) describes how.

Bring your camera wherever you go and shoot images of numbers between 1 and 31. Take pictures also of letters or words to represent the days of the week. Add six extra photographs of anything just to fill the gaps in the calendar. It would be better if you already had an idea of how you want the calendar to look like. Your photos could have a vertical or horizontal orientation. Print the photos and arrange as in a calendar.

This could actually be a part of fulfilling the new year resolution proposed last week in this column to take a photograph every day.

Now to our featured readers.

It has been a year since we last featured readers who submitted photos taken with cell phone cameras. Four of them lead our contributors today.

Fourth year communications student of PUP Ray Bart Manoguid sent in “Shoes In Mud” taken after Ondoy, “Oil Depot At Sunset” shot in Pandacan, and “Silhouette.”

Rommel Esmeralda, contributor since last year, says he is continuing his passion for photography through his cell phone. “This time, I practiced taking pictures with the theme of negative space and minimalism,” he writes.

Jayson Mendoza of Mabini, Batangas sent in a photo of the sunset in their area.

And from Cavite City, Anna Arcega shares a photo taken while on a bus. “It’s a view of one of the three waters surrounding my place,” she writes. “Personally, I was feeling melancholic that time and saw the sun setting and thought that it will look great if I'm going to include it on my blog.”

While still on cell phone photography, there is an article that discusses how one can take macro images with a cell phone camera by using the lens from a dvd player. See www.diyphotography.net/super-macro-your-cellphone-camera-with-a-dvd-lens for the complete write-up. Basically, the instructions are: remove the lens from a broken dvd player; mount this on your cell phone camera; and shoot away. It’s a powerful magnifier.

For readers who want to do more with their cell phone cameras, there are now various lenses that can be purchased in some local bookstores at about a couple of hundred pesos each.

This column, being the first for the year, also features images of young and old people reflecting the cycle of life. The photos were submitted over the past months by previous contributors Alvaro del Mundo, Krystine Lozano, Roy Benedict Seguerra, and Vans Navata.

The final image is a rainbow stitched into a panoramic picture from three photos taken by yours truly with a cell phone camera. I was walking our dog early morning a few weeks ago when the rainbow appeared. Luckily, I had my cell phone in my pocket. I share it as a symbol of hope for a better future for us all.