"KABAYAN: Fil-Am Fotogs": Mga Kabayan, Meet Roland Roman Roldan, our "Photographer of the Week" and Winner of Contest #26!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Pentax 01"

About The Winning Photo:

it was taken years ago pa. Pentax ME-super with 28-200 Vivitar Series 1
lens (f.5.6). Sakura negative film ASA200.

======================================

Roland Roman Roldan aka RRR

Born in Manila, Philippines, with Pampanga as my "adopted" province.

I used to work for a financial company in Makati until my early retirement in 1999. Set up a media business outfit and named it ABBEYMANILA (a "corruption" of the word "Abbey" -- old churches in England -- and Manila, the place of our operations. It came into mind because my first business involved weddings (hence, churches). Got into book publishing, event organizing, advertising, writing atbp (at iba pa) later on.

My father was a photography hobbyist and usually took pictures of us during travels and gatherings. He marvelled me with his beautiful black and whites (color was in its infancy during those years) and sepias. So I decided to go also into photography hobby by buying myself a Crown Instamatic Camera. I also used to own different kinds of cameras and lenses (Mirandas, Voightlanders, Fuji, Minoltas, etc.) but all were lost (including our vintage pictures) in a fire that gutted our antique house in Dapitan, Sampaloc, Manila during the Holy Week of 1998. The assassination of Ninoy Aquino opened my mind to serious photography because I thought: if anyone with a camera had taken a picture of the exact moment former Senator Aquino was shot, there would be no need for all those investigations that followed suit.

My first film SLR was the Ricoh KR-10 with 50mm f2 lens. It got me started with "K-mounts," and I later acquired Pentax and Cosina bodies, and ended up buying all sort of "K-mount" lenses (from 7.5mm full fisheye to those Super Berthas 2,000mm things). I like to see the world in a different perspective and those lenses satisfied my "lust."

Came the digital era and I bought a Canon 300D (my first real prosumer DSLR) but later exchanged it for a Pentax *ist and more Pentaxes. Why Pentax? Because my old screw-on Takumars lenses and most modern and advanced K-mounts will all fit on the present Pentax line of cameras.

What influenced my photography? Ahhhh!!! My father. And then later, Popular Photography. I used to buy them and read them religiously but not copy their style. I like to develop my own style without the influence of a particular photographer. But Jim Paredes, Eddie Boy Escudero, Boyet Guevarra and the whole of Nayon Photographers Club has contributed to my thinking and own style in taking pictures. Those camera club photo critiques really opened my eyes on what's there to improve in my compositions.

Which area in photography would I like to learn more? Bodyscapes, nature, landscapes, sceneries, sports,. I would like to learn more on portraitures. I mean more, more, more. Such as how to pose a person and see his/her right angles.

Five years from now, I would like to be a world-renowned book publisher, mostly on Philippine tourism.

Photography took me to different parts of the globe (with the exception of North America and Australia). Met people of different cultures and places (from the hidden Muscat to the beautiful and vast land of the then Soviet Union). Tragically, I also had bad experiences through photography: plane crash, boat sinking, lenses being thrown overboard, dami pa! :(

=============================

Three Photos That Best Describe Me:

A bridge in Ilocos Sur over the great and sometimes volatile Abra River.
I like the placement of the bridge's shadow and the tranquility of the river, together with its color interplay.

--------------------------------------