SV Flying Angels - Beautiful ladies with golden hearts

Yesterday, I spent the whole night with the "Angels" :)

Yes, you read it right. Angels, real angels. In their human form. Not one, not two but SIX angels.

And how do you expect angels look like in their katawang lupa? Of course - BEAUTIFUL!

I had a chance to meet a group of down-to-earth, generous, and needless to mention pretty young ladies of SV Flying Angels - a group of flight attendants, in the leadership of the vivacious and alluring Dang Morales, who are willing to extend their hands to the less fortunate.

I was given a great opportunity to photograph (Thanks Ivan for believing in my skills) their charitable event at the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah where they  donated a free one-way ticket to Manila, and a bagful of pasalubong, to a lucky distressed OFW chosen by the Office of the Labor Attache. Ate Michelle, a mother of four kids, is very lucky to be picked from the group of stranded OFWs. She's flying home today, back into the arms of her loving family. Thank God He sent forth His angels to the rescue.

I was always intimidated by the usually towering, model-like beauties of flight attendants. They seem to be very prim and proper. Always poised and well-dressed. I love watching them march, trolleys in tow, to the plane before passengers are allowed to board.

But the "Angels", especially madamme Dang as we fondly called her, proved a lot of my misconceptions and prejudices about FAs wrong. They are all very nice and I felt that I have gained not only new friends, but also pretty sisters :)

We had a great, filling dinner at On The Border in Andalus and had coffee/tea/shisha session until past midnight. Thanks for the treat angels. I went home tired but happy, exhausted but inspired.

See you again angels, it's really a pleasure meeting you and I'm looking forward to meet the rest of the flock. 

Keep in touch.

Buhairat Beach - a Wonderful Weekend Escapade

It's one of those very rare Friday mornings that I wake up as early as 6am. I usually leave my bed around noon. But yesterday, me and my friend/photography buddy, June, decided to spend our Friday morning in a public beach somewhere near Buhairat City .

We were actually there to snorkel as the reef abounds with beautiful and colorful corals and reef fishes. But as we arrived, we were surprised to see a group of egret (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egret) skimming the shallow water of the Red Sea in low-tide. As is normal for a budding photographer, I immediately grabbed my camera. Thanks to Kuya June's 70-300mm Sigma lens, I was able to capture some shots from a distance without disturbing the birds.

Here are some of my captures:

After my fingers got tired maneuvering my camera and clicking my shutter, we got ready for snorkeling.

The weather was perfect. Sun was just warm enough; gentle breeze brushed against our sun-kissed skin; the waves were gentle. We didn't waste more time, off we put on our swim wear and goggles and waded on the shallow waters of Red Sea.

This is the third or fourth time I tried snorkeling, each time with June. He's my snorkeling/ swimming (not to mention photography) mentor. He taught me how to move my hands and kick my feet in a synchronized manner which I try to execute patiently. When I feel soreness on my scapula, I cheat and go back to my langoy-aso style in swimming harharhar.

Red Sea is so blessed with extraordinarily beautiful coral reef that is home to a lot of reef fishes I cannot even name. Too bad some of the corals near the surface appears bleached, probably because of the year-round scorching summer sun. But despite that, June spotted a sprouting moss green brain coral and another purple i-don't-know-what-type-of-coral. As we went deeper near the cliff, we saw clown fishes appearing and disappearing from their home - the anemone, as if playing hide and seek. A two-feet long puffer fish also came gliding beneath us. Angel fishes chase each other around. We also saw some parrotfish,  surgeonfish, sweetlips, fusiliers, striped emperors to name a few. Before we went ashore, we also spotted some small sword fishes about 3-feet long each. Some reef fishes are quite territorial, they nibble my lower leg and shoe strings.

It's a totally different world down there. The colors are so vibrant on the corals and fishes as if God painstakingly worked his magical brush on each creature you see around.

I'm definitely going back there next weekend, and this time I'll bring more friends to share the joy of seeing God's wonderful creation we don't get to see everyday. And hopefully this time I can bring an underwater camera so I can share some photos with you.

Ciao! Thanks for reading. Keep coming back ;)

CLIENT - Beauty Salon

Reception area

Handwashing area

Manicure and Pedicure area

Manicure and Pedicure area

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Also visit me on Facebook - Richard-Nicolasora-Photography;

and my group's FB Page - SPECTRUM

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Jennifer the Muse

SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera)

Edited in Lightroom

This is Jennifer, a Spectrum model who won BEST MUSE in the recently-concluded 4th KAMC Friendship Bowling Tournament held last Friday, 15th July 2011

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Also visit me on Facebook - Richard-Nicolasora-Photography;

and my group's FB Page - SPECTRUM

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Wooowoooweekend!!!

It's been quite a while since I wrote my last web log or blog for short (I'm sure you're all aware of that or did I just made you say "Aha, so that's what it means!"). If my memory serves me right, that was in October 2008. Okay it's been almost 3 years.

Recently, I've decided to return to blogging and bore you again with my adventures (pun intended). Too bad, Friendster made changes recently and one of the many things I lost were my blogs - http://c00lasrain.blog.friendster.com/. So I ended up creating one which is aptly entitled - FARM BOY IN THE CITY. Because I grew in a farm in the southern tip of Philippines islands and now I'm working and living in this desert metropolis called Jeddah. (Do I really have to explain that?)

Anyhow,  my decision to create this new blog site must have been destined coz this weekend is really just so bloggable (that is if they've already recognized that as a word har! har!). I meant my weekend was fun-filled and worth sharing.

Weekends here in the Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) starts on Thursday and ends on Fridays when everyone else in the world is just starting to plan their weekend which, as is normal, starts on a Saturday.

Let me start my story on what happened last Thursday. After work, around 2pm, I picked up my friend Arnel and we went to Saudia City after a hearty lunch in their apartment. They prepared monggo with amapalaya and chicken. And what could be better as a perfect pair to it than a piniritong isda (fried fish) cooked by his very friendly housemate Richie. So off we went to Saudia to attend an Adobe Lightroom workshop - a joint seminar workshop entitled Crossover.

The seminar workshop was attended by members of Spectrum and Pinoy Tambayan - two of the many photographers club in Jeddah which is composed of young, talented, skilled and well-equipped photographers. Naks!

Mang Kulas (aka Danyl) lead the Basic Lightroom seminar workshop. He was very professor-like in guiding us, the Lightroom newbies, traverse the amazing and enchanting world of photo light enhancement. Three hours weren't enough to discuss all the outlined topics and answer all the questions of the eager participants. I've learned many a new techniques in post-processing using Lightroom and I hope I will give justice to Mang Kulas' selfless efforts in sharing and teaching us what he knows. I left Saudia City early due to some non-regular office obligations. Too bad, I wasnt able to join the group for the strobing session in Saudia City's public park.

SPECTRUM meets PINOY TAMBAYAN Photographers

At 9pm, I went back to pick up Arnel and Romy then we went to the printing press to pick up the uniforms that we're going to use for the first-ever bowling tournament we're joining as Spectrum Bowlers. Due to some unavoidable circumstances, the uniforms were not ready yet and we were asked to come back later to pick them up. Hungry, we went to dine at Palm Beach Restaurant in Madinah Road. We all ordered Karoof Mashi (Lamb with rice), my personal favorite. I finished my plate clean, you can imagine how hungry I was ;)

After dinner we went back to the printing press at 11pm and still have to wait. We eventually left with just 18 shirts at 2am :(

Fast forward...

It's Friday noon. I just arrived in Iceland to give support and cheer for our bowling team. It wasnt long enough until the minor awards were handed. To our great surprise, we won as the MOST ORGANIZED TEAM in guests category. Everyone celebrated! Woooohhhoooo!!!

We weren't seated yet and still enjoying our Most Organized Team trophy when the emcees loudly called SPECTRUM again, this time for the BEST IN UNIFORM (Thanks to Romy and Reymond for the very appealing design). Spectrum celebrated once more. Then we went back to our seats and had our photos taken with our 2 trophies and weren't paying attention to the ongoing awards ceremony when, again, we heard "Spectrum!" announced loudly. We cheered!!! "Yahoo!!!" and altogether we asked each other "What was that for?" :D Nevertheless, we all went back to the stage again to receive the trophy, only to realize that it was only for Jennifer, our blond muse, for the BEST MUSE award. Anyhow, we were already on stage with her, so we just pretended to give her our best moral support (nyahaha!!!)

Our most-coveted trophies

Our most-coveted trophies

Spectrum receives an award from the organizers

Noah, one of our top bets in bowling

Patrick, another great bowler of Spectrum

The day was fun-filled, overflowing with surprises and trophies, needless to mention Toya Instant Noodles ;)

After the tournament, before the major awards were given, we all went home. While we were chatting with Chris Herrera in Sultan Mall parking lot just across Iceland Mall, we received another great news - we finished 5th out of 12 teams in the guest categories - Not bad, eh! 


We finished our day with KK's Ice Coffee and Apple & Choco mini-cakes.

It was really, really, really great and I feel so amazed. Thank God everyone enjoyed and had fun.

So that's it for my first blog as FARM BOY IN THE CITY. Till next time, Ciao!

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Also visit me on Facebook - Richard-Nicolasora-Photography;

and my group's FB Page - SPECTRUM

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