a point-and-shoot event coverage

a couple of nights ago, we just had our company Christmas party. with roughly around 3,000 employees, semphil has been known to host concert-type Christmas parties. this year was no exception.

it was a different experience to simply just be part of the viewing audience for once. it has been a while for we used to be actively involved in Christmas parties with selle being a performer and i being an organizer. with those responsibilities out, this year, we went to the party to have fun, enjoy the music and practice some photography. 🙂

we entered the party grounds a bit late but found this samsung wall unappreciated by the audience. so we took advantage by having someone take a few photos of us. seemingly taking our lead, other employees then started having their pictures there afterwards. typical filipino, kelangan lang may mauna para magsunod-sunuran ang iba. 😆


us with the party organizers, the recreational committee.
(back row, left to right) reccom chairman, jhay and reccom veterans, stephen, yane & vena.
(mid row, left to right) mommy rose and selle

since we came in late, we had to settle for a back row seat. we were situated at the middle aisle, right in front of the control booth. being this far, i took the opportunity to practice shooting panorama. i took 6 shots from end-to-end and stitched them all together in photoshop resulting in this panoramic photo. since i didn’t use a tripod and there was considerable movement amongst the audience, ghosting was still apparent in the photo. but not bad for a beginner. 😉


my wife with the boys of equipment.

the party started with a dance number by male semphil employees. they were amazing and, personally, it was the highlight of the first part of the program. unfortunately, we were just way too far for my point-and-shoot to snap a few images.

star of the night is a traditional award given to the best dressed male and female employee. nakakatuwa kasi makikita mo that some do really put effort in dressing up for the party. it’s even more fun to see that a few of our friends were actually called out from the audience and made their way to the stage as finalists.


(top row) office buddies, tin and sarah strutting onstage. tin gave the most eloquent personal introduction while, sarah made up for a near accident on stage by having the most graceful ramp model walk.
(bottom photo) biboy representing. yeah! 😀
(images captured from video taken by jim buico)

with the departmental contest about to start, we transferred to the front row so i can snap some pics. there we joined selle’s best friend, mommy rose, who shared her seat with my wife.



this year’s departmental contest was coined as “i want my mtv” contest. simply put, each department will reenact a music video.


tantal male engineers performing buttons by the pussy cat dolls.
(image captured from video taken by jim buico)


the crawl. the move that had the loudest uproar.

intrigued? watch the complete performance here. 🙂



trivia: a couple of days prior to the party, we were seated besides these very engineers over lunch. dun nila na-kwento na wala pa daw i-pre-present ang tantal. suddenly, i had this whimsy idea (uh-oh 😉). why not have guys perform a pussy cat doll song? aba, syempre ayaw nila. 😆 pero kinulit-kulit namin nina selle at mommy rose sila. aba, that afternoon selle shared to me na pumayag na daw sila. 😀 tapos ngayon tuwing nakikita nila ako, parati nila sinasabi na ako daw may kasalanan. kasalanan? nanalo naman kayo, ah… so ok na yun. 😀

besides tantal, i also was awaiting the performance of support because they have been known to excel in this type of competition. also, this year, a couple of my departmentmates wholeheartedly 😉 volunteered to participate so i wanted to show support. another thing, sweethearts yane and ruby organized the presentation so it must be good.

unfortunately, their intricate presentation did not appeal to the judges (it didn’t help that the lights and camera man didn’t follow very simple instructions) hence only a third place finish.


(top) the “spice girls” on their spice car.
(middle) jim couldn’t get a clear shot of the stage as there was this guy, who i hope was not the official photographer (but it sure like he was), who just remained standing right in the middle of the stage. obviously, unobtrusive was not part of his dictionary. photographers should shoot then step out but this guy was nailed there as if he was part of the presentation and shooting video with a compact point-and-shoot. yah, a point-and-shoot so he must not be the official photographer but he sure was not an employee.
(bottom) charles and dex having the time of their lives. 😆
(images captured from video taken by jim buico)


post presentation photo.
(left to right) dex, jim and charles
now, don’t they look happy that they just got to perform onstage? 😀


the 2007 semphil idols perform songs by daughtry, imago and fergie with red, selle’s former bandmate, leading the semphil band.
(from top to bottom) francis (mlcc), babylyn (tantal) and semphil idol, tata (crystal)
ang galing nyo!
(images captured from video taken by jim buico)

parokya ni edgar, side a, bamboo and kamikaze. big name bands have guested on our annual Christmas party and this year it was sponge cola!



no longer being in the know about the local music scene, we didn’t know much about sponge cola. other than a few songs, there was not much we can say about them. but we knew that they had a reputation of being awesome rockers and we, being rock music lovers, were stoked when they finally got on stage.

these guys didn’t disappoint. though they had a relatively short set, their energy and musicality was way up high and we enjoyed every minute of it. 🙂

besides witnessing that sponge cola was for real, i also realized that i might have outgrown our point-and-shoot. slow focusing and poor low-light capabilities were the problems i encountered while trying to capture some photos. i still got a number of nice shots though but these were mostly aided by post-processing. if only i had a dslr for Christmas… 😉


yael in lomo.


yael in soft glow.


post party snapshot. yah, we had a great time. 🙂