Chongbit: The Photographer

CEBU, Philippines — Grown-ups nowadays enjoy taking lots of selfies. Even my parents enjoy taking “twofies” and “groufies” – but not me. I have always been fascinated by taking pictures of other people.

We were at the mall one Sunday morning. A lot of shoppers were rushing to get somewhere and they all had their camera phones ready. I got curious and followed the crowd. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I saw robots and fairies. There were warriors of some sort and some of them were carrying really big swords. For a moment there I forgot that I was with my family. It felt like a dream.

“Hi there, kid.” I was brought back to reality when a beautiful lady talked to me. My mouth must have been wide open the whole time. I swallowed and smiled back. She was wearing a white costume that looked sexy but elegant. I imagined my fairy godmother to look just like her.  If only I had a camera back then I would have captured her every move.

“Chongbit! There you are! We were looking everywhere for you.” It was my mom who didn’t look so happy when she found me in the middle of the crowd. “You should have told me you wanted to watch the cosplay show.” My sister looked amused when she saw what kept me there.

Before I left with my parents, I tugged at the beautiful lady’s skirt and asked her name. “Charess,” She said with a smile. Then she saw my sister.  And that’s how things started to unfold. It turned out she and my sister were classmates in university. They chatted for a bit and exchanged phone numbers.

“Chong, do you remember Charess? I’m helping her for a photo shoot tomorrow and she said you’re welcome to go with me if you’d like,” my sister told me one morning. I was so happy to hear the news.

In the photo shoot, I thought I was going to be out of place but the photographers were really friendly. They showed me some techniques on how to take really good pictures of the models. I like how each angle seems to give a different feeling. The best part was that some of them let me try using their cameras. Because I have small hands, they mounted the camera on a tripod so all I did was choose the angle and press the shutter release button.

I told my friends about my experience but no one would listen. I almost believed everything was just in my head until one evening my sister came with an envelope. In it were the printed copies of the pictures that I took. Boy was I delighted!