For this post, I decided to honor and give due commendation to three bloggers who I feel raise the bar in terms of the quality of blogging that one would expect from upstarts. Due to their status as relative unknowns in the Philippine Blogosphere, I would like to hope that having them featured in this humble blog would somehow make them more known to a greater number of people. Trust me, these people really do deserve your attention.
In this day and age, it is quite refreshing to an artist to still use the traditional media for visual art and publish it in a digitized manner. Computer graphics artists are dime a dozen in the blogosphere and artists who continue to resort to the old and tested forms of visual art rarely showcase their works in websites and other virtual media. The picture above was drawn by Ellen, a very interesting and capable artist whose blog I first chanced upon on this thread. That’s a pretty good likeness of Michael Buble, right? On her site, you would be able to see her portraits of other known personalities like Nicole Kidman and even Phoenix Suns basketball star Steve Nash. She’s not a woman of many words, but her pictures really do tell a whole lot.
Next, I pay homage to the self-effacing Totomai. The guy’s writing and photography skills are definitely a notch or two higher than your average blogger. His eye for choosing which subjects to showcase with his Casio EX-Z40 camera is absolutely impeccable. He stayed for a while in the Land Of The Rising Sun and that gave him the chance to capture this utterly breath-taking shot of cherry blossoms fine… magnolias set against an equally stunning Japanese sky. That’s easily a book cover right there.
Bloggers of his caliber definitely deserve more hits than what he currently gets.
I chose to put Coy last simply because he’s literally on his way to becoming the toast of the Philippine Blogosphere. One look at his well-produced and smartly-narrated video blog would prove that I’m not exaggerating one bit. He is the real deal. There’s something about his delivery that makes the story that he’s presenting real genuine, sincere and tangible. The production value of the actual program is nothing to scoff at as well. He has the critical ear for which songs would sound best with his narrations and presentations and most importantly, he can talk audibly and coherently in his very commercial (in a radio DJ kind of way) tone.
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It goes without saying that all through are excellent artists and writers in their own right. It’s amazing that in this day and age wherein more than half of the bloggers are busy minding their SEO know-hows and earnings from Google Adsense, there are still upstarts who continue to choose the noble path. Yes, all three of them – talented as they are — do not have any hints monetization on their blogs.
They blog to express themselves – nothing more, nothing less.
Whether it is conscious effort or a product of their naivety as newcomers to the blogging world, it’s quite sobering to see three very good blogs without a mere whiff of a sponsored link, text ad or banner. It almost makes me feel ashamed.
I’m quite sure in the beginning, this was what we all wanted. Blogging gave us the chance to be published without necessarily becoming writers in the magazine or a local daily. Somewhere along the line, we betrayed that noble and most respectable cause by acceding to monetary incentives. Of course, this concession happened in various degrees, but I’m sure almost all of us are guilty.
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Yep, Totomai puts up great photos on his blog. And he’s a huge Hingis fan, so that’s a plus on my book
bravo to your choices, benj! haven’t checked the first two (will do asap), but i completely agree re COY.
Wow. I’m speechless. I’m honored you guys liked it.
Thank you for the mention Benj.
Pagbubutihin ko pa. And I’m looking forward to my (far) future Sagada Vlog. Thanks for the suggestion.
Hi Gibbs.
See you all.
ellen’s from pex right?
Alvin: Right on. Happy birthday ulit!
Gibbs: You seem really sold with Coy, a! hehe.
Coy: Don’t let the sharks have their way.
Aaron: All of them are from PEX.
I agree with your descriptions, especially yung kay Coy.
Akala ko si Brandon Flowers ng The Killers yung portrair. Si Michael Buble pala. Nice drawing!!
like it…
Astig ng mga photos ni Totomai.
bat ako wala jan!? diba dapat 4 yan!? BWHAHAHA
asaness
pero yeah, ung kay Coy ayus
so far you’re the first one that i know to give honor to fellow bloggers. i’ll be sure to check their sites now.
I’ve visited those 3 people’s sites at least once before. Yung kina Totomai at Coy, medyo napapabisita rin ako paminsan-minsan….
the photos taken by totomai are awesome.
Fia: Others also do. It’s just that they don’t altruistically pimp them like I do. hehe
hi benj, i was surprised to see that there are 5 comments from my Relax entry only to find out that you have blogged me. kararating ko lang galing manila
thanks for this. means a lot to me. hehehe. sa sunod ikaw na portrait model ko hehe
and to all bloggers who have visited my site, salamat. got to visit Coy’s and Ellen’s soon.
PS
di po yan cherry blossom, magnolias yan
Benj talking: Ok, Ipahiya ba naman ako. Wala kang utang na loob! Hehe. Sige, babaguhin ko na. Wow, you got the idea/ my ulterior motive! Sige, schedule mo na. Hahaha
@ Fia. yeah, benj is a pimp. :p
to my m.u [real name here] or known as ‘COY’…….congrats M.U…napakagaling mo talaga….yan si MARCO’henyo yan’sobra
-’coy’pagbutihin mo ung ginagawa mo………napakalaking biyaya sayo
-’COY HINDING HINDI KITA MAKJAKALIMUTAN……..KC NAPAKABAIT MO SA AKIN TINANGGAP MKO BILANG KAIBIGAN AT KA M.U HEHEHE M.G NA BA NGAUN?HAHAHA………ANG GALING MO PROUD TO BE NOYPI…….HEHE TSAKA GOOD LEADER KA……PARA SAKIN IKAW ANG PINAKAMAGALING
This comment has been edited and consolidated by Benj.
giving honor to where honor is worth due. i really like the picture of the magnolias… ill check them out later.
woops. guilty as charged. T_T
[...] upstarts. I remember featuring the likes of Coy – now the toast of the Filipino Blog Community, just I had predicted, Totomai and [...]