Eight Persons with Autism (PWA) put to test their years of photography training during the Baguio Flower Festival (Panagbenga) during the weekend.<\/p>\n
The eight PWA were accredited by the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. (BFFFI) and granted access to vantage locations during the street dance competition and floral floats\u2019 parade which featured 33 participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cMasaya po naman (It was fun),\u201d Joseph Noli Vizcocho, 31, said.<\/p>\n
Typically, Vizcocho and his fellow PWA would be lumped with professional photographers and other media practitioners.<\/p>\n
He said it was not an ideal situation for them and they prefer to cover events \u201cin a relaxed mode\u201d without being boxed out to get better shots.<\/p>\n
Vizcocho, who hails from Benguet’s capital town of La Trinidad, has been studying photography since he was 14.<\/p>\n
This year, Vizcocho described his experience as \u201cbeautiful with a variety of street dance competitions, different costumes and attire.\u201d<\/p>\n
To ensure an orderly coverage, he said they dutifully followed the coverage rules provided by the BFFFI.<\/p>\n
For instance, whenever he moved from where he was standing to take a shot, he asked permission first from a media assistant assigned to the location.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Baguio Photographers Club\u2019s Ompong Tan and Joseph\u2019s father, Noli Vizcocho of the Autism Society Philippines-Baguio, organized the first photography activity for PWA here in 2009.<\/p>\n
They also hold regular photo shoots and exhibits at SM Baguio Mall and an annual PWA photography seminar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe parents wanted this for their children because they have been into photography for many years, and they are pretty good. So we asked for approval for their immersion and they enjoyed it,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tan said training a PWA to be a photographer is a tedious process, with each trainee usually needing two assistants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always do one mentor and one documenter for each PWA, with the parents joining and teaching us how to handle them,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Andrew Pinero, BFFFI media committee co-chair, said they did not hesitate in accommodating the PWA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are glad to contribute to their experience,\u201d he said. (PNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOOK: Eight Persons with Autism showcase photography skills at the Baguio Flower Festival over the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19595],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-thereisgoodnewstoday"],"zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/253415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}