Photographer of the Week

Jay Jallorina - Elevating Nature’s Beauty -
by Yugel Losorata–

True artistic endeavor comes with great advocacy. It’s not enough to just be good in a certain medium without having any purpose why one is into it.

Landscape photographer Jay Jallorina boasts a magnificent portfolio of photographs capturing the wonder of land mass formations. But equally powerful are his noble goals to help preserve nature’s splendor.

“Hopefully one day, a more serious and concerted preservation effort will be legislated and that a keen sense of respect for our environment will be engendered in everyone. Ansel Adams was able to do it for the United States. Through his passion and photography, he was able to elevate the American consciousness for their many National Parks – resulting in the preservation of these places,” shares the La Salle alumnus whose idols in photography include some of the finest landscape shooters like Galen Rowell, Art Wolfe, Michael Kenna, and Marc Adamus.

Jallorina’s shots are perfect proof that he is influenced by a tough list of heavyweights in the field. One can just marvel at how well-treated his subjects are once they end up into his frames.

A good landscape shot takes a lot of having to hope for the right natural light. Thus, he has been traveling around to find for that perfect moment before his three required elements (namely, gorgeous light, great visual design, and a sense of dynamism) come into proper play.

For this Canon user, it’s his calling to make “great images of unheard places in the country” or create “unique interpretations of familiar tourist destinations.” He elaborates, “I am driven to show a well-known place in a fresh way. Landscape photography involves a multitude of techniques (long exposures, filters, infrared, night, etc.) and I use the entire gamut on the scenes that I discover to get a unique (and hopefully, visually interesting) image out of it.”

“I am especially enamored with bucolic, countryside scenes with a lot of depth and solitude. I enjoy the quiet and peace of being alone, soaking in the beauty of nature. People often perceive that solitary, lonely mood in most of my photos.”

Those who are in sad mood will surely find Jallorina’s images complementing. But the real strength of the pictures lies in its power to provide positivity, sense of wonder, and spiritual enlightenment.

One source of the man’s power is indebted to his love for long exposures. According to him, capturing the passage of time evokes a classic, timeless appeal that never gets dated. What separates an ordinary shot to that of a certified artistic product is the proper use of long exposure. His level of artistry on this matter has reached the summit of the mountains that he brings along with him after every shoot. The result is often ‘heaven’ for those who see his photographs.

Speaking about his love for long exposures, he notes, “I like streaking clouds moving across my landscapes. I love foamy, misty seas, iridescent in the soft afternoon light. I do a lot of infrared photography. I do a lot of night photography in the city because I can’t get over the energy and vibrancy that long exposures on ‘urbanscapes’ result in.

“Of course, the brilliant colors of dawn or dusk, of soft sunlight cascading on a majestic landscape are what I’m always after. Nothing distinguishes a landscape more than the splash of fantastic light on it.”

Jallorina began getting serious with photography in 2004, around the same period he learned to climb mountains and get exposed to the great outdoors. He is co-running the Chasing Light Workshops (chasinglight.multiply.com) – which offers intense and in-depth instruction on landscape, coastalscape, infrared, and night photography. He is also a moderator of the Digital Photographer Philippines’ forum (digitalphotographer.com.ph) wherein he helps other photographers improve their skills on landscape, cityscape, and travel photography. One of his landscape photos was used as cover of an issue of Digital Photographer Philippines magazine.

As a contest participant, he won first place in two categories (cityscape and children) and 2nd place in the night category of Canon’s Smile 2007 photo competition. Last year, two of his photos made it to the finals of Epson’s Color Imaging tilt.

One of his goals is to elevate the worth of fine art landscape photographs as works of art. He’ll do that by selling some of his work to high-end market here and abroad. “Hopefully, this would really boost our love for our motherland and inspire a fresh batch of photographers aspiring for the same thing. Preserving our precious environment will entail all the help, talent, and dedication that we can get,” he points out.

Jallorina understands that capturing those pretty landscapes through the camera won’t be easy for any man. His reaction reflects the passion: “I invest time and energy in my photography; often I would wake up at 4 a.m. and be on location to anticipate the first light of day, or endure the heat of a blistering day just so I can take perfect infrared exposures. In preparing for my shoots, I explore my locations carefully and study maps, tidal patterns, and weather reports.”