I love the camera crew. Hanging with them the past few weeks has been excellent. I have quite the extensive nickname, but most just call me "cheerleader" for short and for the first time ever I love it. After a bit of persistence, they even persuaded me to do a bit of the Penn State fight song. I'm fairly confident that no one has ever coaxed me into doing such a thing outside of a sports venue.

Anyway, these guys are particularly cool because many of them are divers. Our company does so much underwater shooting, that it is a fairly valuable skill to be certified. In fact, aside from most of the camera crew, the director, both 1st and 2nd ADs, the location manager and the producer are all skilled divers.

Just to add to my happy little camera world, Dwight (you met him a few posts ago) wants to get a shirt made that says: "Chicks Dig Camera Crews." I mean, I don't know how valid that is, but I can vouch for at least one.

Jumping back to the feature film, there's just something about this shot that I really like. Gong, the 1st AD and Jack, one of the leads sit in the front with Darwin, the 2nd AD, on the outside.

This particular day was so chaotic and long, but we still had probably too much fun for it being a work day.

It's funny, but there is a lot that I don't really want in writing about my on-set experiences. Not because it's bad at all, but too good. Perhaps too much happens in one day that I would be short-changing the things about which I didn't write.

-And that writing everything would take quite a while.

If anyone is familiar with the standard way of shooting fashion shows, you would know that this shot is not really conventional. True, it doesn't showcase the lingerie the girls were modeling, but scantily clad models aren't exactly interesting to me. Being that I had no constraints on shooting style for this particular show, I had some artsy fun.

Despite what Dwight might tell you, I am totally winning our camera battle. Dwight, by the way, is one of my favorites. He's super chill and knows his equipment quite well - two very important traits in a friendship.

This was taken at the end of the Lady Coco fashion show.

After three fashion shows in 3 weeks, I am make-uped out.

Furthermore, I would like to dedicate this picture to my good friend Lucas Buck, in recognition of how insane it would be to work NYC's Fashion Week. So Luke, I'm sorry I made fun of you.

I'm going to ignore chronological order for the next few posts, simply because there was wayyy too much going on the past few weeks.

This shot just makes me laugh (and probably only me) because whenever guys watch girls do make-up that's always when the "what in God's name is she doing to her face?" moment occurs. The angles just make it look so unpleasant, but still kinda cool.

You know, after you sit through the make-up process of productions enough times it becomes more and more challenging to get really cool shots. As usual, I try.

After a brief hiatus, I am finally returning to my favorite internet hobby and let me just say that my experience was worth the break. For the past three weeks we've been on at least 6 different shoots ranging from feature films to TV shows to photo shoots to fashion shows. As a disclaimer, I'd just like to say that if I didn't respond to any emails it doesn't mean I don't love you guys anymore, but just that production x 6 = 0 time for skyping and emailing.

There are a lot of pics that I'd like to post, but I think I'll just keep them in my personal stash because 2 weeks ago seems so old already.

These next few shots are the make-up shots for the Blush/Arrow Fashion show.

Cool storm coming in from the West.

Shot taken from behind Sound Stage 1.

We had an underwater shoot on Sunday, which would have been totally awesome except I was unbelievably congested. As you probably know, you can't dive when congested because you can't equalize properly- so initially I was bummed.

However, when the dive crew and the actors got out of the water, they were covered with jellyfish stings, so I um, immediately reevaluated my disappointment in not being able to dive.

I have better shots of Totti with the underwater camera, but I'm going to be super girly and say I like this shot because his eyes match the water.

After a long and crazy day on set last Wednesday, the camera crew sets up the martini shot (last shot before wrap).

Seny's color-checking face.

If someone told me that this image was only slightly lightened in Photoshop, I wouldn't believe them either.

(Fishing boat in Bantayan, taken about 40 yards from the beach.)

(Top: The catch on the boat / Bottom: Lunch!)

After an awesome evening with new friends at a beach-side restaurant, I got up at 5 a.m. to catch the Bantayan sunrise. I was slightly disappointed to see significant cloud cover over the horizon, but I decided to stick it out and was pleasantly surprised to see the sun's rays making cool patterns through the clouds as it rose. However, this light show was soon followed by huge thunderheads and a torrential downpour. One of my favorite moments here thus far.

I grabbed a cup of hot tea, claimed a little thatched hut and watched the storm roll through. I was so enamored with all the life still going on around me, even with the heavy rain. Being low tide, kids and dogs were out playing on the sandbars, crabs scurrying across the sand - it was a great 30 minutes.

It wasn't until the storm had passed that I spotted a group of fishermen about 50 yards out. Curious about their methods and their catch, I wandered over to their little boat.

We got along very well, talking a bit about our different cultures as they fished. Luc, the matriarch of the family, was so very kind. She taught me everything from how they fish to how she takes the catch to market to how she cooks the catch. When they were done with their work, Luc said, "You like to try fish?" Totally.

"Ok, I cook, come back to beach at 10."

I went back at 10, but there was no sign of Luc, even waiting until 10:30. By then I just assumed that she thought I wasn't going to come, so I went for a swim. However, when I got out to dry off, one of the hotel hands approached me with a beautifully wrapped banana leaf, a plate and a spoon.

"Mrs. Luc want you to try."

I unwrapped the leaves to find a pile of cooked fish- skin, eyes, head and all. I loved it, loved it, loved it. For everything it was. That amount of fish would have sold well for her in the market, but she gave it to me instead. Culturally, the generosity here is just awesome.

So after I finished my little lunch I went to go find Luc, but she was nowhere to be found. I asked the hotel hands to see if they knew where she lived, but no such luck.

It is an absolute must to go back to Bantayan at some point to give her the pictures I took and to thank her, face to face, for her one-of-a-kind gift.

The only worry I had on Bantayan Island. Not really, but come on, don't you get a kick out of it too?

To everyone that said I wouldn't move to the Caribbean, well, you were correct. I moved to the Philippines instead. Ladies and gents - my $28.00 weekend getaway.

(Yes Mr. Manuel, I waded out into the water with the camera - no underwater housing.)