My journey as a tech and lifestyle blogger before and after 2020

Blogging has been an uplifting experience for me. Honestly, i have been in the blogging industry way back in 2011. A former colleague, and a good friend, Raffy Pedrajita whom we started partnering in photography for events, where we started to collaborate. He actually convinced me to migrate to digital since i was shooting film and tape especially for my daughter’s events in school. That was the 1st day of my journey as a blogger. He tagged me along events after work and especially on weekends.

On a daily basis, we had our cameras in our backpack or stashed in has car so we were just a call away for our after 6pm gigs. Initially, i started photoblogs on our facebook pages while i was training on how to write on wordpress. At that time, i still used a BlackBerry mobile and he was also the one who encouraged me to change to android. I am a car enthusiasts and also love shooting events like Beauty pageants and FHM. So most of the carshows, racing and fashion shows we were there.

I started going solo in 2012, where my shooting and blogging was into a fresh start. I attended events on my own since we had to divide our coverage. This was the year Slimmers World Internatonial Philippines had their famous Miss Bikini Philippines and also the debut of DDG Philippines Magazine. We also covered for pageants and i also started covering for Binibining Pilipinas which is the longest and most famous beauty pageant in the Philippines until now. We also covered fashion shows such as Fashion Walk, Fashion Week, and product launches for Hortaleza and both of us were mainstay for Life Oil products and a private restaurang in Quezon City where we did the photo coverage and also writing the articles for the events we covered.

My photography and blogging was such a powerful tandem. I was invited to write for magazines in fashion, tech, lifestyle, sports and even engineering and architecture. I had monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly assignments so this was easy to manage my time in the office, and shooting and writing during the weekends. Most editors preferred me since i was the one doing the photoshoots and also the interview and as well as the writeup.  But didn’t last long since the print and magazine industry was not making money at all.

Blogging has brought me to different places around the Metro and met a lot of well-known people in the industry. I was able to meet NBA legends such as Filipino American coach Eric Spoelstra and a lot of NBA famous players. I also was able to shoot and write for an international snooker event here in the Philippines. Also world top tennis player Rafa Nadal in a one weekend event.

Bloggers and media joined in junkets and trips so this was actually a healthy and friendly environment. I also became one of the founding members of Philippine Bloggers Network, whose advocacy is to help aspiring bloggers y introducing them to seminars on how to be efficient social media influencers. A few years ago, i also became a member of Philippine Cyberpress, tech journalists association of the Philippines. We also had a yearly event with Epson Philippines entitled FUSION held during summer which is a 3-day full of fun and games. This created the bond and friendship with bloggers and traditional media.

2020 is a big challenge and a drastic change took its course in the Philippines. As early as January 12, we were challenged with a calamity for the explosion of Taal Volcano whose ashes spread all over the region and became a threat to health and travel since visibility was hard and the ashes hardened and caused havoc. Events started to be cancelled and with the spread of the corona virus, which became an international pandemic, there were no more face to face events so all of us had to adopt for online press conferences and virtual meetings.

Positively, we had to take shelter and look at things on a brighter side. We were able to do our blogging work right at home. It was timing enough i had upgraded my internet service provider, and deployed WiFi mesh so i can work at any corner of the house.

For me, this was a game changer. I was able to write more articles on my blog. From 2 articles per day, i was able to maximize myself from 8 to 12 articles per day. I also get to watch more videos and content from inspirational bloggers and youtubers like Amy West and was able to watch how Las Vegas is one of the most travelled destination in the World.

I would like to thank all the brands, PR agencies and firms, independent and freelance events coordinators who helped us survive over the year by giving us satisfying and worthwhile blogs to write and for sending us survival kits and even sponsoring us for weekly treats to the extent of sending us food and groceries, health and wellness kits. Virtual wallets has been a big help for us to do non-contact with bank transactions as well.

I really like to thank PayPal, GCash, Paymaya. BDO and Metrobank, accounts which i have to do online banking payment transactions keeping us safe .