Pinoy places third in 'Wiki Loves Monuments' contest

Cid Jacobo is not a professional photographer nor is photography his passion. However, out of curiosity he joined in September this year the Wiki Loves Monuments contest, where anyone can upload photos of world monuments which will be judged by a panel chosen by Wikipedia. The contest aims to get quality pictures for Wikipedia and release them under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Through this license, photos become available for public use as long as proper accreditation to the author is observed.

Philippine leg Jacobo, 23, works for an international environment organization. During his free time, he tends to Route +63, a travel business he set up with his friends. While Jacobo placed third in the international leg of the "Wiki Loves Monuments" contest, he only placed eight in the Philippine leg of the competition. The top 10 winners in the Philippine leg were the ones who qualified to advance to the international leg of the contest. In the Philippine leg, 319 participants sent in 2,300 entries. In the international leg, 15,000 people submitted 350,000 entries. “I thought I had nothing to lose, and I did have a fair amount of pictures of our national monuments from my recent travels, so I decided to join,” said Jacobo, who went to Ifugao with his friends in June last year. His winning entry is a photo of the 2,000-year-old Batad Terraces in Ifugao. “I never imagined I had a chance in the internationals, especially with all the other finalists from the other countries,” Jacobo told GMA News Online. “I was very surprised when they emailed me that I placed third! I was just very happy, struck with disbelief and excitement,” he continued. When asked how he captured a "perfect photo" of a rainbow over the Batad Terraces, he said the opporunity just presented itself when he was in Ifugao for a Bayanihan project to rehabilitate the terraces. “I saw the rainbow first and called everyone's attention to it. It was really amazing because it was in the valley below, and we were higher than it,” Jacobo said. "I was already holding my digicam so I took the shot. It was really serendipitous timing,” he added. However, even with the recognition he achieved, Cid remains humble whenever his photo is praised. “I was thinking it might be a nice photo, but seeing it in person was just magical. My photo will never compare to the actual – not even close. The ones who saw it in person with us were lucky,” he said. Cid submitted 12 photos to the contest featuring monuments like Calle Crisologo and the other places of Vigan, Sta. Maria Church in Ilocos Norte, Fil-Spanish Friendship Tower and Dambana ng Kagitingan in Bataan. He credits his success to his friend, AR Veloso, a passionate photo enthusiast whom he has learned a lot from when it comes to photography. “I'm still no pro or even a hobbyist but I do believe I take better photos now compared to a few years back [thanks to him],” he said. No plans yet to go pro Jacobo said he has no plans of going pro soon but he will be investing in bridge cameras by the middle of next year to quickly capture those moments. “That's what I like do, candid action shots, captured moments, and just documenting my trips and activities, personal or business,” he said. “Right now I'm just trying to learn and practicing to take better pictures in general, but maybe in the future I might decide to go pro,” he added. Jacobo said he hopes his photo would inspire those wanting to get into photography but don't have the means to buy expensive equipment. He urged them to just go out there and do it. “They don't need a D-SLR or other expensive camera equipment to get into photography. I used a simple point and shoot digicam, a Sony Cybershot DSC-W330 my dad gave me as a grad gift for this picture,” he said. “They should go out with what they have and just keep practicing to improve,” he advised. - VVP, GMA News