JHING MONTES has always been fascinated by cameras and photographs even at his early age. He tends to be hooked easily on pictures from coffee table books, fashion, nature, and wildlife books and magazines. He recalls his very first camera was a point-and-shoot that used film and disposable flash bulbs and though it’s a huge hit-and-miss adventure, still, it never doused his desire to learn the craft.

Today, JHING is a member of Alpha Camera Club and regularly participates in the club’s weekly online photo contest as well as the monthly national inter-camera club photo competition of the Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation (FPPF). His entry for FPPF’s Photo World Cup (PWC) theme, GAWANG PINOY, landed on the 6th place. JHING recalls; “My interest in photography resurfaced at this later stage in my life when I purchased a Fujifilm XA-3. Feeling completely at a loss how to get the most from my camera, I took FPPF’s Comprehensive Digital Photography Course in 2019, and met people where photography is at the core of their being. Later, I joined ALPHA Camera Club shortly after finishing the course in 2019 and became a regular member in 2021 and even during the most stringent of all the lockdowns, the club meets virtually every Wednesday and conducts internal photo contest as a learning tool, every weekend. Photography just like any art form requires skills, passion, dedication, commitment, patience, and time because photography is a window to life; it freezes time as life passes us by. And at Alpha Camera Club, photography is life!

JHING is a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of the Philippines Diliman and works at the House of Representatives, Congress of the Philippines.