5/20/08

And so it rained during the much awaited Pahiyas. And it rained hard.

Business As Usual

Red

Green

How Can I Try To Explain?

Orange

Gossip Girls

Impervious

4/8/08

Our trip to Caramoan involved an initial 8 to 9-hour bus ride to Sabang Port which is about an hour away from Naga City, the capital of the Province of Camarines Sur. From Sabang Port, we then embarked on a 2-hour ferry to Guijalo Port, which is Caramoan’s gateway. Because a weather disturbance had just passed, we encountered huge waves which made our sizable ferry bob up and down in hair-raising heights. At first it was fun and thrilling, the girls were even screaming as if they were in an amusement park thrill ride. Then nausea crept in and quieted them.

Porter

From Guijalo, our group boarded a jeep which transfered us to Bikal Port where we would ride another boat to our final destination.

Toploading

Agriscape

Our timing was off. When we got to Bikal Port, the tide was too low and our group’s boat was in the distance in deeper waters so we had to divide ourselves into groups of 4 or 5 and get into small boats which the fishermen painstakingly pushed against sand and silt.

Bikal Port

And The Sea

Low Tide

Steermaster

In the islands, we are all under the mercy of the sea.

3/27/08

I stumbled upon a post at Shutterbox Philippines about a photosafari to the Babuyan Islands! The trips (1st batch on April, 2nd batch on May) are organized by Klub Natur, an environmental and travel camera club. The trip which is 8 days and 7 nights long costs P8,000 which is inclusive of transfers to and from Manila to the Babuyan Islands, food, accommodation and boat tours.

I wanna go! I wanna go!

I can’t on the first batch though ’cause I already have some stuff planned on those April dates. I’m looking for someone to join me on May 17-24 though.

This is gonna be hardcore!

Babuyan Islands or BUST!

The complete post can be found here.

Nope. I still don’t have an IR filter. I remember reading something before about how to achieve the IR look using post-processing. I ran these images under Adobe Photoshop CS3 and played with the luminance of the green, yellow and orange channels. I converted them to monochrome and then toned them with gradients. I know it’s a far cry from the authentic infrared images but these will have to make do for now.

And my favorite. Tsamba! Hahaha!

My birthday is coming soon in less than a month. I hope somebody gifts me with a 77mm Hoya R72.

Woot!

Far away from the city, Zambales offers unadulterated views of the night sky. I remember a line from “Wish You Were Here” by Incubus.

“The sky resembles a backlit canopy with holes punched in it.”

We’ve ate our pork steaks, started our bonfire which eventually died when we ran out of fire wood. So we were left lying on the sand, bathing in the moonlight, waiting for shooting stars. How cliche. But it was what it was.

And then I got the idea of trying out star trails. These are my first ever attempts at photographing star trails. Time to abuse the remote cable release I recently purchased.

This first one was exposed for 504 seconds, ISO 200, F6.3, manually focused to infinity. Damn, my focus was really off.

I got a little more risky. This next one was exposed for 900 seconds, ISO 200, F6.3, manually focused to infinity. Although I like the star trails better, the sky was a bit overexposed because of the brightly shining moon.

I’m gonna read more about star trails? Any good resources out there?

The first time I was in Anawangin, I took sunset shots from the extreme right. This time, I shot from the extreme left. There were around 5 of us side by side in the water as the tide was still high. All of them were sporting Nikons on tripods. I was the lone Canon ranger. Alone but not lonely. Adik.

Around 10 minutes before sunset. I should’ve used the telephoto instead and captured the SUN.

It was a weak sunset. Pinilit ko lang.

Here’s a 30 second exposure. I used the Twilight Picture Style of Canon which turns the blues into purples. Neat trick.

The last time I was in Anawangin, I was in a group comprised of about 30 photo enthusiasts. It was a rabid, mad dash for photos. Now, I was the only one with a DSLR in our foursome. Though there were so many DSLR-wielding weekenders who had the same idea.

This was shot on the way to Anawangin.

The famous river at the back gives a Northern American feel to a very tropical place.

There’s this iconic boat in Anawangin that just begs to be photographed.

And some more.

Photos were taken with a Canon 40D, a 17-40 F4L, a 70-200 F2.8L and a Sigma 10-20 F4-5.6

Before going to Brgy. Pundakit, which is the launching pad for Anawangin, we dropped by the town market of San Antonio to buy supplies - pork, calamansi, cooking oil, Emperador, soda, some mangoes.

Some other weekenders were also loitering around the market.

A market really says a lot about a town’s character. Just observing random banter, conversations and the occasional hollering (palengkera style) one will be able to extract bits of a story. These small local moments make trips very memorable.

Lahuy Island, alongside the Caramoan Peninsula in Camarines Sur, is rich with gold deposits. To this day, its inhabitants pan its pastel sands dreaming of someday hitting it big. Manong proudly and gamely showed us the steps in harnessing the precious metal from mounds and mounds of sand.

Taken with a Canon 40D and a Canon EF 70-200 F2.8L.