#152 Solar Dryer

More harvest jobs...


After the grain is separated from the chaff, they must be dried to bring the moisture level down. In a tropical country like ours, the simplest way to do that is with the heat of the sun. Thus at harvest-time, rice grain is  laid out on sidewalks, roadsides, basketball courts, and in this case, a specially paved solar drying area. It will take two full days of strong sun before the grain can be bagged for storage. 

Which brings us to yet another job we discovered during the busy harvest season: grain dryers. Moist grain won't dry themselves, so there is work cut-out for the willing. A dryer's job is to haul sacked rice onto a drying area, pour them out and spread them thin to dry. Several times a day he'd have to turn the mounds over, and over, before finally sweeping-up every single grain by nightfall. Our journey to identify harvest jobs isn't over yet. Wait around a little longer, I've lined-up even more postcards featuring some less obvious ones. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: Raked grain form leading lines. Drawn to these geometric oddities, I saw this composition in my mind and immediately knew where I should be standing. The only hitch was that the human element was missing, until I spotted a farmer walking into my composition. Compose. Wait. Wait. Wait for his stride... Click.)

Where in the world is Batasan, San jose, Mindoro?

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Past postcards at www.PostcardsFromManila.com

Say hello: Bobbyw59@yahoo.com

But wait, there's more...

For those who've inquired about buying prints of my postcards, you may purchase them directly from master printmaker Arnel Murillo (murilloarnel@yahoo.com), one of the country's foremost fine-art printmakers.  Arnel uses archival inks and museum-grade paper to ensure his prints will not fade. You will not be disappointed. (All my images are provided gratis to help showcase the beauty of our country. But if you feel generous, help me uplift the lives of the Children of Payatas.  No donation is too big or too small. Get in touch with Fr. Aldrin Suan at aldrinsuan@yahoo.com of the Vincentian Missionaries in the Philippines. As always, thanks and enjoy.)

#151 Away in a Manger

Away in a manger, no crib for his bed
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.


May the true spirit of Christmas remain in our hearts. Enjoy.


Listen... Away in a Manger...

(Pixel-peepers: When I saw this scene, I knew it would be this year's Christmas postcard. But when I looked through the viewfinder, some of the elements were just not in their right places. That wild pig, he needs to move a little more to the left... some more... some more.. Click. Patience is a virtue.)

Where in the world is Monteclaro, Mindoro?

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Past postcards at www.PostcardsFromManila.com

Say hello: Bobbyw59@yahoo.com

But wait, there's more...

For those who've inquired about buying prints of my postcards, you may purchase them directly from master printmaker Arnel Murillo (murilloarnel@yahoo.com), one of the country's foremost fine-art printmakers.  Arnel uses archival inks and museum-grade paper to ensure his prints will not fade. You will not be disappointed. (All my images are provided gratis to help showcase the beauty of our country. But if you feel generous, help me uplift the lives of the Children of Payatas.  No donation is too big or too small. Get in touch with Fr. Aldrin Suan at aldrinsuan@yahoo.com of the Vincentian Missionaries in the Philippines. As always, thanks and enjoy.)

#150 Children of the Mangyans

Our trip to Mindoro was much about photographing this ethnic group, the Mangyans. I'd heard about them since childhood, and subsequently met people who've worked and lived among them. The stories intrigued me so, that I thought one day I'd like to see them with my own eyes. Well that day has come.

Mangyan is a collective name given to several indigenous groups that live on the island of Mindoro. We stayed in Monteclaro with an ethnic group called Buhid. Their proximity to the city guaranteed they'd be touched by modernity, as in this case, their clothes. Their homes are still made of the most basic materials: a mixture of dried grass, bamboo, and wood. There are still no TV and appliances in this village and the children still don't speak tagalog. Yet I'm certain one day they will be transformed. You have to wonder if this assimilation of cultures is a good thing, but if history is a guide, it's an unstoppable freight train. And that's why I do these pilgrimages because someone has to freeze these scenes for posterity. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: Side lighting, as light from a sun that is low on the horizon, can flatter because they create well-defined shadows on faces and textures on landscapes. Side lighting, now showing daily between 7-9am and again between 4-6pm. Try it soon.)

Where in the world is San Jose, Mindoro?

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Past postcards at www.PostcardsFromManila.com

Say hello: Bobbyw59@yahoo.com

But wait, there's more...

For those who've inquired about buying prints of my postcards, you may purchase them directly from master printmaker Arnel Murillo (murilloarnel@yahoo.com), one of the country's foremost fine-art printmakers.  Arnel uses archival inks and museum-grade paper to ensure his prints will not fade. You will not be disappointed. (All my images are provided gratis to help showcase the beauty of our country. But if you feel generous, help me uplift the lives of the Children of Payatas.  No donation is too big or too small. Get in touch with Fr. Aldrin Suan at aldrinsuan@yahoo.com of the Vincentian Missionaries in the Philippines. As always, thanks and enjoy.)

#149 Threshing

The next step after harvest is threshing. After the harvest is brought in from the fields, these farmers look for a comfortable place under a tree to thresh the sheaths. Mechanical threshing is a relatively modern phenomenon and now the de facto way to separate the chaff from the grain. Gone are the days of gaudily clad women manually pounding sheathed rice by hand. Now wouldn't that be just an awesome sight?

Just behind me, in front of a dingy warehouse from across the street, stood the owner of the field. She owns all the land you see in the photograph, including more around the area. She comes to watch the harvest in progress and to receive her share of the booty. Land owners get to keep up to a third of the produce, after everyone has been paid their share in kind. In the end it all works out, and everyone is happy. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: This is another high noon shot where we had to contend with harsh and burning light. But what can you do when the sun is your only light source? You learn to work with it. Again a polarizer, plus creative composition, saves the day.)

Where in the world is San Jose, Mindoro?

Sign-up to receive new postcards weekly by email 

Past postcards at www.PostcardsFromManila.com

Say hello: Bobbyw59@yahoo.com

But wait, there's more...

For those who've inquired about buying prints of my postcards, you may purchase them directly from master printmaker Arnel Murillo (murilloarnel@yahoo.com), one of the country's foremost fine-art printmakers.  Arnel uses archival inks and museum-grade paper to ensure his prints will not fade. You will not be disappointed. (All my images are provided gratis to help showcase the beauty of our country. But if you feel generous, help me uplift the lives of the Children of Payatas.  No donation is too big or too small. Get in touch with Fr. Aldrin Suan at aldrinsuan@yahoo.com of the Vincentian Missionaries in the Philippines. As always, thanks and enjoy.)

#148 Taga-bigkis

Two postcards ago, I featured a farmer who helped harvest the season's rice crop in exchange for a few cavans of rice. When you don't own the land, you need to make a living somehow, and every person we found working in the fields did some uniquely useful work that helped them earn a cut of the harvest.

This week's postcard features another "profession" in the food chain of harvesting rice. These folks are called "taga-bigkis." After someone cuts the rice stalks and lays them on the ground to dry, these folks come along to tie those stalks into bundles and stack them together into significant mounds. Yup, work here is that specialized, and this is the only thing they'll do. They'll make two hundred pesos per day doing this. After all, everyone's gotta eat. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: The afternoon sun was beating down on us, not the best time to be shooting in the fields. But just like these folks who have a job to do, we also need to earn our keepers! One trick I use to get uber saturated photographs at high noon is to slap on a polarizer and set it to maximum polarization. This cancels out all the reflection from the leaves and surrounding foliage, making the colors jump out.)

Where in the world is San Jose, Mindoro?

Sign-up to receive new postcards weekly by email 

Past postcards at www.PostcardsFromManila.com

Say hello: Bobbyw59@yahoo.com

But wait, there's more...

For those who've inquired about buying prints of my postcards, you may purchase them directly from master printmaker Arnel Murillo (murilloarnel@yahoo.com), one of the country's foremost fine-art printmakers.  Arnel uses archival inks and museum-grade paper to ensure his prints will not fade. You will not be disappointed. (All my images are provided gratis to help showcase the beauty of our country. But if you feel generous, help me uplift the lives of the Children of Payatas.  No donation is too big or too small. Get in touch with Fr. Aldrin Suan at aldrinsuan@yahoo.com of the Vincentian Missionaries in the Philippines. As always, thanks and enjoy.)