#179 Reflecting Dawn

The sky has begun to light-up as I waited for the dawn to break.  My phone beeped... then a familiar voice on the other end.. "Is it there yet?" I looked up to see a sky that has just caught fire. Dawn has arrived. I quickly whispered back... "Yes. It is. And how was yours?" "Exquisite." he replied.

That was a fictional conversation of course, inspired from an ad I saw way back.  But the reality is that when the sun rises for you, it sets for someone else. Much like many things in life. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: As dawn rises over the sea, there is a moment when the gathering intensity of orange above is fleetingly reflected on the calm water's surface. Exquisite.)

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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.)

#178 A Reluctant Dusk

Sometimes, even a horizon obscured by thick clouds can spring a surprise.

When dusk arrived the usual colors on the horizon were nowhere to be seen, just as I had predicted. What I didn't expect were to see low-flying clouds lit up by the departing sun. And because I had written off the dusk, I was nowhere near a good vantage point. Rats. But necessity is the mother of invention. How about a hand-held silhouette? Any distinctive-looking trees nearby? Exposure by trial and error? Beggars can't be choosy! Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: At dusk, the sky is usually bright enough to shoot handheld.)

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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.)

#177 The Cycle of Life

What's so interesting about a patch of sand on a deserted beach? At sunrise... intense warm light exaggerates the texture of the landscape... and reveal compositions you would otherwise miss... like this scene that suggests an ongoing cycle of life.

The fine sand were once the skeletons of live reef corals. The flotsam seagrasses and a dried leaf were once living plants. And a myriad of abandoned sea shells were once critters that combed this shore. It's mostly a scene of what used to be, but if you can spot a handful of freshly burrowed holes, possibly by tiny critter crabs, it's clear life goes on. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: Minutes after sunrise, when the golden hours reign, is a good time to be combing a shore for still-life subjects. A small aperture will keep everything sharp, and a macro lens would be just super.)

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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.)

#176 A Flash at Dawn

Few accept the gift of an awakening dawn. Most think it's enough to flip through a photograph or two, and know what they're missing. Yet they would be wrong.

From a photograph, you can't feel the chilly air that envelopes you, nor smell the distinct aroma of dew-laden grass. You can't hear the insects chirping, the frogs croaking, the birds calling from the distance, and certainly not feel the hair behind your neck tingle when the light first breaks. And you will miss the excitement of seeing the blue sky slowly turn orange as night becomes day. To experience the magic of the twilight, you really need to be there. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: The blue hour precedes the rising sun and can cast a gloomy pall over your landscape photographs. But you can wait for the moment just after the sun breaks the horizon, when its golden light wrestles to overcome the gloom, before you press your shutter. Click.)

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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.)

#175 Someone's Watching

Do you sometimes get the feeling someone's watching you?

At sunrise, a lot of things can be happening. As the golden light bathes the grand landscape, what was previously dark and formless turn into a landscape alive with tone and color. Clouds can catch color too, the meandering edge of a lake might suddenly merit your attention, and random wild grass just in front of you now make an interesting foreground. Through all these, a twilight photographer can get completely lost in the moment.

But not everyone is transfixed by the same scene, nor at the same time. After exhausting the compositions in our heads, we start looking around for something else to shoot, and inevitably find each other in our cross-hairs. Yes someone's watching after all, and we have only ourselves to blame. Enjoy. 

(Pixel-peepers: There are compositions that you see only through your mind's eye. Others, well the opportunity sometimes just pops-up.) 

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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.)

#174 The Sands of Time

After shooting the dawn I paused to catch my breath, and it was then that I noticed this well-trodden patch of shore. There must be several thousand footprints here, randomly headed in all directions, left by multitudes who had come before me. 


Some of those footprints are mine of course, as I combed the shore just moments earlier, while looking for a vantage to shoot the dawn. But alas they are now lost and completely obscured. What proof is there that I've come this way? This is not a far-fetched analogy to human existence itself, and our brief moment in it. We all try to leave our mark, but in the end each mark becomes just one of many, forever lost & obscured within the sands of time. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: When the sun is still low on the horizon, side-lighting is at its best. This kind of light can exaggerate the texture of the landscape, making them appear more three dimensional, sometimes almost surreal.) 

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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.)

#173 A Burning Dawn

At twilight, the sky can look truly extraordinary. 


How early do you need to be to catch a sky like this? If sunrise is at 5:30am, you need to be at the sunrise point an hour before that. And depending how far you are from there, wake-up even earlier. 


Does every sunrise light-up the sky like this? Unfortunately no. The conditions have to be just right. You need relatively good weather. You need interesting cloud formations just above the horizon. And the horizon itself needs to be clear so that light from an emergent sun can light up the bottom of these clouds. But knowing all that, every dawn is still a throw of the dice. You'll be lucky if every third sunrise you wake-up to looks anything like this. Such is life. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: I was a little late this morning, but luckily, peak light waited for me. A good foreground eludes the unprepared, but a burning sky needs little introduction.) 

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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.)

#172 Tucked within the Shadows

The night air is deadly still. You are standing on the edge of a cliff waiting for dawn to break. Before you, a valley is covered in mist. Not to worry. The mist will rise and reveal what lies underneath. Soon, you spot first light on the horizon, rising from behind the silhouette of distant clouds and mountains. This will be pretty, you thought. And finally you look around you, only to find everyone else pointing their cameras in the same direction. Everyone will end up with the same shot. Now wait a minute...!


Along the Tagaytay ridge, the colors of dawn seldom disappoint. Every now and then, fog heavier than most will spoil it. But not today. It will be great. But what's so great about a dawn shot when four other dudes will take the same picture home? There's got to be another way... I quickly took several steps back and found a composition none of them will capture, because in my shot they're all tucked within the shadows waiting for dawn. Enjoy.


(Pixel-peepers: It's not enough to nail a shot, you need to find one that is unique as well. Standing on the rim in Tagaytay is like having front row seats to a concert, but in landscape photography that is seldom the best vantage point.) 

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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.)

#171 Is it Summer yet?

It's been a hot couple of weeks, too hot to be holed-up in the city. So off we went to find some relief along the coast. 


We found ourselves in Calumboyan, Cebu, about two hours north of Mactan, in a resort overlooking an emerald sea. The sun was nearly overhead when I took this photograph. But hey didn't they say it would be too contrasty to shoot at noon? Not at all when you're along the coast. Unless the sun is directly overhead, the water isn't going to shimmer emerald like today's postcard. Enjoy.  

(Pixel-peepers: It was too hot to be pounding the shore so I hewed along the trees that lined it, where I discovered this nook from which I took today's postcard. Sometimes, you just have to take several steps back to get the best view.) 

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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.)

#170 Photographing the Grasslands

At the top of Mt. Pulag, it's grassland as far as your eyes can see. The entire peak is carpeted by a variety of bamboo grass that makes this landscape unique. And as sunlight pierced through the mottled clouds above, it casted shifting shadows on the ground below. It's worth seeing with your own eyes. 


In the grasslands, whether you are the predator or its prey, there's no place to hide. Today's predator is ace travel photographer Noli Gabilo combing the top of Mt. Pulag for iconic images. Pointing his camera in all directions, I wondered if there will be any unique images left for me to capture. But even a predator is someone else's prey, notably mine. I caught him in my sights as he worked the landscape, now that's an image I'm sure he doesn't have! Enjoy.


(Pixel-peepers: He later told me he managed to get enough images for a book. Wow. I shot a lot too, but he was probably talking about a phonebook-sized book while I might only be able to manage a pamphlet. Darn. Btw, I had to clone out a radio tower in the background because it detracted from the beauty of the place.) 

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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.)