It’s Incidental!

This is just a picture I took on the way to shooting my previous post’s photo, which itself was just something I took while looking for something else. (ISO800 53mm f/5.6 30.0sec, 5 image mean stack)

Every time I go out to take a photo, I end up with the photos I wanted to take and photos of scenes that drew my interest while waiting or trying to figure out my shot. I like to pace about when thinking, so it is a logical extension of that habit for me to take snapshots while figuring out or warming up to a scene. The funny thing is that, a lot of these end up being more exciting than what I set out to find in the first place! 😀

Rules and Context: A Moonlit Milky Way

Moonlit Milky Way (ISO6400 16mm f/4.0 20.0sec, mean stack 5 images for foreground)

Reading through various tips about shooting the Milky Way, it is a common adage to shoot it on moonless skies. I decided to investigate and did this one with the half-moon some 30-60 degrees to the left of the frame. The result makes me think that shooting the Milky Way at different phases of the moon may be worth looking into.

Morning the Night

Just peeking. 🙂 (ISO100 70mm f/22 1/40sec)

Well, it seems like this late sleeper finally caught his sunrise. I’ve been meaning to do it since I made my post on missing it (Missing the Sun Rise). It took me months, but I finally managed. 😀

Sunrays over Sugbu

Wanted to catch a sunset but a cloud got in the way. Still got some nice images so all’s well that ends well. (ISO100 38mm f/8.0, HDR 1/50, 1/200 and 1/800sec, white balanced to make buildings close to neutral color cast)

First, a little explanation to the non-locals. Sugbu is an old name for Cebu. If I recall correctly, one origin story is that it is related to words like Sugba (to burn) which is used as a reference to how ancient Cebuanos found themselves resorting to scorched earth tactics just to repel invaders. (This is pre-Hispanic, so I’m not sure how reliable this information is.)

In Fluid Darkness

Went out to photograph stars, turns out the clouds were hiding in the mountains. (ISO100 35mm f/1.8 30.0sec)

If this scene looks familiar, that’s because I’ve shot here before (Sirao by Night, Missing the Sun Rise and Distractions and Diversions). Sirao really presents a nice vantage point to photograph the Cebu City and its surrounding mountains and I was hoping to use this to my advantage by taking a picture of it during  Milky Way season.

I checked Stellarium, checked the moon calendar, but did not check the weather. 😦 I shot clouds when I dreamed of shooting a galaxy. Still, I did not stop shooting and I ended up with this little gem of a photo.

Just South of Here

Love is beautiful… (ISO100 35mm f/8.0 1/160sec)

A few weeks back, I went on a Round South trip (you are supposed to go around the different sites/landmarks in southern Cebu) with my elder brother.

A Photoshoot Reloaded

Fuente Osmeña and Chong Hua Hospital on a moonless night (ISO100 24mm f/16 30.0s)

I happens often enough that I take a shot and feel that I didn’t quite nail it. In this post, I relate my experience of getting back there to get the shot I wanted.

Sirao by Night

Cebu’s Citylights in Haze (ISO100 70mm f/11 30.0sec, cropped 1/3 of original image)

On a previous post, I tried to catch the sunrise at Sirao Peak (Missing The Sun Rise). My schedule currently has not given me the time to go there for another sunrise, but I thought it a good idea to get some nightscapes from there.

Grave Matters

My Maternal Grandparents (ISO100 16mm f/11, HDR, stitched panorama) It’s really sad, their graves are supposed to resemble their house’s porch in terms of construction material—white marble—and small altar to the Mother Mary where the cross is now painted. Thieves stole the roof and the weather did the rest. Now it really looks like a grave site rather than a piece of the life they used to live.

In other parts of the world, people run around wearing costumes and go trick or treating. Given the strong American influence here, we actually do that in malls on October 31, but, for the most part, we still hold to the older tradition of Undas which we celebrate by visiting—and often going into sleep overs—the graves of our loved ones bringing flowers and lighting candles.

Over and Under the Bridge

Always love seeing a cloud’s textures, nice bridge too. (ISO100 16mm f/5.6 1/5sec)

This is yet another failed attempt to catch the sunrise, I failed to understand what the sunrise time given by The Photographer’s Ephemeris actually means. Turns out a lot of colorful and dramatic moments actually happen just before sunrise, and I ended up missing them. Adding insult to injury, it was also very cloudy so the actual sunrise was invisible. Anyway, it was my first time in the area so I decided to do some street photography instead.