Hello there 2017!

(ISO100 23mm f/5.6 4.0sec)

It’s been a long while since I last posted. A lot has happened, well not really a lot. It’s complicated, but then it’s not. I found love and I lost it…

It put me in a mood to stop posting for a while. Well, it’s been months since that ended. I’m thinking 2017 is time for me to make a come back.

Whatever 2016 may have brought me… well, 2017 is here.

Happy New Year! Let’s keep moving. Let’s keep smiling. Let’s keep blogging. 😉

Just felt like adding a second photo. I felt this conveyed how hectic New Year’s Celebrations could be. (ISO100 70mm f/5.6 5.0sec)

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.

A Glimpse of Lent

Cebu Cathedral (ISO100 29mm f/8.0, HDR 1/100 and 1/1600sec) Photog’s note: Tone mapping could have achieved the same look, but going HDR meant lower noise on the shaded area.

My generation and the younger ones have taken to spending their Holy Week holidays at the beach. In the olden days, people only went to the beach on Black Saturday and Easter Sunday, but that is not really the official way of celebrating it even then. It’s more a consequence if our Island Culture here in Cebu that lots of occasions involve going to the beach. Anyway, this year, instead of going to the beach I decided to witness the religious side of Lent and this post details what I saw on Good Friday.

You Could Have Asked

Shoot then zoom. (ISO100 f/32 1.0sec)

I’ve read stories about photos being stolen, I just never thought it would happen to me.

Summer 2016 Begins!

It’s scorching hot at Bas Dako. The sand would just be white without tone mapping. (ISO100 16mm f/11 1/400sec, panorama)

Here in the Philippines, summer starts around March — more like April actually — but the people at work decided to kick it off a bit earlier given that we have some people leaving and one was celebrating his birthday.

A Carnival in Cebu

Rocketship? (ISO100 53mm f/5.6 1/320sec)

Carnival? Not really, but it’s the closest thing to one that Cebu has. It’s the Kasadya sa SRP which opens around the holiday season.

Finding Light

Rather proud of this shot. This is actually one of only two photos in this post shot in low light. Rather hard to get low light right since may a5000 does not focus very well in this situation. (ISO1600 70mm f/5.6 1/20sec)

When you take a photo, what you’ve actually done is capture the light in that particular stretch of time. It follows that the quantity and quality of light is of utmost importance in photography. Given that I’m still new at photography, I haven’t as yet made the move to using external lighting so I’m forced to working with found light in most cases as my a5000’s built-in flash is rather meager. This post is about some of my choice photos over the past two months where I had to scramble for some good light given my camera’s limitations, hence the title ‘Finding Light.’

Sinulog Kick-off 2016

Fireworks! (ISO100 35mm f/8.0 3.0sec)

I should have posted this earlier, but the trouble with Sinulog is that people tend to get drunk and wake up really late. 😦 Anyway, I’m just here to share pictures of the Sinulog Kick-off held at Fuente Osmena, Cebu. Most would likely be covering the events tomorrow so I figured I’d do a little slice of life for what happens before.