Mt. Talinis Part 2: We’re Going Down!

The still recovering Lake Nailig. Given how much it rained the day before and the morning I took this, it probably is very different now that two weeks have passed. (ISO100 16mm f/8.0 1/40sec)

Continuing from my last post, My First Taste of Mt. Talinis Part 1. It is, unfortunately for us, not all going down from here. To the non-climbers, many–if not most–climbers tend to prefer descents to climbs — so long as it’s not too steep — as it puts less strain on your heart and lungs. The legs, however, tend to get a beating, especially with the descent we took from Lake Nailig to Casaroro Falls. Anyway, here is how our day went….

My First Taste of Mt. Talinis Part 1

Misty Lake on the Mountains High. This is a shot of the shores of Lake Nailig, one of many crater lakes on Mt. Talinis. (ISO100 25mm f/5.6 1/20sec)

Mt. Talinis, I’ve heard so much about it. I remember in my last job where I got asked if I’ve climbed this mountain when a co-worker found out that I do mountain climbing. I haven’t, I just never found the time.Well, now I have. This is my journey as told through my lens.

Going North Part 2: Journey Home

The yellow things the lady is selling is called the pintos — corn grits cooked in milk and sugar wrapped in corn husks that happens to be the signature delicacy for the City of Bogo. (ISO100 35mm f/4.0 1/1000sec)

This is the continuation of my previous post, Going North Part 1: Off to San Remigio. Having decided that my Sony Zeiss 16-70 f4.0 lens was a bit slow for  to my Sony 35 f1.8 to try and actually get not so blurred images taken of people by the roadside as I snap away on board a speeding (literally and figuratively) Ceres Bus from San Remigio all the way to Cebu City.

Going North Part 1: Off to San Remigio

Mirror mirror. Tired looking couple gets some much needed rest while waiting for the bus to depart. From my observations, the mother is from Bogo and likely migrated to Luzon and had a family there as her kids are Tagalog. That’s a long way to go for a summer vacation. Well, the kids seemed impressed by the views they saw during the bus trip, so I hope that is the case. It would be such a bummer if they came all that way only go get disappointed. (ISO400 70mm f/4.0 1/80sec.)

My girlfriend, Rachel, had to move back to her hometown in Bogo just weeks after we made it ‘official.’ After weeks of separation, we planned a little outing to a beach in San Remigio to bond and re-energize. As a photography hobbyist, I decided to chronicle my journey going there in photos in the style of ‘street’ photographs (it’s more like hi-way photography really). Anyway, here’s what I saw….

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.

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.