tag:www.hendralauw.com,2008:/photoblog//1 2008-05-17T14:15:40Z Movable Type 3.33 tag:www.hendralauw.com,2008:/photoblog//1.213 2008-05-17T14:09:55Z 2008-05-17T14:15:40Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20080517-Announcement-thumb.jpg

]]> Hi all, My apology for those who have kept coming back. Very much appreciated. My photoblog is currently under reconstruction. It will have some new features, which include: - photoblog - blog - eShop Expected launch date is 5 June 2008. At the same time, I am also preparing for my first solo photo exhibition from 17 June to 17 July. Check out more details about it on my new site in early June. Best wishes to everyone. tag:www.hendralauw.com,2008:/photoblog//1.212 2008-02-10T02:38:44Z 2008-02-10T03:00:18Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20080209-PHPinatubo-0009-ppw-thumb.jpg

]]> In June 1991, after more than four centuries of slumber, Pinatubo Volcano in the Philippines erupted so violently that more than 5 billion cubic meters of ash and pyroclastic debris were ejected from its fiery bowels producing eruption columns 18 kilometers wide at the base and heights reaching up to 30 kilometers above the volcano’s vent. In its wake 847 people lay dead, 184 injured, 23 missing, and more than 1 millon people displaced. Hundreds of millions of dollars in private properties and infrastructure lay in ruins which would require tens of billions of pesos and several years to rebuild. For months, the ejected volcanic materials remained suspended in the atmosphere where the winds dispersed them to envelope the earth, reaching as far as Russia and North America. This phenomenon caused the world’s temperature to fall by an average of 1 degree Celsius. Clearly, Pinatubo’s eruption signals the world’s most violent and destructive volcanic event of the 20th century.]]> tag:www.hendralauw.com,2008:/photoblog//1.210 2008-01-05T07:37:19Z 2008-01-05T07:59:48Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20071223-IDBromo-0024-ppw-thumb.jpg

]]> Location: Bromo National Park, Indonesia I just came back from my vacation in Indonesia over the Christmas period. I covered mountains, beaches and rice terraces. Vacation is always too short. Is Christmas 2008 around the corner now? :) I started with Bromo National Park in East Java, Indonesia. It's about 2,800 meters above sea level. Extremely cold for me in the morning. I started at 3am on the first day. The water heater in my room was not working well unfortunately, so no shower for me. I hired a 4x4 jeep with a driver for the entire day (I finished shooting at 5pm on the first day). We went up to another mountain hoping to catch the sunrise, but the weather was bad, so didn't see the sun. It was just too foggy up there. So, I went to the savannah, hidden far behind the famous Bromo crater. Does this look like a place in Tuscany, Italy? :) The savannah is probably at about 2700 meters above sea level, so it's still cold especially if it's windy. This was cropped into a panoramic format as I like it better this way. Happy New Year everyone. Best wishes for you all in 2008 and beyond. tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.209 2007-12-09T02:51:00Z 2007-12-09T01:51:35Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20071130-PHSunsetAtMontemarBeach-0007-ppw-thumb.jpg

]]> Location: Montemar Beach, Bataan, Philippines See previous post (Sunset at Montemar Beach #1) for more details about the place. This was another shot of the sunset at Montemar Beach taken few moments later after the previous post. The sun was almost below the horizon. But the color of the sky and its reflection on the sea was still good. It has gotten darker and the exposure was about 2 seconds longer. Composition was also made different. tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.208 2007-12-06T15:57:27Z 2007-12-06T16:21:22Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20071130-PHSunsetAtMontemarBeach-0005-ppw-thumb.jpg

]]> Location: Montemar Beach, Bataan, Philippines Montemar beach is located at Bagac, Bataan, southwestern part of the Central Luzon, about 150km from Manila. It's about 3 hour drive from Manila. It has clean water and small waves, relatively calm sea, thus ideal for those who like swimming in the sea. The beach is also clean even though the sand is not that white. The sun sets just in front of you, which reminded me of the Kuta beach in Bali. Very beautiful during good weather. I walked to the far left end of the beach where it has lots of rocks since I was looking for foreground objects to go with the sunset. The rocks have smooth surface and thus you can easily walk on them even with your slippers. The Lee graduate neutral density filter I used helped to balance the exposure between the sky and the foreground thus you can still see the details of the rocks. The polarizer filter was also on, helping to cut some reflection on the rocks and the water. And the long exposure gave me the smooth silky water on the foreground. I always love shooting landscape whenever I get a chance to travel. tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.207 2007-11-25T11:06:20Z 2007-11-25T11:19:20Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20071124-PHAtIntramuros-0144-ppw-thumb.jpg

]]> Location: Intramuros, Manila, The Philippines, The two leaves were on the ground, near the ruins of San Ignacio church at Intramuros, Manila. They could be from the same tree before. I put them together to form this composition and took several shots of them. One of my friends who were with me that morning, was looking at me doing that and I told him this, "if nature cannot give us the composition we want, we help ourselves". Of course you can't move a mountain if you don't want it in the frame .. but leaves ... I can handle that. :) tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.206 2007-10-13T23:29:50Z 2007-10-13T23:44:38Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20070728-PHManilaNorthCemetery-0138-2-thumb.jpg

]]> Location: Manila North Cemetery, Philippines The cemetery is their playground. The cemetery is their school of life. They learned how to play, they learned how to look after their younger siblings, they learned how to help their parents. They learned and did things that many other fortunate children would not do yet at their age. But, they never fail to be always happy when they are with each other on their playground. I did lots or burning on this picture. I also applied warming filter during the post processing. And cropped it into this format. Have a great weekend, everyone. tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.205 2007-09-17T18:00:53Z 2007-09-17T18:01:26Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20070805-PHCockFighting-0376-pbcw-thumb.jpg

]]> previous post for more information about this series. This is another shot I took during my trip to the cock fighting arena few weeks ago. When the roosters are charged and ready to fight, the feathers around their neck will 'bloom'. Not sure what the right word is for this, but you get what I mean. The two roosters are looking at each other and one or both of them will then fly to kick each other. When matching their roosters prior to the fight, when the roosters are both charged and display their feathers around the neck, that's the sign that the two roosters are of equal match typically.]]> tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.204 2007-09-16T13:44:36Z 2007-09-16T15:10:55Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20070805-PHCockFighting-0355-pbw-thumb.jpg

]]> Location: Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines I read somewhere that you can always find two things in almost every city in the Philippines: a church and a cock fight arena. Sabong (cock fighting) has been part of many filipinos' daily life. Those who are into cock fighting will spend a considerable amount of time looking after their rooster everyday, to prepare them for the fight which may only last less than 10 seconds and may be the one who get killed during the fight. The cockpit is usually a well managed arena with seats arranged like a football stadium. Sabungero (a local term for people who do cock fighting) will come to the arena with their roosters and start to mingle around with the other sabungero who also bring their roosters. This is the time when they are matching their roosters to ensure a fair fight. They will try to find an opponent for their rooster whom they think will give a fair fight for both of the roosters. While keep holding their roosters, they will squat together and try to find their opponent. When they try to match, they will put the two roosters close to each other and see if they will react and prepare to fight. If both roosters do show sign that they want to fight, that's usually a sign that the two roosters are of the same 'class'. The two owners will then agree that their roosters will fight and register them and get a queue number for the fight inside the arena. Then, the roosters will be brought into this room where they tie a sharp blade on one of the feet. They have those 'professional' inside the room who will do the job and ensure that the blade is tied firmly and correctly. Then they proceed to go inside and wait for their queue number to be called. The fight happens inside the 5x5 meters arena at the center of the 'stadium' with glass walls of about 1 meter high on four sides. There will be a referee who will officiate the fight. The fight usually last from about 10 seconds to around few minutes only. And it's bloody when the blade cut into them. The fight ends when one of the roosters die or cannot fight anymore. The referee will then lift the two roosters up by holding their wings and I noticed that he would ask the winning rooster to give a peck or two to its died or dying opponent to indicate the official ending of the fight. The died/dying rooster will become the property of the winning sabungero. If it dies, they will send it to the 'kitchen' where someone will remove all the feathers and hang it on the wall. The rooster is ready to be cooked for dinner. The winning sabungero will bring home the rooster after he's done with all the fights (if he has more than one rooster that day). If it is still alive, the dying rooster will be sent to a 'clinic' where a 'doctor' will perform operation to stitch the open wound and hopefully it will heal and can return to the arena again one day to fight. What an experience I had ! tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.203 2007-09-12T00:47:07Z 2007-09-12T00:47:43Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20070908-PHAtQuiapoMarket-0043-pw-thumb.jpg

]]> http://vote.photoblogawards.com/photoblog.php?title=Life_through_the_Lens Thank you.]]> tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.202 2007-09-09T01:44:01Z 2007-09-09T02:16:50Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20070908-PHAtQuiapoMarket-0046-pbw-thumb.jpg

]]> Location: Quiapo Market, Manila, Philippines I had a chance to go to Quiapo market yesterday afternoon for couple of hours with a friend to shoot some street photos. It turned out to be a great short outing. Quiapo market is located near the Chinatown in Manila. You can find lots of stuffs, from US$1 shirt to US$7000 Canon 1Ds Mark II camera. From eggplants, cucumber, long beans to those religious items like a cross and small statue of mother Mary. From a priest to fortune tellers. From a church to a shady corner in the market. It's a very active place. Children of the street vendors playing in the open field in front the Quiapo church, one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. Quiapo is also well known for where many Filipinos go to buy camera. Hidalgo street has shops selling cameras. I met this man there and he told me in his broken English and if I understood it correctly, he was one of the 'seniors' around there and pointing to those people chatting few meters from us as his 'juniors'. He seemed to be the 'boss' and those people are working for him. Too bad that I can't speak Tagalog yet, otherwise I could have got more information about him and the place. I love markets. :) tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.201 2007-09-05T17:53:14Z 2007-09-05T18:21:28Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20070902-PHMacroFungus-0076-thumb.jpg

]]> http://vote.photoblogawards.com/photoblog.php?title=Life_through_the_Lens Thank you !]]> tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.200 2007-09-01T17:07:51Z 2007-09-01T17:07:47Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20070824-HKHongkongSkyline-0017-thumb.jpg

]]> Location: Victoria Harbour, Hongkong This is another shot of Hongkong skyline. This was taken from the famous Victoria Peak. The tram ride up to the peak itself was a unique experience as you see those tall buildings very close to you and they were all leaning almost 45 degrees. Very pretty sight from the top. tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.199 2007-09-01T02:55:55Z 2007-09-01T03:11:57Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20070825-HKHongkongSkline-0037-thumb.jpg

]]> http://vote.photoblogawards.com/photoblog.php?title=Life_through_the_Lens]]> tag:www.hendralauw.com,2007:/photoblog//1.198 2007-08-31T19:19:57Z 2007-08-31T19:33:08Z

http://www.hendralauw.com/photoblog/images/thumbnails/20070527-PHManilaNorthCemetery-0270-thumb.jpg

]]> Location: Manila North Cemetery, Laloma, Quezon City, Philippines. Salagubang is a tagalog word for a kind of beetle. I shot this at the Manila North Cemetery during one of my visits there. It seems to be popular among the children as they can play with them. One of the games they can play is this 'wrestling'. They join two salagubang using a bamboo splinter at their wings. I didn't know that their wings are that strong. The children will place the two salagubang within a circle that they draw on the ground. Then surprisingly, the two beetles will try to push each other. Whoever get pushed outside of the circle, lose the game.