My sincere apology for being late and thank you to those who have emailed me asking about the free wallpaper for July 2011. Here you go, the free wallpaper for July 2011 for your personal use only. The wallpaper has 3:2 format and has been re-sized to 1920 x 1280 pixels.

You can download it here.

gently it goes down
as the sky turning to dark
another day gone

Boracay is well known for its beautiful sunset. The sun is setting, hiding beneath the horizon, just in front of you.

So far, I have been in three beaches where I can see this. The other two are in Kuta beach, Bali and Pundaquit beach in Zambales, Philippines . I am sure there are many other places like this, but … so little time. The one below was shot from Pundaquit beach, which is the jump-off point to Anawangin Cove and Camara and Capones Islands in the province of Zambales, Philippines.

It’s not one of my favorite sunset photos because of the lack of foreground subject and part of the sun was over-exposed. But I am showing it here in case some of you are planning to visit this place, so you have an idea.

Did you notice the Haiku I wrote just below the first photo above? This is the first time I am writing Haiku. Not easy, especially since I never consider myself a good writer, let alone a poet. But I decided to find out about Haiku after one of my friends contacted me few days ago with regards to her photography book project (to help Japan) that will have Haiku for each photo. So, I found out about Haiku and tried to write one. I am using the 5-7-5 syllable format.

I like the above Haiku but I think I like the one below more. I modified the last part. The one above may sound a bit pessimistic (“another day gone“), while the one below sounds more optimistic (“tomorrow will come“).

gently it goes down
as the sky turning to dark
tomorrow will come

What do you think?

“A snapshot steals life that it cannot return. A long exposure creates a form that never existed.” ~ Dieter Appelt

One of my favorite photography quotes is about long exposure. People can argue whether or not they will call an image taken at a very slow shutter speed (long exposure) as photo or as an art, especially when it creates effect that you will never see in the reality. I will call it a hybrid between photography and art. I guess that’s an easy way out, but it’s true that you can still see element of photography in it and at the same time, you can also see the element of art in it. Unlike a painting. Look at it and you can immediately tell that it’s not a photo.

You achieve this by combining both the photography techniques and the thought process of how you would like the image to be the moment you click the shutter button. You can choose to use fast shutter speed to freeze the water movement or you can create the sense of the water moving by using a slow shutter speed. The choice is yours.

The image of water stream above was taken in Mount Pinatubo, Philippines in 2008.

Have you voted today? Have you heard about Singapore Blog Awards 2010? I am one of the Top 10 Finalists for the Best Photography Blog category. If you like this blog and you have a moment to spare, I would appreciate if you could vote for me.

• Voting is open to everybody. For International voters, just use your passport no or ID no during the registration. They need your ID no for verification in case you win the prize for voters.
• Please go here to vote: http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/category/ .
• Click the Best Photography Blog category and click Vote for my blog.
• You can vote everyday even for the same blog. One vote per day per category. So, keep voting please if you can. Thank You! 
• They have prepared some prizes for the voters too : http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/about/prize.html.

I traveled to El Nido, Philippines in June 2007 with my family and few other friends. We left Manila early morning and took a small propeller aircraft, I believe it was an 18-seater, that brought us to El Nido, at the northern tip of Palawan island. The hotel where we stayed was another 1 hour wonderful-full-of-blue-sky-and-water journey by boat from the El Nido airport. Full of mid tone color, and you know when you are shooting a scene that is full of mid tone color, you almost can’t get anything wrong. Your camera exposure system will be alright as that’s how they are calibrated. So, just point and shoot, but since you have traveled that far, try to check the LCD monitor once a while to make sure everything is OK.    The technology is there to help you. The photos posted here were shot using both my DSLR and point-and-shoot cameras.

The plane was ready for boarding.

This was my 2.5 year old daughter trying to help herself because of the air pressure that hurt her ears. She did not cry though. Tough little girl.

It’s blue and blue everywhere. The view from my seat.

The fast shutter speed “stopped” the propeller. Can you see the propeller blades?

Now it’s blue and white everywhere.

Looking down, enjoying the God’s creation.

Landed safely at the El Nido airport.

We then took a short jeepney ride from the airport to the beach where we took a 1 hour boat ride to our hotel. Waiting for our boat to arrive.

The boat ride to our hotel.

That’s our destination. Getting there!!! Yay!!!

Arrived at our destination. Beautiful huh?

After a wonderful lunch, we went out for our first activity, visiting the bat cave and snake island. The weather didn’t cooperate though. The sky was getting darker and was going to rain anytime soon.

We arrived at the Snake Island and got off the boat. Picture this … the snake island is actually just a narrow strip of beach in the middle of the sea and during high tide, the entire “beach” is under the water. Can you tell from the photo below? Family photo at the Snake Island, taken by one of my friends.

We ended our first day by enjoying the beautiful sunset from the hotel’s pier.

As I am writing this, I can’t help but feeling that I want to be there again. I’ll be back one day, hopefully.

Have you heard about Singapore Blog Awards 2010? I am one of the Top 10 Finalists for the Best Photography Blog category. If you like this blog and you have a moment to spare, I would appreciate if you could vote for me.

• Voting is open to everybody. For International voters, just use your passport no or ID no during the registration. They need your ID no for verification in case you win the prize for voters.
• Please go here to vote: http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/category/ .
• Click the Best Photography Blog category and click Vote for my blog.
• You can vote everyday even for the same blog. One vote per day per category. So, keep voting please if you can. Thank You! 
• They have prepared some prizes for the voters too : http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/about/prize.html.

Salagubang is a kind of beetle found in the Philippines. The above photo shows two salagubang, connected by a splinter clipped on their wings, wrestling to push each other out of the circle drawn on the ground where the children played. The winner is obviously the one who manage push the other one out of the circle. The game is popular among children there. This was shot at the Manila North Cemetery, Philippines back in 2007.

Montemar beach is located in the Bataan Province, about 3 hour drive from Manila. When the weather is good during sunset, you can see the sun going down in the horizon, similar to what you can see in Kuta, Bali. The photo above was taken when the sun was already below the horizon during the short golden moment after sunset when you can still see nice color of the sky. Exposure was 1 minute at f/13 and ISO 400.