Tali Beach Nasugbu Batangas sunset – God’s canvass

these pictures were taken on December 29, 2013 at Tali Beach Subdivision at Nasugbu, Batangas sometime between 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm.

deep sunset, the sun was just about to disappear to turn into night.

thought the best way to enjoy this sunset at this spot is some chilled wine, soft jazz and a book of poems by Pablo Neruda. sunsets are very tricky to shoot, each moment lasts only for a few seconds as the colors change rapidly as the sun disappears at the horizon. good thing there are cameras to capture such fleeting moments.

in this one, i was very sure Jesus Christ with his angels were about to descend from heaven.

what caught my attention here was the bright light concentrated on the seawater coming from the sun that was peaking through the clouds. it felt like someone great and almighty was coming down  the skies to settle on the water.

the most beautiful beach house at Tali Beach, right on Sunset Beach beside the rock jump

the house was impeccable, the lawn and the trees were all perfect. this is the most beautiful property on the whole of the subdivision. we can only imagine how it feels to stay in that house and enjoy the sea, wind and clouds.

perfect combination of sea, clouds, sun and trees. the waves seemed to be moving in slow motion.

the problem and the joy of taking sunset pictures by the beach is you need to choose only a few, two to three elements at most to focus on. being selective is what gives the picture drama. lines are very important as that gives the picture grace and movement.

a closer look as to why that is the most beautiful beach house at Tali beach

sports photography – just one or two more seconds for the money picture shot!

the alternate title – damn it’s hard to take sports shots! sub-title – specially if you do not have the camera and lens for it.

those are things we knew before but got confirmed when we actually tried it.

the football match was between the juniors teams of Ateneo and FEU at the Ateneo football field for the UAAP. given that we did not have the right camera and lens for sports shots, the expectations for great pictures were intentionally set very low.

sports photography is probably one of the few types where you do need really specialized cameras and lenses. you need a fast camera, a fast and very long lens (telephoto or zoom)  and one that can take many multiple shots one after the other with each shot perfectly focused. these types of cameras and lenses will cost easily more than $100,000 versus the camera and lens we used which was a fraction of that cost.

but we took the pictures anyway.

we wanted to capture a a specific shot – one that an Ateneo striker kicking a ball past the  FEU goal keeper. i was hoping that the picture will show the ball just passing through the goal keeper.  the shots we got were multiple shots and resulted to some nice pictures of the ball getting kicked, sailing to the goal keeper and then passed the goal keeper down deep into the net for a goal.

but no shot where the ball just passing the goal keeper. we missed that shot by a mere one or two seconds!

nice try, better luck next time.

photo #1 : ateneo player prepares to kick the ball into the net. feu goal keeper prepares himself to defend

photo # 2: football sails through the air after the ateneo player kicks it

photo #3 : well in this space is supposed to be the shot we wanted to record – the ball sailing just past the goal keeper. but the camera motor failed me as it was unable to take the shot. we swear our finger was continuously pressing the shutter button!

photo #4: it’s a goalllllllll! football hits the net as FEU goal keeper looks at it and the Ateneo player runs back to his team mates to celebrate.

the other thing we experienced was the need to stalk the play of the game. we intended to take a goal shot and we needed to read the game and get ready to take the shot when the goal was supposed to be made. looking at the viewfinder the whole time to follow the flow of the game didn’t work. we needed to remove the camera from our eye to watch the game. and as soon as a developing goal was about to be made, that’s when you put the camera up to your eye.

these were lucky photo shots as we were able to read the play correctly and a goal was made. but, those one to two seconds delay didn’t allow us to achieve our goal.

oh well, that is what happens to amateur sports photographers with amateur cameras and lenses. (insert laughter here)

boston on the cold and snow, deep snow

just how bad was the snow storm that hit boston and other parts of the northeast in the US? these pictures show it, one day after the storm left and it became safe to go out.

wawam photo : makati skyline in gray

this view came to me while driving over the skyway on the SLEX close to the magallanes exit. looked sort of like gotham city in the batman movies but with a much less sinister feel.

i thought this was a once in a lifetime shot. aside from i was on a busy skyway with a high risk of getting run over by speeding vehicles – very light rain went on and off for most of the afternoon, it was late in the afternoon and there were thick clouds across the whole frame behind the buildings, conditions for a perfect shot.

wawam photo : the sound on an impossibly quiet beach

the sound on an impossibly quiet beach

(double click photo to enlarge view)

we were four families in 4 cars that went to this beach in zambales between christmas day and new year’s day. it was a spur of the moment decision we made on christmas eve to head to the beach before new year’s eve.

i took a walk at the beach as i always do with my camera with me. i don’t know what happened but for some reason i was alone on the beach with nobody in our group there with me and none of the guests from the hotel we were staying in were there even though it was fully booked. on that beach i found quiet.

how can you find a quiet beach at a time like that? impossible! in fact i  thought it is impossible to find a quiet beach at anytime, anywhere.

but i did.

the gentle waves were there and they did make the usual sounds they make but somehow it felt like it was a quiet beach to me. i took this shot to capture the moment. i wanted to capture the absence of sound on the beach in the picture.

but when you listen more intently, i realize the reason why sound was possible in an impossibly quiet beach was this – i heard my heart talking to me.