Reminiscing 2013: Misty low tide

Figure 1: Rocky sunset.

The tide is low, and the stones starts to emerge from the waters. Live seaweeds still linger on top of the stones subject to die at the merciless heat of the sun. Unlike the circle of life, the circle of the tides always reoccur and will only stop when time ends.

Reminiscing 2013: Reflections

I am addicted to sunsets ever since I am small, as they are the times of the day, besides sunrise, where the skies turn yellow, orange and red. A lot of warm colors are activated during the golden hour of the day. This one is about reflections, and during this time I reflected about myself.

Figure 1: When waters are calm, you see reflections.

The challenge is also to capture it at the right moment. If you arrived too late, just in time to set up your camera out of the bag, the light will soon turn to darkness and you'll miss your shot. So there's the timing as well as how you want to find a different angle for different creative shots.

Environment

Figure 1: Bottled sunset.

Our world is getting more and more polluted as time passes by. Trees are getting chopped down one after another to house human modernization. Stress at work is getting worse due to the selfishness of man, wanting more than what is already been provided.

Once, God gave a huge responsibility to mankind, to take care of the earth and toil its soil in order to sustain. However, the opposite happened and now, due to greed, most of the world's precious resources is now been harvested. One day, it will all be gone.

Just like the platypus, just like the javanese rhinoceros, all will be extinct and rare. Even though, its just one bottle, bottles will never degrade up to like 400-500 years. Marine life can get killed by all those plastic bags and strings. 

Still, it hurts just to think about it and unable to do anything much.

Freeze action

In landscape photography, it is crucial to capture the moment, movement as well as the feeling during the scene. My most captured scenes are of course, sunrise and sunsets which I love to capture due to the beautiful colors it produces. The golden hours are my most favorite time of the day.

Figure 1: Motion subtly frozen.

In work, action is required in order to put the plan into motion. While words are equally important for communication, without the necessary actions, no work can be produced. That is why, action speak louder than words. It is the culture of pro-active action which defines one's performance.

Everyone sees action, in my photography, I always want to freeze it up and frame it in a photo, however, in order to add motion and action, one needs to use slow shutter in order to capture the rustling of the grass, trees and flow of the river or waves. 

In order to do that, it is important to support your camera using a sturdy tripod and for longer exposures, to use shutter release in order to minimize shake and maintain the sharpness of your images. This requires practice over and over again. 

Figure 2: Sprayed water of different velocities.

All in all, action freezing using the correct technique to tell the story is indeed challenging but I'll do my best. 

Finally a sunrise

I was so tired, working through out the whole week, that I wanted to relax and rest through out the weekends. So, waking up early is a feat not easily done especially when I am so tired. Still, before I sleep, I dial in 5.30AM into my alarm clock. I slept quite early in hopes that I can wake up for a beautiful sunrise.

The alarm indeed woke me up after a few loud rings. Heavy headed I went huddling to the bathroom to wash my face, it was still quite dark and I wasn't able to predict the weather. I went out anyway to Papayas Lodge beach in hopes of a great sunrise.

Figure 1: Stranded ferry at Papaya beach.

Figure 2: Fisherman prepping their boats.

Figure 3: Preparing their motors.

Figure 4: Finally it's dawn.

With the cresent moon up above in the skies, the tides are considerably high. The skies far on the horizons are quite cloudy, still enough for the yellow-reddish light rays of the dawn to strike up into the skies. I am quite pleased with this effect and the cool air is just the best.

The fisher men woke up early in the morn, in order to go out into the sea to catch fish for their daily income. I am fortunate to only work five days a week and have the rest of the two days to myself. I can rest to my pleasure and be recharged for the next week. 

Thank God that I am still able to perform my work and still be able to enjoy the beauty of His Creation.

Sandy wishes

Figure 1: The mini-canyon.

I was out and about town and I decide that my day wouldn't be complete if my legs cannot feel the sand. I set out and pack my bag with my camera but I didn't have a tripod. Without a tripod I felt crippled as it is my most needed tool for landscaping.

I left for the beach at about five thirty in the evening, to my shock, the beach is crowded with people. I haven't seen so much people these few days. As I walk and bask on the beach, the day was cloudy and inopportune to watch the sunset.

I felt so crippled but i decide to walk-around the problem and set the camera on the ground. Took a few pictures, some people are really curious as to what I was doing and I showed them. They smiled at my efforts to take the waves. It was a good day despite the cloudiness.

Water splashed into my camera, which resulted in ER99, which means that the water ingress causes the contact between the camera and the lens is lost. I wiped the contacts clean and cleaned up the camera. All is well. It is important that when attempting to shoot in adverse conditions, weather-sealing is considered.

Figure 2: As the water rushed at me.

My first trip to KT

Figure 1: Sunset on the first day.

I have been away from the island since early September and have been busy attending training. It is my first time going for training since I joined the organization and it is also my first time to the place which is situated North-east side of the Peninsular.

Figure 2: My friend's hometown.

I haven't have the chance to travel much around the area as I said, my time is occupied with training. I still make the best of my time to go and explore. The first place I ventured is predictable and most probable place I would explore, which is the beach.

Figure 3: KT's old street still alive. 

The beach is different from the island I came from, it is rough, deep and filled with bits and pieces of white crustaceans and corals. The water of the South China sea is warm and the beach goes deep into the sea by just going 4-5 meters from the shore.

Figure 4: The incense pot for prayers.

The Chinatown area is a very old area situated in the township. It has a small temple which has interesting artifacts of history about this area. The sculpture and age of the engravings seems old to me even though there are a lot of new renovated structures there.

Figure 5: The Shaolin temple.

Everyday, I went to the beach, for the sunrise and sunsets. As it is facing the Eastern direction, I can only see the sunrise. During the whole week, the horizon is cloudy and only the reddish and yellowish light escapes through the sides. 

Figure 6: Me at the Chinese village.

The people here, speak their dialect which sounds foreign to me but understandable. They are very friendly people and they love the beach. It is hard not to see people going around the beach during evenings, flying their kites or known as "Wau". 

Figure 7: My friend, Ray at the old Chinatown.

The food is also unique, there is the Lekor, which I consumed everyday when I was there. It is made of fish and it is either fried or boiled. I enjoy the fried version and don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested to go there.  

Figure 8: Premium silks and woven songkets.

I wanted to go to the islands but there isn't sufficient time, my friend, Ray, who is a local at the area, manage to spend some time with me and bring me around. There's so much to explore yet so less time. In this post I share some pictures of the places located in town.

Figure 9: Sunrise from the balcony.

The sunset on figure 1, shows the mouth of the river, where an old man was fixing his fishing net for a night's catch. Accompanying him is his wife, sitting on a matt while watching her husband work. The old folks are very friendly and when met with the right topic they talk a lot about their personal thoughts.

Figure 10: A cloudy sunrise every morn.

This place is a must go and I thoroughly enjoy it, I will go there for the islands next time.

The star

Figure 1: An eventful sunset on the other-side.

I am always curious about the starfish. Why does it's shape resembles a perfect five pointed star? and the fact that it is moving and alive. I manage to encounter a live starfish during my last outing. It certainly doesn't look pinkish like Patrick but it is quite an interesting discovery for me.

Figure 3: 5 pointed starfish.

I wanted to go to the other side of the island but due to the horrendous jam, I didn't manage to go there. So I settled on this part of the beach facing away from the sunset. I was quite devastated as the view on other far side of the island is spectacular and I missed it. Oh well, another day.

Figure 3: Spotted star fish.

Back to the stars. Now star fish or sea stars are echinoderms and belong to the class Asteroid-ea. Echinoderms are marine invertebrates with five part tube type bodies which are radially symmetrical. So far I have only encountered this brown one, there are other colorful ones to find.

So, I'll keep looking for other types of these five pointed little things which always hides under the sand.

Early in the morning

I woke up early in the morning this weekend and have a feeling to go out and explore the views of the island beach. It was cool early in the morning and the breeze was soft and at times a little bit warm. I headed out to the eastern part of the beach for the sunset.

Figure 1: Fisherman up and early to the sea.

The distant horizon isn't that clear enough that I could peek far into the Land below the Wind, the shores are pretty clear. It is so peaceful early in the morning and there isn't much activities going on as most people are still asleep at home as the weather is quite comfortable.

Figure 2: The visibility not so good.

Fishermen woke up early in the morn to do their fishing. It probably applies to them that the earliest bird gets the worm, but in the sea there's tons of fish, so I guess there shouldn't be much problem as the sea is calm and there's going to be some haul for them.

Figure 3: A misty sunrise.

I just love the calmness of the morning, especially since it rained yesterday, and the air smells so fresh and there's morning dew all over the grasses and the leaves. The horizon is quite misty and horizon not so clear but the morning light is the moment not to be missed every single day.