The C-Spot: A Photography, Travel and Culture Journal

Yesterday I took the LRT Line 1 (Monumento-Baclaran) at around 5:30PM (peak-hours). I haven't taken a  ride on the LRT for a long time (years perhaps) and the whole experience was quite new and remarkable to me. I got on at Tayuman Stn. and got off at Buendia Stn. It was crowded but you can move around easily and it was comfortably cool. The passengers waiting on the stations and on-board were relatively disciplined and orderly.  By relatively, I mean in comparison with the PNR commuter trains which run from Tutuban to Alabang. The trains there are jam-packed (during peak hours). You have to practically slug it out to enter and exit the car! The PNR commuter crowd is also a rambunctious bunch. There are of course some who are well behaved but endure in silence. But there are those, mostly construction workers and such, who are really disorderly, cussing and swearing, and boisterously behaving while the train is on the move or even as they get on or off the tra...

I had my very first car in 1979, some 33 years ago. The above-photo is similar to what my first car was - a cream-colored 1966 Toyota Corolla four-door sedan. It's been that long, too that I've been going to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to renew the registration the registration of a vehicle. It was such a task then and and oftentimes it took the whole day. If one had a job or work, one had to take the day off (and forfeit a day's wage) just to complete the task of registering a car. Since then, however, there have been some changes and improvements in the procedure. One that has definitely and positively changed and gave the motorists a big break was the adoption of a staggered (based on car-plate ending number) registration period. This has erased the frown on the faces of both the motorists and processors alike, and reduced if not totally eliminated the occasional sharp and sometimes nasty exchange of words between the registrants and the LTO employees, as ...

An invitation from a Hongkong-based niece who was in Manila for a visit led me and my wife to a short unscheduled overnight stay in a vacation house in Tagaytay City - that city from which ridges one can see the famous and sometimes violent beauty of Taal Volcano. The house itself was nothing short of amazing, from an architectural viewpoint. A view of the house from the hilly garden showing the small swimming pool. This is actually the view from the back of the house. A view of the living room which center-piece is a salvaged tree ravaged by termites, with a virtually unimpeded view of Taal lake The "grand" staircase with colorful stones and great masonry work. Also loved the natural handrail made of preserved tree branches. A view of Taal lake and volcano just outside the living room area. The view from the house is also breath-taking. The early morning stake-out for the sunrise was a very rewarding one and below are some of the still photos I took....

The whole afternoon I was debating with myself whether I should take a photo of what's being billed as the Super Moon of 2012 which is supposed to be 14% bigger and brighter than the usual full moon. I wasn't really that determined to do it since the sky was a bit overcast. In fact the local weather agency was twitting about rainfall in some southern Luzon provinces which may also affect the Manila metropolitan area in the late afternoon or early evening. So I went through most of the evening doing the usual routinary things, e.g. watching TV, having dinner with the family, watching more TV shows, and browsing the internet. But the thought of that Super Moon continued to pre-occupy my mind. Eventually, just about half an hour before the stroke of midnight on May 6, 2012. I decided to give in to an urge. With my trusty Canon digital compact camera on one hand, I unlocked our front door, dragged a small chair to our driveway, looked upward to the sky. And through the lea...

This was taken at around a quarter before 6PM as the Sun was setting on a slightly overcast sky at the Manila Bay. This was the view at the back of SM Mall of Asia (MoA) near a gigantic Ferry's Wheel dubbed "The Eye at MoA." Unlike my previous post, this one is a genuine sunset at Manila Bay. (Photo was taken with a Canon G9 camera borrowed from my daughter).

Sunrise. Although I love sunsets, for me sunrise is the best time of the day. Yes, even better than Sunset. Sunrise is an affirmation of life. The smell of the fresh morning air is proof positive that yes, we are alive. The sea breeze is more gentle, too. And the quiet deserted beach with its sand a little bit moist from last evening's condensation beckons small living creatures to wallow in the mist of morning. Capturing sunrise is also a challenge to me, the hopeless nocturnal creature that I am. It is thus no ordinary feat for me to be able summon my lazy sleepy bones very early in the morning and shoot the photos below. Perhaps its just be me, but I think I just got a bit lucky to chance upon these scenes below. I post them here mostly for my own self-indulgence. But if you guys find pleasure in them as well, then so be it and be it so. Besides, such beauty is too much for one person to keep. It must be shared. Like Death, Beauty comes to us in silence... T...

Beauty is fleeting, they say. I was reminded of this just a few hours ago when I caught a glimpse of the gleaming golden setting Sun seen from our balcony. It took me a few minutes to scamper about and rush back to my room to get my camera. By the time I was able to take a few shots, the beauty I beheld for a moment was gone - gone in seconds - and never to show itself the same way ever again. Nevertheless, I savored whatever was left of the beautiful view. Every second of it. Whenever I see something beautiful, I must give thanks and I break into a smile. This is my silent tribute to Beauty. And as a sign of my gratitude, I try to capture such beauty and share it with others. This way, even as beauty is fleeting, it becomes eternal. Allow me to share with you three of such beautiful sunset view. (And my imaginary conversation with it this afternoon in the twilight). This is the Sun telling me, "I'm still here!" And here's the Sun telling me, ...

Saw this in one corner of S&R Membership Shopping Store the other night. As the saying goes, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." My version, "Beauty can be found in every corner." These are polypropylene plastic chairs stacked one on top of another. The image below is what I caught in the corner of my eye while traveling on the elevated highway on my way home one day. And one more (for good measure). This is how sunset looks like when you're upside down, hehehe... *All photos taken by a Blackberry Curve cellphone

Cecill and I watched the moon tonight as it rose from the east up to where it was almost over head. We turned off the lights on our front yard and sat on our Batibot chair and just sat there quietly staring at the moon as a few clouds passed by hiding it momentarily only to emerge again in all its glorious brilliant silver light. I like staring at the full Moon. It's the only celestial body which I can fix my eyes on without straining them. And of course, I (and everybody else) cannot stare at the Sun. While we sat there, head turned upward, we started to talk about something, anything, everything. At some point, it was getting awkward and my neck was getting quite strained. But we kept on looking at that beautiful wonderful full Moon. Later, we decided to go back into the house and agreed to stop the Lunacy. Well, it's nice to be a lunatic but only once in a while (and when you know you're not alone). Hehehehe... Below are photos I took earlier, i.e. before ...

With two much older siblings, Chito found himself playing alone most of the time during his childhood days. A typical scene would be Chito staring at the image of his older brother Eddie's back disappearing in the distance as Eddie made his way in his bike out of the narrow esquinita fronting their house to join his buddies in some corner store a distance away from their house. Chito then makes his way back to their house and sees his sister Tita who's about eight years his senior, playing girls stuff with a couple of other girls. He then goes up to the second floor of their house and finds his mom focused on ironing some clothes. He sees his father in the nearby chair fully absorbed in reading the papers. Feeling a little dejected, Chito goes back down to the front yard and wanders about in the small neighborhood that lines a small river. A short distance away, he sees other boys congregating at the foot of an old Sampaloc tree. A smile breaks on his face and he rushes to joi...

I just updated my Picasa photo editor and I'm just trying out some tricks on photo editing. My subject for this experiment is my dog, Brigham. He's a mixed breed of Golden Retriever and local askal. Got him from a puppy vendor when he was just four weeks old. He was also my model when he was just a puppy for my blog about how to put watermark on photos (below):

It's always nice when you're on a trip specially in other countries to be able to have control of your time because it somehow allows you to sort of wander around and go to the less beaten tracks. On our last visit to the land below down-under, the beautiful New Zealand, we had that special opportunity to do a land trip, drive our own vehicle, enjoy the landscape, admire the view, and sample a few of those small cafes, unheralded art galleries, and drop by less publicized but nonetheless amazing natural spots. One of these stops, which turned out to be a quite interesting spot was a place called the Lava Glass Glassblowing Gallery and Café. We were actually looking for a toilet break (and a coffee break as well) after about an hour and a half of driving. As we were going though a curve, my sis-in-law caught a glimpse of a red roadside sign that had the word café. It turned out that the "café" was also an art gallery and not just an ordinary art gallery at tha...