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

The year 2020 is one that will truly go down in history as the year when the world practically shutdown. Many activities, specially those that involve a gathering of people, were actually prohibited including church services and other religious activities such as the age-old tradition of families visiting and praying for the dead loved-ones in cemeteries. An "unintended victim" of this are the dead themselves, or rather the souls of the dead (if you believe in the soul). In a story told to me by my mother, the Day of the Dead is also a very special day in the spirit world and for the dead loved-ones themselves. It is said that the soul of those who passed away await the arrivial and visit of their living kins at the cemetery's gate. To them it is also a joyous day and a time for celebration. The cemetery is considered hallowed ground and the cemetery gates set the limit as to where the souls can stay and wait. They are supposedly prohibited from going out to the realm of ...

Olango is an island east of Cebu in central Philippines. Olango island is part of a six-island group east of the main island of Cebu. It is accessible via a motorized boat ride from the city. It's one of the "must-visit" places in Cebu because it is the location of the largest bird sanctuary in the Philipiines. When I visited the place it was for the specific purpose of observing and taking photos of the birds which are known to have come from as far as northern China and parts of Siberia. At the start of the cold season in the northern hemisphere, the birds start their migration to the warmer climate in the southern hemisphere  such as Australia. The Philippines seem to be a half point in their journey and this is where they seek sanctuary for nourisment and to gain strength which they will need to continue their journey. They take the same route on their way back to return to where they originally started. They come for the 1,030 hectares of mangrove forest, coral reefs...

23 March 2018 The temperature is now in its low 20s. Night still comes late though and there's yet enough light to brighten the night sky but the city is already lit by street lights laden with the chemical sodium which creates the orange color and is more than ready to welcome the dark night. In a matter of weeks, the temperature will start going down to just a little above 10 degrees Celsius on its way to winter. Soon the foliage will turn brown and eventually trees will shed their leaves. Autumn in New Zealand may not be as spectacular a sight as its counterparts in the northern hemisphere but the charm of this littlest and coziest capital city in the world is no less captivating. * what you see is what I see

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...