May your Christmas be as bright and bountiful as the Christmas lights all around you!




The Christmas rush, preparing for the trip back home, and the year end demands of work left me with too little time to go around and see the spectacle of Christmas lights displays around the metro.



My favorite Policarpio Street in Boni, Mandaluyong (since its near where I live) has a lot less lights this year. Most of the houses did not put out their yearly light display but the popular House of Santa and fully lighted Dalisay mansion just across it are still as bright as ever.



Beautiful as they are, I hope we all look beyond the extravagant display and find the true spirit of Christmas. As the lights shine brightly around us, may we ourselves shine light into the lives of the people we meet.

Located about 20 kilometers north of the surfing town of Baler in Aurora province, many photographers frequent this beach for its distinctive sea stacks and large smooth boulders lining the shore.

For two successive mornings my fellow photo enthusiasts and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 3AM, rode a tricycle for about an 45 minutes to get to this place. We arrived there while its still dark, sat on the rocks by the beach and listen to the Pacific waves thunder as they pounded the shore. Patiently we wait for that glorious light of dawn.


silent and resolute

Sunrise did came, as expected, but without the glorious colors I hoped for. But what the dawn lacked in color it more than made up for in the mood and character of the light.


smokey

That's one of the things I like about landscape photography, you'll never know what you'll get. Nature always has some surprise in store for you and its up to you to make do of what it dishes out.

This amazing wonder is not called Aurora's "Mother Falls" for nothing. Standing more than a hundred feet, water thunders as it hits the catch basin. I watched in awe as the spray swirled around us. Standing a few feet away from the falls, I could certainly feel its power.

The falls in nested in a glen at the foot of the mountains bordering the town of San Luis in Aurora province, a picturesque province in Luzon's eastern side (made popular by the surfing spots in its capital town of Baler). The falls is a good 30-45 minutes hike, depending on where you'll start the hike. The rough road leading to the actual trail head (where you'll see a non operational hydro electric power plant) gets pretty bad at times.



From the trail head, we followed the river upstream. The water was icy cold and there are sections where we had to climb over slippery boulders. If you are hiking there with your camera gears, a dry bag is an absolute necessity. Along the way you'll see the water pipes that lead up to the falls.



This falls was one of the challenging ones to shoot. A small dam was constructed to close its catch basin and to get its full length, you'll have to come closer and be in its "spray zone". It was practically raining in there and everyone of us were all wet. I was glad I brought a "camera raincoat", thus my camera was protected as only the front of the lens is exposed.



There are spots were the sprays are coming from above and from the back. These are the sweet spots where you'll least likely to get water droplets on your lens.

The mist is constantly swirling around us, as if we're in a vortex. This is being fueled by the strong wind generated as the water hits the catch basin. But there are lull times, a window of a few seconds where you can take off your lens cap, shoot 1 or two frames before your lens gets fogged up again. Its a lot of work for a few shots, but seeing the beauty of the place was enough reward.