Pililla Wind Turbines

I recently went back to Pililla Wind Farm to catch the sunset (again! My 3rd visit this year). Its becoming to be a popular destination, and for very good reasons: beautiful green rolling hills, these majestic wind turbines, scenic view of Laguna Lake, and all of these in just 3 hours drive from Metro Manila (2hrs if you are lucky with the traffic).

Related post: Beautiful icons of renewable energy

This time roving guards reminded visitors that there is now a designated public area. The followed several cars that afternoon, including ours.  But there was no serious effort to actually escort us back to the viewing area. I got a lengthy email around this issue but I am not allowed to publish it. I wouldn't mind being confined to an area, its just that their selected area is a bit lacking in terms of POV.

The "restrictions" slightly varied from one guard to another:

• One pointed out that we were using "professional" camera (and with our equally "professional" looking tripods). I'm not sure how our gear were classified. Anyway, this one pointed out we needed to get barangay permits first.  It was already close to sunset and the barangay office is only open until 5PM. Mondays to Fridays only. And it was a Saturday.
• Another issue that was raised was our own security. They were just concerned about our welfare  (Fair point, thank you! 2/16/16 Received an email regarding this, but then again they would not want to publish the explanations. I wonder, if its for clearing up the confusion, why not allow it?). He said we can just shoot on the road, but then changed his mind.

Sun's going down, time's running out and we were still unsure where we can shoot. Then I remembered someone mentioning that some of the parcels of land here are still private lands (whether that is accurate or not, I'm not know). Run up to one of the hills and asked one of the locals if we can shoot the sunset in a small clearing within a fenced property.  One of the caretakers ushered us in, just in time for the light show.

Here's the rest of my takes that afternoon: