Last Shot - Samarkand

Lots of stories attached to the above picture. It is of the Registan Square in Samarkand, possibly the highlight of my trip to Uzbekistan and definitely one of the highlights of my Silk Road trip. I love taking low light pictures at sunset or sunrise. It's a bit of photography trickery really, you wait for the sun to set and just when you think that the sky is too black, you take a long exposure shot and the sky comes out in these incredibly blue hues. That's for sunsets, which was when I originally tried to take this picture.

Unfortunately, in my rush to the site, I totally forgot that I took my camera out of my bag in the hotel room. So there I was, tripod set up just in the right place, I reach into my bag and realize the booboo I just made. This was our last night in Samarkand and I wouldn't get a second shot. By the time I'd run back to the hotel to get the camera, the sky would be too dark.

Luckily, sunrise provides me the same opportunity although it means waking up at an ungodly hour, sneaking out of the hotel and setting up in relative darkness in a deserted street in a foreign land. But since I was not coming back to Samarkand anytime soon I had to do it. I arrive just at the right time, set up my tripod, take a test shot (the one above) and right in the middle of my exposure (13 seconds), the lights are turned off. So this is the only decent low light photo I have of this place. Still better than nothing.

I've got golf coming out of my ears

My latest project is coming to a close. I've been taking pictures of golf courses for what will eventually become the definitive guide to golf in the Philippines. Actually when I was first approached I wasn't too thrilled. For one, I don't play golf so there goes the thrill right away. I never saw the attraction of whacking a ball after contorting your body into the most unnatural position possible (yes, I actually tried for a while).

Couple that with the challenge of taking photos of different golf courses and making them unique. I mean how different is grass, trees and bunkers going to look from one course to the next. Okay, I'm glossing over it a bit, some courses really stood out like Hacienda Luisita and the Baguio courses but in the course of taking shots of these immaculately manicured courses, I was able to go to one which was anything but immaculate and quite frankly it was a bit refreshing.

While taking pictures of the new Thunderbird resort course in Poro Point we drifted into the adjacent Wallace Air Station golf course which is now in the hands of the Philippine Airforce. For the fairway they had brown dry grass and for the greens they had packed dirt. Oh yes, the hazards included the usual bunkers . . . . . . and the occasional goat.

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

Although if you switch on the tellie and watch Discovery Channel or Nat Geo you might not feel so happy.

Another unrelated post but hey, it's a special occasion.  So in the spirit of Earth Day I have decided to enumerate how I, as an individual, can help Mother Earth.

1) When shopping, I refuse plastic bags and put items in my "man bag" (or as I call it, the Jack Bauer bag) instead. I especially do this in National bookstore and Fully Booked since they insist on thermo sealing the bag - as if the customer that just bought something from their store is going to sneak some unpaid item into the bag. . . . . (and back to mother nature).  Sealing the bag makes it useless for recycling since you need to destroy it to get the item out.

2) I still use plastic in the grocery store since there is no way I can fit all that stuff in my man bag but all bags get recycled as lining for trash cans in the house.

3) All vampire electronics get pulled out of the plug at night time.  This includes cellphone chargers, DVD players, computer monitors, speakers and CPUs.

4) All AA batteries that seemed drained get stuck in my wireless mouse which magically drains it even more.  Good for a couple of weeks.

5) My daughter gets into the act by wearing hand me downs thanks to me and my wife's friends and family. Of course my wife can't help herself every now and then when she sees something cute.

6) My dog eats table scraps and the leftovers from when we eat out.

7) All the bulbs in my house are now the low consumption fluorescent type.

8) We use bio degradable soaps and cleansers in the house.

9) We use both sides of the paper for printing. Needless to say we print only the necessary.

and that's about it.  Doesn't seem like a lot but every little bit helps.  Drop me a line if I should be doing more.  But in the meantime, have a "happy" Earth Day.

Eve

Okay, before I left for a 4 day golf course photoshoot trip of Northern Luzon in the Philippines we had a party with some friends in the house. Needless to say the star of the evening (apologies for all the other kids that were stars in their own right. . . . . but it was after all her house) was Eve, my daughter.

Eric, a friend asked why I hadn't blogged about her here and the answer is really two pronged. First, this blog really is more about travel and photography and although there are a few personal entries where I may feature family members, like my stunning wife, I usually try to keep that to a minimum so that the blog has a universal appeal.

The second reason is because as a photographer, I didn't want to post snapshot pics of Eve on the blog. I foolishly told myself before her arrival that the only pictures I would take of her would be fit for an exhibit but as fatherhood has quickly taught me, children, especially those below 1 year old are real hard to take pictures of. And the few precious moments that you do want to take pictures of them are but fleeting moments, gone before you can even think "where's my camera".

However, to address both of the above, there was one photo I recently took which is both relevant to photography and where she obliged by staying absolutely still.

This is her favorite sleeping position, butt in the air. This photo was taken early morning so I had to set up a tripod due to the low light condition. The camera also wouldn't focus because of the same low light so I had to prop my wife's cellphone against her butt, switch it on and focus on the lit screen, switch to manual focus (so that the camera won't try to focus again once I press the shutter button), remove the cellphone and then take the shot, so yes, this was not a snapshot.

Sharing Blogs (fixed)

Sorry about that folks, fixed the link below or click here. Thanks D for pointing it out.

Sharing Blogs

Seeing as I've been having internet problems (yup, that's what I call it) and thereby not being able to post any new materials I thought I'd share a fellow bloggers amazing find.  Wonder if you'll get it.  Watch it here.