For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #20

I had a great time with the Earth Hour Celebration sponsored by the Aboitiz Group of Companies a few hours ago in The Persimmon Plus, a condominium complex in Mabolo, Cebu City. Special thanks to Ms. Lhai Espina for the invitation...

This is one of the many fire dancers who mesmerized the crowd... (One thing good with having a new DSLR is that I get to post pics a lot faster. Hehehe...). Will have a full post dedicated for this event in a day or two...

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #19

On our way to Eden Nature Park in Davao, we stopped by a fruit stand. And I saw these fruits used as decorations. At first I thought they belong to the citrus family. A sister in my community told me it is called mickey mouse plant.

Mr. Google told me the plant's scientific name is solanum mammosum. It is also called nipple fruit. It is also considered a medicinal plant in many areas in the Philippines.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #18

A few weeks ago, my friends and I went out into the night and took pictures in Cebu's downtown area.
I am sharing two of Cebu's famous landmarks: Fuente Osmeña and Crown Regency Hotel and Towers.

This is Fuente Osmena bordered by light trails.



This is the Crown Regency Hotel and Towers in full light display. On top of this hotel are two popular tourist attractions, the Edge Coaster and the Sky Adventure.



I haven't tried these attractions but perhaps one of these days... :)

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #17

Homes on stilts...

Top view of a seaside community in Lapu-lapu City, Cebu.



I guess I'm back... Thanks to all who visited and have left comments on my two previous posts...
I'll be visiting your sites soon... :)

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #16

Recently, I have been given two "new" film SLR cameras and some camera accessories by a kind heart. Part of those accessories are close-up filters. Last weekend, we roamed the streets of downtown Cebu and did some street photography... I used the "new" Nikon SLR camera that I have. I had problems with the controls since I was so used to Canon for 5 years... My wide angle shots were mostly off. The macro shots were quite passable however... Here's one of those close-up shots....

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #15

Sauté. The aroma of garlic and onions is perhaps the most vivid scent that I remember from my childhood.

Sautéing garlic and onions fills an important role in Philippine cuisines and in the history of Filipino cooking…

Imagine how reliving it may have been for the tired and wounded Katipuneros when Melchora Aquino decided to slaughter and cook her many domestic animals to feed them. Surely, the smell of garlic and onions sizzling in oil would have signaled relief.



Communal cooking characterizes Filipino feasts. In times and in places where catering services were unheard of, cooking is done in the yard. Having been gifted with the time and in a place when this was practiced (and it still is), it was pure delight to walk the streets during fiestas and to smell the aroma of food wafting in the air. It was an olfactory high. Of course, prominent in the scents is the smell of sautéed garlic and onions.



In family celebrations and even in sad times, again in a not so distant time and place, cooking awakened helpful spirits. Neighbors seemed to be duty bound to help. The parade of men and women carrying woks, large cauldrons and ladles was a common sight.  The aroma of sautéed garlic and onions would mean a feeding of the bayanihan spirit.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #14

I have been quite busy these past days that I was not able to post any pictures. I am supposed to conclude the Ilocos series with another post. Will publish it soon...

In the meantime, let me share my very first shots of the sunrise while in midair inside a plane...



After a few minutes, here's the sun in the sea of thin clouds...



Have a great Thursday morning!!!

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #13

Hanging rice or puso are fist-sized pouches of young (or yellow) coconut palm leaves containing cooked rice.

The yellow coconut leaves are woven into pouches where grains of rice are placed and boiled. For lack of a direct translation, they were called "hanging rice" because they are often seen dangling or "hanging" from a bamboo stand. And along with this distinguishing quality, puso are best for mobile meals.

Puso is also a means of livelihood for poor Cebuanos. Walking through alleys in major public markets in Cebu, one would always see puso delivered smoking hot to food stalls along the streets selling barbecue and other grilled food, although puso are not limited to this kind of food selection. They also go well with a selection of stews.

Puso is an integral part of the culture of the Cebuanos. Through the years, it has become a symbol of the life and living of the Cebuano - always on the move and highly adaptable.

(Featured here is a lady preparing the yellow fist-sized pouches, in Olango Island, Cebu.)

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #12

Let's go back to Inghoy, Alegria, Cebu.

Look closely at the boy in yellow basketball trunks. Look closely also on transparent figure imposed on him.

When this picture was taken the boy was traying to spray some water on the girl swimming near the rock where he stood.

I was waiting for that big spray from his feet. Sadly my shutter came in too late and the image was slightly blurred.

The boy did not jump into the water.

No manipulations done. My word of honor.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #10

Chance is always powerful.
Let your hook be always cast;
In the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.
- Ovid, Roman poet (43 BC - 17 AD)

This is one of my favorite pictures in my stock. This was taken sometime in May, 2005.

While strolling along the outskirts of Ilaya in Lapulapu City, I passed by a man squatting in the side of the road dike, fishing in the cleared-out mangrove swamp of the now abandoned Coral Reef Hotel. He was having a blast as his hook does not stay long in the water. Fish kept on biting for their doom. I chatted with him for a while and when he warmed up to me I asked if I could take a picture of one of his catch.

The fish was very much alive when the picture was taken. It flipped out of the man's palm several times and he kept on picking it up. This explains the grains of sand in his fingers.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #9

Work is love made visible...

You work that you may keep peace with the earth and the soul of the earth.

And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret...

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself and to one another, and to God.

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

-Excerpts from The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

A vegetable farmer in Mantalongon, Dalaguete is shown going down the heights of Osmeña Peak.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #8

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thru' chinks of his cavern.  - William Blake

 

Taken inside a cave in Argao, Cebu, Philippines. The cave has an opening in its ceiling about 200 meters from the cave's mouth. The cave's mouth is literally on the walls of a cliff. When we entered, the cave's floor is slightly flooded in shallow water after some consecutive days of heavy rains. This picture is from our second visit to this cave locally known as "Balay sa Agta".

Agta or kapre (in our national language) is a mythological monster. Characterized as a tree dwelling elemental with human characteristics, seers of this being describe it as a tall (reaching up to 9 ft), brown and hairy man. Most of the time he is depicted as having a beard. The kapre is always "seen" dwelling in big trees smoking using a big tobacco pipe or just rolled tobacco.

To illustrate why this cave is called as the house of the kapre, the second picture gives scale as to how high its ceiling is. In the picture taken during our first visit is fellow photographer Al Michael with our local guide.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #7

Francis Magalona, a Filipino rapper, actor, host, producer, writer and photographer, diagnosed with leukemia last year, died Friday at 12:20 pm at the Medical City hospital in Pasig City. He was 44 years old.

I am not into rap music. I am not a friend of Francis M. I am one of those who admire this guy for his love of the Philippines and for his pride as a Filipino. This is evident in the songs he composed and recorded. I admire him for his optimism and courage amidst hist trials.

Francis M, you will be missed! Thank you for sharing your well-lived life.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #6

When you build bridges you can keep crossing them.
- Rick Pitino, Lead to Success


The Marcelo Fernan Bridge during late dusk... This is one of two bridges connecting the island of Mactan to Mainland Cebu...

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #5

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
- Saint Francis of Assisi

The blue candles of Simala, Cebu...

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #4

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope. - John Buchan

Along the shores of Olango Island in Cebu, locals can be seen catching fish trapped in shallow waters during low tide.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #3

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.
- Harriet Van Horne

In rural areas in the country, kitchens would always have a dapug - the Hiligaynon word for a raised platform in the kitchen where cooking is done by fire through earthen stoves. The floor of the platform has layers of hard-pressed soil and ashes. Pots and pans are placed underneath or hanged on the sides. On top of the dapug are stacked firewood supported by widely spaced bamboo slits for flooring. The wood are left to dry by smoke and heat.

 

Featured is my aunt cooking in her kitchen's dapug lighted by a kerosene lamp. Fried rice was on the menu that night complemented by boiled eggs and dried dilis (anchovies) saute'd in garlic, onions and tomatoes seasoned with vinegar and soy sauce.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #2

Planting (rice) is never fun,
Back's bent from dawn 'till set of sun.
Cannot sit and cannot stand - bending all day is never fun...

Just a loose translation of the first stanza of the song Magtanim ay Di Biro.

After all the hardships of planting rice, the farmer is supposedly rewarded by a bountiful harvest - and rest...

For the second picture in this series, here's a rice farmer resting after a harvest.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #1

For years now, I have captured many, many images on film during my short travels. Some of them, while not well within my standards, have this factor of amusingness. Some do convey something about the Filipino culture. Some do declare issues.

Every picture has a story to tell, but there are pictures that narrate more worthwhile stories. Let's allow them to do so... So, from time to time, I'll be posting images that fit into this category.

For the maiden issue, I present Gaisano Sta. Rosa...



Gaisano is one of the largest chain of stores and malls in the country. Sta. Rosa is a baranggay in the bird sanctuary island of Olango, Cebu. I was surprised and delighted that a branch of this large store chain sprouted in this part of the island.

 

Special thanks to DFish for the idea on this series.