Philippines Travel Blog

I think it’s inevitable that when one starts dabbling in a travel related blog or website, photography almost always follows suit. Which is what exactly happened to me. I started this blog to show off some parts of the Philippines that are not usually highlighted in most websites or publications owing to either issues with proximity, or issues with safety. Along the way, I had to take pictures to show how beautiful these off the beaten path places are.

My pet province so far has been Surigao. And though certain parts of this province has received international attention, Siargao immediately comes to mind, the rest of the local tourist spots have been suffering in silence, relegated to playing second or third fiddle to their more marketed neighbor. Which is such a shame really considering that these places are really, really awesome and could give some of the more popular Philippines tourist spots a run for their money.

But back to photography. I started taking pictures of my travels using a 3.5 megapixel Kodak digital camera. I thought it was the bomb back then, though now this is certainly laughable considering that that camera can’t even be re-charged! I had to buy 2 triple A batteries overtime I think about using it. Still those were the fun days. You know, taking pictures just for the sake of the moment. The pictures were taken merely for documentation purposes, you know, just to show that you were really there and not just blowing smoke.

After a visit to Singapore, I decided to go a little more high-tech (though not as high-tech as I should have) and go for the more sophisticated Sony Cybershot DSC-H7. I didn’t really care for DSLRs back then, thinking that those digital monsters are way beyond my budget. Ironically the cost of the Sony Cybershot DSC-H7 would have purchased an entry-level DSLR had I given it a little thought. But no matter, the H7 was portable, packed a mean 18x zoom and makes a nice little Sony sound.

I got disenchanted with it when I started photographing action shots. I found that I’m always left behind, courtesy of slow shutter-speed and all that. I tried photographing wakeboarding maniacs once and my photographs were left showing mist and blue skies. It just couldn’t keep up!

It took me a whole year, well almost a year, to finally land a really nice prosumer camera, the Canon EOS 7D. A really, really sweet piece of equipment but built like a tank. Everything about it is perfect. From the sound that it makes to the strength needed to hold it up for a day. It is one beautiful monster.

Now I’m seeing a marked improvement in my pictures. But really, when your baseline is the floor, there’s really no way to go but up.

Hopefully, I will be able to seamlessly integrate posts related to photography here in this decidedly travel blog. I may just have to restrain myself from putting it up as a featured post. Well, unless there’s one really cool picture associated with it.