Category Archives: Landscape

Drawing First Blood with the Panasonic Lumix LX5

Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, Philippines (23 August 2011) — I got my Panasonic Lumix LX-5 today and brought it out for a spin to draw first blood. I haven’t fully explored the features of the camera but I’m confident I will be able to familiarize myself with the camera features in time. I just love the wide-angle lens of the Lumix LX-5 and the maximum aperture opening of f/2.0. My preference has always been on the wide-angle side over the telephoto side of shooting.

When I started to play around with digital, I started with a borrowed P&S Canon G3 and every now and then I get to use a G5. My first ever paid shoot was with a borrowed Canon G5. Even when I already had my own DSLR, I still would shot with a P&S (in most cases a borrowed one). There is something about shooting with digital P&S (or at least a P&S size digital camera but with controls same as DSLRs). For one, the weight is not a problem and this includes storage and handling. As soon as a photographic opportunity shows up, one can just start shooting right away. Secondly, there are types or angles of shots that is easier achieved with a smaller and lighter camera. The size too of a digital P&S removes the intimidation factor when shooting in a public and crowded place. Take out a “big black box” SLR and questions like “why are you taking pictures?” or “What purpose is your picture-taking for?” will surely be asked of you and this already disturbs the moment. People around you tend to immediately put themselves “on guard”. The spontaneity of the moment is lost.

This time around, now that I have my own P&S, the LX-5 will be my all-around, walk-around camera. The SLRs will still be used but for specialized shooting assignments. Here are some sample photos taken during the break-in of the camera:

Nuestra Seniora El Triunfo Del La Cruz

Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental, Mindanao, Philippines (02 August 2011)– I’m back home for now. It’s always nice to be back home. I’m taking this time to sort through the photos I have taken during my recently completed road trip to Ozamiz and Pagadian Cities and at least post this blog. The second leg of my travel (to the Southern and SouthCentral part of Mindanao) was postponed to next week. Here are some shots from a quick trip to a historic (250-year-old that is) site in Ozamiz City.

A colleague and I finished our data gathering work in one of the local community weekly paper in Ozamiz City so we had time to spare to go around the city. With the assistance of a guide (a Ozamiz based journalist) we had a quick tour of the historic Nuestra Seniora El Triunfo Del La Cruz or Our Lady of the Triumph of the Cross.  The Nuestra is an old fortress or barracks built by the Spaniards in 1756 to house soldiers that guard the coast of Misamis Occidental from marauding raiders from the Province of Lanao.

For many years,  I thought this landmark in Ozamiz was just a lighthouse. I discovered during the quick tour that the lighthouse is not the main attraction. The lighthouse is just but a fixture on one side of the fortress and serves as a guide for incoming vessels to the port of Ozamiz.  Nuestra Seniora is basically composed of a fort with its Southern wall (the wall directly facing the port) having a shrine of Our Lady. In recent years, the Catholic Church built an outdoor chapel fronting the image of Our Lady. This place is now called the Shrine by the locals and is visited by devotees daily.

The fortress has almost the same design as the famous walled city of Manila (Intramuros).  The first obvious difference is the size. The Ozamiz fort is significantly smaller than Intramuros. Unlike Intramuros wherein the Spaniards designed the wall to protect a settlement, the walls of the Ozamiz fort were designed and built basically as a military base. Its location is strategically placed facing the Panguil Bay opposite the Province of Lanao del Norte.

Exploring Digital Monochrome

Being on leave from work, I had more time to indulge in photography. I have been shooting digital for almost five years now and the default mode for shooting has been shooting in color. Black and white photography in the digital age has, for me, always been converting colored captured images into black and white utilizing a post processing software. When I was starting out in digital photography, I would read from photography websites and I would hear from photographer friends that shooting black and white digitally is better done by shooting in color and converting the image.

Since I had the time during my break, I experimented shooting not in color but in monochrome mode. Adjusting my camera’s shooting mode to monochrome, I made a walk around our garden and came up with these shots.

Shooting in monochrome somehow made me feel like shooting film again. In the time of film, if you load a b/w film, you will be stuck with this till the roll is finished. One is forced to see in b/w. This is just me, but I think it would be good to use the monochrome mode of one’s camera if one wants to shoot black and white. Whatever you capture will definitely be in monochrome and can no longer be changed – just like in the days of film.