119/365 - Collecting Sea Shells

29 April 2010

Another "supposed to be a rest day" for Day 119, but there was a power interruption, and having a chit-chat with Aunt Jo and Cousin Dang somehow made its way to us talking about Cousin Dang's boyfriend. Next thing I know my cousin was asking me, "Would you like us to visit him in his work place?" Questions like that you don't have to ask me, because I will seriously agree to it. Us three (cousin Dang, niece Grace, and I) immediately geared up for another walkathon (a term I use for long walks).

After a little rest following lunch at a hut by the sea side, we decided to walk back home. Since my cousin has gathered some sea shells, her boyfriend decided to guide us to a different route home. We walked along the sea side (never minding if we got wet) to the other side of the mountain where we saw a family busy collecting sea shells. These sea shells they will either eat for dinner or sell to have some money. Seeing this old woman gather sea shells by digging into the wet sand caught my eye and I just took pictures of her. She knows I was taking pictures of her, but she didn't mind. I guess my cousin telling them I'm a "travel writer" just gave me the license to shoot their pictures.

...or maybe they weren't just used to having their pictures taken that they just liked the idea of them being photographed. :)

*** Jenn ***

118/365 - The Starfish Guardian

28 April 2010

We made a visit to Aunt Gayang's son and his family in Siapar, located in the nearby town of Anda. Still taking my reason for having a vacation here, the family took "me" to this island somewhere in the middle of the sea, where waters surrounding the island were so low people can actually enjoy the time being in the middle of the sea! :) The adults gathered sea shells, and the kids - well that's Grace and this little girl in the picture, Filipa - just enjoyed the waters and played as if the whole sea was their playground.

After lunch, they were able to get some small starfishes somewhere in the sandy part of the water, and taking the starfishes they collected, they placed it in the rocky sea bed where water was much clearer. What Filipa did was dump the starfishes in front of her, rinse off the sand one starfish after another and transfer them to her right side. The starfishes were a bit too difficult to see because of the color of the stones, the water and the bright sunlight, but seeing her taking care of the starfishes was just cute.

*** Jenn ***

117/365 - Sunset Boating

27 April 2010

After a very tiring trip to Patar and to some places in the town of Bolinao, Day 117 was supposed to be a "rest day" for me... until I asked my niece Grace if she would like to walk to Macallawan to take pictures of the sunset. She was happy with the idea, so around 4:30PM, we walked more than a kilometer to the old Macallawan Port. Things seemed to have changed since I last took a picture of the sunset from this place... I guess the earth really had shifted its axis after the earthquake in Chile.

Anyway, my camera's batteries died on me after I took some images, but I was lucky to have taken this image. Grace and I were trying to balance ourselves in the rocks by the shore because we didn't really want to get wet. Through the dried branches of tree obstructing our way, I saw this man on his little boat. Instincts told me he might be someone catching crabs, and loving the tree branches adding drama to the background, I took a picture.

The walk back home was a bit tiring, but it was a sweet day.

*** Jenn ***

116/365 - Bolinao Lighthouse

26 April 2010

My Aunt Jo already knew that my main purpose of vacationing in Bolinao was to check out the sceneries and take pictures. She told it to cousin Dang (her eldest daughter and the eldest of us cousins), and in their efforts to make this vacation truly memorable, we went to the mainland to check the beaches. We didn't like the view from the first beach we went to so we hailed a tricycle to Patar. It was a very long trip, but somewhere along the way, I was able to see the lighthouse.

Ever since I could remember, I have already expressed my desires of seeing this lighthouse. At times, my brother and I would express our rants and disappointments of not being able to see the lighthouse despite the fact that our mother hailed from this town. Upon seeing the lighthouse from the tricycle, I knew I just had to make a way to take a picture of it.

Before going home from Patar Beach, we asked the tricycle driver to stop for a while as I take a picture of it. It was a very short visit, but seeing the lighthouse face to face was all worth the few seconds.

*** Jenn ***

115/365 - Pawis Men

25 April 2010

My niece Grace was so excited for us traveling to Bolinao because we could still check out the events for the Town Fiesta. We reached Bolinao around 1PM after six hours on the road, and after eating lunch, we pretty much just stayed by the auditorium because it was too humid and hot.

When it was time to take the boat ride to Santiago Island where my maternal family lives, we found out that there were still some events, one of which was their version of the dragon boat race. The only difference was that instead of using the elongated boat, they used a much bigger boat that would fit twenty participants. There were 5 groups competing, and even if we wanted to watch it, we just can't because the boat going to the island left a few minutes before the race started.

I took this picture while waiting for the boat by the port... the blue team just passed by going to their spot in the starting line of the race. I titled this picture "Pawis Men," because pawis is how people there call the boats.

*** Jenn ***

114/365 - Gathering Aratiles

24 April 2010

When I was still a young girl, I would gather aratiles (muntingia) from a tree in our neighbor's front yard. I don't know how to climb trees, but I did enjoy getting the little red fruits using a stick.

Day 114 was my Aunt Jo and niece Grace's stay in our house. Grace wanted to have her pictures printed so she could show it to her mom and sisters, so we went to the mall to have the pictures printed and to buy some things I could bring to Bolinao the next day. While walking out of the subdivision, we saw this big aratiles tree and seeing that there were kids up the tree gathering fruits, I quickly took my cell phone so I could capture the image.

Kids, Trees, Fun times. I guess that's what summer is all about.

*** Jenn ***

113/365 - Mother Earth

23 April 2010

I joined Kristi's Photo Hunt for the month of April and one of the items to hunt was "Mother Earth." There were so many ideas for this theme, but I decided to go a bit personal with this, so I decided to pull out a small plant in one of mom's pots (making sure I don't hurt the roots, of course) and placed it in my hand(s). Getting the shot was a bit tricky because I can only rely on myself to take the picture. What I did was, I sat on a chair fronting a desk, and using stacked books I set my camera to macro to get that blurred background effect and timed it to 10 seconds. The pictures were faith shots actually, because as soon as I hit the shutter, I could only hope that the plant in the foreground would be clear and me on the background will be blurred. Not that good of a shot, but still okay, I guess.

*** Jenn ***

112/365 - Congo Grille Dinner

22 April 2010

Day 112 was the day my Aunt Jo celebrated her birthday. It was the first time she celebrated her birthday here in our house, so we wanted it to be a little special. We all met at Congo Grille SM Fairview for dinner, and although we've dined there numerous times, today was something different because we ate different dishes. It was the first time I got to taste their fried chicken - just fine, nothing exceptional, but it was chicken, so I still loved it. :)

Happy birthday, Aunt Jo!

*** Jenn ***

111/365 - In His Shoulders

21 April 2010

I went to the market morning of Day 111 because our fridge was practically empty and that I don't know what to serve for lunch anymore. Going there, my sister and I took the tricycle, and going home, I decided to just walk, afterall, I wasn't able to jog with Ria that morning.

While walking home, I saw this man, carrying some goods in his shoulders. These goods he delivers to different small stores within the neighborhood, while some he sells as he walks around the neighborhood. Most of his goods were junkfoods - chips and candies, while some were different cooking ingredients like noodles and spices.

Even with the cell phone, I was still a little apprehensive in taking pictures of random people. We were in different parts of the road, but I acted as if I was texting so no one would notice I was taking a picture. This one's actually cropped, the original picture was in portrait orientation and that the man was very much at the top part of the image. When can I get a little confident about this kind of photography? Only time will tell.

*** Jenn ***