fire dancing

Hello, I just got back from my short break late last night. I actually visited my favorite island, Boracay, and I also visited my mom.

One of the activities that usually takes place at night in Boracay is fire dancing at the beach. The performer holds in both hands a "poi" which is a pair of chain which has lighted wicks at the other end. He/she then swings around this pair of chain as he/she dances to the rhythm of drums and music.

During daytime, the performers actually willingly teach any interested group the fundamentals of fire dancing. I tried my hand at this but could not synchronize the movements of my right and left hands. Ha ha. We did not use actual fire of course. We just used strips of cloth attached to chains.

taking a short break

Hi, I will be out of town for a few days and may not have access to an internet. Will be back next week.

another view of my hometown

This is the only pier in my hometown. It is not only used for docking of ships, boats and ferries but also as vantage point for watching the sunset. Of course I took this picture in the morning, not at sunset.

By the way, the pier also serves as destination point of a leisurely walk around town. This is where we usually take in deep breaths of fresh air from the sea. Then after the sun has set, we pass by one of the nearby stores and get some refreshments of mixed iced sweets or what we call as "halo-halo". If ever you come to the Philippines, this is something that I highly recommend you should taste.

bird's eye view

This is Boracay (my favorite island here in the Philippines) in "bird's eye view". I am going back there with my daughter next week, so I thought of sharing another view of the island. This was taken from the plane as we were about to land.

It was late afternoon and the skies were cloudy, so light is not very good. However, one can still see the beauty of the island. Right?

vanishing point 2

A visitor asked last time how my "vanishing point" photo would look in black and white. So what I'm sharing today is the result of converting that photo into black and white. What do you think?

stained glass window

This is the stained glass window of the church in my former university. The stone in the middle is an architectural fountain that serves as the church's font. The effect is rather striking, don't you agree?

vanishing point

One composition tip that makes a landscape more interesting is to add a vanishing point. This is usually created by looking for leading lines that vanish somewhere into the horizon.

This photo I'm sharing today shows this effect.

back to my fav "model"

I felt like going back to my favorite "model" today, so here you are... a flower with another fav ... a raindrop.

Flowers and raindrops are really my favorite subjects in photography. So I hope you don't mind that I am sharing this fav once more. When I cannot decide what photo to share for the day, I always go back to my fav "model" - a flower. If it has a raindrop on it, then it's a bonus for me.

By the way, this flower's scientific name is Euphorbia milii.

this time it's a diptch

This time I'm sharing a "diptch" or "diptych". I just thought that if there is a tryptch, then there must be a "diptch" or a "tetratych" for that matter.

When I "googled", I discovered that there is indeed a "diptch" and even a "tetratych". In "flckr" for example, there are groups that are devoted to sharing "diptch", "tryptch", and "tetratych". So I got more inspiration from them.

Now I'm wondering if there is a "quintatych?" Hmm... time to google again...

I love visiting websites and discovering new ways of taking and presenting pictures.

Tryptch

A friend is working with tryptchs in wood art and I was inspired to try it in photos.

I “googled” images of tryptchs (even spelling varies... triptych, tryptch, tryptich) and found many variations.

Originally, they are supposed to be 3 related images joined together by hinges but again there are many variations.

So what I am sharing today is one of the results of trying to make a tryptch. What do you think?