www.PostcardsFromManila.com
The advantage of driving the countryside is that you not only get to see all sorts of things along the way, you get to see life, specially the simple version.
We were driving home through the town of Bugallon in Pangasinan, minding our own business, when we saw a farmer with his beasts in tow. We slammed on the brakes. Huh? It's a man with three cows. But hey, we're city-slickers, we've never patted a real cow before. Besides, we want to know what he's up to.
With a smile from ear-to-ear and looking like he'd just had a great nap... "I'm from that small baranggay back there", pointing to a stand of trees on the horizon behind him. "And I'm going to take my cows to drink from that pond over there." he said, "I do it several times a day specially when it's hot like today." And "No, I don't know who owns that pond. I think it's public." With that statement, and after posing for some more pictures, he walked his cows right onto the water's edge where they slurped-away with abandon...
Our world runs on oil, but his' runs on the sweat of his brows. One day we all hope to retire to such a simpler and slower life... of living on a farm... taking long lazy naps... and then walking our beasts to water... er.. but wait... isn't he already doing that today? And we thought we had it all planned out... Enjoy.
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Hi Bobby, what strikes me about this picture is not only the perspective from which you took it, but the clarity of the blue sky and the main focus of the shot, the cows themselves. You must be a very experienced photographer with a very camera. What kind of camera, may i ask, do you use? or did you use for these shots? All my friends join me in admiring your work! Ral David
ReplyDeleteral477@gmail.com
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ReplyDeleteHi Rogelio, thanks for dropping me a note. All photos on this site, including this latest one, had been taken with a 3-year old Canon 5D. In truth, it's not hard to take photos like these when the light is just right, and IMO any other brand or model would have given similar results! Enjoy. Bobby
ReplyDeleteyou shoot beautiful pictures. just wondering what camera you use.
ReplyDeleteMarian
Toronto, Canada
What filters, aperture and speed adjustments did you use? I've film and digital cameras, Nikon F3 and D-5000 but I prefer the old film Nikon.
ReplyDeleteYou take beautiful photographs and I enjoyed your commentaries. I've been traipsing all over the world but have not done a grand tour of the Philippines, your photos moved me to do it next year, in February, and see the Philippines from Batanes to Jolo.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
The darker colord grass(?) neatly framed the subjects against the lighter ones.
ReplyDeleteVery inspiring capture of the countryside life.
May I ask up to what extent is the post processing?
Onwards and Forward!
RC
Hi thanks for everyone's comments. To answer the question on post-processing:
ReplyDelete1. No selective enhancements when processing images, i.e., I do not adjust one part of the picture and then not the other. No dodging, no burning, no HDR.
2. No cropping. Images are the way they look when they were taken, except in instances when, in my haste, I get the horizon tilted, then I have to straighten it out.
3. Yes to getting the gray-balance correct by shooting a gray card at the time of capture.
4. Yes to global enhancements to fix limitations of today's digital cameras: some saturation boost, light raw conversion sharpening, and any exposure correction if needed. The goal is to restore what I remember the scene to be.
5. Yes to resizing to display for the web.
Hope this helps.
The "cow" on the left looks to me liek a male "cow", if I remember correctly from my days on the farm during WWII wartime in Iloilo....
ReplyDeleteyou captivated the picture so welll, so impressing
ReplyDelete