Coron in Lomo

This another picture-heavy post. I got my films processed the other day and I thought I’d share some of my favorite shots from the set. For non-lomo pictures of Coron, please click here. To those who don’t know, lomography (lomo for short) is photography using point and shoot film toy cameras. Here’s a little background info about lomo from lomography.com:

It was in the early 1990s when two students in Vienna, Austria, discovered a small enigmatic Russian camera, the Lomo Kompakt Automat, and started a new style of artistic experimental photography of unorthodox snapshots. In the blink of an eye the Lomographic message spread around the planet and people from North to South were screaming for Lomo LC-A’s. So they hopped on a plane, flew to St. Petersburg and negotiated a contract for the worldwide distribution of this fantastic little camera.

Click on any of the pictures below to see larger images.

Here’s the view from my seat in the plane (Camera: Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, Film: Fuji Sensia):

The cross on top of Mt. Tapyas, which was totally worth the more than 700 steps we took to get there (Camera: Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, Film: Fuji Sensia):

The next one is a shot of the beach in Calumbayan Island (Camera: Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, Film: Fuji Velvia). I like the effect of the branches of the trees and the shadows that they cast:

And since I loved Malcapuya Island, here are two pictures of that place. First one was taken using my Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim with a Kodak Elitechrome film and the other was taken using my Fisheye2 and a Fuji Sensia film.

Hope you like these shots! Comments are always welcome. 🙂

Coron

I finally finished organizing the pictures from our trip and I thought I’d post several of my favorite pictures just to give you guys an idea of how beautiful Coron is. Coron is a municipality of the province of Palawan, an hour or so away by plane from Manila. Here’s more information from Wikipedia:

The municipality covers part of Busuanga Island and all of the nearby Coron Island. Both islands are part of the Calamian Group of Islands in northern Palawan. The main industries of Coron are fishing and tourism, being a popular diving location. The aquatic views from the sunken Japanese warships off Coron Island are listed in Forbes Traveler Magazine’s top 10 best scuba diving sites in the world.

We went to several islands in Coron and although we didn’t go diving, we went snorkeling in most of the sights. I was amazed at how alive and vibrant the underwater life there was. We also got to see three shipwrecks and one was even close enough to touch. We couldn’t help but sing “Part of Your World” from Little Mermaid while snorkeling because it just fit the experience. I’m really not a good swimmer but I really enjoyed the snorkeling aspect of this trip. And the beaches are nice! Fine white sand and clear waters.

Here are the pictures. Click on them to make them larger. The first one is the view from our plane when we were about to land. I think it’s pretty neat, it looks like a map.

The next one is from one of my favorite sites – Kayangan Lake. I read from somewhere that Kayangan Lake is the clearest lake in the Philippines and I’m not surprised. It was refreshing to swim there.

Next is a picture of me feeding fishes! I love this picture.

I took a lot of underwater pictures during our trip and was amazed at how clear some of the pictures were. My camera isn’t waterproof so I just used a clear plastic pouch for it. Here’s a picture of the corals:

This is a picture of the beach in Calumbayan Island, where we had lunch on our third day:

Last but certainly not the least is Malcapuya Island, where we spent a whole day just relaxing and enjoying the beach.

Let me know what you think of these pictures. I’m going to upload more after my lomo films have been processed.

I’m back!

I’m back from Coron and I had an amazing time! It’s such a beautiful place and I’m glad I got to go there before it becomes commercialized. Coron’s becoming a popular destination lately because of the diving and snorkeling sites. There were a lot of foreigners there so I have a feeling the place will be further developed to serve tourists. Here’s a picture of me reading on the beach:

I was reading Unwind in that picture. I finished reading the book in that beach and I’ll try to post a review soon. I was so excited when I got back because I had a package from Celina waiting for me. I received the following books:

Yay, I now have the complete Samaria and Chrestomanci series. And she let me borrow her copy of The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. Thanks Celina! 🙂 Also waiting for me was a notice from the post office to pick up a package that arrived from abroad. That’s the custom here in the Philippines, when a package is sent from abroad, you have to go and pick it up in the nearest post office. I went there and saw that the package was from my friend Moses in Australia! Guess what it contained? Books of course! I got the following:

Aren’t they pretty? These editions aren’t available here. UK editions are so nice. Thank you for the belated birthday present, Moses! 🙂

So I’m excited to read my new books but I haven’t decided what to read next. I’m going to upload more pictures from my trip as soon as I have them organized and when I get my lomo films processed. I need to catch up on my Goodreads groups, Google Reader backlogs and my LJ friends’ page. I also need to watch this week’s episodes of Glee, How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory. I haven’t even started reading a new book. I can’t decide what to read next! Any suggestions?

Off to Palawan!

It’s summer here in the Philippines and the weather’s perfect for a beach trip. I’m going to Palawan for a couple of days with my friends. It’s my first beach trip of the year and my first time to go Palawan and I’m real excited. So I won’t be able to make any blog posts until the end of next week.

For book-related news, I already mentioned that I’ve imposed a book buying ban this May. So much for that! It’s just the first day of the month and I already bought Eyes Like Stars earlier today. I couldn’t help it! I was waiting for the hardcover ever since it came out but it never became available here so I was excited to see the paperback. Anyway, I’m bring Unwind and Pride and Prejudice with me although I know that I won’t be doing much reading while on vacation. These two books are the assigned monthly reads for two of my Goodreads groups.

With that, I leave you with lomo pictures from past beach trips:
Capones, Zambales
Taken using my Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim and Kodak Elitechrome

Pundaquit, Zambales
Taken using my Fisheye2 and Fuji Sensia

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!