Perched on one of Guimaras island’s highest points, Valley Verde Mountain Resort offers wonderful views of a jungle-covered valley with Lawi Bay in the distance.
Tourists usually flock to Guimaras for its picturesque beaches, but unlike the many crowded beaches nearby, Valley Verde offers many undiscovered secrets and solitude in a lush, green setting.
This was the view I had while I enjoyed a wonderful Filipino lunch.
Travel question of the day: So what was your most picturesque dining experience?
Happy Travels!
Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography
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I’m still here!
I guess I have to come up with another excuse for my long absence from Flickr. Here it goes.
I was in Washington, DC for a work related trip earlier this month. I was there for an annual convention but I mainly did a lot of video work. I did manage to get ONE decent photograph of the Washington Memorial. Last week I took an amazing trip along the coastal areas of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. I came back with some amazing images and a gut full of grease from all that wonderful southern cooking.
It was a perfect week for photography in the Carolinas and Georgia with gorgeous weather in the mid 60s and 70s with no humidity. When I flew back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin the other day I was welcomed home with 20-degree weather and falling snow. I was blasted back into reality when I had to dig my car out from the snow and scrape chunks of ice off my windshield in the airport parking lot.
So once again I’m motivated to post photos from a warm weather climate like my trip to the Philippines last year.
On the beautiful island of Guimaras is the Raymen Beach Resort, which is popular with locals on the weekend. Unfortunately I didn’t stay here too long as this was the jumping off point to board our boat to tour the nearby islands.
As I write this its 30-degrees outside with snow on the ground and looking at this photograph just brings a smile to my face.
Happy Travels!
Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography
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"To feel at home, stay home. A foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It's designed to make its own people comfortable." - Clifton Fadiman
With its laid back atmosphere, friendly people, and English as its second official language, the Philippines is a great traveler's destination but somehow it has been overlooked for its other Asian neighbors. The Philippines is the only predominant Christian country in South East Asia with over 80% over adhering to Roman Catholicism.
I spent the day wandering along Panay’s southwest coast which is dotted with small towns, picturesque beaches and beautiful Spanish churches.
In between the towns of Tigbauan and Guimbal I saw these fishermen returning to the beach and was attracted to their colorful boats lining the shore.
To many people the islands of the Philippines are a magical place and a well-kept secret for seasoned travelers.
Happy Travels!
Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography
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On my third trip to the Philippines I brought with me something that I didn’t have on my previous two trips (to be fair I was only six years old on my first trip) - a camera tripod.
I wanted to engage in some serious “fine art” photography while on this trip and that meant shooting during sunrise, sunset and dusk all requiring a tripod. So I lugged my Manfrotto tripod from San Diego, CA to Iloilo City, Philippines.
In the end my tripod spent more time in my suitcase rather than being firmly planted on the ground supporting my camera. In between family get togethers, extended meals and getting to know Mr. San Miguel (a Filipino beer) very well, I was only able to squeeze in one night of dusk photography.
I shot this on a pedestrian bridge right outside my hotel. If you blink fast enough you won’t see the telephone wires obscuring your view!
Next time the tripod stays home.
Happy Travels!
Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography
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I’m really slow.
So was the lens I used to shoot this photograph.
First things first.
It’s been exactly a year since my trip to the Philippines and I’m just beginning to upload the majority of my photos.
So call me slow.
I did put together a travel portrait gallery entitled: Everyone has a Story: The Faces of the Philippines. You can view that HERE.
What’s even slower is the Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) MACRO Lens (say that twenty times and see if that doesn’t slow you down).
With the f/stop range of 3.5-6.3 and knowing that Tamron lens are slow to focus, I still felt compelled to buy this lens for my Philippines trip. I would be shooting in hot, dusty and crowded places so I opted for the all in one Tamron super zoom lens rather than bringing three different lenses. After all, Tamron hailed it as “The Ultimate All-In-One Zoom: Longest, Steadiest Lens On Earth.” With a claim like that how could you not hand over your credit card number to Tamron?
While the lens did its job in helping me capture some great moments, its slow focusing system left me frustrated most of the time (thankfully I left most of those frustrations at the bottom of a San Miguel beer bottle).
It did deliver on this shot of this pump boat I took returning from Guimaras Island.
Guimaras is a hidden gem of the Philippine archipelago. It is only a fifteen minute pump boat ride from Iloilo City but a world apart from big city life.
Looking back the Tamron “slow” lens forced me to travel slower and be more cultural aware. To take a more deliberate approach in photographing the Filipino people rather than a “run and gun” approach.
So not only does slow and steady win the race but it also captures compelling images.
Happy Travels!
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