dbgg1979

Of the 8 well visited natural caves in the Camotes Islands, the Bukilat cave is the grandest and most visited cave. It is one of the major tourist spots of Camotes. The interior is illuminated by light coming from the entrance and the crevices on the ceiling portion of the cave. The water level change with the tides of the sea. Tourists and locals usually come here when the tide is high. Some choose to swim in the water whenever its high tide. You might want to consider that when you are planning to take a photo without people in the cave. The cave is very accessible. You only need to go down a stairway.

The cave was named after the person who discovered it, a local chief named Bukilat. During the World War II invasion and occupation by the Imperial Japanese Army, the locals used this cave as a shelter. And whenever the Imperial Japanese Army is involved, stories of buried treasures follow. It is believed that a treasure is hidden somewhere in this cave.

Camotes has so many known caves and there are probably so many more undiscovered caves underground. I stayed in Esperansa and their water source was from a spring inside a cave. I think the Camotes Islands have a huge network of caves underneath. I want to come back to this place and explore the rest of the caves particularly the crystal cave.

Notes:
I’ve done my research and checked the tides. I arrived just in time the water level was rising. There were only a few people inside so I did a quick scouting of the area, setup my gears and fired away. The stairway was behind me and people were already coming in. Luckily they stayed behind me and waited for me to finish.

Canon EOS 450D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm Kit Lens

Photo is geotagged using Geotag Pro for Android.

This is the resulting photo. This photo is related to my previous post. After setting up between the cliffs, I took some safe shots, bracketed shots and shots with the GND. And when I was done with taking photos, I decided to take a video of my setup. That’s the video you saw in the previous post. Then as I was packing up, I saw the first outrigger canoe (bangka). I don’t know how I did it but I was able to put back the 2 GNDs into the holder and the remote shutter cord in a very short time and I probably can’t do it again. I thought I didn’t make it because I already saw the bangka almost out of the frame. Then 2 more bangkas followed and I was just firing shots until all 3 passed my view. I was just smiling and thanking the Lord for a very productive day.

We’ve all done things we don’t normally do just to get that perfect shot. Here I wanted to frame the sunset between the cliff on the left side and the huge rock ont he right. So I setup my tripod in between. And the only way I can properly compose the photo was to do the same. I was probably 8 meters above the ground below. For some reason it doesn’t look that way in the video, it must be the perspective. Maybe if I had someone else took the video from a distance then it’ll be clear how high I was from the ground. I stayed like this for the duration. Taking breaks every 5 or 10 minutes. Until I was beyond the golden hour.

When the boat docked at the port of Ormoc, I was hoping the skies would be clear so I can finally get a good sunrise photo of the Ormoc Bay. Unfortunately it was cloudy and raining. I decided to wait for the rain to stop. I got nowhere else to go anyway. Most of the restaurants were still closed and my family were still on their way to Ormoc City from Bontoc, Southern Leyte. After a few minutes, the rain stopped and the skies slowly cleared up. The silhouette of the mountain ranges and the fishing boat caught my attention. I decided to take out my camera and take shots. I’m glad I waited out the rain.

Canon EOS 450D
Canon EF 28-70 f2.8 L
2 x GND filters

Fish is a staple diet of 1 in 5 humans around the world. At this rate, we are exhausting the fish population. This fisherman set out early hoping to get to the best spots early and get a good catch. For most of us, as our day ends, theirs just started. They work all night and get home at dawn. Their work doesn’t end at the shore, they still need to sell the fish while its still fresh. An endless cycle.