Postcards from the village (1)

Barangay San Francisco, Bulusan

Weaving karagumoy hats is a major livelihood activity in Kapangihan also known as Barangay San Francisco in Bulusan. To supplement the harvests of coconut and pili nuts in the area, women make hats almost daily that can fetch at around 7.50pesos each. Weavers average to about 10 hats a day minimum.

Karagumoy hat weaving is a traditional craft that dates back in the early 1900. Early Chinese merchants of Bulusan were the first to trade the hats that continues up to the present.

As the karagumoy hats become an established commodity being traded in town, cultivation of karagumoy in farm patches became the norm. It is common to see karagumoy, an indigenous plant  from the pandan family, inter cropped between coconut and pili in almost all agricultural patches of land in Bulusan.

Photos: Alma P. Gamil
Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines

Bulusan Lake sans the colored boats

In my recent visit (August 8, 2014) to Bulusan Lake, I challenged myself to compose a shot of Bulusan Lake without the ubiquitous colored boats. This is to veer away from the too cliched photos coming out in various tourist promotions about the lake with the colored boats prominently displayed on its serene waters.

Focusing on the natural beauty of the lake and its surroundings without the artificial trappings -- this was my mental guide as I walk slowly along the trail around the lake to find the spot. 

The above photo is the resulting image. Bulusan Lake photographs itself literally. A beauty.

Photo: Alma P. Gamil

Location: Bulusan Volcano Natural Park, Bulusan, Sorsogon

               Philippines

Raw snippets of the July 12 supermoon in Bulusan

Despite the limited zoom  of  my camera, I have finally captured the July 12 full moon after a series of failed attempts of shooting the full moon for the past several months this year. Said to be a supermoon plus the clear weather these coincidences on the exact day of the full moon made me feel extra lucky.

I have however 2 more supermoons to look forward to this year -- on August 11 and September 9. I hope by this time my zoom power will be powerful enough for closer shots.

All of the above photos were taken at the serene ambiance of Villa Luisa Celeste Resort in Bulusan, Sorsogon on July 12, 2014.

Photos: Alma P. Gamil
            Bulusan, Sorsogon

Community Portraits

Memorable summer for these young locals enjoying cozy afternoon moments at the beach, Dancalan, Bulusan, 2013.

Drawing sand graffiti is playtime for kids at the seawall, Barangay Dapdap, Bulusan, 2013.

Candelaria celebration in Bulusan,  Feburary 2014.

Guest bikers wait for the go signal at the start of the Bulusan Mountain Bike Challenge  2013.

Happy hat weavers of Barangay Mabuhay in Bulusan, 2013.

Photographs by Alma P. Gamil

Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines

Mindful along the road

Bulusan is a visual community that can inspire so many photographs even those coming from an amateur like myself. Photography is the main reason why I created this blog. To be true to this site's original calling, I will be converting this site into a gallery of photos from my hometown Bulusan.

'Mindful along the road' will be my first set.

Countryside, Bulusan, February 2014.

Overlooking an old lava flow, Sitio Porog, Bulusan, 2014. 

Bulusan Volcano, February 2014.

Coconut grove, Dancalan, Bulusan, February 2014.

Road view, Dancalan, Bulusan, February 2014.

Photographs by Alma P. Gamil
Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines, February 2014

Happy Three Kings Day!

"Their humble courage was what enabled them to bend down before the child of poor people and to recognize in him the promised King, the one they had set out, on both their outward and their inward journey, to seek and to know."

Photo by Alma P. Gamil
Bulusan, Sorsogon, 1st Sunday of January, 2014

Insight from Wendell Berry

Composite mountains of  Bulusan Volcano

"I am speaking of the life of a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children; who has undertaken to cherish it and do it no damage, not because he is duty-bound, but because he loves the world and loves his children; whose work serves the earth he lives on and from and with, and is therefore pleasurable and meaningful and unending; whose rewards are not deferred until "retirement," but arrive daily and seasonally out of the details of the life of their place; whose goal is the continuance of the life of the world, which for a while animates and contains them, and which they know they can never compass with their understanding or desire."

Wendell Berry, The Unforeseen Wilderness : An Essay on Kentucky's Red River Gorge (1971), p. 33; what is likely a paraphrase of a portion of this has existed since at least 1997, and has sometimes become misattributed to John James Audubon: A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.

Lifted from WikiQuotes

Photo by Alma P. Gamil