How’s that for a catchy title?

Before anyone accuses me of being lewd, this is simply about a couple of birds I had the luck to shoot pictures of earlier this week.

According to Birdwatch.ph (the official website of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines or WBCP), this bird with distinctive black and yellow plumage is an elegant tit (that’s its name, I kid you not).

This little cutie on the other hand is, I believe, a lowland white-eye, which is characterized by the conspicuous ring of white around its eyes, yellowish green upper parts, and whitish lower breast and belly. But, hey, since I’m no ornithologist, it could also be either an Everett’s white-eye or a mountain white-eye, both also from the family Zosteropidae. (That last link has a fantastic pic by WBCP member and noted Philippine wild bird photographer Romy Ocon. You should really check out his wonderful galleries at PBase.)

Right here is probably where I should insert some more facts and data I’ve culled about these birds but since I’m too lazy to do that, the next best thing is to provide a link or two. Here’s what Wikipedia has on Periparus elegans and an interesting NatGeo article reporting that white-eyes evolve at a faster rate than any other known bird.

And my apologies in advance, but I just couldn’t resist the caption for this last picture:

“This is the ass of an elegant tit.”

(If you’re wondering where these pictures were taken, that’s a santol tree in the backyard of my brother’s house, the top of which is right beside the balcony outside our bedroom. Convenient, huh? )

Posted in: Better Earth, Photo Gallery | Comments(1) | February 2009

Living in the same neighborhood where Susan Hassig’s Vieux Chalet (pronunciation: vyoō shalā) is located has its perks. Susan has graciously hosted a couple of breakfast meetings of the Taktak Road homeowners, including the one we had this morning.

I was among the first to arrive. Susan had prepared a long table setting for 14-16 persons and a smaller table laid out for 6 pax.

Most of those expected to attend arrived shortly and breakfast started at 8:30 a.m. We had coffee, basil tea, and mango shakes (sweetened with and darkened by muscovado) to go with a buffet of pancakes, sausages, ham, bacon, eggs (scrambled and sunny side up), bread and butter, and fresh fruits. Here’s T. Jeanne leading off for the ladies.

As we enjoyed the fare, the group talked about updates on community projects initiated by the homeowners and discussed proposals for new ventures.

One of the first establishments to open in this part of Antipolo (now teeming with resorts), Vieux Chalet has kept pace with the competition commercially, and one-ups them in the social responsibility department. It regularly sponsors child-feeding programs, and Susan (below listening to Fr. Manny) is also a member of the foundation that provides livelihood assistance and day-care services in Purok Sampaguita.

If you’ve been to Vieux Chalet more than once before, you’ve probably noticed that Susan - a part-time artist - loves playing around with the interior decor. The current set-up showcases a mother-and-child by Willam Yu on the window near the entrance …

… and, across the restaurant at the opposite window, a Sayman painting of two fishermen hauling in their catch…

… while atop the piano rests this intriguing mask-on-a-hand-pedestal piece amid loose music sheets …

Oh, just in case you’d like to check out today’s specials on the menu, here they are:

So, if you’re interested in going to Vieux Chalet for the first time or visiting it anew as T. Connie often does, contact the Swiss resto at 697-0396 and ask for Rico the maître d’.

Congratulations to Susan and the Hassig family for maintaining this gem of a place all these years!

Posted in: Props, A HEdCen Oldie's POV, Photo Gallery | Comments(0) | February 2009

LOML (love of my life aka Mallotte) had brought home an orchid in full bloom a few days back … I picked up the kids from school and had some time to unwind in the late afternoon … saw the orchid in the sala and thought might as well shoot a few pics of the flower … placed it on our kitchen window sill where I thought the backlighting looked ok … took Shot 1 from a 45 degree angle looking down and this is how it turned out:

Hmmm, too much background clutter I thought (although the silis Aling Auring had set out to dry did add a touch of interesting color by way of what T. Connie describes as accidental bokeh) … made me wonder what if I bend down a bit and do a full frontal shot? … so I did that for Shot 2 and here’s what I got:

Ekk, still too much in the background with bokeh of (from left to right) some tree foliage (nice, with some fuzzy light circles), a kalabasa, a wire basket of potatoes (nearly unrecognizable), a part of the wooden frame of the window (too dark; too rectangularly), and the turbo broiler (?!? what the heck was that alien-spaceship-thing doing on the window sill?!?) … but the orchid proper looked good, the late-afternoon backlight being better than I expected … now, let’s try it without the turbo broiler shall we? … and maybe position the kalabasa upstage center right behind the blossom … and Shot 3 came out like this:

Better, but not quite what I wanted … masyadong nagpapapansin si kalabasa! … that upstage center idea obviously didn’t pan out … let’s move that huge dark green and yellow mottled vegetable to the side and try again … and thus we have Shot 4:

Betterer, yes, but … I knew I still was missing out on something … but what, What, WHAT? … maybe it was the instinctive desire to seek the Golden Mean, the Divine Proportion, that urged me to try something really radical like Taking the Picture in Portrait Orientation (of course I know you can tell I’m being facetious) … in any case, that I tried for Shot 5, to wit:

Aha! Aha! That’s the way I like it! (uh-huh, uh-huh) … except that upon closer inspection Manang Kalabasa has these scary Halloween-face spots (do you see the angry eyes, nose and downturned mouth?) and you couldn’t discern even a single one of its pleasing pregnant-belly curves anymore … ok, ok, let me make just one more slight adjustment in the camera angle … and (hold your breath … I mean I’m telling myself “Hold your breath before pressing the shutter down completely”) … and CLICK!

Finally … I am pleased … and very, very happy … to present Shot 6:

Posted in: A HEdCen Oldie's POV, Photo Gallery | Comments(1) | February 2009