From the moment I spied this bird with a distinctive yellow ring around its eye, I had a hunch nature was presenting me with a rare treat.

I was right. Wikipedia says that the Philippine Hawk-Cuckoo is “an uncommon bird and is usually shy and difficult to see.” Romy Ocon echoes this observation (see his far superior photo of another immature specimen), noting that Cuculus pectoralis (that’s its scientific name) is “uncommon in all forest levels.”

As if to prove how extraordinary my sighting of the Philippine Hawk-Cuckoo was, the Internet Bird Collection and the Mangoverde World Bird Guide – sites I’ve come to rely on for more ornithological data – don’t have any photos of it at all.

It looked like this youngster had been asleep and woke up when I opened our bedroom’s balcony doors. (Ever since I lucked upon the Blue-Rock Thrushes, I’ve gotten into the early-morning habit of scanning the balcony’s surroundings to case the joint, so to speak, for birding photo-ops.) Partly hidden by a thick santol branch, it hung around long enough for these pics.

I get a real kick out of privileged encounters like this. We’re fortunate we still get to enjoy the company of these creatures.

Posted in: Better Earth, Photo Gallery | Comments(0) | December 2009

Well whaddya know! Just two or three days after that Golden-bellied Flyeater post, the little speedster turned up again and obliged me with a more up-close-and-personal photo session. So here we go with a new batch of pictures!

Posted in: Better Earth, Photo Gallery | Comments(0) | December 2009

Last Saturday, at T. Ana’s invitation, we visited a quaint bazaar held at the garden of Frogglerocks, a.k.a. the Gutierrez residence located at the far end of Beverly Hills subdivision. Among the great bargains we discovered were …

… malunggay pesto sauce from Herb’s Best (the bottle’s nearly empty after only a couple of days, what with pesto-freak Raja heaping it by the spoonfuls on anything passing for carbo) …

… these intricate golden wire earrings fashioned by T. Emma …

… and a long necklace of beads and stones crafted by T. Jeanne.

Amid the shopping, I strolled around Frogglerocks and took pictures of (among other sights) a small pond with water lilies.

Back home, I started going over and editing the photos. At one point, something about the whiteness of the lilies on the pond’s textured plane gave me an idea. What if I convert the pictures to sepia?

Now’s a good time to look up the meaning of the word before we continue. Pronounced SEE-pee-uh or see-PEE-uh, it’s defined by The Free Online Dictionary as:

n.
1.
a. A dark brown ink or pigment originally prepared from the secretion of the cuttlefish.
b. A drawing or picture done in this pigment.
c. A photograph in a brown tint.
2. A dark grayish yellow brown to dark or moderate olive brown.
adj.
1. Of the color sepia.
2. Done or made in sepia.

A toning technique commonly used to impart a timeless effect on portraits, sepia simulates the patina of age. The same technique can also be applied – as I happily found out – to lend a sense of dramatic flair to the white lilies in opaque pond water.

Let’s start off with the original pictures in full color:

After experimenting with removing most of the color, trying out varying intensities of sepia tones and doing some sharpening here and there, we have these:

Sepia makes quite a striking change, doesn’t it?

P.S. Let’s play a game! How many shapes of Pac-Man (the classic arcade game character, not boxing champion Manny) lurking in the water can you see?

Posted in: Better Earth, A HEdCen Oldie's POV, Photo Gallery | Comments(2) | December 2009