During the first classroom session last weekend, I suggested holding a photo op at the Makiling Botanic Garden as an alternative to La Mesa Eco Park, where I had a successful session last year. However, it took a while before I realized that I myself hadn't been inside the garden since 2009! After being ravaged by Ondoy, I suppose it was a good idea for UP Los Baños to close it down for renovation. I'm glad they found some funding for it. But they sure took their sweet time rebuilding.

Still, I'm not one to assume everything is better than it has been for 30 years. I'm not going to push to go there blindly with the chance of being embarrassed in front of my class to see a whole park in disrepair. And so, I set out again to take a look for myself before I go about recommending the place again. Even if things look bad, at least it was a chance to flex my knees and shoulders a bit more.

At least now, everyone else can enter.

 

I immediately noticed two things as I approached the gate. First, there was now this big building at the front with a pink roof. Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb. Second, it seems that the garden can now better accommodate events, like the birthday party being held at a pavilion where an old mini-museum used to stand. And then, although it wasn't as disappointing as I first thought, the swimming pool wasn't part of the renovation.

This is new... to me, at least.

 

The trail.

 

It's still all good, though. Those things weren't part of my routine when I go there, anyway. So, off I went down the path towards Molawin Creek. I didn't know what to feel early on. Things looked pretty much the same the last time I was there. On one hand, I was half expecting the landscape to be a bit more fixed up. But aside from being a bit cleaner than usual... nothing. But then again, maybe that IS a good thing.

Reaching this viewpoint would have been really difficult before...

... and this...

... and this.

 

True enough, as I continued to walk upstream along the pathway, I began to feel a bit more appreciative of a place I have taken for granted since I was a kid. The thick, almost untamed vegetation is a refreshing contrast to the more heavily landscaped parks and resorts. After a bit more exploring, I realized that a few old paths were cleaned up as well, allowing access to one or two spots even I have never been to.

Broken trail to a broken building

I haven't forgotten the time when I invited my colleague, Diego Maranan, to check out the place. Being the polite dude that he is, he went along even though he wasn't keen on it. It was amusing for me to witness his surprise when he got in. He was, like... but you said it was a garden! It never occurred to me until then, but he had a point. It was an edge of a real forest reserve, not some little spot with landscaped flowering plants, which most people would associate with a garden.

A bit of sunlight through the canopy

The only thing I miss there is the bird sanctuary, which is now labeled as an area for dipterocarps (slow growing hardwood trees). I'll probably go up there just to see how it looks like next time. But other than that, I honestly think that this would be a pretty good place to do a bit of photography.

MMS 173 Warm up: New guitar day

I hadn't done any serious photography for several months. I bought a camera more than a month ago and hasn't left my bag since. So, with the start of the new MMS 173 class getting closer and closer, I thought it was a good idea to see how far down my skills had gone. It was also high time that I start getting used to operating the Nikon D7000 in an actual photo op as opposed to gawking over it at home.

I also had the perfect subject. I had been planning to shoot my new guitar - Spirit 3 (or Green Al, as my girlfriend calls it). The typical guitar-on-the-bed pictures where some people notice the bedsheets first aren't going to cut it this time. So, I went out on location on Black Saturday lugging 30 pounds of gear with me.

It was too bad the Makiling Botanic Garden was closed that day. I then drove to my second choice and was glad to find an open Pook ni Mariang Makiling that still had a good spot along the stream which I could have for myself.

After wrapping things up at Pook, I didn't feel like I was done, so I switched venues and headed to UPOU Headquarters, by the beloved Oblation under a glaring afternoon sun. It was surprisingly not that hot, though. In fact, I haven't felt that nice under direct sunlight since my last day in Australia just before winter. That enabled me to last a pretty long time.

Coming from a Nikon D80, the D7000 does make a number of things easier. And image quality is noticeably superior. But at the same time, I still have to get used to actually using the new camera system.

This was also a good time to practice a few Photoshop tricks. Admittedly, I wasn't a huge fan of doing anything beyond a few minor edits on pictures until last year. I'm hoping to know a bit more about it later.

While my eyes are pretty much the same as it has been before, my execution is a bit rusty (fumbling with the new controls didn't help, either). But all in all, it was a pretty good warm up for things to come -- more music and more photography!