A View of Manila Bay

From My Photo Blog

I shall begin this blog with one of my favourite photos, taken with my simple PnS camera. It is a view of the setting sun over the bay of Manila. Basically, all I did was expose for the sun behind the clouds and waited for the boat in the middle to move somewhere interesting. The fact that the sun was behind the clouds meant that it would not be overexposed. The rays of the sun, the orange glow, the blue water and sky, and the mountain and boat in the background -the best photos sometimes cannot be planned for. You just have to be there to capture the moment.

What makes this photo more special for me was the context of where I took this from, which was from the edge of a slum built over the waters of Manila Bay. The water is actually filthy and the poverty of the people who live there completely contrasts with the beauty over the bay. For me, the sunset reminded me of the wonderful beauty of this place. Manila was actually a paradise and a wonderfully developed city in its heydey. It's just that over the years since, the grime of political, economic and environmental mismanagement has covered this city, and you have to dig a bit to see it.