And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God, looking on the light, saw that it was good…
- Genesis 1:3-4, KJV
For the past weekends, I spent my afternoons in revisiting Bagacay Point Lighthouse in Liloan, Cebu, all the time hopeful for a magnificent dusk… And heavens obliged in grace…
I really wanted to have early morning shots but with the play of colors that was handed to me in the first dusk I have witnessed in Bagacay, I kept returning and I gratefully feasted with my eyes and prayed all the while that I may be able to capture the beauty of light in those afternoons.
The Bagacay Point Lighthouse stands on the land allocated by the American Governor General Howard Taft in 1904. The structure stands at 72 feet with lights reaching up to 17 nautical miles. It guides vessels sailing through the northeast harbor of Cebu. It is one among several lighthouses showing significant examples of American architecture in the country. It was declared a national historical landmark in 2004 (translated from the Filipino inscription in the lighthouse’s historical landmark marker).
The lighthouse was never in solitude from visitors. In all the weekend afternoons that I have been there, I was the lone photo enthusiast among joggers, cyclists, students, lovers, actors and actresses. In my last visit, a local television channel crew was shooting some scenes for its soap opera. I decided to capture their images in silhouette.
In the times I have wandered in the grass fields in the lower plains of Bagacay Point, I was always accompanied by grazing cows. One time, after finding an appropriate vantage point, I set up my tripod and tried taking some base exposures. There were two cows before me. I was not worried about them since I was planning on taking silhouettes. And then, from my viewfinder I noticed a third cow slowly walking towards me. I adjusted my exposure and took pictures of the cow. He stopped just before me with his face in full portrait and ears wide open. After I took his last portrait, I literally told him a voce that I have already taken a full portrait. After that, he moved out of the way.
The Transitions of Light
Out of the several visits I made, I was able to witness magnificent displays of light: nostalgic warm skies, fiery dabs from red-orange pallettes and cool blue skies…
TRANSITIONS IN WARM NOSTALGIC SKIES
TRANSITIONS IN RED-ORANGE PALETTES
TRANSITIONS IN COOL BLUE SKIES
Indeed, light is good and so is the Hand that painted its transitions…
beautiful pics mark! indeed you have a gift of transfiguring ordinary things to amazing images! articles like this make me feel like i’m actually visiting the place myself.
hmmmmmm mark pala name mo ha! heheheh
cenxa na kuya now lang ulit ako nakabisita
i owe you a lot! babawi ako… name it! hehehehhe 
you are so talented and a prolific writer.. your’s is an example of nosebleed galore! i’ve read some posts and it did consume band of tissues. ang lalim ng english..
eniwi, i hope i could visit that place soon… pag may travel oppurtunity daan ako jan..
ciao!
Really nice!!!! Breathtaking!!!
I love your last line…”Indeed, light is good and so is the Hand that painted its transitions…”
Thank you so much for sharing these with us.
lucky you Mark that the cow cooperated with you, I am like that too, I seem to think the animals cooperate with me when I take pictures, hahaha! And wow, after you took him portrait, he walked away, what a wise one! love that portrait by the way.
love your dusk pictures. isn’t it nice to just stare at the sky and capture its changing colors at dusk? i too am fascinated with these changes. i like the most the 3rd of the transition pictures. and wow, there is moon after, how lucky could you get? how long did you have to wait for the moon to appear?
wawawowwww…… uuuyyy… you have to give me tips gid sa photography… my pics are really boring and plain… yung kulay parang doesn’t speak anything….
indi lang guro tips lang ang kilanlan ko… photography101 gid ya… hehehehhe…. daw di ko ya bi kabalo magkuha pics ya
uuuuyyy… thanks ha… that’s very kind of you…. sige sige… i’ll start reading the manual next week… hehehe! masskara di subong and i have visitors eh… pero thanks gid… sobra ka limyo sang imo pics…. anyway, thanks again… kag kuliton ta gid ka….
naaamaze ako on how you look at things. i mean, i don’t really pay attention to transitions of light, to architectures etc. but you, you are able to appreciate these things. perhaps trait yan ng mga photographers. or i don’t stop and smell the flowers. hehe.
Hi,
Love those silhouette pictures!
wow! nice photos! i dunno but i like photos of lighthouses. hehe. hope we could check the place one of these days. taga bacolod diay ka. hehe
Beautiful photographs! The cow made me smile.
Light is good indeed, and like so many other things in the world, it is the basis of a beautiful metaphor. Your post reminds me of the words of Jesus: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
yup, we enjoyed Masskara. hope i could back next year.