Folktales and Other Stories

16/08/2025

30/06/2025

Haraya 2025 at the YLAY campgrounds — a local event organized by the GAMÂ community, shot on .

25/06/2025

08/10/2019

Drifter

A spear fisher riding a strong current on his way to his fishing ground with a wooden canoe and using his paddle as a rudder. Now, the challenge is how to go back. Fortunately, this guy knows the sea so well he knows when the current will weaken, stop, or even change directions. Basically the perfect time to paddle back home.

25/09/2019

Due to the lack of “good” livelihood opportunities, the Philippines has a huge population of overseas workers. But even inside the boarders of our country, a lot are working in places still considered far away from home. Many even choose not to go home during long holidays. Instead, they send their fare money to their families. So many of these people, even just being based in our country, have not been home for years. Lucky now we already have the internet and social media which have made communication much easier. One of the positive things those things have given us. In the early 90s, once a week, we had to go to our neighbour who had a telephone to wait for my Dad’s scheduled call. I also remember being so excited reading letters from my Dad for my Mom during special occasions.

This is Arthur by the way, a hardworking carpenter who once chose to work far away for greener pastures.

22/09/2019

Here's a photo that I took years ago during one of my first field trips as a professional. Scenes like this help me remind myself why I am doing what I'm doing and why it's very important for us, even in our own simple ways, to help protect this planet.

17/09/2019

Just a normal Saturday in Bongao.

15/09/2019

It was a Saturday morning so it meant having a break from school and having the time to peddle their parents' fresh catch. I first came across the boy with the white hoodie and came across him again with his mates randomly after an hour. By that time, he wasn't carrying fishes anymore, but at least a couple of hundred peso bills. 🙂

14/09/2019

In one of my early morning walks, I decided to go inside an alley surrounded with stilt houses and got to a shipyard. I caught some shipwrights peacefully having their coffee who were very kind enough to invite me inside their work area to take photos. I followed one of the guys and crisscrossed through wooden blocks piled to serve as bridges while holding my camera on top of my head thinking I would trip and fall on the water any second (even though I was so sure it was no use because the water was deep enough to submerge my whole body even my arms were stretched up). Usually taking a whole year to finish, these large boats are made of hard wood from the mountains while holes were covered by pasting Abaca straws. I still ended up getting wet with breast-deep water just to have a better angle of this guy working. Promised to give him the photos when I get back. =)