Finally!!!

I saw it 😍

Prior to this photograph, the woodpecker nestled only in my imagination. In fact, on that day, I imagined it on every tree trunk I saw. I never really knew how it looked in the real world—its size, its behavior—because I had only ever seen it in a short video online. I always hoped to encounter one, but I never actively sought it out. I’m that kind of photo enthusiast whose life follows a routine, yet who loves surprises along the way. And indeed, this happened—literally—on my way back home.

When the staff at Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Natural Park start packing up, it’s a signal for me to wrap things up too. I need to leave a minute ahead since they will close all the gates. On my way down the slope, a flash of something red flew from the side of the road and then was gone. I stepped on my brake, locked my eyes on the area, opened my window with my left hand, and pulled out my camera from the bag on the passenger seat with my right. All of this happened in the same instant—a muscle memory exercised over time by moments like this ☺️. Just when everything had synchronized and was ready, I saw the bird resurface from the greenery and perch on a palm trunk—typical of a woodpecker! I fired a burst of shots, and as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. I knew I had blocked a motorist behind me—a staff member from the park—so I looked back and could see the same joy reflected in his face. He asked if I was able to pin a shot. I said, “I think so.” I was hoping, although in the back of my mind I knew something could ruin my gamble. The low-light condition was already throwing settings off the books, and I only pressed my lens on the truck’s window for stability. But the running engine could have introduced those fine cycle of vibrations beyond the compensation of the camera and lens stabilizers. What more could I do? Not my left leg, nor my voice, could command the vehicle to shut down at that moment—they were the only ones unoccupied. It was such a brief moment, but the encounter lifted me—like I was transported elsewhere.

At the park’s exit gate, I pulled over properly this time. I couldn’t wait to get home and review the shots. I smiled as I scrolled through the series. In that moment, one thought echoed through the serenity around me:

God truly knows the desires of one’s heart.

White-bellied Woodpecker

Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Natural Park

Negros Oriental, Phils

May 14, 2025

Having an expert to guide me through this genre of outdoor photography has a lot of advantages on top of learning fast and seeing more. Since I shoot alone most of the time, learning follows an undefined curve. But every moment that comes is different and profound each time. It’s like a communion with the wondrous natural world and its Creator in my experience.

Yesterday, I had a brief encounter with a bird I had long dreamed to see. I never thought that it would be so small, especially from afar. It exhibits characteristics that are unique in many ways. It scouts for food around a trunk, from top to bottom, with head first. It’s cute, fast, and gone in seconds ☺️

It's 28th of December, 2014, on the last part of the hustle and bustle days of Christmas, both at home and work. I woke up strangely early, a couple of hours before sunrise to print a photograph. I was definite I would see the recipient of the print that morning. Our family was heading to Mabinay for the yearly outreach program. My father had chosen the place early that year. Morning came and off we went. I always choose to be the last in the convoy so when i arrived in the area, half a thousand people had already gathered in the parish church. I turned my head to these hundred families with their children and I immediately noticed this boy with curiosity of wanting to approach me. His parents on the background seemed surprised to see me, too. 'Twas like a reunion. I went near them. I was glad to see the boy's eyes, truly crystal of a youngster. We talked as if we were good old friends. But we were not. We met only once and that was two months ago. In the afternoon, after the event, I gave him the photograph. My family was equally surprised to know i have a kid friend there. So I narrated to them what really happened.

This is the story.

In one holiday of October, on that same year. I got up from bed with one thing in my mind: to go bird photography in the the twin lakes of Balinsasayaw, 15 km away, in the hinterland of Sibulan. But the heavy downpour the night before had turned a ready-for-pavement road into a deep zigzag canal. I was driving alone so it was just imperative that i abort the plan. Back on the highway, I decided to go to a highland resort in Mabinay. It's been 15 years since i first saw the place. That's 80 kms north, so i grabbed a packed lunch along the way.

I arrived in the place at noontime and took a quick meal. It was occasionally showering that time. Then i started to scout the area. There were man-made lakes and I could hear bird calls in the nearby high trees. As I went around, I noticed this small-sized lake with a wooden boardwalk on it. The sight was so surreal, I sighed, and wished someone would come fishing there for a picturesque shot. I could not see other people there, other than a mother and daughter fishing on the main lake and a staff doing the maintenance work. The next few hours, i continued roaming around and luckily got some lifer (new bird encountered and photographed) too.

Suddenly, I saw a dwarf kingfisher for the first time! Behold, I was looking at a real one, and not a page on a bird guide. But when i was about to outwit its elusiveness, something drew on my peripheral vision: a boy from afar running in the direction of the small lake. I've been into fishing in my childhood days so i could tell what's up for somebody with a bag and a rod. I froze before my heart jumped off. This is the moment i was wishing for two hours earlier! It was as if his little footsteps were stumping on my chest as my heart was beating so fast. I let go the rare kingfisher, for the colorful moment will come to pass. I trembled my way to him, but still trying to maintain composure. He climbed on the board, laid his sack bag and started preparing his hook on the line. I did the same to my backpack on the moistened grass, and got everything at my disposal.

He was busy, and i was shooting like every second of the moment, too. We didn't talk, both of us were strangers. He got an aim ( which I later learned, to bring food for the family). And I've got my own story to capture as well. As i was doing my job, I occasionally heard him coughing. It seemed that he was sick.

When i wrapped up the last shots, i broke our 80-minute silence. That time, I realized the boardwalk was badly broken -- only a child of his weight and his trick could climb. So I asked him if he could come closer (i had questions to ask) . When he approached me, I was thrown aback as I looked at his eyes-- they were entirely dark red. I could hardly see contrast between the iris and sclera. I learned that he met an accident the previous week and had been absent from school. He had been having high fever since then at dawn. "This boy is having an infection," I told myself.

Saddest of all, he said they didn't have money for a fare to go to a hospital. This little boy, JR, is telling me a story spontaneously out of his innocence. Every word coming out from his mouth was squeezing my heart without restraint. All these prompted me to meet and talk to his parents. Unfortunately his father, a sugarcane worker, was still in the farm. I thanked his mother for the time she gave me. We talked and I convinced her that JR should be brought to the hospital the soonest possible time. The family had a lot of concerns, mostly financial. I begged that everything will be dealt with one by one. The boy must be checked by a doctor first. "Manang, I'm a photographer and it pains me to see a boy losing his sight." Those were one of my begging words to the mother. It was a long talk, and despite losing daylight, i didn't leave until i got a little ray of hope in our conversation. It was already dark when i headed back home. Driving a long winding road under construction, I was confident JR would pass by it the next day as his own highway to recovery.

Every now and then i recollect the event. And how i was meant to be there. I am sharing this story because many times there are words left in a heart beyond a thousand words seen on a photograph. What happened was not just an experience, but, as a very good friend has told me, an encounter of photography.

C.A.S.

Pygmy Flowerpecker, a Philippine endemic. Often labelled microscopic, for it is quite small. It's hyper active, and flies very fast. I encountered this lifer sometime in September 2014. A group was on a feeding frenzy on an aratiles tree. When someone goes around a tree for a couple of hours, that can be intriguing. So my sortie caught the attention of some locals. I sacrificed some shots to start a conversation that i knew would somehow bring the discussion to nature conservation. I had a hard time pointing to them the birds. When a man eventually saw one, you could see the amazement on his face. One woman struggled, so I let her view my LCD with a zoomed image. She asked, "Unsa iya gikaon, apple?" ("What is it eating, an apple?"). I told myself it's just apt to call this tree locally as "mansinitas", or small apple. The activities delayed my lunch. I went home unfilled but fulfilled. For i had a lifer and i captured the hearts of some folks on that one lone tree.

lifer - first photographic encounter of a species

sortie - purpose to photograph birds

One day, I remembered these newly planted mangroves that I happened to pass by a few years ago. I was thinking with high hopes that the plants should have grown enough by this time.

The area was just below a seawall along a national highway. So one afternoon I went to the site and was happy to see that the patches did survive. I approached the place and opted to step my way over the sharp sandstone rocks, for the pebbled beach was littered with a few empty bottles and tin cans. I scouted the small area for my shot, but it took me awhile until the sun was lost on the horizon and left me nothing but the twilight.

I extended my search until I found a spot to compose my shot. But before I could start, I removed a few plastics that were choking some of the plants. I thought to myself that nature is patient enough; mangroves are supposed to protect us from storm surge, not to keep the waves of garbage from coming back to the shore.

After that, I went back attentively to my camera and in the middle of my long exposures I heard that scary big bang from behind. In no time, my spirit bolted out from my body, but my mind was even quick enough to grab it back and told me that someone was throwing garbage from the road again! Then sadness and disbelief took over that momentary fear.

Having finished some photos, I went back to my vehicle up the highway and walked the few steps from where somebody threw the trash. It was dark but enough for me to see where I had just composed my photograph. This made me remember the line, “Beauty could be anywhere, just learn how to find it”. And I think I just found it by heart in a place where others could only see a place to dump their waste.

CAS 01/12/2018

When I was in grade school, one of the top students in our class complained to the teacher that my art project wasn't done by me. Then my work missed the exhibit - that monthly thematic and decorated blackboard at the back portion of a classroom. That is bullying nowadays, but that was life back then. And how could i argue back when i was not even raising a hand from my desk whenever a teacher asked questions. Memory is still fresh but what is more vivid to me was the drawing itself. It was a lone bird, in the family of doves and pigeons, well-proportioned, perched on a branch, frontal at that. It was detailed in characteristics and features. I often asked myself, what made me nail that drawing when all i had mastered was to portray my brother's cat with nothing but sketches of seven circles, excluding the tail of course.

To answer that, I refreshed myself more of that childhood days. We lived in a native house with bamboo grills that opened our vision to the natural world and wildlife outside. There were lots of birds, and along with my brothers, we loved to outwit them. Every after class, i hurriedly walked back home to set up my traps near our small piggery and poultry (where we, nine siblings, had our daily duties as well) for sparrows that feasted on some leftovers. From there, I was a witness to their cleverness and instincts, even more with the other species in the thickets nearby. I always failed to catch one, but in the process I partly understood these birds outside the 4-walled classroom. I learned a very tiny part of their extraordinary life. It was like holding a single strand of a feathered world of this beautiful creation.

Years passed and in the staircase of photo interests I walked into, I stepped in the platform of bird photography. The discipline I needed came from the previous treaded subject of interests and backed up with that childhood observations. But unlike that old drawing, my images transcend doubts, help educate and raise awareness. In line with it is the fulfillment of sharing the mysterious avian world. It is never easy though; bird photography truly stretches patience but never boils a blood. Once, I momentarily fell asleep while waiting and wishing for my lifer, only to wake up with a kingfisher looking at me from a branch above. I could only smile to it because i knew I could not reposition myself for a shot. There's too much to learn in this category, where every species has its own unique characteristics. Where and what the animals feed on and their general habits are the few basics. All these need to be understood in different seasons and locations. Bird Photography (Nature Photography in general) flies one to a limitless horizon of the unique life and wonders of the natural world. The challenge is never-ending. It is a common scenario to crawl to a location with a 30-lb backpack yet still have no reason to arrive later than the subject. Sometimes, a bird displays the unexpected, but you only have a second to respond. If you are lucky enough, it poses some gestures for a minute but you compose your picture from where you are and just close your eyes if there are any obstructions in your frame. Many times I end my day without a single press of a shutter but every single minute in the field is unparalled moment that is full of surprises and leaves me with some hopes. So with it comes constant readiness, which makes me pull and clean that tripod foot before i can pull my own legs off a mud.

(In photo: A male barred buttonquail teaches a juvenile to pick some seeds. In this species, the female bird builds the nest but it is the male bird that incubates and tends the young until maturity)

CAS 09- 01-16

I lost my twelve-year-old dog on a Wednesday of August, through our unattended gate. The next day, after our despondent searches together with friends and neighbors, i made some posters and distributed them strategically around the neighborhood. In the early morning of the 5th day, i got a text message from a "good samaritan", who lived far west from our place. He informed me that he saw a dog across the river, its features were very similar to the pictures in the poster he saw in a "puto" store he happened to drop by.

The next minute, i was driving to the area he described in the message. I had faith that what the good guy saw was my dog. I arrived at the place, my heart pounding, but before i could stop, i saw my dog at a distant river bank, desperate to cross the water.

As i approached him, i could see how stressed he was but still living up to his name "long long" (a mighty dragon in Chinese folklore). He was visibly fatigued and could not recognize me, but i could not forget a dog which i rescued as a bloody stray puppy.

I immediately lifted him up to the truck.

It was a reunion beyond words.

That was a decade ago.

(Long long peacefully passed away of old age two years later. I just found this poster in my files, and i felt it's worth sharing)

CAS 08/16/2016