why did I book the 6:00 a.m. flight
it is just after 3:00 in the morning and I'm off to the airport I'm heading on a
solo mission to a place called batanes
so as I mentioned I'm heading to batanas which is like the north of the
Philippines should also be mentioned I'm off on a solo mission how are you doing
off on a solo mission Jodie is back home she's got tons of work to do so
yes solo mission to the north of the Philippines. Batanes looked unreal it
looks like a landscape photography paradise and I'm stoked for this
so let's fly
committed to batanes and might be the shortest runway I've landed on a big
plane like that I'm pretty cool landing and honestly it looks absolutely
incredible here I'm so excited to go out and explore but first I guess let's go
get the luggage and get to the hotel
so there's actually not even a luggage carousel in this Airport I don't know
where to get my bag to my hotel if you guys know me you know that one of my
biggest pet peeves is when people say a place is a place of a place and what I
mean by that is when people go like it's the Grand Canyon of South Africa or or
the Alps of New Zealand or things like that
and I've been hearing time and time again that batanas is the Ireland of the
Philippines or the New Zealand of the Philippines in the reality it's the
batanas of the Philippines as botanas of the Philippines and that looks epic
enough it doesn't need to be something of anything else but what they do mean
by that is that there's a ton of potential for landscape photography it's
very green there's some beautiful seascapes there's some cliffs it does
look like this gonna is gonna be brilliant
outside if it never opened up my heart
yeah first impressions of Batanes... Wow it's quiet here this is one of the main
streets right in the middle of town and it's dead dead quiet
it also looks really really beautiful I think there's going to be a lot of
photography opportunities from landscape and seascape side of things which is
something I've kind of been missing but to find those seascapes and landscapes
I need wheels so I'm walking around hoping to find somewhere to rent a
scooter
ok so I got the scooter and fancy head where the scooter runs a little bit on
the sketchy side for sure but it'll do the trick I think if I Drive slow it was
the equivalent of about 10 bucks a day so a little bit on the steep side here
in botanas but I was warned that was gonna happen and yeah I'm ready to go
explore this island
so I've been driving around for a couple hours and this place is inexplicably
beautiful it's unreal but I can tell that there's gonna be a couple issues
that I have with landscape and seascape photography here first of all the seas
are just way too calm it's actually quite windy right now and the seas are
still just totally flat and it's hard to get that drama on the seascapes without
you know some waves secondly there's no clouds at all in the forecast is for
pure blue skies for the next three days so I'm praying for a few clouds to come
in but it does look like that's gonna pose a bit of a challenge from a
photography standpoint what's not gonna pose a problem are the locations there's
just spot after spot with really cool seascapes lots of really interesting
rock formations if I get lights and if somehow the Seas
pick up a little bit yeah this place is going to be phenomenal for seascape
photography
I'm really loving the change in my lifestyle because of the the end of the
daily vlog I was gonna worry that not vlogging every day would mean that I
wasn't gonna go out and explore enough that I was gonna kind of find myself
stuck indoors way too much but I actually think it's made me better at
getting out and actually exploring what I used to do all the time when I'd first
get to a destination is exactly what I'm doing today I just drive around and
explore I have my Google Maps open on my phone and every time I see something
that I think might potentially be a photo I mark it save it and then I add a
little note something like epic seascape or has potential or stuff like that so
once I'm done exploring I can go back and make those photos I'm at this
incredible view over the island I've almost driven the whole way around it's
about an hour until sunset I don't know if I'm gonna make a photo today but I do
know that when I do put together the full-length video from here in botanas
there's gonna be some shots because it is so so beautiful here
I have to say this might be the most fun in the island and all of the Philippines
to drive in there's not a lot of traffic there's lots of really cool roads and
yeah it's just been a blast I've had so much fun just driving around that have
forgotten to shoot b roll and i even made the huge mistake of forgetting to
put on sunscreen and so i'm burned to a crisp which isn't gonna be fun goodbye
I'll survive I've come to Boulder Beach which is going to be my sunset location
and I've chosen this as my sunset location not because it's the best
location but because I think it's probably the only one that works really
really well at sunset there's a lot of really good sunrise locations here but
sunset definitely looks like it's gonna be a bit more of a mission so gonna hike
around a bit and try to find a spot to shoot from
so I'm at this location and I've been walking around trying to find angles
trying to find composition trying to find a way to put the mountain I think
it's called Mount Basco in the frame but man it is hard the decline on the beach
here is really steep and it means that the waves are crashing really hard I got
the tripod set up once and I got hit by a wave all the way up to my neck so I'm
not feeling super comfortable here at all
that location just wasn't working for me it was just one of those locations that
just looked phenomenal but just I couldn't capture it and it was
frustrating so I bailed and I jumped on the scooter and I headed to one of the
other spots I dropped on my map which is this beach and I thought this beach
would be perfect for sunset because there's some boats in the water there's
some rocks in the water and potentially there's the lighthouse way off in the
distance as well so this is my sunset spot
in the words of Morten Hilmer I was faffing around eyes been way too much
time tapping around and I kind of missed the best light I'm up on the rocks
though I didn't manage to get one shot that's okay and I've now that the long
lens on on this lighthouse but I'm a little bit too late so the colors kind
of gone it's been fun here for sure I've been loving driving around it's just
been an incredible place to explore I am really looking forward to getting my
lens on it a little bit more cohesively and go here in this week to look for a
big video from here in botanas should be a lot of fun and there should be four or
five photo locations maybe even some star photography I'm really looking
forward to it and I guess I'll see you guys there peace