man's place in the universe

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

Stephen Crane, War is Kind


They care not any whit for pain or pleasure,
That seems to us the sum and end of all,
Dumb force and barren number are their measure,
What shall be shall be, tho the great earth fall.
They take no heed of man or man's deserving,
Reck not what happy lives they make or mar,
Work out their fatal will unswerv'd, unswerving,
And know not that they are!

Grant Allen, Magdalen Towers



my faith has been making that slow sorry slide toward doubt for some time now, which is probably why i stumbled on to this concept.

one afternoon, i had positioned myself on the second mactan bridge to shoot exposures of the old bridge, which i was planning to use for HDR, when this supercat fastcraft arrived. passing through the mactan channel on its way to the port of cebu, it created an almost regular pattern of waves on the channel.

then i noticed this man sticking out in the water, with the waves just going by around him as if it didn't really matter if he was there or not. but that didn't really occur to me. i just thought, 'hmmmm, this looks interesting', so i took some shots, not knowing what to make of it.

i downloaded it on my pc, stared at it for a while, and after some tweaking, here it is :)

*****

it would be nice though, to be proven wrong. i mean, for the concept to be proven wrong. for it to be established, once and for all, no ifs or buts, 1 + 1 = 2, that all we are, all we've been doing, it really does matter. for the alternative just seems to terrible to grasp.

come to think of it, maybe it's just our egos finding the fact too terrible to grasp...

*****

photos taken sept 2008. comments highly appreciated :)



better viewed large. click here for more :)

Northern Exposure: San Agustin Church, Paoay, Ilocos Norte

my first stab at hdr :)

the san agustin church in paoay, ilocos norte, is one of the four baroque churches of the philippines that have been inscribed to the unesco world heritage list. the location of the philippines along the pacific ring of fire called for their unique architectural style to put an emphasis on the buttresses and foundations of these churches, with some being seriously damaged, but eventually rebuilt after an earthquake, thus called earthquake baroque. the most imposing of these buttresses could be found in paoay church.

construction of the church started in 1704 and was completed in 1894 by the augustinian friars led by fr. antonio estavillo. large coral stones were used for the lower level while bricks were used for the upper levels of the church. the walls are 1.67 meters thick and are supported by 24 carved and massive buttresses.

the bell tower near the church, dating from 1793, served as an observation point of the katipuneros during the philippine revolution in 1896 and again by the guerrillas during the japanese occupation.

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i was surprised by how noisy it came out, until i later realized that i was using ISO 800. lesson learned: don't be an idiot and use ISO 800 with a tripod.

photo taken may 2008. comments highly appreciated :)