chasing sunset in Mtoni, Zanzibar

I didn’t go to Africa for a safari, a vacation or for anything remotely close to leisure. The trip was a business call and the schedule was heavily structured: a night in Dar, 2 nights each in Pemba and Unguja islands and one final stayover in Dar. We always were in a hurry, maximizing time on the beach during the 3 hour low tide period in the morning, squeezing the most number of villages in a single trip and on occasion skipping meals in favor of work.


the blue hour in an isolated beach in Mtoni



the lap pool of Mtoni Marine right after sunset


Before the trip, I had all the intentions to do some photography and even brought a tripod. While I did use my camera in our visits to the seaweed farms, the tripod almost did not see any action. Finally, in our last day in Zanzibar, we got a couple of hours of free time. It was sundown too and fortunately for me, we were staying in Mtoni Marine Centre whose beach faces the west. Sunset and twilight shots were never far away then.


beach huts in Mtoni Marine at dusk



Mtoni Marine is flanked in the south by lush mangroves


Mtoni Marine is an Italian-owned boutique resort, with Omani-inspired architecture. Think of ogees, solid and thick Romanesque walls, recessed alcoves and clean uncluttered walls. Rates were not bad either. Basic accommodation starts at about $65 and at this reasonable rate, we got a canopied queen-sized bed, a rather surprisingly large shower room and toilet, a personal safe, and best of all, a balcony facing the sea.


ready for a romantic rendezvous for two



the open lobby features locally cultivated pine lumber


Although there are no internet connections in the rooms, wi-fi and broadband cable line are available in the lobby. The main restaurant was under renovation this June but the resort made best use of its existing rugby sports bar and its beach front as an alternative dining place. The bar actually is popular in Zanzibar and is frequented by a lot of Europeans and South Africans.


coconut rule: the roof has to give way to an old coconut



a resort attendant picking up flowers for tabletop decoration


As can be seen in the pictures, the resort offers a white sandy beach appointed with the necessary cottages and water sports facilities. A lap pool overlooks the waters. If these were not attractive enough, the resort also caters to families traveling together. Its self-contained 2-storey apartments have a couple of bedrooms and a kitchenette. I would not mind coming back here someday, with family in tow.


the architecture of the Mtoni lodges is classical Omani-Arabic



function and form: canopy nets keep mosquitoes out. Malaria is common in East Africa.


To go: Mtoni Marine Center is some 4 km from Stonetown and is right beside the ruins of the Mtoni Palace.

a different kind of aerial

Aerials need not be strictly landscapes as seen from above. On occasions, luck would not be on your side and the seats that you needed were already taken by others. As alternative, there is always the sky, or the clouds, or even the plane to photograph. Here are three images I have taken way up high, which to my delight, turned up quite well, if only to tell the story that I was there.


just above Bicol, the Philippines

Salivating was more like my feeling when I was on a plane from Hong Kong to Cebu. We checked in a bit late so we were not able to get a seat at the right side of the plane where the sunset can be viewed in our southbound flight (phototip!). I kept on glancing at the opposite window and the sun was glaringly red. Instead, I entertained myself by catching the wing literally turned rose pink.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/25s, f/5.6, 55mm, ISO 400


sunset over Tarlac, the Philippines

Sunsets 35,000 feet above ground are different. You could not really see any horizon as the land is so far below. What you see are just colors above the clouds. This time, I was at the right side of the plane and this was what I saw.


Canon PowerShot S40, 1/200s, f/5, 12.3mm


over Laoag, Ilocos Norte, the Philippines

As much as I could, I would try to follow the plane's flight plan on the video channel as it is difficult to tell what's below when you are 30,000 feet above ground. That is how I would generaIly know where I was when a photo was taken. During daytime, nothing much happens and when bored, the clouds and the geometric forms of the window were fair game.


Canon PowerShot S40, 1/800s, f/8, 7.1mm

Kuta is sunset and surfing

The beach of Kuta in Bali stretches almost endlessly. Its coralline floor cuts deep down into the ocean making the wave break a world-class surfing paradise. Stir in the welcoming hospitable nature of the Balinese, and you have a tourism magnet.


Canon PowerShot S40, 1/100s, f/8.0, 21.3mm

Facing westward into the Indian Ocean, Kuta beach offers a breathtaking sunset. The old elements that are the sun, the earth and the water always succeed to mesmerize every sundown. Caught in its magic, I often catch myself joining the congregation of sunlovers as these pictures attest.


Canon PowerShot S40, 1/400s, f/8.0, 21.3mm



Canon PowerShot S40, 1/100s, f/8.0, 21.3mm

Countdown to a sunset- Gili Trawangan, part 2

continued from Gili Trawangan escapade, part 1

For one afternoon and a night in August, I willingly got “stranded” in Gili Trawangan. I was coming off from work and the Gilis are only an hour from Mataram, the capital of Lombok. It was past 3PM when we got there, which left me just enough to see what the island has to offer.

Gili Trawangan has a sophisticated feel. August is high season so visitors mostly were white although there was a sizeable presence of domestic tourists. As expected of a really small island, the place is already peppered with hotels, villas, restaurants, bars, and diveshops and yet, it still is spilling with empty sand and undeveloped beachfronts that I bet more commercialization is yet to come.

After finishing our thirty minute tour, on a horse-drawn carriage called cidomo, we settled for refreshments in the bar in front of Villa Ombak, our hotel. The island is hot as it barely has vegetation over its predominantly sandy terrain so we wallowed in the comfort of our ice cream and sweets.

The sun was coming down slowly. At 5:30PM, the cidomo (horse-drawn carriage) we hired earlier came back to take us to the nearby Sunset Bar to, what else, view the sunset.

The Sunset Bar lies at the southwestern tip of the island, facing Lombok Straight and the island of Bali. The bar sprawls widely over an empty sand beach, just below a small hill. The architecture is modern Asia, unobstrusive in its all wood structure, and boasts a sunken watering hole station open only in the late afternoon. It also offers a wide promontory deck with benches that anyone can freely partake regardless of your intention to buy a drink or not.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/200s, f/5.0, 18mm, ISO 100
5:45PM, waiting for sunset at the Sunset Bar balcony, Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia


Sunset that day was 6:15 so we had ample time to observe the world. Slowly, people arrived, some on foot, others on cidomos. Others were on bicycles or on horseback.

I’ve done countless sunset photographs over the years and I thought it would be fun getting something different. Enviously, I looked at the hill over the bar but it was a private hotel and surely I could not gain access. A silhouette of the cosmopolitan bar could work but it sat too near the hill to shoot it from any appreciable distance. Ditto with the cidomos parked nearby. There was a large rock beside the bar but it got too much human traffic.

By 6PM, it became obvious that it would just be the sun and the horizon. As the clock clicked, I took several sunset photographs on the fly, with whatever came to my fancy. Here is then my own photographic countdown of the sunset at Trawangan.


6:12PM, 3 minutes before sunset

This is a pretty standard shot. I used the tidal flats to create the horizontal lines. That said, the blush of yellow crowning the fully circle of the sun is marvelous even to my sunset-cynical eyes.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/80s, f/5.6, 255mm, ISO 100, +2/3EV
6:12PM, the sun setting down over Lombok Straight, at Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia


6:13PM, 2 minutes before sunset

I decided to move and saw that my friends have settled on the sand. The scene looked romantic and they did not even notice that I took a photo.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/80s, f/5.6, 170mm, ISO 100, -1/3EV
6:13PM, viewing the sunset at Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia


6:14PM, a minute before sunset

The sun was sinking quick. Suddenly a girl in hijab came out from nowhere and walked across the beach. There was little time to move forward so I could not get a tighter shot. The photo below is a crop to compensate for this.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/160s, f/5.0, 210mm, ISO 100, -1/3EV
6:14PM, sundown at Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia


6:15PM, sunset

Just when the sun appeared to touch the horizon, I decided to get closer to the beach. The exact moment of sundown is always magical. Enough said.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/125s, f/5.6, 300mm, ISO 100, -1/3EV
6:15PM, the moment of sundown at Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia

Sunset Moments

This is an accompaniment of my sunrise moment blog. Sunsets remain the ultimate romantic moments, immortalized in many a movie scene, a storyline and a photograph. They remind us not only of day that just came to pass but also of another new one coming just around the bend.

Zamboanga del Norte, October 17, 2007, 5:28PM

The tidal flats of Jose Dalman in Zamboanga del Norte appear nondescript. But slather the rocky coast and the lonely waters with the colors of the sinking sun and you get affirmation that just about anyplace can be deemed romantic.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/30s, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 200, +1/3EV
Jose Dalman, Zamboanga del Norte, the Philippines


Canggu, Bali, Indonesia, November 11, 2007, 6:26PM

The place is Canggu and the occasion is Banyu Pinaruh. Although this ceremony of ritual bathing is prescribed during sunrise, the beach was still full of people until late in the afternoon as it was Sunday. After six, the sky started to dim and the crowd began to leave for home. The tide was just rushing back to shore and the sealine began to change. The ocean was seeking its own level and the earth can only oblige.

Canon EOS 350D Digital, 5.00s, f/22.0, 24mm, ISO 100, +1.00EV
Tibubeneng Beach, Canggu, Bali, Indonesia


Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, February 3, 2007, 5:38PM

Surabaya is a historic city in East Java, known as a city of heroes. One of the most celebrated battles in Indonesia’s struggle for independence from the Dutch transpired in this city, specifically in Jembatan merah or the “red bridge”. Smack in the center of the old Chinatown district, the bridge remains busy and became a perfect spot for my panning experiments. I remember standing in the island in the middle of the road, cutting a figure in the busy late afternoon, hoping to catch fleeting scenes like the one below.



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/10s, f/5.6, 31mm, ISO 800
Jembatan Merah, Surabaya, Indonesia


Singapore, August 17, 2006, 7:06PM

I normally request for a window seat when I travel. I also check the direction of the plane so that if the flight is late in the afternoon, I’d ask for a seat facing west. It even pays to get a seat at the back of the plane to get a clear window view without the obstruction of the plane’s wing. Getting a clear and clean window pane is another matter. Luck always plays a part.



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/200s, f/5.6, 55mm, ISO 400, -2/3EV
over the South China Sea, near Singapore


New York City, December 23, 2005, 4:42PM

New York City does not just qualify as a metropolis, it defines the word. Skyscrapers soar right vertically into the sky, traffic chokes mercilessly the concrete streets and lights flicker sizzlingly all night, all day. Laid on a grid, Manhattan is segmentized to upperside (northside), lowerside (south), westside and eastside. This makes it much easier to traverse on foot and simpler to orient when trying to capture the sun as it is about to set, need I say at the westside.



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/20s, f/20, 55mm, ISO 1600
NY, NY, the US


Kutuh, Bali, Indonesia, August 25, 2007, 6:27PM

Business can be mixed with photographic pleasure. It was late in the afternoon when we arrived in the seaweed farms in Kutuh, Bali. Light was fading fast. The farmers have already left home and the boats were already tethered to shore. Empty cultivations lines confirmed the recent seaweed die-off . Replanting was ongoing. Tomorrow would be another day.



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 3.20s, f/25, 55mm, ISO 100, +2/3 EV
Kutuh, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia

Creating My Own Wayang

Wayang kulit is the ancient puppet theatre in Bali and Java, where shadows of flat leather cutout figures are made to dance against a white curtain using a blazing fire as backlight. In photography, similar shadow plays can be created and I will share here inside tips on how to take dynamic silhouetted photos. I will limit the discussion to fast speed shots that can be done handheld, as opposed to long exposure silhouette. In homage to wayang, the pictures I am featuring here taken in Bali.


phototip: Choose and interesting subject. Although this was taken by a point and shoot using digital zoom instead of a real telephoto lens, the drama of surfing is captured.
f/8, 0.01s, 21.3mm
Kuta Beach, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia


As illustrated above, shadow shots need strong backlighting and nothing but the rising or sinking sun provides a cleaner and brighter almost-horizontal natural light. I suggest a location with a reflective body of water, most convenient of which is the sea. Get a map and check out which beach faces the east (sunrise) or the west (sunset). Check out the internet for the sunrise/sunset time as the golden hours for hand-held silhouettes, depending on the conditions, often are the 30 or 40 minute periods after sunrise or before sunset.

Last November 11, I was not really too keen on doing any sunset shots. Work took a frontseat that Sunday but when I became free late in the afternoon, I suggested to my friends that we go to Canggu. Now Canggu is not in your typical Bali tourist map – it is that blank spot between Seminyak/Kuta and Tanah Lot temple – but I have never been there. My Balinese friends, Komang and Ketut, perhaps being just too much familiar with me, no longer raise an eyebrow that I chose a place off the tourist track although lately, the place is being peppered with villa-type cottages.

The beach of Tibubeneng was, as expected, crowded. That Sunday after all was Banyu Pinaruh, the auspicious date to cast away offerings and ritually bathe in the sea. I already had my fill of the spectacle of the celebrations during sunrise at Geger beach in Nusa Dua (but this would be in another coming blog).

Just a few paces from the road, I could not see the people swimming in the water for the sand swell was blocking my view. However, people going into and coming from the beach would be fully silhouetted against the yellow sky as they go up the dune mounds. Getting graceful silhouettes would be another matter. Stalking takes patience and for the shot below, I first chose and then practically chased a family of three with my lens and waited for the right moment to click.


phototip: Be aware of the foreground and background which can add value to your composition
f/5.6, 0.001s, 300mm, ISO 100, +1.0eV
Tibubeneng Beach, Canggu, Bali, Indonesia


As I walked closer to the beach, people would no longer be backlit fully, at least not in my camera. In front of bright light, a camera sees differently from the human eye. While I could see the head, body and feet of the people in front of me, the camera can only distinguish the contrast of the dark forms against the light and as I moved on higher ground, the people’s legs will be set against the sand which cannot reflect any light. From the mound then, the camera can only capture people often from the knee or even from the waist up.

When I saw some lads starting to play volleyball, I knew that I have to retrace my steps back to the road to get a lower perspective. Unfortunately, I could not find a spot low enough to capture the full figures of the players, what with the crowd surrounding the court. I finally settled by a tree stump which rather stank from some refuse. And did I mention too that in these shots, you will always be against the harsh sunlight? Silhouette shots are not for those who don’t want to get dark. Or for those who cannot stand to sweat in the sweltering heat.


phototip: Shoot, chimp and shoot. You can improve on your shots by learning from previous photos
f/5.6, 0.0002s, 160mm, ISO 200, +1.0eV
Tibubeneng Beach, Canggu, Bali, Indonesia


Although the jumble of the spectators is not be too distracting, it diminishes the punch of the action. I even have to tilt and crop the shot above. That is when it hit me. I can actually frame some shots from the net up knowing that the players will eventually jump and smash the ball. So I angled the camera slightly and focused on the action above the net. The wait was just short. In less than 2 minutes, there came another kill and as I was ready, I got the frame I wanted. The photo below was not cropped at all.


phototip: In volleyball, as in any team sport, the players’ eyes and actions will be always be oriented towards the ball, the natural dynamic focal point. If possible, always include the object of play in the frame.
f/5.6, 0.0002s, 220mm, ISO 200, +1/3eV
Tibubeneng Beach, Canggu, Bali, Indonesia


After some more shots, I was ready to give up on the game. I joined my friends near the beach and capped the afternoon with some peanuts. It was still some 30 minutes before sunset. There are still some more photos to take.