Night Photography at Rizal Park, Manila, Philippines

I contacted one of my college buddies, my thesis mate, Master Ian to schedule a photo-tripping session. We chose Manila as our subject. Of course, there's lots to see around Manila. We went to Hidalgo for a while to get an idea of how much our dream lenses are, to buy cleaning materials and a remote release for his D80 (dang!). Well, all I know is that I am going to buy me one of those little babies when I go back there.

Rizal Park (formerly Bagumbayan).

The Rizal Monument not only marks the location of nationalist Jose Rizal's grave.  In the early 60's the granite obelisk was covered with a 30-meter steel pylon that served as a marker for incoming boats and possibly for those losing their way on the streets.  Juan Nakpil, a National Artist, designed this pylon.  It was removed after 2 years for a number of reasons.

Over the colonization years of different countries, this are has been transformed from a "killing field" to cemetery to garden, and finally, to a monument of heroism.

Anyway, we were too late for the sunset, so we went to the rizal monument to take some night shots. Surprisingly, I have found that shooting there at night is sometimes more interesting than shooting in the morning. I know it's a nice place.. beautifully situated and the natural light any time of the day is awesome. But the light play at night and the vividness of the colors surrounding it contrasting all the darkness is just breathtaking (literally). After my first shot of the monument, I was hooked!