Project Coastline Cleanup by APO & PADI

"When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves."
~David Orr

It was an honor and a great privilege to be invited by APO president Meljun Martinez Fabicon to shoot their Project Coastline Cleanup this morning at the Corniche boardwalk infront of Jeddah Hilton Hotel.

The cleanup drive started early at 7am. It was a gloomy friday morning. Good thing the weather cooperated as Mr. Sun took a day off. Although it was a bit warm and humidity was a bit high.

A lot of Spectrum Photographers also showed up and contributed to this worthwhile community activity.

MJ & Elmer giving a short briefing to the group 

The group in action

Mr. Tariq, our Arab friend even helped picking up the trash

Young Saudi guys inspired by our deeds also grabbed gloves and trash bags to do their own share

Spectrum with their "collection"

What the group has collected that morning

The most heart-warming and rewarding compliment we've received during this activity was a simple yet very sincere "Thank you" from a Saudi guy who brought his family to the Corniche boardwalk for a morning picnic at the beach.

TAIF - Saudi Arabia's Summer Capital

Ta’if (Arabic الطائف aṭ-Ṭā’if) is a city in the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia at an elevation of 1,879 m (6,165 ft) on the slopes of the Sarawat Mountains (Al-Sarawat Mountains). It has a population of 521,273 (2004 census). Each summer the Saudi Government moves from the heat of Riyadh to Ta'if. The city is the centre of an agricultural area known for its grapes, roses and honey. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taif)

I spent the last day of our Eid holiday in Taif with my fellow photographers and friends from Spectrum.

We left Jeddah at around 5am; drove for two and a half hours through the desert and rocky mountains. Before 8am, we're already enjoying the cool breeze of this mountain resort.

I'll let my photos tell the rest of my story. Enjoy!

Breakfast at the park

Ramada Hotel - Al Hada

The Farm Boy infront of Ramada Hotel

Flowers abound in this mountain resort

Hibiscus blooms beautifully under the scorching desert sun

Fruit vendor arranging red plums and other locally-grown fruits

Most of these fruits are grown locally or in nearby villages

Newly-harvested pomegranates 

There are also rose farms in Taif that produces Rose Waters and Rose Perfumes

Another variety of  imported and local fruits on display by the side of the road

Ramada Hotel as viewed from the zigzag road

This Saudi guy is brave enough to sit on the edge of the cliff overlooking the  seemingly never-ending  twist and turns of the zigzag road. (I still get nauseated every time I look at this photo)

Spectrum on board a train going up to the water park

Local teenage boys who were also on-board the train we rode

a view from inside the cable car cabin as we ascend back to the top

local guys aboard cable car

We took a short coffee break to let our nerves relax from the nerve-racking cable car ride (I realized most of us are afraid of heights, but we all had fun teasing each other inside the cable car cabin)

Camel-for-hire sitting comfortably amidst his 21st century competitors

A view of the zigzag road  from the cable car cabin on our way down

the small, beige structure at the top of the mountain is the Ramada Hotel  where one starts his descent via the cable car  

The Water Park - with multiple water slides, boomerang slide, and a  Wave Pool

This photo was taken as we board our cars to find our way back to Jeddah

The summer sun's last peek of the day - how gorgeous, eh?

Here are a few useful websites / blogsites about Taif:

http://www.alhada.8k.com/taif.html

http://americanbedu.com/2008/09/05/taif-saudi-arabia-summer-resorts-city/

OSFAN - an off-road desert adventure

It was a lazy Tuesday afternoon, second day of our one-week Eid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul-Fitr) vacation, when I got a call from my friend June. He invited me to survey a place at the outskirt of Jeddah. Since I had nothing lined up on that day, I gladly accepted the invitation. I also brought my two photographing buddies Romy and Arnel.

We left Jeddah shortly after four o'clock to make sure that we arrive at our destination before the sun sets. Our destination - Osfan (also spelled Usfan). Around 80 kilometers from Jeddah's city center, it took us almost an hour to reach the desert village.

It was my first time to explore this side of Makkah province. Along the way, we saw a lot of picture-perfect scenes. Rocky mountains slowly appearing on the horizon, camel pastures, ruins on the rocky hills. But we were not prepared for what we saw on the side of the road - sand dunes!

I asked June if we could make a quick stop and take some photos as the setting sun was gently drawing dramatic shadows on the sand dunes, I thought we just couldn't miss it. And we did, we parked my Volkswagen Tiguan on the side of the road.

The three of us, Romy, Arnel and I were like children released in the playground. 

I decided to take my Tiguan off the road and take some photos of it - and use the sand dunes as my background. When I turned around, Romy and Arnel has already disappeared into the sand dunes - im sure by that time, they're scrambling through their camera settings and keeping their shutters busy.

We took photos and more photos until the sun waved goodbye for the day.

We really enjoyed that spot that we decided not to go through our initial plan. We just traversed a few kilometers of the main road and decided to find our way back to the city.

Enjoy the photos!

This amazing four-wheeled machine took us to this wonderful place in the middle of the desert - less than a hundred kilometers outside Jeddah.

And our photoshoot adventure would never be complete without doing the JUMP SHOT :-)

(Left to Right - Romy Israel, yours truly - the FarmBoy, Arnel Angeles)

Food Fotografy - SAMBO-PIA

In celebration of Ramadan, I present to you my homemade Sambosa with Pinoy Lumpia filling that I nicknamed - SAMBOPIA (Sambosang Lumpia).

Sambosa is a middle-eastern culinary cousin of South East Asia's Lumpia or Spring Roll. They are actually available all year round but are very popular during the holy month of Ramadan. They come in a variety of fillings: Laham (lamb meat), Jobna (white cheese), chicken meat, and mixed vegetables.

Last week, I spent more than 15 minutes queuing for the much anticipated meal of the day in front of a supermarket near our home. When I got home, I realized that I got the ones with the wrong fillings. I ordered the cheese-filled sambosa but I brought home the ones with lamb meat inside :-(

So today, I just decided to make my own and gave it a little twist by making it taste like my favorite lumpiang pinoy.

Here they are, grab a bite :-)

I even created a poster for Pepsi - my unofficial sponsor for this photoshoot ;-)

Ramadan Mubarak everyone!!!

SV Flying Angels - Beautiful ladies with golden hearts

Yesterday, I spent the whole night with the "Angels" :)

Yes, you read it right. Angels, real angels. In their human form. Not one, not two but SIX angels.

And how do you expect angels look like in their katawang lupa? Of course - BEAUTIFUL!

I had a chance to meet a group of down-to-earth, generous, and needless to mention pretty young ladies of SV Flying Angels - a group of flight attendants, in the leadership of the vivacious and alluring Dang Morales, who are willing to extend their hands to the less fortunate.

I was given a great opportunity to photograph (Thanks Ivan for believing in my skills) their charitable event at the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah where they  donated a free one-way ticket to Manila, and a bagful of pasalubong, to a lucky distressed OFW chosen by the Office of the Labor Attache. Ate Michelle, a mother of four kids, is very lucky to be picked from the group of stranded OFWs. She's flying home today, back into the arms of her loving family. Thank God He sent forth His angels to the rescue.

I was always intimidated by the usually towering, model-like beauties of flight attendants. They seem to be very prim and proper. Always poised and well-dressed. I love watching them march, trolleys in tow, to the plane before passengers are allowed to board.

But the "Angels", especially madamme Dang as we fondly called her, proved a lot of my misconceptions and prejudices about FAs wrong. They are all very nice and I felt that I have gained not only new friends, but also pretty sisters :)

We had a great, filling dinner at On The Border in Andalus and had coffee/tea/shisha session until past midnight. Thanks for the treat angels. I went home tired but happy, exhausted but inspired.

See you again angels, it's really a pleasure meeting you and I'm looking forward to meet the rest of the flock. 

Keep in touch.

Buhairat Beach - a Wonderful Weekend Escapade

It's one of those very rare Friday mornings that I wake up as early as 6am. I usually leave my bed around noon. But yesterday, me and my friend/photography buddy, June, decided to spend our Friday morning in a public beach somewhere near Buhairat City .

We were actually there to snorkel as the reef abounds with beautiful and colorful corals and reef fishes. But as we arrived, we were surprised to see a group of egret (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egret) skimming the shallow water of the Red Sea in low-tide. As is normal for a budding photographer, I immediately grabbed my camera. Thanks to Kuya June's 70-300mm Sigma lens, I was able to capture some shots from a distance without disturbing the birds.

Here are some of my captures:

After my fingers got tired maneuvering my camera and clicking my shutter, we got ready for snorkeling.

The weather was perfect. Sun was just warm enough; gentle breeze brushed against our sun-kissed skin; the waves were gentle. We didn't waste more time, off we put on our swim wear and goggles and waded on the shallow waters of Red Sea.

This is the third or fourth time I tried snorkeling, each time with June. He's my snorkeling/ swimming (not to mention photography) mentor. He taught me how to move my hands and kick my feet in a synchronized manner which I try to execute patiently. When I feel soreness on my scapula, I cheat and go back to my langoy-aso style in swimming harharhar.

Red Sea is so blessed with extraordinarily beautiful coral reef that is home to a lot of reef fishes I cannot even name. Too bad some of the corals near the surface appears bleached, probably because of the year-round scorching summer sun. But despite that, June spotted a sprouting moss green brain coral and another purple i-don't-know-what-type-of-coral. As we went deeper near the cliff, we saw clown fishes appearing and disappearing from their home - the anemone, as if playing hide and seek. A two-feet long puffer fish also came gliding beneath us. Angel fishes chase each other around. We also saw some parrotfish,  surgeonfish, sweetlips, fusiliers, striped emperors to name a few. Before we went ashore, we also spotted some small sword fishes about 3-feet long each. Some reef fishes are quite territorial, they nibble my lower leg and shoe strings.

It's a totally different world down there. The colors are so vibrant on the corals and fishes as if God painstakingly worked his magical brush on each creature you see around.

I'm definitely going back there next weekend, and this time I'll bring more friends to share the joy of seeing God's wonderful creation we don't get to see everyday. And hopefully this time I can bring an underwater camera so I can share some photos with you.

Ciao! Thanks for reading. Keep coming back ;)

CLIENT - Beauty Salon

Reception area

Handwashing area

Manicure and Pedicure area

Manicure and Pedicure area

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Also visit me on Facebook - Richard-Nicolasora-Photography;

and my group's FB Page - SPECTRUM

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