STORY BEHIND THE STILL
Emil Jaranilla details the difficult conditions he had to endure in order to capture his stunning image
ABOUT THE SHOT: The most beautiful images are not always captured under the most attractive of circumstances – at least not for the photographer. To shoot this landscape, Emil Jaranilla had to endure some uncomfortable conditions. “This place is a popular practice ground for landscape photographers,” explains Emil. “It’s seasonal to find a good formation of lotus flowers in the lake and we are lucky to have good foreground elements. Shooting in Sampaloc Lake is very challenging because you need to dip into the murky, muddy water to be able to produce a good composition.”
To perfectly frame and expose this scene, Emil had to tackle problems common to low-light photography and challenges unique to this scene. “The location is really not an ideal spot to shoot from. The water is dirty, it doesn’t smell nice and you need to dip in up to waist height to be able to get this shot. Shooting sunrise in our country is also challenging because the ‘golden hour’ lasts only a minute or two before the sunlight begins to intensify. However, I was able to overcome this by years of practising landscape photography, which has helped me to set my gear, filters and camera settings quickly when capturing a difficult scene.”
While many landscape images can be taken as a literal record of a location, they often have additional sentimental meaning to the photographer. For Emil the irony of capturing a scene this stunning while being in such uncomfortable conditions was not lost. “What made me take this photo was the challenge to produce something creative, despite the water conditions and other challenges of the location. The scene is iconic because the sun is perfectly lighting the surroundings of Mt Banahaw. What I was trying to say with the image was that there’s still beauty [to be found] despite the bad circumstances you’re in right now.”