There are many opportunities  for taking pictures in any place in the island of Palawan or adjacent islands. You can stop along the way and snap away pictures of either plants or animals in different locations in Puerto Princesa and other places in mainland Palawan. If you like the scene around you, you may ask the driver to stop meanwhile for a few minutes so you can take pictures of a beach or the verdant forest.

 

Nature abounds with a high diversity of plant and animal life that present themselves as subjects of photography. That is, if you look closely. While in the comfort of my home, for example, I can snap a few shots of wild animals that I find unique, bizarre or just new to me. I once saw a frog that looks like a cobra. You can see this in the pictures section. I like magnifying the small ones to show features otherwise not seen by the naked eye. Here are sample shots of both the small and large organisms found in Palawan.

I traveled the whole length of mainland Palawan and even the adjacent islands in connection with my work or just plain leisure. I climb the mountains of Bataraza, prowl the mangrove forests of Binduyan, Narra, Quezon, and even the faraway Balabac Island in the south. I also visited the island of Busuanga and wrote something about it. This is found in the Tourist Attractions in page. I wrote a story about my trip in that island in June 1991 when Mt. Pinatubo, unfortunately, erupted and I got stranded. And I snap a lot of pictures each time I visit these places.

 

I also SCUBA dive the coral reefs of Quezon, Narra, Roxas, Ulugan Bay, Puerto Princesa Bay, and Honda Bay. Among these reefs, I liked the coral reefs in Quezon in southern Palawan. I still have to find that opportunity to dive in the famous dive sites of Tubbataha Reef, a world heritage.

 

While on field work I usually walk along the beach. I explored the rivers of Palawan for many years as it is a part of my job in the once crocodile farm in Irawan to assess the population status of crocodiles. I used a spotlight in these crocodile population surveys.  I conduct night surveys of rivers where crocodiles are known to occur. Notably, our 3-member team had most sightings in Taritien River in Narra during the early 1990s. Twenty-eight crocodiles, by the way, were captured by crocodile hunters in that river. The intention was to have breeders in the facility to ensure that these animals are conserved. We saw young lads dive and swim in this river unmindful that crocodiles live in it. This is because the crocodiles are very shy and would scamper away at the slightest disturbance in their habitat. They just have to be cautious, however, because during  the summer months, the crocodiles are breeding. They have the tendency to be aggressive, just like any other animal, and would not hesitate to prey on humans. Crocodiles in the rivers of Palawan consist of one species, this is the man-eating saltwater crocodile Crocodylus porosus which I feature in the pictures section. The presence of these animals indicate that the river is still in its pristine state because it is able to support a large predator. Crocodiles also enrich the waters with its excretions making it more productive by stimulating the growth of algae which become food for fishes.

 

I have also been to Tumarabong River in Quezon where a Palaw'an rowed me along the length of the river as I make measurements of river salinity in the spot where three large crocodiles were captured by him. I think he caught a 14-footer, a 12-footer and another small one. In a river in Roxas municipality, I saw hatchlings scampering their way towards the river at broad daylight. We have also spotted two crocodiles in Bacungan River.  

 

I also was given the opportunity to fly over almost the whole stretch of Palawan Island at one time. And I saw the extensive stretch of forests along the way. It's just sad to see pockmarks of kaingin or slash-and-burn farming in many parts, but the indigenous people of Palawan have been doing this for a long time. A foreigner studied this way of farming among the Tagbanua and she discovered that, in fact, the indigenous people are sustained by this farming method. They just burn less than a hectare of forested land each time they plant crops, just enough for their families, so the forests still recover after several years. They also observe a fallow period, meaning, they allow land to recover after their farming activities removed nutrients from the soil.

 

I took a lot of pictures during my trips around the main islands as well as nearby islands. I uploaded the recent ones, and tried to digitize my old pictures of wildlife. I initially uploaded a lot of them but due to storage constraints I have to reduce the sizes and make those pictures fit the screen for easy viewing. I post as I format the old ones that show the landscapes, seascapes, and wildlife found in Palawan.

 

I have been using mainly three camera models in my photographic ventures. This includes the film-based Pentax Pn, digital compacts Nikon Coolpix L4 which I bought from Hong Kong during a conference in 2006, a 3-month old EVIL camera Panasonic Lumix G10 which I accidentally dipped and damaged while wading through Langogan River, and my most favorite camera, the Panasonic Lumix LX5 which I bought in Japan in 2011. This is the one that I frequently use as I love the pictures taken using it.