This Way to Heaven... (Pointing Hand in the Sky Illusion)

(NOTE: Photo taken straight from camera. No Post Process.)

Cloud formations can surprise you anytime.
Without you knowing it, you are being showed with a baby figure or teddy bear (How cute ) or a smiley face (that's more cute..cuter, to be exact).
Personally, cloud formations surprise me most of the time. Back in 2009 during the 2nd day of Ramadan month, I opted to open my flat window to check out the crescent moon. In the Islam world, the appearance of a crescent moon starts the Ramadan month.
With a beautiful sky and a mosque located near in front of my flat's building, I was in for a BIG surprise: a packet of clouds seemed to point to heaven while the crescent moon glows just above it. So I took my camera and aimed for a composition but had a hard time to fit all three elements (the mosque, cloud hand and crescent moon) in one image. One solution for me was to tilt my camera and the result was awesome! As it turned out the tilt made my photo more dramatic as the cloud hand seem to point towards heaven, giving meaning for a Ramadan theme. After a few seconds, the cloud hand divided and then disappeared but I was happy to achieve that one-in-a million-image. :) Just check out below my previous post St. George and the Dragon of what I really mean when you are cornered with fancy clouds. Indeed, nature gives us puzzle images for us to capture and share to the world. Click on! :)

Lola Basyang of the Valley Illusion (The Old Woman Storyteller)

Illusions are Mother Nature's puzzle games for us.
If you just look around you, there seems to be coded symbols and signs hidden around you, waiting to be unfolded as if it is waiting for the Indiana Jones within you. Just one click of a button and everything will be divulged to you like a picture puzzle.
We love illusions per se since these challenge our brains, giving us time to ponder and be wowed by what it could bring to our minds.
One hot sunny day, I went out to the Hidden Valley of Saudi Arabia with photographer friends. It was me, Mel Cuison and Sherwin Nora with his wife Shierly and two daughters, Sherinah Alyza and Mellissa in tow, who took a different path while other comrades trudged the other way.
It was there that I learned I have a fellow nature Illusion hunter in the group. I was surprised when It came to my attention that Sherinah Alyza, armed with a video camera, was also hunting for illusions. :) So, we tracked down the rock puzzles. As for me, I got a handful of illusions that day. Say, more than five and one of them is my Old Woman of the Valley which I believe is a hidden visual treasure that slowly fade through time.
Some say, taking photo illusions are kind of weird. Well, I think not. :) After all, everyone in us loves to make the over-used 'small-people-standing-on-our-giant-hands' photographic illusion. Would you Agree? Playful minds can produce playful results, indeed. Go shoot your illusions and Facebook tag me. :)

St George and the Dragon Cloud Illusion (A Fairy-Tale book Story in the Sky)

No two clouds are exactly alike.
Remember when you were small and you have your notebook in hand memorizing the different kinds of clouds? Little as we were, we tried to put into our head some alien words like cumulus, stratos, altocumulus and altostratus to name a few. Cryptic language, eh! And of course, we were forced to imagine or visualize every cloud formation so once the teacher asks us, we will not be cornered with a blank sky in our minds.
Now, zoom to the present and the clouds will be your bestfriend if you are a nature or landscape photographer unless you like Photoshop to do it for you but then that would be unnatural.
Cloud formations are actually rich in illusions. Every child in us could have spent daydreaming and watching fancy clouds like faces or animals of any kind under bright cloudy skies.
Though cloud photography alone is usual and ordinary, one could create stories out of two combinations. I tried this myself creating a story by combining my two cloud shots taken in a span of just 3 weeks and the result is St. George and the Dragon with Knight George ready to slain the dragon with his cumulus sword. So Dream on and create your own fairy-tale cloud stories. Fin. :)

My Self Portrait on A Van Gogh Landscape (Hyperspeed Motorcycle Ride Series Part 2)

NOTE: NO PHOTOSHOP effects! Straight from Camera...
Who says only oil and canvas, Corel Photopaint or Photoshop can do an impressionist art.
Well, I believe a DSLR or SLR film camera can do it too. With the right techniques, one can achieve Vincent Van Gogh's school of thought on cam. Yes, raw and unedited! Van Gogh, a dutch post-Impressionist painter, will probably put a smile on his face when he sees this. :) If only he were alive today, he would have experimented impressionism also on lens.:) Indeed, 'Motorcycle rides around countrysides' are so much fun...can't wait for another trip. Zoooommm! More soon :)

Fireball Attack Illusion (When Landscapes Speed Up)--Hyperspeed-Motorcyle Series

(NO PHOTOSHOP. STRAIGHT FROM CAMERA photo)
A motorcycle ride in the countryside is an enjoyable trip for a photographer like me. For one, I can ride hanging from the outside and get to view the vista around me freely :) Plus, I can create unique 'hyper-speed' photography since tricycles come in varied designs. Some are adorned with stickers just like the blue fireball stuck on a rooftop of one during my trip in a far-flung area in my hometown. Shooting 'hyper-speed' is tricky. So, with the right technique and settings plus a good hand stability, I get to capture a dramatic zoom effect as if the tricycle driver is Captain Spock of Star Trek and the motorcyle the Starship Enterprise:P So, here's the part 1 of of my Hyperspeed-Motorcycle ride series . Love to collect unique shots like this. :)