| It’s been almost two years since I’ve been wanting to go back, and do a proper photo walk along the Seaside Boulevard in the SM by the Bay (formerly San Miguel by the Bay) since the first time going there in the early mornings more than twelve years ago that I’ve been hoping to replicate, but with this time at the peak of sunset. It was not the best time though I was there and went with it.
The past three years have been quite a lull and, it was unpredictable how every day would wind down as usual during the height of the pandemic times everyone was spending their isolated life, not seeing much of the sunset or even hearing the crush of the strong waves it the giant rocks that protect the side walls of the seaside boulevard. |
I’ve been to SM Mall of Asia several times, but not on the best days since people started to go out and, flocked to every commercial district in various cities within Metro Manila like there's no tomorrow.
It’s quite insane, compared to when I came back after being gone for almost three years living in another country with a five times smaller population and not rowdy enough to cause minor traffic in an area most people hang out.
There’s no better time than to take a chance at walking around Seaside Boulevard, where I used to walk on Sunday mornings before the break of dawn. I’ve seen enough changes that happened in the last decade or so to see that more people are going to this area even before the term “pandemic” became things two-three years ago. So much has changed over the years, and the way people take every bit of a chance to be outdoors was different.
You shake that feeling that some of the majority have lost their mindfulness or are just not polite to verbally “excuse themselves” than just slipping in your left or right to sit or stand at the breakwater wall of the bay, while you try to capture an image or record a video clip.
It is difficult now to just find the safe spot, while some verbally talk themselves to arouse or annoy you to leave that space that you already have taken refuge in. The best way to be there is either in the early morning or at the peak when the noontime sun is up high and giving the area so much heat.
Because the locals are sensitive to their skin getting tanned or just plain weak, which luckily I can oblige to be living in the hottest place on the planet to get used to 30-40 degrees of heat without the need for an umbrella, but with proper sunblock coating on my exposed skin whenever I’m just out and about.
In the last few years, Seaside Boulevard aside from the growth of restaurants and cafes opening nearby the area it’s also theme parks that were added for those who just want to stroll around the area renting push bikes and kiddie carts to roll in and out of the places they’re allowed to do so.
The part I’ve been able to do was walked to the former One Esplanade, which is entirely blocked off that route. This is the starting path to walk from here to the farthest edge of Seaside Boulevard ending past the MOA Eye Ferris wheel. I haven’t done that in actually only to check the other side, where there was a small jetty that used to have touring boats connect to that part that is now closed and gated.
Besides that, they also expanded adding a piece of land in front of it that let you see an open seaside view of Roxas Boulevard, which is now completely blocked by the artificial island that was added an expansion.
The walk was not the most pleasing to the eye when you get there now, but then that’s the nature of how SMDC owned this part of the area, and things have changed significantly in this part where there used to have an open seas view of Manila.
Before heading back to the main shopping centre I managed to recreate another photo from the time I was also test-driving my former Canon EOS 60D. These days I just used the camera of a mobile phone, which is an iPhone 12 Pro that has been beaten up from the past two years of extreme photography used,
Someone from the back of the day used to call me a “shutterbug” for the extreme use of using a camera from the days of having a film camera, and now a mobile phone with a built-in camera that had a cracked wide-angle option.
But going back to the subject, recreating the shot was challenging since the place where I took the subject is now segregated by a metal gate and there’s no place to put it there. But I decided to look for a proper spot to capture it, which was good timing when the sun is already dissipated out of the sea as the darkness slowly falls around the area where some people are about to leave the place.
If that day had fewer photos taken at that time, this capture took a lot of shots with varying different angles and timing with the use of what’s left of the light it was still quite a satisfaction to have to choose an image to capture the same tone with that older shot, and also a newer subject in the form of the New Beetle released in 2021 by Matchbox that is almost similar to that older model.
How’s that to wrap things up in an attempt to recapture the moment?
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