Taal Lake Sunset Shots with the Lumix LX3

The sun sets at the perfec side of the Taal Volcano.

Last Saturday afternoon was a blessing to me. It was my first time to finally go to a place near the Taal Volcano in Batangas along with media people from Mega Publishing’s food magazine called Appetite. We stayed in this lakeside resort named Balai Isabel which allowed me and other people to witness the long and magical sunset at Taal Lake.

Taal livelihood at sunset: The fishermen were still trying to do some catching even during sunset…

Shooting at the Taal lakeside area was the second time I used my Panasonic Lumix LX-3 camera to shoot a sunset. However, I had a different approach in capturing the sunset during that time. I got very excited to finally use the High Dynamic Scene Mode after I did upgrade my LX-3’s firmware after my HongKong trip.

Shooting with the new High Dynamic Mode of my LX3 enabled me to do no-sweat HDR (High Dynamic Range) shots in just one click of the shutter button. I noticed a big difference when one uses the High Dynamic Mode, especially when it came to lightening the foreground of my shots. High Dynamic Mode also lifts up the exposure when it comes to the shadows in a picture, so shots come brighter with a surreal feel. As for the color with using the said mode, there were instances I noticed differences on the texture of the clouds and the sky but generally the colors are faithful. Overall, it’s a great addition to my LX3’s features after a simple firmware upgrade. Hehehe

I did try shooting with some moss/algae on the foreground with the sunset on the horizon.

And yes…I also did use my LX-3’s Manual Focus feature for kicks for a shallow depth of field! (The sharpness that the Lumix LX-3 still amazes me…until now sigh.)

After the peak of the sunset, the colors of the sky made me think how wonderful God’s creation was. It gave me a surreal feel despite how faithful the picture looked like in reality. I felt so blessed witnessing such sight and taking home a picture with me to share.

I hope you guys and gals liked my Taal Lake sunset shots using my Panasonic Lumix LX-3. I’m actually about to come back to Batangas in just a few hours for a much-needed retreat until the 30th…I hope to see another wonderful sunset while I’m there even if I won’t have a chance to shoot.