It was a vacation and family reunion in Algarve, in the southwestern most part of Portugal. My youngest daughter flew to Belgium to spend Christmas with her older sister and to meet for the first time her three-month old niece. Before New Year, they flew together to Portugal to await my wife and I as we arrive from New York. This is our first time to see our first grandchild.

Photography played second fiddle to bonding with our granddaughter, so photography was limited to the beaches and nearby towns of Algarve where the whole family could join on the side trips. Walking along the beaches, I was fascinated by the abstract qualities of rainwater flowing from the cliffs of Vila Do Bispo and cutting a path along the sand on the beach towards the Atlantic Ocean. I began to wonder how such random and chaotic flow of water could create and design such beautifully ordered patterns and dramatic images on the sand.

A good friend, upon seeing the new images, waxed poetic and quoted William Blake’s famous poem “To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour”.

Nature has no equal in creating abstract images, whether it is the wind sculpting wavy ripples on the desert sand or water cutting labyrinthine pathways on the beach. Such is the joy of photography, the ability to show the wonders of nature that are often overlooked and ignored in our hurried existence.

PAMANA NG PILIPINO AWARD

The following are selected excerpts from the official programme of the 2008 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas, December 10, 2008, Malacañang Palace, Manila, Philippines.

The Pamana ng Pilipino Award is conferred on Filipinos overseas who, in exemplifying the talent and industry of the Filipino, have brought the country honor and recognition through excellence and distinction in the pursuit of their work or profession.

"If landscape photography is the photographer's supreme test, Carlos L. Esguerra has passed it with just the right sharpness and contrast. His works are landscapes that stir the soul, nature photography that depicts the world's natural charms, and plays of shadow and light that reveal the most brilliant colors even in its most simple form. Critics rave that an Esguerra photograph can look like a painting, sketch or drawing."

"One of Mr. Esguerra's famous works is the peaceful yet breathtaking series of "The Zen of White Sands". It highlights selected images created since 2002 at the quiet stark desert vista, White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. An area of 275 square miles located in the heart of Tularosa Basin, it is the largest pure gypsum dune field in the world. His artistry transformed the harsh desert condition into stunning photographic images that won him numerous international awards. The genius of his photography is apparent and the world has not been blind to it. Known and well recognized as the modern-day Ansel Adams, he has won more than 40 national and international prizes."

"Besides being an extraordinary photographer who has allowed the viewers to see the world more beautifully through his lyrical eye, Mr. Esguerra has been an artist who has selflessly supported several charities, NGOs and institutions in the Philippines and the US."

On his secret to great photography, Mr. Esguerra simply says, "you have to be there at the right time."