Isla Gigantes: The Forgotten Coastline

You reach Isla Gigantes by a two-hour bangka from Estancia port in Iloilo. Most travellers heading to the Visayas skip it entirely in favour of the more famous islands. That's exactly why it's worth going.

The main island is small enough to walk across in an hour. The sandbar that appears at low tide doesn't exist on most maps — you find it by asking the fisherman at the dock and leaving before 10am. By the time you're standing on it the water on both sides is knee-deep and the colour is the specific turquoise that Instagram has managed to make feel fake, except in person it's completely real.

I shot mostly in the morning and in the last hour before sunset. Midday light here is harsh and flat, not worth the heat. The fishing boats anchored in the lagoon have a quietness to them — nets folded, engines off, just rocking slightly in the current.

I used Classic Chrome for most of this trip. The simulation's handling of cyan and blue tones is close to the film looks I grew up seeing in old National Geographic spreads.