A Photographer Snapped a Rare Photo of Mount Arayat from a Rooftop in Metro Manila

Photographer Jilson Tiu has snapped a photo of Mt. Arayat from a rooftop of a 64-storey building on Ayala Avenue. Arayat is 80 kilometers away from where this photo was taken.

"I was surprised when I saw Mt. Arayat," Tiu tells Esquire Philippines. He didn't believe it was Mt. Arayat he was seeing at first because of how far it is.

When Tiu posted the photo on social media, some people did not believe it was really Mt. Arayat he had captured because it appeared too large in the background. Tiu explains this photo was possible because of a photography technique called lens compression.

"So compression in a long lens makes Mt. Arayat really pop out," Tiu says.

Mt. Arayat Captured from a Rooftop in Ayala Avenue, Makati

Photo by Jilson Tiu.

Other people are claiming it is not Mt. Arayat that Tiu captured but Mt Makiling. 

"Definitely not Mt Arayat, looks like Mt Makiling which is very visible from Makati when the weather has less smog but not Arayat I suspect," wrote one Facebook user. 

But it is. 

Tiu took the photo at 4 p.m. in the afternoon in July 2022. Looking at the position of the light in the photo, you can tell that the camera is facing north. Mt. Arayat is to the north of Makati, while Mt. Makiling is to the south. 

According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), Mt. Arayat is a potentially active stratovolcano. It is located in the province of Pampanga rising to a height of 1,033 meters or one kilometer. 

Jilson Tiu is constantly searching for rooftops from where he can shoot the city.

"I want to see the city from different heights. You see things when you’re high enough."