What's in store for Summer 2012?

It's summer, alright. But what are your plans? Mine? A planned trip to Baler next month with the beckies (should be fun! Please let it push through) and a late summer pahabol: a trip to Zambales with my college buddies -- a reunion of sort actually. I'm crossing all my fingers that both plans will push through and probably something in between them, too. You see, as a kid I used to frequent the beach with the company outings (from where my father works) during summer months and the annual trip to the province and island hopping with the relatives. But now, I don't have the childhood excuse of 'summer vacation' school declaration. Unfortunately for us, the corporate world doesn't have a scheduled summer break. Life would be grand if we have it right? Downside, no sweldo! Ay wag nalang uy! 

So I wish you reader (yeah you, who happen to blog hop and unfortunately, wasted your time here haha!) a blissful and memorable summer ahead! Share your plans! 

As for me, let me daydream and get back to doing stomach crunches and dispel the fats lurking. May abs naman ako, este, AB!! Isa lang e! :)

Amateur Clicks

As you know I took a basic photography class to move my silly beginner ass from the full AUTO mode to a MANUAL camera mode. Not that there's nothing wrong with full auto mode, but I have always felt that with AUTO I can't maximize the capacity of my camera and feel the worth of its price (ouch!). So there, last Sunday I finished it but I didn't win the photo contest (1,2,3... sob! Awwww maaaann!). No I'm not going to share my assignment photos yet (ahem...) but I would want to share some photos that I took when over the past weeks that I was with my camera. 

Note that these photos are not edited. Pardon me, as even US pro mastah photographahs need to be humble and share amateur photos. Ay naku!!! Wake up *slaps my wrist*! Stop day dreaming :) But really what I am trying to point out is that I have seen improvements on my photos, you may not agree but I did!!! *jumping for joy here* Kung may nakita kayong artistic flair, it's most likely accidental hahahaha!

Some photos around Manila or at least from where I went the past few weeks :)

 My attempt at shooting cityscape in low light setting, This was taken outside my window.

  Taken at the Skylounge cafe in one of the condo's in Taguig past 6:00PM and the sky was painted in full pastel colors! My heart soared!! The accent (yessss! uma-accent! *thanks my composition instructor*) on top is NOT a meteor but an airplane that just took off. I used a slow shutter speed thus the trail light effect. Oh yes, I now know them shutter ek-ek! 

Oh yes, achieve!! but overexposed light, paak! oh well, making progress while attempting to shot light trails from the traffic in Taguig. 

Purely accidental, subject moved while photo was taken thus the ghostly effect. :)

An afternoon shot at the American Cemetery :)

Alien in the City!!! made of tubes and spikes! This is one of the many art structures at The Fort. 

Pootpat, Footfat... ano ba talaga?!! Footpath. 

I was looking for a subject for my human activity assignment... and look what we have here!! shuuuweeett! But no, I didn't submit this. :)

This is one accidental shot, if I didn't look behind my shoulder before crossing the street, I wouldn't have seen this. My heart jumps for joy every time God decides to show off and paint the sky in pastel hues :) Who wouldn't love this? This only lasted for several minutes, mind you. I didn't even think about my camera settings, I just clicked, clicked and clicked. By the way, this is part of the selection I had for my landscape assignment but I didn't submit it. :) 

My photos aren't picture perfect but they make me happy. I'm making progress you see, one click at a time :) More to come, dreaming of doing some photowalk. In black and white :)

Sounds of our hobbies

Since I have been taking photography lessons, you can hear my camera's click, click, click! With Bugoy, it's his guitar. He took up a new hobby too! And he is going through some lessons and he bought a guitar. Yaaaayy! Taking up a new hobby or formal classes is one effective creative release from work :) it's a welcome break! 

See how happy he is to practice? 

As for me, for four Sundays now, I have been attending a short course on photography through the Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. The class includes 5 whole Sunday classroom and outdoor activities that covers all you need to know about basic photography. My class's last session will be this Sunday and I need to prepare for the final assignments. It's a contest and I want to win haha! Anyway, the class is very enjoyable and I learned a lot. I have successfully stayed away from using the AUTO mode Achievement! I am on my way to becoming mastah photographah! With what little knowledge I have, I can now manipulate the Aperture priority, Shutter priority and Manual modes of my beloved camera. And I am beginning to appreciate my Nikon D3100. I struggle, yes, but personal assessment would reveal that I have improved a lot. Plus I am happy to realize that this class has opened up my senses -- I have learned to notice the little things that I usually ignore. I just wanted to bring my camera with me all the time. 

Here are some of the photos I took during the classes, these are required assignments too:

 

Let me share the good news: this photo (showing a shallow DOP) was voted as 3rd in class. Yeey! 

Thank you to Tita Amor for modelling :) 

Composition assignment :)

 

I still have a lot of photos I'll sort it out and post them here. 

It's fun taking a break from work and getting on a hobby every weekend. Try it too and let me know!

True to my blog's name

Over the past few days, I have been thinking about creating a new post but since I came back from Palawan, I've been spending my energy mostly at work as I had a lot to finish. Now that I have finished most urgent items, I feel that I can now sit down and scribble -- uhm... since I'm doing it on my laptop then it's e-scribble. ahah!

Thoughts were mostly on changing the format of this little corner of mine. Since there are a lot of travel blogs out there that I follow, and I admire their dedication for constantly blogging about their travels, I won't be doing what they are doing because I can't. I can't travel on every weekend thus there would be a lot of 'dead air' when it comes to blogging. But what would constantly provide content would be my passion for photography or at least as I explore it (more on that later). I would presume this blog will be photo heavy from this day forward. I will blog about my travel experiences (I don't have much, but I will indeed see the Philippines), food adventures and (wait for it...) photo walk!! Oh yes! I have been wanting to do that around Manila but I promised myself that I would only do that if I would know how to operate my camera. But since I have improved a little through the class I've been taking, I am definitely armed with a little courage. So pardon me if you happen to stumble on this blog with expectations of learning and getting tips on traveling. I can't give that -- I'll leave that to the experts and there are really good at it. But I hope you'll still continue to visit this page and I promise to share snippets of how wonderful my country and world is through my photos. As the blog name suggests, I will show you 'the world in a few clicks'. :)