Sunset at the Bay Area

Friday on Weekday Photos is all about sunset, and here's my share:




Taken a year ago in SM Mall of Asia bay area, this picture was taken as my entry to Kristi's Photo Hunt for June 2009. Taking on her challenge, I actually feared I might not be able to take a sunset shot because June was the start of the rainy season here in the Philippines, and rainy season meant clouds blocking the view of the sun.

I took a day out to hunt most of the items on the list, and sister and I decided to go to SM MOA just to roam around and try if we could see the sunset. We did see the sunset, and of all the pictures I took, I chose this one as my entry - which was actually the lost shot I took - I just gave the place one last look and took the picture.

*** Jenn ***

Crossing the Lines

Thursday on Weekday Photos is Urban, and this week's theme is the Zebra Lines:




Taken last Saturday in Eastwood City in Libis, my friend Halie and I stopped for a moment to take pictures as there we need to "hunt" for a night scene, and because I don't really go out much, I wanted to take pictures of different night scenes as much as I can. I just liked the look of this scene, and although my point and shoot camera struggled with the movements, I still loved the pictures. :)

Taking time off to say that our PC died, am currently using the public computer... I will be offline starting now, but will try to update the blogs once in a while.

*** Jenn ***

Amaryllis, Up Close

One of the flowers I always try to take pictures of whenever I am at the weekend market of Lung Center of the Philippines was the amaryllis. I just love its red color and how big the flower is! I arrived late that time, and most of the amaryllis were already gone, but I was able to see this one, and almost immediately, I lowered myself to take a picture of it.

I used to have an amaryllis plant in our garden, but after I lost its leaves due to rains, the bulb never sprung again. :(

*** Jenn ***

Lover Ant

Tuesdays on Weekday Photos is Macro, and here's my take for this week:




In our garden, we have this hibiscus plant who became a shelter for many big, red ants, and whenever I wanted to take pictures to de-stress myself, I would just go to the garden and "invade" the ants' home. One time, my mom decided to trim down the plant, and I could no longer take pictures of the ants because the leaves and some of the branches were far too high for me to reach.

In my efforts to still take pictures of the ants, I noticed a trail along the fence and found that there were lots of the ants eating these itty bitty berry like fruits in one of the plants in the garden. I followed them and took pictures of the ants as they carry each of the berry, and following them lead me to this scene.

While some of the ants were carrying the berries, this one was carrying a flower (from the same plant). It found a trail using a vine of the orchid, and taking a picture of it looked like the ant was going to his lady love to give a flower.

Such a lover ant, eh? :)

*** Jenn ***

Warped Gerber Daisy

Am supposed to feature "flora and fauna" for this month on Today's Flowers, but I got the themes mixed up and posted the picture for the Camera Critters meme yesterday, so this month on Today's Flowers, I will just feature random flower pictures. :)





Last Saturday, I met up with friends and because two of us joined Kristi's photo hunt this month, we decided to go to this part of the mall that has a flower kiosk. My friend said the kiosk has some blue roses, and because "something blue" was part of the "to hunt" list, we just gave ourselves the chance to cross something out of the list.

I did take pictures of the blue flower, but because it was a flower stand, they sure had quite a lot of bouquets and I took the liberty to take pictures of others as well. This was actually an orange colored gerber daisy, but I forgot to change my camera settings - it was on "cloudy" white balance, making the image more orange-y. At first I tried to convert it to black and white, but it didn't look good (for me), so I just played with some settings in GIMP. When I clicked on "colorize" and the image suddenly became blue, I decided to stick with it.

Well, this looks blue, but this won't be my "something blue" picture. :)

Happy new week, everyone!

*** Jenn ***

A Mother in Need

I received an invitation to join another photo meme, and the site actually features different challenge for every day of the week (except weekends, of course).

Monday is all about "Creative Colors," and the theme for this week is Black and White, and this is my share:




...taken 07 May 2010, I was asked by my mother to go to the bank and deposit some money for my brother who was out of town. After the bank errand, I decided to find a food place where I can get cooked foods because I was a bit lazy to cook my lunch. While walking the streets of Lagro in Quezon City, I saw this mother with her baby. She was begging for some help, and I could feel for the mother because she was sleepy (maybe the baby cried all night), yet she has to be awake so she could extend her arms to ask for help.

I really feel sorry for the mother, but at the same time there was a voice in me that was a bit angry at her - for letting her little one feel the suffering. I was taught a valuable lesson, "who we are today are the consequences of choices we made the day before." I wish the mother good riddance.

This picture was captured using my Sony Ericsson K800i cell phone and edited in GIMP.

*** Jenn ***

Praying Mantis

It's a new month now, so am going to post "Flora and Fauna" for this month here on Camera Critters. All pictures will feature critters on a flower.




This picture was taken early April this year... our neighbor Ria and I have started doing morning jogs, and on some days, I would be taking my camera so I can also take picture of things that would interest me while jogging.

Near the heart of the neighborhood, we spotted this little mantis on a flower. It was really, really cute, that I asked Ria if we could stop for a while because I didn't want to miss the chance of taking pictures of this critter. I had to turn on the flash because it was still dawn, and although some pictures didn't look good (It was hard to look on the camera's LCD on such low lit situations), I was happy I was able to take a picture of this. He really looked like he was praying, and the flower was his altar.

*** Jenn ***

Harbour Square

A picture I took April 2009, after eating eating lunch in one of the food places nearby. I was there to meet up with photo blog friends because at that time there was an event - the annual Aliwan Fiesta, held in the CCP Complex - just walking distance away from this spot. It was raining hard where I live, that got me a little hesitant in attending, but I was glad I did, because I was able to see this spectacular view. Who knew it was blue skies here? :)

Actually, it rained late afternoon - early night that day, but I was really glad I was able to see this.

*** Jenn ***