Texture Tuesdays | Garden Edition

This week's prompt is garden, and since I just came home from a wedding and that I have quite a lot of things to do, my share for this week is simple and had very minimal processing.

I have nearly a dozen tomato seedlings in small growing pots, and although it's taking so long before they grow, I am happy that I was able to bring life to small seeds. I am going to buy bigger pots of the seedlings this week, as I feel the pot was small already and it is already hindering the growth of the seedlings.

I used the "stained linen" texture (set to soft light 100% and another layer set to opacity at 25%) for this picture after giving it a pass of the National Geographic script.

*** Jenn ***

Shutter Love Tuesdays | Trees

This week's prompt is "Trees," and I just can't help but go through files from not-so-distant past. This picture was something I took while jogging with sister at Colinas Verdes. At times, I would take my cell phone or my camera with me, and I'd stop and take pictures as my way of catching my breath. I took this on our way out, and because I was stopping too much, my sister decided to sit and wait for me. She's that person sitting at a distance. :)

I ran a lomo script in processing this picture. It looks unreal, but I did like it. :)

*** Jenn ***

Rizal Park

Since I already had the November 2010 folder open, I decided to choose my photo for the three memes (Color Splash, Macro Mondays, and Today's Flowers) from the same folder as well.

This was a picture I took from Rizal Park November of 2010. This place was very memorable for K and I because when we first met in 2008, we also went here and since we were together again after two years (he lives in UK, that's why), we really made it a point to visit this place again, just so we could have something from the past that connects to the present.

I also decided to choose this picture because June is coming up, and that's the birth month of the country's national hero - Dr. Jose Rizal. This year is his 150th birth anniversary, and the government is now starting to plan big celebrations around the country on 19 June. I am going to attend the party in this same park come that day.

Editing this picture, I first made my usual process - select one part of the image then make an inverse selection and converted it to b&w, then I followed it with a vintage script, and I liked the outcome - it kinda looks like old photograph.

*** Jenn ***

ps - Thanks to Artistically Amy for choosing my image as one of the favorites from last week.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 052911

Nice to see you all again... I was absent last week, so I am thankful I was able to hunt all items this week. My share:

01) Classic Still Life

When I first read this prompt, the first thing that came to my mind were fruits, but because it's been raining the whole week here, I wasn't able to go out and buy all sorts of fruits. Thankfully, we have this old fake fruits table decor, so I went to the storage room and took it out. Our house today is a mess (as we were cleaning the house for a celebration next week), so I just used one of our cleopatra chairs to add a bit drama to the background.

Editing this picture, I ran the Duotone script followed by the National Geographic script (both you can search for at the GIMP plugin registry), before applying two layers of Kim Klassen's yesteryear texture, one set to normal 70%, the other to overlay at 100%.


02) Self Portrait

After doing the laundry, I helped mom clean the kitchen. Instead of mopping the floors, we decided to take the hose and water the floor (too many paw prints)! Since water on marble floors can be a bit slippery, I took the electric fan to help dry the floor quick while my mom and I were scrubbing the floors and mopping them after. Finished, my face was sweating (err, "glowing," as K would say it), so I went near the fan to cool myself. The air blowing my hair made me remember an old Selfie Magic prompt (until now I still haven't joined though I want to), so I took out my cell phone in my pocket and took pictures.

03) On the Floor

My cat Teddy the night before she gave birth. We had three cute kitties come morning, but sadly the older cat Orange-y bit the kittens (he was able to locate them) thinking maybe they were mice. I buried the three kitties yesterday.

{Also linking this picture to Camera Critters}

04) Lines

Sunset last Thursday was so magical for me. I shared some sunset pictures already, and this one was taken after the short shoot. When I passed by the terrace I just loved the blending of colors, but since my camera can't seem to get the correct color of the sky, I just used my cell phone for this.

This was SOOC. I hoped to do something about it... but each step I made caused it to look darker, so I will just stick to the SOOC version.

{Also linking this up to SOOC Sunday}

05) Fresh

Freshly painted fingernails! The family is going to attend a wedding on Tuesday, and since their motif is purple/pink, I decided to paint my fingernails to help me find a matching outfit for it. :) I was able to buy a blouse yesterday. Anyway, I did the laundry this morning and helped with the cleaning of the house, so the polish already chipped off... I will just manicure my nails tomorrow, using the same polish, of course. I am happy I can now do my own manicure.

All pictures taken using my Sony Ericsson K800i cell phone, except for the "Classic Still Life," which was taken using my Canon Powershot SX130is camera.

*** Jenn ***

Favorite Photo of the Week | Sunset Before the Rain

Over my other photo blog, As the Shutter Clicks, I participated in a photo-editing challenge called "Edit Me!" For this week, the photo to be edited was provided by Misty, and when she made a comment about my edited picture, she also invited me to join her photo challenge called "Favorite Photo of the Week." Since I can join on Saturdays, I will then have to choose my favorite picture based on the pictures taken from Saturday to Friday.

This week, I chose this:


Like what I have written on my other blog, this moment was a blessing for me because I got to see the beautiful sunset colors a few minutes before it rained. I am equally thankful for the 12x optical zoom that my camera has because in some pictures I took I was able to zoom and concentrate on the fiery orange sky, but while the zoomed in image looked amazing, seeing a much wider scope of the sky was something that really took my breath away. The sky looked like a painting... and with the rain falling minutes after, I really thanked the heavens for letting me see this.

*** Jenn ***

Foto Friday | On and On

First up, let me thank Mom Tried it for featuring my "Foto Friday | Old" picture as one of the favorites. It really warmed my heart. :)

This week, the prompt is "on and on." At first I didn't understand what the prompt was all about, but when I read the description written on the post, it gave me an idea of what to share.


Time is something that goes on and on. Since the creation of the universe, time has been there and is still is running. Time waits for no one, and despite all the chaos and the heartaches and everything in between, time is the only one thing I know that doesn't seem to have problems with moving on.

This is a picture of a desk pen organizer my mom received. The main decor was a sailboat made of plastic (which lights up when it is switched on), and near the boat's sails, was this little clock, which is pretty much the size of a pop Swatch. Photographing this, I tried different backgrounds - from the bed's headboard to the marble floor... but the plastic boat was totally out of place. I was playing with my camera's setting and since it was already dusk (I took this picture three hours ago), I decided to up the ISO of my camera as well as its exposure. I always run my camera under shutter priority, and since my current shutter speed was 1/4, it resulted to an overexposed image when I hit the shutter. It gave me the idea of taking the picture like that, as it washed out the plastic sailboat.

Editing the image, I just made a selection around the clock, ran the National Geographic script set to default, before applying the unsharp mask and burning it. Happy with the look of the image, I then layered it with Kim Klassen's "not too shabby" texture, just to make the white space look uniform.

Happy weekends, everyone!

*** Jenn ***

ps - if you think there is a discrepancy between the time on the clock and me saying this was taken at dusk... well, the answer to that is because the clock doesn't have a battery, and I cannot find the button to change its time.