Shutter Happy Moments

Up in the Air

2012-01-27T17:03:00.003+08:00

Another multiple-meme posts, but this one will center on Foto Friday's prompt, "In the Air". Here are my choice of images to share:

This was a picture I took during my last flight - from Tagbilaran to Manila - August of 2011. Whenever I travel by air, I always try to get the window seat, but of course, there were times I won't get what I want. The times I did, I really try to take as much pictures because my travels were just domestic - I only had an hour or so to take pictures looking down on earth.

Since I am linking to some memes that should feature images taken from the past week, let me now share images from a few days ago, still keeping up with the theme:

Sister using the jump rope last Tuesday (24 January 2012). We only have one rope, so we took turns in using it, and since I took my camera, I busied myself taking her pictures. Using the rope can be a quick thing to do - so to take this image, I set my camera to multiple shots; once my sister started jumping, I clicked the shutter and didn't let go of it until I was sure I got my shot. Four succeeding images with my sister's feet up in the air, this was the highest jump of all the images I took.

The day before that (23 January 2012), the family went to Quezon Memorial Circle to enjoy some family time, and because we love doing jump shots, we surely didn't let the day pass without doing some...

That's me and my sister. Personally, I didn't like the surface - it didn't seem to show how high the jump was (maybe because of the floor's decoration), but I am glad I can now jump higher and I can do a different pose. Before, I could only do what my sister (right image) do - now, I can experiment more. Just yesterday, I scoured Flickr for jump shots and took note of the poses I hope to do in the future. I sure can't fly, but I can certainly be up in the air. :)

Linking these images to Misty's "Shoot. Edit. Submit" - all these images weren't the SOOC shot. Editing each images:

First Image - Cropped out the plane's window; gave it a pass of the burn tool to deepen the colors of the water.
Second Image - Ran the "Summer Heat" action, giving the image a slightly orange tone.
Third and Fourth Images - Gave it a pass of the "National Geographic" script.

The Story Edition

2012-01-24T15:07:00.003+08:00

Happy Tuesday, all! Today I realized there are so many wonderful photography challenges, and I am now listing all the memes/challenges I wanted to join, so I guess from here on out, I will be much active in posting here.

For this week's "Texture Tuesdays," the prompt revolves around "Story" and here's my choice of image to share:

I took this image this morning while doing my morning walk / jog. The grasses were quite far from where I was at, and zooming in, I was in awe at how my p&s camera was able to highlight grasses on the foreground while keeping anything else in soft focus. As I took more and more images, a jogger stopped and I thought his image somehow added drama to the overall image.

Walkers / joggers around Colinas Verdes have their own story to tell. Some would like to train for the marathon, others want to build resistance, others want to lose weight in preparation for something, some just go there to be with friends and stay away from home and chores. I don't know what's this man's story, but as long as all of us are doing something for our wellness, I guess that's what mattered the most.

I came up with a simple edit this week.

Ran the Vintage script with 50% vignette,
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Confidence" texture set to Soft Light at 100%,
Ran the Unsharp Mask
Added name stamp, flattened, and saved the image.

The Open Edition

2012-01-17T15:52:00.004+08:00

It was quite unfortunate that I wasn't able to finish the 12 Days of Textures party over at Kim Klassen's blog, but now that I have sorted out blogging priorities, it's time to add textures to certain images.

This week is an "Open" week, and I am sharing this picture:

The SOOC.

I took this at Plaza Ibarra (Timog, Quezon City) while waiting for the event to start. Plaza Ibarra is one of the great choices for a party venue, and since the venue was spacious, these vine also added drama to the venue. Looking up, I was amazed that the leaves looked like hearts, so I quickly aimed my camera to take a shot.

I was on auto mode when I took this (normally during events, I play safe by using the auto mode), and even if my camera's still considered a point-and-shoot, I am happy that my camera can create that blur in the background, making the subject stand out, even if I had to use the zoom.

Image with Texture.

To get to this edit, I...

Ran the "Black and White Film" script, set to Agfa 200x.
Ran the "Retinex" script, some settings changed according to my preference.
Added some color to the image (slightly deep pink tone).
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Phoebe" texture, set to Screen at 85%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Lilly" texture, set to Multiply at 100%.
Ran the National Geographic script, settings changed according to my preference.
Ran the Manny Librodo Sharpening script, settings changed according to my preference.
Used the Burn tool set to Shadows at 10%.
Added name stamp, flattened and saved the image.

Hope you liked the end result. :)

Cabarnet Sauvignon

2012-01-14T11:07:00.004+08:00

Would you believe it's exactly a month ago since I last posted here? Oh well, I surely got drowned with so many things, but I am pretty much determined to get myself out of this rut. :)

Oh, by the way... Happy new year!

Celebrations are often celebrated with a bottle of wine, and this bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon - together with it's very cute wine rack (shaped like a carriage) was something given to me when I attended the press conference of the Weddings & Debuts 2012 Bridal Fair last Thursday at Plaza Ibarra in Timog, Quezon City. The Wedding Library organized this event (the Bridal Fair will be next month), and as a parting gift for us who attended, we got this.

I don't drink wine that much, but I found this one really cute, so I might use this for future celebrations here at home - as a table centerpiece.

12 Days of Textures: Days 1 & 2

2011-12-14T10:46:00.004+08:00

Happy to be sick-free as I opened the week, but I faced quite a lot of assignments as well as chores / errands for the house, so I didn't have much time to update all of my blogs.

Kim Klassen's "12 Days of Textures" just started - something I love to do, and since she is giving away 12 different textures everyday, I decided to use pictures I took the day I received the texture download link thru my e-mail. Here are the first two of twelve textures:

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
First texture was Lilly, and I just made a quick and easy edit to add textures to this image. I just added a layer of Lilly blended to Multiply at 100%, gave it a pass of the National Geographic script followed by a pass of Manny Librodo sharpening script.

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
Annabelle is today's texture, and I used a picture of a cocoon I took from our garden this morning (before the rain fell). I basically used the same recipe as the first one, but for this I added two layers of the Annabelle texture - one I blended to Soft Light at 100%, the other I blended to Screen at 40%.

Holidays / Christmas (SOOC)

2011-12-05T21:22:00.002+08:00

Christmas is my favorite time of the year! Everyone seems to be kind, sweet and generous... and everybody is always in such a happy mood. When I found out this week's Good to Wow (Shoot and Edit) prompt is Christmas / Holidays, I just knew I had to participate.

This was taken last December at the nearby mall. Every Christmastime, every SM malls have their own Christmas decor set up for mall goers to have their pictures taken. I am not sure if it's the same with every branch (SM is such a well known mall, they have branches all over the country), but for their branch in Fairview, they had the Gingerbread House as the theme.

I took this picture using my cell phone while waiting for mom. That time, I still didn't have my camera because my old one (Canon Powershot A1000is) just died, so I relied on my cell phone to capture moments while I was waiting for me to have enough money to buy myself a new camera.

I will do very minimal changes for this image; although I still have to think of a way to deal with that lower right side of the image.

One Week Recap

2011-12-02T14:54:00.003+08:00

Oh noes! It's been more than a week since I last updated this blog! Well, time management is still a learning process for me, but even if I haven't blogged, I never really stopped taking pictures. To make up for the lost time, I decided to choose one picture from each day (from 25 November - 01 December) and share it here. Most of these pictures were taken during my morning walks at Colinas Verdes.

Wildflowers
25 November 2011

One of the wonderful things about greenish wide open spaces is that it had ample space for different kinds of plants. I don't know what this flower is called, but its pale purple color surely caught my interest in an instant!

Lemonade
26 November 2011

Today I met up with my fitness buddy again. He has been so supportive and great to me (even if I don't get to see him everyday), so after we met up for some workout, I treated him for lunch. I took more than a few pictures that day, but I chose to share this picture, because I normally take pictures of my drinks with my camera facing down; today my buddy suggested I take a picture of it with my camera a little below and the lens looking straight the glasses. It was a great suggestion; I was able to do something I don't normally do.

Bashful Mimosa
27 November 2011

I took this picture with my camera under the leaves. Another angle I learned from my fitness buddy (hmm... he sure is more than a fitness buddy, he's also a photo buddy because of the tips he shared to me. This was a shot of faith as I couldn't see my camera's LCD - the plant is a few inches away from the ground. I just positioned my camera, hit the shutter halfway (to focus it) before fully hitting the shutter to make the shot. It turned out wonderful and I was happy.

Tree Silhouette
28 November 2011

I was late for this day's walk and the sun was already up and shining so bright. I took this before entering Colinas Verdes' gate, and even if it was sunny that morning, this picture was a blessing.

Grass
29 November 2011

Today I decided to leave my camera and just take my cell phone. Doing my morning walks here everyday made me feel as if I have already seen all there is to see. Taking a break from 30 minutes of brisk walking, I just attempted to put my cell phone's camera on macro mode and take a picture of the grass, hoping to get a clear shot of the grass and the background slightly blurred. Well, I wasn't able to achieve it, but I did love how the image turned out.

Golden Sunrise
30 November 2011

This wasn't the SOOC. I brought my cell phone again today, and for a while I felt a bit sad seeing this wonderful sunrise from afar. If I brought my camera, I might have taken a much better picture, but of course, I'd just have to be contented with what I have. The original shot wasn't as close as this - I just cropped it and made a 640x480 selection, then I gave it a pass of Golden Autumn lomo script, because even if my eyes were seeing an orange tint in the sky, my cell phone's camera wasn't able to fully capture the colors the way I saw it.

-19Lbs.
01 December 2011

The last two months has been one heck of a ride for me. Though it was, I was happy to learn many things - that I can surely wake up real early in the morning to walk (even if I was alone) and eating less than normal. I have lost 19lbs total for the last two months, and though I still am over 200lbs and my weight today is basically the same as my weight when I first hoped to slim down in 2008, I was happy to be able to fit into my sister's blouse and a pair of denim shorts, both of which were too small for me to fit into before.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Free & Easy Edition

2011-11-22T15:28:00.005+08:00

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
This morning, one friend on Facebook posted this status:

SISTER WEEK: Real sisters aren't perfect - they wont always fit the mold. They aren't bound by blood alone, but by love that flows through and through. A real sister has made you laugh, hurt you, stuck up for you, drove you crazy, annoyed you, hugged you, watched you succeed, saw you fail, picked you back up again, cheered you on, wiped your tears, calmed you down, made you strong and is someone you are proud to have in your life. I love you, sissy!

It made me miss my sister so much. She started her training for her new job this week, and even if we get to see each other everyday, I just miss our sister moments - attending events, cooking/eating, walking.

This image wasn't the last time we went out for a morning walk, but this was one of my favorite images. It's quite difficult for us to be in the same picture, so when I saw our shadows, I just asked her to stop so I can take a picture. She's the one on the left, by the way. Soon, my shadow will be as small as her's. :)

How I did the edit:

Scaled image to 480x640.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Music Lovin" texture, blended to Hard Light at 50%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Water Stained Frame" texture, blended to Multiply at 65%.
Ran the SOV:Light script, set to default.
Ran the "Summer Heat" action, then adjusted the levels.
Ran the Van Gogh (LIC) filter, set to default.
Ran the National Geographic script, using my preferred settings.
Ran the Manny Librodo sharpening script, using my preferred settings.
Added watermark, flattened and saved image.

Last week, I added a texture with border, and I used another one this week. I am slowly loving that border thingy! :)

My Gratitude Renew Itself Daily

2011-11-21T20:58:00.003+08:00

This picture may be taken last February, but ever since went back to doing my morning walks, I have always hoped to see a great sunrise at Colinas Verdes again. I really am a morning person, and each morning, I am always thankful to the wonderful gift of life for me to start anew.

Sure, everyday can be a struggle, but as long as I am breathing, I'd be grateful for everything that comes my way - be it good or not.

Silhouette

2011-11-18T20:14:00.003+08:00

Oh wow! Thank you so much, Lori for choosing my picture as this week's photo! Such an honor to be chosen, really! :)

This week's theme is "Silhouette," and I chose a picture taken last year - at the Surfing Break. It was so difficult to take pictures of the surfers enjoying the waters and cool weather at sundown, but I sure enjoyed clicking the shutter and document the event.

It was sad that I wasn't able to travel this year and watch the event, but hopefully next year, I can travel again.

B&W Zinnia

2011-11-16T21:29:00.003+08:00

Lately, I have been taking pictures after pictures of flowers. I want to compile flower pictures and print them and place them in an album, so when I saw this flower from my August file, I knew I had to include it.

This was originally taken in color, but I edited it using GIMP and some actions I downloaded online. I wasn't able to jot down the steps I made, but it was a simple edit - thanks to the actions and scripts available for users.

The Phoebe Edition

2011-11-15T14:09:00.003+08:00

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *

A picture I took last Sunday, I found this mini roses way too cute, but a bit difficult to photograph because the flowers were even smaller than my fingernails! Anyway, I did have a lot of fun photographing the flowers because even the roses were itty bitty small, it did have a great pattern.

Editing this picture, I did:

Scaled image to 640x480.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Phoebe" texture, set to Burn at 70% then processed it using the Vintage script (no grain, with vignette), blended to 30%.
Added another layer of Kim Klassen's "Phoebe" texture, set to Multiply at 25%.
Ran the Vintage script (no grain, with vignette), blended to soft light at 75%.
Ran the National Geographic script, set to my own preference.
Ran the "Summer Heat" action, then adjusted the levels.
Added my watermark, flattened image, then saved.

When I started giving more time post-processing my images, I still haven't tried creating or using frames. With the Phoebe texture, the frame / border around the image made the edited image look as if it's a greeting card or something. :)

Believers, Look Up!

2011-11-14T14:14:00.005+08:00

Yesterday was a very awesome day for me because I got to see my fitness buddy, Pipoy in person. I first got to meet him online (at a forum), and since then, our friendship has been steady and going stronger.

I took this picture at the Flower Garden of the Quezon Memorial Circle - where we spent time relaxing after some rounds of walking around the park. It was a great way of relaxing... taking pleasures in the beauty of Mother Nature. Moving from one flower bed to another also gave us chances to move even while on a "resting stage."

I have long heard of the tip that one shouldn't just photograph flowers looking down, but whenever I take pictures of flowers, I would always do that - either look down on it or photograph it with my camera lens at the side of the flower. My fitness buddy brought his camera, too, and while he was taking pictures of this little white flower, I was reminded of the tip I seem to have forgotten.

I applied that tip when I took pictures of this gerber daisy. Looking down on it gave me a very pretty shot, but taking my camera down and look up on it gave me not just a pretty shot - but quite dramatic as well.

All along, I thought I am on this weight loss journey alone. Meeting my fitness buddy is like meeting an angel.

Morning Sky

2011-11-11T15:52:00.003+08:00

Today's prompt on Foto Friday is "Morning Sky," and since these pictures I am about to share were taken last November 09 and 10, I decided to link it to different memes, too.

I took this morning of 09 November. It being a weekday, there weren't much people walking and jogging, so I was able to get a "clear" shot of the Colinas Verdes Clubhouse (means without any people around). I do love walking there every mornings, but at times it was difficult for me to go there because I don't have a companion.

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
This was taken the morning after the first shot. I took this along the highway while walking to Colinas Verdes. I just loved how the mountains can be seen even with fog (or was it low clouds?), so I stopped for a while to take this picture.

I am linking this picture specifically for "Shoot. Edit. Submit." meme, and if you place your mouse over the image you'll see the SOOC. To get to the edit, I just cloned and healed parts of the sky and a few parts of the trees then rotated the image. Instead of cropping the picture after rotating, I decided to make another round of clone and heal so I won't have to lose little spaces around the image.

Both images captured the many reasons why I love walking to and around Colinas Verdes. Even if I don't get to do my morning walks everyday, I always look forward to going there because aside from the health benefits of walking, I am also amazed at the beauty nature has to offer.

Happy weekends!

The Number 2 Edition

2011-11-08T14:44:00.003+08:00

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
Kim said be creative with the number 2, so instead of sharing a picture with two objects or subjects, I decided to go for this - a picture of my sister flashing the "peace" sign... or could also be showing "Number 2." I took this Christmas midnight last year, while testing my camera's settings for our annual Christmas family photo shoot.

Steps I did to come up with this edit:

Scaled image to 640x480.
Converted the image to Black and White, using the Black and White Film script, selecting the "Kodak Tmax 100."
Ran the "Simple Duotone" script.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Shades of November" texture, set to Screen at 35%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Word" texture, set to Soft Light at 75%.
Ran the National Geographic script, set to my own preference.
Ran the Manny Librodo Sharpening script, set to default.
Added watermark, flattened, then saved image.

Yes, the image looked old, which was why when I showed this to sister, I told her I'm going to keep this picture and show it to her grandchildren in the future. Hahahaha. A combination of old and the new, why not?

Eating is Always a Decision

2011-11-07T21:08:00.003+08:00

The last time I posted for Quotography, I shared an image of food. Coincidentally, I am going to share another food picture this week, because this really is my favorite photo from October, reason being, I used my cell phone to capture this.

I am now (technically) on my 2nd month of my weight loss journey, and even if I am doing good with my choice of food, there were a few times that I gave in to my desires - including cooking and eating this dish.

In case you're not familiar with it, this is pork leg cooked in some fish sauce and vinegar. I really love eating pork and high caloric, high cholesterol food. However, since losing 6lbs. last month, I don't think I can eat this food for the longest time because I don't want to lose track of my journey.

I am now eating more vegetables, and I have recently switched to eating whole wheat bread. I met a new friend who is really strict on me when it comes to eating and exercises, and thanks to him, I am more sensitive about certain food. True, the key is moderation, but really, there are some things I needed to let go - like soda / cola, chips, and fatty food. I still allow myself to eat most food, but I seriously would take proportion into perspective.

If you have tips to share - about healthy eating and overall wellness, feel free to share.

Haystack Fun

2011-11-04T20:25:00.004+08:00

I wasn't able to join last week, so allow me first to thank Lori for choosing my "Leaves" picture as the Photo of the Week. :)

This week, it's about "straw," and since I can't find this drinking straw picture I took from last year, let me just share these pictures instead.

March of 2008, the whole family traveled dad's hometown to visit dad's grave in time for his first death anniversary. We stayed at the cemetery until after lunch, and since Aunt Lorie came with us, I asked brother if we could come with them to their house, just so we could make the most of this vacation.

When we got there, cousin Mai was asked by our Aunt to get the goats at another farm. Since people here basically know each other, some farmers let other farmers to let their goats stay in their farm, just so they won't eat precious crops. I liked the idea of exploring (especially that I am loving my cell phone and I just started my travel blog), so I came with my cousin. Obviously, brother and some of Mai's nieces came with us as well.

Near where the goats were, the kids say this haystack and started playing. I just loved how carefree children can be, so this precious moment I had to capture. Brother got a little jealous, so handing me his camera he asked me to take pictures of him.

Of course, would I let the moment pass without experiencing it? Of course not!

It was so nice to feel like a child again.... although having the rashes after that playing at the haystack for about 3 minutes weren't fun at all. Still, given the chance, I'd play here again!

Edit Me! Challenge | Week 24

2011-11-03T15:50:00.002+08:00

This week's photo is by Branson, one of the hostesses of the Edit Me! Challenge. I love the earth tones of this picture, so I decided to go light chocolate for my edit:

I still haven't checked the GIMP Plugin Registry to check if there are new scripts and actions, so for this edit, I just go for what's available. This was a very easy edit, by the way - I didn't want to do much as the image was already awesome as is.

Scaled image to 640 on the longer end.
Ran the "Summer Heat" action, then adjusted the levels to make the tones a bit lighter.
Ran the "National Geographic" script, set to my own preference.
Ran the "Brauer's Warm" filter, set to default.
Ran the "Burn" tool, set to shadow at 20%.
Ran the "Unsharp Mask" tool, set to 0.20.
Added the watermark, flattened, and saved the image.

... And Then Some Edition

2011-11-01T14:13:00.003+08:00

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
I am happy to say that the month started good because I was able to walk to and around Colinas Verdes today. I am very thankful that a person I met online just the other day turned out to be a very strict fitness buddy, so even if I woke up with a throbbing headache, I was able to get out of bed to get myself walking.

I took this picture near the Clubhouse. From afar, that "something pink" caught my attention, so walked near to take a look at it. I wasn't able to take that much pictures because it was windy, but this, I liked.

Getting to this edit, I took these steps:

Scaled image to 640x480.
Ran the "Photocopy" script, set to my own preference, then adjusted levels.
Ran the "Purple Hue" action.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "And Then Some" texture, set to divide at 100%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "And Then Some" texture, set to Multiply at 100%. This layer, I ran the "Ancient Warmth" action, followed by the Cooling Wratten 80 filter.
Merge all layers, then ran the "Manny Librodo" sharpening script, set to default.
Added watermark then saved the image.

Memories (Edited)

2011-10-28T07:02:00.002+08:00

I shared this image last Monday for the prompt "Memories":

A picture I took in 2008 using my Sony Ericsson K800i cell phone. Editing the image, I came up with this:

The biggest difference about taking pictures using a DSLR and a point-and-shoot camera (including mobile phones with camera) is the Depth of Field. I got to use a DSLR before (thanks to a friend) and I loved how the camera automatically highlights the subject, making it standout from the rest. Since I am a point-and-shoot camera user, I can't really create that depth of field that separates the subject to the background, so in order to achieve that, I need to rely on GIMP. :) I do love the drama between the images and the Cathedral, but I agree that the SOOC seemed a bit flat because there wasn't something that separates them together. That was where I based my main focus of the editing.

Steps I made:

Starting with the original image size (2000x1500px), I used the clone and heal tools to erase the antenna on the left side of the image.
I made a selection around the images using the Path tool then feathered the selection.
Inverted the selection and applied Gaussian Blur, set to 10%.
Scaled image to 640x480px.
Ran the National Geographic script, settings adjusted to my own preference.
Applied the Ancient Warmth action (levels adjusted after), then the Cooling - Wratten 80 filter (set to 25%).
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Fall In" texture, set to Overlay at 100%.
Brushed a layer of the Burn tool, set to shadow at 20%.
Added my watermark, flattened and saved the image.

Using the Selection and Gaussian Blur method may be quite tedious, but for a point-and-shoot camera user, it was just what I needed to achieve that depth of field I want in some of my images.

Edit Me! | Week 23

2011-10-27T07:12:00.002+08:00

This week's image is by Wendy Wright of Choose Love. I so love how positive her blog is! Anyway, I just find it so cute to have the boys pose with Tinkerbell, their costumes just look adorable! I just wonder whether the costumes were provided for the photo ops or the boys had their own Peter Pan and Captain Hook costumes.

Getting to this edit is a result of another round of playing around the GIMP settings I have on my netbook. At first, I thought about creating a pencil sketch edit (kinda like those pages of a coloring book), but when I checked the thumbnails of the edits, there's already an edit just that. Of course, I decided to go with a different edit, and coming up with this, I ...

Scaled image to 800x600 then made a crop selection of 640x480. I decided to concentrate on Tinkerbell and the boys for this one.
Ran the "Forest" action to achieve that greenish tint.
Ran the "Roy's Warm" script, set to 25%.
Ran the "Retinex Image Enhancement" script, set to low.
Ran the "Manny Librodo" sharpening script, adjusting the levels to my own preference.
Brushed a layer of the "Burn" tool, set to shadow at 20%.
Added my watermark, then flattened and saved the image.

I don't know how to call this edit, but I am a bit happy to come up with this.

The Times 2 Edition

2011-10-25T14:52:00.002+08:00

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
I took this picture last year, when my friend (and neighbor) Ria and I went to Vigan as our last travel stop before going home. I decided to use a picture from our trip because we were actually planning to travel north again (actually, we should be traveling today as tomorrow's already the Surfing Break in La Union), but I can't travel this year anymore because I took care of the bills and my savings weren't enough to cover the Ilocos Norte part of our trip. We decided to just travel next summer, giving us enough time to save up and yes, lose weight. Tee Hee!

Anyway, what I did for this edit:

Scaled image to 480x640.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Scripted Edges" texture, set to soft light at 72%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Sweettart" texture, set to grain merger at 65%.
Ran the "Desert" action, then adjusted levels to my liking.
Ran the "Urban Acid" script, set to 20%.
Ran the "Manny Librodo" sharpening script, set to my own preference.
Added watermark, flattened, and saved image.

Memories (SOOC)

2011-10-24T20:56:00.005+08:00

I sooo miss posting for Good to Wow / Shoot and Edit. This week is about memories, and the first thing that came to mind was this:

This is the Baguio Cathedral (Baguio City, Benguet). Taken 04 March 2008 at around 5:30am, my sister and I traveled all night from Metro Manila to Baguio City (hmmm.. not all night literally, we left the bus station at 11:30-ish at night, we arrived around 4am), in time for dad's first year death anniversary. Dad's death anniversary was actually 05 March, but since we buried him in his home province (La Union), and the whole family was traveling to commemorate the day, sister wanted to have a little side trip to Baguio, and I decided to come with her. We left Baguio late that afternoon to meet mom and brother who traveled from Manila earlier that day.

I took this picture using my cell phone. That time, I saw a photo contest by Sony Ericsson about Philippine Travel (or something like that), and I submitted this as my entry. I didn't win, but I was okay with it; at that time I just started being interested in photography and I was more into getting knowledge.

I grabbed this picture from my Multiply account; I can't find brother's portable CD-ROM drive, so I can't access my files now. Well, I posted this on Multiply right after we got home and I still didn't know anything about photo-editing (other than adding the watermark using Arc Soft), so this one's definitely SOOC.

One funny fact: I was in Baguio City on 04 March 2008, 2009, and 2011. Am not sure why I didn't travel there in 2010...but I was in La Union that time, meaning I could just take the bus and sit for two hours to get to Baguio but I wasn't able to travel there.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 102311

2011-10-23T23:22:00.003+08:00

I wasn't able to participate the last two weeks, so before I call it a night, here are my interpretations for this week:

Words

This came from the archives; I was browsing an old scrapbook magazine and while checking the layouts for inspiration, I got to see one page containing awesome words. I took a picture of that page, and decided to continue browsing the magazine to get some words of wisdom.

Under

Yesterday morning, sister and I set up to walk and jog, but when we reached the marketplace, I got to see Colinas Verdes (our destination) under a dark rain cloud. Well, none of us brought an umbrella, so we decided to cut the walk and just take a different route and walk around the marketplace before going home.

Orange

Cute pumpkins (not sure what materials they used for this) I saw around the Sky Garden of SM City North Edsa. Well, the Philippines are really embrace the elaborate and well-celebrated Halloween nowadays.

Fly

Another picture from the archives, which I took earlier this month. It's not really a "fly" picture, but for sure this dove wanted to fly.

Always Look at the Bright Side

In connection to my "Under" picture, sister and I weren't able to jog at Colinas Verdes, but taking a different route sure allowed me to see other interesting subjects to take pictures of, like this flower. I always see yellow as the happiest of all colors, and even if there was a dark cloud that day, the hint of yellow, sure brought positivity it what seemingly looked as a gloomy day.

Don't Just Print, IMPRINT!

2011-10-23T20:07:00.004+08:00

When the family was still using the camera using films, my siblings and I would save up not just to buy films, but to have it printed, too. That time, even if it would take time before we have films processed and printed, we would fill albums and albums of life memories. In 2007, I started making scrapbooks, my way of presenting these memories in a much creative way. When digital cameras paved way for people to freeze more memories, I called it one of the best things people can have. Being a life artist, I do love that I can take images of things, events, and people without thinking whether I'd run out of space. I can just take pictures and just select which ones I will share to people.

However, as much as digital cameras helped me to freeze those moments and explore my creativity more, I admit most of those frozen moments were just stored as digital images, as I often just share it through my blogs or through my social networking sites. I have tried having my digital images printed, but I often get disappointed whenever the images would come out far from what I expected it to be. I once took a sunset silhouette image and I intended to keep it at that, but I learned the staff at the photo shop would play at the brightness of the images, and what I got was an image with a washed out sun and the people who are supposed to be silhouette were ultra bright. I really would love to get back to scrapbooking, and because doing scrapbooks call for me to have images printed out in different sizes, I am now on a lookout for a photo printer, which I can have here at home so I can just print pictures. When I received an invitation from Nuffnang Philippines for an exclusive event for Canon Pixma Printers, I immediately told them I'd attend it. Being a Canon camera user, I do know the quality behind the brand, so this event was something I didn't want to miss.

Brother and I arrived just in time for the event. We were able to roam around, as well as have early dinner - thanks to the foods by Las Paellas Cafe, which catered at the event. Us having our own food and drink stubs, we were treated to a buffet-style dining while listening to the band play awesome music. Too bad I wasn't able to catch their name as brother and I were still registering for the event when they started playing.

How many of you own a printer, scanner, and photo printer and wish you just own an All-in-One gadget where you can scan images as well as print documents and pictures? Canon have thought about this, and through this thought, they came up with an AiO gadgets that not only offers good quality prints, these are also user-friendly, cost-efficient, and eco-friendly.

Presenting the newest Canon Pixma Printers - E500, MP287, MG8270, MG5370, and iP4970. What each model offer in a nutshell:

Canon Pixma MP287
Compact and stylish, it may be the cheapest among the five printers in terms of price (p3495), but it sure produces excellent and quality print-outs. Being that affordable, it can be a good printer for personal use, especially for students.

Canon Pixma E500
This is a printer for the printer-happy people, especially those students who are currently doing their thesis (and other school projects) because this printer will let you print about 1200 pages per set of cartridges. Photo-wise, it can let you print stills from a video and create filter effects. It also has a quiet mode, which allows users to print documents and images even at the wee hours.

Canon Pixma iP4970 Photo Printer
Now, if you're more into printing images, you can opt for this one as this uses FINE (Full photo-lithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering), Hybrid and ChromaLife100+ technologies to give vivid print outs that will last 300 years. Just like the E500, it will also allow you to have Full HD Movie printouts, fun filter effects, and auto fix.

Canon Pixma MG5370
This is the WiFi enabled printer that allows users to connect wirelessly, as well as print images using Android phones, iPads, and iPhones. This printer has five individual ink tanks, assuring you to have great images. Although it's already coping with the present times, it still has the direct photo print functions like the Pictbridge and direct card printing.

Canon Pixma MG8270
This is really the digital age, but even with so many kinds of digital cameras sprouting in the market, there are still photographers who prefers using films when capturing images. This printer not only allows users to print images captured digitally, this also has the function to let you print pictures using films, because this has film scanning capabilities. Well, we may not use film anymore, but am sure all of us have a lot of film negatives from the past that we sure want to have printouts of. Aside from that wonderful option, this printer comes with six individual ink cartridges, which can give you excellent monochrome prints. This printer is also WiFi enabled.

Other Details You Should Know

MG8270 and MG5370 printers will soon have the PIXMA Cloud Link service, which allows printers to connect directly to online photo albums to view and print photos, without the aid of a PC.
Fun Filter Effects in printers include: Miniature Effect, Fish-Eye Effect, and Toy Camera.
Canon has equipped the iP4970, MG8270 and MG5370 and MG4170 with additional ECO settings. These easily adjustable settings allow the user to set the printer to automatically print two-sided printouts when printing PDFs, photocopying, or printing templates.

The event was attended by media people - TV, print, and online writers. In between presentations, there were games - first was the "Trivia Game" featuring different movies using the Canon Pixma printers. Second game was about the "Scan and Print Me Game," where players had to answer riddles by scanning and printing different items contained in a basket. Both games called for groups - three members each team for the first game and two members each team for the second game - and all the members of the winning teams got to take home their own Canon Pixma printer!

The event may be about the new printers, but this day was also about gratitude. Canon extended their warmest gratitude to everyone who appreciated their products as Canon Pixma was named #1b for the first half of this year.

In line with this event, Canon asked, "What was the best thing you've printed?" For Canon brand ambassadors Jo Avila, Per-Andre Hoffman, and Jun Miranda it would be: a picture of his kids with their grandfather, a picture of the Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, and a picture of his Cambodia trip respectively.

As for me, the best thing I have printed (aside from the school project which I wrote a few hours before the deadline during my college days - because I received a 1.0 grade for that project), it would have to be the butterfly image I took while in Baluarte (Vigan). It took me more than an hour chasing the butterflies just to capture pictures, and that image was something that sums up all I went through that time. Of course, part of the reason why I love that image was because I did use a point and shoot camera to capture that, yet it still came out wonderful, despite the limited settings I could use.

It didn't win me a Canon Pixma Printer, but I guess for all of us, the best thing we have printed will always be the image that's closest to our hearts. Well, I am sure I have captured some images that would prove to be better than that butterfly image, but the operative word was "printed," so for now that would be the best.

I am personally glad Canon came up with these printers. I forgot to ask if the printers can accommodate 12-inch papers (my scrapbook layouts are 12x12in in size), but even so, I think my eyes are already set on one of the five featured printers that day. Because of this great innovation, I can now print quality pictures at the comforts of my own home.

Canon has this tagline that says, "You get one shot at immortality." I have always viewed photography as a way to immortalize ourselves, a way for us to get in connected with people even if we are no longer around. Pictures do paint a thousand words, but if we just keep images stored in our computers and memory cards, not everybody can really see it, especially if we didn't share it online. I always believe pictures are much better seen and touched - like the way family members and friends pass around printed pictures - and with Canon Pixma printers, we sure have more means to make our mark in history.

To learn more about Canon, its products, and current promos, please visit their website - http://www.canon.com.ph

Big thanks to Nuffnang Philippines for the invitation.

Edit Me! | Week 22

2011-10-20T21:39:00.002+08:00

Edit Me! Challenge now has a new home, and for this week, Kristi provided us with this very pretty image. I spent my whole day either exercising or editing pictures, so it was just a few minutes ago when I downloaded and edit this picture, so I didn't really give it that much thought, I just clicked on different menus on my GIMP until I came up with this:

I love black and white portraiture, so seeing the SOOC image, I already knew I'd go for a B/W edit. To arrive at this edit, here were the steps I made:

Resized image to 640px on the longer end.
Ran the Split Tone script, using the default colors (orange and teal).
Ran the National Geographic script, set to my own preference.
Ran the Duotone script, set to Soft.
Adjusted levels, added my namestamp, flattened, and saved the image.

All the scripts were downloaded at the GIMP Registry, in case you're using GIMP and would like to try out the scripts, too.

Low Tide

2011-10-19T20:17:00.003+08:00

Another picture I took during the Bohol trip; this was at the Muro Ami site, the beach where the local film "Muro Ami" was shot. It was low tide that afternoon, making the huts look as if it was on ground.

We weren't able to enjoy the area that much because we could barely see the water, but since the sand were white, some of my companions just used the space to jump and down while I took their pictures. :)

Foto Friday | Leaves

2011-10-14T15:06:00.004+08:00

Let me start this post with something annoyingly funny:

Yes, those were leaves... or what's left of it. Hahaha. Last Monday, I was tending the garden - taking out the garden snails while trying to avoid the furry caterpillars when I saw this. I was surprised at how fast the caterpillars eat the leaves, but I found it funny that they avoided eating the skeleton of the leaves. Hmmm.... choosy caterpillars? Anyway, this plant wasn't something important - it's one of those plants that just sprouted, so I was okay that the caterpillars ate this plant instead of our other plants.

Here's my actual share for this week. Also taken on the same day, I initially took this for the "30 Day Challenge," but I was a day behind, so I decided to scrap the challenge altogether and just start again.

Both images were taken using my Sony Ericsson K800i cell phone.

Texture Tuesdays | The Red Edition

2011-10-11T20:46:00.003+08:00

Haven't updated this blog for a while... I am just quite busy with many things, but since I wasn't able to do some days of the 30 Day Challenge, I will just start all over again, and will use my personal blog for it.

Okay... it's all about RED for Texture Tuesdays, and here's my take:

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
I took this picture last Sunday while sister and I were eating dinner at KFC (MRT - Ayala). This was actually a ceiling lamp, and is originally red in color. The SOOC looks a bit orange, maybe the light inside was a bit orange in hue. It's a circular lamp, so you'd notice a little gap on the upper right corner in the SOOC image.

Editing the image, I...

Cloned and healed some parts of the image to cover up that little space on the upper right corner.
Scaled image to 640x480.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Cracker Jack" texture, set to screen at 40%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Luminous" texture, set to hard light at 40%.
Ran the Manny Librodo sharpening script, using the default settings.
Ran the National Geographic script, settings adjusted to my preference.
Ran the Ancient Warmth action, then adjusted the levels to make the color a lot deeper.
Added my name stamp then flattened and saved the image.

I call this the fabric edit, because I think the final image looked a lot like fabric. :) Well, even if I don't have that much time (I just got home from an event and I am feeling a bit sleepy already), I still was able to come up with a nice edit. :)

On Exercise Mode

2011-10-07T15:50:00.003+08:00

Day two of the 30 Day Challenge is about "What I Wore Today." While editing my picture, I found out Foto Friday's prompt is about "Machines," so this will be a two-in-one post.

Even if I work out at home, I still try to wear something I would wear if I am in a gym because I read in a magazine that part of the success of working out at home is to act as if you're in a public gym - no answering the phone if it rings, not letting noises around distract you (unless of course it's something urgent or emergency), and wearing gym clothes. I personally would like to wear something small because I do perspire a lot when working out, and I don't want to end up having soaking wet clothes - I prefer wiping myself with a soft, fluffy towel.

Normally, I wear my pair of running shoes, but today I decided to wear my purple Tretorn shoes, because it has been gathering dust for the longest time. I bought it many years ago when I decided to join mom's aerobics class, but the day I bought it, it wasn't my first choice. I was eyeing for a pair of red Hush Puppies rubber shoes because it was comfortable and light, but mom thought it was very expensive. I just started working as a telemarketer that time and mom thought I should save as much of my salary as possible. When we saw that Tretorn was having a sale, mom suggested I should just go for it, since it was a dream pair of shoes while I was in high school. Purple is our favorite color, so mom chose this particular pair for me to buy. It saved me 700 pesos, but I didn't get to wear the shoes that long because the soles were too thick and tough. I still wear it from time to time, but not during a workout, but whenever I will go out for a stroll.

This image wasn't wonderfully shot because my brother's room was locked, hence I couldn't get the tripod. I just placed my camera on the bookshelf and timed it. Original picture was in landscape orientation, but there were still way too many clutters in my room, so I had to edit the image.

Of course, after taking this one shot (I didn't dare take another one as my camera was tilting a bit - it might fall should I try and set the time again), I completed 3 1/2 minutes at the Elliptical Machine. I am happy that on the sixth day of using it, I can now sustain three and a half minutes of continuous work out... when I first started using this, I couldn't barely finish one minute. Hahaha. Well, at least there's an improvement.

30 Day Challenge | Day 1: Self Portrait

2011-10-06T20:09:00.003+08:00

Thanks to my friend Nathalie, I got to learn about this Photo Challenge. Even if I am joining different blog memes, whenever a new one comes out, I just couldn't resist not joining it, especially if it's good, like this one.

Today is my Day 01, and the prompt is "Self Portrait."

I am always taking pictures - I have at least one picture everyday - but since I stopped doing the 52 Weeks of Me challenge, I have stopped taking pictures of myself as well. I guess I have lost interest in having my pictures taken, to the point that even if I am out traveling, I still rarely ask my friends or family to have my picture taken using my camera. Of course, when they ask me to pose for them for a quick photo, I'd be glad to smile for them.

This morning, I was surprised to see my Facebook wall flooded with Steve Jobs related posts. Knowing he just passed away sure made people worldwide mourn, but from the messages I read, most were filled with happy memories, that even if they (well okay, we) don't know the person personally, his hunger and his foolishness (I am deriving that from his famous quote, "Stay hungry, stay foolish.") were just two things that connected us to one another.

The iPod Nano is the only Apple product I own. I may possibly not have the financial capability to buy an iPad, iPhone, and iMac, but having this iPod Nano made me part of Steve Jobs' vision and innovation. Thank you, Steve Jobs... for sharing your talent. You may be gone, but your name will be immortal.

Edit Me! | Week 21

2011-10-06T14:58:00.002+08:00

Today's SOOC image is provided by Amy of Artistically Amy. As what I always "complain" every Thursdays, why do the SOOC image has to be already perfect? Hehehehe. Another difficult image to edit for me, but playing with the downloaded scripts and actions, I came out with this:

I wanted to turn this into an Infrared image, but sadly I don't know the basics of doing it, so I just went with this.

The steps I made:

Resized image to 480x640.
Ran the Duotone Script.
Ran the Urban Acid script.
Gave it a pass of the Forest Action, to make it a little greener.
Ran the Manny Librodo sharpening script.

Thankful for these pre-made actions and scripts that made editing easier. :)

Texture Tuesdays | The Gratitude Edition

2011-10-04T14:51:00.003+08:00

This week, let's all be grateful - for everything that we have, may it be good or bad, because what we have makes us whole, makes us strong, makes us hold on. I do have a ton of pictures that depict gratitude (come to think of it, all the pictures I take has its own hint of gratitude), but for this week, let me share this:

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
An old picture (circa 2009) I took in Manaoag Church (Pangasinan). That time, I attended at church org conference in Baguio City, and because my paternal hometown was just two hours away, I decided to make a side trip home after the conference. As soon as I arrived, my Aunt Julie told me cousin Mhai just passed the Nursing Board Exam, and she asked how long will I stay because she already filed a leave of absence at work (my Aunt is a nurse as well) because she wanted to go to Manaoag Church to offer some prayers of gratitude. I can stay as long as I want, so I waited for that day so I could come with them as well.

My Aunt is a devotee of Our Lady of Manaoag, also known as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag. This trip was all about gratitude: for helping cousin Mhai pass the exam, me growing more spiritually through the conference I attended, and for the good health Aunt is having (she is diabetic). Aside from our own personal intentions, we were also thankful for the blessings that have come our way and our own families.

Talking more about the post-processing of the image...

Made a selection around the crucifix, then feathered the selection.
Inverted selection, then gave it a pass of Gaussian Blur, set to 20%.
Ran the Sunshine Action, then adjusted the levels.
Ran the Burn Tool, set to shadow at 10%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Word" texture, set to Multiply at 100%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "The Ladder" texture (flipped horizontally then rotated 180 degrees), set to Screen at 40%.
Erased texture around the crucifix (eraser's opacity set to 40%).
Ran the National Geographic script, set to my own preference.
Added some Noise.
Added my name stamp, flattened and saved image.

Just so you know, the SOOC was indeed sepia... part of the pictures I took that day was in sepia, and since I still didn't have GIMP that time (I was using Arc Soft software to post-process my pictures), I didn't know how to turn images to sepia, so my only way to have sepia-toned images was to set it directly from my camera.

PS- Since we are now talking about gratitude... let me say thank you that you hopped in here. :)

Be Comfortable with the Ingredients You are Using

2011-10-03T14:01:00.003+08:00

I don't get to share that much food pictures for Quotography, so this week, let's all eat!

The first time family tasted Fish and Chips, we all fell in love with it that not only did we include it for the annual Noche Buena (Midnight Christmas Feast) tradition, we always put cream dory fish on our grocery list so we could cook this. I don't post my Foodie 365 Project here, but this dish is always there. :)

The family is now used to cooking this dish, but applying what chef Bobby Flay said, we are always finding ways of cooking / serving this dish - we have tried coating the fish with batter, at times we would coat it with breadcrumbs, and we are now testing different dipping sauce for the fish. We've tried the classic garlic aioli, mango-butter sauce, and for this dish above, we served it with caper-mayo sauce.

Cooking may be an art, but it shouldn't overwhelm or intimidate us. Cooking is actually fun and rewarding.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 100211

2011-10-03T10:35:00.003+08:00

I wasn't busy for whatever reason yesterday, but I was lazy to do anything because I found out I gained back all the 6lbs I lost in a span of one month. I was hurt, but mostly, I was puzzled. The clothes that fit me when I lost the 6lbs still fit me even until now... the slightly showing collar bone is still there, so I am really wondering why I got heavier when my physical body is still the same.

Anyway, I am trying my best to get over it, so before I rant and turn this post into a novel, here are my interpretation to the week's prompts, which is a mix of old and new pictures - as I wasn't able to go out to find subjects because of the typhoons that visited the country last week.

01 - Inspired by a Book or a Movie

It was in year 2000 when the Philippines first had the cellphone with SMS functions. It changed the way people communicate with each other, and for quite sometime, I got addicted sending SMS that I have had countless "text-mates." One of the people I met through this was Lei, a man from the province of Pampanga. I call him an angel because I met him when my spirits were at an all-time low. He told me to read the book, "The Greatest Miracle in the World" by Og Mandino. I only got to exchange messages with Lei for about a month. He just stopped sending messages, making me feel that this angel of mine has already done his purpose.

When I told my dad about the book (I was still a college student and that I was trying to build up a confidence to ask dad for extra money to buy the book), he made a quick response saying, "One of the greatest miracles in the world was to see a brand new day." I agreed with him that time, and I still am agreeing with him now.

I am a morning person, but I rarely see the sunrise because our house is facing west. This picture I took last February.

02 - Brown

Last Saturday, I attended the L'art de la Patisserie (The Art of Pastry) hosted by Enderun College, that featured lots of French pastries, including this one - the Kouglof, a brioche-like coffee cake with lots of raisins. This was lightly sweet, something I really appreciated.

03 - Hazy

In my dreams, I see my room with an exercising machine - either a treadmill or an elliptical machine. It was something hazy - as I know the machine is expensive and I don't know if my room actually have enough space to accommodate it. Still, I am a firm believer that "the universe is working to our advantage," so I dreamt on.

This image represented my dream...

...only that this wasn't a dream anymore, but a reality. Last Saturday, when I got home from the pastry event, I couldn't believe my eyes when my siblings were setting up the machine. Mom bought this for all of us in the family, and I nearly cried seeing it - I knew mom knew I wanted this, but I never expected she'd really buy it (as I didn't ask for any help from her). Christmas came early this year (again).

04 - Coffee or Tea

I took this picture as my photo share for ABC Wednesday's letter A. It was the only A-food I could find that time, so I made a little set up to take the picture. Twining's Apple, Cinnamon, and Raisin tea was so good, it was like eating apple pie and drinking tea at the same time. :)

05 - Linger

After the snails, it's now the caterpillars' turn to infest our garden. I could just eliminate them all, but I decided to let them linger more, as the frustrated biologist in me wanted to see them make their cocoon and see moths come out eventually.

Happy start of the week, everyone!

Foto Friday | Books

2011-09-30T20:43:00.004+08:00

I ought to take new pictures for this prompt, but I got so busy, so I decided to check the vaults again...

I took this last January as part of my Project 52, which I wasn't able to continue when I hit a prompt that I couldn't do. I am planning to continue or may re-do it next year. Anyway, the prompt was "Books," and I just gathered some books I have to take this picture.

I first posted this picture on my personal blog, I am Janujennifer. Like what I said there, I wasn't really a bookworm as my parents didn't cultivate the habit of us reading books (other than our school books) - because times were rough and we didn't have money to spare for books, which were (and still are) quite expensive (there weren't thrift shops back then that we knew of). Aside from that, our house was way too far from most establishments.

I may not a be a bookworm, but I do have some books, books that I was able to buy and acquired. Currently, I am reading "The Best Life Diet" by Bob Greene, but what I am reading is the e-book version, because the book itself was way too expensive here in the Philippines.

I took quite a lot of pictures that day, so I decided to turn it into a digital scrapbook layout, using a pre-made template I download off the Internet. I forgot who created this, but the template's name is "Freshly Squeezed."

Have a great weekend ahead!

Edit Me! | Week 20

2011-09-29T08:39:00.003+08:00

This week's very pretty picture is from Kala of The Wishful Lamb. Before I saw this picture, two of my photography pals just had their baby shoot, and I can't help but feel a little jealous because taking photographs of babies was something I dream to do. I was able to take a few pictures of Jamy (my friend Charmy's first born), but it wasn't really a shoot, but some pictures taken when mom and I visited her. I still dream of doing a baby shoot - complete with props and all, just like what Kala did here.

At first, I wanted to do a black and white edit, but playing around GIMP brought me to this sepia edit. Not complaining at all... as I also made another edit in black and white, but in the end, I still chose the sepia one.

What I did:

Made a selection around the headband using the Path Tool, then feathered the selection.
Inverted the selection and Desaturated the image, using the "Luminosity" as my choice.
Scaled image to 640px on the longer end.
Ran the Ancient Warm action.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Portrait Sample" set to Overlay at 100%.
Ran the Burn Tool, set to shadow at 10%.
Ran the Manny Librodo sharpening script, levels adjusted to my liking.
Added my name stamp, flattened, then saved the image.

The Love Edition

2011-09-28T07:50:00.004+08:00

A very strong typhoon hit the country yesterday, and parts of Luzon (including Metro Manila, where I am from) didn't have electricity the entire day. Currently, the typhoon is located north of the country, and even if electricity was restored last night, I still wasn't able to post my take for this week's Texture Tuesday challenge because Internet was fluctuating.

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
This week is about Love, and for this challenge I am sharing a two year old picture - something I took the first time I tagged along a pre-nup shoot. I wasn't able to take that much pictures that time, but the few I took I love (of course). The only problem was that the sun was way too bright that time, and since my camera back then didn't have the full manual setting, I only settled with very low ISO. I took colored pictures, but when I finally posted the full album on my Facebook account, I converted it all to black and white so it would look a little subtle.

What I did for this edit:

Converted image to black and white, using the Black and White Film tool, choosing Ilford HP5.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Chamomile" texture, set to grain merge at 70%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Yesteryear" texture, set to screen at 80%.
Ran the Manny Librodo sharpening script, adjusted to my own preference.
Ran the Burn tool, set to shadow at 30%.

The sharpening tool added some noise to the image, which I think made the image look as if it was printed on a newspaper. :)

Master Your Time, Master Your Life

2011-09-26T15:58:00.005+08:00

I already posted a similar picture a few months ago, but this set had the "best" clock pictures I took, so for this week, am going to use another picture from the set.

I have read lots of quotes about time, but the quote I used was the one I can relate to the most. I often complain about having misfortunes in life because of my weight, but the truth is, I didn't master my time well. I spent many days of my life sitting around, eat out, and do nothing when I could actually spend those time working out or plan my meals, etcetera.

Watching the Biggest Loser, one statement hit me like a ton of bricks. One contestant shared, "Have you ever seen an old obese person? That's precisely the point, obese people don't get old, they die young." I am now 31 years old, and while I am thankful that despite my frame and despite the abuse I have done to myself, I still haven't had any major illnesses (aside from PCOS), and that I haven't been rushed to the hospital; I guess I could see that as a blessing and a wake up call.

I will be the master of my time;
I will be the master of my life.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 092511

2011-09-25T19:49:00.004+08:00

Yey, am early for this week's post. :) Actually, I was supposed to post this after I eat lunch, but mom asked me to cook snacks for her group because they will do the prayer meeting here... one chore led to another, so it was just now that I can sit down and have my own Internet time.

The first four pictures were taken today, the last one was taken a few days ago. Here are my interpretations:

01. Low Key

Like Ashley, I also consulted Google for this. However, I wasn't able to understand the deep terms, so I just made a search on Flickr. From there I just set up this shoot with my cat Oreo, which was so kind to let me violate his privacy (I used the desk lamp as my source of light), but throughout the shoot, there were times that he had to attack either my camera or the lamp.

*Linking this picture to Camera Critters*

02. Monochromatic / Analogous Color

I wanted to make this a selfie, but when I went out of the house to air out the newly washed bed linens, I saw mom's purple shoes. Since the shoes weren't my size, I woke up my sister to ask if she could try to fit her feet into the shoes because I needed to take a picture. My sister's such a trooper... I just gave her a few minutes and she was up and ready to help me take my shot. The umbrella, bag, and shoes (sadly, I chose to share this image, but she did wear the purple shoes, and her other hand was holding the bag) were mom's, the dress was my sister's, the necklace and the earrings were mine. I am not sure what's my sister's favorite color, but mom and I surely loved purple (all shades of it, but lavender is my most favorite shade).

03. Circle

I tried to take a selfie for this prompt - me drinking water from a glass (the glass' bottom is circular) - but I wasn't able to pull it off, so I just took out these pencils and took a picture of the erasers.

04. Scarf

This was an accidental shot. I went inside mom's room to borrow a scarf, and when I got one, sister entered the room and I wrapped it around her and took a test shot. It seemed okay, so I already settled with it. :)

05. Phone

Our land phone didn't look good, and I already shared a picture of my cell phone, so I decided to share an image taken by my cell phone. This was taken during one of our jogging days... sister was able to jog past me and when I met her at the street corner, she showed me this sight. I really, really love the look of the rays (whenever I see one, I always take a picture of it - as long as I have the camera), so even if I had to use the digital zoom, I still did it just to capture this sight.

Night time is now longer than day time, so one of these days, I'd bring my camera so I can take sunrise shots again. :)

See you next week! Thanks for hopping by here.

Path to Heaven

2011-09-23T14:12:00.004+08:00

The "S-Curve" is this week's prompt, and while I am not really sure if this will pass, I am submitting this as my take on the challenge.

I took this at Colinas Verdes while jogging with my sister. The place attracts many joggers because this proposed housing project still doesn't have houses (though there are many model houses for people interested to buy a unit. Though the place is still bare, roads are already laid out - making it a perfect place to jog. Clean air, less people to ridicule you (well, people there are all trying to be fit so regardless of how you look, it doesn't really matter already) - just you and your willingness to be fit.

My sister and I jog the usual route for a few days, and as our way of shocking our system, we would change routes every weekend. For this particular day, we were able to discover this new route, and stopping for a while to discuss with sis the path we would take (because I jog faster than her), I was in awe of this particular sight - it was like a path going to heaven! :)

This coming weekend, we are about to change routes again, and we might try going to the Clubhouse so I could take pictures of her for this photo contest I am planning to join.

Edit Me! | Week 19

2011-09-22T09:36:00.000+08:00

This week's photo is provided by Deb of DebDuty. While reading Branson's intro about Deb, Deb's blog badge caught my attention. Next to the vintage-y / 1970s look on images, that's the kind of post-processing I hope to learn - something light and soft, kinda like baby powder.

I do have the Adobe Photoshop CS5 here in my net book, but I still haven't fully committed myself in learning more about it, so I am not sure if there are pre-made actions that would help me get the look I want in an instant. I have bookmarked the Coffee Shop blog, but I still haven't tried if the actions Rita made are compatible with the CS5.

I only have GIMP to use to post-process images, and for this week, I came up with this edit:

How I came up with this?

Scaled image to 640px on the longer end.
Ran the Dodge tool.
Ran the Ancient Warmth action, then adjusted to Curves to make it a bit lighter.
Ran the Urban Acid script, set to 20%.
Changed the saturation level to -45.
Ran the Summer Heat action, and adjusted the Levels.
Added my name stamp then flattened and saved the image.

In case you want to know, the fonts I used were "Smiley Monster" (bigger ones) and "Jane Austen" (script). Personally, I liked the edit. It didn't come out as soft and light as baby powder, but I think it had a hint of morning in it.

Cactus in Mono

2011-09-21T20:27:00.003+08:00

This picture was something I took at the Sidcor Weekend Market a few months ago. Seeing this at the market made me remember an old photo meme that asked for a "Cactus in Mono" image. It has long been done (and yes, I was able to submit my image), but remembering that old challenge just made me take new cactus pictures just to have something to compare.

Unfortunately, I initially took this in color and I just converted it to Black and White.

Vigan Cathedral Belfry

2011-09-20T16:01:00.004+08:00

It's another free and easy edition at Texture Tuesdays... and I first hoped to share a flower image, but when I opened a random folder, I saw this and thought I'd play with it.

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
This is the top part of the Vigan Cathedral Belfry in Ilocos Sur, which I took last March. Vigan is one of the places I always visit (I hope to do at least twice a year) because I just love how rustic and how wonderful I feel whenever I am there. That being said, I have so many pictures of the same subjects, and whenever I pass by Burgos Park going to Calle Crisologo, I always look up to this belfry because of the chicken at the top. Hahaha.

I call this the "surreal" edition as this image was quite heavy with post-processing. Though it is, this edit was actually quite easy to do as I use pre-made actions on GIMP. Steps I made:

Scaled image to 640x480.
Ran the Retinex Image Enhancement set to Uniform, playing with the other levels to achieve the look I wanted.
Bump the saturation to 100%, to make the sky more bluish.
Added one layer of Kim Klassen "Aurora" texture, set to normal at 50%.
Added one layer of Kim Klassen "Scripted Edges" texture, set to multiply at 70%.
Ran the Urban Acid script, set to 40%.
Ran the Unsharp Mask tool, set to 0.20.

This is the first time to use the Retinex Image Enchancement tool, and I think I like it a lot.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 091911

2011-09-19T14:31:00.003+08:00

Late post for me this week, and because I didn't have the chance to go out and shoot, 4 of the images were taken during my out of town trip.

01 - Street Photography

I took this outside the Magellan's Cross in Cebu City. The old woman (in color) is one of the many prayer warriors in the area, they offer prayer help to the tourists in exchange of some donations. Most tourists would not even give them a glance, but because Cebu City is one of the religious places I have visited (Catholic Churches here are close to each other yet most of them will be full whenever a mass is celebrated), there were a few tourists who would sought their help.

02 - From a Distance

That's the Busay Falls along Loboc River in Bohol. We had our lunch in one of the floating restaurants in Loboc, and it was one of the most unique restaurants because it would sail along the Loboc River, giving tourists a great view of Mother Nature's beauty. Unfortunately, the boat didn't come near the falls, so I just maxed out the zoom function of my camera to frame this one good.

03 - Sunday

As a Catholic, you would normally see me inside the church every Sundays, but I admit since the big debate on RH Bill came out, I suddenly didn't feel the enthusiasm to hear mass anymore because the priests would concentrate on their own opinions about it rather than focus on the gospel. I respect them for what they stand up for, but every Sundays had been about their personal opinions, I got a little fed up with it. I still am a firm believer of the church, that is why whenever I have the chance, I'd visit a Catholic church to say my personal prayers.

04 - Liquid

They say soup is liquid comfort, so when we celebrated mom's birthday last Tuesday, we went to go for soup to comfort us while waiting for pizza to be served.

05 - Behind

I don't have a picture that literally depicts this prompt, but while re-reading "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne, one of the pages stated that one reason why people are fat is because they think and feel "fat thoughts." I am a person who wanted to be slim, healthy, and yes... sexy, so aside from watching what I eat and exercise at least 30 minutes (two times a day) for most days of the week, I also watch over my thoughts and feelings. I can now say that "fat thoughts" are behind me now... and I am now embracing the thoughts that I am sexy in my own unique and special way.

Leaf Veins

2011-09-16T13:58:00.003+08:00

This week's prompt is "Pattern," and as I check my photo folders, I realized I don't have that much images that depict patterns, but I think this one would pass up as a "pattern" image. :)

I took this at the Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain in Antipolo last July. While we were looking for our own prayer hut so we could reflect and contemplate, I saw this huge fallen leaf (it looked like a maple leaf, but it wasn't maple... and it was so big I can use it to cover my head if it rained) and got attracted with its veins.

Something was "wrong" with this image - the lower right corner was too dark, while the upper left corner was too bright. Any suggestions how to fix that?

Night (Edited)

2011-09-15T14:03:00.003+08:00

I shared this night image last Monday, and checking the other pictures I took that night, I was questioning myself why I chose to share this, but since I already did, might as well try my best to come up with a good edit.

I am a point and shoot camera user, and because my camera that time (Canon Powershot A1000is) doesn't have full manual settings, the only way for me to get as much light into the image was to bump the ISO. Checking the EXIF Data of my SOOC Image (you can check the full data HERE), I set my camera to -2 exposure, 800ISO to make the fountain and the monument stand out. One thing I "hated" about this shoot was the flood light that totally ruined the framing, and this was an attempt to exclude the light, but as you can see, it was still visible (left part of the image).

Editing the image, I scaled it to 725px on the longer end first, then I made a 640x480 crop to take out the light on the left side. I didn't know how to manually minimize the noise on my image, so I first tried the "despeckle" action, but the image then looked like a painting after I used it. Going back to my cropped image, I then used an action I downloaded (Eg ISO Noise Reduction from the FX Foundry), but I made sure I kept the blur at minimum so it would still look like a photograph and not a painting. I then applied the Forest Action and gave the image a pass of the Dodge tool set to shadow at 10%.

I am not sure if the edit was much better than the SOOC, but this was the first time I used the Dodge tool as well the Noise Reduction function of the FX Foundry, so no matter what the outcome, I was happy to have learned something new.

Texture Tuesdays | The "Do" Edition

2011-09-13T13:29:00.004+08:00

It's been weeks since I last posted for Texture Tuesdays. This week's prompt is "Do," and here's my take:

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
"Do make your own path."

Well, there will be a lot of arguments about that line, so I am going to leave it at that: short and to the point.

Anyway, I took this picture two Saturdays ago, when I decided to get back into jogging at Colinas Verdes. It being my "first day" (again), I took my camera with me just to capture scenes. Near the entrance of the proposed subdivision, I saw these three ladies about to start their jogging, too. The scenery, the colors, and the shadows just caught my interest, and I was glad to be able to capture this moment.

This was edited very quick and simple: After resizing the image, I just applied a layer of Kim Klassen's "Autumn Burst" set to Dodge at 75%, then I ran the Ancient Warmth action.

Night (SOOC)

2011-09-12T19:38:00.005+08:00

With my mother getting a little "crazy" over Facebook because it allowed her to communicate with old friends again, there will be days that I will be sharing the net book with her, so I am now really trying my best to resize and upload as much pictures I could on my own Facebook page, because I am neck-deep in pictures I need to upload.

I am now about to edit September 2010 pictures, and to make my editing easier, I am checking each of the folders and delete all those I didn't want to put in the albums. Reading that this week's prompt on Shoot and Edit / Good to WOW challenge is "night," I decided to go with this picture, which I took exactly a year ago today. :)

I am very much a morning person. With this prompt, I realized 90% of the pictures I have on file were taken during daytime (until sunset). I guess I personally prefer to take pictures during daytime partly because I am using a point-and-shoot camera and we all know most p&s cameras can't handle night shots that well.

Edit Me! | Week 17

2011-09-08T11:28:00.002+08:00

This week's SOOC is provided by Jill Samter, who is not only a talented photographer... it was also through her that I looked deep into myself and affirm that I am beautiful in my own special way. :) Anyway, like with the other SOOC pictures provided for the Edit Me! challenge, this was another perfect SOOC that actually didn't need much post-processing, but for this challenge, I came up with this:

First look at the image and I already felt how vintage it was. My first edit was actually something that focused more on the vintage feel of the image, but I decided to make another edit because I found my first edit quite dark. I decided to share this edit instead because even if there were changes in the colors, it still had a hint of the original colors of the image. I do love to keep the red barn (if it is a barn, correct me if I am wrong) red, the grass green, and the skies blue.

For this edit (as always I used GIMP), I did:

Scaled image to 640px on the longer end.
Ran the Golden Autumn lomo script (minus the grain, vignette set to 40%, exposure set to 0.5).
Ran the Ancient Warmth action, after which, I adjusted the curves because this action kinda makes the image a little darker.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "yesteryear" texture, set to Multiply at 80%.
Flattened and saved the image.

Very easy edit, and I hope you like it.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 090411

2011-09-05T14:06:00.003+08:00

I was supposed to share this yesterday, but for some reasons, Internet connection was unstable. I was away last Sunday, so it was just last Friday when I learned about the prompts for this week's hunt. For this week, the first four pictures were taken while I was away, and the last picture was take last Saturday.

Here are my interpretations:

01. Stairs

This stair would lead to the Carmen Peak of Chocolate Hills in Bohol. Tourists had to take 200+ steps before they could reach the peak, but there were several sheds where guests can take a rest should they want to. Actually, the chocolate hills can be seen even if you don't take the stairs, but of course, the view was just better once you're at the peak.

02. Macro

This picture of butterflies coupling was taken at the Simply Butterflies sanctuary - also in Bohol. There weren't much butterflies that time (because there were typhoons weeks before), but we still had a great visit - thanks to the sanctuary's very jolly and witty tour guide.

03. Clouds

This was taken on our flight back to Manila from Bohol. Taken somewhere in Batangas, this picture was something memorable for me because the plane had to be on stand by as there was heavy air traffic in Manila. The pilot told passengers that we had to be hold on for a few minutes because they weren't given the signal to push through yet, and it was just amazing to see the plane holding its position. After a few minutes, the plane would make a turn, but we always go back to this same position until we were given the go signal to leave the area.

04. Abstract

I don't know how to interpret this, but I guess the stalactite and stalagmite formations inside the Hinagdanan Cave is a bit abstract. :)

05. Smile

This was the only "smile" picture I had on file - taken last Saturday when we attended the neighbor's kiddie party. This was the balloon popping game - supposedly for kids only, but since there was an extra balloon, they give it to sister, which meant she had to pop it. :)

The Philippine Tarsier

2011-09-03T15:25:00.003+08:00

Making a comeback to Live Every Moment meme, but since this week's prompt is "aninals," I am also going to link this post to Camera Critters.

This animal is the Tarsier, probably the smallest of all primates. An adult tarsier is about the size of an adult human's fist, and it lives by eating insects and other animals (it can eat birds and bats as well). Its head can make a full 360 degree turn, and is a nocturnal animal.

On our second day in Bohol (where the Philippine tarsiers are found), we went on a city tour and although this wasn't my first time to see the tarsiers in person (I already traveled to Bohol in 2008 with my dear K), this was a completely different tarsier sanctuary and I appreciated this visit more because we went there right after eating lunch - giving me and my camera just the right amount of light I needed. Although the tarsiers are much active during night time, some of them were actually awake the time we visited. Sadly, most of them were high up the trees, so the only way for me to take pictures of them was to stretch my hand up.

Each tree with a tarsier had its own "guard," to ensure none of the visitors were touching them and the tree where they are staying. Guests were allowed to come closer if they wanted to, provided the tree and the animal weren't touched - sanctuary staff didn't want to stress the tarsiers. Guests were also asked to turn of their camera flash while taking pictures.

The tarsier is one of the Philippines' precious gems as far as animals are concerned. Outside the Philippines, tarsiers can also be found in Borneo, Sumatra, and in Sulawesi (Indonesia).

Around the Garden

2011-09-02T14:57:00.005+08:00

It's been two days since I got home from my out of town trip, but I attended to some things first, so it's just now that I was able to update this photo blog.

The prompt for Foto Friday is "Around the Garden / Yard," and I chose this picture, which I took last Saturday. We were in Cebu that time, and the driver of the van we rented took us to the church of Birhen sa Simala - Lindogon (a Catholic Church), and since it was already noon time when we finished touring the church and saying our own prayers, we decided to eat lunch there first before traveling back to the city. Thankfully, there was a food place near the church.

I finished eating before some of our companions did, and instead of staying seated, I went out of the food place just to check the surroundings. They had a little garden with lots of this flowering plant, and as I focused my camera, I got to see some critters, too.

I only got to take a few pictures, but this shutterbug was very satisfied because aside from the bees, I also got to take pictures of a wasp and an unknown bug.

Miles Away

2011-08-24T23:20:00.000+08:00

Crack Me Up

2011-08-24T16:03:00.004+08:00

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
Better late than never for my Texture Tuesdays post; I was busy preparing my stuff as I will be traveling tomorrow morning. Anyway, for the "Back to School" edition of Texture Tuesdays, I decided to use an old picture, which I might have shared on this blog sometime ago, but since it's been eons since I left school, and no one in the family are going to school, this was probably the only picture I have that is related to "schooling."

When I was still a student, I do love to snack on chips and cracker nuts while reading my notes or doing my homework. I guess that would also one of the reasons why I couldn't lose weight while I was still at school. Hahahaha.

Processing the picture, I did:

Desaturated image (choosing "Average" on GIMP)
Applied a layer of Kim Klassen's "just stitched" texture, set to soft light at 35%
Erased parts of the texture in the bowl of cracker nuts
Applied a layer of Kim Klassen's "sweettart" texture, set to overlay at 100%
Ran the Split Tone script
Ran the Unsharp Mask tool set to 0.17
Flattened and saved image

ps - I am supposed to do Nathalie's Back to Basics meme, but because it's raining here every afternoon, I wasn't able to see "birds on the ground."

Shadows (SOOC)

2011-08-22T21:31:00.003+08:00

It's nice to be back sharing images for Shoot & Edit (Good to WOW), and although I might not be able to link up on Thursday because I will be traveling out of town and I won't be bringing my net book, I'd still share my images. :)

This week is about "Shadows," and the first image that came to mind was this picture of my sister and I taken last February. That time, we were very enthusiastic to walk more or less a kilometer going to Colinas Verdes where we would jog for about an hour.

I took this on our way home. I noticed our shadows and I asked her to stop a bit and asked her a favor if we could form a heart - I was thinking if this is possible as I want to take a similar shot of my brother and his gf given the chance. It was difficult to take this shot as I create the other half of the heart while trying to take the picture, good thing my cell phone was handy enough to make this shot.

Quotography | Dreams

2011-08-22T13:46:00.002+08:00

Oftentimes, I'd search for a picture I'd use for the Quotography meme before I search a suitable quote for it. This week, it was the other way around... I searched for a quote before I rummaged through my files for a picture I would use.

Searching for "Dreams Quote," I chose the first link and reading the very first quote in that category, it made me think of this picture, which I took in 2009 during a travel in Coron, Palawan. My pal Erick and I were setting up to take pictures of our other pal Honey_Kei when I saw these birds flying from afar. Since my camera was already switched on, I just waited for them to pass by over our heads.

My travels are products of my dreams. From walking through the cobbled-stone road of Calle Crisologo in Vigan, to trekking towards the crater of Mt. Pinatubo, I weaved these dreams and believed for it to come true... and in God's own time, I was able to make my wishes come true.

Next dream destination - the Batanes Group of Islands.

Edit Me! | Week 14

2011-08-18T13:38:00.002+08:00

I missed two weeks of "Edit Me!" because of certain life events. Happy to be back :)

This SOOC image is provided by Amy of Mimibeth Photography. One of the things I love about Edit Me! is that the SOOC images are so pretty, it makes editing quite difficult. :)

I hoped to download a digital frame to add a little embellishment, but the one I downloaded will make the edited image look smaller, so I ditched the frame and just stayed with the image. Another simple edit for me, and here were the steps I made:

Scaled image to 640x480.
Ran the mute colors script, choosing the "desaturated overlay" in the selection.
Added a layer of the "crumpled paper" texture set to soft light at 100%.
Ran the Manny Librodo sharpening script.
Ran the Burn tool set to shadow at 40%.
Added my name stamp and flattened the image.

It's so great to edit pictures again. I surely missed doing this. :)

Celestial Bodies

2011-08-17T15:56:00.002+08:00

The next exercise on Back to Basics meme was to take a picture of celestial bodies. I am super thankful that this challenge came up during the full moon, as I cannot think of any way of presenting my image.

I know, this lacked composition... and that this isn't that pretty - I took this picture without the help of the tripod (the moon was still "too" low the time I took this, the houses were covering the sight and I had to extend my hand just for my camera lens to capture the moon). My saving grace was the shutter speed - even if my hands weren't that steady, I still was able to capture it well, I think. :)

Some technical aspects:

Camera - Canon Powershot SX130is

Date & Time - 15 August 2011 / 21:42

Exposure - 1/1250

Aperture - f/5.6

ISO - 400

To view the complete EXIF data of this picture please click HERE.

Quotography | Colorful

2011-08-15T14:28:00.002+08:00

Happy new week, shutterbugs!

I haven't blogged much last week because my attempts to lose weight made me a bit emotional, but I have already gotten over the "I failed myself" feeling, and now I am trying my best to maximize and manage my time wisely.

"Colorful" is the prompt for this week on Quotography, and this quote I used was the very first quote I read, and it seemed to fit the picture I chose so I used it.

This picture was taken last May during the Pahiyas Festival in Quezon Province. That's my sister posing inside one of the houses, my sister who is also one of my very best friends. She's one of the people who supported this journey to weight loss I am having, and just hearing her simple words of motivation is enough for me to go on. Although we were born eight years apart, she surely adds color to my life.

Post processing the picture, I also used Kim Klassen's "Granny's Cupboard" texture, set to multiply at 20%.

Back to Basics | Points (Clouds)

2011-08-10T10:35:00.003+08:00

After a few weeks of break, my friend Nathalie's meme is now back (with a new name, too). She posted the prompt two Saturdays ago, but the linky for this one opened last weekend. Since I also join Black and White Wednesdays, I'd post my take on the prompts every Wednesday.

Today it's about the clouds. When I read the prompt, I doubted if I could produce an image (image has to be taken specifically for the meme) because rains were nonstop that time, and even on days when it wasn't really raining, the skies were covered up with clouds that it looked so impossible to do this. Good thing, while putting out the clothes I washed, I was able to see some textures in the sky, and thinking I should use this chance for it might rain again, I took my picture.

I could almost just take a picture of the clouds, but the sample image on Nathalie's blog illustrates the relationship of objects with clouds, so I decided to include part of the television antenna as well. This is the SOOC shot, but of course I used GIMP to scale the image to 640x480px and add my name stamp.

Technical Aspects:

Camera: Canon Powershot SX130is

Date / Time: 04 August 2011 / 12:18

Mode: Shutter Priority

Shutter Speed: 1/1000

Apperture: F5.6

ISO: 80

Exposure: +/-0

Taking pictures of the sky during day time in black and white has to have good clouds, in my opinion. With the clouds and the sky having almost the same colors, making the clouds stand out will depend on the amount of light giving it form.

Texture Tuesdays | The Little Things Edition

2011-08-09T21:54:00.002+08:00

I discovered my love for photography when I took my very first macro shot using my cell phone's camera. Although not a very pretty picture, I will be grateful for that discovery. Truly, many great things start from its humble beginnings.

When I bought this new camera, one of the things I considered was its macro function. This camera, though not so good when used in low-lit environments, I do love its macro function. The way it magnifies the little things made me feel child-like at times. :)

This picture above I took a few days ago, while watering my tomato and bell pepper plants. My sister's basil plant has been left in the rain for how many days and it melted. She still hasn't done anything with it... and this day I noticed its main stem had molds. It was way too little for my point and shoot camera to handle, but somehow I liked the outcome.

Applying textures, I came up with this.

I scaled the original image to 850px (longer end), then made a rectangular selection to 640x480 then cropped the image.
Applied a layer of Kim Klassen's "Scratched Magic July" texture, set to difference at 100%.
Applied a layer of Kim Klassen's "Sweettart" texture, set to soft light at 20%.
Ran the National Geographic script.

Very easy edit for this day, I know. :)

Quotography | Anything

2011-08-08T20:28:00.002+08:00

Me waking up as early as 5:30am, doing exercises, cutting down the food intake makes me tired and sleepy early at night, so since Quotography's prompt is "anything," I decided to use a picture I initially posted on my Food Blog, I Live to Eat! for the "Food Quote" meme.

The picture may not be that pretty - I took this when I got home from a trip and realized I still haven't taken my "Photo for the Day" yet - but the quote I found online was something all of us can relate to. Even if we are nice, friendly, and all... fact still remains that we can't please everybody and at times, people who are seemed nice were the ones being bullied by people. No one is bullying me at the moment (thank heavens), but I do know there are some people around me who doesn't like me. That's a reality of our lives, we may or may not know it, but there are people are just can't like us no matter what we do.

Let this quote by David Gerold be a piece of advice. Let's just live our lives the way we want it to, and let's just enjoy the show. :)

Shoot and Edit | Sunset (Edit)

2011-08-04T16:14:00.004+08:00

Sharing my SOOC image first before I talk about my edit:

To know more about this picture, please click HERE.

I am not feeling good at the moment - woke up with aching body because I started exercising again last Monday, and me cleaning the house the whole morning added more to the strain, so I decided to go for a quick and easy edit:

To make this, I...

Took out the boat on the left part of the image using the clone and heal tool.
Rotated the image 1.4 degrees to the left to straighten the horizon.
Scaled image to 670 on the longer end, then made a rectangle crop at 640x480px.
Ran the VanGogh (LIC) script, set to default.
Ran the National Geographic script, set to my own preference.
Ran the Manny Librodo sharpening script, set to my own preference.
Added my namestamp, flattened, and saved the image.

Like the comments I received on the SOOC shot, I, too, feel the image was okay as is, but then again, when I took this, I was really taking advantage of time I had... the boat we were on was so near the port, and I knew by the time we reach the port, we would quickly disembark. I wasn't minding the surroundings anymore, I was more into capturing the sunset, and sadly the boat on the left side wasn't framed good, so I had to take it out.

Come to think of it, this image with just one boat made it more dramatic.

Texture Tuesdays | "Anything Goes Edition"

2011-08-02T14:31:00.005+08:00

Last week, I shared two separate pictures (on two separate posts) of a millipede and a couple of snails. For this week on Texture Tuesdays, I am going to share a picture that features both critters.

Last Sunday, with rains stopping for a while, I went to check my ampalaya in the garden as I wasn't able to check on it the last three days. I was so overwhelmed to see so many snails in the garden - it was like a party! Some of our plants' leaves already have these holes, so I went to gather as much snails as I could to put a stop on the feeding frenzy!

They were surely getting on my nerves, but they are also a good subject for photography, so after taking out a batch of snails, I went to get my camera and hunted more snails. In one part of the garden, there was this big flat rock and when I lifted it, I saw these critters relaxing. :)

After a few minutes of editing the picture, I came up with this result:

Steps I made:

Rotated the image 15 degrees to the right, then scaled image to 850px on the longer end then made a rectangle crop at 640x480.
Ran the Mute Colors script, set to Desaturated Overlay.
Added a layer of KK Canvasback texture, set to overlay at 100%.
Added a layer of KK Summer Lovin' texture, set to screen at 60%.
Ran the Purple Hue action.
Ran the burn tool set to shadow at 50%.
Added my name stamp, flattened the image, then clicked save.

Hope you liked the edit!

Shoot and Edit | "Sunset" (SOOC)

2011-08-01T17:47:00.004+08:00

I wasn't able to join last week because I don't have any "laughter" picture, but since I have a picture for this week's prompt, I am happy to be back. :)

This week is all about sunset, and here I am sharing another old picture. I took this while traveling in Coron (Palawan) with some great people I met at an online forum. Nearing the end of our two-day island hopping, it was time for us to disembark the boat, get back to the lodge where we stayed the first night, and catch the ship that would take us back to Manila. I admit I do love the sunrise more (as I don't get to see it often), and seeing the sunrise in Coron that day, and taking this sunset picture was like receiving two blessings from the heaven.

I do love the warm tones of this picture and how the sunlight made the islands visible through its degree of darkness. Nothing much to change in this image, we'll see what I will come up with on Thursday.

*** Jenn ***

Quotography | "Weddings, Anniversaries, Marriage"

2011-08-01T17:29:00.003+08:00

I should have chosen an image from my parents' wedding albums (they have two - their first wedding in 1978 and their 25th anniversary in 2003), but my camera wasn't cooperating with me, and I didn't have the scanner installed in my net book. I just chose a wedding picture I took, and this was our neighbor Philipp's wedding to her first and only girlfriend, Joan. Their wedding was a testimony that they were truly meant for each other, as there were quite a few problems before they finally decided to tie the knot. I was but a visitor / witness to their wedding, but since I sat near the aisle, I was able to take this picture. Among the wedding pictures I took, this is included in my favorite list.

*** Jenn ***

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 073111

2011-07-31T15:47:00.004+08:00

My Internet connection is way too slow today (maybe because of the cloudy weather), so I will do this as quick as possible. Here's my take on the Scavenger Hunt this week:

01. Walking Empty Streets

One of the good things about traveling on a weekday was that there were less tourists. When my sister and I went to Vigan City last March, we decided to walk to the heart of the city from its nearby town of Bantay, and seeing that there weren't vehicles passing by, I went to take a picture. Of course, my sister had to watch my back as there might be buses passing along the highway.

02. Repeating Patterns

For this one, I didn't have to go far thinking what subject to take a picture of... This is my planner - I always go for the executive diaries because it devotes a whole page per day - giving me enough space to scribble in some thoughts as well as jot down things I learned for the day and of course, listing down my simple joys.

03. Floor

My late father liked the diamond shape. This shape can be found in certain parts of the house - garden fence, front door (as well as our bedroom doors), and yes, the floor. This tiled floor is part of our terrace - kinda like an extension of our living room, where we welcome and entertain guests. I didn't like this tile pattern - it kinda looks like bathroom tiles, but dad said there weren't any good looking tile patterns with diamonds, so he went with this instead.

04. Then and Now

Just like the first picture, this one's taken from my archives. I initially took the picture on the right (with the help of the tripod) last February when I joined the "Joy of Love" photo class. One of the prompts was "Then and Now," and I quickly thought of re-creating the old picture on the left because even if we got older and yes, bigger... some things didn't change - like the door and the chair. This is my sister and I - we were born 8 years apart, and although I didn't really like her at first, I am now thankful that I have a sister. It's just way too fun having a sister. :)

05. Fingertips

If you recall an old Scavenger Hunt post I had - I talked about the garden snails, and even if I have eliminated some of them, I realized today that there were more and more snails around our garden! The rain must've bothered them and they went out of hiding - feasting on our plants! Que horror! Anyway, this morning, I was able to take a picture of a snail on my palm, and realizing "fingertips" is part of the hunt, I went to get one more snail just to act as an embellishment. Initially, I placed the two hiding-in-their-shells snails near my fingertips so I could take pictures once they come out. It took some minutes for them to do so, but when they finally did come out, there was no stopping them. I already had a picture taken, and I was just about to put them in the drain when the snails moved as I walked. Don't they just look cute? It was like having a snails pre-nup shoot.

{Linking this picture to Camera Critters, too}

'Til next week!

*** Jenn ***

Foto Friday | Down Low

2011-07-29T17:04:00.003+08:00

I am not sure if this one's a millipede, but it sure fits the description - an insect with lots of legs (or feet) that curls when touched. This crawler, I took a picture of while at the Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain in Antipolo. While my mom and her friends were sharing reflections, I roamed around to find subjects to take pictures of, and seeing this in one of the stair's steps prompted me to go down low and snap a picture.

A sort of a "creepy crawler" this might be, but I did find them really gentle, after all, they would curl when they are touched - a sign that they didn't want to fight or something. Actually, once I found this one, I realized there were a lot (and I mean a lot) of these critters around, but most were too small to take pictures of; this was the biggest one I saw.

*** Jenn ***

Edit Me! | Week 11

2011-07-28T10:18:00.003+08:00

First up, I want to shout out some massive thank yous to Branson and Mandy for choosing my edit as one of the top three edits for Edit Me! Week 09. :)

For Week 11, picture to edit is provided by Beth of "Our Typical Life." I find this image really, really cute, and at first, I thought of making it look like a painting, but I decided (once again) to go simple with my edit, as the SOOC image is already perfect as is.

For this edit, here are the steps I made:

Resized image to 425x640.
Ran the Black and White Film script, using Ilford FP4 as my choice (there are so many choices to choose from, but I still don't know if there are any differences, they all seem to look the same for me).
Ran the "Summer Heat" action, then I adjusted the levels to my liking.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Sweettart" texture, set to burn at 30%.
Ran the National Geographic script.
Added my namestamp, then ran the Manny Librodo sharpening script.
Flattened and saved the image.

Before I close this post, let me share a paragraph taken from a song:

In the eyes of a child there is joy, there is laughter
There is hope, there is trust, a chance to shape the future
For the lessons of life there is no better teacher
Than the look in the eyes of a child.

~ "The Eyes of a Child" by Air Supply

*** Jenn ***

An Angel at the Top

2011-07-27T15:30:00.002+08:00

After attending the FOOD Kitchen Series, my sister, our cousin Marjorie, Marj's friend Grace, and I passed by the Venice Piazza first because it was basically just a few steps away from Enderun Colleges, where the event took place. It rained even before we got to enjoy the place, so we decided to walk out of McKinley Hill to catch the jeep (and bus) back to Ayala. We didn't want to be caught jaywalking, so we took the overpass, and crossing the overpass, we saw this view so we stopped for a moment to take pictures.

The place really looked like it was from a different country, but something on that triangular roof caught my attention, so I zoomed in my camera and saw this:

An angel!

Well, the place isn't called "Venice Piazza" if it wouldn't look like Italy, and aside from this angel, there were also statues surrounding the building. Well, this must be a very special angel, as it stands at the topmost part of the building - watching over the people of McKinley Hill? Could be.

*** Jenn ***

Texture Tuesdays | The Dream Edition

2011-07-26T13:43:00.004+08:00

A new typhoon came last night and it's been raining all day (stopping from time to time)... and my bed is calling me since this morning. I don't know what's with the rainy weather and snoozing... it just feels good to get more Zzzzz, but of course, I couldn't get myself to sleep more because my head aches if I would oversleep.

The prompt for Texture Tuesdays is such a fitting theme for today's weather, and for the "Dream" prompt, here's my share:

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *
I decided to go literal with this prompt, choosing an old picture of the newly born kitten from last year (sadly this kitten already passed away). I wanted to do a very simple edit for this image, and coming up with this one, I did:

After resizing the image to 640x480, I added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Dream" texture, set to normal at 20%, just to subtle the image because it was very dark.
Added two more layers of the "Dream" texture, both set to divide at 100%, but I erased the texture on the topmost layer just so the texture won't be too strong, especially on the cat's face.
Ran the National Geographic script set to my own preference, then ran the unsharp mask tool.
Added my namestamp, flattened, and saved the image.

There is quite a visible line on the lower right side of the image (where I erased the texture)... I really can't get the parts blend with each other; if you have any tips on how to not make the erased parts not so visible, please tell me. Thanks in advance.

Oh, Kim has a question on her post about five dreams... mine are:

Own a house on the countryside, with lands big enough for me to start farming.
Marry a man who cares, love, trust, and treasure me.
Set foot on all of the Philippines' provinces.
Be at 150lbs.
Earn at least p15,000 a month.

*** Jenn ***

Quotography | Family

2011-07-25T15:01:00.003+08:00

It has been four years since dad passed away, but I am happy that our family is still very united and that more than being family members, we are all good friends as well. We don't take that much family pictures, but every Christmas Day, it is already our tradition to set up the camera and pose for pictures.

This was taken Christmas last year. I could have used any other family pictures - pictures I took of different families... but, doing so would make me feel I have overlooked my own family, so I chose this one. Well, I did set up the camera on the tripod, so this picture is pretty much mine, or ours. :)

Among our family pictures, this has been the craziest. I remember us having formal pictures, but since I set up my camera to 15 seconds before it takes the shot, it allowed us to adjust our poses and doing so made us forget a bit that a picture is just about to be taken.

Here's what happened: My brother got a little tired doing the formal poses since we posed for about four pictures already, so while waiting for this to be taken, he entertained himself by opening the gifts near him. It caused mom to be distracted as gifts weren't supposed to be opened yet. Meanwhile, my sister and I were already doing our poses when my sister accidentally hit my mom's head, so she immediately held mom's head to say sorry. Then the camera fired the flash. We didn't know at first that this image came out like this, as after the flash fired, I set the camera again for another picture. After the shoot, I reviewed the pictures and this really cracked me up. My family couldn't help but laugh, too.

I will be running out of space if I'd still tell how much I love and how much my family means to me. God really loved me so much because He gave me wonderful people to become my family. Sure, buttons are pushed every now and then - that makes us normal, but I really couldn't ask for me. My family is my heaven on earth.

*** Jenn ***

ps - Thanks again to Nicolasa for choosing my Birthday Quotography as part of the Top 3 last week.

Foto Friday | Brown

2011-07-22T15:45:00.002+08:00

My share for Foto Friday is this very cute picture of a monkey, which I photographed when I went to the Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain in Antipolo City early this month. It was the son of my mom's friend who spotted this monkey, and I was really thankful that the critter was playful and a bit flirty because it kept posing for pictures. Well, the monkey didn't stay that long in the tree, but the pictures I took were good enough to be happy.

Happy weekends!

*** Jenn ***

Shoot and Edit | Summer [Edit]

2011-07-21T16:02:00.005+08:00

Before I share my edit for the "Summer" prompt, here's the SOOC:

To know more about this picture, please click HERE.

When I chose this as my image, I visioned this one as a background for a very drastic edit. I took several jumpshots of my brother that day, and I was hoping to do "an anatomy of a jumpshot," but because I took the jumpshots using my cellphone, I had a very difficult time plotting all the points to cut off my brother's image in the photo. It's still very much doable, but since I am pressed for time (too much work to do), I went for an easy edit:

After resizing the base image to 1200x900 (still in landscape orientation), I made a vertical selection (480x640) and cropped the image. I decided to take out the other person in the picture as I felt this was more dramatic if I would just show an image of the father and the child. Then, I used the "Desert" action to give it that "golden hour" look, followed by a layer each of Kim Klassen's "Sweettart" and "Portrait" textures. Before adding my namestamp, I also adjusted the curves and used the "Unsharp Mask" tool.

If I will have enough time tonight, I might attempt the "Anatomy of a Jumpshot" edit and share it some other time.

*** Jenn ***

Edit Me! | Week 10

2011-07-21T11:11:00.003+08:00

I am quite early to post my take for this week as I told myself I will go for something easy this week.

This photo is by Ginger of "My Life Just As It Is." For a while I struggled if I would keep this in color or if I would change it to monochrome... would I take out the small blue container near the child's foot or not...but, I reminded myself that I should keep it simple so I came up with this:

I call this my M&M edit as I was watching the music video of Milow and Marit Larsen's "Out of My Reach." This wasn't the exact look of the one in video, but I think it was a bit close. :) To make this, I made these steps:

Resized the image to 640x427.
Ran the Vintage script with a minimal amount of vignette.
Ran the "Summer" action.
Added two new layers, one I filled up pink color, set to overlay at 10%, the other I filled with blue color, set to overlay at 25%.
Adjusted the curves, then gave it a pass of the Burn tool, set to shadow at 20%.
Ran the "Unsharp Mask" tool at 0.17.

I don't know if I give the SOOC image some justice with my edit, but I did like how my edit came out.

*** Jenn ***

Black & White Wednesday | Musical Instruments

2011-07-20T22:57:00.002+08:00

My mom has recently discovered the joys of having a Facebook page (she was happy to find a childhood friend and re-connect their communication), and because she has loads of old pictures she wants to be uploaded, I was able to see this picture and thought I'd share it here on my blog.

These are the classical / folk musical instruments here in the Philippines. I took this picture at the Coconut Pavilion of Villa Escudero in 2008. I was very blessed to have come to this place because my mom asked me to - so I could take pictures of her. This trip also paved the way for me to open my first travel blog.

This picture was originally shot in color using the very first digital camera here in the house (owned by brother), I just changed it black and white.

*** Jenn ***

Texture Tuesdays | The Aurora Edition

2011-07-19T14:08:00.002+08:00

I used the Aurora texture on my edit last week, and since this week's prompt was to use at least a layer of Aurora texture, I decided to use a picture on landscape orientation, as my picture last week was set to portrait orientation. I thought of taking a new picture, but while washing the dishes I used for lunch, I thought about using this picture instead:

I took this May of 2010 while vacationing in my mom's hometown. It was a lax day for me, so I tagged my cousin's daughter to the old port to take pictures of the sunset. This picture I took while we were passing by the island shore, looking for a good vantage point for the sunset. The man in the photo is a fisherman on a bamboo raft harvesting some crabs.

Here's how I ended up with this edit:

Rotated the image 1.20 degrees to the right to make the horizon horizontal.
Cloned part of the sea to take out the man from afar.
Scaled image to 800x600, then cropped it to 640x480.
Changed it to black and white, using the Film B&W script (I chose Agfa 200x).
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Chamomile" texture, set to multiply at 75%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Aurora" texture, set to normal at 50%.
Ran the "Manny Librodo Sharpening" script, using the default settings.
Ran the "Purple Hue" action, then adjusted the curves.
Added my name stamp and flattened the image.

I kinda liked how the image looked a bit like painting. :)

*** Jenn ***

Shoot and Edit | Summer [SOOC]

2011-07-18T20:26:00.003+08:00

I was already a blogger long before I became interested with photography. When I discovered the capabilities of my cell phone's camera and when mom decided to buy our first point and shoot digital camera, I used it mainly to take pictures for my blog posts. Composition, framing, timing, as well as editing was something unimportant to me back then. As long as I have at least one image to back up my blog posts, I was a happy blogger.

However, since I started hitting the shutter and I lived the life being a "point-and-shooter," I have taken lots and lots of pictures that would eat the computer's memory; and now that I am taking pictures almost everyday, there were instances that some pictures were left in the vaults as new pictures were taken.

Thanks to this photo challenge, I have found a way to show old pictures. Edits will then be applied using new things learned.

The summer here in the Philippines usually start early March and ends early June. In May of 2008, I traveled to La Union because my Aunt and her former high school friends were going to have a joyride traveling the north part of the country.

A day after I arrived, my Aunt celebrated her birthday. Normally, she would travel to Manaoag Church in Pangasinan, but because the highway was closed due to the damage created by the typhoon, so what we just had some foods cooked for lunch, then watched the sunset at the nearby Paratong Beach.

I will attempt something difficult to do for my edit, hope I am able to pull it off. :)

*** Jenn ***

Quotography | Birthdays

2011-07-18T15:41:00.002+08:00

Big, big thanks to Nicolasa for choosing my "Anything" picture from last week as part of the Top 3 images. Also, belated happy birthday to Nicolasa!

A very fitting theme for this week on Quotography, I chose to share an image of my birthday cake, when I celebrated my birthday last May. This was a cake bought by my mom and I was really surprised when she handed me this, because I specifically told her not to do anything for my birthday. Not that I didn't want to celebrate it, I guess I have already accepted the simpler joys of celebrating the gift of life, but because my mom still wanted me to have a cake, of course I accepted this with all my heart.

Life, like many things is a state of mind. If you think your life is crap despite all the blessings surrounding you, then life is indeed a big crap. But, if you think your life is all bright and shiny despite the crappiness surrounding you, then life is indeed bright and shiny.

*** Jenn ***

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 071711

2011-07-17T15:17:00.003+08:00

My share of pictures for this week:

01. Black and White

For this prompt, I decided not to use the black and white function of my camera and just find a subject that is black and white. This is our cat Lilith, who looks very strong for a mama that just lost her kitty.

02. Reflections in Glass

This was something from the archives... I took this last May when my sister and I went to do Visita Iglesia (church hopping). The church in the reflection is the San Agustin Church, one of the four baroque churches in the Philippines, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

03. Headlights

I didn't go out this week, so no definite picture for this prompt. I wanted to use another image from the archives, but I already used one, so I decided to just get the dictionary and photograph the printed meaning of the word.

04. Seeing Double

Sometime ago, I was shocked and saddened seeing my bell pepper seedlings disappear. At first I thought the kids were playing some pranks on me, but I noticed the main stem of the bell peppers were still there and that the seedling appeared to be eaten by something. Yesterday afternoon, I went to water the plants when I saw one of the old tomato plants knocked out by the wind, and when I stuck a stick to act as a leverage, I saw the reason why I lost the bell peppers: these pesky snails! This image only had two snails, but I was able to collect a handful yesterday. They did look cute, but sadly I had to "exterminate" them.

05. Bare

Christmas of 1998, my Aunt Jo gifted me with a Troll dressed as a boxer, but when I decided to give the doll a shower as well as washing its clothes, the fabric was ruined and the stitches became loose, so for more than a decade now, this doll has been bare. :)

*** Jenn ***

ps - also linking the cat and the snail pictures to Camera Critters.

Foto Friday | Pets/Animals

2011-07-15T15:22:00.003+08:00

I haven't taken that much pictures of my cats lately, but the very last picture I took was:

This picture of my little Mimeow with his mom, Lilith. The time I took this, Mimeow already started eating solid foods, but there was a problem with his teeth and his tummy because when he started eating, he rarely suck milk from his mom and I couldn't train him to drink milk or water. His mom, too, started to run away during the rare moments Mimeow would suck milk. Every now and then, I would act as a mediator between the two cats, trying to keep the mother still, while trying to convince the kitten to suck milk.

Despite the not-so-good picture quality, I treasure this picture because I loved how the two of them just sit there and wind off time. I am happy to be able to capture this moment before the little Mimeow died.

*** Jenn ***

Shoot and Edit | Skies the Limit [Edit]

2011-07-14T16:12:00.004+08:00

Time to edit the SOOC picture I shared last Monday. So you won't have to scroll further this blog, here was the image I chose for this week's prompt:

To know more about this image, please click HERE.

Editing this image, I hoped to follow Ashley's tutorial about the "Invert Tool," but I cannot seem to get the same outcome. Going with the high pass filter, there were changes on the preview, but none on the actual image... so I decided to stop doing it and think of a different edit.

Ever since I saw images produced by lomo cameras, I instantly liked it, and in 2009, when I met up with some photo blogger pals for a get together, one of us used the lomo camera to cover the Aliwan Fiesta and when I checked her blog I just liked the images she posted. She used the film for lomo cameras, but on her previous posts, she used the typical 35mm film for her camera and it produced better images because the sprockets added visual effects to the images. For this week, I went to achieve such effect by doing:

Erased the the light pole using the "Content Aware Fill" tool on Photoshop CS5.
Using GIMP, I scaled the image to 640x480.
Ran the Urban Script set to my own preferences.
Ran the Lomo script, set to "Golden Autumn" with vignette.
Added the sprocket holes using the script made by Elsamuko.
Ran the "Ancient Warmth" action.
Flattened the image, before adding my name stamp and saving it.

I was blown away by the "Content Aware" tool on CS5, though I still feel lost whenever I try to edit my images using it. I guess I have become confident in using GIMP, but nevertheless, I am happy that I finally was able to use my CS5 other than opening and closing it. :)

*** Jenn ***

Edit Me! | Week 09

2011-07-14T14:59:00.004+08:00

Lately, my mind is wandering that I find myself a bit unproductive. I have two pictures to edit for this day and I admit I am having / I had a difficult time finishing both.

This week's picture on "Edit Me!" was provided by Mandy of "A Sorta Fairytale." Every week on this meme, there is this level of difficulty, and every week, I am presented with images that are already perfect, and at some point I am always doubting myself if I can do justice with my edit.

Still, I always try my best and for this week, came up with this:

What I did -

Using the original size provided, I made a selection around the boy, feathered the edges and cut the boy off the image. Pasting the cut image, I then moved it near the flowers.
The parts where the boy once was, I covered by cloning the grass around. To make the circles not too noticeable, I also used the heal tool.

Then came the stage where I found myself stuck. I created a wide space and I didn't know if I'd leave it as is or if I will add some text. Obviously, I decided to add some text.

I flipped the image horizontally, just because. :)
I started writing the words, but couldn't find the right color for it, so I made a selection around the boy and the plants, feathered selection, made and inverse selection and desaturated the background. I did the same step to certain parts near the plant area.
Scaled image to 640x427.
Added the words using the fonts "Qarmic Sans" and "Miss Brooks."
Ran the National Geographic script, flattened the image, then gave it a pass of burn tool set to shadow at 20%.

The words I used for this image was taken from "Lessons From Life" poem (was it a poem?). I have this framed copy of it in my room, but I only selected the "positive" ones, as I don't want to put any negative words in the image (even if its intention was positive - "A child who lives with ridicule learns to be timid...").

Despite the difficulty, I had a real fun time editing this image.

*** Jenn ***

Texture Tuesdays | The Pretty in Pink Edition

2011-07-12T15:28:00.003+08:00

This morning, I decided I'd use one of the old pink flowers I took, but as I go about editing the picture, I suddenly felt uninspired and I felt the SOOC image was even better than the edited one. I decided to turn off my netbook to refresh my mind.

Going out of the house, I was saddened that most plants from our and our neighbors' gardens had very little flowers. I couldn't find any subject for this prompt, until I saw these little berries (not edible, though) in our garden. Most were red, but I found with some pink and decided to pluck it and photograph it.

[please mouse over to see the SOOC image]

I used the typical typewriting paper and placed the berries on it. Luckily, the sun was out that time casting a shadow that gave more drama. Editing this image, I did:

Cloned the paper to cover that little black spot on the upper left corner.
Resized image to 480x640.
Added the Kim Klassen "Sweettart" texture, set to normal at 50%, to give it a pinkish tone.
Adjusted levels, followed by a pass of the Manny Librodo sharpening script.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Aurora" texture, which I flipped horizontally, so that the parts with prints will be visible. The texture I set to multiply at 73%.
Added my name stamp, flattened and saved the image.

Thankfully, the edited image looked much better than the SOOC. :)

*** Jenn ***

Shoot and Edit | Skies the Limit [SOOC]

2011-07-11T16:42:00.004+08:00

I have long wanted to join this meme, but my editing skills were always pushing me not to join - because I know I am not yet good in editing pictures. I don't know if my images will be "good to WOW!" but, I am ready to explore the world of post-processing more, so I decided to join.

This week, the theme is "Skies the Limit," and here is my SOOC picture:

Yes, you read it right... I took this picture two years ago. I took this while inside the taxi while traveling from the Cebu-Mactan International Airport to the hotel where my brother and I were booked to stay for the next week. It was my first time to set foot in Cebu, so I really was a shutter happy that time - taking pictures of possibly anything I could take pictures of.

The time I took this, I recently had a new camera - Canon Powershot A1000is. I had no plans of buying a new camera, but my sister had to take our old camera with her so she could document her internship at the Negros Navigation. This being my first time to travel to Cebu, I sought the help of my mother to purchase this new camera, and I was glad I went to buy this camera model - it was my "partner in crime" for many years. Sadly, the camera is now at peace, following its death while traveling in Puerto Galera last November.

Anyway, my mother and I will be traveling to Cebu next month, and I showed mom the pictures I took because she couldn't remember me traveling there. I saw this picture, saw the prompt... so I decided to use this image for the Shoot and Edit prompt.

You seeing this, I am sure you can already guess what I am about to do. :)

*** Jenn ***

Quotography | Anything

2011-07-11T15:15:00.005+08:00

This week is an open week for Quotography, and since Monday is the start of the week for most people (I start my week on a Sunday, though), I thought I'd open the week with a little bit of positivity and motivation.

I guess the quote covered it all. As life artists, we just have to face events as it happens, and know that even if things don't go our way at times, we just have to keep faith that everything will work out in the end. Dare to dream, but dare to do things to make those dreams a reality, too. We may get wounded... we will be hurt and we will cry, but in our own time,we will bloom for sure.

This image was taken at the Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain two Saturdays ago.

*** Jenn ***

Foto Friday | Favorite

2011-07-08T19:54:00.002+08:00

This week, the Foto Friday meme found a new home in Lori's blog La-La's Home Daycare. Welcome, Lori! Am looking forward in sharing images here on Foto Friday. This week, the prompt is "Favorite," and among the pictures I took today, this is my favorite:

I don't know what it's called, but that's the curly part of the ampalaya (bitter gourd - momordica charantia). I planted some seeds about two months ago, and now, am checking the plants because they started bearing fruits. It's also the rainy season in the Philippines, and I learned (from some people around) that rains can cause fruits to rot and can cause insects to infest on fruits, so I am really checking on my fruits as I really want to have a good harvest.

When it comes to the macro mode, I really really love my point and shoot camera. It really has the ability to focus on the subject even if the lens are practically kissing the subject. To take this picture, though, I had to place my hand behind my subject to help it focus. I took out my hand just before I hit the shutter.

I will be attending a food event tomorrow, so am also linking this image for the "Favorite Photo of the Week" meme.

*** Jenn ***

Edit Me! | Week 08

2011-07-07T11:21:00.004+08:00

Welcome to the 8th week of Edit Me! Wow... time flew really fast, it's been two months since I started playing with images and ending up with a totally different look.

This week's image was provided by Jen of Mama Schell says. I totally love the feel of this image - it's like a scene from an Old West movie. I am actually imagining that after the stage coach pass, one character would enter the saloon and have some beer. :)

Since I envisioned the image to be something from an Old West movie, I decided to go sepia with my edit. At first, this wasn't my final image... but as I uploaded the images on my Flickr account, I decided to re-edit and add some textures.

The recipe for this image:

Using the path tool, I made an outline around the stage coach (I also included the road), inverted the selection and blurred the background.
Resized the image to 640x425. (GIMP has this auto scaling that resizes the image based on the size wanted so it would look proportionate. Since I always post images at 640px on the longer end, I just entered 640 and GIMP scaled it to 425px on the shorter end. Normally, pictures I share here on my blog are 640x480px).
Ran the auto white balance command.
Converted the image to sepia.
Ran the Ancient Warmth script (levels I adjusted to my liking).
Ran the Retro Active script.
Ran the National Geographic script (I always use this on my images).
Adjusted the curves.
Applied two Kim Klassen's textures - "Chamomile" set to normal at 50% and "Canvas Back" set to divide at 60%.
Flattened the image, gave it a pass of the unsharp mask tool and burn tool, before adding my name stamp.

Although I liked the first edit I created because it was sharp and bright and looked as if the image was taken just now, I liked my final edit more. I felt this edit was something taken from text books, and it somehow looked like an old post card.

Happy Thursday!

*** Jenn ***

Art of Composition | Roads / Path

2011-07-06T14:57:00.002+08:00

There were a few skips, but we are now on the 22nd exercise for the Art of Composition meme.

This week, the prompt is "Roads / Path," and although this image is somewhat similar and might pass as an entry for last time's exercise (Stairs), this was basically the only road/path image I took in monochrome.

I took this while at the Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain in Antipolo City (Rizal Province). It may be called a mountain, but getting into the prayer huts, guests had to actually take the path going down. This image I took while my mom and her friends were exchanging reflections about the gospel for that day. Since their statements were about their life and how people around influenced them, I felt I had to let them talk because I am my mom's daughter and I felt my presence might hinder mom to share what she wanted to say.

Walking around to find photography subjects, seeing this path made me remember this week's exercise, so I switched my camera's setting to black and white to take this shot, but of course I also took images of this path in color (though it's obviously a bit different as I didn't bring the tripod).

*** Jenn ***

Texture Tuesdays | The Number Three Edition

2011-07-05T16:01:00.004+08:00

This week on Texture Tuesday is brought to you by the number three and here is my share (hehe, that sounded like Sesame Street):

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *

I feel a little lazy to rummage through my folders and DVDs to check if I have a fitting image for this prompt, so I decided to take a new picture. The first thing I saw when I went out of the house were these bird decor, so I just took three and photographed it, using the stone washed wall as the background.

To make this edit, I did:

Using the path tool, I created a selection around the birds and bamboo poles and after closing the paths, I inverted the selection and applied Gaussian Blur at 30%.
Resized image to 480x640.
Ran the Unsharp Mask tool set to default (0.50).
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Warm Sun" texture set to soft light at 100%.
Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Mayzee" texture set to burn at 40%.
Gave it a pass of the National Geographic script, adjusted the curves and flattened the image.

Being a point-and-shoot camera user, it was difficult to make the subject stand from the background, so I needed to blur the background during post-processing, especially if I didn't set my camera to macro mode. To achieve the "bokeh" or "depth of field" look, I do the first step on my "recipe" using the original image, as I realized it's always better to select certain parts of the image using the biggest image size possible. I also do the same thing when I needed to do color selective technique. For this particular image, not only did I use the original image size, I also had to zoom it to 150% because certain parts of the images were still "too small" at 100%.

See you next week for the Pink edition!

*** Jenn ***

Quotography | 4th of July

2011-07-04T14:09:00.004+08:00

I was seriously considering linking up my "Edit Me! Week 7" post for this prompt because it had the American flag and that the image had a quote, but I canceled the thought and thought of something else. While reading Nicola's post and seeing Marla's thumbnail on the Linky both had the fireworks image, I started thinking of using an old fireworks picture I took during the 2009 4th of July weekend hosted by the American Embassy at the Sky Dome. It was rather an old image and I did struggle with camera settings that time (most of my shots were mediocre), I thought I can't join this week, until...

... I remembered I own two shirts with "4th of July" designs. The white one had stitched hat (that looked like Uncle Sam's hat) and some beads that looked like fireworks, the other - a red shirt with this heart design that looked a bit like the American Flag. I quickly ironed the shirt and took some pictures and edited it to be posted for this week's Quotography post.

USA has a big influence to the Philippines, at one point in time our country celebrates Independence Day every fourth of July, too, until former President Diosdado Macapagal declared the 12th of June as the Philippines' rightful date of independence. The same president also declared this day (04 July) as the Filipino-American Friendship Day to commemorate the joint forces made by Filipinos and Americans against the Japanese during World War 2.

Since the design of my shirt was heart-shaped, I went to choose something about "the love of country," and even if this image bears the colors and design of the American flag, I think the quote suits whatever nationality.

Happy Filipino-American Friendship Day,

Happy 4th of July!

*** Jenn ***

ps - one trivia: the movie "Born on the Fourth of July" starring Tom Cruise was shot here in the Philippines. :)

Foto Friday | Red White & Blue

2011-07-01T16:37:00.002+08:00

I have no red, white, and blue image in my folders, so I decided to make one for this prompt. A very simple take to it - I just gathered three each of my Prima flowers (these flowers are for paper scrapbook), took out the quite big butterfly embellishment (which I bought many years back as our Christmas tree decor), and just laid it on my mom's bed. Today, my sister took my camera with her as she is also a blogger now and she wanted to take pictures of things that would spark her curiosity, so this image I took using my cell phone.

Post-processing wise, I just added an "old paper" texture (one set to soft light at 100%, the other set to multiply at 60%). then adjusted the curves.

The blue flower may not be as blue as the USA flag, but I think it's still blue. :) Happy 4th of July weekend!

*** Jenn ***

Edit Me! | Week 7

2011-06-30T23:59:00.005+08:00

Before I proceed to my edit, let me just say thank you to the judges of last week's Edit Me! for choosing my edit as one of the top 3 edits.

This week's photo was by Branson of "My Reflection of Something." I almost didn't join this week's edit because seeing the image, I really thought I couldn't come up with an edit. I kept the copy of the SOOC shot in my folder and would look at it from time to time to see if some idea would spark. Personally, any flag photo was perfect as is, and as simple as this image may be, it was powerful enough to convey a message.

I edited this picture about 30 minutes ago. At first I wanted to do a square crop, but I am a fan of white space, so in the end I still went with the rectangular crop. To end up with this image, I combined four elements: the flag image (which I cropped to 640x480 - taking out the curve on the pole down), an image of a reddish sky (which can be seen at the top of the image), Kim Klassen's "Serendipity" texture (set to Overlay at 100%), and another image (the sky with sunrays). I erased the texture and images on the flag and pole area as I added each element, and I also gave the image a pass of the National Geographic script, as well as a pass of Urban Acid script before adjusting the curves. Finally, I gave the image a pass of the Unsharp Mask tool.

The quote I got from Think Exist.

*** Jenn ***