The FiFi Showcase

As I have shared a while back, my old cell phone - the Sony Ericsson K800i (which I named Cysho, taken from "Cyber Shot," the line of cell phone's model) died last week of February. Prior to its death, I have hoped of buying a Smart Phone because I felt so disconnected whenever I leave home. I know I shouldn't be online wherever I will go, but as a blogger who attends events every now and then, staying connected is very helpful to share certain things from the event on real time. My old phone lasted more than 5 years and I found it pretty durable - have dropped it way too many times, so I dreamed of owning a Sony Xperia, most specifically the Arc S because it's waterproof, but it was just too expensive. When my phone died, I had a few days to decide which phone to buy.

During the Baguio trip with fellow blogger friends Jen and Iris, I got to see them use their own smart phones - both carrying the My|Phone brand. I wasn't able to ask them their opinions about their phones, but I liked the images they shared on their Instagram pages. I don't know why... but one thing I considered about what smart phone to buy was its camera. I wanted to buy the same phone as theirs, but the stores at the mall near our place don't have stocks for that specific model.

I was exchanging text messages with my cousin Jayson (who's such a gadget guy) asking for his opinions as well as asking him to check online reviews of whatever smart phone model I think looks good, and in the end, he suggested I get this:


Cherry Mobile Flare. Weeks ago, one of my Facebook friends posted her picture of this same phone and when I asked if it was a good buy, she said it is, considering its price. Standard retail price for this phone is 4000 pesos (approximately 100usd), but I bought mine at 4500 pesos...but that's because it comes with a spare battery. Battery life is this phone's main problem, so I thought it was a good thing to have a spare one on stand by.

I named the phone FiFi - taken from Flare and WiFi. True, its battery doesn't last 24 hours when you're using it, but because I still haven't bought a memory card (therefore I haven't downloaded a whole lot of apps yet), battery life goes about nearly two days for me.

Camera? I can say I am satisfied, too:


 All SOOC images - I want to show its real photo quality.

I still haven't tested its ability to take images under low light environments, but it does an awesome macro! Unlike my old phone which I have to turn the macro function on, the camera of this phone requires a tap on the screen to focus on what I want to highlight. For example, when I took the sunset picture, if I tapped on the pool area, it will wash out the sun and give more light on the pool area, but because I tapped on the sun, I came out with this image. Back to the macro function... crazy focus it created on the second image - it was able to highlight the mold (was it? I don't know... I just saw it in the garden growing on the iron rods) and blurring the rest! Ahhh... I love this phone! :)

It was just recently that I discovered it has a panorama function, too, but I still haven't used it. Although, comparing it with my old phone, it doesn't have the White Balance function and it cannot create straight up Black and White and Sepia images (but you can edit your picture and turn them into sepia or black & white), but it does have a night and action modes.

Challenges I have with using the phone as my camera...it was a little sensitive with movements, and I admit the first few images I took were all blurred! Well, it's still new and I am still learning the ropes of using a touch screen phone; in I will get better in taking pictures using this phone.

Hopefully by next month I will be having my own Instagram page, too! :)



PS - I bought the phone using my own money. :)

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Favorites From My Last Out of Town Trip

The main reason for traveling out of town again was to commemorate dad's 6th death anniversary. Coming home from a recent Baguio Trip filled with images and stories to share, mom thought it would be great for us to travel to Baguio, too, since dad's death anniversary would fall on a Tuesday and she has the full weekend off at work.

Mom, brother, and I left the house 11pm of Friday (01 Mar), but it was already 3am of Saturday (02 Mar) that we were able to leave the bus terminal (way too many people, all buses were fully booked). It totally blew off my plans since we arrived in Baguio City at nearly 10am and it took time before we found a hotel to stay at. Still, with things not going as planned, it was a great time to be with the family.

I was thinking what pictures to share and thought I'd do another "favorites" post. Quite a lot of images taken this time around (compared to my last Baguio Trip), so I chose to choose just one favorite per day, just to make this a concise post. It doesn't necessarily mean that these are best images (for there are a lot of much better pictures than these), but I guess you'll have to agree with me that sometimes... those that end up taking a space in our heart aren't always the best ones.


02 March 2013
Mines View Park - Baguio City

I planned to visit the Cemetery of Negativism and the Philippine Military Museum for the early part of this day, but because it was already near lunch time when we left the hotel, we decided to just roam around nearby places. Mines View Park was the very first place we visited, and this one was taken before we went to the view deck.

03 March 2013
Laperal White House - Baguio City

Sister arrived in Baguio City around midnight. We welcomed the day by visiting the Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad (next town) before taking an Eco-Tour around the Tam-Awan Village where us girls joined some Igorots for a traditional dance. After waiting for a long time to be seated at 50s Diner, I figured it would be nice to visit the Laperal White House, known more as the ever famous Haunted House in Baguio City. I don't know the stories of people who experienced paranormal activity, and we didn't feel any spirits inside the house, but there was this part that would give anyone the scare. I was just thankful that I already climbed the stairs going to the topmost floor of the house before I saw the big scary picture. :)

I truly wanted to stay longer in Baguio... but we had to take the 6pm bus going to La Union.


04 March 2013
Thunderbird Resorts - San Fernando, La Union

This was the only full day in La Union with the whole family, so we made sure this day was jam-packed as well. We first visited dad's grave, then we had lunch, then we went shopping for a while, then we went to Thunderbird Resort to wait for the sunset.


05 March 2013
Forest Lake en Cielo - San Juan, La Union

As painful as it was to be reminded of this day as the day when we lost the main man of the house, I still felt great that we commemorate this day as a whole family. We have accepted his death, but we still miss him, of course. Sister left after that short visit... mom, brother, and I went to Ma-Cho Temple and had lunch at Halo-Halo de Iloko, then we took a much needed rest at home and traveled back to Manila around 10pm that night.

I don't know if sister and I will be traveling back to La Union this Holy Week, I hope we will.

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Pink Flowers

I used to love walking and jogging around Colinas Verdes, a housing project a few kilometers away from our place, but now that they have opened the Clubhouse, I was told that the place now opens at a specific time, thus not allowing fitness buffs to do their very early morning routine around the place. This might mean I have to walk around my own neighborhood from now on, or go to the nearby gym to use the treadmill and/or other equipments.


What I loved the most about doing my morning walk and jogging around the area was the abundance of subjects to take pictures of. Every time I was there, I always take my camera (either the digital camera or the cell phone, sometimes I carry both) and come home with at least 10 interesting images. Third quarter of last year, I noticed some trees around the clubhouse with pink blooms, and I didn't second guess taking some pictures.


I don't know the name of the tree, but the flowers look a lot like orchids. Such a pretty one, right? I just am not sure if I was able to capture its real beauty... I always have a difficult time photographing orchids and this one was no different.


To veer away from the usual colored flower, I changed an image into black and white, giving more emphasis on the water drops. It didn't rain the night before and that morning...those are dew drops. Amazing! Well, I find it real amazing because I don't get to see dewdrops that often. {Linking this image to Weekend in Black and White}

I hope the administration of Colinas Verdes will allow people to enter the place as early as 6am, but if they think it's for the best to open the gates at 8am, then I'd say I will miss photographing nature around the area.