Happy Monday (Texture)

Happy Monday, everybody!




This picture was something I took a few minutes ago, when I learned that today's prompt is "texture." I was hoping to take pictures of my hand against a pebbled wall, but it was difficult for me to bend my left hand as I hold the camera with my right hand... so when I saw my cat Oreo sleeping on the rubber mat, I just lowered myself to take the shot.

The cats love this mat. This is where they sleep and/or relax during lazy times (which is most of the time), and the stringy rubber molded together provide a great material for them to sharpen their nails. As for us, where... this is where we dust our footwear before entering the receiving area. :)

Hope everyone is going to have a great week ahead.

*** Jenn ***

Happy Monday (Yellow)

My share for this week was something I took from our neighbor's front yard... I just love their big yellow hibiscus, that I always find myself taking pictures of it every now and then. One time, my sister scolded me for doing it, so I stopped taking pictures because I do agree, the image files were eating my netbook's memory. Come to think of it, I have taken similar pictures every now and then, so I guess I should just photograph other subjects.

However, I wanted to take a fresh photograph for the Happy Monday Challenge, so before eating my lunch, I went out to take a photo of the yellow hibiscus again. The plant had so many flowers, but since it was high noon, some were wilted, some were still closed, and some were like this - half open and half closed.

The hibiscus flowers were actually huge when it's fully opened (about the size of a small saucer), as much as it is beautiful like that, the photographer in me loves it just like this, because I can get to photograph the petals and the pistils.

I am also linking this up to Mellow Yellow Monday and Today's Flowers.

*** Jenn ***

Happy Monday (Jewelry)

Something I took a picture of just now... this is one of my mom's bracelets and it was made of beads strung together. It looks like a weave of beads and although I didn't like the color much (well, I am a little dark skinned so this doesn't look good on me), I do like the effort given into making this, and I do love the pattern.

I set the focus of my camera to "Center Weighted Avg." to blur the front and back part, while making the center sharp.

*** Jenn ***

Starfish Charm

This starfish charm was one of the decorations in our aquarium, when we still have it. When all of our fishes died, we decided not to fill the aquarium anymore. The sands we threw away, but the stones and other decorations, including this charm, was placed in a container and is now a decoration in our center table.

When I found out the theme for Happy Monday is black and white, I first thought of photographing the gummy bears I had in the fridge, but I later found out that taking pictures of the bears without the colors didn't appeal to me. I was actually about to just find a picture in my file, when I saw the starfish charm. Using the old Christmas wreath which my sister wrapped with balls tied in a string, I photographed the charm. It looked dirty because of the hard water residue (which was difficult to take off), but I think it added more charm to the charm. :)

I am linking this picture for the B&W Wednesdays, too.

*** Jenn ***

Hold My Hand

I told time and time again that I am a morning person, but it's rare for me to see the sunrise as our house is facing west. My share for Happy Monday is a sunset picture, which I took the other day. Everyday, I go to the market just outside the neighborhood to make sure we're eating fresh foods. Normally I do it late in the afternoon, and I prefer to do it very late (6PM) because if I go there quite early like I did the day I took this picture, the sun setting would be a bit glaring that it was a bit difficult to see the road unless I bring an umbrella with me.

This was shot using my cell phone around 5:30PM, I knew I had to lower my head because the sun shine was too bright, but seeing the shadow of this little boy holding his older brother's hand took my interest to take a picture. I actually concentrated on the shadow, so the original picture had more shadows, I just cropped it to this size to give more emphasis on the sun rays.

It's really great to have the handy dandy cell phone in the pocket. :)

*** Jenn ***

Happy Monday (Shoes)

My share for today is late; it was this afternoon that I got to read about the prompt, and I hoped to use a fresh picture, so I took this just a few moments before day turned into night.




Clearly, these aren't human shoes, but they're still shoes. I got this key ring from a fellow Filipino photo blogger who is already based in the Netherlands; one time in 2008, she organized a get together, and she gave us one key ring each.

When I realized that yellow tulips (my most favorite flower) were abundant in the Netherlands, I have always dreamed of seeing tulip farms, and my fascination with the whole thing led me to dreaming of owning and wearing the wooden Dutch clogs - in yellow. I think it's the coolest traditional footwear ever.

Anyway, these won't fit my size 9 feet and these aren't yellow... but these are real wooden Dutch clogs, so I treasure this gift dearly.

*** Jenn ***

Happy Monday (Something Hot)

My first time to join the Happy Monday photo challenge, and here is my share:




May 2010, I was invited for an event held at the Enchanted Kingdom, and while my niece and I were walking back to the Staff House to wait for the other invited guests (they provided a shuttle service), we noticed there was a performance involving dances and fires, so we stopped by to watch it first.

It was really difficult to take pictures of them. Well, I am a point and shoot camera user, so the only way I could freeze images that quick was to up the ISO level of my camera. I was able to capture some nice images, and this one was my favorite of the bunch. I was happy to have clicked the shutter at the right time. It wasn't as sharp as I hope and want it would be, but for a camera having only 4x optical zoom, me maxing the zoom and putting the ISO to 1600, I think my camera did a good job with this.

Happy Monday, everyone!

*** Jenn ***