Scavenger Hunt Sunday 073111

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

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

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

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

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:

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

*** Jenn ***

Quotography | Family

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.