Day 5: Cars

Cars

This sight made me smile at the end of a tiring work day. I have a daughter but she prefers to play with cars, for me if this is what makes her happy then I will oblige. :-)

But really this is an odd mix of toys for a girl to have.

Day 4: Sunrise

Sunrise (sort of)

I really wanted to take a picture of the sun rising, but alas waking up at the break of dawn is not one of my strengths. I had to settle for a shot of the early morning sun instead.

I was so focused on taking the shot that I failed to notice something wrong with my subject, the mineral water bottle littering the shore!

I can't believe how some tourists could be so callous as to just leave trash anywhere. It's really a sign of rudeness, disrespect and just plain ignorance.

Clean up after yourselves people!!!

Day 3: Macro

Macro

Even before I got myself a DSLR, I've always been inclined to shoot flowers up close. I find it interesting as I could see the detail of the subject closely with a Macro shot. Details that we normally just ignore at first glance. Perfect sample of the saying "stop and smell the roses", or in this case "see" the flowers.

Photography Class

I've been scouting for photography classes the past week and have decided to sign up with Jo Avila's Basic Photography Seminar this coming June. I've checked google and photography forums and even asked my office mates who are DSLR owners and Jo was highly recommended.

The  June 2014 Basic Photography Seminar will cover the following topics:

June 7 – Basic Theories and Principles of Photography
June 14 – Composition Techniques
June 21 – Basic Studio Lighting & Flash Photography
June 28 – Basic Post Processing & Basic Color Management and Inkjet Printing

More info available at Jo's site.

The seminar fee is P3,000.00/participant as they are offering a 50% discount to celebrate their 20th year of teaching basic photography.

Registration was a breeze, I just sent an email to the address stated on the website and Jo replied the same day confirming my slot for the class.

 

I'm now super excited to start the class this June and am really looking forward to trying something new for a change. I hope I get to learn a lot and improve my skills. Let's see how it goes.

Blue Coral Beach Resort

We don't have much family outings, this summer we've decided to head to the beach so that our daughter could experience it for the first time. It took us about 3 weeks to decide on our destination and the resort. Top 3 choices were Laiya, Bolinao and Bataan. We decided to go to Laiya due to proximity.

I've browsed a number of beach resorts in Laiya but decided to stay at Blue Coral Beach Resort instead mainly because their kiddie pool looked like something that my daughter could enjoy. A day after I've made a reservation at Blue Coral, the resort was featured at Ensogo at a discounted price, so I went ahead and purchased the vouchers. The Ensogo rate was at P1,699.00 per person (minimum of 4 vouchers needed), this was a deal compared to Blue Coral's standard rate of P5,800 for a Beachside room (good for 4 to 6 persons) + P1,250.00 per head mandatory meal package (breakfast, lunch and dinner). I had to call back to advise that I was paying using the voucher instead of cash. 

Booking a room at this resort is sort of a hassle mainly because all their lines are busy. Had to dial the number at least 5 times to get through. Not to mention the lady who took down my reservation got the dates wrong (May 18 instead of May 11), which involved a very long conversation and one irate husband in order to resolve. 

I'm giving the resort a rating of 3 out 5. 

STAFF: Very accommodating and friendly. Check-in time was at 3PM but we arrived at the resort at 1PM, they offered to let us use the pool right away. The room as available at 2:30PM and they allowed us to occupy right away.

BEACH: great, water is clear (not murky), the shore is coarse semi-white sand. I managed to walk barefoot in the sand. 

POOL: big, clean and spacious enough to accommodate a lot of guests. Kiddie pool has a mini slide which my daughter enjoyed. 

ROOM: clean, spacious enough to accommodate 4 to 5 but I think 6 persons would be pushing it. There were 2 double beds and an extra mattress.

BATHROOM: no rack or space to hang clothes and/or towels so we resulted to using the door knob to hang our things. The bathroom also had a kind of smell as if it was not cleaned thoroughly, it really made me wish I had brought a disinfectant spray with me. Poor ventilation even though there was an exhaust fan installed.

FOOD: nothing special and to be honest it's not worth the mandatory food package of P1,250 per person charge (good thing I got the vouchers for the trip). The food was served at a buffet setup. Dinner and lunch was tolerable but the food was bland and tasteless and had very few selections. Breakfast on the other hand was a nightmare, they served steamed hotdogs, sauteed canned tuna, chicken tocino, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions, rice, bread and bananas. Snacks are not included in the food package unlike other resorts that I've looked at where they serve AM and PM snacks. The resort allows you to bring in snacks without corkage fee, and I really did wish we brought a lot as I don't think we ate well during our stay. I'm not a picky eater but really, the food did not meet my standards.

All in all my family and I enjoyed our stay in Blue Coral, the beach and facilities are great. I will probably come back again if I manage to score another deal in one of the group buying sites but will make sure I bring lots of snacks with me if I do, but if I'm paying full price for the stay I would rather look at other resorts instead.

*pictures to follow* Photos added

Day 2: Beach Bag

Beach Bag

As I was preparing our stuff for our beach outing tomorrow, it almost skipped my mind that I need to upload my photo for the day.

This is my designated "beach bag". It was a Christmas present from a cousin. The prints of the bag exudes fun and summer and I think it's just perfect for that summer outing.

Tomorrow will be our first beach trip as a family and will be my daughter's very first beach experience, I hope she'll like it. And hopefully I'll get more photo inspiration to blog about.

Day 1: A Basket of Eggs

A Basket of Eggs

This is Day 1 of my 365 Days Photo Challenge (and I really do pray I have the perseverance to complete the whole 365 days), I wanted to publish a picture that would show a semblance of any form of photography talent, but I ended up with this instead as I think it has more meaning.

These colorful plastic eggs have been giving my daughter so much joy these past few weeks (I guess it's still an after effect of her first Easter Egg Hunt experience). But really, no amount of other toys regardless of prize, size and color could hold her attention as much as these eggs. It made me realize that at the end of the day, it's really the simple things that could bring more happiness in our lives, if only we let ourselves see them and if only we let go of chasing that "thing" that we think would make us happy.

Photography

It's that time of the year again where I feel sorry for myself for having no interest, hobby whatsoever. So I decided to take that leap of faith and just went out and bought my very first DSLR.

With new models from Canon and Nikon released this year it was a very, not to mention confusing, difficult decision. Thankfully there's google so I just searched "best entry level DSLR 2014", the Nikon D5200 came out on top in a couple of reviews so I just went ahead and chose this.

I don't know a single thing about photography to say if it was a good buy or not. But here's a review from CNET - D5200 CNET Review.

 Sample pic using the D5200 (in automatic setting).

And now I have the basic gear, I need to figure out what to do with it. For starters I'm very much decided in attending a photography class. But then again, it's another mind blowing decision to choose whose class to Take. So far I've checked out the website of James Nicolay and Jo Avila and both have reasonable rates. Can't decide which one to choose yet.

Next on my to-do list will be to join a photography online community, have checked out Digital Photographer Philippines and Pinoy Photography but am yet to sign up.

And finally, to really challenge myself and to keep this hobby alive, I'm going to complete the 365 Day Photo Challenge where I will publish one photo per day with a brief story on why I chose that photo.