Around town

Today was a slow day. I think the daily trips/errands have finally caught up to me.:-)

So, I just went for a walk around town (after my siesta of course), and tried to capture Christmas around our town.


First stop: food. Did I say food is BIG here? This time, I went to a sidewalk vendor famous for their grilled meats.

Here's the master at work ...



... and his masterpiece(s). (Apart from barbecued pork, you can see some more exotic stuff like chicken innards and pork ears.)



Here, the local church is usually the center of activity in every town, so I was naturally drawn towards it. Here's the plaza in front of the church.


A light in the dark


Also, starting today December 16, the traditional karoling starts. It's when everyone, especially kids, go around houses singing Christmas carols, and then they are given coins for their effort. Here are some carolers with their improvised instruments.






Even some grown-ups, too!


After their rounds, the kids divide what they received, everyone goes home happy. And then it starts over again the next night!


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[I](Used G3 for the carolers, the X10 for everything else.)[/I]

Chinatown

I'm now on Day 4, and boy, a week's almost done, and I still have a long list of to-do's! This time, I visited the local Chinatown, where every trip is an adventure.

I decided to go all-Fuji processing for this trip -- these images (except the last two) were straight out of the camera. (The other two just didn't seem to convey the same feeling when I used just the OOC jpg.)

Food is a BIG BIG part of Filipino culture, and when you mix it some more with Chinese culture and cuisine, you have an explosion of culinary possibilities. Sadly, my stomach can only take so much in one sitting. :-)

First off, a shot by my mom of my dad, me, and some local personalities in front of a no-frills, off-the-beaten-track restaurant that's a local legend.




And here's a quick Super-Macro of the food. I said "quick" because I just had to get that snap before I gave in to the sights and smells of the food in front of me! :-)




After lunch, we rode one of the de-padyaks (only this time it was not a bicycle, but a small motorcycle fitted with a sidecar). I rode behind the driver so I can get quick snaps of the area while he navigated the streets.

A ready-to-eat fruit vendor



A calesa (horse-drawn carriage) -- I tried to take a shot of the calesa's front view as we passed, but I almost fell from the vehicle. :biggrin:

PS: Note the yellow ribbon - when one wears it, it's almost always a sign of fondness for the late Corazon Aquino (the wife of our hero Ninoy Aquino) who was swept into power through a bloodless revolution in 1986 (also called "People Power Revolution"), and is generally credited with the restoration of democracy to our country.

Fruits and veggies everywhere! (That's my mom's back, by the way.)


A local grocery shop



East meets West. Note the Chinese incense candles in front of the cross.


A de-padyak (which is also called "sidecar")


It's the way Chinatowns should be (I think): busy, tasty, crowded, colorful. It's sensory overload, but well worth the trip.

Home, Day 2

A few shots from Day 2.


The view from my window, sunrise
PS: It's nice to finally have a uniform schedule - sunrise @ around 5:30 AM, sunset @ around 5:30 pm - the way sunsets should be, in my opinion. Not 9PM, not 3:30 PM. :)



One of my favorite comfort foods - Bacolod chicken, garlic fried rice, soy sauce+lime+chilis, iced tea.



A closer look at the side dish - a salsa of green mangoes, onions, tomatoes and bagoong (fermented shrimp paste)



My old stomping grounds @ the Makati Central Business District



The view from a ubiquitous local transport - a de-padyak



Business as usual 




(All shot with the Fujifilm X10)

Home, Day 1

I went home for the holidays, and no matter what you see/hear about Manila, I'm happiest here!

It's been a gruelling almost-24-hour flight from frigid Boston to sunny Manila, and I arrived around 12:30 am. Slept at around 2 am at my mom's, and woke up at around 5:30 AM, and off I went prowling my old stomping grounds. Here are a few images from Day 1 (I have a lot more, but I only have two weeks to do a ton of stuff!)

A "regular" guard




Bending the rules



Deli?



Ah, Manila. Dirty, gritty, violent. Home sweet home.

A few more

Here are a few more shots I took last night and today with the X10. Love love love it.

GAS strikes again ...

... and this time, I got myself a Fujifilm X10. Yaaaay!!! I plan to go all-prime on my Panasonic G3, and the X10 will be my zoom/all-around.

I looove the feel of it on my hands. As soon as I held it, I got transported back to my childhood, playing with some of my dad's old cameras. I'm still learning the ropes, but I immediately switched it to Velvia film mode. I've been a huge fan of those punchy colors ever since I saw one of the presets from Alien Skin's plug in.

Bad thing is UPS arrives in our area very late, and I had no chance to take it out to shoot samples. (Besides today it's freezing outside.) So I shot indoors, and of course took a picture of my kids. I immediately wanted to see Fuji's yummy colors, and was not disappointed:



(Btw, you'll notice I started putting my initials on photos I post online. That's just me learning to be a little careful.)

Must be something in the water…

Just won another photo challenge, albeit a very small one. Still.. a win is a win! Yay!!!

The theme is “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Here’s the winning image:

 

Happy thanksgiving!

Having grown up in another country, the concept of Thanksgiving as a holiday is a fairly new concept to me. True, we have always had Christmas and New Year to give thanks, but not one to solely focus on the concept of gratitude. It is a wonderful wonderful holiday – asking us to take the time to take stock of our lives and look at the positive things and be thankful for what we have.

I am thankful for my parents who have provided me constant guidance and love, and especially my mom who has been a rock through the years. I am thankful for my sisters, wonderful persons who now has their turn to be wonderful moms to their families.

I am thankful for having a relatively comfortable life, with enough leeway for my (expensive) hobby, for having a roof over our heads, food on our table, a bed and blanket to sleep on.

But I am most thankful for my wife and my two daughters, without whom I wouldn’t have realized what life really is. They give me a reason for being, and the love I receive from them (especially the two girls) sometimes feel so unfair to be received by one humble man.

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Grainy

One quick afternoon drive, and I decided to bring along my Pen and revisit my favorite in-camera filter, the Grainy BW.

Images below were shot with the E-PL1 and the Panasonic 20mm.

 

And here, third time's the charm:

 

 

Looking up

Fall is almost past its peak here in our area, but I love the splashes of red everywhere. Outside our house there’s this fiery red tree, and having grown up with only two seasons (rainy and uber-summer) I can’t help but always be awed by it whenever I see it. I’ve tried capturing its intense beauty, and here’s my best effort.

 

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I’ve also (finally) tried nighttime low-light tripod shooting. Nice time to start though, as a thick mist hung in the air (which doesn't often happen!), and there was an amber-ish reddish cast to the sky. So I took this, being reminded of Chinese vases having just branches and trees as its decorations.

I love this looking up thing - it presents me with a very nice, very different perspective on things. I just might do it more often on some of our trips. :)

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And, things are quite looking up for this nice little lady...

It got me

Yes, I finally bit the bullet and bought an iPhone. An iPhone 4, though - not the latest model. Don't care too much about the better camera. I figured the iPhone 4 is good enough to win an award, it should be good enough for me. Besides, that's why I have my other camera/lenses. As for the better processor, I think any iPhone is an upgrade over my old Nokia.

Anyway, I've joined the photo camera day over at seriouscompacts.com, but I don't think I can do daily! So I'll post from time to time here (and there), and if something catches my eye, you'll be sure to see it here too. I'm using the hipstamatic app, but I'll use one lens/film combination for now - just to get used to it and its funky viewfinder.

Here's my first one.

Wachusett

Last weekend we decided to go leaf-peeping in nearby Wachusett Mountain. Of course I took a ton of pictures, but for this entry, I decided to go and start with one Lightroom Preset as a base. Contrary to my initial instinct to pop the colors (they are not called "fall colors" for nothing), I somehow muted the colors.

Starting to Fall

Or... Fall is starting. :-)

But yes, I am starting to finally appreciate and fall for the Panasonic G3.

My biggest gripe with the Panasonic G3 was the relatively high incidence of dark subject/blown background. It doesn't happen indoors, and it only happens if I happen to include a bigger portion of the bright sky in the picture. So I know it probably has to do with its AE lock. I half-press it (thus having AF/AE lock) and recompose the shot, but even with the shutter half-pressed, it still recomputes the exposure. This got me frustrated a number of times. But I finally figured out how to work it - I removed the AF/AE from the shutter, put it on Fn1 button, and held the Fn1 button while pressing the shutter.

Anyway, I brought it with me on a recent birthday party at a farm together with my E-PL1 (at that time I didn't figure the G3 yet so I was not confident in bringing only that). The Panasonic 20mm stayed on the G3, and the E-PL1 had either the 17mm or the Canon FD 50mm f/1.4. Here are some shots that I really like.

Some portraits:

With the 50mm





With the 20mm




With the 17mm




Etc.