Starting the year right

What better way to start the year than by family trips! My family went on back-to-back weekend trips to Atlantic City, New Jersey and New York.

 

 

 

 

Aside from Atlantic City, our main purpose was to stuff ourselves full with Filipino food, and in the East Coast, that means Jersey City (Max’s of Manila especially) and Woodside, NY (Jollibee and Red Ribbon bakeshop). No pictures there – no one wanted their picture shoving food into their mouths.

All in all a great trip, made more memorable with infrequently-seen family and infrequently-tasted food.

Catching up…

Ok, I’ve been very busy since I came back from my trip, and have not been able to update my blog. For the (rest of the) New Year, I’ll strive to post more regularly, even if it’s just a picture a day.

Here are a few more images from the Philippines.

 

 

This here below is Taal Volcano.

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.

Beacon Hill

I’ve lived in the Boston area for the last 6 years, but I’ve never really had a chance to soak in the city. I haven’t even taken the Swan Boat, nor seen Make Way for the Ducklings. Shameful, I know.
So, last Saturday, I took the initial step to correct this. I signed up for one of Saba’s PhotoWalks, and our destination was Beacon Hill. I took this tour together with a few members of the forum mu-43.
Hope you enjoy these pictures, and I hope they might even convince you to come visit our city! (Images after the jump.)

Six Flags

As soon as we got a summer-y weekend, my family hied off to Six Flags New England in Agawam, MA. I expected there will be a lot of people, but not that many! The space in front of the entrance was literally packed with people, and it took as 30 minutes at least before we got through. Anyway, as usual, we had fun in spit of the heat and the prices.

Summer is perfect for …

Strawberries!

Out and about

We headed to Providence, RI a few days ago for a graduation celebration, and here’s what welcomed us.

 

(Taken outside the Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse).