Congratulations to Ria Tirazona for winning my Week 2 Travel DiscOVIries contest! (Ria, I’ll be contacting you about your GC! ^_^)

For Week 3’s theme: Must-have items (clothes, shoes, toys, gadgets)

I want all of you joining this contest to attach just one photo and a 2- sentence description of your Travel DiscOViry.

To join, register for a free Ovi account at http://www.ovi.com/ and use your new Ovi email account to send your name, mobile number, and your Must-Try Discoviry to maki.eduardo@ovi.com. Send in as many Travel DiscOVIries until Monday 12mn (March 8, 2010) and I’ll be announcing the Week 2 winner on Wednesday (March 10, 2010).

Last Sunday morning I finally gave into my office-mate Carlos‘ invitation to do some reverse macro photography of insects. I have always been a fan of macro photography but I have never been a fan of insects and other creepy crawlers. I got my new Canon EOS 7D the day before (something that was out of plan but nevertheless I gave into buying a new camera after my older one is getting narcoleptic with each click). I was just so excited to shoot again and peek into a viewfinder when taking pictures.

I already bought myself what is called a reverse macro ring, a metal device that’s attached to the body of the DSLR so that you can attach a lens in reverse. It’s a poor man’s macro lens alternative for only 150php…yeah, I’m that poor I don’t have a 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens…hehehe…someday perhaps when I’ll get ga-ga over taking food shots and subjects that need that kind of lens. Before I forget, I used a 18-55mm kit lens Canon service unit for doing my first reverse macro set. My 18-55mm IS lens is still with Canon and they replaced it with a new one after I discovered a speck of fungus within the glass of the lens.

When I started shooting, I felt I was going to have a headache and will go home with no shots to keep. Reverse macro takes some practice. It’s hand-held, more than that I dealt with a narrow depth of field…finding and striking the area where you want it sharp is also hard- because I’m not a fan of insects.

On a lighter note, I enjoyed my first reverse macro photography experience. The challenge of hunting for your subject among the bushes, twigs, leaves etc. was really a humbling experience. Once you get the hang of it, just by looking at the size of the insect you’re targeting to shoot, you will already know the effective range to capture them and just be in awe after seeing the shot you wanted to capture.

I was surprise that a growing dragonfly near the size of a yarn needle has 5 eyes…

I suddenly reminisced about that Disney movie “A Bug’s Life” when I took this picture of a black ant.

Familiar with those little jumping spiders found in most households? They’re just the size of a bread crumb but they sure do look very intimidating up close with so many eyes! :O

Fire ants are not really small but they are just so fast and hard to capture. I got lucky at some point there was this busy ant that stopped for a moment on top of a leaf. I’m fascinated about its translucent body…

At first I was scared of handling a jumping spider while doing reverse macro…it was jumping towards my lens. After some time Carlos was amused I overcame my fear of spiders and just held the spider using my hand. The best pictures are really the tight and close ones and the onyl way to get those shots is to just overcome your fear.

I didn’t have much appeal to flies but they were the easiest ones to shoot. They’re not that small, they’re harmless and they’re eyes are just something to capture.

I’ll definitely do a series of reverse macro photography for insects. I’m amazed by the beauty of things when seen up-close…something that the naked eye is limited to see.

Congratulations for Rowena Wendy Lei for winning Week 1 with her great entry on her Food DisOVIry at Restaurant Verbena in Tagaytay! Rowena, your 1000PHP GC is with me and I’ll be sending you an OVI mail on how to claim it.

Thanks for all of those who joined the first week! And now, for Week 2 we have a new contest theme:

Travel DiscOVIry: Must-visit travel destinations!

Let’s keep it simple this time. I want all of you joining this contest to attach just one photo and a 2- sentence description of your Travel DiscOViry.

To join, register for a free Ovi account at http://www.ovi.com/ and use your new Ovi email account to send your name, mobile number, and your Must-Try Discoviry to maki.eduardo@ovi.com. Send in as many Travel DiscOVIries until Monday 12mn (March 8, 2010) and I’ll be announcing the Week 2 winner on Wednesday (March 10, 2010).

I celebrated my birthday last February 13, 2010 at the Philippine Hot Air Balloon Festival at Clark, Pampanga. My birthday fell on a Saturday and since I wanted to spend my birthday at a different place, doing different things, I decided to come along to a group outing.

I drove my friends that morning to Clark. We made it just before the balloons were about to rise.
I saw different kinds of hot air balloons shaped like the sun, a barn, a turle (my favorite), a beer bottle, and many more. I felt like a kid again who was very much fascinated with balloons.

I stay until the night at Clark. During the afternoon, I had a blast flying a kite for the first time on my own. Kite-flying kept us away from falling asleep the whole afternoon. Most of us were tired and sleepy but we still managed to enjoy our stay at Clark.

By around 6pm in the field we I witnessed the night glow. It was cool to see the glowing balloons and how people tried to help the balloon operators keep the balloons on teh ground while making them glow.

I want to go back to HAB next year to take more pictures. I ony brought my point and shoot and was pretty much tired to roam around. I was sleeping most of the time hehehe. Specials thanks to Ickhoy de Leon who’s our bible study leader and one of the top managers of Caltex Philippines. If it weren’t for him, we won’t get tickets or even passes to witness such wonderful event. ^_^ And yes before I forget, we had lunch at AFC- Angeles Fried Chicken, one of the oldest food establishments in Clark!

The following photos were shot at the SM Mall of Asia in Manila using my Panasonic Lumix LX3 with a 0.25x Rowa Optics Fisheye Attachment, one of the LX3 lens attachments that I got as a gift for my birthday recently:

It’s nice too look at the ice skating rink at a wider view…The Rowa Optics 0.25x Fisheye really gives a huge difference compared to using the Panasonic Lumix LX3 on stock. My pet peeve about it is that it produces blurry edges on every snap when I zoom the camera’s lens.

It’s also cute to take a fisheye picture making the whole scene look like it’s within a small globe. As for this picture, the Rowa Optics 0.25x Fisheye Attachment gives better pictures by maintaining sharpness on the edges.

I never tried ice skating before and I want to try it one of these days. I used to have in-line skates when I was young, I wonder how I’ll do in ice skating. Let’s go my friends?

Last Sunday I spent my day with my family just after finishing my 10-km Century Tuna Superbods Run. We got VIP tickets to the England vs. China Pyromusical Competition at the Mall of Asia. Since me and my family were sure to be located at a good position to shoot fireworks, I brought my DSLR and my huge tripod. My DSLR has been acting up since my last Carnation Family Foodtrip in Batangas back in November. The camera won’t click when I press the shutter button and it has been the problem before I got it sent to Canon for a repair after my Davao trip. During the day I charged the batteries, and checked whether it can still do a few shots-it worked.

I brought my Panasonic Lumix LX3 along with my set for taking pictures of my family. The camera was a gift from my mom during our HongKong trip last November and recently I got a whole set of len attachments as a gift on my birthday. Lucky right? Everything related to my LX3 was a gift to me.

So I started setting up everything and fixing the settings for shooting fireworks. I did a few test shots and everything looked fine and I was ready and excited to shoot my first fireworks display set…

I got disappointed when I started shooting using the DSLR again. It died down on me for the nth time so I was forced to remove the metal slide under the camera and attach it to my backup- the LX3 with a Fisheye attachment. It was funny because some hobbyists and photographers were looking at my new setup: A huge tripod with a tiny LX3 attached on the top. What can I do but still take home pictures right?

I wasn’t stisfied with my shots. Taking pictures using a DSLR is still way different than a tiny prosumer camera but I was still happy to take home my first fireworks display set…hehe.

The whole set is on this flickr page. I thought China dominated the field. England however performed better that night because the fireworks from China were scattered and left too much smoke. I want to go back and shoot more. I’m wondering whether I should already replace my DSLR, my plan is to replace it with a Canon _______ and a Canon _________ L lens this coming Black Friday 2010. If you’re curious about my settings on the LX3, it’s f/8.0 ISO 80 and a 2-sec. shutter speed. I realized the importance of having a 2nd body or just a backup camera during an event during the Pyromusical Competition.

I treated my friends for a pre-birthday dinner at Classic Savory at Greenhills because I love the dishes they serve there other than their signature Chicken dish. The dinner didn’t cost me a lot also as the prices were affordable, and the servings were good enough to share with a lot of people.

I ordered the following for my pre-birthday dinner:

The Classic Savory Chicken with fried bananas at the bottom -320PHP

Beef with Brocolli -245PHP

Miki Bihon Guisado -180PHP

Crispy Pork with Kangkong

Seafood with Brocolli

I really enjoyed my pre-birthday dinner treat to my good friends at Classic Savory. I also got to take note about their special iced tea there, it’s so good. ^_^

And I also got a very touching birthday gift of a full set of Rowa Optics Panasonic Lumix LX3 len attachments that I really wanted.

Hi blog readers and visitors! I’m giving away a total of five Ayala electronic gift certificates worth Php 1,000 each from today until March 2010 weekly c/o Nokia OVI! If you want to win, all you have to do is share your “Must-Try DiscOVIries for 2010”

To join, register for a free Ovi account at http://www.ovi.com and use your new Ovi email account to send your name, mobile number, and your Must-Try Discoviry Picture attachment with creative yet very-convincing descriptions to maki.eduardo@ovi.com

This weekly contest will be from Thursday to Wednesday, and I’ll be announcing winners Tuesdays of every following week. Each weekly winner will receive a Php 1,000 Ayala eGC!

For this week’s theme: What are your Must-Try Food/Dining Places?

Sample Entry:
E-mail Subject: My Food/Dining DiscOVIry at Zulu Grill

Ever tried the best sisig in town? I just discovered that ZULU Grill at Baranggay Kapitolyo in Pasig City serves the most sizzling, crispiest and yummiest sisig of all time!

Nokia will wait for all of your best entries send to my OVI mail account and pick the one that’s best among the rest! Send in your entries until Sunday (February 21, 2010) and I’ll be announcing the winner of the 1000PHP Ayala EGC here on this blog on Tuesday (February 23, 2010) to keep you guys posted on who will be the weekly winner picked by Nokia. This is just the first of the 5-weekly Nokia DisOVIries Contest. Send in as much entries until Sunday 12mn for more chances of winning. Goodluck!

I couldn’t be more thankful to the Lord for everything in my life. 23 years and counting, everything was amazing up to the last minutes and seconds of my 22nd year in this world.

Many things happened on the 22nd year of my life- from being dipped into the hurtful reality of things, losing things and slowly gaining them back, setting myself free, traveling, doing and trying things I have never done before, finally doing things on my own, and becoming independent. Everything was such an adventure that at the time I’m saving the last hours, minutes and seconds of being 22, I realized that everything was worth it and made me a stronger person. The best gift that I had this year was that despite the what I had to go through I found God in the process and met great people too whom I felt greatly loved and supported.

It’s when you have to go through sad times and heartbreaking times of just being stripped off things in a situation like the whole world is against you that makes you see things clearly and find out that God is sufficient. There were times I thought I lost a lot of things, but in the end I realized that God was saving something way better than I imagined how things would happen for me. Everything just gets better everyday.

I would like to thank my parents and especially my mom for her support. I love you mom, and I assure you that I’m on the right track and always am doing my best to be a good daughter. Though I may be a disappointment at times that we argue, I always never forget to always make it up to you and make you happy and proud of me. I do care a lot on how you feel and all that every time I come home late from work, Monday Bible Study, CCF Sundays, time with my friends, travels etc. I just want you to know that I’m always transparent in what I do so that you wouldn’t worry. Mom, don’t also worry when I cry or get sad at times, God is good and He’ll always take care of me. Don’t worry about me and I’m proud you brought me out in this world and raised me to be a strong person who never get tired of doing what is right.

To my cousins whom I always love and care for (Ate Rachel, Rollin, Chari, Camille, Sam, Hanie etc.), I miss you all and thank you all for always being there to be just what family is all about. I’ll be watching over all of you to protect you all from every possible hurt or obstacle. Well, you all know that…I love you all very much.

To my friends Mica, Jehzeel, Winston, Hannah, Ada, Evanjohn etc. (you know who you are guys and gals) I’m sorry for the frequent times you all witnessed how I cried and got sad but from the bottom of my heart, I’m so thankful that I feel like crying now when I’m writing this. Thank you everyone for setting me free from what I was before in that depressed state. [Argh, can't stop crying now]. You are all truly gifts from God to me, my true friends who are always there to be my guide in things, comfort me, tell me if I’m wrong or right etc. Thank you everyone for making me happy and also teaching me how to have a good disposition in things too.

I’m also thankful I found a family in MBS too. I really realized that there are no accidents in life and that everything happens for a reason.  God is just amazing.

The weather is hot today as the middle of February comes to a near and everyone will welcome summer season once again. The weather lately is also perfect for doing some infrared shots on some areas with lots of trees and greenery. I wasn’t shooting much from my infrared camera not until today I went to Ateneo for taking some important pictures for a project we’re fixing for work. I only made two shots I consider for keeps today. I didn’t want to roast under the sun too.

It’s amazing when an infrared shot is already processed. Everything looks snowy and cool and it didn’t remind me much of the harsh weather today. The branches and leaves of each tree looks ornamental too. I love processed IR shots that make me see a things from another perspective .