Maker’s Market@Estancia Mall

Angela and I haven’t seen each other for quite a while. So what was supposed to be a quick catching up breakfast last September turned into a whole day hang-out at their bazaar at Estancia Mall. We arrived at around 9AM, early enough to set up the table of handmade goods.

For more samples of Likhangela’s handmade accessories, follow her on instragram at @likhangela. She's also in http://zalora.com.ph/.

Onay arrived a few minutes later and went straight to setting up her own stall. 

 

Other merchants at the makers’ market include Blissful Loops with endless variety of dreamcatcher bookmarks, bracelets and key chains.

There’s also pressednotcrushed

and MAIKala.

And my favorite that day was Creative Chaos.

Joyce arrived at lunch time and we pulled Onay and Angela away from their stalls for some pictures.

We went home at around 9:30 PM. I find it amazing how creative these people are and how much effort they put into their works. I guess it's because of their passion and their enjoyment in what they do.

Teachers Village restaurants: Van Gogh is Bipolar

Back in May, I thought of having dinner at some place where I can take pictures. The neighbourhood near my workplace provides a lot of options. After consulting restaurant reviews, I decided to eat at Van Gogh is Bipolar. I have heard of the place from a friend a few years ago but haven’t tried it. I recall her saying dining there was a nice experience.

When I opened the door I found a dimly lit room. Then a girl named Vi approached me and gave me a small booklet of the “VGIB rituals”. I missed this part in the reviews I have read so I thought ‘where the &@#$ am I?’ Then she handed me the menu (read: food price list). I thought ‘I better escape while I still can!’ But I decided to stay. It’s not every day that I shell out that much for a meal, anyway.

I asked Vi if it’s ok to take pictures. When she said it’s ok, I placed my order. Below is a picture of the counter. The jar on the left is where the customers put their payment and get their own change.

This picture below shows the list of rituals. It also shows where the coconut oil and alkaline water are.

But before performing the rituals, it would be nice to know the house rules.

For the tea drinking, customers can choose their tea pot from this corner.

This is my favorite picture of the place. I find the projector clock so appealing.

I stayed there for almost three hours, I think. The food was really good and I enjoyed taking pictures. Because they really limit the number of customers, it was very easy to move around and try different angles when taking photos. Vi seated near where I was and we got to chat a little as well. She also guided me in performing some of the rituals.  While trying out the place with a friend lets one to have somebody to share the experience with, eating there alone is an entirely different experience but no less exciting.

Long weekend getaway: Pamarta Bali Resort, Morong, Bataan

We arrived in Pamarta at around 4:00 PM. After resting for a while, my friends headed to the beach and I took pictures. The sky was dark and it looked like it’s going to rain. I didn’t like the color of the photos I took that afternoon.

I got up at 5:00 AM the next day (not that it’s a hassle) to take pictures of the pool while no one was swimming and it’s still dark.

My cousin then went out at around 6:00 AM. We still have the pool to ourselves so we got nicer background.

I like the background in this photo but the sun was already bright, it created shadows.  This was taken at around 7AM. I guess we should have taken photos in this spot earlier.

The background in this photo, on the other hand, is not that good but we had better lighting here.

Before heading home, I took this one last shot in front of our room.

On our way home, we stopped for a while in this spot to take some pictures. I should have asked Ate Noemi to move to her right a little bit to cover the post.

Jen did some not-so-conventional pose again. :))

Looking forward to our next travel.

Long weekend getaway: Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar, Bagac, Bataan

A month or so ago, Jen, Lyn, Ate Noemi and I planned to go out on a trip at the end of August. We then booked a room in Pamarta Bali Resort in Morong, Bataan. Then came the day of the trip. When we were already in the car and about to leave, they said that we’re dropping by Las Casas Filipinas, thanks to my cousin, Lyn. What a pleasant surprise!

Below are the pictures of the first stop of our trip. Since we have old style houses as background, I thought photos would be nice in black and white so some of the photos were taken in monochrome setting. Unlike my previous posts where I uploaded the jpeg preview directly (except for a few that were cropped before uploading), I enhanced most of the RAW files first in photoshop for this post. Mainly, I adjusted the exposure and brightness and edited the noise. In some photos, I already liked the exposure so I just saved them as jpeg without adjusting anything.

Aside from my 18-135 mm lens, I also brought my 50 mm f/1.8 and took some photos in wide aperture. 

It was so much fun taking photos of my friends while they were goofing around.

But they can also do serious pose from time to time. :)

One of the difficulties I experienced while shooting was since it was so bright (we arrived at around 10am and left at around 1pm), it was hard to view the photos to check if they have correct exposure. And yes, some were overexposed. Aside from that, I changed the lens many times because I wanted wide aperture in portraits but it’s difficult to take wide shots with a 50mm lens. I also noticed that I wasn’t able to take enough photos of the landscape. I should take note of that next time I travel.