Singapore 2012 (Part II)

The trip to Singapore made me realize how much I've neglected photography. I found out that I've "forgotten" how to operate a DSLR, even my Olympus PEN, huhu. Must make time for taking pictures.

The rest of the photo dump:

Sentosa

Singapore 2012 (Part 1)

Spent the long week-end and a couple of vacation leaves in Singapore. We planned the trip partly so my aunt and sisters can have stamps in their passports before these expire haha. Although we booked our tickets awhile back, I was most unprepared for this trip. I forgot to bring our stash of medicines (then hubby suffered a massive headache), our travel adaptors (we had to buy) and our usual Snickers bars. Yet, this is our most tipid trip pocket money-wise because we stayed with my uncle and aunt and they sponsored  most of our meals. (Yay!)

They say Singapore is only as big as Quezon City yet we still missed a couple of spots despite being there for five days. We skipped the zoos and gardens and went to Orchard, Little India, Bugis, Arab Street, Marina Bay Sands, Sentosa and Universal Studios Singapore.

Be ready for a massive photo dump with a few captions. :P

Little India   

(We spent our first night in Orchard but I forgot my camera, boo.)

Beijing in Spring (PART 2)

Reconstructing the second half of my Beijing post which Blogger deleted for no reason. Sigh.

Our SIL arranged for a private van and guide to take us to the Great Wall of China (Mutianyu). It was a two-hour ride from our hotel. Never imagined it was going to be hot up there. I always thought that it was a cold place, you know, being up there and all that. Our guide actually offered to take our coats before we went up. I later regretted not believing her hehe.

 

It was so hot that I actually got a tan after.

 

The Wall is so amazing. I think it's the perfect subject for the diorama art filter.

 

 

We went up via cable car. There's a fun way of going down after - riding a toboggan - but I passed because I was wearing a dress and it entailed a bit of hiking. Hubby tried it, he said it was super fun.

   

Beijing in Spring (PART 1)

Or, as pictures would reveal, Beijing in Diorama. :)

Went to Beijing the week after Holy Week with hubby's family and my best friend L. Since I no longer have a DSLR, my cameras for this trip were my Olympus PEN EPL-1, my SuperSampler and my iPhone - which was fine because they weren't as bulky and heavy as a DSLR.

Our first stop was Jingshan Park. My SIL, who did the our itinerary and made research, told us the Chinese built the hill to the north of the Forbidden City for good luck.

Pampanga x Olympus PEN

Hubby has been harping for a mini-vacation for a while. Valentine's Day and his birthday provided the perfect opportunity to get away. At first, we thought of going to Tagaytay, then hubby said, why not a food trip in Subic/Clark? He saw a good deal on Agoda.com for an overnight stay at Fontana Hot Spring Leisure Parks - he was sold on the hot springs part - but more on that later.

After booking a room, I realized that it was the Hot Air Balloon week-end. However, we were too lazy to get up at 3AM. So instead, we set off to have breakfast at Pancake House NLEX first before heading to Clark.

Can I just digress and say I totally commandeered the car CD player on this road trip? And I played Taylor Swift and A Walk to Remember OST - props to hubby for not complaining. (Yay, true love!)

After breakfast, we headed straight to Fontana. We passed by the Hot Air Balloon thingie and encountered a bit of the traffic jam. For this trip, I brought the Olympus E-PL1 which is "on loan" from hubby. I am so in love with the in-camera art filters that I decided to shoot most pictures with them - specifically Diorama and Pinhole.

We were early for check-in so after registering we explored the grounds. (Note: I decided to post unedited pictures - save for cropping and resizing)

Is it just me or does the tree resemble a giraffe? (Diorama effect)

Hallway (Pinhole effect)

Loving the Olympus PEN (E-PL1)

I first heard about Olympus PEN cameras from Third World Nerd and Daphne Paez. My initial reaction was, "Oh cute" because the digital cameras look like film cameras. However, my shooting juju was running low so I moved on. Then about a month ago, hubby mentioned that the first models of Olympus PEN cameras are really affordable in Japan. I told him to get some because I kept reading about the cameras in celebrity blogs. Word is, the Olympus PEN is as light as a point-and-shoot camera but produces DSLR-quality photos. I was sold immediately.

A couple of PENs arrived a couple of weeks ago. At first, I was going to try the Olympus E-P1, but it does not have built-in flash.

The Olympus E-P1

So I happily "borrowed" the E-PL1, L for Lite. It's a stripped down version as some of the control buttons were removed. Read this if you relish reading the technical lowdown.

I've used the PEN1 Lite a couple of times but I love it already. It is as light as a point-and-shoot camera but the quality of the photos are top-notch. It also shoots video. I'm still figuring out how to work the controls and functions because these are waaay different from the Nikon and Canon cameras that I'm used to.

My favorite thing is the in-camera Art Filters. The PEN1 Lite has 6.

Normal photo