Been lazy lately but I finally uploaded my Tagaytay photos to my flickr account. They’re also here in my blog through a nice plugin.

The photos were taken months ago. Some are of Tagaytay Highlands and some from Sonia’s Garden.

Click on photo to get to the album

Friday night I met up with Phoebe at Shangri-la so we can dine at Cibo. I miss the food there and I ordered my usual. Telefono with spaghettini and the Crostini with the Spinach dip. Did I spell that correctly? Phoebe ordered her usual as well which is Spaghetti Alfonso (I think). Basta it tasted good. We’re kind of lactose intolerant though and our stomachs were rumbling after the cream-based pastas.

Last night I had another Italian dinner at Amici. It was my first time there and I was surprised that it’s a self-service restaurant. The place was packed but Phoebe and I got a table easily. I forgot what she ordered. I wasn’t able to taste it because she ate it all so fast. That girl has a really big appetite. I got Spaghetti Vongoli something something. Very long name but I didn’t like it much. It also took a loooong time to arrive so I just lapped up the pizza we shared. It was the Al Funghi pizza (my spelling sucks, I know!) and it was really good. I think Amici’s specialty is their pizzas. Jenny caught up with us and we indulged in their toe-curling gelatos and profiteroles. I especially loved the sans rival gelato and ended up buying 1 kilo of it to take home. I think the price is reasonable for P450.

Yummy pizza!

Scrumptious profiteroles

After Amici, we hung out at our usual Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Only Phoebe ordered because Jenny and I were so full but usually I order The Ultimate mocha there. Since I bought that gelato from Amici, I asked the staff if they can store it in their refrigerator and they were so nice enough to accomodate me. We spent hours there just talking about different things. Phoebe showed me her new Sony Ericsson W960i and I’m now more tempted to get one too. We used the free wifi there and their internet was fast. I’m not sure if it’s because of the phone or just the ISP in the cafe. We made plans of going to Fort Ilocandia soon. If I’m going to buy a W960i, I won’t have enough money for the vacation so now I’m having second thoughts about the trip. Is the phone more worth it or Fort Ilocandia which I’ve never been to? We talked about so many things from American Idol contestants (I don’t watch it anymore) to US politics. Fun times. I haven’t gone out for ages because of the damn PCOS so last night was a good catch-up for us three.

I don’t know why I bothered putting up one but it’s up and running, my photoblog. Is kinda nice but not much photos there right now. I’m also worried about my webspace. Boo! Go visit Camera Obscura! I used Pixelpost cos of the abundance of addons and themes. FYI, I use a Nikon D80 for my photography. I don’t have any other lens at the moment except the one which came with the kit.

I’ve been obsessing over photographs of ruins in Russia ever since my friend Kris showed me a link to this lj group. I don’t know how I to describe this obsession but I just find those photos so fascinating! I even keep on telling my friends who are into photography that we should go to Ukraine and just take photos of ruined structures. I’m nuts of course. I don’t think they’re nice to foreigners there. Well that’s what I gathered after watching Everything Is Illuminated (a really good film. I highly recommend it!). Anyway, here’s a nice example of what I’m talking about.

Photo by acha baba

I found more groups of abandoned lovers. Check out the following if you like this stuff:

• Abandoned
• Rural Decay
• Haunted Houses, Creepy Buildings and Other Places
• Urban Desolation
• Post Communism
• IRO? CU?TAIN

Since I couldn’t go to Russia, I decided to make a flickr abandoned group closer to home. Join my Abandoned Philippines group if you have something to contribute. I haven’t had much opportunities to take photographs of Manila’s ruins but I will soon.

P.S.

I don’t know how to put captions under photos here in Wordpress. Teach me please!

I was googling for Russian cameras when I stumbled upon a tutorial on how to make digital photos look like they were taken with a Lomo LC-A camera. So I loaded my trusty Photoshop and tried the tutorial on one of my most recent shots.

The original photo

 After a bit of tweaking, here is the result.

Is very nice, eh?

 You can try it with your own photos. Just go to the tutorial at Digital Photography School.

I got myself a paid flickr account last October so I decided to fully utilize it by linking photos I’ve uploaded there to this blog. I’ve been procrastinating (it took me almost 2 months just to search for a plugin) and just tried several plugins tonight, most of which are kinda crappy. Then I tried this fucktastic plugin by tantan and went a bit apeshit. It’s awesome. Now I have a gallery inside my theme and there’s an option for a widget (check the side panel). I’m still using WP 2.1.3 and have no plans of upgrading anytime soon cos of possible plugin conflicts. I don’t know if the plugin will work with the latest release but I still recommend it.

I uploaded to flickr my first attempt at digital photography. Please check it out and give me comments. Most of my shots are blurred, I know.

Last night I bought my D80 kitlens from Daphne. She included a wireless remote, a UV lens, and a 4gb memory card. I got them for P44K and it still has warranty from Columbia. I took some photos during and after dinner but I’m too ashamed to post them here. Besides, I haven’t uploaded them to my laptop cos I’ve ran out of space. Anyway, I’ll post photos AFTER I’ve read the manual.

I’m going to get myself a DSLR for my birthday but I don’t know what to get. Rain recommended Nikon D40 so I read up on it and fount out it has no exposure adjustments. I’m not planning to be one of those who keep on upgrading their cameras. I think being able to adjust exposures will matter in the far future. Unfortunately, my budget is 30K…hopefully I’ll find a good camera for less than that amount. Throw me your suggestions, my photography freak friends!