Isabela: The Pictures

Farm scene.

Dirt road.

The lake.

Beast of burden.

St. Ferdinand Church.

As promised, here are some of the pictures from Isabela (Echague and Ilagan, to be precise). You may check out the rest by clicking here.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!!!

Isabela: The Experience

Would you believe this place is just a short hike from Roxanne's house? Really cool!

Okay, at the expense of sounding like a broken record, here it goes again: my camera went bonkers for the nth time. I was literally at the mercy of my camera during my stay, thankfully it decided to cooperate on moments that mattered, like the photo taken above. It's back at the service center, and I'll write something about it when I hear from the guys at Canon.

So back to the story. I was my first time to visit Roxanne's home town of Ilagan in Isabela, and I was fortunate also to visit some of the adjacent towns, like San Mariano and Echague.

Isabela isn't your typical tourist destination. It's a classic example of the rural scene in the Philippines. If you play the likes of FarmVille on Facebook, then you could probably relate to what I'm saying. And I love this rural feel. The animals, the rice fields, the trees that shape the landscape, and the stars at night, all of these contribute to the serenity of the place. This is simplicity at its best.

I must admit that I'm a total city boy, that what I call home consists of tall buildings, heavy traffic, and accessibility to malls. But once in a while I enjoy the calm that the likes of Isabela has, that quiet aura that enchants you and takes all your worries away.

I really enjoyed the Isabela experience. Mingling with Roxanne's relatives and seeing how she grew up makes me love her even more. And that was just the first of many visits to come.

I'll post the pictures soon, Multiply is down anyway so I'll take my time.

George And Pris

The happy couple.

George and Pris have been together for a long time. I've known George since 2004, and he was already with Pris at that time. I guess this is one of the testaments on how much this couple jives together.

Mass was celebrated at the historic San Agustin Church in Intramuros, followed by a reception at the nearby Villa Immaculada.

And of course, this post wouldn't be complete without a link to the pictures. Here are the ones from Gelsen, while here are the ones from my camera (Jayson took some of the shots, thanks bro). We're still waiting for the photo boot pictures, I'll post something about that once the gallery is online.

Again, congratulations George and Pris. May God bless your union.

Weddings And Cameras

Weddings

Congratulations to George and Pris on your wonderful wedding. Pictures coming soon.

Cameras

I finally got my 400D from the service center last Wednesday. Weird thing is that after a month of being checked in, they found nothing wrong with it. I decided to pull it out for the meantime, since I don't have any backup to use.

I'm actually tempted to upgrade early, since there's this three year warranty program for selected units purchased before the year ends. But I'm also trying to save up, since I've spent more this year. We'll see, I hope my 400D "stays in shape" for the meantime.

And as for Canon, I still believe they're one of the best in terms of service quality. Very polite representatives and specialists.

Photos From Hong Kong

View of Hong Kong Island from Harbor City Mall.

At last I'm done with our Hong Kong pictures. Instead of doing a day by day or place by place gallery, I decided to choose some of the best and just group them all together. All of the pictures here and a lot more are available on my Multiply gallery here, and for our friends, some not in the gallery are posted on our Facebook accounts.

So many cameras, so little pocket money.

It's hard to choose a favorite destination in Hong Kong. I really love the feel of the island. I love Victoria Peak and the view of the island from above, Ocean Park and it's many attractions, and my first time at Lantau was a blast.

The famous red taxi cabs of Hong Kong.

My camera started to act up as we headed for Lantau on our third day, and on our last night it went totally kaput. But I'm thankful I was able to shoot everything that I came for: the view of the city, the Buddha, the cute pandas, and of course pictures of us on our second anniversary. It's also great that Roxanne's camera didn't fail us, we also have lots of shots there.

The Buddha at Lantau Island.

The view inside the cable car at Ocean Park.

Jellyfish rocks!!!

And one last thing. I didn't have too many pictures from Disneyland since my camera was on the verge of failure, but I was able to get the best shot from our stay. At exactly six in the evening on the tenth of November, I proposed to Roxanne. And the rest is history.

The best photo of the bunch. Priceless.

So there you have it. We really miss Hong Kong, and we hope we could go back there soon. Please visit my Hong Kong gallery for more pictures. Happy weekend.

Goodbye G5

Thanks for the memories.

My G5 on its fifth year of service. Read more here.

I called up Canon this morning to follow up on my 400D, and get a quote for my G5's repair as well. Turns out the cost is no longer practical, just add a few more and I could already get a decent point and shoot. So after almost six years of taking pictures, it's about time to retire my Canon Powershot G5.

I still blame myself for leaving it in my check-in luggage during our US trip, which caused a dent and damaged the LCD. But it turns out the camera's optics are also in need of replacement, so I guess this is really inevitable.

And maybe it's time to upgrade as well. The new G11 is smaller, has a bigger LCD, and has cleaner images at higher ISO (I can't go past ISO 100 on my G5). And from our recent trips this year, I realized that having a small camera can really be handy.

I remember when I bought my G5, I wanted this camera not only because I wanted to learn the basics, but because I wanted a tool that will last me five years. And it did. Even when I had my 400D, I would still use the G5 very often.

My Flickr G5 gallery is full of memories captured by this little beast. And for that, I will always be thankful to my G5 for documenting a part of my life.

7th Animo Run

I made it to the finish line. Thanks to Gelsen for the picture, you can see more from his gallery here.

I did it, I ran and survived the Animo Run. Okay, I lied. I walked, and I took my own pace. I didn't realize 5km is that long.

Yesterday was my first time to join such an event. Gelsen has already invited me to several marathons in the past, but not being a morning person I decided to skip them all. I guess that extra dash of green and white made the difference on why I tried the Animo Run.

I might join the Animo Run again next year. Other marathons? Well, I guess I'll stay with jogging around the park for now, and see if my mind and body will be up to it.

Oh, and since we're on the topic of sports, congratulations to Manny Pacquiao once again. A true symbol of Filipino pride.