Just last weekend, our company held our yearly outing at a resort in Batangas (2-hour drive south of Manila). It was actually the worst time to do go out of town because the weather was not really good and it was a heavy downpour throughout the day. Well, one of my main objectives for coming along the trip was to take photos within a different environment. I took this opportunity because for sure, there would be sceneries awaiting there that is worth capturing on the lens.

And thankfully, I was not dissapointed.

A recent visit to a local bookstore made me realize how much I missed reading books, and that I needed to do some catching up to keep up with my to-read list. I am a big fan of book sales. Whenever I drop by the mall, I never (most of the time) fail to visit Booksale, Filbars, National Bookstore, or Powerbooks (whichever is available at the mall). Recently, my love for books is beginning to come back. Usually I spend my spare time doing stuff online but now I just read books instead. During my visit, I saw several of  the books that I've been meaning to read for so long, but because of one reason or another, failed to do so.

One of the most memorable book purchases that I did was for my copy of 'The Silver Chair', an installment to the Chronicles of Narnia book series. Until now, I can't believe I just bought it for Pph15.00 (around $0.34) in one of the Booksale branches when I was in high school. It was already an old copy but it is still in good reading condition.

I'm planning to reread these.

This is actually quite true. I have my way of organizing things. I'm a big to-do list person, and I maintain everything in order by writing and organizing them. However, I have something about the level of focus that I exert for each of my goals. I have a definite number of them and actually enumerated them on a list. However most of the time, I lose focus and become confused on the things that should really be prioritized. It's true, at some point I lack flexibility.


Through this test, I learned one of my weaknesses. Now I know I need to work on this.

Nowadays, Korean stores and restaurants have sprouted like mushrooms all  around the Metro, and it's all to the Halyu wave to blame. For the past years, Korean culture has slowly creeped into the country starting from Korean dramas, to music and to the whole culture itself. As a kpop fan myself, I am actually delighted to this kind of progress. :D

Recently, my sister and I visited Holly's Coffee, a Korean cafe, at SM Southmall. Several scenes of our recently concluded kdrama fandom, Rooftop Prince, have been shot in that cafe shop. This is one major reason why we wanted to visit the place.

Scenes from the drama Rooftop Prince done at Hollys

Shutter speed represents the time that the shutter remains open when taking a photograph.

Trying different shutter speed settings produces dramatic effects on the photo. Slow shutter speed captures motion into the picture while fast shutter speed crisply freezes the object, even if it is moving fast while the photo is being taken.


LIGHT ABSORPTION
Aside from motion, the amount of light captured into an image can also be affected by the shutter speed. Take these series of photos as example.

1/250

1/125

I was doing the laundry today when I noticed this water puddle at the side fence of our house. I gazed on the clouds and the blue sky reflected on it. As I walked closer to it, I felt this sensation of falling into that gap and into the sky, as if the Earth reversed its gravity. It would be like a free-fall into nothingness, because it would never end. This just made me think about things, about the fact that our world is just a tiny dot within the vast universe and on what really lies beyond this life.