(EZRA) 45/52 : Behind every girl’s favorite song, is an untold story
I was too lazy to take Ezra’s portrait this week so I set up my camera on a tripod, put it on self timer, handed her the remote, and told her to have fun.
It’s the first time that I asked her to take her own photo and she enjoyed it. Although it took her a while to come up with something she liked because she’s not used to not having someone directing her. She normally enjoys posing for the camera when someone’s taking her photo, but she had a hard time taking her own picture. I always thought that she was as vain as I was, but I guess I was wrong XD
I have this silly idea that girls have this natural ability when it comes to taking their own pictures since my friends do it all the time using their phones, but I guess Ezra’s different. If you check her phone, you won’t find a single vain picture of her there. In fact, someone would probably mistake it for my phone because I use it all the time to camwhore since the camera on my phone stopped working months ago.
Week 46/52 : One true lover with a thousand kisses
I really like how this turned out. It’s a simple portrait but I’ve been trying to catch up on my 52-weeks so I’ve been doing a lot of beauty shots lately.
I got the title from the lyrics of the song “Three Wishes” by The Pierces. I haven’t been able to get that song out of my head since the other day. It’s so haunting, I love it 
I showed this to my mom and she said it looks familiar. Maybe it’s because its very similar to this self portrait from 2009. (It’s also the same photo I’m using for my buddy icon XD)
(EZRA) 44/52 : You really don’t have to be a child to find a friend in a teddy bear
Ezra’s 2 weeks behind on her project so I had to rush editing this. Which was hard because my tablet has decided to give up on me. It keeps zooming out every couple of minutes while I’m editing. It’s very frustrating~
So yeah, this is not my best work but I still like how it turned out.
Kuala Lumpur Adventure
Last batch of our Singapore-Malaysia vacation photos. About time too, it’s been 4 months since our trip! But at least I finished blogging about it before the year ended XD
On our 2nd day in Malaysia, we decided to hire a guide to take us around Kuala Lumpur. We made arrangements to meet at our hotel lobby at 9am, but he arrived an hour late. (Obviously this didn’t sit too well with us, but our guide was really apologetic so we forgave him.) Our first stop was Batu Caves, which is actually outside KL, but not by far. It’s a famous limestone hill with several small caves inside. Some of the caves house a few Hindu shrines so it’s also a place of worship for some people.
The first thing you see upon reaching the place is this HUGE statue of Murugan, a Hindu god. According to Wikipedia, the statue is 140ft, making it the tallest statue of Murugan in the world.
The second thing you will notice is the number of pigeons that surround the place:
They’re used to people so you can sit down next to them and take pictures. You can even buy bird seed from some vendors and feed them.
Ckloy kept chasing them around, trying to take close up shots but it was hard because there were a few kids there who kept running around trying to make fly away.
He did get this though:
To reach the caves, you have to climb up 272 steps (that’s right, *two hundred and seventy two*) so make sure you eat a hearty breakfast to help you get you through it. Also, it’s a good idea to wear shoes with plenty of traction because the steps are really small and some are a bit slippery. I have itty bitty feet and even I had trouble climbing them. Some people had to walk sideways so they wouldn’t fall.
At the foot of the stairs you’ll see more Hindu statues:
Up we go:
The climb up was tiring but amusing because there were several monkeys running around begging for food.
Once again, Ckloy was mesmerized by the animals. He really should consider a career as a wildlife photographer, lol.
He took these pictures:
Don’t let those innocent eyes fool you, they can be extremely aggresive when they want to be. If they catch you with food, they’ll run up to you and grab it out of your hands (or pockets), so be careful. While we were climbing up we heard this loud shriek coming from below us. For a while we thought that someone had fallen off the steps but it turned out that a monkey had just grabbed some food from a tourist.
Review : Tony Moly Baby Doll Pot Concealer
I’ve been using this concealer for about two months now and I really like it so I figured I should make a short review on it. Before this I used Cover Girl’s Trublend Concealer, which I also liked, but when I ran out earlier this year I decided I wanted to try something new.
My parents bought this for me when they went to Korea a few months ago because this concealer is always out of stock whenever I check out the Tony Moly branch in Megamall. (I don’t know if it’s because it’s that popular or I just have terrible timing.) I’m not sure how much it was in Korea, but I think it costs about P250 here in the Philippines.
This is the first pot concealer I’ve tried so I won’t be able to compare it to other brands, but I can tell you that I’m pretty happy with it. It has great coverage and it’s very creamy. I normally use a concealer brush to apply it, but fingers work fine too. It’s quite thick so you only need a little bit to cover up dark circles and acne scars. Just make sure to set it with powder afterwards to avoid fading throughout the day.
Week 45/52 : Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today
(Quote by James Dean)
Quick shot taken the other day. I was playing around with this new lipstick that my aunt gave me and I decided to take a few pictures to see if it was a good shade for me. Since I’m a bit behind on my 52-week project, I figured I might as well edit one of them for my self portrait this week. I chose this one because I like that my hair looks healthy in this photo. (It’s really very damaged IRL T__T)
I didn’t have time to take a proper self portrait last week because I spent most of it travelling back and forth to Manila:
- Monday – Went to the mall with Ezra and Raffy while waiting for our parents to finish their meeting.
- Tuesday – Dropped my parents off at the airport then went to UPD to pay my tuition fee. The line was 3 floors long when I got there and it took me 3 hours to pay my tuition of P40. Argh! (I know that I could have just come back another day, but I was already there and I didn’t think it would take that long. Tch~)
- Wednesday – Got to rest at home
- Thursday – Went to UPD with Amie to give my reader and examiners a copy of my thesis manuscript. I also filed some of the required paperwork for my thesis defense next month. It was a really stressful day for Amie and me so afterwards we went to SM North to relax with Ate Love.
- Friday – I planned on staying home but I woke up to a text from May telling me that there were still some paperwork that needed to be done for my defense, so I rushed to UPD to handle them.
(EZRA) 43/52 : Tell me your deepest darkest secret
We’re two weeks behind on our 52-week projects AGAIN. This was supposed to be her Halloween SP. We actually shot it before Halloween but I didn’t have time to edit it until last week, and she didn’t send me her title until today.
She wanted to be a bloody ghost for Halloween, but we didn’t have time to plan a shoot so she just ended up grabbing a random scarf and being a gypsy/fortune teller.
I didn’t really do much to this photo except make it darker and less saturated. I also made her pupils (irises – what do you call the black part anyway?) a bit larger to make them look more haunting, and I used some glowing abstract brushes (which I got from HERE) on the “crystal ball” she’s holding.
Week 44/52 : Come play with me
Belated Happy Halloween everyone! Wasn’t able to shoot this on time, so please forgive me.
This was inspired by the lovely JolsAriella. I’m such a fan of her work. If you like this then you definitely have to check out her gallery, it’s amazing!
I’m wearing the same wig I wore in this photo, and once again I am reminded of the fact that I can never pull of blunt bangs. My cheeks are big enough without the bangs there to emphasize them. (I edited the lighting a bit to hide my chubby cheeks a bit for this shot though)
This took me quite a bit of time to finish, mostly because I’m not used this style of editing so I had to do a lot of trial and error. I don’t usually process my pictures to come out this dark. I used default Photoshop brushes to draw the blood on the knife and on my hand, as well as the smudged mascara. The headband was also painted on in Photoshop – I got the black bow from here. Processing this took much longer than usual but I’m really pleased with how this turned out.
Week 43/52 : Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead
I mentioned in a previous entry that I have a newfound obsession with Pretty Little Liars, so I decided to use that as inspiration for my self portrait. If you watch the show then you probalby recognize this pose from the opening sequence.
I think this picture doesn’t look like me for some reason. I’m trying to figure out what makes it look so strange, and I think it’s the eyes, although I didn’t really do anything to them … hmm … weird. Maybe I’m just not used to seeing myself look evil. (But Ezra tells me she sees this expression on me all the time, lol)
Anyway, the title came from the show’s opening song (“Secret” by The Pierces), which I absolutely love. You can listen to it HERE.
(EZRA) 42/52 : Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting
Ezra’s portrait for last week. My dad found our grandpa’s old sword in the attic a few weeks ago, so she decided to use it for her SP. I think the sword’s meant to be used as decoration though, seeing as it wasn’t sharp at all.
Neither of us know anything about sword fighting so we had to look up interesting poses online for this shot. I like the concept but I’m not entirely pleased with my editing on this one. I’ve been tweaking it for the past few days, but something still seems a bit off. I do like how it appears to be a still from a movie, but I think that has more to do with her posing rather than my editing.
(The textures I used came from textureking.com and the title came from a quote by Napoleon Hill.)
Let’s have some fun – some Bamboo Fun!
Remember when I mentioned in a previous entry how my tablet started going haywire one day? The touch wheel got stuck for some reason so it constantly sends a message to my laptop to scroll down. I fixed it with some masking tape (I know, I’m so tech-savvy) and it worked fine for a while, at least until the tape lost its magic. Once again I was stuck with a tablet that causes everything to zoom out and forces every screen to scroll down to the end of the page.
(How I fixed the problem last time)
I tried reapplying the tape many times, but it didn’t have the same effect as it did the last time. Eventually I just gave up and stopped using my tablet except when I needed to process pictures. I tried editing Ezra’s portrait the other night, but my tablet kept making it zoom in every 20 seconds, which was very frustrating. It drove me so mad that I grabbed it and started slamming it on my bed and yelling at it to stop (very mature, I know). Obviously that didn’t help, so I tried searching the net for solutions and found this youtube video on how to disassemble a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet. I figured I had nothing to lose since my tablet was pretty much useless anyway, so I decided to open it up and see if there’s any way I can fix it. Besides, I’m planning on getting a new tablet next month (for Christmas) so the worst that could happen is that I’d have to survive a few weeks editing pictures using a mouse.
I documented the process just for fun. That way even if I manage to completely destroy my tablet, I’d at least have some interesting pictures to share with you guys.
My 4-year old Wacom Bamboo Fun. (Please excuse the gunk left behind by the masking tape.)
Underneath you’ll find a sticker which shows the model and some rubber pads.
Peel the rubber pads off to reveal tiny screws
Week 42/52 : The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.
I used to be addicted to Rubik’s cubes. I bought my first one when I was in the 8th (or was it 7th) grade but I couldn’t figure out how to solve it past the 2nd layer. Then, in my senior year of high school, my math teacher taught me the algorithm. He taught his students not only how to solve the puzzle, but also how to create various patterns such as the hole in the center, the T, the checkered, etc. I got so hooked that I even joined a couple of Rubik’s cube competitions that year. If I remember correctly, I placed 3rd in one of them
This is actually my 2nd Rubik’s cube which I bought in my senior year. The stickers are shiny and glittery unlike my older one. Brinks has the exact same one. I saw her using it one day, and it was so cute that I had to have one too 
(Title came from a quote by Douglas Horton)
(EZRA) 41/52 : If you wish from your heart, you can even catch the stars
Ezra says she could pass for me in this shot. Probably because of the layered brown hair (she’s wearing a wig).
Her inspiration for this shot was the J-drama “Ikemen Desu Ne”, which is also where her title came from. The girl in that series was separated from her mother at an early age, so to comfort herself, she would pretend that the stars are her mother, watching over her. She believes that through hard work and prayer, she would be reunited with her mother one day.
(Glitter brushes from redheadstock.deviantart.com)
Week 41/52 : Who will hear the echoes of stories never told?
Uploading this two years too late. I’m currently organizing my posts here on WordPress and I discovered that I forgot to post a few of my old photos on my blog. (And I’ve numbered a few of them wrong, eeek~) Anyway, thank goodness I can change the date of my posts ..
I shot this for Theme of the Week’s topic : “Face your fears”
I chose acrophobia for my theme this week, which is the fear of heights. I’m not really sure if that’s the right phobia to describe what I have though. It’s not really the idea of going someplace high that scares me, it’s the risk of falling down. I actually enjoy going up to high places. And I get super excited when I look down and see how far the ground is – as long as I know that there’s no chance of me falling.
Ezra helped me take this shot. It took a while before we got it right. At first I tried lying down on a chair and posing as if I was falling, but it was extremely difficult. I looked awkward (and in pain) in most of the shots, so we tried a different method. This time we had me jump up in the air while bending over. It sounds a lot easier than it actually was. My body kept wanting to straighten up as I jumped, which didn’t really give that “falling” effect. And the fact that Ezra kept rushing me didn’t help either. I told her to count to three before clicking the camera, and she just kept going nonstop! Sometimes she’d begin counting again from 1 even before I’ve had a chance to regain my balance from landing after the previous jump! My legs and thighs are still aching right now T__T But at least we got some decent shots~
I’m not sure if this looks realistic enough. I’ve been tweaking it all afternoon. I figured I should just upload it so I’d stop fiddling around with it already.
(Title came from the lyrics of “Melodies of Life” – FF9 OST)
An olfactory treat
I was telling my mom yesterday how much I love scented candles because they make me feel so calm and relaxed, so this morning she gave me this for my room:
(Pardon the bathrobe and the crappy webcam shot XD) Look at the candle! It’s HUGE! It’s almost as big as my face, lol. Thanks Ma!
I lit it immediately and succumbed to the wonderful fragrance~
*wallows in the delicious aroma of sweet pea*
