Tanggera: January 2009

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Revisiting my roots: Tacloban City

Tacloban City, capital of Leyte, is conveniently placed near other islands like Samar to make traveling from Samar to Manila easier. Although most of my relatives originally hail from Samar, I spent three years living in Tacloban City before moving to Manila to do formal schooling. Ever since I left Tacloban to stay in Manila for good, I never had the chance to go back and explore Leyte or Tacloban City. When family matters called for me to go back to Samar for Christmas, I immediately coerced my aunts and sister to go around Tacloban, even just for a day.

Hover for photo captions.

If you happen to go to Catbalogan, Samar, you must stop by Charito's Delights and get yourself a box of Curioso, special cookies you can only find here. A box costs 145PHP. I gave cookies to my friends in Manila and they all finished it in one sitting. I don't know if the cookies are just really that delicious or they're all just gluttons.

After spending a couple of days in Catbalogan, Samar, we left for Tacloban City two days before 2009. The rural life is really slow and affordable. We were able to go around Catbalogan City, doing errands, going to the bank and buying pasalubong for just 30 pesos on one of those cute but small three-wheeled vehicles. If you're just going to a single destination, you just pay 5 pesos per person.

We (two aunts and my sister) stayed at the Manhattan hotel. It's really old and cheap, very convenient for people who won't be staying inside the hotel the whole day. We got our room for just 1,200PHP, it's a double bedroom suite with two extra beds.

If you want to shop for pasalubong in Tacloban City, go to the downtown part of the metro. You can find all sorts of food here - binagol, moron (60 PHP/dozen), special moron with cheese (80 PHP/dozen).

Yes, that's a Jollibee right there, with lots of vendors outside (just like in Manila) selling fruits and whatnots.

Tacloban means McArthur. Your Tacloban city experience won't be complete unless you've taken a photo beside this a slab of McArthur's likeness. I'm sorry I covered his face with my fist though. Haha.

Photos taken with a Nokia N82. McArthur Jumpshot photo taken with a Nikon D40.

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Comparing Macro Food shots (Nokia N82 vs Nikon D40)

If you have a Nokia N82, you probably know that your mobile phone comes with a 5 megapixel camera and with different modes to shoot. This includes a close-up mode ideal for capturing intricate detail of small objects used between 10 and 60 cm. I wanted to know what's differs macro/close-up shots taken by the Nokia N82 with a digital SLR, Nikon D40, in this case. For this experiment, I tried food as subjects.

These photos were just edited minimally, I just color corrected and adjusted the levels a bit. Photos taken with the Nikon D40 comes first followed those taken with the N82.

Hover for captions.

Durian Cake

Banana Turtle Pie

Kasuy Tart

Lamb Menudo

Lechon Kawali

After taking close up shots of food, here are the advantages of taking shots with a Nokia N82 versus a DSLR.

1. A Nokia N82 is lightweight. It can easily fit inside a small bag or your pocket. Lugging a DSLR along, especially when you don't have a car, is quite a feat.

2. The Nokia N82 isn't sensitive to low lighting conditions. I had to shoot auto (with flash) when I used the DSLR. I also had to change positions a lot to adjust to the lighting to get a good shot. If you care more about the composition rather than image quality, it is definitely easier to compose and frame your shot with a n82.

3. Since the Nokia N82 is lightweight and easy to hold, so you have less chances of getting blurred photos.

Although shots from a DSLR are fantastic (no one can argue with that), shooting with a Nokia N82 or a regular digital camera can suffice when you would just be using your photos for online viewing. You can use image editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Gimp to color correct, crop or resize your photos and you're good to go.

Also, if you're curious about the food, watch out for my food blog post about FWord Restaurant, owned by Pinoy Director Erik Matti.

Photos were taken from FWord Restaurant.

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