Photography Archives | Page 10 of 41

My Week in Instagram

30 October 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Charmed Life of a Mrs, Food, Photography, Tech World

Instagram is such a happy place where sharing photos with friends and new-found friends in the blogosphere is so easy. How I wish this app is available to other phones (exclusive for iPhone) so that I’ll get to see the wonderful photos of all my snap-happy friends.

I may not be able to blog about stuff that happens in my daily life these days but I get to document the little things that make my everyday significant thru instagram and twitter.

It’s been awhile since I shared some daily happenings in my life (although I try to incorporate something personal in every blog post I write, whether it be a food blog or a travel blog) so here’s a few photos that described my past week.

Monday was a hot day and as the temperature when up to 34 degree Celsius in the city, I decided to refresh myself as I walk from work to the train station when I passed by the Happy Lemon store. I’ve received a few recommendations to try their beverage because I’m fond of Chatime, so I gave it a go. I ordered a regular cup of their Green Tea with Rock Salt and Cheese and the staff was friendly enough to teach me how to drink it. He said that patrons usually drink the cheese on top of the drink first before they close the lid. So that’s what I did. The cheese had a bit of sweetness and it tasted alright. However, I didn’t like the drink as a whole. It didn’t taste right to me so I threw it way after just a few sips.

My plant bloomed a flower this week. I’ve had this plant as a gift from one of my workmates four years ago. The plant sits on top of a shelf above me so every time I get stressed, I look up and my plant is there to give me a little cheering up. My plant has bloomed flower(s) since I took care of it but it’s only now that it bloomed again since I came back from vacation in April.

I received the final stuff to complete my phone needs. The Husband ordered tons of screen protectors which I received on Wednesday morning. On Thursday, I received the black cables I wanted to use when I’m at the office. The white cables of the iPhone gets dirty easily so I wanted a black one which I can leave connected to my office computer. It also saves me from forgetting to charge when I’m at work.

Once a week, I get to stop by at my barista friend’s cafe and everytime I visit him, he gives me a cup of hot chocolate and a piece of Caramel Kiss. I think one of “life’s must-haves” is to have a barista friend who knows how you like your coffee or hot chocolate for you. My barista friend knows that I like my hot chocolate with less sugar and piece of marshmallow in it. And he also knows that I love their cafe’s Caramel Kiss so he packs a piece for me to go with my Hot Chocolate.

The Husband was in his sweet tooth mood on Thursday night and came home with a slice of Double Chocolate Cake. I only had two little bites of this sinfully delicious chocolate cake and downed it with a cup of Peppermint Tea.

I was on a 5-day work week this week and I’m glad I made it to Friday. I was in no mood to dress up so I was in a rugged/sports ensemble: sneakers, jeans and shirt. To make my Friday at work happier, I brought packs of Swiss Miss and gave some to my friends. They loved it! It sort of my treat to us for being at work on Friday.

We’re all in a festive mood this week as we prepare to celebrate Melbourne Cup on the 1st November. Melbourne Cup is the race the stops the nation every 3:00pm of the first Tuesday of November. It is the biggest and most celebrated horse race in the country. At work, we have the Melbourne Cup Sweeps where we place bets on the $1. $2. $5 and $10 sweeps. We will have a Melbourne Cup barbeque lunch and afternoon tea this coming Tuesday.

As I was about to go home on Friday afternoon, I received a sweet email from one of my trainees. Like I said in instagram, I’m grateful and blessed to have a job that I love. I’ve always believed that one must love what they do for their job to love them back. When it comes to what I do everyday, it’s all about being generous with time and details; it’s about having the patience to deal and listen to people. My job entails having a big heart for SERVICE without expecting anything in return. When I see my trainees finish their trainings and be able to do their job efficiently, I feel very fulfilled. To hear from them and receive appreciation from them is always a big bonus.

To take away my Happy Lemon nightmare, I just had to end my week with my favourite beverage from Chatime: Brown Rice Green Milk Tea with Pearls.

Our little pigeons (they’re not babies anymore) celebrated their two-week old on Friday. To friends, tweetmates and instagram mates who have been following my shared photos, they have seen our daily adventures with these cute ones since Day 1 (from being eggs to hatchlings). I plan to share a separate post on their growth. I’m just waiting for them to grow up and fly away so my story will be complete. According to google, they will be able to fly on their first month. I’m excited for them but I know I will be a bit sad not seeing them in our balcony at the end of the day.

Korean BBQ night on a Friday night! This week we decided to not eat out so on Friday, we had a quiet night in and had Korean BBQ in our balcony. We found this electric smokeless grill in the shops on sale a week ago so we bought it. Korean cuisine has been a part of our home now that I even learned how to cook Korean dishes (that’s how much we love the cuisine) and having a smokeless BBQ grill is just the icing on the cake. So there, no need to go out for Korean BBQ plus the Husband and I enjoy our dining experience and bonding inside the comforts of our home. It was a perfect way to end our busy and productive week as we get to have good and fun conversations over a delicious meal.

If you have instagram and care to find me (my instagram ID is @ibyang) and let’s share good vibes over captured photographs.

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Changdeok Palace (Seoul, Korea)

14 September 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 4 Comments Category: I Love Seoul, Photography, Tips, Travel, Wanderlust Wednesdays

We arrived at Changdeok Palace (also known as Changdeokgung Palace) at around 12:30pm and it was very sunny. Good thing, the weather was still cool and a bit windy so it balanced the sun’s heat out.

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Changdeok Palace (Seoul, Korea)

This week’s Wanderlust Wednesdays entry will be more on photos I would like to share with you. One of the things my Husband and I love about traveling is that we get to capture photographs. Whenever we plan our travels, we allot time to explore the place and also set aside time to take photographs. For example, if we’re given just an hour of exploring a certain place, we’d set aside 15 minutes of that hour exclusively taking photographs. Sometimes we’d even split up and go where our interest heeds us because we have different fortes when it comes to photography. When we re-group, we share back with each other the photographs we took and it’s nice that way because we get to share different perspectives–we never have the same photographs!

Changdeok Palace
There are Five Grand Palaces in Seoul and Changdeok Palace is the first we have seen.Construction of Changdeok Palace (historic site #122) was started in 1405 by King T’aejong, and it was completed in 1412. In 1463, King Sejo expanded the palace and created Biwon (secret) Garden. The Japanese burned all the buildings during 1592. Although rebuilt, many of the buildings have burned and been rebuilt several times. Thirteen of Korea’s kings lived here for a total of over 270 years, a longer period than at Gyeongbok Palace. The palace grounds cover over 110 acres. Thirteen of the original buildings remain, with an additional 28 in Biwon Garden.

The main gate to Changdeok Palace is Tonhwamun (National Treasure #383) which is similar to Honghwamun gate in Changgyeong Palace. Built in 1412, it was destroyed in 1592 during the Japanese invasion. Rebuilt in 1607, it is Seoul’s oldest 20story wooden gate.

Admission fee for an adult is 3,000won ($3.00).

Be sure to grab a map on your way in.

Before we entered the first palace, a man was very kind enough to approach us and took a photo of us. So we gave him one of our cameras and let him.

And then we were left to our own devices. We brought a little tripod with us and we’ve had a couple of photos together (like the first photo above).

An exercise in focusing. I love this first photo because…

…the man I used as a bokeh was my Husband who was busy taking photographs.

Injeong-jeon is the throne hall, which was used used for holding the most formal of state events such as audiences with ministers, coronation ceremonies, and receptions of foreign envoys. The plum blossom pattern on the roof ridge was added in 1897 to symbolize the imperial status of the Great Han Empire.

The Husband’s forte are the landscape and wide shots

On the other hand, I love capturing detailed and macro shots

No one was allowed to enter the Injeong-jeon but one can have a look from the outside.

The hall where the King sits.

The colourful details of the Injeong-jeon fascinated me. I especially loved the roof details.

Nakseon-jae and Seokbok-heon were one of the simplest structures in Changdeok Palace but was accompanied by a rich story. The Nakseon-jae and Seokbok-heon reveals the deep love that King Heonjong had for Lady Kim, who became his concubine in 1847. He ordered this villa to be built for her. The King was deeply interested in art, and this compound served as a private space where he could relax by reading books or appreciate paintings.

Seokbok-heon means “house where blessings are bestowed from Heaven”. It expressed the King’s wish for her young concubine to bear him a son. Unfortunately, King Heonjeong died without an heir to the throne.

His perspective…

…versus my perspective

We weren’t allowed to go inside the rooms of each villa (how we wished we could!) so again, only from the outside did we get to take photographs.

There were a lot more villas inside Changdeok Palace and it may take you from an hour to two hours in order to explore the whole place. Had we availed of the tour being offered to tourists, we would have learned more about each villa. However, we were happy nonetheless to have a feel of “old Korea” and see the beautiful architecture of their palace.

It’s all about the details and how they were able to take care of these structures.

We overheard from one of the tourist groups (yes, we followed them and pretended we were part of the group hehe) that engravings on this roof tiles symbolize the Male (on top) and Female (below).

This was just a little door and look how intricate the designs were.

We saw two types of Cherry Blossoms here (how lucky we were!), pink and white.

Me with the white Cherry Blossoms.

The Husband with the Pink Cherry Blossoms.

Every nook and cranny is worthy of a photoshoot.

They have a nice souvenir shop and cafe where you can sit for a while and rest. The Changdeok Palace is huge and a lot of walking is involved in order to go around the place. What my Husband and I did in order for us not to get tired (we still had a long day and a lot of walking ahead of us), we rested in the shop in the middle of our exploring. While in the shop, we also bought a few gifts to give to loved ones and lots of post cards.

The Biwon Garden is originally named Huwon, (meaning “rear garden”), Biwon is typical of palace backyards where kings and other members of the royal family would go to relax and entertain. In 1997, it was registered as a World Heritage. To enter the Biwon Garden, one must pay extra and there are schedules you have to follow. We didn’t go in the Biwon Garden anymore because we have two places to go to later that day.

Changdeok Palace
Feb. – 09:15 ~ 15:45 Enter every 15 and 45 minutes past the hour.
Mar. – 09:15 ~ 16:45 Enter every 15 and 45 minutes past the hour.
Apr. ~ Oct. – 09:15 ~ 17:15 Enter every 15 and 45 minutes past the hour.
Nov. – 09:15 ~ 15:45 Enter every 15 and 45 minutes past the hour.
Dec. ~ Jan. – 09:45 ~ 15:45 Enter every 45 minutes past the hour.
* The last entrance time varies according to sunset time.
Closed Mondays

Biwon Garden
3 times per day: 10 AM, 1 PM, 2 PM; takes 3 hours (closed on Mondays)

Admission

Adults (19 to 64 years old): 3,000 won

Youths (7 to 18 years old): 1,500 won* Children 6 and under, seniors 65 and over: Free

How to Get There
Subway lines 1, 3 & 5, Jongno 3 (sam)-ga Station, exit 6, (10-minute walk from station)
Subway line 3, Anguk Station, exit 3 (5-minute walk from station)

Wanderlust Wednesdays: N Seoul Tower (Seoul, Korea)

31 August 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 8 Comments Category: I Love Seoul, Photography, Travel, Wanderlust Wednesdays

I have a lot of travel stories to share so I decided to dedicate my Wednesdays for my travel posts. I’ve been wanting to do this for the longest time and a few weeks ago I told myself to just do it. And here we are with my first entry to Wanderlust Wednesdays.

I’m going to continue sharing my Seoul adventure as I’ve received a few emails asking me about Seoul. With what I have shared before (Incheon Airport, the hotel where we stayed, exploring Hongdae, the Kimchi Museum, Coex Mall and Yeouido Park), it seemed that several readers have taken interest into visiting Seoul and I’m glad my stories will somehow help in planning one’s itinerary.

On our second evening in Seoul, from Yeouido Park we took the train to Myeong-dong Station and climbed up to the tallest tower in Seoul–the N Seoul Tower. Also known as the Namsan Tower, it was built in 1969 as Korea’s first integrated transmission tower beaming television and radio broadcasts across the capital. Since opening to the public in 1980, it has become a much-loved Seoul landmark. The tower’s main attractions include multi-colored digital art projected onto the tower at night, a digital observatory, a roof terrace, the HanCook restaurant, the n.Grill restaurant, and the Haneul (Sky) Restroom. N Seoul Tower’s mountain surroundings on Namsan (Mt.) have made it a popular place to unwind for locals and tourists alike. [source]

How To Get There:

We took the Cable Car in order to reach N Seoul Tower.

Take subway lin 4, get off at Myeongdong Station, then take exit no.3. Walk towards the Pacific Hotel.

Once you’ve reached the Pacific Hotel, walk on the right side of the street for about 10 minutes uphill in order to reach the cable car station.

Once we’ve reached the Cable Car Station, we saw this elevator and found out that this is another way of going up the Cable Car Station. Looks cool, right?

Went inside the ticket office and bought round trip tickets that costs 7,500won.

There was a long queue to get into a cable car but we were so happy with how our Seoul adventure has been going, we snapped happy shots to pass the time.

The packed the cable car so it was hard to take photos or videos while inside. But thankfully, I was able to get some decent shots.

Cherry Blossoms down under.

Seoul during sunset.

The parking lot. This photo reminds of the scene in Boys Over Flowers where Gu Jun Pyo waited for Jan Di.

The N Seoul Tower.

The N Seoul Tower houses the Teddy Bear Museum located at the lower level of the tower.

If you want to see the Teddy Bear Museum and go up the N Seoul Tower, you can buy the 14,000won ticket (per adult).

Before we went up the Observatory of the N Seoul Tower, we asked to go inside the Teddy Bear Museum (which I will feature in next week’s Wanderlust Wednesdays) in which we spent about an hour.

After we’re done exploring the Teddy Bear Museum, we went up the observatory and saw Seoul’s lovely nightscape.

Each window in the observatory has a city’s name and the distance from the city to the observatory.

We went back down around 10PM and we were famished. There are a lot of restaurants inside the tower but we opted for something quick and not so heavy. Hungry as we were, we didn’t want to shock our tummies with so much food especially that it was already late.

So we had sandwiches and coffee at “A Twosome Place“.

Leave Your Lovemarks at N Seoul Tower

Near the souvenir shop, you’ll find this big wall full of bricks with messages and photographs.

You can buy these square bricks from the souvenir shop and you can write messages and stick photos on them. Most of the bricks looked like they were made by couples, probably professing their love to each other.

Outside, you’ll find several trees (they looked like Christmas trees) made up of padlocks. They are called the LOVE LOCKS. People who visit N Seoul Tower bring padlocks with them and lock them unto the fence. But as the years go by, there were so many padlocks on the fence that they had to make trees now.

Couples write their names (nowadays, they write messages too) and lock in their padlocks on the trees to signify their “forever-locked love” to each other.

The Husband and I planned to buy a padlock (yes, just one to signify that we are one) and have it engraved with our names and the dates we were in Seoul but we forgot all about it as soon as we arrived in Manila haha. Better luck next time!

Going back to the Cable Car Station, we saw this coffee vending machine and realized that this was the vending machine that Gu Jun Pyo used in Boys Over Flowers. Another Koreanovela moment hahaha!!! 🙂

The Cable Car with the N Seoul Tower as backdrop.

Going back to Myeondong Train Station, we decided to go down via the open elevator. I have fear of heights so I was trying to smile here. Grateful that it’s not that steep, plus, it’s not all the time I get to ride this awesome elevator so I just enjoyed it.

We had a long day that day. Our feet were a bit exhausted from all the walking we did but we went home with a smile in our hearts.

N Seoul Tower

Open 365 days a year

Observatory: 9:00AM – 10:00PM

Restaurants/Food Court – 11:00AM-11:00PM

Remembering Yeouido Park (Seoul, Korea)

2 August 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: I Love Seoul, Photography, Travel

Today’s a warm winter day. Perfect, sunny, cool weather. It felt like Spring! On my way home, I kept seeing fragments of our Seoul trip and all those beautiful Cherry Blossoms inside my head.

Seoul is such a big city. So big that it takes a lot of walking to get from Point A to Point B. From our hotel, the nearest park was a train ride away, plus, a lot of walking. We’ve probably adapted our love for parks since we’ve moved to Sydney that’s why if we have a chance during travel, we hang out at a park even for a short while. We did this when we traveled in Dubai and Melbourne and we did it again when we were in Seoul.

On the afternoon of our second day in Seoul, we hung out at Yeouido Park.

Near the entrance of Yeouido Park, street food were being sold.

This was their version of potato chips.

I bought a bag and ate this while we walked around the park.

We saw a lot of people riding bikes. The park has a huge basketball court where we saw students playing.

Their public phones.

Couple bikes!

We had tons of photos of Cherry Blossom trees.

I kept looking up the trees, it was just so beautiful.

We walked further into the park and saw this pond. It felt magical just being there.

Took photos of tons of flowers.

Luckily, a couple took a photo of us together. We had our tripod with us but still we were grateful for people who took the initiative to offer to take our photo.

As I look at our photos now, I not only long for Spring to come…I also long to visit Seoul once again.

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In Seoul, Korea: The Kimchi Field Museum

26 July 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 2 Comments Category: Food, I Love Seoul, Photography, Travel

I never knew that some of my online buddies/tweetmates like Kimchi until I started tweeting and sharing about my Kimchi-making adventures. When I shared the the Kimchi recipe I got from a Korean blogger, a few more have expressed their love for Kimchi. So for my Kimchi-loving blogmates/tweetmates, let me share with you my little adventure with the Husband at the Kimchi Field Museum in Seoul, Korea.

The museum’s mission is to inform the world about one of Korean’s important food staple: Kimchi.

Upon entrance to the museum, an electronic hand sanitizer is on standby for those wanting to clean their hands. I suggest you have your hands cleaned as you’ll later find yourself at the Tasting Room of the museum where you’ll get to sample a few Kimchi condiments.

The first attraction of the Kimchi Museum is this makeshift yard of a Korean home where you’ll see jars of different sizes. These jars are instrumental in the fermentation of stored Kimchi and are usually placed outside Korean homes.

While we were there, a school field trip was being held. The kids were made to sit down and listen to a short lecture. Unfortunately, the Husband and I cannot understand because they only spoke Korean.

We instead had to learn about Kimchi thru reading! Thank goodness, all the readings had English translations.

The museum is divided into three sections. The first section is about the history of Kimchi. n this section, we learned that Kimchi didn’t used to have chili that’s why in earlier days, Kimchi looked like this…

I told the Husband. “This looked like our Nilaga.”

Years after, the Koreans started adding hot chili peppers in Kimchi. Koreans love spicy food and knowing that chili has health benefits, chili peppers became Kimchi’s main ingredient.

We learned that there are about more than 150 kinds of Kimchi and that almost all vegetables can be made into Kimchi.

We also saw different kinds of jars at one part of the museum.

The second section of the Kimchi Museum shows the process of making Kimchi. They presented this by showing small, lifelike dioramas.

Near the dioramas section is a photo area where guests can have a photograph with a mannequin wearing a Hanbok (Korean’s national dress).

Further into the museum, you’ll find a room where Kimchi-making is being held.

Beside it is the Tasting Room where they offered four types of Kimchi condiments for guests to taste.

The Husband and I tried them and it was really spicy and delicious. They have water for those who would like a drink after tasting their Kimchis.

The last section of the museum consists of the Data Room where people can read about Kimchi and it benefits and other traditional Korean food.

The Kimchi Museum is located at the second basement of COEX Mall in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Get on Line 2 of the subway then get off Samseong Station and walk toward Exit 5 or 6. Open from Tuesdays to Sundays, 10:00am to 6:00pm. Entrance fee is only 3,000 won per Adult. Allot 20-30 minutes viewing time.