samsung has become a major player in the mobile phone market. this has been achieved through aggressive marketing of their feature-filled, stylish phones. the name samsung has been so synonymous to mobiles that whenever someone learns that we work for samsung, more often than not they’ll say,”may discount ba kayo sa mga cellphones?”

to clarify things, samsung is a group of companies and ours, samsung electro-mechanics, is just but one of many. no, we do not produce mobile phones nor do we produce home appliances… that’s all under samsung electronics, yet another samsung company. we just make the smd’s (surface mounted devices) that is inside such items, irregardless of manufacturer (ours can also be found inside sony, apple… etc.). kaya, no, we don’t sell cellphones at wala din mga tv sa amin.

as a priviledge though, managers and, just recently, supervisors are given mobile phones as a benefit. and selle, just got hers.

the samsung sgh-x820. at 6.9 mm, it’s advertised as the world’s slimmest mobile phone. as you can see in the photo above, we’re not kidding.


being so thin, it’s still packed with features. samsung probably has the best lcd’s in mobile phones with this one having a 1.9″ 263k lcd. it also has 2.0 megapixel camera and by experience, samsung has the finest lens used in mobile phones. add to that an mp3 player and we have an extremely thin yet still loaded phone.


of course, style is important… and samsung is known for their stylish phones. (syempre, extra prenup artbook namin sa background. )

suddenly, my fone looked old. palit na lang kaya kami.

it has finally arrived. the latest addition to our “stuff” is now inside the confines of our home. we researched about it… we ordered it… we waited for it… and now, we have it.

the next thing to do then is… blog about it.

for awaited moments like these, it is easy to foresee that we we’re gonna blog next. kaya naman nilabas talaga namin ang camera (nahawa na kami kay fol. )namin to document the unpacking and setting up of this new stuff of ours. since i was the one who was doing the setting up, selle took the camera and started clicking away.  a few shots later, she showed me her shots and i was amazed by what i saw. i stopped whatever i was doing at that time to just admire the photos. my wife has got an eye too.

yes, this post will be about our new stuff. but this post is also a tribute to my wife’s photography skills. you’ve seen how good my wife cooks (see rachael ray post), now wallow yourselves on her photography. (yah, i love my wife… and i’m proud of her. )


the use of lines. the contrast of black and white. the placement of the word “dell.” superb photo.


again, the use of lines… vertical lines to be more specific. the doorway, as plain as it is, even creates a nice background due its lines.


shallow depth-of-focus and the horizontal lines leads the viewer to the subject.


that’s our computer name… and our computer specs.

yes, our new “stuff” is a desktop pc. the first ingredient in a major scheme we are cooking up. since this pc will be used primarily for video editing, photo manipulation, digital layouting and internet surfing, we needed a relatively high-powered pc. it took us quite a while to decide on what specs is enough. through net research, several forums and advice from our trusty videographer, bob, we finally settled on the right specs. now, where to buy? we could’ve easily bought a clone but we needed a reliable machine that would not break the bank. dito na pumasok ang kuya ko. being in the IT business and having been once assigned in the states, he knows where to get us a pc.

dell is reputable for offering customizable pc’s at low, low rates. and we did get a very good deal with this. it would take a while nga lang for it to be shipped all the way here pero ok lang. it’s cheaper… plus it’s branded. pretty good deal.


of course, i did take a number of shots also. can’t help it, eh.


our pc looks so majestic, no?

now we’re still tinkering our pc, installing softwares and manipulating settings. we’ll give our own verdict on vista in a few weeks or so. i did give photoshop and vegas a quick run through and all i can say is this machine of ours flies. that’s good because if we have been productive for years using P4 and 256/512 MB pc, what more with our pc?

a series of events occured lately and instead of blogging about each one at a time… we thought it would be best to just collect them all in one single photoblog. 
 
snippet 1: color coordination
half a year ago, we had our prenuptial pictorial at tagaytay with fol & edong.  we were excited with our prenups so much so that we kinda “prepared” for it.  no, we didn’t bring props (though that would’ve been nice) nor did we practice poses (haha) but we did give some thoughts on what we would wear… or what color for that matter. 

prenup photos by fol rana jr (from top to bottom): 1) wearing green & cream pants at bella vista  2) wearing white top & jeans (provides great contrast with the greens)  3) wearing earth/neutral long-sleeved shirts.  note: meron pa kaming pink & black outfit that we didn’t get to use.  hehe.

fast forward to last monday.  we took a stop at atc before going to cavite (selle’s hometown).  sa sobrang wala kaming time lumabas, we have been wearing very old slippers at home.  eh, ako nga, eh pambabae pa yung gamit ko, eh… hehehe.  eh since we were in atc na rin lang, naghanap kami ng tsinelas.  and look what we got. 

havaianas!  it feels so good you wear it even when you have your feet up. 

it took a while to select which design we like.  we tried several pairs of havaianas at cielo until we both found a pair to our liking.  problem is, hindi cla match (haha).  yung gus2 ni selle, had prints over it, eh yung ka-match nun… hindi masyado maganda.  kaya hindi kami match.  anyway, we decided to get the pairs we selected.  kaso noong babayaran na namin, sabi ni selle, palitan na lang daw nya yung kanya with a pair na match dun sa akin.  that’s cute.    pero noong papapalitan na namin, surprisingly, sabi noong nasa cashier, d na daw pwede palitan kasi na-punch na.  hmmm… talaga?  then sabi nya, pwede daw palitan pero d na ma-re-refund yung price difference (mas mahal kasi yung may prints).  kaya d na namin pinapalitan.  paglabas namin store, naisip namin papalitan na lang.  never mind the price difference.  kaya bumalik kami (ay, ako lang pala.  hehe) sa store at pinapalitan namin.  we did get the refund after all. 

and here it is… matching black & white havaianas.  cute, no? 


snippet 2: long overdue project
souvenirs are common in weddings.  actually, it’s so common that it’s more like a given already.  we didn’t have any at ours simply because our plan was to give out thank you cards along with our “souvenirs” as one.  also, it’s yet another diy project and some materials needed will only be available after the wedding pa.  hehe.  we didn’t expect that it would take this looooong though.  wala, eh… masyadong busy.  but it’s finally finished…     

the key element in our project… cd-r’s.
 

materials laid out and ready for assembly.


all six versions of our “souvenir.”  yup, you read that right, 6 versions. 


thank you card/cd insert.  layout by us.  photo courtesy of fol rana jr.

what’s inside?  avp’s + songs from our wedding. how to get these to you…?  now that’s another problem.  hehe


snippet 3: photo manipulation
just last week, i was at the office waiting for my wife who was taking korean class (eeeew…  hehe).  tired from work, i opened photoshop and decided to do some digital artwork.  it’s an exercise i do once in a while and look how my little “exercise” turned out.
evolution of a manipulated photo (from top to bottom)  1) original picture.  look familiar, huh?  yah, our entry in dino lara’s photo contest  2)  manipulated picture trying to achieve some lomo action.  3) final photo adding a thin border for that extra kick.  ok ba? 

ok, some of you might not have understood what i just wrote in the caption.  hehe.  my apologies.  straight out of wikipedia: