Sunday, February 28, 2016

The Complicated Rose


As I was intrigued by the color of this rose,
I was also in awe with its beauty and character.
Take a good look at the below photo.
If roses has attitude, this one is a spot on bad ass.
Just look at how complicated its inner petals are. 


Unlike from other roses I have seen which only has simple twirls to the core,
like this white rose below:


As I read more about orange roses,
I have learned that it is the wild child of the rose family (told you!).
Birthed from the combination of Red and Yellow Rose
which passion, perfection and beauty collide with joy,
bubbly and always in sunny disposition.
Result - the Enthusiastic Orange Rose.


Also Check:

Saturday, February 27, 2016

White Rose - What It Symbolizes

My favorite flower is the white rose. Why? Hmm. Because maybe it's the first I ever received? Or, simply because it's so dainty, pure and just beautiful. I was given a bouquet of white roses as peace offering from a close friend. There was a rift between us. I was lied to which had fumed me and i distanced myself. But just after a short while, I was in a classroom (College Days) and I was told that there was someone looking for me. I went out and found my friend standing outside with a bouquet of white roses, then my heart melted.

White Rose shot with Sony Alpha a6000
According to flower enthusiasts, a white rose symbolizes new beginnings, spirituality and marriage. Also, giving roses with this color gestures remembrance. My friend may or may have not known the meaning behind the color of the rose given to me but indeed it patched us up and from then on nothing even petty quarrels have gone our way. I was a new beginning for our friendship.



 

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

A Short History of the Orange Rose

I am not a flower freak nor an anti but I appreciate flowers. I like them. I get elated whenever I get them. And speaking of, I received a Long Stemmed Orange Rose last night. Orange. Yes, orange. And it was seriously my first time to receive a rose on that color. I took a closer look at its petals trying to find uncolored spots or just anything that would appease my curiosity about its color origin. And, yeah it was an original Orange Rose.

 Orange Rose

Since it was my first time to receive an Orange Rose, my mind wandered on how roses with this color started. As a curios bug as I always am, I looked it up online and found out that it started in the 20th century when Rose cultivators wanted to create an Orange Rose. Basic knowledge, and taught in grade school, mixing red and yellow will give you an orange shade and that was what the cultivators did. They experimented and crossbred the red and yellow roses and voila, the birth of the Orange Rose.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Roses are White (?) with Sony Alpha A6000

Sony Alpha A6000
Sony ILCE-6000
E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Aperture: f/5.6
FL: 50mm
Exposure Time: 1/30
ISO: 1600

Sony Alpha A6000
Sony ILCE-6000
E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Aperture: f/5.6
FL: 50mm
Exposure Time: 1/80
ISO: 3200

Sony Alpha A6000
Sony ILCE-6000
E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Aperture: f/5.6
FL: 46.0mm
Exposure Time: 1/25
ISO: 3200

Sony Alpha A6000
Sony ILCE-6000
E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Aperture: f/5.6
FL: 50mm
Exposure Time: 1/30
ISO: 3200

Sony Alpha A6000
Sony ILCE-6000
E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Aperture: f/7.1
FL: 50mm
Exposure Time: 1/8
ISO: 1600

Sony Alpha A6000
Sony ILCE-6000
E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Aperture: f/5.6
FL: 50mm
Exposure Time: 1/30
ISO: 1600

How To Make Your Roses Last Longer

Back home, I normally just put my flowers in a quart-watered vase and cut the stem an inch every two (2) days and with only such, I was able to make them bloom confidently from shy pulps and last longer.

On the night of Valentines Day, I received a bouquet of red roses but I waited till the next morning to put them in a vase for I was not in the mood to take care of it right away. The flowers were more of bloody red than scarlet and I was anticipating and excited to see them bloom. After two (2) days, I noticed that there were no changes as to opening of the petals.




I looked up online for some help since I have heard that a paracetamol or sugar would help the flowers bloom and here's what I found from WomansDay.com, which I tried:

Step 1:
Add 1 quart warm water to a clean vase.
Step 2:
Pour 2 Tbsp sugar into the water.
The sugar will help nourish the flowers and promote opening of the blooms.
Step 3:
Add 2 Tbsp white vinegar and stir well.
The vinegar helps inhibit the growth of bacteria and keeps your flowers fresher longer. If you don't have vinegar and/or sugar, lemon-lime soda mixed with the water will do the same thing.

 Red Rose

Step 4:
Remove all lower leaves from flowers so there won't be any in the water.
Step 5:
Cut 1 to 2 inches off the stems at an angle while they are under water.
Step 6:
Arrange your flowers in the vase.
Step 7:
Display your bouquet in a cool, draft-free area.
Avoid direct sunlight, which causes the flowers to die more quickly.
Step 8:
Change the water every other day and re-cut the stems each time.


7 Days After
Yes, that was how it was seven (7) days after while the other flowers withered without even blooming fully yet. I was thinking of the quality of the water here (hard water) as the culprit but I did recall that I even boiled the water and waited for it to cool down before pouring it into the vase.



Anyway, since I got new white roses, I still would want to try such method. Who knows - maybe it could be because of the flowers themselves - it'll work this time. (crossing fingers and toes)

Sunday, February 21, 2016

So Early And So Hungry Already? Here's Why!

On the way to work this morning, I wasn't feeling fine despite my comfortable position (slouched and so ready to doze off; which I do every single time of going to and fro work) with music on point. I was feeling a stinging pain in my stomach. I was hungry. Like so hungry that I haven't eaten anything for the whole week.

I did every diversion so to forget the hunger - edited recently taken photos, checked unread in ibooks, read a page of 'Let Me Call You Sweetheart', edited my music playlist - BUT you just can't turn hunger off unless you have something to chug down. I rummaged my bag for a pika-pika but to no avail. No biscuits, candies or water with me. I have my lunch pack though and a Siopao (shout out to Ate Amy, Thanks!) but I am not comfortable eating in the car with the driver and I don't want to share (yes, that's it, I don't want to share :-P) so I waited till I reached the office.


After all the buzz and fuss, I decided to do a research on why did I feel that hunger so early in the morning the fact that I was so full the night before - I had dinner and a midnight snack. And the culprit was no other than...

Yep, Dunkin Donuts!

Around almost midnight, I went out to meet a friend at Dunkin Donuts and was able to consume 2 donuts (so unlikely me for I seriously don't like sweets - like donuts sweet) despite the full dinner that I had.

Anyway, according to LiveStrong.com "When you eat a meal at bedtime, particularly one rich in sugars and other simple carbohydrates, you generate an insulin surge from your pancreas. Upon retiring, this insulin begins pushing glucose into your cells, a process that continues as you sleep. During the night, a continual drop in your blood glucose stimulates the release of counter-regulatory hormones, leading to stimulation of your appetite centers. Unless you get up in the middle of the night to satisfy your appetite, you will be hungry upon arising in the morning."

Now we know.

P.S.  finished the whole Siopao (almost as big as 3 donuts-with-fillings layered up) and a coffee. I am now feeling bloated. (*ugh!)

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Roses are Red with Sony Alpha a6000

My First Attempt with Roses
behind the lens
Sony Alpha a6000
(Sony ILCE-6000)

 Roses are Red by Sony a6000

Sony Alpha a6000
E PZ 16-50mm
F3.5-5.6 OSS

F/5.6 @ 45mm
ISO 2000 @ 1/8

Sony Alpha a6000
E PZ 16-50mm
F3.5-5.6 OSS

F/5.0 @ 31.0mm
ISO 2000 @ 1/10

Sony Alpha a6000
E PZ 16-50mm
F3.5-5.6 OSS

F/5.0 @ 50mm
ISO 2500 @ 1/8

 Roses are Red by Sony a6000

Sony Alpha a6000
E PZ 16-50mm
F3.5-5.6 OSS

F/5.6 @ 36mm
ISO 1600 @ 1/8

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Hey, thank you!


Around 1700, as I was shutting down my office computer,
I felt a thug on my chest.
Of all the people I could thought of, it was you who popped into my head.
For whatever reason I don't know.

I let our driver dropped me at a grocery store and got myself strawberries and chocolate as I was again planning for a strawberry fondue.
I reached home dead tired and hungry and was about to throw myself onto my bed but stopped and scrutinized the thing that was sitting there, like it was waiting for me to pick it up.

Nobody was home. There was no one I could ask with whom it was from.
Regardless, I snapped a photo and sent it to my friend
(who I thought it was from) along with joyful words of thanks.
I then brushed it aside and laid myself down.
I was hungry but I was too lazy to get off bed
and decided to take a nap first when my roomie came in so I asked.

She knew.
She's the one who received it.
She was all smiles.
She was firm on keeping a promise not to tell me whom the flowers were from.
She knows that I am good in silent treatment so after a threat
(not to talk to her until she tells me),
she blew it.

I did not know how to react.
What to feel.
I was totally surprised.
From you, seriously?

Confusion washed over me.
Why?
Why now?
Why this day?
There was Christmas.
There was New Year.
But Valentines day?
Really?
You are mushy, indeed.
Or, I don't know, as I have no idea what you are really trying to imply.

Memories flood in.
Thoughts swirled in my mind.
I was trying to recall the way you talk, how you walk, how you look like.
As if I was trying to rehash everything about you. 
I don't know. 

I shifted on my right to look at the flowers, again.
Looking at them knowing whom they're from stirred a tinge of sadness.
I miss my friend.
I miss you.
You are in my thoughts, oftentimes.
You are even in my dreams.
I didn't know how long it took me just looking at the flowers.
Looking but not totally seeing.
I was lost.
My mind was seriously clouded while little white baby's breath
playing and leaving trails to my blurry vision.

I shifted to lay on my back, still thinking of the flowers
and knowing whom they're from made me remember the thing you said.
You told me that the first gift you gave me have opened many doors
and the last one would close all the doors.

The Flowers.
On Valentines Day.
Sweet.
Thoughtful.
The Closure.
Sad.

A Sad-Sweet-Thoughtful Closure on Valentines Day.
I wanted to cry.

I got up.
Picked it up and placed it on my foot bed.
I looked at it once again before I left to prepare my strawberry fondue.
I felt special.
Then again, a flash of the moments we shared and memories we made.
You never left at all.
You were here all this time, deep down.
Scored a space for eternal.
You made me smile.
Geeez, LIFE.

Life. (and ....)
HAHAHAHA

Thank you for today.
Thank you for everything.
Thank you.