Features:

• 14.1 megapixels – Captures very high quality images, allowing detail-packed enlargements
• 4x optical zoom/26mm wide angle – Vario-Tessar lens with 4x zoom range and 26mm wide angle to cover wide range of shooting situations
• 720p HD movie – Captures crisp, detail-packed HD video clips plus stereo sound at 30 frames per second: can be viewed on HD TV
• Sweep Panorama – Just press the shutter and sweep the camera: automatically combines a burst of images to create extra-wide panoramic pictures
• 7.5cm/3″ Clear Photo LCD – Clear Photo LCD screen (230k dot) offers excellent detail, high contrast and wide viewing angle
• BIONZ processor – Powerful image processing ensures clear, detailed, low-noise images and quick, responsive shooting
• Self-portrait mode – Detects correct composition when holding the camera at arm’s length, firing shutter automatically for properly-framed self portraits
• Double anti-blur – Optical SteadyShot and high sensitivity ISO 3200, with Clear RAW Noise Reduction for high quality handheld images with less blur, even in low light
• Intelligent Auto – Automatically adjusts exposure and other settings for optimum results in a wide range of shooting situations
• Face Detection – Automatically adjusts focus, exposure and white balance for clearer portraits: priority selectable between children and adults
• Smile Shutter – Automatically fires shutter when subject smiles: with adjustable smile threshold and priority selectable for children/adults
• D-Range Optimizer – Adjusts exposure and contrast for natural results in high-contrast scenes and backlit portraits
• HD output – View video and still images on HD TV (requires optional cable). PhotoTV HD enhances still image viewing on compatible BRAVIA
• HD Slideshow with music – Fun image display with effects and music on LCD or connected HD TV
• Easy Shooting mode – Fuss-free operation for beginners with simplified controls and easy-to-read on-screen instructions
• PMB Portable – Built-in transfer software allows quick, easy uploads to image sharing sites when camera is connected to any web-enabled PC
• In-camera retouching – Fun in-camera image retouching functions including trim, red-eye correction and unsharp mask

What made me choose this is the wide angle lense and the fact that I can take panoramic shots without me manually stitching several photos. When Donald bugs me about something, he really knows how to lure me into buying it. Of course not all. He cannot get me into buying gadgets and stuffs for hobbies like atv riding
. Maybe he could when we have all the money in the banks.

Eman was so serious! It was really hot there and he got some rashes. Poor little man. The big sister had a blast there with her cousins (my cousins’ kids) and they are all over the place. Daddy was not able to come home so he missed these two adorable monkeys. LOL

Inang (my grandmother in my mom’s side) was very fond of the little man. Eman was equally fond of her too. They were kissing and giggling together. You could have seen how Eman made “lambing” to Inang when I put him on her lap.He was like smelling Inang and he did that with eyes closed. LOL

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I Played with his hair this morning

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It was very hard to take a picture of this little man with that facial expression. I wanted to snap one that will fit in the title that played in my mind earlier “Bad Hair Day” but when he saw the camera………he did this.

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and this…..
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I tried it again tonight.
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Take one…..
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Take two….
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Take three
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Take four….
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Take five….
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This creature seem to have a program installed in his brain that prompts him to smile each time he sees this black thing that flashes. I GIVE UP!

Ella spent the entire day at school yet she seem not tired. When Donald picked her up in the morning, she watched a movie when I wanted her to do is nap before she goes back there. While watching, she went to get some cookies in her food cabinet but heard her complain, “Mommy, ubos na ang pagkain ko….wala ng natira.” (Mommy, I ran out of food….there’s none left.) so I said she and Daddy could go to the grocery store after her class in the afternoon to refill her bare cabinet. When they got home, she quickly changed her clothes and went out of the house. When I hear no noise, I begin to get nervous. I suspect she’s into the process of getting herself in trouble again so I called her once, twice….thrice but no answer. Donald who happened to be outside doing a little yard work, came in to get the camera and told me to find out what Ella was into.

She’s infront of the chapel teaching the kids. Since she knows that it is a big NO for her to go out of the yard and kids are not allowed inside too during weekdays, she figured out how to be able to spend time with them. Today she did what she was always wanting to do. That is to teach the kids.

She brought her two plastic chairs to hold the board, few pieces of chalk, some other teaching device and a book about Cinderella which she said she translated in Cebuano so they all could understand. She finally dismissed the class when it was about to get dark and she was too wiped out that she passed out after taking a bath. Here’s hoping that the kids has learned something from their teacher.

When we arived there, we went inside the park after Donald and BIL paid the entrance fee. Aside from hundreds of crocs, you could see different kinds of animals in captivity. The first thing we noticed is the talking myna. At first I thought it was the parrorts who are jabbering endlessly, but when I began talking to the parrot, the myna was the one who talks back. He calls us “pangit” (ugly) and I was saying, “Hey, we paid P100 just to be called ugly????”. Then as if he understood, he calls us “Gwapa” (beautiful) afterwards. Silly bird!

 I still have battery for our camera and was able to take some photos. I really hate it when battery die because we still do not have a spare. So I usually make sure it was fully charged before an important event such as this. But again, everytime we are with my sister I get so relaxed thinking they have their wonder camera with spare battery. So I’d like to show you some shots from our own camera before it died.

Ella was ecstatic to see the animals…alive and moving. Not in movies or books.

She asked Donald to carry her so she could see the parrots in their own bird houses.

A pose with the croc….just a replica. I would not dare get near a real one this huge!!!!

Oh Julie, I forgot we also have elephant here.

HELP!!!!!!!

Superman to the rescue.

Wonder where are the real, living, biting, kicking animals are? here they are….(the following photos were taken using my sister and BIL’s camera).

The baby crocs….we were able to hold it because its mouth was ducktaped.

Their baby croc. Looks like Mom or Dad?

These are the real crocs during feeding time.

And these are the real monkeys waiting to be fed.

There are still plenty of animals there but I can’t post all their photos here. If only the caretakers would let all of them get out of their cages and have a group picture with us then it would be great.

We are starving after moments with the animals so we went to have a heavy merienda on their resto overlooking the Davao River. The plan was to leave at 5pm but before we could leave, the caretakers fed the hungry crocs and we stayed. We were fortunate also because they conducted a show where a man danced on the rope above the crocs pond!!! Yaiks! Ella also won admission tickets during the Question and Answer portion. Of course I wanted her to win so I grabbed her hand and ran upstairs when the second question was asked. A real stage mother.  

I gave the tickets to my sister and BIL since we could not use it again before the expiration date. When the show ended, they let people hold the animals and I am glad Ella was not terrified of them.

This snake is very huge and heavy!

Like Mother, like daughter. I am so proud!

Holding the dear iguana. Ella asked me to hold the body and she will do the tail.

And this is the white-breasted eagle which is the only animal there that Daddy managed to hold. (sorry partz!)

One last snap before we left the place. Such a very wonderful experience! I am finally decided that I am not buying DLSR. I would stick to our Sony W80 because I would end up like my sister and BIL who do not have faces on the pictures because they are the ones holding the cam. Oh at least we helped them be their subject.

We were just in time for the dinner and I am happy that some realtives of Auntie Carmen were also there. At least they have company except us, the same faces every year. Cheche was not able to join us to the crocodile park but was able to join us at dinner. My sister and BIL bought a cake from Red Ribbon and Auntie blowed her candle at home. It was a very nice day indeed!

Our trip going to Davao went pretty well because Ella had slept most of the trip. This is what I really wanted so we won’t deal with never-ending nagging of why we need to go there, why do we need to take a bus and why can’t we just ride a motorbike so she won’t feel dizzy. The bus had a lunch stop over at Monkayo, an hour away from Trento. We never tried dining there before since we are always full each time we pass by there but this time we feel we wanted to try their food. All Bachelor Buses stops by that place for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I was curious how the food tastes so we carried the sleeping Ella down the bus who was rubbing her eyes by the time we were inside the place. The food was nice, it justifies the price since they servings are as expensive as the mall’s food court. Like all other eateries, drivers and conductors of PUB’s have free meals but they have their own eating area there. We quickly finished our food and headed out.

As we are about to climb on the bus, Ella asked me to buy her Smarties chocolate in the store. As I was struggling to get myself on my seat with the bags and stuff on my feet, we were flabbergasted when Ella asked, “May melamine ba ito Dy?” referring to the chocolates. (Does it have melamine Daddy?) I tried to take her question seriously so I checked the box since Donald was arranging something in his bag. Then I gave it back to her and told her it is safe because it is not made from China. Donald, in disbelief, he just managed to say, “You are watching too much TV…” and laughed. We were really surprised because we never told her about Melamine, but she watched the news with us. I finally agreed that having getting a TV would bring some positive result.

We had so much fun in Davao since we went to the beach. It was an unplanned escapade and it was very tiring to do the food and other stuff shopping and going to the beach in a day plus Ella was with us. My younger sister Cheche had to go to school that morning so she could not watch Ella. My sister’s PIL’s are not sure if they could come with us because Auntie Carmen (my sister’s MIL) is yet to find a gown for Borski and Nai’s wedding.

First we went to Uyanguren to get some cheap beach shorts. Up in the building where we are suppose to shop happen to be where Kuya Ace’s badminton game was held so we went up to check if he was already playing. We are hoping his game will end earlier so he could make it to the beach in time for the last boat trip. We did some food shopping too and picking the right swim wears for us girls ate most of our time so by the time we are done shopping (cheap snorkels for the boys, floater and beach toys for Ella) we headed back to my sister’s PIL’s place. We hailed a taxi and I asked him if he could wait for us while we get some things in the house then get us back to Sta. Ana Wharf. This time it was actually 2:30pm and the last boat trip is 3pm!!!! We already sent instruction to Cheche to prepare the knives, chopping board and other things we need while we were still in the taxi. Thinking it will save time not to unload the box of food and the shopping bags, we need to get the driver agree and we are glad he did but he gave us only 5 minutes to get all what we need. After the shortest 5 minutes I ever experienced in my entire life, we are packed in the taxi again to the wharf where Kuya Ace was already waiting for us.

We were there just in time only to find out that the last boat will leave at 4:30pm. At least we were already there but we could have been saved from getting our blood pressures high from trying to catch the boat. Anyway we spent an an hour and a half sitting by the wharf, enjoying the heat of the afternoon sun.

I forgot where we went right? We went back to our favorite resort, Isla Reta at Talicud Island. A good one hour boat ride from Davao and Ella and Tito Ace are both tired.

When we arrived there it was already dark. We had ordered food before we arrived but we waited for little while before it was served. We bought a ready-to-cook pork barbeque at the mall and we quickly prepared it. Ella asked to swim right after we have put our stuff in the cottage and I asked Cheche to watch her. The night turned out fine. We ate and talked and let time pass. All night there are loud thunderclaps but it did not rain. Just some light drizzles and cold wind not enough to satisfy Ella so me and Cheche spent the night fanning her.

Early the following morning, Kuya Ace and my sister Crislyn woke up at 4am for sunrise shoot but they are unlucky because the sun didn’t show up.

When Ella woke up, she excitedly ran down the water like she has never been to a beach. I stayed in the floater as I do not want to get wet. We had spent a good amount of time convicing her that she won’t drown in her life vest.

Good that Crislyn had spare batteries for their camera so we have spent the most of our time posing as her subject. This was taken with their DLSR.

The three sisters…..guess who is the eldest and who is pregnant.

Kuya Ace went back to sleep while Donald was playing in the sand, glad that they brought along their tripod.

I forgot I was 13 weeks pregnant here…but not as much as I have totally forgotten when we went to Isla Reta II where big waves are sweeping us to the shore which literally get me almost naked.

While we are swimming, a small boat came to pick up the people on the far side of the resort to visit Isla Reta II. We decided we also wanted to see the other side of the island so we arranged for an island tour after lunch. Instead of going just to Isla Reta II, we decided to tour the whole Talicud Island too so we packed our basket with some junk foods to nibble while we are in the boat which we have not actually eaten because everyone enjoyed the tour.

First we stopped by the Mansod Wall where the best corals so far that I have seen. using Ella goggles which she calles “googles” or “giggles”, I enjoyed the underwater scenery.

Ella stayed in the boat at first but when we arrived at the Coral Garden, she went down the water and was saying, “Walang akong pinagsisihan Mommy…” (I have no regrets Mommy)

The whole tour took us about an hour before we arrived at our destination. Isla Reta II!!!! The view is so breathtaking and as soon as we climbed down the boat, we ran and did some photo shoot for the National Calendar

Crislyn was trying to capture the scenic view of the wave hitting the shore and the rocks when and just when she clicked the camera, Ella was trying to get away from the wave. You could have seen how she was so scared of it. She stayed standing by the shore almost the entire time that we were there.

Kuya Ace and Crislyn stayed by the shore too, they tried to join us but they enjoyed taking photos of us more than getting swallowed by the waves.

One last shot before we left Isla Reta II and going back to Isla Reta I. That is me and the tripod.
 

Here’s the little captain of the little boat.

We had so much fun although our camera died earlier than I expected. But that was I thought because all those time that I thought the battery was only 3/4 empty it was actually 3/4 full! Bummer! Glad that my sister and BIL had their mighty camera at hand. It saved the wonderful memories. Ella was asking when will we go back there just when the boat to Davao was leaving the island. Hopefully in December. By that time my belly will be a lot bigger but that won’t stop me from enjoying the beach. Got to check diet supplements before hitting the pillow.