My wife and I celebrated our fourth year wedding anniversary last July 12. Being both busy professionals and due to the time disparity of our work hours, we were not able to properly celebrate our anniversary. So we decided to go out of town for the weekend to celebrate and at the same time take some photos. So we decided to spend the weekend up in Tagaytay and visit Caleruega Church while were there. These are the photos of the weekend.
We got up to my parent’s house in Tagaytay at around
We decided to have lunch at Carlo’s Pizza since we’ve never tried it there and they also have a good vantage point to take pictures of
Oh well. Time for some lunch. Pizza and pasta was ordinary. Nothing really special to report. I had hoped that the weather would clear up after lunch. No such luck.
Anyway, I continued to take more pictures of
We proceed to drive to Caleruega after finishing lunch. After a miscue in directions, and yes it was my fault for being a guy and not stopping to ask for directions, we eventually arrived at the church grounds. Calereuga is known for a prime spot for weddings but they also have facilities for retreats. There is also an extensive Way of the Cross path for the devout.
The office/reception area greets you with a glass mosaic of St. Domingo de Guzman.
From this point, you go up a series of staired pathway up to the cathedral area. The church is at the top of a mild hill.
By the way, if you do plan to visit, there is a P30 entrance fee you pay to the guard. And also wear shoes with good traction. The paths can get mossy and slippery. And yes, my Merrells were completely useless.
The way going up is filled with various flora and fauna. On the way up, you will also see the retreat cottages.
Upon reaching the peak, you will find the cathedral itself. Very simple and elegant architecture of adobe bricks and a singular steeple. The atmosphere is ideal for small, private, intimate weddings. There was actually a wedding about to start when we arrived. And I was a bit hesitant to take pictures because they might get the idea that I’m the official wedding photographer so I kinda hanged back a bit and waited for the ceremony to start before I started snapping away.
Here is a monochrome version of the church façade. Yes, I’m brushing up on my Photoshop skills as well.
My wife and I spent the next couple of hours snapping away at the church grounds and whatever caught our fancy.
A note to my fellow shutter bugs. The sky was really overcast so most of the shots came out on the pale side. Some of the shots posted were tweaked using the EOS utility or Photoshop CS3 Extended.
Having shot the church from all possible angles, and each other as well, my wife and I decided to explore the church grounds further and discovered a Madonna and Child statue. So we continued snapping away.
This is one of the shots of the statue that first came out deathly pale. A little bit of adjustments on Photoshop and the color and brightness levels came out ok. I jacked up the sharpness level to its maximum possible settings to capture the grainy detail of the statue’s surface
Another experiment on photoshop using blurred layers. I was going for a 3D effect by varying the blurriness levels between the foreground and background.
A higher vantage point shot of the statue and the hilly background as well. It was really too bad the sun decided not to come out that day. These shots would have been amazing.
My wife took a couple of sniper shots at me while taking photos of the Madonna and Child. And yes, I’m wearing my favorite Krukspec Contractor Crye Cut Ultra Tactical Pants. (free plugging.)
A closer shot this time with a branch on the foreground. I’m so glad I read my camera manual cover to cover
Why is the little boy smiling? Brand new toy?
Several shots of the Resurrection of Jesus.
So that’s what my ear looks like.
Tweaked this one with the EOS Utility. Played around with the levels and I tried to go for that gothic, ala 300 (the movie with Gerard Butler) look.
My wife Elaine reviewing her shots on my old, correction, HER Canon G5. And no image editing was done on this shot. Really, honest, no editing at all.
This time, I went for a faint reddish rust look
While trying to get some macro flower shots, I came upon a bee pollinating a flower bud. For several minutes I played tagged with this darned insect and probably took in the neighborhood of 30 shots and only a couple came out ok. Need to read up on macro.
Having fulfilled our shutter bug hunger, my wife and I decided to call it a day. As we were making our way back to the car, we came upon this moss layered water basin. For the life of me I don’t really know what this thing is called so water basin is the closest thing that comes to mind. Anyway took a couple of shots.
The shot below is probably my best shot of the day.
Ouch. Sorry my mistake. THIS is my best shot of the day.
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