Everyday is Valentine's Day

It has been a long time since my last post and I even missed posting a Valentine entry even though this year's Valentine Day is the most special valentine's day of my life. Flowery but really, Chok and I have been in a long distance relationship for quite a long time (8 years to be exact). Except this year because he's already here in Cebu with me for almost 8 months now :) But he's already going back in Cavite this April booo! So technically this was our first Valentine's day together.

I actually thought that our heart's day was going to be just like any ordinary day. I knew he's already dead tired from his night shift and his (a must) daily routine is to take an 8 hours snooze. Valentine's Day also falls on a Friday this year. And if it's Friday, it means I have to go home late. We're always required to take an OT or else we will go to work on a Saturday (haha dito talaga nagreklamo) He even texted me that day saying, he's not a good boyfriend because he's tired and so sleepy to buy a Valentine gift for me. He also said that he's just going to make it up over the weekend and use the free Imax cinema passes that he got from his company during their Christmas party blah blah blah. As an understanding girlfriend, I told him that it's alright and taking a good sleep after a busy night is far more important than anything else. Besides, I'm the one always mentioning to him that "Everyday is Valentine's Day" (Yan tuloy tih, dapat panindigan haha!)

Because it was Valentine's Day and Friday at the same time, I arrived home later than expected due to the heavy traffic. Chok also had to go to work that night so we didn't had any special plans. We just both agreed to celebrate Valentine's day over the weekend. But, on my way to our apartment, I saw him waiting and even though it was a bit dark where he was standing, I can still see him excitedly smiling at me. He then said "Sorry ha, wala akong flowers or anything" then I said "OK lang". I smiled back at him but at the back of my mind, I was really sad. Oh whyyy! Haha! My fault though because earlier that day I was expecting too much like maybe he's going to deliver something at the office, and all the surprises that my wild imagination can create. Then wala pala so I was a little bit teary on my way home from work haha! But when he was about to hug me, he got something behind him and much to my surprised, It was a big bouquet of red roses. Hmmm madaya. I was in awe, wonderstrucked and didn't even noticed that I was already crying hahaha! It's the second time he gave me flowers. The first time was 6 years ago. He was also the first guy who gave me my very first bouquet of flowers. That was in Ortigas when I was just 18 years old! PBB teens! :))

I really love him. Even though he always has this weird and unique way of making me happy (pinapakaba muna ako or pinapaiyak). He's always doing his best to make all my dreams come true. Even the simple things that I want to do, he's always there for me. He is always supporting me especially last weekend when I asked him if we could have a fun shoot. Even though he needs to sleep after his night shift, he was still very  eager to help me out with the shoot. No dull moment with him. He is such a keeper :) I always wanted to experiment with a tripod and a self timer to take a self portrait photos. I also insisted that we should have great set of photos together before my birthday. I'm the one doing all the extra efforts when it comes to our photos now. It's actually my fault why we don't have any saved photos for 7 years (all of our photos now was taken last year and this year). I don't know, It felt like it was my obligation to delete all of our photos before haha! Kaya bumabawi ako now :))

All the photos are great right? Loving our own :)) We are also happy with the outcome and both of us was thrilled. We even excitedly shared some of the photos over our Facebook accounts right after enhancing it. Glad almost all of our friends were hitting the like button. I'm just having a hard time though, explaining that it's not our engagement photos haha!

I'm sure you guys also agree that we need to practice more especially on setting the focus point (which is the difficult part). Here are some few tips that I want to share based on our experience during this shoot and the things I've learned while scanning some tutorials over the internet.

• Embrace terrain and experiment with all the tripod leg levels.
• Set the timer at least 10 seconds so that you will have enough time to prepare and to run haha!
• Set the multiple shots to take at least 5 photos and take tons of photos as you can.
• Use Auto and Manual focus to set your focus point.
• Use an IR remote if necessary.
• Keep it real, enjoy and trust your camera :)
• For photo enhancement, I love to use Photoshop (dreamy) Actions for photo filtering.

Location: Celestial "Secret Garden" 

Good Shepherd Road, Banawa Hills, Cebu City