5 Posts for Journal Category

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  • The @dy_ellie story...⠀ ⠀ My husband has never met Ellie. As far as he’s concerned, Ellie could just be my imaginary friend or, some dude 😜⠀ ⠀ Jovie and Emma have met Ellie but Jovie forgot already what Ellie looks like, or that she’s ever met. When I showed J a photo of Ellie, coincidently J was sitting next to hubby then, I asked if she remembers Ellie. The answer was a solid, “nope!” I looked at hubby and he just rolled his eyes while mouthing: imaginary 😂😂⠀ ⠀ But between you all and me, we all know that Ellie is real and that she’s no dude, right?⠀ ⠀ A trullo (trulli, plural), is a traditional Puglia dry stone hut with a cone shaped roof. While you can see trulli homes scattered all over the area, in Alberobello you can see a whole neighbourhood full of them. Since 1996, this area has been a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. A must see due to the uniqueness but do expect groups of tourists.⠀ ⠀ More photos to come! I promise!! I have way too many to not share 🙈⠀
  • Lecce: shades of pink in my feed.⠀ ⠀ Lecce is suppose to be the southern capital of Baroque architecture. The Florence of the south they said.⠀ ⠀ A lovely very walkable city with many cafes to chill at.⠀ ⠀ I am in Brindisi now, just 20min by train from Lecce, and at my 4th cafe. My flight doesn’t leave until 8pm and @dy_ellie has abandoned me since 8am.⠀ ⠀ Brindisi is bustling with activities. Such a contrast from when her and I arrived at around 2pm yesterday. The streets were so quiet and not many cafes/restaurants were open. Siesta time taken super seriously (which we later followed suit) 😊 ⠀ We have had to somewhat adjust our eating patterns this week to either have a gigantic lunch or find something tiny after so that we can last until at least 6:30pm when the restaurants are opened again for dinner.⠀ ⠀ It still boggles my mind a bit that some places are not opened until dinner until 7:30/8pm. It seems so late 😜 Looking forward to going home. Family, chill time, and seeing what I have in my camera. The last few posts have been from my iPhone. I hope your weekend is beautiful 🌿🌸🌿
  • Bari, the capital of Puglia. And for whatever reason, clothes hanging in Italy is so so charming. ⠀ Exploring solo sans map while waiting for @dy_ellie’s flight to arrive. The thing about this is that if you ask where this photo was taken, I wouldn’t know. It’s somewhere in Bari old town. ⠀ The family took me to the airport last weekend and before I jumped out of the car, I gave all a kiss. Jovie was sick that day and I forgot.⠀ ⠀ The lips kisses, while sweet, may have gave me cooties. If not from that, then it’s just the combination of cold and rain that got me. For whatever reason when my body gets a jolt of both, it gets sick.⠀ ⠀ So, sniffling and coughing through Puglia.
  • In the rain...⠀ ⠀ I thought I was going on a warm holiday in the Puglia region, but, nope! wet and cold baby, wet and cold. With a tiny bit of sun and dryness. Tiny!! ⠀ Oh well, least I get to hang out with @dy_ellie for a week and eat yummy food!⠀ ⠀ True story: as we were walking to our B&B, a car driven by a man pulled up and said B&B. None of us came close him and kept walking - our stranger danger radar was going strong!⠀ ⠀ As we arrived at our destination, the car pulled up and I thought: he either really wanted to kidnap us or he is the B&B person we’re renting from and doing us a favour by attempting to pick us up from the station. ⠀ Well, the driver came out and he pointed to himself and the house and said: B&B!⠀ ⠀ So yea, B&B guy went out of his way to pick us up and we snubbed him 😂😂 But, ya never know, riiiight?⠀ ⠀ Have a great day!
  • Porto, a UNESCO World Heritage and the city where Harry Potter was conceived. JK Rowling was an English teacher in this city before she moved with her infant daughter to Edinburgh. ⠀⠀ There are many bits of her books that were inspired by the time she lived in Porto. Salazar Slytherin’s name, for example, was inspired by António de Oliveira Salazar, a dictator from 1932 to 1968. ⠀⠀ Just a little bit of random facts 😊 ⠀⠀ Have a great one!
  • He’s waving me at me!!!! When you go through your hundreds of photos and found a gem. I didn’t realise that he was waving at me until earlier today 😊 One of the cutest street in Lisbon to snap photos of trams passing by. To my left is a coffee shop. A dang great one! ⠀⠀ It’s crazy that it’s May already! Where did the time go? ⠀⠀ Germany hasn’t been able to make up her mind on the weather. Today was gorgeous but before this, cold and rain. I know it’s suppose to rain in spring but the cold... let’s be done, ok? 😜
  • What I love about European cafe scenes... the outdoor seatings, even when it’s not super warm out. ⠀⠀ I often get private messages or comments asking me what camera or preset I use. I can only assume that the person asking wants to improve his/her photography and maybe if the person has same/similar tools, their photography can improve. ⠀⠀ Let me share this... any skills and art is 90% practice + perseverance and 10% tools. ⠀⠀ Before this year I was mostly using an iPhone 5s and on occasion a Nikon D300. A five and ten-years-old pieces of technology. I just recently purchased new gadgets, an iPhone XS and LUMIX G85. While my photos will look nicer blown up using my new gadgets, I can’t say they’ve improve my photography skills. Editing, I use Lightroom and on occasion Photoshop with manual edits (which I saved as presets to make my edits quicker and consistent-ish) but I have used others like Snapseed, ColorStory and VSCO. ⠀⠀ Here is my humble tip: instead of spending too much time wondering about gadgets and presets, focus your effort on improving your photography skills. What I mean by this is to practice every day with light, movement, different perspective, and if you have a dSLR, the manual settings on your camera. Practice everyday. Practice the technical, artistic AND also the ability to handle disappointments and failures. You’re going to fall often or go backwards than forward. But, that’s part of the learning, growing and journey as a photographer - or anything you want to be good at. ⠀⠀ Practice everyday, even if it’s just 15 min of snapping and/or editing, with the tools that you have and one day, you’d be surprised to wake up to something you’d be very proud of!
  • Lost in Alfama, Lisboa. One of the oldest areas of this beautiful city. ⠀⠀ We were checking out the view at Miradouro de Santa Luzia and noticed steps going down to what seemed like an alleyway. So we walked down and what a treat! ⠀⠀ The best way to explore the Alfama district is to get lost in the adorable alleyways. The once the poor and dodgy area of Lisbon is now an artisan district full of charm. ⠀⠀ If you ever need to lose weight and/or have a healthier lifestyle. Move here! Guaranteed legs of steel and lungs of a horse within a month 😂😂 ⠀⠀ Wishing you a lovely weekend ❤️❤️
  • Built in the 18th century and covered with 15,947 Portuguese tiles (azulejos). in English, the name is Chapel of Souls. This centre scene depicts the death of Saint Francis. ⠀⠀ To those celebrating, have a blessed Easter weekend 💙💙

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