Simple Happiness

On April 30, 2009, Thursday last week, Cherry invited us to the Manila Vocal Ensemble concert held at the Kapuzinerkloster in Schwyz, Switzerland. The performers travelled all the way from the Philippines.

I have seen the Manila Vocal Ensemble performed in Lucerne a few years ago. I even bought two of their CDs. Last year, they were also here but Hub and I were not able to watch any of their concerts as we learned about it late already. The other locations for their concerts were also too far from our place.

I was actually not sure if we could watch the concert last Thursday but upon learning that May was also around I told Hub that we have to watch the concert. May is one of the members of the Manila Vocal Ensemble, a friend of one of my close friends, and I would like to meet her. She actually called me up last year, unfortunately we did not see each other.

Anyway, so last Thursday, we arrived just on time for the concert which started at 8:00PM. There were not too many people yet when I took some pictures. But before the concert started, the church was almost full. We sat in front so I was able to take some photos and videos while the Manila Vocal Ensemble performed.

I really liked the performance of the Manila Vocal Ensemble. They were good. They did not just sing, they also danced. The repertoire and the dance choreography were really good. It is not my habit to praise people just for the sake of praising but when I give my word like that, I really mean it. The audience even gave them a standing ovation. And I would like to say that they deserved the standing ovation that the audience gave them after their performance.

It was already after 10 p.m. when the concert ended. After the show, Hub and I had the privilege meeting the members and the founder of the Manila Vocal Ensemble, Christopher, Ramy, Alex, May, Nazel, Hasmen, Maribel, Rhea, and Mr. Cabantac. We had a good time talking, chatting as well as drinking wine. We did not even notice the time, before we knew it was already past 12:30 a.m. So we decided to leave as they still have to perform the next day. We left Cherry’s place past 12:30 a.m. already.

The Manila Vocal Ensemble is on tour in Switzerland until June 6, 2009. If you are residing in Switzerland, watch them perform if you can. I am sure you will enjoy the concert. Almost all the concerts are in Switzerland. So do not miss it. Entrance is normally free but donations are very much welcome after the concert.

Note: I will add a music video teaser tomorrow. I am still working on it. Kindly check out the video tomorrow.

Updated on May 06, 2009
The video is now available at Manila Vocal Ensemble Switzerland Tour 2009 Video.

For more information about the Manila Vocal Ensemble, please visit their site at www.manilavocalensemble.ch especially the schedule of the concerts, when and where are they performing.

I was so busy for the past few months and for the past few weeks as I have updated my other websites and blogs. Add to that, I revised a few websites too. I actually would like to update my blogs and websites regularly but web designing has been keeping me busy. I still have a lot of websites to be revised as the codes need to be updated.

On April 2, 2009, as I have already written about it here a few weeks ago, I launched (without any champagne) 🙂 my new problogging venture at ProBlogit.com, Problogging Tips and Ideas, Reviews and Opinions. I update this blog on a daily basis from Mondays to Fridays but I made Saturdays and Sundays optional days. I do need a break too. 🙂

If you would like to venture on making money online problogging or simply just blogging, come, join me at Pro Blog it. You might get some ideas from what I have written so far. You might be interested at these two blog entries, Problogging Summary Guide to Starting and Implementing a Blog, and Direct Ways to Make Money Online Problogging.

Two weeks after launching Pro Blog it, I finally finished revising two websites that I have created in 2000 and 2002, one was about the Semirara Dumpsite Issue in Semirara Island, Caluya, Antique, Philippines way back in 2000 to 2001, and the other one was about the Patria Diesel Power Plant Issue in Patria, Pandan, Antique, Philippines way back in 2002 to 2003. These two sites have been riding with other domain names before until I decided to transfer them to an appropriate domain name so it would be easier to remember them.

I converted the two websites from simple HTML to PHP using WordPress as CMS. These sites are additional two sites that I will be updating too. The updates may not be about the issues anymore but one way or another will still be related to power plants and garbage problems and other things related to the topics and the places.

Along the way, I have also been making some minor revisions at Weggis.net and Pandan.ph. I have never really updated Pandan.ph regularly before but it seems like I will be doing it now, maybe once a month just like how I update Weggis.net. Even if the updates will be just once a month, at least, there will be some movements at the website on a monthly basis.

Having been so busy for the past weeks got me into contemplating that I need to treat problogging as a job or business. I need a lot of commitment to survive the problogging business. The fact is, problogging everyday is not at all an easy task. I need to commit to myself so I will keep on blogging everyday. It is different from web designing which I really treat as a hobby. But no matter what, job or business or hobby, I will survive because I know that I have been loving web designing and blogging.

There is nothing wrong if I like making money online problogging. Is that really bad? I don’t think so, as long as I do not make money the center of my life. Money is just a perk in one’s life. It should not be the center of one’s existence. I can honestly say that it is never the core of my existence on this earth and in this universe.

Hub already threw the hyacinth plant at the trash bin. The next day, he was surprised to see that the plant was back where it was before. He was wondering why I took the hyacinth plant from the trash bin. He did not know that I wanted to do a photography experiment.

The STORY about my photography experiment and its details…

I found the withered hyacinth flowers a very good subject ever since I saw them getting dry. I experimented on taking macro shots of the withered hyacinth flowers using Sony Cyber-shot DSC W100. It was on a Saturday on April 11, 2009 after 11:00 A.M. when I took some photographs of the withered flowers.

Photo EXIF Data Information
Size: 2.5 MB
Dimensions: 3264×2448
Device make: SONY
Device model: DCS-W100
Color space: RGB
Focal length: 7.9
FNumber: 5.6
Exposure time: 1/40

I took the shots from our kitchen using the white wall as the background. I experimented taking the photographs without using flash and with flash. The kitchen was a little bit dim, without so much sunlight from the outside.

The photos below are actually just one picture. I took the shot of this particular photo with flash, made the background a little bit blurred, just a little bit, and focused on the flowers.

The photos were saved using three different settings. I reduced the size of the photos to save some time for downloading and bandwidth purposes. I saved the photos as PSD and BMP. Then I used BMP and saved the photos as JPG using Photoshop’s “Save for Web” instead of directly saving them as “Save as” from PSD to JPG.

I have experimented on this a long time ago, compared the results and found my method of saving a photo is actually bandwidth and space saver, and still with a good result rather than reducing the JPG file and then saving the reduced size of JPG as again JPG. Because of this method, I could not post a lot photos all the time. The process is long but I find it very useful from my point of view.

The first photo is the original. The two other photos were enhanced a little bit. This is just to show you the difference when photos were enhanced. The difference is not that much because as I see it I took a real good shot at this one. 🙂 I will also give you the details of each photo so you might get an idea on how to save pictures without really compromising its quality. With that, you can also save some storage space and bandwidth.

I am giving you a lot of tips now. 🙂

The photos were saved as BMP with file format OS/2 instead of Windows as I am not using Windows, and depth of 24 Bit using Photoshop. Then I saved the BMP as JPG, again using Photoshop with “Very High” quality setting instead of “Maximum” quality setting. The photos were saved with 80% quality rather than 100% maximum quality. The details are below why I saved the photos with 80% quality rather than 100%.

The original dimension of 3264×2448 was reduced to 480×360 and the size was reduced from 2.5 MB down to between 42 and 46 KB.

The first photo is the original and was not enhanced. Despite my way or process of saving the first photo, its quality was not really compromised. The second photo was enhanced using auto contrast. The third photo was enhanched using auto color correction.

ORIGINAL
Saved with Very High quality setting, 80%, from 2.5 MB down to 42.96K, 16 sec @ 28.8 Kbps
If saved with Maximum quality setting, 100%, size would be 109.8K, 40 sec @ 28.8 Kbps

AUTO CONTRAST
Saved with Very High quality setting, 80%, from 2.5 MB down to 45.8K, 17 sec @ 28.8 Kbps
If saved with Maximum quality setting, 100%, size would be 117.K, 43 sec @ 28.8 Kbps

AUTO COLOR CORRECTION
Saved with Very High quality setting, 80%, from 2.5 MB down to 45.69K, 17 sec @ 28.8 Kbps
If saved with Maximum quality setting, 100%, size would be 117.7K, 43 sec @ 28.8 Kbps

If the photos were saved from PSD or BMP using Photoshop’s “Save as” instead of “Save for Web” the size would be just like when being saved with Maximum quality setting.

Well, that’s it. Let me remind you though that I am just a hobby photographer and do not even understand all the technical details about photography. I do not read a lot about photography, actually very rarely, I just experiment.