More of our DIY cultural tour of Macau.

Sao Paulo (The Ruins of St. Paul) is the ruins of a 16th century complex of buildings, including the Cathedral of St. Paul also known as “Mater Dei,” a 17th century Portuguese cathedral dedicated to Saint Paul the Apostle. Sao Paulo is listed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. There are 66 steps leading to the ruins.

Ever had roasted pigeon?

Our first (and so far, only) encounter with this exotic dish was when we ordered it at Fat Siu Lau, the oldest existing restaurant in Macau that features Portuguese-style cuisine.

Pombo Assado, or superb roasted pigeon marinated with Fat Siu Lau's over 100 years secret recipe, happens to be the restaurant's signature dish. We paired it with Arroz (Chau Chau) A Portuguesa, or Fried Rice Portuguese Style.

It was surprisingly good! We thought the meat would be a bit tough and severely gamey, but it was actually juicy, tender with just a bit gamey.

Fat Siu Lau is just along Rua da Felicidade.

More of our DIY cultural tour of Macau.

Located at Rua da Felicidade, Fat Siu Lau is said to be the oldest existing restaurant in Macau featuring Portuguese-style cuisine. Fat Siu Lau was established by Mr. Wong Man Sing and is now run by the 3rd and 4th generations of Wong Man Sing’s family.

Our food experience at Fat Siu Lau here.

More of our DIY cultural tour of Macau.

Translated, Rua da Felicidade means "Happiness Street." The street got its queer name from the fact that it was once the heart of Macau's red light district. Now it's an exotic/vintage shopping street with awesome wares and legit Chinese architecture.

Our first out-of-the-country trip together was a trip to Hong Kong and Macau. After spending our first day in Hong Kong, we took a ferry to Macau and had a DIY-cultural tour.

This is the Roman Amphitheatre at the Macau Fisherman's Wharf.

While doing the 52-week photo project, I also used Fiji for documenting random things.

Mike and I both work in the Central Business District of Makati. But during our first few years as a married couple, we rented a condominium at the slums just beyond the Central Business District, past the red light district where cross-dressing men will greet you with the question, "Make Love? Make Love?"

One morning, I woke up unnaturally early and was blessed with this view. Not bad for something from the outskirts of Makati.

More from our Chinese New Year trip to Pangasinan. 

Coastal patterns at the town of Anda.

More from our Chinese New Year trip to Pangasinan.

This queer natural rock formation in the town of Agno is called "Umbrella Rocks". Sabangan Beach is also an great spot for snorkeling.

Fiji also became a staple of my travels. The very first trip where I brought Fiji was our Chinese New Year trip to Pangasinan with my officemates from Bengzon Negre Untalan IP Attorneys.

Here is Mike at Patar Beach, Bolinao, Pangasinan.

To cap off the year, my last assignment for my 52 weeks photo project for 2012 was “Self-Portrait.”

"TRAVEL" is the word that best described my 2012. It was that year when my husband and I traveled extensively. We went to Hong Kong and Macau, which was our first out-of-the-country trip together. This trip was followed immediately by a trip to Singapore and Kota Kinabalu. We’ve also had several domestic trips to places in the Philippines that we have never been to. And we capped off the year by spending Christmas in Bohol, another first for my family. Hence, my itchy (& dirty) feet reflect the me of 2012.

Yey! Done with my Project 52! On to more shots and IP.

Since it was timely, I thought the assignment for the 51st week should be the photo Mike and I would use for that year's Christmas card.

Christmas 2012 was the very first Christmas we spent at the beach.

Fiji has a lot of fun "Advance" features, like the "Color Pop" feature. It's super useful, but it renders an unnatural color to human skin. So I think it is best used only on landscapes and objects.

"Sundot Kulangot," which is a Filipino snack/dessert, can be literally translated in English as "Poke Booger." This is because you will need to poke the inside of the coconut shell to get the "kalamay." "Kalamay" is a confectionary with booger-like consistency made of coconut milk and sugar. I came across this very Pinoy food in Bohol, Philippines.

Fiji has a lot of fun "Advance" features, like the "High Key" feature. I was excited about this feature, but I just couldn't make it work.

Fiji has a lot of fun "Advance" features, like the "Toy Camera" feature. Considering the vignette and darker filter added by this feature, I thought that this may be useful in giving things a retro look. So I thought of photographing my sister's old film camera.

Fiji has a lot of fun "Advance" features, like the "Selective Color" feature. In accomplishing this assignment, I realized that using this "selective color" feature is actually very intuitive, since you would want to use it to highlight your subject.

Fiji has a lot of fun "Advance" features, like the "Dynamic Tone" feature. I thought it enhanced this light fixture pretty well, but when used on people, the "Dynamic Tone" seems a bit too harsh.

Fiji has a lot of fun "Advance" features, like this "Miniature" feature. When my husband and I decided to watch the Azkals play live during the semis of the Suzuki Cup (against Singapore), I was super excited, mainly because it's our first time to watch a "high level" football game live and partly because I would get a chance to try Fiji's miniature feature.

Fiji has a lot of fun "Advance" features, like the "Pro Focus" feature. This is pretty tricky because of the "fringing" effect. Because of that, it is really just a "toy" feature. But I like the softness it added to this shot of my nephew, Chibi DyDy.

Fiji has a lot of fun "Advance" features, like the "Panorama" feature. Here is a pano shot taken during our Bike-Camp-Hike weekend at Caliraya, Laguna.

Not the best example since the subject is not perfectly symmetrical to begin with, but the challenge here is to position the camera dead-center to the object.

The exercise here is to intelligently choose the format of your frame when taking a shot. In this one, the horizontal frame enhances the feeling of tranquility and stability.

This compositional rule reminds that going at a lower than usual angle may give you an interesting perspective.

According to this rule, you should give your subject room to move into so as to add dynamism to the shot. Since I engage in a lot of sporty activities, I though I had a lot of shots where I employed this rule of composition. But going through my photos, I was surprised to see that I actually did not have a lot of good prospects. This one that I chose is a shot of one of my bike buddies during our "Couples' Ride" at one of the trails in Nuvali. We call this trail "Nuzealand" (a play on "Nuvali" and "New Zealand").

Sometimes, less is more. 

I have always wanted to have a photo shoot with our wedding cake toppers, Mike Wazowski and Boo.

The Rule of Odd Numbers posits that a shot is more balanced if you have an odd numbered subject. For this, I figured I would take a shot of my niece's Mega Bloks and feature the primary colors, blue, red and yellow. With Fiji's "Pop Color" advance feature, I knew I could get a vibrant shot OOC.

Inspired by a collection of bokehlicious shots at DPS, I took a photo of Mamu's capiz angel with our Christmas tree at the background. Positioned Fiji so that one of the lights from the Christmas tree illuminated the angel's head.

At the Kota Kinabalu airport while waiting for our flight back to Manila. As usual, our Cebu Pacific flight was super late and my little friend here was not too pleased.

My husband and I looooooove to go skim boarding. Here he is during our very first skim hit at Liw-Liwa, San Felipe, Zambales, Philippines.

What do you do when your friends pull-over because the car you are on is at the brink of over heating? Practice panning shots while your friends fuss over the car.

"Padyak All The Way" or "PATW" is a biking jargon in the Philippine bike scene which means to pedal ("padyak") all the way from your house to your trail destination, as opposed to loading your bike on a car rack and driving from your house until the trail head.

Taken hand held from the Merlion Park, right before Marina Bay Sands' light and water show, "Wonder Full.The Merlion is supposed to be a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It is considered (at least by Singapore's tourism authority) as the mascot of Singapore. The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village when it was called Temasek (meaning "sea town"), while the lion head represents Singapore's original name, Singapura (meaning "lion city").

It was originally called Singapura or "lion city" because it is said that when Prince Sang Nila Utama of the Sri Vijaya Empire first landed on Singapore's shores, he saw a mystical beast which he later learned was a lion. The Prince then decided to name the island "Singapura" which in Sanskrit means Lion (Singa) City (Pura).