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.

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.