A Close-up Attempt with the Bee and Fly on a Bush Daisy

I bought my phone a few months ago because of its camera features. iPhone is out of my league, and I find android to be more user-friendly, though it was my first choice. I've been contemplating whether I should buy a mirrorless camera or a smartphone, but the camera of my previous phone doesn't give me photos like before. It was pretty good, not until its 4th year. Then here come my previous team lead, who had convinced me to purchase one. Long story short, I have a new phone with some decent camera features, I must say.

I've been exploring some camera tricks, and recently, I discovered my phone is capable of capturing and saving a RAW file. I still consider myself a newbie in the photography department since I haven't delved into the technicalities of photography. Until now, I'm still relying on Auto mode and pressing the subject I want to focus on.

I don't have a specific subject in mind. I only want to capture a scene, landscape, or event that I find beautiful and captivating. Well, maybe because I want my blog photos to look good. That I cannot deny. But I must admit, the majority of my random snaps are portraits. I find it captivating to freeze some candid moments.

But anyway, let's get back to the subject.

I usually spend my weekend in my apartment working, studying, or watching a series. I only go out when needed, like buying groceries and other stuff. However, my classmate and thesis adviser in college, now a happily married couple, invited my boyfriend and me on a weekend trip to Baguio City. I declined the offer, but Antoni was persistent.

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Our Baguio trip last December and July was postponed. That's twice already. No wonder the persuasion. It was a short trip since we all had work on Friday and Monday. Luckily, the couple has a car, so it's a good deal.

I've yet to write a travel blog, but let me start with some photos I took that are worth sharing. During the Baguio trip, two of the tourist destinations we visited were Botanical Garden and Bell Church. One of the common flowers I saw was bush daisies. There are lots of them, especially in Botanical Garden.

_{Not a bee, but it was a nice try to capture small things tho.}

Doing macro photography is the last thing that is on my mind. It is not my cup of tea since I find it hard to capture micro subjects. But a flower is one good subject for this type of photography. I am not quite sure of this for the others, but at least for me, it is. My Samsung Galaxy S22+ has a telephoto feature of up to 30x. I've already used it to capture the moon but never on plants with insects on top of it. (The moon photo turned out great, by the way!) Instead of macro-shots, I ended up doing some close-up shots. As I've said, I find it difficult to capture small things.

When we went to a botanical garden, I can't help but take photos of the Yellow flower and its striped in Yellow friend. It was a struggle because it's windy in Baguio City - the flower kept swaying, and the bee flew when it detected me. But even with the breezy environment, I managed to take photos with my phone - all thanks to the Pro Mode Telephoto features.

Honestly, I like how the photos turned out. The contrasting and well-blend colors are pleasing to look at. Whenever I took a shot, my phone saves RAW and JPEG files. Since I'm targeting to edit the RAW files, I used Snapsneed for the post-process. As I've researched, Adobe Lightroom is one of the best photo editing software, but unfortunately, I find it difficult to navigate. I'm not sure if I have low patience with studying the software features, or if the UI/UX is not good, to begin with. If I want a classic vintage vibe with my flowers, then it's the 1998 Camera App.

I guess that would be all for my snapped photos.

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_{All photos are mine.}

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