Sunday, March 16, 2014

Binondo Chinatown Photowalk

If you get an invite that involves a tour, lots of food, and a chance to do street photography, it's going to be pretty hard to turn it down unless you really are booked already. We were invited by the PR of Western Digital here in Manila for a Binondo photowalk food tour with the main purpose of trying out their newest product, the Western Digital My Cloud.

Prior to the event, they asked for our names and email addresses. They registered us in advanced so we can get access to the WD My Cloud device that they have. On the day of the event, we were informed that other than the chance to do a photowalk, they will also be holding a photo contest. I'm reiterating the word 'photo walk' and I consider that as a plus because usually, you won't feel comfortable walking around Chinatown lugging your SLR with you. This is my chance!

With our tour director, Byahilo! 
Day started as we met at the plaza in front of Binondo church. We then walked to Cafe Mezzanine for a cup of coffee and a brief photography lesson by Sir Rolly Magpayo. I learned a lot from him and has was really good at sketching live scenes. No wonder he's a great photographer!

Our first stop was Estero Eatery. There, we get to try oyster cakes and fried frog legs. They were making a big fuzz out of it -- like how fear factor-like it would be to eat that but the thing is, I love fried frog legs. Without hesitation, I ate a couple of it and invited the others to try it. "Tastes like chicken!"

Oyster Cake from Estero Eatery
Fried Frog Legs from Estero Eatery
Next was Serry restaurant. We were served bamboo shells, sibut black chicken soup, sauteed kidney, fried intestines and goat caldereta. All of which I dare eat and I was particularly fond of kidney and fried intestines before. I don't eat those as much now because I'm trying to eat a bit healthier.

Goat Kaldereta
Sibut Black Chicken Herbal Soup
Bamboo Shells
Our last stop was at Ying Ying restaurant along Yuchengco. We were served a huge siopao and several dimsum like Xiao Long Bao, siomai, fried dumplings and some other. After our 3rd meal, they asked us to upload the photos we took during the food tour so they can do the judging. The experience in uploading was seamless. As soon as you have access to your cloud drive, you can easily upload, edit (file name) and delete your files via an app. Those are just the basic things we get to try during that tour. Internet dependent, I did not experience any hiccups at all! Good thing there was Smart LTE signal where we were (using a Smart LTE MiFi)!

Selecting photos to submit
Uploading my photos from my iPhone via the WD My Cloud app
The screenshot above are the photos I submitted. To tell you honestly, Chinatown had a lot of really interesting stuff. I was glad that we had the chance to roam around even for a bit but that just made me want to join other photo walks or walking tours! You get to see and capture the life around, all natural. No setup.

Here are the photos I submitted:
The winning photo was the one with the red lanterns
Well, guess what? I won! I was acting normal when they announced the winner but inside of me, I was already jumping my heart out! I really wanted the prize as it would really aide me in my hobby which is photography! It will also help me organize files as I do not need to access my hard drive manually everytime I need it! I can now access it wirelessly at home! Yes, I won my very own Western Digital My Cloud 3TB!

I admit it was just a lucky shot but I feel really blessed to have won that. Just a few weeks before, I was really eyeing on getting a 3TB hard drive because almost all my hard drives are full. Since it's not on my budget, I just set the thought aside. All my hard drives are Western Digital. I have one 1TB, and two 500GB. Thank God I won one, and it was even better! A 3TB personal cloud storage from Western Digital!

I'll be doing a blog review on the WD My Cloud as well! Will update this post for the link as soon as I'm done with it.






Cheftonio
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