While in Baguio: Food Open Season using Open Snap!

What I love about Baguio aside from the chilly breeze and the pine trees is the food. When you say “open season”, I immediately associate it with some kind of hunting.

Where else to go food hunting but in Baguio? 🙂

Baguio is the home to the best cafes and restaurants in the Philippines because of the super fresh vegetables and fruits available in their market.

I especially love salad greens which are sometimes freshly plucked from the garden and sold in markets. Some cafes and restaurants even have their own garden. You can really feel the crunchiness and freshness of veggies and fruits and that’s what I really love about Baguio.

Anyway, I noticed that some of my friends are busy posting food pics of their Baguio vacations and photo by photo I started craving. I asked them about the restaurants and price range of food but sometimes the information I get is not enough that I have to log into my computer and search for each restaurant and food one by one. Also, I don’t have too many friends who like me, really love food.

I told myself that the next time my husband and i went on vacation especially in Baguio, I’d capture some photos and share them via social media as well.

When we decided to return to Baguio this year, my best friend introduced me to an app called Opensnap. I checked it out and saw VIZCO’S RESTAURANT AND CAKE SHOP was along Session Road so we decided to give it a try.

Vizco’s instantly became my favorite restaurant in Baguio.

Honestly, we just ate at familiar spots at SM Baguio during our previous visits in Baguio because we were afraid to try new food or we just didn’t have enough recommendations to make us want to try new or famous restaurants.

Opensnap really did open new doors and even windows to new foodgasmic experiences for us. If you don’t believe me, I suggest you try installing the OpenSnap app and I promise you that you’ll get hooked looking at image after image of mouth watering food. 🙂

I remembered the pictures my friends took, some blogger friends even had their pictures uploaded in OpenSnap and I thought, it’s my turn to promote new food discoveries! I thought that would be easy as pie, but boy, was I wrong! It turned out to be a disaster because the photos I took looked like sad versions of their real counterpart. As an example, here are samples of pictures I took.

Meh. Pathetic. I know… 🙁

The actual food I ate at Vizco’s was really very tasty and mouth watering to look at but when I took a photo as remembrance and for sharing online, I was terribly disappointed.

I searched the OpenSnap website and luckily saw the techniques for food photography then decided to try my luck again while waiting for my husband’s meal, bearing in mind the tips I saw there.

So, using the tips I’ve learned from OpenSnap, here are the new photos I took of the Vizcos meal set we were having.

As you can see, I took better pictures right?

I was certainly surprised with the quality of pictures I took using the same gadget I used before. I only upgraded the style (lighting, getting miracle closeups right) and the way (keeping hand steady and not ‘rushing’ to take a photo) I photographed the food we ordered.

And I owe everything to Opensnap and to my best friend, Unys who introduced me to the said app.

Another thing I noticed with OpenSnap is that it comes with free ‘effects’ for pictures so we can enhance the images directly on the app. That was a fine idea because I noticed that when I uploaded my food photo to OpenSnap, the image looked more enticing.

I only used ‘CONTRAST’ to enhance the image and voila! The colors looked more alive!

First image (left) is the unedited one and the Second image (right) is enhanced using CONTRAST mode within the Opensnap App.

See how the image pops up because of more vibrant colors.

Looking at the great selection of food at the OpenSnap App, it made me think that there are a lot of awesome restaurants and cafes out there that are waiting to be discovered by my tastebuds.

The food images are awesome and enticing, I kind of wished I had their talent in food photography. But what’s great is that with practice and because of the simple tutorial from OpenSnap I was able to improve my food photography skills drastically.

I used it to fill our itineraries and try the best sellers of top Baguio cafes that we haven’t tried before. It’s an open season of great food in BAGUIO!

Opensnap App is also a great way to share food discoveries not only to our family, friends and relatives, but also to anyone using the App. In order to continuously make the App more informative, we must also do our part in contributing photos, ratings and comments. Learn to give and take. We are after all, helping each other discover the best food in any location.

Here are my other food recommendations which I would be sharing in the OpenSnap App:

GRUMPY JOE:

This is definitely one of my favorite restaurants in Baguio. A must try is their 5-cheese pizza which looked plain but is a mouthful of cheeesy explosion when eaten. In my opinion, it was even better than the ones served by a major Pizza brand. Watch out for the details of Grumpy Joe as I create a new entry in OpenSnap.

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CAFE SABEL (BenCab Museum):

Cafe Sabel is another favorite of ours. I was surprised to find such an awesome cafe underneath the BenCab Museum Grounds. It also has an awesome view when you go outside to eat al fresco. Again, keep checking your OpenSnap for more details of this awesome cafe.

Great pics huh? 🙂 Who would have thought that with an app like OpenSnap, my photo techniques and photos would improve and I would have an endless list of where to eat next.

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If you are wondering how I uploaded my food photos to the OpenSnap App, here is a quick guide:

Step 1: Download and Open OpenSnap App.

Step 2: Click the Menu Bar at the top left hand side (it is composed of 3 vertical bars).

Step 3: Select ‘Upload Photo’.

Step 4: Select ‘Camera Roll’ if you have the photo saved on your gadget or  select ‘Take Photo’ if you’d rather upload photos in real time.

Step 5: Select Photo to upload it.

Step 6: Enhance photos with effects from the OpenSnap app.

Step 7: Click ‘Where is it?’ Icon. Select Location Icon & choose Philippines then select where specifically in the Philippines. Currently there are just two main subcategories seen, Manila and Cebu, so if your restaurant location does not fall under those two, choose ‘Other Provinces’.

Step 8: Search for the Restaurant. If it is already existing in the app, you’ll see a suggestion, if it’s a new restaurant or a restaurant that isn’t uploaded in the server yet, click ‘Add as new restaurant’ and fill up the details.

Step 9: Select Photo Type.

Step 10: Fill in the details needed.

Step 11: Click check mark to finish the process and share the post to your social media to share it with friends and social media followers to invite them to view your photos and join OpenSnap as well.

If you’re like me who’s sick and tired of the usual fast food, buffet restaurants in your area, then OpenSnap is definitely a breath of fresh air. Be surprised to find out that your next favorite food is just around the corner.

There’s a lot to discover in OpenSnap, so check out the reviews and photos in the app and remember that, ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE! 🙂

For more restaurants and food finds, download OpenSnap app from App Store or Google Play.