Magnum Ice Cream Bar: Over-Rated or not?

"Too much of an indulgence is definitely bad" XD

And I agree with that. That's why I gave Magnum Ice Cream Bar a try to see if its worth all the hype and indulgence. I did try not just one but all flavors to make sure I could do a decent comparison with each one of them. 

For 50 pesos (55 pesos at 7-11 outlets), most people say its an over-priced ice cream bar. Whether they say Magnolia's Pinipig Crunch is was much better than Magnum or its just a fad, I guess they either have untrained taste buds or simply its out of their budget (I do understand if they use the later as their valid reason for not trying) =P.

First, I tried their classic flavor. Its coating is made from Belgian chocolate which was pretty thick (thicker than Pinipig Crunch) while the vanilla ice cream tastes pretty good. The chocolate coating tastes similar to Cadburry while the ice cream tastes like Haagen Dazs. I'm not an expert when it comes to chocolates and ice cream but I think haters should give this a try, just even for a bite. 

Next is I tried their Almond variety. This would be my personal favorite as its like the classic variant with generous heaps of almonds. It makes my ice cream bar experience more swabeh with each bite of almonds on top of the usual coating and ice cream. 

And third, I tried their Chocolate Truffle. It an overloaded chocolate ice cream bar. Aside from the thick coating, it has chocolate ice cream inside with swirls of chocolate truffle. I'm sure chocoholics would dig in to this once in a while. 

Since I've first had a bite of Magnum, I kinda got addicted that I get at least two bars in a day. I'm sure the addiction will stop but for the haters, why not grab a bite before you criticize. =P

Pictures to follow. XD

Magnum's VIP Red Carpet Premiere

Honestly, I don't have any idea how to shoot on a red carpet full of celebrities. I've attended so many events for the past years but never I have attended on a red carpet premiere until last Tuesday. Canon Philippines together with Selecta-RFM invited around 100 photographers to take the opportunity to witness the VIP Red Carpet Premiere of Magnum (I'll be writing a separate post about the product as this post would be about the experience of shooting at the red carpet).

By 5:30pm (our call-time), I saw some familiar faces as we waited for the event to start at between 8:00-9:00pm. While killing time, I took some snapshots of the red carpet and some behind the scenes (which includes ABS-CBN Entertainment Reporter Gretchen Fullido) before our contact from Canon Ms. Kathleen Buendia arrived to give us a briefing of the photocontest that we'll be joining. She handed us a the details for the contest as well as the waiver that we should sign.

The theme of our shoot would be "Royal Treatment". It looks easy as I am anticipating a flock of celebrities but the challenge there was how to take pictures of them from a different perspective. I am thinking of taking decent portraits of them but that would be too common as most of my fellow photographers will do the same. Well I have to take pictures that without them noticing me (but how?). 

Of 100 photographers invited, I think more than 40 (I think) have attended. My friend backed-out for some reason (he missed a part of his life for it XD). Only a few media were there as most came late as the event progresses. Anyway, as the sun goes down, its time to get my Canon 7D's baptism of events shooting XD.  I didn't took my external flash out as the lights from the event were good enough plus I have to test my camera's external flash.

Since we were limited to taking pictures from the outside (within the red carpet as we're not allowed to take pictures inside; BOOO), I got myself a good spot in taking pictures of celebrities. From well known stars from three big networks (Kapuso, Kapamilya, Kapatid), to Magnum's brand ambassadors (Liz Uy, Erwan Heussaff, Rajo Laurel, Tessa Prieto-Valdez, Raymond Gutierrez) to Magnum's Princess Solenn Heusaff. Even the big bosses from RFM (headed by the Concepcion Family) were also present to grace the event.

Well with so many celebrities that I spotted during the event, I couldn't remember all of them XD.

As the night progresses, I got curious with my camera's battery meter as I also went to another event to shoot. Probably I need to get another battery and a battery grip so I could shoot longer without worrying if my battery goes dead on me. Also, we were given samples of Selecta's latest brand and I got the one with Almonds (my favorite). I my bag wasn't so heavy, with stuff, I could have grabbed a few bars for my wife and my in-laws to enjoy back home.

Then, when I was about to submit my entry to the contest, the organizers told us that they don't have any card readers for camera's using CF cards (BOOOO) but they extended our deadline until the noon of the next day. Since we got quite tired, we had our late dinner at the tent that Ms Kathleen told us to go to. To my surprise, dinner is c/o Bizu which I wasn't got disappointed as food was abundant as well as the drinks (I got 10-15 glasses of iced tea I think XD).

At the end of the event, it felt good for someone like me who wasn't able to take pictures of events for the past 3-4 months. I could have took more good shots if we were allowed to go inside the VIP area but I guess I had to be contended with its limitations.

Unfortunately, when I was about to resize my pictures to make it smaller, my photoshop went nuts on me and from there, its sad to say I wasn't able to send my entries. Oh well, there is always a next time for an event like this sometime soon and by then, I'd be ready. ^_^

Here are the rest of the pictures. Enjoy! XD

For more pictures, you could visit my Flickr here. Let me know if you could see the other photos.