Zoe: 7th birthday party

November 27, 2011
Bella Ibarra
Theme: Camp Rock

In the Philippines, after the first birthday party, the next big celebration traditionally comes when the child turns seven. I rarely get to do 7th birthday celebrations (I believe I work better with babies because babies love me. Hehehe.), but it's always nice to work with older kids every now and then. :)

Zoe's aunt Ria was the one who hired me to photograph Zoe's party. (Mommy Ria actually also booked me for her own baby's 1st birthday celebration which I will also be posting soon.) She was also the one who made Zoe's cute invitations. Zoe is so lucky to have such a generous and talented aunt.;)

Below are just some of the photos from the party.

Colorful venue decorations by Party Station.








A copy of the cute invitation made by Zoe's aunt Ria on top of a nice 3D table centerpiece.

The pretty cake and cupcakes.


And here's the birthday girl.


Zoe poses for the cam like she was born doing it. It was so easy to take pictures of her.


I loved this themed candy buffet by Sweet Royals!

Check out these cute custom cuppies!


Zoe's cool party favors.





Zoe's proud mom, watching her little girl rocking it on stage.

Every kid dreams of becoming a pop star someday. It was Zoe's turn to become one during her party.

The birthday girl singing her heart out.:)


The young group of performers called Jive is quite popular in parties for older kids. Kids love singing and dancing to popular tunes with them on stage.


Pretty Zoe with pretty Mommy Pearly.:)


Candle blowing.


Zoe thanking her guests.

Group shot with the kids and the performers.


Caterer/Venue: Bella Ibarra
Party coordination: Party Station
Party decorations: Party Station
Cake/cupcakes: c/o Bella Ibarra
Host: c/o Party Station and Bella Ibarra
Other entertainment/performers: c/o Party Station
Outfits: Debenhams and Mango
Candy buffet: Sweet Royals
Invitations: DIY by Zoe's aunt Ria
Favors: DIY by Zoe's mom Pearly

Paco's portrait and cake smash sessions

In celebration of Paco's 1st birthday, I would like to share his portrait sessions today. Yes, we had to do two sessions for him because it's not easy doing a shoot when you have no one else to help you out. It was just me and Pete, so we had to prepare the props and the outfits ourselves. And since I had to take the photos, Pete was left to make sure Paco didn't eat the grass or fall off the table during the sessions. He also had to dance around and make silly faces behind me to make Paco smile. Hehehe. Oh, and we had to clean up and bathe the baby by ourselves after each of the sessions. So, yeah. It's not easy being the mum and the photographer at the same time.

Anyway, fortunately, the weather was beautiful during the two afternoons when we did the pictorial. And lucky for us, we live in an area where there are gorgeous spots that we could use. I love how the photos turned out. Here are just some of my favorites...

We started a bit late. These first few shots were taken just before 5PM. However, the weather was great that day, so we still had lovely afternoon sunlight. Also, I think it's because the area we live in is relatively higher (hence, minimal obstructions) so we get beautiful sunsets a bit later than those in the city.


Paco's shirt (it's actually a onesie) says "Mommy's MVP".  And Pete bought these toy tools as props.


Paco bit his finger for a split second while he was laughing at his Daddy (I don't know what Pete was doing behind me), and the moment I took this photo, I knew it would end up on the blog.





In case you're wondering why he's holding the tools, it's because his birthday party (this Sunday) has a "construction" theme.  Some photos from these portrait sessions will be used for his party.:)


I love my Paco's smile.:)

Oh yeah, Paco is also wearing the Puma shoes that my client, Sheryl (Sofia's mom) gave Paco for Christmas last year! Thanks, Mommy She!:)


Next up, we used this hardhat and a heavy equipment model as props, still in keeping with his party's "construction" theme.


Since Paco insisted on crawling into the grass, we decided to removed the blanket and let him play on the ground instead.


Based on my experience, all one-year-old kids love picking on the grass.





We were about to wrap up the shoot, when we realized we didn't have a single shot of him wearing the hardhat yet. But that was because he hated wearing it!

It took several tries, but we were finally able to snap a single decent photo of him wearing it.;)

It didn't stay on his head for long though.:D

And now, for the cake smash session that we did the day after...

I always knew I wanted to do a cake smash session with Paco. And I had the perfect place to do it. We have this viewing deck right in the middle of the village, and ever since we moved here 3 years ago, I have always wanted to do a portrait session there. I knew it would be perfect for the cake smash.

Since it was just me, Pete, and Paco with no one else to help us out, it wasn't easy preparing for this session. At all. And it was even more difficult cleaning up after.:P We had fun nonetheless, and I was very happy with the photos that we got.:)

We didn't have time to order a custom cake anymore so we just bought a mango cake from Red Ribbon. It worked perfectly though! Here are just a couple of test shots I took before the session, but I love them so much so I'm posting them here as well.;)


Here's Paco looking all cute and clean. Hehehe.

When everything was set, we took the cake out and put it in front of him. At first he didn't know what do to with it...





A little pick here and a little touch there...

It took only a few minutes for him to figure out what he could do with the cake.


It was a big mess! I loved it!


LOVE this shot! Good job, Paco!;)

Sofia: portrait session

I did Sofia's portrait session one sunny afternoon in February. It was one of those portrait sessions where everything seemed to just be working right for me. First of all, Mommy Mel and Daddy Pao were so nice to work with. They understood my style and trusted me, and that really made my job so much easier .:)

We started the shoot at Daddy Pao's parents' house when it was still too hot to go outside. This is the house where Sofia usually stays over whenever Mom and Dad go to work. I usually avoid shooting indoors especially when there is limited natural light coming in, but when I learned that Sofia's grandpa is an artist, I knew I wanted to use his studio for the photos! Here are few shots of Sofia in her grandpa's mini studio. I love the photos of her on her grandpa's work table with all the paint brushes and even a color palette in the background.:)

We took a few shots in the living room.  These are not the kind of shots that I usually do but I loved the contrast between Sofia's colorful dress, the painting in the background, and the neutral color of the chair. 

When we felt it was already safe to go outside,  we went to the village park to do some outdoor shots which I always love to do.:)

Sofia was such a darling! I could have photographed her all day!

I've learned that letting the subject wear darker colors work great when you're photographing in the bright sun. That's why I loved this dark gray dress that Sofia wore during the shoot. 

A couple of shots with Mommy and Daddy.:)

A few more shots before we headed back to the house.

The sun was almost setting when we got back inside. We took a few more shots of Sofia before she got too tired to pose for me.;)