Where I have been...plus the Sirilans' family photos

The truth is I feel like I'm in a funk lately. I guess I'm just having what might be my version of a writer's block is. I don't know how or when it started but it came to a point last week when all I wanted to do was shoot but I couldn't focus on and didn't feel like doing my other tasks like editing, blogging, etc. It wasn't easy to admit it because hey, this is my dream job! I'm not supposed to have bad days, right? I tried fighting it but I finally had to decide to take it easy for a few days. I peeled myself away from work and convinced myself that it was ok to take a break. It went on for a few more days and then finally, I had a "light bulb moment" (as Oprah would put it) the other day and realized what was causing all this internal drama. I talked about it with Pete and a couple of friends and now I think I am better equipped to address it.

I'm not back a hundred percent yet, though. I'm still not as productive as I want to be this week, but I'm getting there. Every day, I try to pump up the energy and think happy thoughts. And for today, my happy thoughts are of these photos I shot a few months ago of some of my favorite people in the world.

On a hot summer day in May, Pete, Pie, and I went to Anvaya Cove in Bataan with my sister and her family and some of their friends. Before leaving the resort that afternoon, we did a very short portrait session. The light was PERFECT! And Liam was cute as ever. It's hard for me not to smile whenever I look at these shots.

Liam looks so grown-up in these next two photos.






Pete was making him laugh. He was probably making faces behind me.:P


I love this series. There is nothing that I love more than capturing real laughter.:)

Did I mention the light was PERFECT?

The Sirilans: family portrait session

Weekends are usually spent with family. In my case, however, I have to work during weekends and take photos of other families spending time together. I love my job though, and I'm not complaining or anything. But it's still nice to be able to take some weekends off and spend time with MY own family for a change. That was what we were supposed to do this weekend. However, Paco has been sick the entire week, so we decided to just stay home. (He's doing better now, fortunately.). Oh, and I also have to catch up on some work because I was too busy taking care of the sick baby to get some real work done the past few days. But in the spirit of weekends, I want to share some photos I recently took of my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.

My sister Mae and her family are now based in Davao, so we rarely get to see them any more. I have been wanting to take their family photos for months, but we never got around to doing their portrait session until they flew in two of weeks ago just to attend Paco's 1st birthday party. We had a very short portrait session just a couple of hours after the party ended. I was exhausted, but I jumped at the chance to take photos of them. Here are my favorite shots from that mini portrait session:

We started right in front of our house. There's this spot that has awesome light in the afternoon. And I think the blue house in the background actually looks nice.:)

Oh yeah, the reason why these first two shots only have my sister and my brother-in-law in them is because my nephew Liam was doing what most kids (especially boys) his age do when they see a camera. They run away from it.:P


We finally convinced Liam to join his mum and dad for some photos. Here are the shots where he wasn't rolling his eyes or making silly faces.:)

I love this.:) It reminds me of one of my favorite shots from their portrait session that we did over three years ago.





We decided to drive over to another spot inside the village. I managed to snap these just before we got into the cars.


This spot might look familiar because this was the same place where we did Paco's cake smash session. It's the viewing deck in our village.

ONe of my favorite shots of Liam. He looks so grown up here! I started taking photos professional around the same time he was born. So, I guess my photography career is just about this big.:)

We walked over to the playground and took some more shots there.

My sister Mae wants some photos she could use for Liam's coming 6th birthday celebration. This one gets my vote.

A few more family shots and then we were done.:)

I took a few shots of Mae on the way back up to the viewing deck.;)