Jon and Chyssa: Wedding

August 8, 2008
Manila Cathedral
Manila Hotel

The luckiest date of the year (or is it the century?) was also the busiest day for the wedding industry in the country and in many other parts of the world. When we entered the Manila Hotel that morning to start the wedding coverage, I saw some wedding parties already heading out. I counted at least 10 wedding receptions at the Manila Hotel alone for that day!

It was indeed a lucky day for me as well because of the thousands of couples who got married that day, I got to work with Jon and Chyssa who are both so nice.:) Special thanks goes out to Kix for giving me the opportunity to shoot this wedding.

Below are some of me favorite shots from Jon and Chyssa's 080808 wedding. Be sure to check out the link to the gallery at the end of this entry!

We started at the Manila Hotel where the couple got ready before the ceremony.

The beautiful bouquet.


Chyssa told me she had the same pair of shoes as the bride in one of my previous weddings. It's always nice to know that people actually look at my photos! Hehehe. Anyway, I decided to take a different shot at the shoes.




Here is the groom looking sharp in his tux.

Of course, the lovely bride.

The groom with his buddies. I love this shot!:D


Chyssa in her lovely dress.

With the girls...


At the Manila Cathedral.

I let the second photographer take the front shot while I took the other angle. And I love how it turned out.

The toast with the bestman and the maids of honor.


As a thank you, Chyssa rendered a beautiful song for all the guests.:)


One of the last shots before calling it a night.


HERE are some more photos!

The Santoses: Family portrait session

Chen is my best friend from college. She and hubby Bondi moved to California, USA shortly after getting married in 2005. In April of this year, they came back for a long vacation with the newest addition to the family, Sebastian (a.k.a. Seb, Basti, or Baste).

Well, their long vacation is almost up as Bondi will be flying back to the States tomorrow, while Chen and Seb are scheduled to follow in November. We've been wanting to do this pictorial for a long time, but we only found the time about two weeks ago. I am posting this today as a going-away gift to Bondi, and to cheer Chen up a bit.:)

This was probably the shortest portrait session I have ever done. It was a crazy Monday, and I was running around doing errands before heading back to Laguna for the week. I met up with Bondi, Chen, and Seb in Alabang. We knew it wasn't going to be easy to take portraits there as taking photos (with big cameras, anyway) are prohibited just about anywhere around Metro Manila. And not surprisingly, we were kicked out of our first location by two guards in motorcycles right after the first click of my camera. Hehehe.

So, we went on to our next location, which was basically just a parking lot with really great late afternoon light. Not wanting to attract any more security guards, I took some test shots with Bondi first while Chen got Seb ready. And then, we took a few close-up shots right by the car first. It was fairly easy to get great shots at such a hurry because Seb likes to smile for the camera.




Then I told them to stand across the parking lot from me so I could take more shots. This was one of my test shots. I love how Seb is still looking at the camera.:D


The light was PERFECT! And these guys really photograph well, don't they?;)


This was my favorite shot of the day. I love the light, the colors...and look how cute they all are!


Chen told me they chose the colors of the Philippine flag for the shoot. As I was going through the photos, this one stood out as the closest to a Philippine flag. They even had a touch of yellow in Bondi's wristband.:D

One of the last shots we took before we saw a couple of security guards approaching. Hehehe. We bolted right out of there and pretended we were just on our way somewhere...;)

We headed to Starbucks, ordered coffee and took a few more shots. I love these next two.




And before ending our session, I had to take a couple of shots of Seb.:)


To Bondi, Chen, and Seb, you are such a beautiful family! I had a great time doing this. Love you, guys!:)

Lyra and Ice: Maternity portrait session

Here is another long overdue post. I am so behind in my posting that Lyra already gave birth to Baby Sam a month ago, and Ice gave birth to Baby Jem last week! These ladies have been best of friends since college, and although Lyra got married three years before Ice, they both got pregnant with their first babies only weeks apart! We gave both of them a joint baby shower a couple of months ago, and then they decided thay also wanted to have their maternity portrait session together. Of course, I was only too happy and honored to do it with them.

They chose Balay Indang in Cavite as the venue for the pictorial. It's one of Ice and hubby Bryan's favorite getaway spot, and Lyra and hubby Manuel had just spent a weekend there over the summer and they loved it as well. They all treated Pete and me to a day trip package which included breakfast, lunch, and meryenda. The place is such a charming and peaceful refuge. I was too busy being both makeup artist and photographer for my preggy models though that I didn't get the chance to take photos of the place anymore.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite shots. I'll start with Ice's photos, then Lyra's, then photos of the two of them together...

We were given a room with great light to use so we started the shoot there.




I loved Ice and Bryan's yellow outfits!


Two of my favorite shots.






I love the emotion here.;)

This may be my favorite shot of Lyra.






And now for the photos of our models together...





Lyra and Ice could kill me for posting these, but I like these last two shots. They show how much fun we had! In case you're wondering, they were laughing at Pete.:D

To Lyra (and Manuel) and Ice (and Bryan), thanks for letting me capture this wonderful stage in your lives. Congratulations on the new babies!:)

Chloe Nicole: 1st birthday party

August 3, 2008
Greenmeadows Clubhouse

It was a very rainy Sunday afternoon when we headed to the Greenmeadows Clubhouse for Chloe's birthday party. Mommy Cristina made the booking many months before but it was the first time that we were going to meet in person that day. As I started taking photos of the details, some of the guests started arriving. I saw a very familiar face and realized it was our dear registrar from high school. You see, it turned out Cristina and her siblings all studied in Pisay as well.:) It was nice chatting Ma'am Serrano up a bit about what everybody is up to these days. Sadly, I only keep in touch with a handful of high school friends now.:(

Anyway, the party was well-attended despite the weather. And everybody seemed to have a great time. I also loved working with Cristina and her entire family. They were very nice and made sure Pie and I were taken care of like guests.:)

The skies may have been gloomy outside but the mood inside was very festive, thanks to the very colorful party decorations and details!







The titos and daddies having fun.


The kids enjoying the bubble show.


Choe and Mommy.


A couple of shots of the birthday girl.

The birthday family during the candle-blowing.


HERE are more photos from the party!:)