Egay: Maternity portraits

Baby Sam, who is Paco's cousin, just turned 5 months old a few days ago, but earlier this year, I first photographed her when she was still in Mommy Egay's tummy.:)

Egay (aka Niña to her family) is Pete's little sister, and has been one of my favorite models from the time I was still studying photography. She is probably my most photographed person, next to Paco.:) I usually ask her to model for me whenever I want to try something out or when I just want to practice. I've done her headshots a couple of times, did a fashion shoot with her, and even did a boudoir session with her! When I learned that she was pregnant, I knew I wanted to do her preggy shots as well.;)

Niña (sorry, I feel weird calling her Egay.:D) was a few weeks away from giving birth to Sam when we did this portrait session last January.  This was probably the shortest portrait session I have ever done. We were finished in about 30 minutes! We originally agreed to meet up at UP Diliman at around 3:30PM. But because she and hubby JC were coming from a pre-natal check-up, while Pete and I were coming all the way from Cavite, we knew none of us would make it on time. We rescheduled for 4:30PM. And then we got stuck in one of the worst traffic I have ever experienced in a long time (Ok, maybe not. I'm just not used to Metro Manila traffic anymore, since I've been living in the suburbs for years.) and I was worried we would lose the light before we got UP. We probably got there just after 5PM, and the light was perfect! We got to work at once, and we got really great shots!:)

As soon as we parked and said our quick hellos, I quickly searched for the best light. I asked Niña to stand in a spot and started shooting right away. This was one of the very first test shots I took. Framing is so-so, and the building in the background is distracting, but I really love the light. And doesn't Niña look amazing?


Same spot, just a slightly different angle. Couple of shots of the proud parents-to-be.





They brought a few props. This was part of the Christmas gift set Pete and I gave to Niña last year.:)

One of my favorites.


This was part of the decorations during the baby shower Niña's officemates threw for her.


Of course, Baby Sam had to make an appearance in some of the photos.:)


Love this.:)

 

Yep, Niña is one of those lucky ladies who look really good when pregnant. And Daddy JC isn't looking too bad either.;)

















As I said, the onesie was part of a set.;)





Last shots just as we were heading back to our cars.

Zoie: Mini portrait session

I photographed Zoie's awesome party a couple of weeks ago. But in late November, I first met this little cutie for her portrait session. To say that Mommy Erica came prepared for this pictorial is an understatement. They arrived at our meeting place in UP with a couple of outfits for Zoie, a ton of accessories (I wish we had the whole day to shoot. I would have wanted to use all of them!), some props, and a crew of "PA's"! Hehehe. Needless to say, I had a blast!

After the photoshoot, I got an email from Erica saying that Zoie wasn't really in the mood during the shoot and that she was hoping we still got good shots. I assured her that Zoie did a wonderful job and that we had a lot of great shots. Here are just some of my favorites.

First one of the cute outfits Zoie wore that day.


Love her eyes!


I actually love capturing photos of kids or babies doing things that, well, kids or babies do.


Zoie looking beautiful in her gorgeous red dress! Mommy and Daddy aren't looking so bad either.;)

It was a bit cloudy when we started, but in the middle of the session, the sun peeked out and we took advantage of it by taking some nice sunny photos.


One of my favorites.


I love getting sun flare every now and then. :)


With Mommy Erica and Daddy JM.

Cute smile from Zoie.

Balloons! I have always wanted to use balloons in one of my portrait sessions. Erica just made my dream come true.;) Here's another one of my favorite shots from that day.

I love these next few shots!





Last outfit change.


Another pretty smile from the superstar of the day.

Of course, I had to take a photo of the whole entourage.;)

The Anastacios: Family portrait session

I first met Judd, Deegee, Earl, and Sam two years ago when we did one of my favorite family portrait sessions ever. Last October, I had the pleasure of photographing this cool family again. It was a more casual shoot than the first one, but we had just as much fun!:)

We did the session at a posh model unit at one of the up-scale subdivisions in Alabang.  The weather was crazy that day. Just about an hour before we were supposed to meet up, I even texted Deegee if she wanted to postpone the shoot because it was raining in our area. On our drive over, it even started raining really hard.  But I'm glad we decided to push through because we got bright sunshine as soon as we started.

Here are just a few of my favorite shots form the portrait session:

Notice the jackets and Earl's shirt.;)

As always, I enjoyed photographing the kids. It was so much more challenging this time though because almost every click of my camera was followed by the question, "Are we done yet?" :D

Sam is such a cutie. I could have photographed her all afternoon!





Earl is growing up to be a handsome little man.





The pretty mom.


These guys are such a cool couple. I really enjoy working with them every time.


The next three are some of my favorite family shots that day.

When the sun wasn't too hot anymore, we took the shoot outside.

See those fake smiles on the kids' faces? They couldn't wait for the shoot to be over. We had to bribe them with the promise of ice cream afterwards. Hehehe.


Last outfit change.  They used one of the shots from this series as their holiday family photo.

A couple more shots outside to wrap things up.