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.;)

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!;)