Caileigh Paige: Baptism

December 10, 2011
Shrine Of Jesus
Shangri-La Makati

This was my last event for 2011. It was a very intimate and simple celebration--just family and friends getting together over a sumptuous lunch buffet to celebrate a special day for a very special little girl. Although I'm used to photographing big parties, I find it really nice to shoot low-key events like Paige's baptism every now and then. Without the distraction of loud music and too many things going on at the same time, I got to focus on taking photos of Paige and the rest of the family. It was such a perfect way to end my year.

We started at the church for an early baptism.

Some shots of the baptismal ceremony.

And then, we were off to the lunch reception at the Shangri-La Makati. The venue was


Since I didn't have the time to do it at the church, I took photos of Paiges baptismal outfit at the reception venue.

No party is complete without balloons!


I spent a lot of time following Paige around and taking photos.





She was such a charming subject.

The very elegant set-up of the function room.


More photos of Paige.

The cute party favors! Mommy Dianne gave me one of these after the party.:)


The colorful cake.


When most of the guests have gone, we took the time to take some family photos.





We went to the hotel lobby to take pictures in front of the trees before calling it a day.

Still here...

I know it seems like I've completely forgotten about this blog. Believe me, I haven't. God knows how I sometimes lay awake at night thinking about all the entries I still need to post. And although I could say that it is MY blog and I can choose to write on it whenever I want to, I still cringe every time someone tells me that they "love reading my blog"--because then, I have to try to explain why it's been forever since I last updated it. "Post blog" has been on my TO DO list every day of every week for over two months now. Well...it's 7:21AM right now, and I have been awake for over 4 hours, so I thought I'd drop a few lines here just so I could maybe check it off my list for today.;)

Yes, I have a thousand--ok, maybe a dozen--valid excuses for why I haven't been blogging in weeks. But, no, I will not go through them here. I'll just say that I have made a deal with myself that if I could finish posting all of my backlogs until the end of the year, I am giving myself a nice little prize.:D As of now, I have at least 40 events to post plus a few portraits...and there are around 80 days left in the year...so yeah, I think it can be done!

Oh, yes, one more thing. I know I said I wasn't going to make excuses, but I do have to mention one of the reasons why I haven't been updating this blog for a while. You see, I'm also in the process of creating a new website and changing the look of my brand, so for a while, I thought I could just start blogging again when everything is done. But, it's taking me longer than I expected, so I decided I will continue posting on this blog while making a few changes in its look to fit the new look of the brand before I finally launch the new website when it's ready. So yeah, you can expect a few changes around here probably in the next few weeks.:)

And since blog posts are so much better with photos, here's a photo of my messy desk. I still call the room "my office" but the truth is, about 2/3 of it has been converted to Paco's play area. In fact, my office chair is currently sitting on alphabet mats.:P Yup, my work area has been reduced to this tiny corner. I am hoping to "redecorate" room though, so I hope I could post some "after" photos of it one of these days. And yes, I do need a new office chair badly.:(

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.