Renzo Matthias

May 5, 2007
Santuario de San Antonio
Richmonde Hotel

I didn't accept any bookings for the month of May this year because I was expecting to become very busy with the wedding preps. (And I was right.) I had to make an exception for Renzo's baptism though because his mom Grette is a friend from my first job. I told her I could accept her booking if it was ok with her to wait longer for the pictures to be processed. Grette and her hubby Romel are now based in Bahrain so Renzo's baptism was also a short homecoming for them and a chance to meet up with family and old friends.

On May 5, 2007, exactly three weeks before my wedding, I found myself at the Santuario de San Antonio for Renzo's baptism. Reception followed at the Richmonde Hotel.

Oh, by the way, this was the first time that I had Lyra as assistant. I gave her my back-up camera so she could play around with it if she wanted to. She ended up taking some very nice photos.:)

Here are a few of the photos:



That's Grette's hand holding Renzo's hand. She seemed to be avoiding the camera the whole day.:P

These are Lloyd and Myn. Lloyd is our housemate right now but he and Myn will be getting married and leaving the country soon. Kaya nagpa-praktis na.:D

Family portrait. Again, Grette wanted to hide from the camera pinigilan ko lang.:D

And finally, a cute photograph of Renzo. He's obviously hungry here.

HERE are more photos from the baptism. Photos 21-24 were taken by my lovely assistant Lyra.;)

April babies

The last entry I put up before I went on my blogging hiatus was on Charm's baptism. That wasn't the last event I photographed that month, however. April was one of my busiest months in terms of kiddie events. Here are the rest of my event shoots that month.

Joaqui
April 15, 2007
Hardrock Cafe, Makati

A kiddie party at the Hardrock Cafe! This was one of the biggest kiddie parties I've photographed so far. Peachy and Gelo really went all out for Joaqui's birthday. They had everything: candy stand, face painting, acrobats...the works!

Here are a few of the photos:

It was the day of one of Manny Pacquiao's fights and Hardrock had a pay-per-view thingy upstairs. Here are the guys trying to get a peek at the fight.



Don't try this at home...or anywhere else.

More photos from Joaqui's birthday party HERE.

Zach
April 22, 2007

Who says you can't have a great party without breaking the bank for an expensive venue? Tetch is another one of my overseas-based clients and she came home just for her Zach's birthday. The beach-themed party was held at their house and I loved taking shots of the colorful details.

I love this photo of Zach's orange beach footwear against the rattan furniture. It makes me long for a lazy afternoon at the beach.


Nothing like a colorful starfish on a cupcake to complete the theme.

Click HERE for more photos from Zach's party.

Gab
April 28, 2007
Bounce, Ortigas Ave.

Most of the time during a 1st birthday party, the celebrator doesn't get to enjoy the program and games because he/she is usually too young to join in. Gab's party, however, was held at Bounce which is basically one big playroom. For most part, the kids were let loose to jump in the bouncers and roll around on the padded floors and play with whatever they can lay their hands on. Gab was able to join in as well and he looked like he really had fun! It was fun for me as well to just take off my shoes and roam around with all the happy kids.

Family portrait before leaving for the party. I love the colors of their furniture and walls.:)



This is Gab's cousin CJ. Gab is the one in the back. They do look a lot like each other.



HERE are more photos from Gab's birthday party.

Moonlighting as a magazine photographer...

The first time I ever had my photos published was when I took pictures of designers Frederick Peralta and Kate Torralba for a stuffed toy company's promo summer of last year. My photos were published on the lifestyle section of the major newspapers. Although my name was never mentioned, I was still thrilled just to see a couple of my photos in print.

In February, Lyra asked me to be her photographer for an article she was doing for Masigasig, which is a special publication magazine that goes with every issue of Entrepreneur. The article came out in the May 2007 issue of the magazine. Of course, by then I was too busy to write about it here. I did get the kick out of seeing my photos and my name in a real magazine! Here is a copy of that article. (Grabbed this from Lyra's Multiply).

(I know, the pictures are smaller than my name!:D)

Then, late in June, Lyra and I, together with another writer Ruth, went on an overnight trip to Cebu for Masigasig. They did interviews and I took the photos. It was a very tiring but fun 2-day trip.

Here we are at our hotel room:

One of our interviewees was Kenneth "He-who-makes-Brad-Pitt's-furniture" Cobonpue. That's him between Lyra and me.

And here I am on one of Cobonpue's famous (and beautiful!) pieces. Photo taken by Lyra.:)

Oh yeah, two of the articles we did came out in this month's issue of Masigasig. I don't think Lyra (who is the editorial assistant for Masigasig) or the people at Summit would be thrilled if I posted photos of the whole articles so if you can, just buy a copy (Entrepreneur (and Masigasig, of course.:)) is a really good magazine. Pete and I have been buying a copy every month for over two years now) or makisilip kayo sa friends nyo na meron.:D But here are a couple of shots of my name on the articles. Hehehe. So far, I've done a couple more shoots for articles which will be coming out in the next issues. Oh, and Kix has some photos in the magazine as well.:)