Last week, Heidi Valencia and I were interviewed at ANC’s Shop Talk show to talk about our life as a wedding photographer. I’m still waiting to get my personal copy from Shop Talk, but my mom was able to video the interview. I just need to resize the file so I can upload the video, so watch out for that. Thanks to Google Alerts, I discovered that they also featured the interview as an online article at abs-cbnnews.com. Follow this link
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Here’s something different. We are known for shooting weddings but as part of Imagine Nation’s vision to build lasting relationships with the couple’s we shoot that go beyond wedding day. We have come up with our Life Program, which, is about capturing important milestones in a couple’s married life. From pregnancy, baptism, birthdays and family portraits. We want to be there to creatively document through our cameras these important events.
We have teamed up with Cradle magazine, a new parenting magazine, to shoot their summer issue. I’ve been blessed to shoot the cover, main feature article and fashion pages for this issue. Also Hyds, Arlene and Noel shot for the other articles. Here are the shots we did for this issue.
My cover shot
Imagine Nation’s Life Program
The Contibutors…Also special mention to my good friend, Michelle De Guzman, who did all the illustrations for this issue, great work!
Here’s the main feature story I shot. Thanks to Shayla Hembrador-Sanchez and Paul Vargas for assisting me.
Also, I shot the kids fashion magazine. Thanks to Lianne Bacorro and Dennis Yu for assisting.
Then I shot the maternity fashion page too.
I you want to know more about our Life Program, just send me an email.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite This one has got to be one of the most memorable weddings I’ve shot so far this year. A great story of how God has helped this couple overcome a great challenge. Congratulations Artie and Lia! More to follow…
I’ll be travelling to the U.S. this coming October to shoot a wedding and some engagement and family portrait sessions. I still have open slots available, send me an email for my remaining shoot scheds.
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Save the Date! Nes and Trina are getting hitched this coming July 4. They are our friends from our Singles for Christ (SFC) Community. Jasondeg and I sat down with them a few weeks ago to discuss their engagement and we came up to create something simple yet different. I’ll leave you wedding guests hangin’ and you just have to wait till their wedding reception in order to see what i mean…One cool thing about this is that almost all the major suppliers belong to our SFC community. Trina’s make-up was done by Mela Jimenez. Their wedding coordinators are Junie Romero (my lovely girlfriend btw) and Len Ocampo of Amaris events. Special thanks to Raphy Concepcion for coming along to help us out.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite This was my second album cover project with Michelle De Guzman, a good friend and layout artist extraordinaire. When Mitch first mentioned them to me, I really had no idea who they were or the kind of music they played. But during shooting day, I got to hear some songs from their album and I was really impressed. Their music, based on my opinion, is a mix of alternative, house and R&B…tunes that you can dance to or just chill-out. I shot this a few months ago and when I was with Mitch yesterday, I just casually asked her if the album was already out, but she did not have any news about it. Just today she sent me a text that Kiss Jane’s album is already out and she sent these to me. Great work Mitch! Support our local bands and listen to Kiss Jane.
Here’s my couple, Jerome and Dotty Cu, who I submitted and got featured on Martha Stewart Weddings’ recent March issue. They can be found on page 67 under the Photo 101 : Picture Perfect article. Martha Stewart asked our studio if we wanted to submit pictures of real couples for this article a few months ago and submitted this picture below…I completely forgot about it. I did not even know that Martha used this picture but thanks to Dotty for the heads-up and congratulations! There’s just one problem, the magazine made an error and gave credit to another studio for my picture, we already brought it to their attention and hopefully they’ll be able to make the proper photo credit on the next issue.
Milton and Des was referred by Melvin and Aileen, my couple I shot last December 2009. They got married last Feb. 27, a day before we left for our Cam Sur worskhop with Manny Librodo. Des was simply stunning that day and wearing a Veluz gown made her so gorgeous. Funny thing is that she kept telling me during the start to use flash, as she believed it that it would hide her “imperfections.” However, I always believe that every bride posses a certain “glow” especially during wedding day and it was up to the photographer to unveil that unexplainable glow and Des had it. She was a natural in posing for the camera and her playful personality brought a lot of funny moments while we were shooting. Milton on the other was a cool sport and let us do our thing and be creative with our shots. The mood that day was fun and relaxed and we all had a blast shooting these two.
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Busy season is over but so many things keep coming up like writing articles, teaching photography and meeting couples for inquiries. However late this post maybe, I still believe its never too late to share great stories like this one. GP is a modern day hero, he’s a helicopter pilot of the Philippine Air Force. Tanya is the daughter of General Jun Esperon, former Armed Forces Chief of Staff. There’s a lot of military history that runs between these two. I met them about two months before their wedding, which was kind of late to book a photographer since their wedding was on December, super peak season by the way. Mayone Bakunawa, make-up artist extraordinaire, was instrumental in pointing them towards my way. She told GP and Tanya that we use the song ” I Can Only Imagine” for our on-site photo slideshows, a song they love and wanted to use for their wedding. True enough the song best describes their wedding day. A day filled with anticipation, warmth and love. I’ll let the images tell the story…
I love the details of their wedding – Custom Made M&M’s
The gowns…
GP’s Military Formals. Aside from their garden wedding ceremonies in Sofitel, I got extra excited when they told me it would be in Military tradition.
This is Mayone by the way being her silly self …I recommend you try her out for your bridal make-up.
A nice moment with Tanya and her sisters.
Tanya was a natural at striking a pose.
I light moment. I love making my brides laugh as it keeps them relaxed.
GP’s classmates from PMA getting ready for their wedding duties.
Mother and her daughter kiss before meeting GP…one of the most touching scene’s I have witnessed.
Happiness written all-over GP’s face and Tanya’s Dad watches her walk down the aisle.
Always a joy to experience witnessing a lovely couple set behind a beautiful sunset.
Time for some in-between portraits.
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Sept. 26, 2009 would go down in Philippine history as Typhoon Ondoy brought furious a rainfall which caused the worst flooding that hit Metro Manila in 40 years. I think there were quite a number of weddings scheduled that day, others canceled but a few persevered despite most of Manila was already underwater, including mine. For Mon Gajete and Ericka Mangalile, no typhoon was going to stop them from getting married.
Since I lived in Marikina, flood was a part of our life. During typhoon season, it is normal for water to rise in front of our house up to our garage. On that day, I left at an earlier time since just to be safe and went to Junie’s (my girlfriend) house first in Fort Bonifacio area. I then realized how bad things were when almost all the roads were flooded in Makati and C5 or there was heavy traffic and I could not get to Ericka’s hotel at Crowne Plaza in Ortigas. Eventually, I parked my car in Rockwell tried to take the MRT from Buendia, but I stood in-line for 2 hours but all the trains were jam-packed and people looked like they were in a sardine can. With my camera backpack gear I couldn’t fit going into the train. I must be honest that there were so many times I just wanted to quit and tell the couple I tried but nature would not allow me to shoot your wedding. But, as I continued to talk to Mon and Ericka’s coordinator, they were really bent on pushing through with their wedding and I thought, I need to exert all possible means, I think my conscience will not permit me to just give up so easily and I was constantly encouraged and reminded by our mentor, John Mateos Ong, thru text (thanks sir!).
So we came to a compromise and with the time constraint we agreed to skip shooting the hotel preparations and meet at the Nuestra Senora de Gracia in Guadalupe (NSDG), where they were getting married. With Edsa at a stand still, I decided to walk from Buendia MRT station to NSDG. I arrive there around 3pm, in time to dry my clothes as I waited for the the couple to arrive. Up to this point I was really worried about my family as no one was answering their cell phones. Finally I was able to get hold of my sister through text and learned that the whole ground floor of our house was flooded, and they were moving anything they can save to the second floor which was why they were not answering my calls. Talk about stress! I really prayed at the church and lifted everything that was happening that day to God, not only for my family but everyone affected by the typhoon that day.
I really honor Mon and Ericka’s strength and dependence on God as I witnessed how composed and positive they were amidst the chaos around them when they finally arrived in church. According to Minnie, our wedding coordinator, their parents were already advising them to cancel the wedding, but they have worked so hard in planning this day that they did not want to give up and quit. To make things more challenging, I also learned from them that both of the couple’s homes were almost submerged underwater. I tried to do my best to make things light and fun for the couple, but I can see how calm they were. The wedding ceremony became very intimate as family and close friends witnessed their vows. In my count there were a total of 27 people including the couple. At first, the couple only wanted the wedding to ceremony and was considering canceling their reception. Minne was also telling me that the caterer was 50/50 if they can make it to Tektite Towers, the venue for the reception. But as we were about to finish in church, Minnie got a call from the caterer that they can make it to Tektite and the reception pushed through, praise God! It was during the reception that everyone got emotional as they reminisced on what happened that day but I really thank the Lord for getting everyone through.
I also would like to honor Minnie and her team of coordinators for supporting Mon and Ericka. From our team, Gavian, Robert, Kirch for braving the typhoon and walking in flood just to get to the wedding. Also, John Mateos Ong’s constant encouragement and sending another photog in place of Arlene who got stranded in the South. In the end, the Lord blessed Mon and Ericka’s faithfulness and calmed the storm to give them one of the most heartfelt and intimate weddings I have covered. I also salute the other wedding photographers that day who covered weddings as they showed how committed we are to our couples. God bless!
