Archive for the ‘Portraits’ Category

Back in Singapore

September 8, 2010

I was not scheduled to go back to Singapore to teach Purpose Driven Photographer SG. However, Jay Jay got sick and was hospitalized for acute gastroenteritis and could not travel. So last Wednesday, we decided that I would replace him. It was a good thing my weekend was free. I believe there are no coincidences or that things happen by chance but God always plans things for a reason. I was talking to Jay Jay and told him maybe God wanted him to slow down and rest. Going back to Singapore has been full of blessings and wonderful surprises.

On the first day of my trip,  I bumped into to Francis, a friend from our SFC community, at the airport and surprisingly was on the same flight as mine. He was following Marie, his Fiance. It was his first time there so I brought him to Marie’s hotel and we had dinner at Suntec City.

Then comes PDP Workshop Day. I was going to teach composition and posing for portraits. This was the place I stayed at Tech Whye ave.


I was blessed with the kindness and hospitality of PDP SG Organizers. That’s Glyzel, Stephen and Ledda (front to back). Stephen and Glyzel are getting married on October and will be shot by our mentor, John Mateos Ong. Here we are waiting for our taxi.

After more than a half day of lecture. We all went to Esplanade area to practice shooting. We had model volunteers Kevin, Connie and Shanana. Here are some of my takes from the day.

Presenting the 2nd Batch of Purpose Driven Photgrpahers

After a hard day’s work. Some of our students/friends from the 1st batch took me out. Stephen, Connie, Lorraine and Raymond (her husband) took me to Lao Pa Sat for some authentic hawker food.

After dinner, we headed to Clark Quay to relax and unwind. The nice thing about Singapore is that you’re free to shoot anywhere and the place had so many nice spots to shoot, so we made the most of the evening and fired away.

Finally, I have a decent shot…

Thanks to Connie, Raymond and Lorraine!For a night around town.

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I also enjoy studio photography. I like the challenge of creating and shaping light in a confined space such as a studio. Some photographers find it limiting with just working with a background and studio lights but I find it refreshing to go out of my comfort zone to really plan and think about how I light a model/subject.

As part of promoting Purpose Driven Photographer, we tied-up with Mellow 94.7 FM. Shayla, one of our Imagine Nation apprentice, also happens to be a DJ at 94.7 and she introduced us to Chloe, one of their heads. They were coming up with a new website and they needed new pictures of their DJ’s, so here’s the shoot I did. Thanks to Dianne Capili and Lai De Guzman for assisting me.

Click on this link to see more – Mellow 94.7 FM DJ’s

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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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Purpose Driven Photographer Singapore is our first international workshop. Thanks to Carlo Palma, former Imagine Nation Groom who is based in Singapore, for making this possible. We’ve already started the first session last April 17 with our mentor, John Mateos Ong,  teaching Basic Photography Principles. I’ll be teaching Studio Lighting and Posing for Portraits on May 8 and I’ll be in Singapore from May 7-11 . Also, I’ll be available to shoot prenups/engaments, portraits or anything you can imagine…Just shoot me an email.

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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.

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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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Its December and for wedding photographers it signifies the start of  peak-wedding season. Our studio’s sched is crazy to say the least with lots of consecutive-days shooting. What a great way to start my December with an out-of-town shoot in Iloilo. I just arrived in our hotel, Iloilo Midtown Hotel,  and we’ve been so blessed to be pampered by our couple. From constant email updates before our trip, being picked-up at the airport, scrumptous chinese food at the hotel for lunch and providing us with WIFI connection. We are really flattered how Meileen, our bride,  went out of her way to really make our stay as comfortable as possible.

We were greeted by the bride herself – the hotel is owned by the bride by the way.We’re really excited to shoot their wedding tomorrow but before that I’d just like to share Sam and Meileen’s engagement shoot we did last July in Boracay. I wanted to share this sooner but Meileen asked me to hold this blog post so she can surprise her friends in Iloilo. We shot the two the day before our mentor’s wedding, John Mateos Ong, last July 2.  Meileen’s make-up was done by fab make-up artist, Madge Lejano.

We went to Alta Vista Resort for our first set. I love the place as it offers a stylish location to shoot Sam and Meileen. We started by the pool area.

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Then we moved to the function areas beside the pool.

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Off to the beach, that why we’re in Boracay ey!

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sunset shots to cap a lovely day of shooting a super nice couple!

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Tomorrow’s gona be a blast as I’m shooting with  Gracielle and Tiqui. Now time for a much needed power nap…

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KENYO: The Album Cover Shoot

September 15, 2009

This was my first album cover project and I shot their group and individual portraits at our studio last May. Finally! after months preparation, their new album is now out in the market.  The CD’s concept, design and layout. was done by my friend Michelle De Guzman who did such an awesome work!

Here’s the Front Cover

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Some Pages from the Inside

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and the back cover…

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Presenting Kenyo’s Crew

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Mcoy Fundales – Vocals, Guitars (btw, he used to part of Orange and Lemons – remember the Pinoy Big Brother Song?)

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Ace del Mundo – Guitars

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Ariz Villalon – Drums

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Cleng Ocampo – Guitars

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JM del Mundo – Bass Guitars

If you’d like to know more about them check out Kenyo’s Facebook Page. Congratulations guys!

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