Archive for the ‘Photography’ 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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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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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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I’m about to leave for Singapore today to teach for our Purpose Driven Photographer. I’ll be teaching about Studio Lighting and Posing, two of my favorite topics. I’ll be back by Tuesday next week. There’s lots of exciting things lined-up for me to do there and I’ll be sure to share them when I get back. If you need to contact me, just shoot me an email.

Oh and by the way. We have a lot of events happening this weekend. First, we’re starting our 5th batch of Purpose Driven Photographer here in Manila this Saturday, and we have a total of 24 students, that’s a lot! Second, visit us at Eastwood City in Libis as we launch our LIFE Photography Program at Cradle Magazine’s Mommy and Baby Fair this May 8 and 9 (Saturday and Sunday). Visit our booth and check-out LIFE.  Also, Cradle’s Summer issue just came out and this is my first magazine cover! Third, we’re having our Before I do Worskhop this Sunday for engaged couples.

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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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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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Imagine Nation Photography’s Purpose Driven Photographer Workshop is a different kind of basic photography workshop. One get’s to learn from different photographers and  shoot after each session in order to apply what you learned. More importantly, we integrated the Purpose Driven Life Principles of Rick Warren which will help photographers discover their purpose and develop one’s character and attitude in order to succeed as a photographer.To learn more and please vist our site.

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After our Single’s for Christ Conference in Davao last Feb., some of us stayed to go sight seeing in Davao. One of the places we went to was Samal Island. Our newly engaged friends’ Tristan and Gen was with us so I took the opportunity of taking a quick engagement shoot. I had limited time to shoot since we dedicated the day to recreation (or more of sleeping I must say since most were really tired from the conference). What can you do in 30 minutes and with a 50mm lens?  A lot if you already have a vision of what you want to shoot. As a photographer there are so many external factors that sometimes you cannot control and you need to do your best with the time and resources you are provided with at a certain situation. Here’s how you can make the most out of shooting in 3o minutes at the beach with one lens. Congratulations Tristan and Gen!

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Last March 1-3, we trooped to Camsur Watersports Complex (CWC) in Pili, Camarines Sur for an internal workshop with Manny Librodo, an award-winning travel and glamour portrait photographer. Manny is on a league of his own and he has created his own unique style of portraits that has given so many accolades here and abroad. I already featured Manny on my previous article for Manila Standard, which, made me more excited because I know he brings a lot of fresh and creative ideas since he is not a wedding photographer and will give us a different perspective in shooting portraits. The first day was the actual shoot with models, the second day was on post-processing of images and the third day was for wakeboarding!  Here’s some of my favorite images from the workshop.

Kharu, Manny’s favorite and popular model/subject who has won for him so many photography contest awards, was able to join and model for our workshop. I must say she really is excellent at what she does and we we’re all captivated by charm and grace. More admirable is her humility and friendliness to everyone. We had lots of fun hanging-out with her and became our new wakeboard buddy.

We had local models to shoot there.

Monique, our mentor John Ong’s wife, also became our model that day.

Along with our beautiful apprentices who joined the fun and  modeled for us. Here’s Tin…

and Marie…

also Shyla…

After our workshop on Day 2, we still could not stop shooting. We were all inspired by Manny’s teachings that we decided to ask more of our Imagine Nation girls so we can practice some more. Here are the results…

Meet Jaja aka Rihanna

The Empress Jamie

and the water goddess Gracielle

Thank you again Manny for blessing us with your time and talent. We learned a lot from you. Also, thank to Kharu and all the Imagine Nation ladies for being such a cool sport in letting us shoot you all.

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