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’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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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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Sam and Meileen’s wedding had a number of first for me. It was my first wedding last December and my first to shoot one in Iloilo. Also, it was my first time to also work with Marvi of Cinemaworks , who by the way did a great job with their onsite video. Things became more fun and exciting since I shot this with Tiqui del Rosario and Gracielle Hernandez. It was actually Tiqui who got an inquiry from Meileen over the internet and after a few exchanges, she decided to get us for her wedding. We shot Sam and Meileen’s prenup last July, and it was the first time we had a chance to meet them. I believe this wedding would be one of my most memorable for 2009. The atmosphere was fun and relaxed that made shooting a whole lot of fun and the setting was in the lovely city of Iloilo. We also got meet up with Sheena and Cecil of Mayad Studios , they took us out a day before the wedding, thanks guys!
Fast forward things and it was already December. All of us we’re excited to finally shoot this couple and experience Iloilo. We were really overwhelmed with the hospitality of Sam and Meileen’s families. Even before we arrived in Iloilo, Meileen really was hands-on in communicating to us all our travel arrangements and when we got there, we felt as if we were also like family. From our accomodations to the yummy food(every meal felt like a fiesta), we got a taste of the famous Iloilo hospitality. Here’s how their day went…Thank you Sam and Meileen and God bless!
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.
Then we moved to the function areas beside the pool.
Off to the beach, that why we’re in Boracay ey!
sunset shots to cap a lovely day of shooting a super nice couple!
Tomorrow’s gona be a blast as I’m shooting with Gracielle and Tiqui. Now time for a much needed power nap…
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Day After sessions have become popular especially for destination weddings since couples want to make the most of their location. Also, sometimes with the time constraints during wedding day, we cannot fit shooting at all the locations. This was the case for Dan and Collen and so the next day we set out to shoot more at Pagudpud. We rose up early and set out to explore the resort’s coast line and we had an amazing time. To my future couple’s that I’ll be shooting, I do encourage you to consider having a Day After session. It doesn’t have to be strictly the next day after the wedding, we can even do it weeks or months after.
We started at the resort and I saw lovely grees all around. I decided to start here in order to create different sceneries for the two and not just be limited to the colors of the beach.
Then off to the beach! When we got there, no sun was in sight and it was cloudy. But as I placed them along the beach, the sun for a brief moment broke out of the clouds and provide me an oppurtunity to capture it sidelighting the couple which created more warmth and drama for this shot.
As Jayjay can attest, I tried Jerry Ghionis’ “Pinch” technique. See for yourself what Dan “pinched”, very effective and fun!
There was also a rocky area that offered different textures which evoked a different mood.
I always set out to capture couples when they are not looking at the camera or when they think that I’m not shooting them. Most of the times I get a rich variety of natural emotions from them when I just step back and let them do their thing.
It was really a blessing that the weather was perfect during and aftert Dan and Colleen’s wedding. A contrast the night before when they told me it was raining so hard the night before their wedding. We finished the day with scenes from a perfect sky. God’s hand was truly at work that day!
This has got to be one of my favorite Before I Do Sessions this year. From the ancestral home of Cyril and the clothes they planned and wore (along with my help)…everything gave out a retro vibe. In line with the whole theme, I decided to make the images look old school. Cyril and Ferdine were so game to try out anything which made this a one of kind groovy shoot!
A homage to Cyril’s grandparent’s. Did I mention this ancestral was periodic 60’s-70’s architecture that’s why I suggested to them that they wear clothes similar to that era.
We started a one of the 4 living room areas, this was one big house.
As we entered the house we were greeted by this cool fountain so we just had to shoot there.
A nice staircase to shoot…
Time to go outside the house which offered rich greenery and the afternoon golden sunlight…
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After the countdown, it’s finally here! Our new home on the web! visit us at www.imaginenationphoto.com
As we reach the end of our countdown, let us show you the reason why imagine nation studio exists www.imaginenationphoto.com . Hang on tonight as we unveil a new look to the Imagine Nation Website!!!
Also, See you tomorrow and Sunday at the Wedding Expo at The Forum PICC, look for the ImagineNation Photography booth!
