Carmencita's 50th

It was such an honour... and pleasure... to have met Carmencita (or 'Tita Carmen' as we call her) and have the privilege to be her photographer on the night she celebrated her 50th birthday. It was such a beautiful night... with lots of specially choreographed dance numbers as part of the celebration. Tita Carmen danced so gracefully she would put any teenagers to shame... she's got the moves! :) There were lots of beautiful speeches about Tita Carmen from families and friends which proves how truly amazing she is.

Unbeknown to many of you who might read this blog... Tita Carmen is the mother of a very popular and very beautiful Filipina-Australian actress "Anne Curtis" in the Philippines (blue dress). Her other daughter "Jasmin Curtis-Smith" is equally stunning and is now beginning to follow her older sister's footsteps (yellow dress). I must say though... that all of Anne's and Jasmin's talent and beauty... all came from this amazing woman.

On the night of her birthday... Tita Carmen was definitely the star! :)

Here are just some of the photos I wanted to share...  :)

 

  

Mikaela Rose

Mikaela Rose... such a beautiful name... for such a beautiful baby!

Mikaela Rose is David and Kim's daughter... David is my best buddy... :)

My wife and I have 2 boys already... and looking at Mikaela, makes us wanna have a baby girl even more! Well guess what? We might just find out tomorrow (2nd Dec 2010) whether we're gonna have a girl or not! My wife is pregnant and tomorrow is the day we find out whether we're having a baby girl... or a 3rd boy! :)

Anyway... back to Mikaela... She's just too cute! Especially with that Wonder Woman outfit! She's gonna be a heartbreaker one day! Or maybe not... coz David already bought a shot gun just in case anybody tries anything funny! HEHEHE

Just Kidding Mikaela!  :)

Emmy and Belle

Emmy and Belle are sisters. Emmy is the older of the two...

Time flies... I remember when I used to photograph Emmy when she was much smaller... I used to say to Luke (Emmy and Belle's father) that Emmy is my "model". But that was back when Belle wasn't born yet. I think now... Belle is giving Emmy a run for her money in modeling... what do you think? hehe

Nah... they are BOTH absolutely gorgeous!!!

Emmy used to be shy... but now, she's like "Take a photo of me now! Take a photo of me now!" She's definitely a model in the making! Belle is still a bit shy... but I think it won't be for long. :)

Looking forward to my next photo session with these two little angels next year!

Photos below are shown from Earliest to Latest. :)

Brother and Sister

So... I finally got my toy! Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM!!! :)

The weather had been really crap the whole week though... Rain after rain after rain... Good for the very limited fresh water supply of Melbourne though! :)

Anyway... I asked my brother and sister if they wouldn't mind modeling for me as I really wanted to try my new lens out! Well... I didn't even have to ask twice!

My brother (Jeffrey) is such a poser! My sister... not really. hehe

Anyway... I gotta keep practicing anyway. Never stop practicing... different shots... poses... composition... That way, I'd never stop learning. :)

Here's a few shots that night... It was almost 8pm when we took these shots. Had to bump the camera ISO to 400 to 800... and even 1600 towards the end. Lucky the Canon 7D is still pretty clean at those ISO levels. :)

 

Junior and Rachel

My bro-in-law and I shot a wedding a couple of weeks ago...

This wedding was different from what I normally thought weddings would be like... Certainly different from my own wedding...

Typical wedding goes something like this:

- Photographer goes to groom's house takes some photos while the groom and groomsmen get ready
- Photographer goes to bride's house and takes some photos while the bride and bridesmaid get ready
- Everyone goes to the church where the ceremony usually happens - photographer takes photos at the church
- After church, photographer and bridal entourage goes to different places to do photoshoot
- Then after a couple of hours of shooting... everyone goes back to the reception

It's a typical wedding schedule right?

Well... this wedding we shot 2 Saturdays ago was a bit different... The bridal entourage didn't get ready in the morning. We went with the bride and groom to the church, but we weren't allowed to go inside... So we didn't get to take photos of the actual ceremony. Went back to the grooms and brides houses and that's when everybody got ready... This was about 1pm already... Unfortunately, by the time everybody was ready it was 4pm already... and the reception was at 5pm. So we didn't end up going to any planned photoshoot locations... We had to go straight to the reception... We were caught slighty off-guard because we had a plan that we could not execute...

I'm telling you this not because it was a bad experience... It wasn't a bad experience... It was just different and we respect that... because that's how they planned their day. It's their wedding day afterall... they can do whatever they want. And they were VERY HAPPY regardless of what we didn't get to do that day... And that's what counts... :)

I guess the lesson I learned from this one is that... you have to learn to adopt to the situation presented to you... especially when it's a situation you weren't expecting. You have to learn to utilise what you have... and not worry about what's missing...

Anyway... here are some of the shots I took. I don't have much photos of the bride... but my bro-in-law does...

Birthday Boy - Surya!

A lady from work had hired me to take photos of her friend's family as a gift for their son "Surya" who turned 2 last Saturday. Part of the package was to photograph the family first before the birthday party... and then take photos at the party as well. Turned out quite well... :)

Surya is such an adorable little boy! :) At first he didn't smile as much... as he was probably shy... but then we let him play at the playground... until he was all happy... Not long after he started smiling... then laughing... and from then onwards... I just kept clicking! :)

Here are some of the shots from the day... :)