extremely late blog post #5: the wedding of aries and mylene

january 24, 2009

last year, i could vividly remember two things about mylene, one of my constant office chatmates. first, even though she was loveless then, she would insist that i would take pictures of her wedding. being one of my photography “fans” she insisted that it was non-negotiable… later on i realized that she just wanted to be featured in our blog. 😀

secondly, during her birthday celebration, she was being teased – binibiro tungkol kay aries. back then i didn’t know there was something romantic going on between them… yun pala meron. 😉

fast forward to january of this year. it was aries and mylene’s wedding… and sure enough i was there taking pictures. 🙂

selle and i came in late (the long commute was to blame. 😆) but not too late as we arrived just in time for the processional.





aries and mylene’s wedding was a family affair – a union between two close-knit clans. it seemed like every member of the family was so into the wedding (from the preps to the actual wedding itself)… a sure sign of acceptance of aries and mylene by their respective families.







speaking of families… their respective samsung “families” were present as well – despite their wedding falling on a working saturday. i guess we passed the test of friendship… 😀






like most southern tagalog weddings, aries and mylene’s wedding reception had that festive atmosphere in it. undoubtedly wanting to join in the celebration, relatives and friends came in throves – so much so that we had to split up (us samsung guests, i mean… not selle and i. 😛) just to get seats. it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we got seated up front where we had a clear view of the newlywed couple. 🙂






congratulations, aries and mylene… and congratulations on your upcoming baby too. 😉(ayan ha… na-feature ka na sa blog namin. 😀)

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extremely late blog post #3: an eight hour wedding

january 2, 2009.

maileen is a friend of mine way back in college. with her fascination for tori amos and indigo girls songs, musically we clicked. heck, we would sometimes even go to gigs together. she was the eclectic one in the barkada. a talker and a poet. she was a rich kid and, consequently, was occasionally my driver. 😆 after graduation, she stayed in the country for a while but she felt her calling was in the states so she migrated there. communication would be in the form of emails since then and it occured by season – there was the season of silence and then there’s the season of rapid replies. then one day last year, she emailed asking about weddings. my friend’s getting married! and it was the season of rapid replies once again. 🙂

initially, maileen wanted a boracay wedding but logistics would’ve been too much for an overseas bride like her. so she switched to a san agustin/intramuros wedding which was appropriate for her desired filipiniana theme – a perfect way for her husband-to-be and in-laws-to-be to get to know the filipino culture. this was their day and she wanted it special. 🙂

from time to time, maileen would email me asking questions and suggestions about different aspects of her wedding. to her, i was “the wedding expert” – our wedding preps email blog was to blame for this reputation. 😀 somewhat pressured, i would give my best answers… hoping they were all right. 😉


i guess my answers were right. 🙂

like in all wedding preps, time flew quickly and before we knew it, it was wedding day already. the ceremony was scheduled at 2 pm. we arrived five minutes before 2 and i was leisurely putting on my barong on the san agustin parking area when i noticed that the huge church doors were closing. nah, it can’t be. maileen can’t be taking her bridal walk this early. it ain’t even 2 pm yet. but curiously, i took a closer look and was surprised that she was just about to take her march. hurriedly, i called selle and grab our camera and rushed towards san agustin. unfortunately, before i was able to get my camera ready, she started her march towards the church already. i tried snapping off a few shots but since i haven’t done any test shots yet, the settings were all off and i ended up with a bunch of blurred shots. 😦

afterwards, i tried my best to make up for it the rest of the wedding day. again, low-light conditions were a challenge but i tackled it better this time around (but it was still tough though).


along with the wedding program, fans were also given away. how thoughtful… 🙂













after the ceremony, we went across the street to barbara’s for cocktails. here we got to enjoy great food and got to chat with college friends. it is also here where we came up with the idea of packaging our “gifts” using souvenir items located on a shop just downstairs. geniuses. 🙂


the newlyweds on their way to barbara’s. checkout one of the threelogy boys in the background taking a quick yosi break. 😀


this combo escorted the guests from san agustin all the way to barbara’s where they played ambient music.


after their post-ceremony pictorial sessions, the newlyweds dropped by barbara’s and joined in the chit-chats of their guests.





another round of photo sessions for maileen and nick. 🙂

after more than an hour, the celebration ain’t over yet as we proceeded to the reception venue – the metropolitan museum.



yes, a wedding reception inside museum. not only did it give the guests something to do to spend the time while waiting, it also introduced the foreign guests to philippine culture. ang galing. 🙂


the bishop’s and the salazar’s through the years



like any typical filipino, the only times we’ve been into a museum in our country were during class field trips. 🙂 after seeing this museum, i think we should visit them more often.
btw, this was filipiniana wedding but it was only a couple days before that i realized that we should be in filipiniana attire (duh. 😛). so my barong had to be unearthed from our cabinet and selle had to get filipiniana accessories. her pearl necklace and her handbag were all bought just for this occasion. 🙂



the venue was unique… the program was unique also. none of the usual wedding reception programs and ceremonies. no emcees were needed too. from time to time, someone will give a speech about and for maileen and nick. the speeches were entertaining and captivating. the speeches were so good that it felt like it was a game of can-you-top-this. bravo.




in-between the speeches food was served, guest get to talk and maileen and nick mingled with the guests also. how cool is that? 🙂



my fellow “photographers” lala and migoy. they’re way better than me… 🙂



conversations varied throughout the reception. some were serious… while others were not so serious. 🙂


anna talking with arguably the richest guy in our pisay batch, lemlem of mimi and karl.



eight hours of wedding celebration and we stayed – and ENJOYED – every minute of it (or at least almost because we left a bit early). hats off to you maileen and nick, this was one unique wedding. 🙂

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extremely late blog post #2: new year in lucena

january 1, 2009.

every year during the Christmas season, we go home to lucena to relax and unwind. for this year, instead of going home during Christmas, we decided to go home for the new year… and it was a family reunion of sorts as my sister (along with john and miggy) went home also at the same time as we did. if only my brother (and geri and toni, of course) was there too and we would’ve been complete.

like always, i spent a considerable time walking around our house snapping off pictures. sayang lang kasi it was raining most of the time we were there so we didn’t get to walk around the village to take more pictures. here’s some of the photos i got during our short stint at our house in lucena.


you know it’s new year if there’s a bunch of fruits on the kitchen table… 13 fruits all-in-all. 🙂



images from the living room. we got the vases from our former colleague, radz.



images from one of the bedrooms. since we migrated to the city, our house has turned into a boarding house with eight rooms for rent.


papa used to place this proudly on his office table. i would want to have one of these someday…


yup, that’s a real deer. 🙂


i have a similar version of this shot before… but i seem to never grow tired of clothespins. 😀




some shots around the garden.



huge black dog making “ligaw” to our dog. 🙂




we gave miggy a lego set for Christmas and he immediately assembled it. 🙂



more pictures of miggy and his toys.


family pictures. 🙂


plenty of food to welcome the new year. 😀

all-in-all it was an enjoyable and refreshing stay at lucena… like always. with our impending car purchase (ang tagal naman! 😆), we’ll most probably visit more often. 🙂

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impromptu photoshoot

like any ayala development project, ayala greenfield estates is a sight to behold. with a vast expanse of greens and fantastic views brought about by its elevation, we’ve always dreamed of living there someday. 🙂

with jc and angel’s wedding reception ending early afternoon, we took advantage of the beautiful scenery and had an impromptu photoshoot. 🙂

we had fun and we’ll probably do this more often in the near future. 😉


photo taken by jhay.

click here for the higher resolution version of the photos.

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a Christmas wedding

with all the lights, the carols, the gifts and just the spirit of the season, Christmas puts everybody in a celebratory mood. and just a day after Christmas, we were off to another celebration… the wedding of jc and angel.

angel is a former officemate of selle. years of working together and with their desks being of close proximity to each other (thereby giving them plenty of opportunities na mag-tsismis-an 😀), their friendship grew to the point that even when angel transferred to another department and then subsequently to greener pastures, their friendship remained. i could vividly remember an incident which probably could describe their friendship. we once saw angel at a local grocery store here in laguna and they were so thrilled to see each other that they scared a couple kids away with their over-the-top shrieks. 😀 it was a beautiful sight, seeing how close they are. 🙂

again, i played the unofficial backup photographer role (along with macoy wielding his olympus dslr) for this wedding. with this being the third time for us attending a wedding at the same church and reception venues, i tried covering the wedding differently. i’m not sure if i succeeded though. 🙂 but it was fun shooting with macoy and in this church because guests can creep in up close (had to… wala pa akong telephoto lens eh. hehe) and take those closeup shots… something i usually cannot do at large churches. since this was a daytime wedding, lighting was sufficient and low-light shooting was not much of a problem. buti na lang. 🙂

here’s are a sampling of the shots i produced at jc and angel’s wedding (click here for higher resolution photos):






another thing i like about this church is the presence of a loft… and anyone can go up to it and take overhead shots like these.



a couple of ceremony shots.




the first kiss sequence.
step 1: gaze into each other’s eyes and smile.
step 2: kiss
step 3: hug
so sweet. 🙂





post ceremony shots at the altar… with the first two being post-processed.


food was prepared by our favorite caterer, kaye. 🙂



dessert buffet laid-out in style… something that is expected from k by cunanan. 🙂



the cake cutting and wine toasting ceremonies.


the newlyweds enjoying the singles’ game.


the father of the groom leading a toast after giving a very touching speech… a highlight of the reception.


the gaynilo family followed up the touching speech with their very own touching gimik starting with a handwritten note read by his sibling, followed by a song rendered by his other sibling which segued to the father-daughter dance. another highlight.


the smiles say it all. 🙂

congratulations, jc and angel. remember the wise words spoken at your reception… they’re true. 🙂 married life is fun… enjoy it every day. 🙂

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usapang dslr: our share

it’s been almost half-a-year since we got hold of our dslr. never the bookish type, we just gave our d40 manual a quick run through. we then treated photography more like a trial and error, learn-on-the-fly thing for us thereby, making every technique learned a eureka moment. 🙂 after a few thousand clicks, we’ve experienced the high of producing a winner and the low of missing a shot. for each shutter click, whatever the resulting photo may be, photography has been a worthwhile experience… and will continue to be.

this passion and enthusiasm for photography of ours has influenced a few of our friends… resulting in their respective dslr purchases. 😀 immediately after, it was email exchanges of questions and answers. soon we realized that it would be better if we form our very own mini-forum.

a few posts back, we blogged about this mini-photography forum. since that particular blog post showcased shots from members of the forum except ours, friends and readers reacted by demanding for our own shots. so here are a few shots that we have shared in our usapang dslr mini-forum. most of these shots were taken within a one month window… and almost all were taken just outside our house. 😀

(note: these are highly compressed images. for better details, click here and zoom in to see the higher resolution photos.)




my first attempts at panning, a photography technique, and was quite content with the results. i had to cut my panning exercise short though as the guys were giving me weird looks as i click away (as evident by the last photo above. 😀).



rain usually spoil photo sessions but once the rain stops, go out and shoot… and you’ll see that foliage + rain drops do make a great combination. 🙂

one weekend, we tried this photo exercise where we walked around our neighborhood…






…then went back home at shot more just outside our house…






…feeling a bit tired, we went back inside and had a few of these. 😀



these are some of our humble contributions to our mini-forum. definitely more will be shared as we continue to learn more about photography. 🙂

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usapang dslr

we have this email thread which started with just four recipients talking about digital photography. we all yield nikon cameras and we’re all amateurs (except for the one we call master sensei 😉) so the dialogue exchanges are both relatable and interesting. 🙂

it’s nice to see friends being caught up with this photography thingy. i remember almost a year ago that it was only vhlad and i who would have email exchanges about photography. soon after, he got his d80 and got a head start into the dslr world. mid this year, i got my d40 and plunged into the dslr world as well. i’m not actually sure if they were inspired by my photography but soon after, vena got a d60 from his wife, neriz (ahhwwww… how sweet… 😉). not to be outdone, rex then got a spanking new d90! whoa! hence, the usapang dslr forum was born. 🙂

here are the pioneering members:

vhlad aka master sensei
undeniably the most skilled (and most experienced) photographer in the group. we ask the questions, he provides the answers hence, the label, master sensei.



vena aka stealth shooter
plays the underdog/novice role but quite possibly rolls over and laughs at the quality of our shots that we share. 🙂



rex aka gadget mogul
the latest to have a dslr in the group but he has the nastiest camera (d90) and he has an extra lens already. now, he’s planning on getting an sb900 and an ultra-wide lens to add to his arsenal. 🙂



we got the prosumer, entry-level pro camera models covered (d40: me, d60: vena, d80: vhlad, rex: d90) so as not to ruin the trend, we jokingly say that the next member of this so-called club should have a d200. 😆 the club is beginning to grow with the addition of rhila (who gave his husband a d60 (even though he’s asking for a d300 😆)) and the pending addition of rex lomeda (who can’t seem to decide what camera model to buy… d80 or 40d? unfair comparison we say…)(newsflash! lomeda now has a d90! 😀).

hopefully, someday we can just gather together and go on a photoshoot… be it in australia, california or laguna. 😀

keep shooting and sharing, guys…

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cars, steaks, cheesecakes and friends

hanging out with friends used to be soooo easy that we used to do it on a regular basis. but as we grew older, responsibilities grew and finding a common free time to hang out has turned into a difficult task. so when an opportunity to spend time with friends comes along, we grab it. when we can find an excuse to bring guys together, we let our friends know… and that’s what exactly happened during the 2nd philippine international motor show. 😉

using the event and our “plan” to buy a car (kahit parehas kaming d pa maalam mag-drive 😆) as an excuse, we, friends, managed to open up our busy schedules to spend some time together.

and together we went to the world trade center and was collectively surprised by the huge turnout. sobrang daming tao that we had to park outside of wtc. this was our first time (kami ni selle) to attend a car show so we really didn’t know what to expect. gusto lang naman namin mag-“window shopping”, if that term applies to cars. 🙂

as we entered the hall, we went straight to the honda section (stopping only briefly at the new toyota corolla altis) to look at the brand new 2008 honda jazz, a car we’ve been wanting and a car vena and neriz have been pushing us to buy. 😀 we were not disappointed. the new jazz didn’t only look good, if felt good too. sabi nga nina vena at neriz, “parang hina-hug ka ng upuan.” how’s that for comfort? 🙂 add to that the tons of features (everybody loved those cup holders 😆) and the highly efficient machine (published fuel consumption rates of 20 km/liter), we gave the jazz two thumbs up. now, time to save up… 😉



after the jazz fascination, we then hopped from section to section, car to car. we all oogled about the cr-v (eto talaga ang maganda) while francis checked out the executive class accord right beside it. vena and francis gave the swift a failing mark (pangit daw ang loob) while neriz totally ignored the carens (i wonder why? 😆). we were shocked about the price of the i30, drooled over the c30, intrigued by the aveo hatch (at least kami, sina vena eh ayaw nito 😀), wondered where the getz was located… all the while, kathleen was keeping tab where everyone was (nanay na nanay 😀).





vena and neriz checking out the jazz, swift and i10 amongst others. we’re sure mauna pa sila magka-sasakyan kaysa sa amin. 😉


my stylish wife with the stylish c30.


selle’s baby phat sweater came in handy especially in the less crowded areas of the hall. ang ginaw… brrr…

after going through all the cars, we decided to eat a very late lunch (d pa pala sila nag-lu-lunch) at blue wave and ended up eating steaks. since, alanganin yung oras nang pagpunta namin, we had the place all to ourselves. 🙂



with kathleen, neriz and selle around, we gotta have dessert so we then transferred to cheesecake etc… for, what else, cheesecake. 🙂

here we spent another hour or so of catching up, exchanging stories and having massive amounts of laughs. 😀



in between the conversations, i snapped off a few shots using our d40 focusing on patterns, shapes and anything visually interesting.





we joked about having coffee after but it was getting late so we decided to do it on another date… and whenever that would be, we’re sure it would be as fun as it was this day. 😀

thanks guys… san na nga ang break-in? 😉

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ryan & teresa: their 2nd wedding

they reside in singapore. they met in singapore. they fell in love in singapore. then, early this year, they got married… where else? in singapore. but even though everything about them seems singapore-ish, they’re still filipinos by heart hence they decided to tie the knot once again… this time in the heart of manila. 🙂

maria teresa is a former colleague and a close friend of mine. despite her “katarayan” reputation 😛, teresa is really a kind-hearted soul and a hopeless romantic. that’s why we were so happy when her once dormant love life came back to life as successive news of her having a boyfriend, being engaged and then getting married made its way to us.

san agustin was teresa’s choice of church. it’s been her dream church since she stepped foot on it way back in her college days. its the church’s splendor, its majestic structure and the extremely long aisle that got to teresa. like any other bride who dreamt of their own wedding, she made sure she got what she wanted. 😉

we arrived at san agustin way too early, catching the wedding prior to ryan and teresa’s not even starting yet. 😆 well, at least, hindi lang kami yung overly excited kasi meron din mga dumating ng mga ganung oras. 😀 this just goes to show that despite the heavy rains, we, their friends, wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t be late. (naks! 🙂) seeing familiar faces long been unseen is one of the perks of attending weddings… and there where plenty of “kamusta ka na?!” exchanges before the start of the ceremony.

armed with our d40, i tried to play backup photographer again. and same as previous weddings, i had an extremely hard time adjusting to the poor lighting conditions of san agustin. kaya nga halos wala akong matinong shot during the ceremonies. 😦 good thing i was able to make it up during the post ceremony activities and during the reception. whew. buti na lang talaga kasi, collectively, the pictures that i took is our gift to the newlyweds. 🙂

here’s a few images from ryan and teresa’s wedding:


the bride being prepped up by the coordinators just before her march.



the ceiling, the chandeliers, the altar… the grandeur of san agustin church.



the delight and excitement of the guests and the newlyweds at the recessional.

teresa’s makeup was light and fresh, which was expected from her makeup artist (and selle’s), lanie acedillo. we were looking for lanie after the ceremony but unfortunately failed to locate her. sayang… she was looking for us din daw according to teresa. 😦

the reception was held at the 21st floor of the pan pacific hotel, a hidden gem right in the middle of the busy streets of malate. attending a reception on top of a building was a first for us. 🙂 like most hotel receptions, the room was classy and the food was abundant… it must’ve been really expensive. 🙂




some wedding details shot while waiting for the program to start


while others were busy having their photos taken, some were pre-occupied texting their “loved ones.” 😉


ryan and teresa’s grand entrance… in lomo.


a photojournalistic shot of the speech of the father of the bride as the newlyweds look on.





(from top to bottom) 1) the bride with the bachelorettes before the singles game
2) the bachelors huffing & puffing during their game
3) the mixed reactions of the bachelorettes as the game goes on
4) the eventual winners 🙂


the first dance… again in lomo.


the 10 second kiss… to the delight of ryan. 😉


our usual post wedding pictorial with my wife. always a stunner. 😉

congratulations (again), ryan and teresa… and advanced congratulations for your upcoming baby troy. 🙂

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delayed post no. 4: behind a (pretending-to-be) backup photographer’s lens

what is a backup photographer?

backup photographers, as the name implies, back up the main photographer. they shoot the essentials at unusual angles and shoot the often overlooked (the candids, the guests… etc) aspects of an event. with a plethora of emotions, reactions and activities in a wedding, the main photographer will most probably miss a number of shots hence, backup photographers are starting to become in vogue in the wedding industry.

yammy is a close friend of mine at work. eventhough we’re from different departments, we’ve worked together most especially because of training. a person full of energy, yammy and sim finally decided to tie the knot after ten years of being in a relationship… and we’re privileged to be one of the select few who were invited. 🙂

during sim and yammy’s wedding, charles (my departmentmate) and i took the liberty of pretending to be backup photographers just for the sake of experience and stretching out the capabilities of our dslr’s. 🙂 funny nga kasi napagkamalan pa akong official photographer noong wedding coordinator. 😆 one thing we learned through the experience is that in low-light situations (like in most wedding receptions), we need either a faster lens and/or an external flash. ang hirap pag low light, most of our photos came out blurred. 😦 we’ll just chalk that up to experience. 🙂

here’s how my backup photographer experiment came out:


charles with his brand new canon 450d and the rest of yammy’s “star wars” barkada… in lomo.


my wife anticipating the start of the ceremony… while the others were busy doing somethine else. 😀


familiar faces took up majority of the entourage and i had to make sure i took a photo of them. kung meron lang kaming portable photo printer i would’ve charged them 50 pesos each. 😆


the anticipation and emotion of the bridal march.




a few photojournalistic shots of the ceremony.


i wasn’t the only one snapping away photos. selle brought our trusty point-and-shoot and got off lovely shots as well. time to buy another dslr? 😉



reception venue shots… before and during the reception.


it’s rare that we get a photo of us or even myself during weddings. so thanks to charles (left photo) and my wife, selle, (right photo) for great shots above. 🙂

as a gift, i made yammy a photo-slideshow that shown during the reception.



i hate to admit it pero uminit ulo ko while the avp was being shown kasi ba naman the male emcee decided to do a running commentary habang pinapalabas yung avp. duh? that kinda ruined the first part of the avp. grrrr…

here’s sim and yammy’s photoslideshow… minus the unwanted commentary.



to sim and yammy, welcome to the wonderful world of married life. make sure to relish each moment… there’ll be plenty each day. 🙂

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