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I got a call last Monday a little after lunch…. The voice belonged to someone from Philippine Star and she asked if I was available for a shoot on Wednesday morning (that was yesterday) … I inquired what the shoot was all about and she said they needed a photographer for a shoot with Tweety de Leon and Amina Aranaz who they were featuring on their Allure Lifestyle section which comes out every Sunday …. I’ve never shot for the Philippine Star and I’ve never done *real* people-photography… and of all people, goddesses like Tweety and Amina agad ang ishooshoot ko?! Siyempre nag-panic agad ako =]… .
I was so tempted to say no thanks, after all, not only did I not have the skills and experience to shoot pretty people, but I also did not have the proper equipment at all… my camera suffers from extreme shutterlag and is only good for taking photos of things that don’t move, and despite all the lighting workshops I’ve attended with masters Jay Alonzo and Jo Avila, including 2 months worth of training for a soon-to-open baby photography studio I’ll be working in (abangan niyo yun =), my photography lighting skills couldn’t save me even if my life depended on it! =]
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But anyways… to make the long story short, I was convinced by my friends to grab the opportunity and shell out moolah to rent studio lights and a lights assistant for a day — after all, not every clueless newbie like me gets this kind of chance to take photos of such beautiful people right away plus have her work published in the Sunday lifestyle section of a very well-respected newspaper pa!
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We shot at the new Hyatt hotel near Roxas Boulevard in Manila and I took Tweety’s photos in their gorgeous, super opulent LiLi restaurant. Amina’s photos were taken in one of their 3 presidential suites which had a breathtaking panoramic view of the Manila Bay sunset. I was told that an overnight stay in the presidential suite costs something like US$2,000 per night. *whew*…
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Anyhow, Tweety and Amina were not at all the snobby primadonnas I had initially feared that they might be, they were actually really nice, patient and very easy to work with =) … I think my photos turned out pretty well especially those of Amina’s because by then, I had gotten more comfortable with the lights and the camera I was using, and also had more locations to shoot her in…the fact that there were less people hovering around also helped a lot since I didn’t feel so pressured to look like I knew exactly what I was doing =) …
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The shoot would not have been possible without the help of my friends — I just wanna say thanks to my girlfriends at Blow-Up Babies (Shells, Margaux, Pearl and Pam) and PeopleAsia (Tats and Sam) for urging me to do the shoot when I was thinking of turning it down … to u-know-who-u-are for going with me during the impromptu ocular inspection last Tuesday and for being super loving and patient with me despite the roller-coaster drama I was going through that day…. to Pearl and Jong for lending me their super precious kick-ass cams and to Pammy (the prettiest photography teacher I know) who was there for me the whole entire time because she knew how much I needed her there — not just for guidance and stand-in purposes, but also for art direction and super mega 24/7 tech support =) (gosh what would I do if I didn’t have friends like you? I love you all so so so much! =) (Photo at the side is Pam and our lighting guy, Junjun =)
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I’m so tempted to post the photos on my site but I’ll wait till they’re published na muna =) …. I’m told that it will come out on March 12 ata =)
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btw, I got featured at Pixelbureau.com …hehe la lang =)
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