Owner. Primary Trouble Maker. Wedding Photographer Extraordinaire.
Forgive me, this is a long one. If you would like to get to know me, here's your chance.
Forgive me, this is a long one. If you would like to get to know me, here's your chance.
I have always enjoyed photography even when I was a kid. I remember getting a plastic camera, a red one when I was just about 5 years old. My dad was the one who told me about the relationship between the shutter speed and the aperture. Growing up, I always was the one who brought the camera to school events, field trips and family vacations. My mom always complained that when the photos come out, there are more photos of the mountains and the beach than of them. Even though my mom wasn't the tech savvy one, she knew that I should always have a camera in hand.
In college, together with a fellow enthusiast, I formed the University of the Philippines Photographers Society. Little did we know that a couple of years after the organization was formed that the greatest revolution in photography would happen. More than fifteen years later, we are very active in University and our community. We have hundreds of members all around the world who are professionals in their own right but are still passionate photographers.
My career in photography, much like most photographers, started part time. One day, I found myself inside the Little White Chapel on
Las Vegas boulevard with a couple whose portraits I was taking. I joked with the staff and asked if they were hiring. They said they were. I started on a Saturday in June - the chapel did 150 weddings that day. 150. I have since moved to a different Chapel to work. To date, I've photographed almost 9,000 couples.
I was thrown in the fire and never left.
When I meet with my couples, I ask and tell them a couple of things. As you can imagine, working in a Las Vegas wedding chapel there is not a long courtship - they get who's on the schedule. My opportunity to get amazing photos is in the first five minutes of talking to them - even before I take the first portrait photo. I explain to my couple that they don't have to be professional models to get amazing wedding pictures. I tell them that they only need to be themselves. Each couple has their own language and their own way of making each other smile.
My job is to make sure they look great next to each other, next to the background and shoot the genuine moments between them two. I would coach all my couples to a point where they will be so comfortable in front of a camera that they will want more. I typically have about 30 minutes with each couple to get a couple of dozen great photos done. At the end of the day, I want each of my couples to enjoy the shoot and enjoy looking at the photos 20 days and 20 years from now.
My style of portraiture and wedding photography is very personal. I tend to focus more on the emotions between people more than anything else. I try to shy away from the flair and magazine cover like images that other photographers are great at. I care about the technical and scientific aspect of photography, but I work hard to keep that in the background. I would like my subjects to look back at their photos years from now and remember exactly what they were doing and what they are feeling at that moment that photo was taken.
I've always believed that photography is the skill and that interpreting your subject(s) by making them comfortable in front of the camera is where the art lies.
I owe my couples great images - the stress for planning a wedding all culminates in the wedding photos. The sleepless nights about the budget, the fights over what color to use, the tie, the bowtie, the belt and the suspenders. The hard work that was put in for the ring, the guest list, the hours with hair and make-up and the dress, oh dear lord the dress; all of those little wonderful details intersect in that one day and my job is make all of them look great. Twenty years from your wedding day the only thing that will increase in value and will most likely remain in your possession are the photographs we made. I take that responsibility seriously.
I am very passionate about my work. It sounds cliche' but yeah. My wife is both my support and one of my best critics. I've always admitted that she's the smarter one, but she'll concede that I'm the more creative (and emotional one).
In college, together with a fellow enthusiast, I formed the University of the Philippines Photographers Society. Little did we know that a couple of years after the organization was formed that the greatest revolution in photography would happen. More than fifteen years later, we are very active in University and our community. We have hundreds of members all around the world who are professionals in their own right but are still passionate photographers.
My career in photography, much like most photographers, started part time. One day, I found myself inside the Little White Chapel on
Las Vegas boulevard with a couple whose portraits I was taking. I joked with the staff and asked if they were hiring. They said they were. I started on a Saturday in June - the chapel did 150 weddings that day. 150. I have since moved to a different Chapel to work. To date, I've photographed almost 9,000 couples.
I was thrown in the fire and never left.
When I meet with my couples, I ask and tell them a couple of things. As you can imagine, working in a Las Vegas wedding chapel there is not a long courtship - they get who's on the schedule. My opportunity to get amazing photos is in the first five minutes of talking to them - even before I take the first portrait photo. I explain to my couple that they don't have to be professional models to get amazing wedding pictures. I tell them that they only need to be themselves. Each couple has their own language and their own way of making each other smile.
My job is to make sure they look great next to each other, next to the background and shoot the genuine moments between them two. I would coach all my couples to a point where they will be so comfortable in front of a camera that they will want more. I typically have about 30 minutes with each couple to get a couple of dozen great photos done. At the end of the day, I want each of my couples to enjoy the shoot and enjoy looking at the photos 20 days and 20 years from now.
My style of portraiture and wedding photography is very personal. I tend to focus more on the emotions between people more than anything else. I try to shy away from the flair and magazine cover like images that other photographers are great at. I care about the technical and scientific aspect of photography, but I work hard to keep that in the background. I would like my subjects to look back at their photos years from now and remember exactly what they were doing and what they are feeling at that moment that photo was taken.
I've always believed that photography is the skill and that interpreting your subject(s) by making them comfortable in front of the camera is where the art lies.
I owe my couples great images - the stress for planning a wedding all culminates in the wedding photos. The sleepless nights about the budget, the fights over what color to use, the tie, the bowtie, the belt and the suspenders. The hard work that was put in for the ring, the guest list, the hours with hair and make-up and the dress, oh dear lord the dress; all of those little wonderful details intersect in that one day and my job is make all of them look great. Twenty years from your wedding day the only thing that will increase in value and will most likely remain in your possession are the photographs we made. I take that responsibility seriously.
I am very passionate about my work. It sounds cliche' but yeah. My wife is both my support and one of my best critics. I've always admitted that she's the smarter one, but she'll concede that I'm the more creative (and emotional one).