After a nice long weekend in Bali shooting Emilia’s pre-wedding with half the FIFOTO crew, I’m nice and tan! But my fun ended just as I boarded the plane. Just like Steve who was feeling gassy from that morning, I felt it as we took off. I shall spare you the details but to sum it up, I had food poisoning. So the week had started out rough for me. I forced myself outta bed Monday afternoon to meet my delivery deadline for Beaubelle, a commercial shoot for their brand identity concepts which I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. Wed, I had to re-shoot the lotus, for Beaubelle. The dilemma I had was that the lotus plants you get from the stores come in a bud. And there’s no way it can bloom if it’s been removed from the stem. Here’s my dilemma – my client needed a really pretty and natural-looking lotus. The only way I got it to “bloom” was by opening its petals, one by one and by no means did it look natural. I stressed all of Wed to get the shot but didn’t manage to until 5pm, when I turned to my 2nd last resort – to photograph the petals individually and DI them into a perfect lotus. (I’m thankful that worked and I didn’t have to turn to my last resort of stealing a lotus from a pond!)

Although I’ve spent my entire day just DI-ing my lotus, it feels more like an accomplishment. I’ve learned that perseverance and determination pays off and in addition to that, I’ve gained an insight to commercial photography; that NOTHING is as PERFECT as it seems in ads… It’s all the wonders of Photoshop!

Two weeks ago, Jason & I ventured into the depths of Hulu Langat and after an adventure on trunks roads and graveled driveways, we found ourselves in a beautiful hideaway, Dusun Fairies, a place I found out about through Debra of the Olive Branch. Specially catered for wedding ceremonies and photography shoots, Dusun Fairies is a quaint garden, tucked away in the hills of Hulu Langat. I was glad Daniel & Sulin chose this venue, a place we’ve never shot before. It was also my first time ever meeting the lovely couple. Daniel is bashful and very quiet. Sulin is chirpy and sweet. PDA was definitely not their thing but after 30 minutes, it came naturally =) They are one of the most easy-going couples ever and were a breeze to work with! I was especially honored when Daniel told me they flew in from KK just to do their pre-wedding photos with us!

Here are my favorite shots!

Makeup & Hair by Emilia Marcelo

Gown by That Special Occasion