Our annual family Christmas and New Year greeting cards shoot!
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Saturday, December 11, 2010
freedom @ hope
My son Freedom recently had their first ever Christmas theatre production at Hope International School where he studies. Unfortunately at that day, I had a photography class at Angkor Wat (which was booked since last year!) so I totally missed out on this! Fortunately, my wife brought the Sony camera with her and took some snaps of the play...
Freedom doing the greetings...
They performed "Hosanna Rock & Roll" which looked like they were dancing to YMCA by the Village People...
The play was rather politically correct... the three magis were all girls!
Even Joseph and Mary were Asians (Koreans) and they were just too adorable...
With me and my wife coming from a strong theatre background, we were just too proud to see our son up on stage...
Freedom was a cow in the manger scene (at least he's not a lobster, like the Hugh Grant's nieces in Love Actually) and according to everyone, he did an awesome job... his costume was made by Don Protasio no less!
Freedom doing the greetings...
They performed "Hosanna Rock & Roll" which looked like they were dancing to YMCA by the Village People...
The play was rather politically correct... the three magis were all girls!
Even Joseph and Mary were Asians (Koreans) and they were just too adorable...
With me and my wife coming from a strong theatre background, we were just too proud to see our son up on stage...
Freedom was a cow in the manger scene (at least he's not a lobster, like the Hugh Grant's nieces in Love Actually) and according to everyone, he did an awesome job... his costume was made by Don Protasio no less!
Monday, January 5, 2009
year ender
Although the holidays wasn't as crazy as last year, it was still crazy nonetheless. I was juggling several shoots and last minute design works but was able to keep myself free for Christmas eve to prepare for a "white Christmas" feast.
I was especially inspired since we renovated and repainted the kitchen firetruck red and my wife came back from Australia with a treasure trove of holiday recipes and inspirations - thanks to Donna Hay!
Since everybody else was working on Christmas eve, I was left alone with Nanie and Olive (my office manager) to conquer the kitchen. We were able to whip up a little Grilled Salmon, Ham with Spicy Mango Confit, Steamed Garlic Scallops, Green Noodles with Seafood Brisket, Lentil Soup, Buttered Veggies (turned out to be a disaster but Don rescued it from oblivion) and Raspberry Cake with Caramelized Fresh Berries on the side for dessert. For a little Filipino fare, Olive cooked her famous embutido and leche flan which was truly sinful!
While waiting for everybody to come, we had some chardonnay, blue cheese and crackers which Freedom tried with his chocolate Smarties!
The gang after the feast... we gave our gifts at the struck of midnight. Freedom got a mini drum set (our sleep will never be the same again) among many other things while I got a travel folio and a full collection of Woody Allen films!
Come new year, it was just me, Olive, Don, Nanie and Freedom as everybody else had their own parties to go to, but by midnight, we were all together to greet 2009. The fireworks display was short, but the sight of hundreds of candles on paper balloons floating on air was a truly magical sight.
At 1 am, we were all shuttling our way between the street party at Pub Street, the revelry at Linga Bar and the live band at Cafe Central.
By 4:30, we were hungry as wolves from all the partying, so we went home to raid the fridge.
By 5:30, we made our way to Angkor Wat to catch the first sunrise of 2009. The freezing cold didn't deter us as we came prepared with our own thermos of coffee and tea! By now, the pack was now reduced to me, my wife, Olive and Don.
Then slowly, at around 6 am, a hazy blue sunlit sky made its way to the horizon... revealing Angkor Wat's distinct spires...
I have seen it a million times, but it is still a magical, exhilarating sight...
Happy New Year everyone!
I was especially inspired since we renovated and repainted the kitchen firetruck red and my wife came back from Australia with a treasure trove of holiday recipes and inspirations - thanks to Donna Hay!
Since everybody else was working on Christmas eve, I was left alone with Nanie and Olive (my office manager) to conquer the kitchen. We were able to whip up a little Grilled Salmon, Ham with Spicy Mango Confit, Steamed Garlic Scallops, Green Noodles with Seafood Brisket, Lentil Soup, Buttered Veggies (turned out to be a disaster but Don rescued it from oblivion) and Raspberry Cake with Caramelized Fresh Berries on the side for dessert. For a little Filipino fare, Olive cooked her famous embutido and leche flan which was truly sinful!
While waiting for everybody to come, we had some chardonnay, blue cheese and crackers which Freedom tried with his chocolate Smarties!
The gang after the feast... we gave our gifts at the struck of midnight. Freedom got a mini drum set (our sleep will never be the same again) among many other things while I got a travel folio and a full collection of Woody Allen films!
Come new year, it was just me, Olive, Don, Nanie and Freedom as everybody else had their own parties to go to, but by midnight, we were all together to greet 2009. The fireworks display was short, but the sight of hundreds of candles on paper balloons floating on air was a truly magical sight.
At 1 am, we were all shuttling our way between the street party at Pub Street, the revelry at Linga Bar and the live band at Cafe Central.
By 4:30, we were hungry as wolves from all the partying, so we went home to raid the fridge.
By 5:30, we made our way to Angkor Wat to catch the first sunrise of 2009. The freezing cold didn't deter us as we came prepared with our own thermos of coffee and tea! By now, the pack was now reduced to me, my wife, Olive and Don.
Then slowly, at around 6 am, a hazy blue sunlit sky made its way to the horizon... revealing Angkor Wat's distinct spires...
I have seen it a million times, but it is still a magical, exhilarating sight...
Happy New Year everyone!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
the nightmare before christmas
Always, every year, I am compounded by one big nightmare and problem... designing our family Christmas card! If it's with clients, it will take me a breeze to think of a campaign or a design, whip up a shoot and voila! We have a strong pitch...
But family photos and cards are a different story.
One, it's quite a feat to handle the logistics... my wife's schedule is erratic (as well as mine!), it's a major effort (ala Mega Structures from National Geographic) thinking and doing our costumes for the shoot, and Freedom is such a tornado to be kept still for a click or two. Chocky, our labrador is also a formidable force to handle during shoots! That leaves me with only Nannie (my wife's aunt) to keep my sanity intact.
Our first christmas greeting shoot in 2005 was inspired by the turn-of-the-century sensibilities of Cambodia and it took us around the French colonial enclaves of Siem Reap - from the Raffles Gardens to the grounds of Victoria Angkor. Since I didn't have a car and a tripod at that time, our tuktuk driver was our photographer!
2006 was a rather easy shoot because we wanted everyone to be comfortable and casual... but since the temperatures here dropped as low as 9 degrees for a couple of weeks, comfortable means layering, sweaters and thick winter scarves! It was a perfect time to be playful and cool...
"The Golden Age of Travel" was our defining theme for last year's shoot... that meant rewinding ourselves back into the roaring decades of the 1930's. We bought some nice vintage leather luggage from Bali for this shoot while our clothes are an amalgam of vintage finds from around. We got Freedom's outfit from Chatuchak Market in Bangkok and I designed my wife's hat. I got my vintage bomber leather jacket from Hwang Yu - a second hand clothes shop in Makati and Faith's mink fur trim is from Don.
We did a second card last year for our clients. Our red square couch was the modern twist to this shoot... sort of an "advertisement" as well for my furniture design and interior design work! lol. Our outfits were mainly from Jasmine Boutique at the Aman shop.
Now this really gives me a headache thinking about this year's theme. To make matters worse, our friends are now expecting our greetings to be more and more elaborate year after year! I have been thinking from one end of the spectrum to another - from The Incredibles (us in superhero costumes! Too halloween, perhaps?) to full royal Khmer regalia or Filipino traditional outfits (too June 12?) or even something as crazy as an organically-themed, green shoot (too Inconvenient Truth?)... aaarrrggghhh! I'm losing my head already!
Any suggestions?
Help!
But family photos and cards are a different story.
One, it's quite a feat to handle the logistics... my wife's schedule is erratic (as well as mine!), it's a major effort (ala Mega Structures from National Geographic) thinking and doing our costumes for the shoot, and Freedom is such a tornado to be kept still for a click or two. Chocky, our labrador is also a formidable force to handle during shoots! That leaves me with only Nannie (my wife's aunt) to keep my sanity intact.
Our first christmas greeting shoot in 2005 was inspired by the turn-of-the-century sensibilities of Cambodia and it took us around the French colonial enclaves of Siem Reap - from the Raffles Gardens to the grounds of Victoria Angkor. Since I didn't have a car and a tripod at that time, our tuktuk driver was our photographer!
2006 was a rather easy shoot because we wanted everyone to be comfortable and casual... but since the temperatures here dropped as low as 9 degrees for a couple of weeks, comfortable means layering, sweaters and thick winter scarves! It was a perfect time to be playful and cool...
"The Golden Age of Travel" was our defining theme for last year's shoot... that meant rewinding ourselves back into the roaring decades of the 1930's. We bought some nice vintage leather luggage from Bali for this shoot while our clothes are an amalgam of vintage finds from around. We got Freedom's outfit from Chatuchak Market in Bangkok and I designed my wife's hat. I got my vintage bomber leather jacket from Hwang Yu - a second hand clothes shop in Makati and Faith's mink fur trim is from Don.
We did a second card last year for our clients. Our red square couch was the modern twist to this shoot... sort of an "advertisement" as well for my furniture design and interior design work! lol. Our outfits were mainly from Jasmine Boutique at the Aman shop.
Now this really gives me a headache thinking about this year's theme. To make matters worse, our friends are now expecting our greetings to be more and more elaborate year after year! I have been thinking from one end of the spectrum to another - from The Incredibles (us in superhero costumes! Too halloween, perhaps?) to full royal Khmer regalia or Filipino traditional outfits (too June 12?) or even something as crazy as an organically-themed, green shoot (too Inconvenient Truth?)... aaarrrggghhh! I'm losing my head already!
Any suggestions?
Help!
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