One of my good friends is going abroad to find work and she messaged me one day and asked if I could take photos of her and her son before their trip. Of course I said yes. Arshad is one of the nicest little boys that I know. Shy and reserved when you meet him for the first time, he eventually warms up and becomes this talkative little boy who cannot get enough of his airplanes. He does have a new toy, his mom's iPad which she lets him believes is his (little boys and their moms!) and he was poking at it the whole time we were taking photos. Apparently, he likes the kiddie cooking apps, the ones that lets you bake brownies and cut them using digital brownie scissors (note to self: get one of those apps soon!) Although he wasn't in the best of moods during the short photo session, he eventually warmed up (after a little bit of coaxing) and we managed to get a few smiling shots of him and his mom.

Being a mother is hard. Being a single mother is no doubt a million times harder. This is the reason why I am amazed at how Darwiza does it. She must be doing a good job since Arshad is growing up to be a fine young man. I just hope these these two don't go jet-setting off to faraway places too often. Me and the rest of the girls will surely miss these two when they leave. 

“Have you ever lost someone you love and wanted one more conversation, one more chance to make up for the time when you thought they would be here forever? If so, then you know you can go your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one you wish you had back.” 

― Mitch Albom, 
For One More Day

It has been a pretty boring Saturday. I wanted to go to my hometown and spend some QT there, since I've been spending waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time cooped up in the house doing nothing but work (although I have to be thankful that I do have work, which I love). I've actually been spending the entire week just feeling sorry for all the good sunsets I just missed. I know, I have been talking about sunsets and how good summer sunsets are here, but I have not actually been seeing a lot of them lately which is sad. I am going to post another entry where I shot a spectacular sunset in Dauin so that's something I'm looking forward to. I've also been thinking about buying a new tablet for myself. Since I am flat broke I think all I can afford are the cheapest kinds but I do know that I want to buy the Cherry Mobile Fusion Bolt  (check it out here) since it is a quadcore tablet, (*yay*) so I'm quite interested to see how good a tablet P3,999 will be able to give me. Will definitely post something on that when I get my hands on that tablet  :D 

“Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are.” 

― Markus Zusak, 
I am the Messenger

portraits, portraits, portraits, portraits

Did this shoot with a Val, a good friend of mine from Nursing, the day after my cousin's wedding. It was a Sunday and although I felt like it was a great day to just hang around the house and be lazy, I was also excited at finally being able to do a shoot with her. See, I came across an Anytime Shoot did by Tonya Kae, one of my favorite photographers, and I just loved how she photographed a friend of hers--she captured the girl's smile, her presence, her friendliness so perfectly that I felt like "Wow, I want to know that person more!" (Yeah, I have those moments sometimes.) I actually talked to Val about it last year, but then the busyness of other stuff got in the way and I almost forgot about it, until she messaged me a few weeks back. I was thrilled that she still wanted to do it, since I didn't know anyone who could smile as genuinely as she does. Val is one of the kindest, gentlest souls I know, and this shoot was also a great way for us to catch up!