I go home to the Philippines once or twice a year, usually to relax and spend time with family. This time, a photo shoot came up the exact week I would be there. Blue Petal Garden Inn Resort and Bistro in Calamba, Laguna needed staff portraits and resort shots for their brochure. Since my parents live only 20 minutes away from there, I decided to make it a working vacation. For this job, they also wanted me to make the brochure. Since I had just made a brochure for another client a few weeks earlier, I decided to once again break out the old layout skills I learned in college and put them to work. Thanks to head chef/manager Kristine Corvera and family, as well as all the resort staff for making the shoot a success, and for the delicious food between shooting!
Photographer’s Corner: Gear: Canon 5D Mark II, EF 24-70mm f/2.8, Samyang 14mm f/2.8. Portraits were lit with 1-4 speed lights, with a 28 inch soft box as the main modifier.
For this shoot, my process and mindset were pretty much the same as the Bada Sori shoot. The big difference was that I would not be able to scout the location in advance. To make up for that, many emails went back and forth between me and the client in order to make the shot list as complete and detailed as possible.
A little something extra – This shoot involved taking portraits of the staff members so to express my gratitude and make the experience more memorable, I sent each one of them an 8×10 print of their best portrait. I also sent the resort owners a large print of the main resort photo to frame and hang somewhere in the resort. Simple gestures like this enhance the overall experience and give the client something extra to remember the shoot by. The smiles and gratitude you get more than make up for the minimal cost of printing.
