Merry Christmas

To all my family, relatives, friends and clients….

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Cheers!

JOEY

Simbang Gabi

Simbang Gabi is one of the longest and most popular traditions not only to the Waray-Waray’s but to all Filipinos as well. It is when Catholic churches start to open their doors before the break of dawn to welcome the community to the Simbang Gabi mass.

I remember during our younger years when our parents would wake us up very early in the morning and go to our community church at St. Jude Parish to attend the nine-day novena. This became a tradition in our family starting December 16 and culminates with the “Misa de Gallo” on Christmas Eve to welcome the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Shortly after the Simbang Gabi, we would go home right away and my mom will prepare champorado and bulad for our breakfast. It was always our breakfast for nine days. St. Jude Parish was just a small parish then with parishioners mostly coming from PHHC residents only. Now with the development of several subdivisions near PHHC it seems that the church is quite small during Simbang Gabi.

Vic & Arvie

Vic and Arvie will be getting married this 30th of December. It’s obviously my last wedding shoot for the year and I’m really looking forward to it. Vic and Arvie wanted to have a signature album for their wedding guests instead of the traditional guest album or signature frame. We decided to shoot for the signature album last December 9 but it was also the day when typhoon Seniang hit Tacloban City so we have to postpone and re-schedule the shoot. We were trying our luck on the following day (December 10) but still the weather was not cooperating so we decided to move again the shoot.

The Vuycankiat’s Web Slideshow

Sorry it took me for a while to upload the webshow. I was out with 2 meetings today and just got back in the office. Anyhow, here is the Vuycankiat’s Web Slideshow that I promise. Click here to view the show.

Cheers!

The Vuycankiat’s

Butch and Eileen Vuycankiat (that’s right! the groom’s family name is a bit hard to pronounce) had a very interesting lovestory. I wish can share it with you but there were few details that I missed and I’ll ask first Eileen whether she will allow me to post their lovestory here. They just tied the knot last Sunday, December 17 at the Sacred Heart Parish here in Tacloban City. They already have two lovely daughters. Eileen did all the planning and coordinating. Eileen and Butch stayed at La Rica Hotel (Zamora St.) for their preparations as well as the reception party. It was our first time to shoot in La Rica. We, however, made some interesting photos at the bride’s room.

www.joeyreyna.com teaser

I made a teaser from a music whom i don’t know who composed or played it. I just heard it when i saw one of Jason Magbanua’s extraordinary wedding video samplers. We’ll Jason is a wedding video extraordinaire… His work is really awesome… He made wedding videos worthy of investing. Check out his site here to catch some of his awesome wedding videos. I was able to bring their team here in Tacloban when I referred their services to a bride two years ago.

I thought of making a teaser with the same music just for fun… I had a hard time getting the right timing… but after several try i think i nailed it. I was just so excited getting the right timing that i just dropped some photos right away so i could watch it… I’ll try to make a new one soon with proper choices of photos… I even forgot to include ceremony photos on it… Next time i’ll make a better one… promise.

Thanks mister extraordinaire for sharing the music… you’re really awesome.

Check out this link to watch the teaser.

Cheers!

Pauline

I had a layout shoot last monday with Pauline which was a first for me. She’ll be celebrating her 18th birthday on September 16 and her family wanted me to shoot her debut. Jerby, a good friend of mine as well as the one coordinating the event, asked if I could shoot a layout for her invitation. I like the concept that they wanna include a photo on her invitation so I immediately agreed. We went to Rafael Farms at Babatngon, Leyte for the location. It’s about 25 minutes away from Tacloban City. It was my first time to visit the place and it was really nice. I love the rustic look of the place.

Hoy… Seniang!

Typhoon Seniang hit Tacloban City between 3-4PM last December 9. The PAGASA gave a Public Storm Warning Signal No. 3 which means these are typhoons having 100 to 185kph wind. Taclobanon’s are used to typhoons for the past couple of years and if i remember it was typhoon Undang that devastated Tacloban heavily 2 decades ago… i guess i was 6 years old then… However, for this year it was only Seniang with maximum sustained winds of 120kph near the center that made a hit in the City (correct me about this…).

Tyra Isabelle

I would like to share to you a show that I made that’s really personal. Honestly, I was numb the whole time I was shooting this personal event. Thank you to Helen Grace Roasa and her team for allowing me to capture this wonderful moment. I waited for nine months just for this shoot and it was worth it. I had mixed emotions while I was waiting at the nurses station of the operating room. My 10 minutes of waiting was like hours…

Master Photographer

I just got a mail from Dave Fowler a day after I informed him that my website is already up.

Dave and I met last March in my office with Orlan Uy of Chapter 2. Orlan and Dave are both active Rotarians and the reason why Dave was in town was they’re into some sort of exchange program activity. Orlan called me up early afternoon telling me that he’ll introduce me to a Rotarian guest from the U.S. since I was the only guy he knew that was into photography. Dave wanted to meet local photographers in the City. As I’ve found out during our meeting in my office that Dave is a Master Photographer. Master Photographer by the way is a title given by the Professional Photographers of America (PPA).