Dinner with Friends

It's been quite a while since I last posted. I think I may be enjoying too much the kids' vacation too. Last Saturday, we had friends coming over for dinner. Danny and Marian Ponciano are in town for their niece's debut and Danny photographed the event. They used to live in Miami but are now living in Las Vegas since 2001. Jun and Lotlot were with us too that evening. Danny is a professional photographer who specializes in weddings and is one great student of Monte Zucker, a world reknowned wedding photographer who charges a minimum of $10,000 per wedding but also does some workshops and seminars for photographers.

After dinner, the three of us boys did some shop talk. Jun is also a photographer and I'm sure we all enjoyed the time together being photographers as well as being friends too. The girls talked about 'life'. It was way past midnight when we parted. It was indeed a great time for all of us.

Christmas Party

Last night, our bible study group had a Christmas party hosted by Cris and Cathie Coralejo. We started with a prayer, a Christmas carol and then a sumptuous feast. Cathie's salad was superb! We also had games and it was really fun. I'm just not very good in remembering titles of Christmas carols (even regular songs). Well, what can you expect from somebody who doesn't really sing. Anyway, all of us enjoyed our time together. The kids especially, they were looking forward to receiving their gifts from their titos and titas. Here are some photos from the party.

Missy's photo on a Rubik's Cube

Playing with Photoshop and testing this new plug-in I got (it's free!), I used Missy's photo to create this Rubik's cube. Digital is just super and I love it! This plug-in is courtesy of Panos Efstathiadis of http://www.panosfx.com/

but you need Adobe Photoshop to run it.

David and Missy's Holiday Show

Yesterday was a busy day. Aside from the oath taking for citizenship, the kids also had their school Holiday Show. Missy's class together with another class sang a couple of songs mostly Christmas carols. With David, they included two songs from the movie 'High School Musical'. Unfortunately I was not able to take good pictures of Missy during the show. I asked her on where she's going to stand and I positioned myself accordingly but when their class started their performance, I was on the wrong side of the venue and got stuck there until their show ended. So much so for trusting a 5 year old for being sure where's their left or their right. With David, I still was not able to get the perfect spot and he was just lost in a sea of faces. Anyway, I was able to squeeze one good shot of him without offending the person next to me. Here are some photos mostly before and after the show.










































Missy with her friend Lauren.

US Citizenship Granted

Today, Ophine and I together with thousands of immigrants had our oath taking at the Miami Beach Convention Center and are now considered naturalized US citizens. We have been here for some time now and have intended to stay for good so why not? We get the right to vote and travel if we need to to most countries without a need for a visa among others.

We left home at 10:20 am. The schedule was at 12 noon and we got to the site around 11:20 because of traffic but it almost took us 30 minutes to find a parking spot. No wonder, there were 3006 of us immigrants who were there for the oath taking. Immigrants from 89 countries we were told. But from the total, 2000 were Cubans. So basically it was 1006 people from 88 countries.

There were a lot of lines inside the convention center but it was very organized. After getting all the people seated at there predetermined section and gate, the ceremony started around 12:50pm. After the usual introduction, speeches and some formalities, we raised our right hand to take the oath. It was exactly 1:30pm (my cellphone's alarm was set to go off at that time and it did even in silent mode, now I know). After that, they gave us our 'certificates'. Of course, most people if not all were proud and happy after that. Without any doubt, some for sure took a long and difficult path to citizenship.

Me, I don't want to incriminate myself but I'm also happy but at the same time I have mixed feelings. Being Filipino is not just a label but it is in my blood and will always be proud of my heritage. I know that's not being taken away and there's really no need to feel sad about it. Perhaps we're just fortunate to have the best of both worlds, we're still Filipinos at heart and we get to enjoy certain rights and privileges accorded to American citizens. I can never run for the presidency (right given to natural born US citizens only) but I can vote for one.

When we travel back to the Philippines, there will never be that feeling I'm not one of them anymore but exactly the opposite will happen and I will be as home as any Filipino who lives there. The Philippines will always be considered home to me even when both countries we represent are basically worlds apart in a lot of ways.

Gingerbread House Project

Ophine bought a gingerbread house kit from Costco yesterday and the kids were ecstatic about it especially Missy. She kept nagging her mom to start doing it right away but usually Sundays are lazy days for us. After church, lunch and doing some errands, we just usually rest for a few hours, watch a DVD or something but Missy was relentless so here are the results.

Elf Yourself

This is so entertaining and so funny.

Click here to see and hear Missy dance and greet you.

Click here to watch David do the same.

Portrait Sessions last weekend

I had two family portrait sessions last weekend, one a location shoot with the Villartas done at Robbins Park in Davie, which is my favorite park to shoot at and a studio session with the Villacastins. Two families with the first five letters of their last name being the same...hmmm? Anyway, I like photographing families especially when everybody is in a good mood especially the kids. It is really difficult to photograph an uncooperative kid. When this happens I try to talk to the kid, give them gifts like unopened Kid's Meal toys and just try to work it out at first but when I realize that it's not going to do any good, I would just re-schedule the shoot. I'm not the type who would force a camera on a kid when I myself know that the child will not look good in the photo unless the intention was to photograph a pouting or crying child. I was fortunate that I had happy people to shoot at (no pun intended!). Thanks to my photo subjects for that and for aggreeing to have your photos posted in my blog.

Here are some photos. The Villartas first with Chris (Wowie) and Pearly, their kids Justrina, Julinna and Julian. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.


































And now with the Villacastins; Alex, Sheila and their toddler Ashton. They also had photos with their graduation gowns since they also just finished their Masters in Nursing. They are now Nurse Practitioners and my congratulations to Alex and Sheila for this milestone in their careers.