24 frames per breath…

It’s been a long, busy, but a definitely satisfying week. After spending Monday through Thursday in San Francisco for Re-Frame, I had to fly back on a two-hour delayed flight to OC’s John Wayne Airport to get home for two hours to pack our equipments and drive for four hours to Las Vegas for the wedding of LA based Philippine actress Saira Velasco (aka Bunny Paras) and Tom Greenway. We didn’t get there to check-in to our hotel until 1:30am on the morning of the wedding day.

At the wedding, Zara and I just went on as how we would do at any other wedding..always looking to capture those special moments, special extraordinary moments. It was a great wedding, all the emotions, the tears, and laughter where all there. But all day and through the night I was waiting for the extraordinary, I was looking for the MONEY SHOT!

Then came the time to leave. After a nine hour shoot, we packed our stuff and me and Manila-based international photographer John Mateos Ong said our goodbyes to our lovely couple. Just as we were about to head on out the door, I heard the emcee announcing that the party was over and then she said, “Now our couple will do one final dance and I would like to invite you all to join them on the dance floor.” That rang a beautiful bell in my ears and I immediately did exactly what she said…joined them on the dance floor. Grabbing the only camera I had ready to shoot, which happened to be our new Canon 7D with only a 50mm 1.8 attached to it and no time to adjust the settings, we had captured one of the most touching wedding dance I have witnessed.. Though shot with no lighting, hand held and relying only on our camera’s lcd screen for focus, it was definitely our day’s MONEY SHOT!
We watched the footage in our hotel room at the JWMarriott, venue for the wedding ceremony and reception, with a big smile on our face. Since the couple did not have a Same Day Edit, we decided to post it for them, “RAW” and “UNEDITED” for everyone to see and experience it how we did. Sorry for the brief cut in the middle. Something got in my eye (not tears..) and I accidentally hit the stop button. My bad.

To Saira and Tom, here’s your special dance..as we saw it.

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