Category: Photographs

Behind the Scenes of a Christmas Photograph

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Christmas 2020. Behind the one family photo that makes the proverbial Christmas postcard are a dozen outtakes and stories.

This was us last year, Christmas 2020, at the height of the pandemic. We had been under lockdown for almost a year—and in the Philippines no less, the worst place in the whole world to be during a pandemic.

I remember that day feeling like not wanting to bother to take photographs because who has the energy to take photographs? And wasn’t that the story of 2020? Languishing, if I may, where everyone was stuck all year “doing nothing” and yet, there’s very little energy to go around.

We fought the urge to languish that day and, thank God, mustered enough strength to step out of our pajamas, take out the tripod, dust off the camera, and take a few shots.

Here we are a year later and I’m glad we took the time to memorialize the strangeness of that particular Christmas.

I want to remember as much of that day as I can—

Pushing bedroom furniture around so we can convert this corner into a makeshift studio.

The Christmas pine tree (and all of its ornaments and twinkle lights) that became a permanent fixture in that room all year.

The crooked teeth and cheeky smiles.

The midi-dresses that are now mini dresses.

The banter with the 8-year-olds.

The cuddles and tickles.

Today I look at these photographs from Christmas of 2020, grateful for everything they represent—

The grace to live another day, another year.

The bubble that kept us healthy, safe, and together.

The breath in our lungs, the hope in our hearts.

The blissful faith of a child, unfazed by what’s going on in the world.

The flickers of light in the midst of the dark.

The remembrance that no matter how bleak the year was with seemingly no end in sight, there is always, ALWAYS, something to smile and laugh about.

Read more ruminations about 2020

Wrapping up the Past Decade in a Bow

Rhiza1 Comment

A tad too late to the decade-ender party but as always taking my time to process it all—the decade that has passed, the new one that has just begun. I started writing this post in December, only to write up the last paragraph while in quarantine. Ha! I’ll save the quarantine thoughts for another post, this one is dedicated to the decade that was.

If you told me at the end of 2009 that I’ve already met the man I was going to marry and that he and I would be raising twin daughters 3 years later, I would have laughed (or ugly cried) in disbelief. I was 26 years old, moving on from a bad breakup, unhappy with my job, ending an apartment lease and not knowing yet where to move next, basically crying myself to sleep at night and wallowing in self-pity.

2009 was not exactly the best of years for me, and let me just add that it was also the year I contracted H1N1. Needless to say, I could not wait for 2009 to be over.

And so when 2010 began, it felt like God forced a restart button in my life.

I wish I could say I let Him freely do it. The truth is, I fought hard, resisted, complained, refused to let go, and drove myself to a dead end and right through the cliff. But because it felt like it couldn’t really get any worse than that, there was also no way to go but up.

Fast forward to a decade later, the start of 2020, I honestly couldn’t have predicted that this is the life God was setting me up for.

I still sometimes stare at my sleeping daughters, weirded out that they’re mine. And I still often catch myself staring at David with a dorky smile on my face, remembering that he’s the same 17-year-old boy who sang me love songs and wrote me love letters from thousands of miles away and yes, he’s your husband, silly, for 8 years now.

As much as I’d like to avoid making this a rehash of our love story, it’s just impossible to ponder upon the past 10 years apart from David. After all, 2010 was when it all began—the one-way ticket, the saying of I do’s, the union of two lives. Our calendars and closet spaces and wallets and dreams have been tightly intertwined since.

Somehow between the years 2010 to 2019, David and I became husband and wife, life partners, business partners, parents to twin daughters, homeschoolers, him a Registered Nurse, me a mother.

And somehow in those years, said twin daughters grew, crawled, started walking, started talking non-stop, started homeschooling, turned 7 years old, and last time I checked, started losing baby teeth.

But as with any significant and meaningful growth, we had to go through seemingly endless stretching, and pruning, and wrestling with God, and getting back up on our feet, and healing, and moving forward. Rinse, repeat.

The decade is marked with itineraries that didn’t materialize, calendars that kept changing, bucket lists left unchecked, empty suitcases stored at the back of the closet indefinitely. There was a lot of dreaming and letting go of those dreams. A lot of waiting and working hard for a YES but getting a NO instead.

In retrospect, all of this growth is not possible without having to let go of old dreams to make room for new ones, and without letting God close doors so we can step into new ones — and only the best ones.

Photographs by Jamie

For me, 2010 felt like a hard restart. And now, 2020 feels just like it.. but on steroids.

Seriously though, 2020 is something else huh?? This pandemic, this lockdown, the natural (and man-made!) calamities striking the world at all sides, there’s really no knowing how this new decade is going to play out and how to navigate it.

All I know is, a decade from now the twins will be 18, and David & I will have more white hairs and wrinkles, hopefully still strong enough (and feeling young enough) to keep chasing dreams, and maybe living some of those old dreams.

And God! God will still be good, and He will still be God. And for all the things I don’t know about this new decade, the certainty of His goodness is good enough for me.

Take that, 2020.

Thank you, Jamie, for these photographs.

How I Want to Remember this Christmas

Rhiza1 Comment

Christmas 2019.

“Best Christmas ever!”, says my daughter mid-jump, eyes twinkling bright like the northern star.

I may have said something like “woohoo!” but deep inside I tried to recall past Christmasses and, taking my daughter’s declaration too seriously, secretly doubted that #Christmas2019 was our best one.

The other day my husband and I were talking about the ordinariness of this Christmas. It’s really not that bad, to be honest. It’s just mostly uneventful and maybe even forgettable.

Sure there were pancakes in the morning, Christmas carols on loop all day, late-night Christmas movies. But some Christmas traditions were amiss, no out-of-town holidays, no advent calendar, no homecooked meals, not a lot of Christmas shopping or partying. Most of this was because I had to work through the Christmas break, which means I was pretty much holed up in front of my laptop, with little energy left for merry-making when the work hours were over. (Shout out to David and my Mom for holding the ~Christmas~ fort when I couldn’t.)

As a mother who wants to create memorable Christmasses for her kids while they’re still young, I have to admit I worried a lot about not being able to give them something worth remembering this year.

Then again, this is why “grownups” don’t always know better, and why it sometimes feels like children know something we don’t. In retrospect, there’s a reason why the Messiah came in the form of an unassuming child, in a stable, on an ordinary day.

We tend to think we need to offer Him myrrh, frankincense, and gold because that’s what the wise men did. In the same way, we focus too much on splurging on expensive gifts and planning the best holiday trips, thinking that these are the stuff that “the best Christmas ever” is made of.

I learn it doesn’t really take so much to make Christmas memorable for the kids—just some extended cuddle times, a new pair of fluffy slippers, a stack of pancakes, Christmas carols all day, store-bought cookies, our presence, our love, our time.

And this is exactly how I want to remember Christmas this year.

That somehow, for all its ordinariness and for everything it seems to lack, my daughters still think it’s “the best Christmas ever.”

What a humbling experience, to receive this kind of grace that children are capable of giving so generously and effortlessly. And, ultimately, to receive this amazing grace of a good, good Father who simply loves us for all our ordinariness. Every day of the year.

Thank you Jamie, for these beautiful keepsakes to remember this Christmas by. We love and will forever cherish every single one of them!

Family lifestyle photography by Jamie Mapagu.

Finding the Right Lifestyle Photographer for Your Family

RhizaLeave a comment

I’m fully convinced that some of the best investments we can give our children are great memories.. and photographs to remember them by! And I speak for myself, too. I know my childhood was filled with so many good things but most of the actual memories I still remember to this day are ones that were properly documented in the family albums. (Thanks, mom, for taking time.)

To think our parents didn’t have smartphones and digital cameras back in the day, which means every roll of film and every photograph had to be carefully budgeted and planned out!

Today we have an abundance of these gadgets, which makes memory keeping super easy. So easy, in fact, that it’s also easy to take it for granted.

If you’re like us who take too many photographs and footages of our children every single day, you probably have thousands of them unsorted in your phone, in your hard drive, and in the cloud too. And if you’re like us, you probably planned to deal with those files one of these days but now, 5 years later haha, you still weren’t able to find the time! (By the way, don’t wait too long or you might lose those digital files forever!)

So maybe I’m not the best person to talk about how to have an organized memory-keeping process with kids 7 years old and below (working on it!), but I’m one to highly recommend scheduling a family portrait session every once in a while.

Because.. look at these photos!

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If it isn’t too obvious, I’m the type of person who likes holding the camera more than being in front of it.

As a blogger, my comfort zone has always been behind the screen although I do step into photo shoots once in a while when needed.

As a mother, my smartphone is brimming with photos and videos of the girls, but not so much of myself with them.

Is this a mommy thing too? Is this why moms are usually not in the pictures?

I’m working on getting myself in the frame more, to be honest. I’d love for our children (and myself!) to remember “good ol’ mom” in her youth! And a lifestyle photo session with a photographer friend is just what I need these days.

What is lifestyle photography?

Lifestyle photography is a kind of photography that aims to capture people in real life situations, special events, or everyday moments, in an artistic manner. Lifestyle photo sessions happen in everyday locations, unlike classic portraits which are usually taken in studios with controlled lighting and environment.

Without towering spotlights and camera equipment in sight, I find that lifestyle photography is the best way to take photos of children in their element. You can invite a lifestyle photographer to your home to capture your everyday routine. Or you can take the whole family outdoors, maybe go to a nice restaurant or to the park just like we did, with a lifestyle photographer tagging along.

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Details: Dawn and Rain are wearing jumpers from Laila and Lyra.
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I would most definitely welcome a photographer clicking away while we do our normal family things, no pressure. This is why lifestyle photography sessions are my favorite. It doesn’t even feel like a photo shoot at all. This day, for instance, was simply a “field trip” in Dawn and Rain’s eyes—a day at the park, running around in their favorite jumpers with “Teacher Jamie” (that’s what they call her)—and I’m sure they will remember these “park days” like we sure will.

Finding the best family lifestyle photographer

We’re at an advantage here to have friends who also happen to be amazing photographers. In this case, we literally just scheduled to have lunch with Jamie to catch up, and to take a “few” shots. We picked this new restaurant in BGC with lovely interiors, had lunch, and then went to a nearby park to let the kids play. All while catching up on each other’s lives.

Plus points that Jamie’s a natural with kids, and that Dawn and Rain are already comfortable with her. (Too comfortable, actually. Lol.) With children as subjects, you’d want someone who knows how to engage with the little humans, who can handle tantrums just in case haha, and who has a few proven tricks up her sleeves.

If you’re looking for a photographer to capture family photos, here are some tips:

1. Find a family lifestyle photographer, not just any photographer.

Lifestyle photographers are different in a sense that, they’re trained to capture everyday moments within the short timeframe you have with them. It’s almost like photojournalism with little intervention, where the photographer helps you “stage” these moments in beautiful and artistic ways. The resulting photos, then, are subtly staged but still candid and organic. Just like how you would normally interact with your children in real life.

2. Take time to check their portfolio and experience.

Naturally, you want to see previous work before engaging with a photographer. See if his/her aesthetic fits yours, and read reviews when you can too. You’d definitely want to find someone who, like Jamie, is a natural with children and knows how to handle them. Do look out for smiling little humans in their portfolio for sure!

3. Establish a relationship with your lifestyle photographer.

Alright, not everyone has a lifestyle photographer friend as we do but I highly recommend you find one that you like and build an ongoing professional and personal relationship with him/her. I’ve worked with a handful of photographers before but I find myself going back to the ones I’ve built a relationship with.

Now this is important because (1) you find that you’re more comfortable when you trust the one behind the camera, which means you can be yourself and not be too conscious, (2) it makes children easily warm up with someone they’re already familiar with. ;)

Give yourself and your family the gift of photographs and memories

Check out Jamie Mapagu Photography to book a family portrait session! Check out also her #MyMomisMyHero series which is filled with beautiful imagery and stories of moms and their little ones. Highly recommended, and Oyos twins seal of approval. ;)

Jamie Mapagu Photography

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Thank you again, Jamie! Til next!

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