For those of you who liked my post before of an e-session in Xitang, China, I’m pretty sure you would like to see the second part of that shoot which is a stark contrast from the old and quiet river village of the first part. Today we will feature the photos from the bustling streets of Shanghai where Tiffany and Johnson actually met and fell in love. And no one can blame them for doing so, Shanghai is so beautifully cosmopolitan that you’ll fall in love with it right away and then to the person beside. hahaha.

I was really eager to post these photos but had to wait till the wedding as this was part of Tiff and Johnson’s surprise during their reception program. Now the long wait is over and I hope you love the photos as much as I loved the entire experience of shooting it with one of my dearest couples. :) Enjoy! and if you have the time, make sure you also check out the Xitang part of this series. :)

Once again, special thanks goes to Alexis Ching for the make-up and Joy Nayve for everything else. hehehe :)

During the short course of my career as a photographer, we have been challenged by extreme coldness or by big downpours quite often that we somehow just seem to shrug it off and go about our business. In fact we sometimes welcome them and use them to our advantage to create more dramatic and meaningful shots. But as creative as some people say we are, Mr. Weather I guess will give us a run for our money as during this trip to China for Johnson and Tiff’s engagement session, he was the one who got really creative and provided us with a combination of freezing weather (without the ice – so we can’t use it to our advantage) and then try to damp our spirits with a lot of rain. I can say it was tormenting, but there was very little that enthusiasm and a lot of willpower cannot do and so we went about everything like it was a nice spring afternoon and did what we had to.

We shot for two days in China, one in downtown Shanghai and the other in the old water village of Xitang. It would be undeserving to feature both together so we’re showcasing the first part only (Xitang) before the wedding. If any of you are fans of the Mission Impossible movie series, you would be familiar with this old town because of the significant scenes that Tom Cruise shot here in its third installment (which was my favorite of all primarily because of the excellent choice of leading ladies – Maggie Q and Michelle Monaghan). Thus we had some big expectations to fulfill. Not that, we were out to change all the Tom Cruise posters there with the photo of Johnson and Tiff, but something close to that. hahaha.

Xitang was really picturesque, but brutal to navigate into and the non-stop rain and cold winds didn’t help. Nonetheless we fought it, we were freezing, soaked, exhausted, and even bruised (well that’s Tiff only) but nothing compares to the entire experience of accomplishing our own mission impossible. ;)

Special thanks to Alexis Ching for the make-up and Joy Nayve for everything else. hehehe :)

If there’s one thing I remember about this trash the dress session we had with Tristan and Angelica, it was bubble milk tea. oh plus the rain. So it’s actually the pure enjoyment of drinking bubble milk tea while it is raining. I loved it a lot although it did ruin our shoot a bit because of the delay we had to endure going from the city to where The Venetian is located.

This shoot was done 4 months after their gorgeous wedding in Manila (that same wedding that was featured in my metrophoto video) and they had to fly in their gown and suit to Macau for the shoot. Thus Angelica wore the same beautiful Veluz gown that had those super cute pompom-like attachments which still fit her (to her surprise hehehe).

Thanks to Peaches and Rommel for accompanying me in this shoot and to Angelica and Tristan for the awesome session and of course in introducing me to authentic bubble milk tea which has been my favorite ever since =)