It’s hard to believe that time flies so fast and that our baby boy is now eight years old. It’s also fascinating to think how things have changed since that February eight years ago. Lance Ocean has truly been a blessing to us ever since and continue to be as he grows-up as an obedient, responsible and fun-loving son and brother to all of us.

This week we celebrate his most favorite day and to what has become a tradition to both him and Lana, we have an annual photoshoot of our metrophoto babies. There are so many things I love about what I do and there is no question that the opportunity to give my kids photographs like these, easily tops the list.

Enjoy the photos. :)

A year ago, I was given the opportunity to write an article for a weddingsatwork publication on “How to get great wedding photos on your wedding day”. I tried to make it more interesting by writing an article entitled “Lousy Wedding Photos: How to Throw Off Your Photographer on Your Life’s Biggest Moment” which is just like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” – but with so much more sarcasm. Consequently, it was rejected and I made the more straight-forward approach to the article which I eventually realized was the better thing to do.

The booklet was already published but I thought it would be nice to post the list here as well so many others of you can see and maybe benefit from it. Sorry there aren’t much photos on this post, I’m sure that your imagination will provide you a better visualization of the items below. If you find this boring, email us for the sarcastic version and maybe that will make your day.

I had the initial perception that any article about pointers on How to Get Beautiful Photos in Your Wedding Day would be too plain and boring. Clearly, how else can you enumerate the pointers but by providing a list – first, of obvious things and then the less obvious things, that affect how pictures are produced in a wedding. It took me several ideas, a few days, and a couple of rejections to realize that there is no other way to do it but like how I’ve thought about it from the beginning – plain and boring. But you know what, it can’t be all that bad. Just like choosing your own death, we can make it as fast and as direct-the-point as possible – you’ll know what to do in your wedding to get those awesome photos faster than you feel the pain of reading a list.

So here are the top ten, most sure-fire ways to get more beautiful photos from your wedding.

Time really flies, it’s hard to believe that Lana Oasis, my youngest, is now 5. Her birthday is really significant as it was almost at the same time that Metrophoto was established. Throughout those years Metrophoto has blossomed to be more than what we expected, but if there is something that outshines that, it is how Lana has been such a charm and an angel to us, that it is very difficult to put into words how blessed we continue to be. Of course we don’t take anything for granted, we are very much grateful and we thank and give back what we can to whoever we can and especially to Him. :)

I can’t also be thankful enough for my ability to take beautiful photographs when it is my kids that I shoot. I always feel that they deserve the best in everything and at least with the photos that we take of them every year, we are able to provide them something really close to that. It is just amazing how fulfilling life is when you are surrounded by real friends and blessed with a family that you can appreciate and love every moment of every day. :)

Enjoy the photos.

As we continue to improve our products and the way we do business unlike anything the wedding industry has seen before, we thought we’d consider extending the utmost care we give our couples to the environment as well.

It’s not easy and it’s not cheap but this is a start. We’re launching these stylish but reusable and recyclable flash drives will replace the wasteful and unreliable discs that we currently use to store all the photos that we deliver. Aside from the plastic glass and paper and ink that will be saved, the smaller product will mean smaller packaging and less carbon footprint for delivery as well.

We’ll continue to find new and better ways to keep Metrophoto green. Right now we are finding out how we can use a more sustainable type of paper for our prints and album. And in the near future maybe we can all operate on hybrid cars and even use sustainable energy in the office.

We welcome more information and suggestions from everyone to help keep the earth green :)

Last week, our eldest Metrobaby turned seven! And no matter how we still don’t want him to get out of babyhood, he’s definitely already a kid. He has his own room that he wants to sleep in by himself, he can take care of his little sister’s small needs, and we now talk about stuff like the Bermuda Triangle instead of just the plain old shape of a triangle.

What’s nice is that there are still some things that he allows us to do to baby him like cuddle and kiss him in public, and on certain occasions, he still steals some seating-time on Lana’s stroller. hehehe. But the best thing about all these, is that he’s growing up all good-mannered and God-loving. :)

For his 7th birthday, of course he gets his own shoot. We had a concept shoot similar to the MTV of Strawberry Swing (see bottom photos) with the things he loves to do and we also had a more typical portrait shoot (with Lana) and that’s what we’re happy to share here :)