N4C Church

Last Thursday, I find myself staring at the ceiling of the David Emergency Room once again.    For someone who hates hospitals as much as I do, it’s ironic that I always get there.    But as it is, with a sizzling temp of 103 deg. Fahrenheit,    my brother in law had to bring me there.    I really didn’t want to go but I just felt so bad for Nick as he is in Oregon and trying so hard to convince me to go.   I swear, I felt like some poor butchered meat being frozen in cold storage.   No matter how much sweaters or jackets I put on, I was just shivering…  brrrrrr…   Weird, I feel some chills just thinking how cold that night was.   

Anyhow, I am feeling way better!!!!     And I just am so grateful for Jong and my spiritual family, Nations For Christ (N4C — www.nations4christ.com),  who took care of me as much as they did.    Ate Bel slept with me through the night to make sure I’m fine and pastor and Mercy made sure I had something to eat the next day till Nick came home.    Once again,   I am just soooooo grateful.      Thank you for all the prayers.    My brothers are so worried about me but they feel better knowing that people who truly cares about me surrounds me.       The beauty of a spiritual family.    It doesn’t matter where you are, they just are always there.      Looking back from the time when I was just starting and alone here in Utah, they were already there for me.   And now, being married and knowing a lot more friends, they are still there for me.        The difficulties were a lot easier to overcome coz  I have a home away from home, a family who constantly stands and prays for me.      

So it’s not a surprise then that we had a photo booth in our church’s Fall Festival where a lot of children and family posed for us.   A little giving back to our church who really helped us get started, back when we had no jobs and all we had were prayers…  

It was sure lots of fun!  So check it out!   And we hope to see you all there next year! 

- pam

Salt Lake City Downtown

The young and the restless.  I still can’t believe what I’m hearing.   Rick and Elena are telling us how worried  Anna was the night before the shoot and how she ended up crying thinking that she wouldn’t look great.    Why???????  

When we asked her to pose for us, she just took off.    She is born to be in front of the camera .    Look to the left,  the right, fierce look,  smile for us, look down!   Seamless.

She’s such a great daughter too!  So we did her shoot together with her mom, right?   While we were taking pictures of Elena and Rick, I can hear her saying, “you look so gorgeous mom! no one could compare”.   She’s so adorable!      I don’t want to go down the melancholic road but I really wish my mom is with me.  SIGH!    But for now,  I love it when I see daughters loving and honoring their parents.   It’s really a great way to live.

Here are some more of our favorites.

Hey Anna, no more tears, allright?   You’re beautiful!

- pam

Salt Lake City Downtown

3 months old.  That’s how old we are.     I’ve been trying to comprehend on when we started booking our dates, but the word seems to be spreading fast!     Time seem to have flown as I look at the roster of our clients.    It just doesn’t feel like 3 months.   It was supposed to be just a Saturday thing for us.    We are still working as consultants for Zions Bank during the weekdays and we try to keep our Sundays pretty lean so we could take a breather and just rest.    For me specially, with Nick flying out 5 days in a week,    I really need to just block out this day for us to spend time together.    Saturdays are fine coz Nick loves to golf and that’s the only day in the week that he could do so.  So I let him the same way he supports me with my photography.   But we find ourselves booking even our Sundays and our weekdays.   And we always say, it would only be for special cases that we’ll do so.   And last Tuesday? We find ourselves walking once again in Salt Lake City for a shoot.

I take a deep breath of the cool breeze that permeates the city as we started putting together our gear.      Elena, her daughter, Ana and her boyfriend, Rick is already waiting for us as we came in into the parking space.     The weather was perfect.  The sun was shining.    The night will prove to be perfect for us to do this shoot.   

Elena introduces us to Rick and Anna.    Elena’s a Russian and I must say that I just LOVE her accent!      She sounded a little bit like an English-speaking French.    And I love the French language!  There’s just something about the nasality and the breathiness in it that I find sooo sexy!  We tried to pick up the language at the Westminster College but Nick gets sooo bored!   Haha!  I always tell him we gotta do this if we plan to stay in France for a short time!   But no. Show him something in computers and he’d go gaga over it!  Too funny!   OK fine, I get sidetracked!  I seem to be in the mood to blog!

So yeah, Elena introduces us to them and yes, they are beautiful people.   They seem so at ease even before we started.    Rick and Elena would tell us, tell me what to wear and what to do and we’ll do it.   Such trust.    It is just the perfect formula for amazing shots!    And as we started steering them to a dilapidated area at the side of the street, where junky cars and rusty barns are, Elena seemed taken aback.  She tells us, HERE???   Hahaha!!!    We tell her yeah, here!   I saw it!   I saw her hesitate!  But ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,  she came through.  Such trust.   She started walking again.   

Allright, let’s get started!  “Elena,  lean back against the truck” Yeah, the rusty eeky FORD truck where gazillions of oxygen seem to have made the rust as bright as the sun shining over us.   “NO!!!!   These are expensive coats!”  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!   I love it!   Allright, give me the coat and show us some skin.    And TA-DA!     Check her out!

And maybe you guys could be the judge of whether Elena told me the truth about Rick.  She tells me, he looks like George Clooney!    But I must agree.   He does look like him

Here’s a pic of Rick as Danny Ocean…

I’m thinking to myself,  I just can’t believe this location.  Ritchie must have been born with some of those “DORA THE EXPLORER” genes.  He just finds us the PERFECT locations!!!!     And here’s just another gem to boot!    And as it would turn out, it truly was a gem.    The whole place was put together by another studio!    We honestly didn’t know!   But we’re totally grateful that they did let us finish our shoot.   So thanks again!!    

Elena looked so stunning in her dress and we thought the train tracks would be a perfect background.

Here’s our three lovely clients…  

Watch out for Anna in our next entry!  She must have gotten her mom’s panache for posing coz she totally flew!  She is gorgeous!    

- pam

Minneapolis, MN

October 27, 2007

My schedule has been manic for the past few days!  A good excuse to buy myself an iPhone or something. haha.  It all started last weekend, I flew out to Minnesota to shoot my former manager’s post wedding party. I had a number of reasons to be excited abt the trip. I knew I was gonna meet some friends from way back and of course, I wanted to do something “special” for Nannah as she was one of those people who gave me a break in the early years of my career as a programmer. She’s not only my former manager but she’s also a very good friend.

Nannah and Greg had a lavish wedding in the Philippines about a year ago but this post wedding party definitely comes in close second. The event was held at the Edina Country Club (an upscale neighborhood). The ballroom was so beautifully decorated. It’s really no surprise to me cause I’ve always known  Nannah as a detail freak!

We decided to meet-up early at the venue so we can take some pictures before the party starts. Here are some of it.

I’ve never seen her this happy and in love. She just radiates.

Greg looking sharp in Barong Tagalog (a traditional filipino formal attire).  We know he’s a lucky guy but Nannah is just as lucky.

Here are some pics of the couple. 

Just can’t have enough of textures. I like it grungy!

Mr. and Mrs. Kjos

The first dance.. 

 Nannah, I can’t tell you enough how happy I am for you. May God continue to bless you and your marriage. You deserve all the good things..

One of the things we love about our job as photographers is meeting people and Bob and Melissa are the kind of people you’d love to meet! We had a blast shooting their engagement photos..  they were so laid-back and were up for anything!

We started out at Liberty Park in Sugarhouse.

Our gorgeous couple..

Happy and very much in love..

I love the graphic feel of this shot. It’s a match made in heaven indeed.

flare and texture. we like!

We always try to make every shoot unique to the couple. We want their personalities to shine in the pics and this one did just that. Melissa is a gymnast and competed for the University of Utah! So you think you can jump?

check out her bling!

Don’t you just love Utah? who can resist those mountains?

Okay, here’s a pic that will probably make you look twice.. love the angle..

the look of love…

a very cool silhouette.. 

After having too much fun at the park, we headed to an American diner for some more photo opp. It was really crowded but we managed to take a few more shots.

We were desperate for natural lighting but then again, everything worked out well.

Wrapping it up with a kiss.

Bob and Melissa, thanks for a wonderful time. We really enjoyed the shoot!

Rice Eccles Stadium

Who gets married in a stadium ?    Athletes?    Players?  All-out fans of football??    

Last October 11, we witnessed a very different wedding ceremony that took place right in the heart of Salt Lake City, in Rice Eccles Stadium.       Meet Coltan and Chalese.     We have been very privileged to take photos of this young, Christian couple who have only smiles for everybody.    

We have also met 2 wonderful photographers, Joanne and Cindi, who have let us run around with our cameras and just do our usual stuff in this wedding.      It’s really great working with others who are pretty much secure with what they do.    Their really kind words were very encouraging.  It’s pretty amazing considering the years of experience that they have in their bag.      

We did a shoot in the actual field before the wedding but the ceremony happened in the lounge above the stadium overlooking the whole city.   And what a backdrop for their wedding — nothing less but the gorgeous sunset.To see a lot more from this wedding, please check out our site, www.ritrato.com, under featured galleries for Coltan and Chalese.    And we hope you get to see how beautiful and unique this wedding is as we did that day.  

Coltan and Chalese, thank you for having us in your wedding.   May God continue to bless you and your marriage.

- pam

October 13, 2007

Ritrato gets a taste of Bollywood!!

We knew Hima and Chandra from our previous company, they’re IT geeks, just like us!!!.. We’ve been planning on this shoot for a little over a month now and so we got really excited when the stars finally aligned and we got our schedules all worked-out!

Here are some of our favorites:

The Great Salt Lake is sooo picturesque.

Here’s Hima working the camera. Check her out, she’s a natural!

Now Chandra is a totally different story. He made it clear from the start that he was forced into this. haha.. just kidding. But hey, he warmed up and we managed to get some great portraits of him.

The couple in black and white.

After wrapping it up at Saltair, we stopped by a gas station to fill-up but we ended up doing more photos!  Someone actually approached us and asked, “Why here?” hmm.. we thought, why not???!

Like I said, Chandra warmed up and I got this to prove it! He sure is having fun on this one.

More of Hima. I thought this is a cute one.

Lastly, autumn in Utah… the lovely couple looking like Bollywood royalty.

Hima and Chandra, it was great seeing you guys again! We had a lot of fun doing the shoot and we hope you guys did too!

Salt Lake City Downtown

Funky and vintage!  That was the theme.   For Jen and Ryan, they want nothing else but old buildings, bright colors and antiques!      And since we love it ourselves,  this shoot was a blast.    Here’s a little taste of it and please do check out our featured galleries, Ryan and Jen,  in our website, www.ritrato.com, to see a lot more from this series.

- pam

With the client logon, all the clients now can see their pictures in a gallery protected by a password in our website.    You could share it with your family and friends and we’ll keep it there for 3 months.

All the links are working!   I know,  everything used to say “UNDER CONSTRUCTION”, but now, everything is working!    We really hope that you love it as much as we do.