One the most gratifying things in contributing for a magazine is seeing your work published. I started my year by shooting for two articles in the 2012 February Design Issue of  Zee Lifestyle. One of which is an interiors shoot of the newest and trendiest bar in Cebu, the Gilt. I couldn’t be more thrilled to do this assignment! It was like being asked to do a perspective drawing back in the days of my interior design life but instead of drawing with a pencil, as my mentors would put it (and I can’t believe I’m about to write this but big photography cliché coming…), I’m “drawing it with light”.

I only had three days to prepare. The only information I needed was location, date and time. Oh, and that the local tv crew will  be shooting me as I do the shoot. Great. Well, that last bit of information prompted me to primp and preen a little or probably a lot that caused me to lock myself out of the house and leave without my house keys, mobile phone and wallet. But it didn’t matter. The more important thing was the gear was in the car, my batteries were all charged and I was ready to shoot.

Soon as I got to the Gilt, even when they were still working on the finishing touches, I was enthralled with the place. It was a far cry from how it looked a couple of months back when I did a shoot for the food issue. It looked upbeat and funky. And just as I stood there in awe of how great the interiors looked, as a photographer with an interior design background, I just knew this shoot was going be a lot of fun.

The tv crew eventually showed up. Soon as I was up for their shot, I felt the need to internalize the quintessential Annie Liebowitz. Only to realize that there wasn’t any need for it. I was in my element and I was inspired. It almost felt that the “force” was with me. Its days like this when you know that you’ll nail the shoot and get “the shot”.

Sincere thanks to my gracious hosts, Jay Chiongbian, Lani Pasquet and Delphine de Lorme. And to Zee Lifestyle, thanks for the opportunity.