ES-Sense Photography - Wedding Photographer - Ako'y Iglesia Ni Cristo! Based in Southern California, City of Long Beach » engagement

Long Beach, CA Engagement Session : Nick & Amadelle

Joan — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:25:23 +0000

Nick and Amadelle:

Thank you both for giving me and Ryan the opportunity to spend time with you and for giving us the chance to get to know you both. You two are the sweetest and I’m glad we’ll be taking your wedding photos.

You two kept telling me that you both weren’t “picture people”, but I beg to differ. You both did great and I guess watching “America’s Next Top Model” worked out because I didn’t have to tell you to, “smile with your eyes!” haha :P To tell you the truth… I have no idea how to “smile with my eyes” but you two knew exactly how to do it heheh :D

We hope you enjoy these photos from your engagement session! Don’t forget to check out your slideshow by clicking here!

Thank you so much!

xOxO from the Solitario’s :D

Coronado, CA Engagement Session : Jay & Honeylette

Joan — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:28:25 +0000

I met Honeylette through Anna & Rius. She was one of their bridesmaids during their wedding and it was during then I was able to meet Jay and Honeylette together. I remember during Anna and Rius’ wedding reception that I saw from the corner of my eye, a guy watching me as I photographed the event.. at first I thought that maybe I must really look weird taking pictures.. so I stopped for a moment, and took a quick glance at him… he looked kinda unapproachable.. but I realized he looked so familiar. I saw Honeylette sitting next to him, so then it hit me… “that’s Honeylette’s fiance, Jay!” They have a wedding website which is why he looked familiar to me. So I went up to both of them and introduced myself. Oh, about Jay being unapproachable… I was wrong.. They are two of the nicest people you could ever know and meet :)

Fast forward to this past weekend. We all met up at Coronado, CA in the San Diego area to take their engagement photos. We decided to do a morning photo session around the area and I REALLY, REALLY ENJOY CORONADO A LOT! I thought it was the perfect place for their photo session and I’m really happy with how the photos turned out.

Jay and Honeylette: I hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed spending time with you both! I’m excited for your upcoming wedding and I know it’s going to be a lot of fun! Without any further delay, please click here to view the slideshow. I think I chose a perfect song for your session, because even though we only spent two hours with you both, I know that your life together will truly be full of smiles.

So I do this thing with my couples… where every time I count to three, they need to come up with different poses… Jay & Honeylette couldn’t think of what to do, so they started to do the Robot instead!

It’s either they are laughing with me, or at me… :D

Honeylette, you are so beautiful! Inside and out!

Jay, you’re not so bad looking yourself :D

Honeylette told me that Jay has shelves of Superman memorabilias. Now this picture can be part of the collection as well!

I’ll end this blog with the following picture, just because…

Coronado, CA Sneak Peak : Jay & Honeylette

Joan — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:02:16 +0000

I wanted to share a photo from an engagement shoot Ryan and I did on Saturday with Jay & Honeylette. I’ll be posting up their slideshow and more photos this week. They’re getting married in October and from the session we had a few days ago, I know it’s going to be a lot of fun spending more time with these two during their wedding!

This week is going to go by really fast for me and Ryan and then we’ll be out of the office from July 20 returning on August 23!!! We still have a couple of photo sessions coming up before we leave as well as getting things out and ordered for our friends, but don’t worry, Ryan and I are really working overtime to get things out before we leave. :D

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and a good Monday! :D

Pasadena, California Engagement Session : Jonathan & Johanna

Joan — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:21:44 +0000

Ryan and I met Jonathan and Johanna through our friend Michelle (Thank you Michelle!). After our meeting, I told Ryan how lucky we were to have met two beautiful people and that I had a good feeling about them.

I was right :).

We met them over a week ago for an engagement session at the Pasadena City Hall and Ryan and I had a blast photographing them. I think most of our session was filled with laughs all thanks to Jonathan who kept us all entertained and who kept Johanna happy. It was so easy to capture the essence of their personalities and their beautiful souls… :)

I am looking forward to document their wedding day this coming August! :D

Click here for their slideshow or scroll down to view some of their photos.

Chicago, IL Engagement Session : Allan & Kathleen

Joan — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:04:22 +0000

I think the best way of telling someone’s love story is to have them tell it themselves. So here is how Allan and Kathleen came to be in Kathleen’s words :)

So, Allan moved to town toward the end of 2005. Ever since he arrived to Chicago I’ve had my eyes on him. We didn’t hang out much early on but I’d see him at church.

From the beginning I tried my best to hang out with him. When I found out that he had plans with a group of people, I’d “coincidentally” be there also. We started hanging out with the same crowd and I think he was seeing a pattern with me ALWAYS being there.

Allan then joined a Basketball League with a group of our friends. Every Saturday I would watch the games and see how well he played. I would go to the games with Ate Cindy and tell her how attractive I thought he was. She told me to try to get to know him and to try to hang out with him more often.

One day after Basketball we went to Ate Cindy and Kuya Jake’s house. Little did I know but he was going out of town that week for business. We spoke but a few words to each other and I was hooked!

One day my sister Den, RJ, and I went over to Allan’s condo to have dinner and watch a movie. That night, he asked me out.

And that my friends is how Allan and I met – and like he said – the rest is history…

I wanted to find the perfect song to play for their engagement photos, and I think I found the perfect one that goes with Kathleen’s story above!! To view the slideshow, please click here. To see some of my favorites (and I have A LOT), scroll below!

I miss you guys!

Kathleen and Allan, you two are going to have some beautiful babies one day!

There were a handful of people around Cloud Gate that day, but God somehow kept them away long enough for me to take this next shot!

I loved it there in Millenium Park!

The following picture pretty much tells you exactly the personalities of these two. :)

Chicago, IL Engagement Session : Allan & Kathleen (Sneak Peak)

Joan — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:02:34 +0000

Ryan and I just got back to our hotel room after spending a day photo shooting the engagement session of Allan & Kathleen! I can’t wait to post up their photos, but I want to work on their photos on my computer at home where the screen is bigger! However, here is a teaser from today’s session!

Kutlin and Allan: This is just for you :) I ALREADY MISS YOU BOTH! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!!

They are really a beautiful/handsome couple!

San Francisco, CA Engagement Session : Anna & Rius

Joan — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 07:52:12 +0000

Ryan, Fred, Natasha and I woke up around 4AM on Friday morning and we drove to San Francisco for a one day trip to do an engagement session with our new friends, Anna and Rius. Anna and Rius are getting married in two weeks and they are one of the most fun couples you could ever meet! They were up for anything we wanted them to do! When we asked them to run in the rain, they did and because of that, we got a lot of awesome shots! It’s truly one of the most fun and memorable sessions we’ve had and I can’t wait for you to see them below!!

Rius and Anna: THANK YOU SO MUCH for everything! You make our job so easy and you are another reason why we enjoy what we do!

To view more photos, please click here for the slideshow. I think I found the perfect song for their engagement session!

I thought this was one great idea for a detail shoes shot that Natasha had set up! To view pictures that she took during the session, please visit her blogsite!

Rius LOVES the rain! hahah :o)

Another idea from Tasha! See.. I learn a lot from other photographers!

Anna: You’re going to be such a beautiful bride!

I got to try a fish eye lens that Tasha borrowed from our friend, Brian. I’m thinking that I should get one of mine own… soon..

It doesn’t really show it on these next two photos, but Rius and Anna were FREEZING! They were such a great sport and I just loved how the photos turned out!!

San Diego, CA Engagement Session: Charlene & Adrian

Joan — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:35:06 +0000

Days before the proposal, he drove down to San Diego to find the spot. The spot had to be perfect because it was there where he would ask her to marry him.

Adrian knew he wanted to propose to Charlene on the beach, but the ones he had passed by seemed to be crowded. He wanted a place a little more intimate, so he drove up and down Carlsbad Boulevard until he found the place. It was off a cliff and it was PERFECT.

When he finally brought Charlene to the cliff, he handed her a picture of the ring he knew she wanted. She asked him why he had the picture and he told her, “My coworker wanted to take a look at it.” He then explained that the photo didn’t do justice to the details of the ring. She agreed. “I have something even better,” he tells her. And with that, he took the ring out and proposed to Charlene, right there on the cliff, and it was PERFECT.

This past Saturday, Ryan and I were blessed to shoot Charlene and Adrian’s engagement session, and to God, I am thankful.

Adrian and Charlene: Thank you both for giving us this opportunity. You two are such a beautiful couple! You both make me happy! Thank you for bringing us to your special place! I hope you both enjoy your photos!

Here are SOME of my favorites!

To view more photos from their session, please click play for the slideshow below.

San Diego, CA Engagement Session : Adrian & Charlene (Sneak Peak)

Joan — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:44:05 +0000

I wanted to post a quick teaser from our San Diego Engagement Session this past Saturday!

Thank you both for making our Saturday so memorable!

Long Beach, CA Engagement : Erman & Rochelle

Joan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:27:12 +0000

I met up with Erman and Rochelle yesterday for their engagement photo session. They are getting married this Friday! Yup! This Friday! So I needed to post up these photos for them right away so we can get all their prints ready for their wedding.

We decided to meet up in 2nd Street in Long Beach, CA. They specifically told me they wanted to go somewhere different and 2nd Street in Long Beach is definitely a different place. It is an approximately 4-block long shopping area buzzing with so many people that you forget you’re still in Long Beach, CA. A new find for me is the Frosted Cupcakery store where we decided to start our photo session. I need to thank the people at Frosted Cupcakery for being so kind as to letting us take some photos in their store! It was really busy in there, but they did not tell us to leave at all! I wish there were more places like that around for us photographers! Oh and I must say, their cupcakes are so delicious! So, if you live around the area, it is a great place to get your cupcake fix.

After some shots inside Frosted Cupcakes, we decided to walk around 2nd Street and explore what it had to offer us during our photo shoot. There were so many cute places that we found and lighting yesterday was so good to us too. Here are more of my favorite from the session.

The white picket fence photos are my favorites of the favorites :o)

We went to an alley and found some awesome backgrounds! These two can make an alley real fun and a beautiful place for a photo session!

Erman’s dad (Ka Dante Quitalig) was our resident minister a couple of years ago. Because ministers and their families never know when they will be transferred to another locale, Rochelle and Erman decided to move their wedding to February instead of August this year so that they can be sure all their loved ones are there to witness their special day.

To view more of their photos and see the slideshow, please click on the play button below. They got together during an Alicia Keys concert, so it was only right for me to choose a song by Alicia Keys.

Title: How It Feels To Fly
Artist: Alicia Keys