When I arrived here in New York, one of the very first jobs I did was a campaign for Avon Cosmetics.  I shot it sometime in April and the catalogue was just released last August.  It was a two-day shoot and there were four models of different ethnicities.  Of course, I am the Asian girl.  The first day went perfectly.  It was a fairly easy job and actually I had to wait longer doing nothing than actually doing the shoot.  Since there were four of us, each of us had our individual shots so it took such a long time before we wrapped up.  But overall the shoot went great.  We were relaxed since we had so much free time.  But sometimes, I prefer doing shoots wherein I am actually doing something than waiting around because it is more tiring to just wait for your turn.  Since Day 1 was the individual shots, below was my individual shot from the Avon Catalogue:

Day 2 arrived, and boy, I got sick!  Not just a headache kinda thing, but REALLY sick.  I do not know how or why it happened.  The night before I just started feeling a little off, but when morning arrived, I was really sick.  But I still had to go do my shoot because I was booked for two days and it’s my responsibility.  So I had to drag myself out of bed and wake up at 7:00 in the morning.  When I arrived at the studio, people noticed me and asked if I was fine.  I just said that I felt sick.  Well true enough, I was so sick I was vomiting already.  Imagine that while I was in the studio, being photographed, sometimes I had to run to the bathroom to throw up.  I was so embarrassed but I couldn’t do anything about it.  They were very understanding about it but business is still business.  They booked me to do the job, so whether I was sick or not, I had to finish my job.  Day 2 was a group shot which was harder.  Group shots take longer to shoot because everyone in the picture needs to look great.  Sometimes there’s this one very good shot but one of the models had her eyes closed.  Day 2 took a longer time in shooting.  We had to rotate around, sometimes sitting, some standing, others looking off camera.  We had to show variations so the clients can have options when selecting one final layout.  Towards the end of the day I was feeling so bad but the clients were happy with my work.  They kept saying that I was doing good and that I didn’t look sick at all.  Maybe they were trying to be nice, who knows!  Below was my group shot from the Avon Catalogue:

Personally, I do not like myself in this picture.  I look weird-looking.  My eyes are so big here.  I guess it’s because I was so sick that I made my eyes look bigger so I would look more awake.  There was another layout that Avon didn’t select, which I think looks better. Or it’s just because I look better there haha.  This is the layout:When the shoot finally wrapped up, I rushed home feeling as sick as can be.  I was so worried because the next day, I was booked to fly from America back to the Philippines because I was also booked to do the Avon campaign for Asia.  I was so worried that I might not be able to make my flight since I was so sick.  That night, my temperature reached 38˚C or 100˚F.  I was burning up.  But when I woke up the next day, I still felt bad but better.  I was able to make it to my flight and had to take the 20 plus-hour flight back home to Manila.

It’s finally out.  I have been waiting for ages for this to come out and now it’s here—The Knot Magazine Fall 2010.  I was like a little kid waiting for Christmas to arrive.  It’s not because it’s my first editorial or my first cover shoot.  It’s just that this is my first New York cover and I am very excited to see how it looked.  I shot this on April of this year and it just came out.  Imagine the long wait that I had to endure.  It’s like when you were a kid and you were counting the days for Christmas to arrive so you can open all your presents and you were most especially excited for the gift that Santa gave you.   You see, magazines usually shoot two to three months in advance.  And The Knot Magazine shoots way in advance since it is quarterly magazine.  I remember the time when years ago, I had my first editorial.  I was extremely excited for my magazine to come out.  And when it did, I immediately rushed to the newsstand and grabbed myself a copy.  I eagerly flipped through the pages to see myself on the magazine.    I can’t quite believe that I was on a magazine.  I went home excitedly and showed it to my mother…and to my brothers…and to the rest of the people in my household.  They were really proud and happy for me.  The feeling was inexplicable.  First time experience usually does that to you.  Like here in New York for instance.  I had been shooting for magazines for years but nothing can quite compare to the feeling of the first time.  Since it is my first New York magazine and my first cover to boot, I am relishing that moment of my first time again.  I attached the editorial of The Knot Magazine here so you can check it out for yourself.  Happy viewing!