A day of work with Mr. Jim Paredes

So I've been following Mr. Jim Paredes on Twitter for quite some time now. Why not? He's one the legends as one of the big contributors to the Philippine music industry. To those who don't know him, he is a great composer and music producer and he's one of the members of APO Hiking Society - their music lives on definitely! And as a photography enthusiast, he's now holding photography classes and creativity workshops when he's not busy.

Last week, Jim tweeted that he needs 2 models for his basic photography workshop. Seeing an opportunity to meet him personally and to do some work while being a professional lazy bum at home, Marl replied on behalf of me. After a few email exchanges, cancellation of other appointments and rescheduling of a TV commercial I was supposed to do - it was all set. :)

Jim Paredes and me

Saturday came. Took a cab to Mr. Jim's place in Loyola Heights. The problem was, the driver didn't know how to get there. So we took chances of "finding" the location by using my iPhone's map. LOL. And after reaching Marikina and getting lost in the highway, we finally got there at 4:20PM - call time was 4:00PM. I was a tad late.

When I came in, Mr. Jim was in a middle of his class and his students were all in the garden taking some interesting shots of their subjects. I introduced myself and I was then asked to pose right away - in my casual getup. And what does a model do when there are around 18 cameras pointed at her? Strike a pose... Vogue! LOL.

Getting used to workshops where emotions should be shown from facial expressions & eye contact, I had a bit of difficulty starting off in Mr. Jim's workshop at first because he asked me to NOT project much. I always forget that it's a basic photography workshop. LOL. But after a few minutes, I got into the flow and lovin' every second of it.

When I was asked to change in my sexy attire for the studio lighting setup - the red dress that I wore during my recent Pinoy Rockin' Rollin' show in KL - I felt a little more confident. It's like feeling who I really am. Guess I really miss performing that much. After the studio session, the students were given their certificates, we had some group photos, and we went off.

There was another model named Erica, a sweet girl from Tarlac. It was her first time to pose for a workshop and when she asked me how old I was, I asked her in return "How old are you muna?". She said she's 16 and my remark was "OMG, you're half my age!". She was stunned. LOL.

It was really great to finally meet Jim Paredes and although it was just a basic photography class, it was just as fun as my other professional shoots. Thanks Sir Jim for the opportunity! :) Below are some of the  photos taken by Sir Jim himself, only my fave ones... :)

Shots by Mr. Jim Paredes

Group photo during the workshop