Oerba Dia Vanille.

Why, hello there.
Full FB album [here]

A few months ago I had a shoot with the beautiful Filipino-German cosplayer, Jessica Ouano. So story goes like this, I was browsing around Facebook and looked over the Top News. When I saw photos of Jessica in her Vanille costume from her trip to Manila I was immediately struck with an epiphany! (This is happening more often this year~) From there I immediately sent her a private message asking if she’d want to model for me, and I was ecstatic when she said she’d be honored to!

Vanille in crystal stasis and normal self. (Lea helped me stage this shot!! We had a whole lot of laughs)

I haven’t played Final Fantasy XIII so I honestly don’t know Vanille aside from the few basics I’ve read about her. Her overall feel for me was quite earthy, so I opted to shoot her outdoors with natural light.

And guess where we had the shoot?

Good ol’ Family Park in Talamban! I know right, nothing special at all. But it was the first location that came into my mind when I was conceptualizing everything. I love working with the bamboos here. Things worked out really well, I might add. This is the second (or counting the little shoots probably third time) I shot here.

This shoot was the fastest and smoothest I’ve experienced so far. Jess is absolutely gorgeous and easy on the cam. Usually I have a hard time directing poses, but for this shoot I always had a clear picture of what I wanted to get (maybe it does come with experience).

So direct, shoot, direct, shoot, move to another spot, direct, shoot…

I did the make-up as usual. I invited Lea too so I grabbed the outtake photos from her. Thanks Lea! 🙂 It was her first time shooting cosplay. Hee.

Putting pinks on her eyes to match her wig.

And light yellows as highlights for the warm touch.

And done! Even placed concealer on her eyebrows so I could draw pinkish hair on them.

I think Jess is only 16 years old (correct me if I’m wrong) but she looks mature for her age because of her Caucasian mix. She’s actually a really sweet and smart girl in my opinion, and it was so cute when she asked for help with her homework after the shoot. Aweee..

This is me wearing casual again during shoots.
If there’s one thing I’m never gonna forget about my photography life, it’s John always pointing out I dress down too much whenever he sees me. But I think I’ve improved since last month. Haha.

They’re usually really tall for their age!

Makes me wish I listened to my parents about sleeping early, taking your vitamins, etc. I honestly think I could have grown much taller (since my parents actually have good heights).

Reminds me of the Huntress in Ragnarok Online.
Ah, most epic MMORPG evar!

With the advancement of the Final Fantasy series, it saddens me that I don’t have idle time to play video games anymore. I used to be so happy to just be able to bum around the house and play my Playstation ALL DAY when I was younger. I even played Lunar (too long! Four CD RPG) and even dreamed of being part of the gaming industry one day…Dreams.As you get older, dreams change and some even fade away (don’t let them!). But if you ask me my view now, I’d say that it’s entirely up to you to keep chasing and aiming for them. To give time and effort to build them you know! I sacrificed a lot of time to build my portfolio, but I’m usually glad I did when I see the results.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.